Kingdom Hearts Final Mix includes lengthy cut-scenes that drag on about childhood, adventure and early romance. While I find it difficult to relate in adulthood, I’ve also grown jaded with the Disney cameos at Disney Castle, including Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Minnie and Daisy. Recent court proceedings have ruled Disney out as another money-hungry corporation for little besides its bottom line.
So what can be said about the actual game? Rest assured it and its frenetic combat are intact. Its melding of ideas from Final Fantasy, including the command menu, combat, magic, summons, and ability acquisition, are present. And they are a blast. I’m playing on “Final Mix” difficulty, which is the standard setting.
To start, you’ll answer some cryptic questions at the beginning of the game, which will decide your leveling, character growth speed, and which abilities you’ll learn first. You’ll also be given a choice of weapon: sword, staff and shield, one of which you must surrender in exchange. Without spoiling much further, this will decide the abilities you learn first. What can be said is the game is great at capturing a mysterious atmosphere. From the beginning of the game to the introduction of The Keyblade (this world’s Excalibur) to the game’s hooded villain, Ansem, seeker of darkness. Although aimed at a younger audience, the game is no stranger to mature themes.
My journey began on Destiny Islands, with a dream sequence facing the dark in-game creatures, the heartless. I chose the sword and sacrificed the shield, possibly a terrible choice. My defense suffered the majority of the game. I battled through Heartless to the islands, where I found a collection and battled with various final fantasy characters, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie. My journey continued to Traverse Town, where I would battle Leon or Squall of Final Fantasy VIII fame. He blasted fire, and I was prepared with anti-fire equipment and potions, well aware of his patterns this playthrough. This time, I’d continue through the Disney worlds with ease; first wonderland I completed easily as well, then I traveled by ship to Deep Jungle (Tarzan), which proved more challenging at a higher battle level – though Clayton proved as easy as the boss of the wonderland. I’d acquire my first Keyblade-altering keychain, The Jungle King.
Then I traveled to Olympus Colosseum, where I fought my favorite Final Fantasy character, Cloud Strife. I lost. The game continued, and I was set to battle Cerberus, an easy fight. Olympus was completed. Eventually, I’d make my way back to Traverse Town, communicating with the various final fantasy characters Aerith, Yuffie, Leon, and Cid. I defeated the Traverse Town boss, a misshapen version of the former guard armor. Onto Agrabah, I would team up with Aladdin and take on the scorpion pot until we flew through to the cave of wonders and explored within. We then battle Jafar who flew overhead. This was a difficult challenge. His blizzaga attack killed me for the first time in game, marking my first retry. This time I played more conservatively. Dodging and aerially attacking with the Keyblade. Jafar had a second more powerful genie form which proved easier than the first. It simply revolved around defeating the Iago who was carrying the lamp.
Next we head off for Monstro chasing after Sora’s best friend gone rogue, Riku. We attempted to rescue Pinocchio from the Parasite Cage and succeeded while attaining high jump. The next world I’d go to is Atlantica. This world provided a serious change in gameplay as the entire world was underwater, encumbered by bad controls and bad navigation. I begrudgingly trudged through this world. Fighting giant fish heartless, and sharks. The worst of all was Ursula and her massive thunder attacks. I had been defeated again. Only to come back equipped with several anti-thundaga equipment. I bested her eventually. Onto Halloween Town, which was far more simple and straightforward, possibly my favorite world aesthetically. The simple, playful horror theme and traditional Halloween Town music played. The heartless to battle were quite annoying here as well. However, bosses Locke, Shock and Barrel were simple enough. Oogie Boogie was difficult to locate as his room was hidden in a giant fortress, which granted I may not have found him without a guide. The Boss Fight itself was fun with a gimmick including a rotating blade and die that Oogie would throw in the center of the room that would explode on contact. Oogie’s second form was an amalgamation of his fortress and his body which could only be destroyed by climbing the fortress and destroying these glowing purple orbs. It was simple enough.
Hollow Bastion is the home world of many of the Final Fantasy characters in the game, including the original Kingdom Hearts characters. It is beautiful and covered in water and a giant rustic castle overtaken by the heartless. Arriving Sora, the game’s protagonist, loses his Keyblade to Riku, thus altering the gameplay. You team with Beast from “Beauty and the Beast.” He is quite powerful. Ascending the tower you reach a point where you team with Donald and Goofy, reclaim the Keyblade and battle with Riku. It is quite epic.
Traversing Hollow Bastion is a continuous maze, from the library to the rest of the tower. Eventually you reach the inner castle where you find Maleficent and battle her. She is quite difficult to defeat, but with the power of wind and time it is manageable. You face Riku who is now possessed by Ansem Seeker of Darkness. The fights difficulty is dependent on the amount of time’s you’ve won or lost to Riku at the beginning of the game. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we were tied. The fight was difficult. He is a humanoid character with superhuman powers and a powerful blade. I managed to beat him after 3 tries. There is a variation from traditional gameplay here, but we’ll leave that unspoiled for players who have yet to experience the game. Lastly, there are optional tournaments and bosses but the final world awaits. And while I’ve seen the majority of these in my youth, I was more interested in wrapping up the game at this point.
By now it is roughly level 53. The Final world is the ‘End of The World’ which consists of a plane of existence of descending cataclysms. Each cataclysm contains a powerful heartless, one or more powerful than the last. Once you reach the end of the plane you will descend deeper. Eventually you will find rooms that are remembrances of your journey through the Disney worlds until you reach a final chasm. Leaping in, you will battle a giant demon as seen in Disney’s film Fantasia. The boss is simple enough with fire warding equipment, though this attack is unavoidable. Eventually you will reach sword wielding and winged heartless guarding tanks. There is some story relevance, and the real challenge begins. I found this part to be the most brutal challenge of the game. An onslaught of sword wielding heartless, winged heartless, balloon heartless, and seraph heartless will continue to re-spawn until the heartless sigil on the wall cracks.
The final rest is before the final boss. The game asks if you are prepared and that there is no light ahead. Once you enter you are back on Destiny Islands, the first world, and confront Riku who immediately transforms into Ansem. A battle ensues. The battle is simple enough and with Donald and Goofy’s help it is no problem. The gimmick is that Ansem will attack you with his guardian and turn your attacks into a move that will freeze you in place while he attacks you.
Beating him was easy but the next fight is even easier. The fight is against Darkside, who you fought in the beginning. This battle consists of climbing the giant’s arms and attacking his head or simply attacking his arms. The fight that gave me the most trouble was Ansem 2, or Ansem without Donald and Goofy’s Help. His game is the same, attack with his guardian and chip away at your health while holding you frozen. Only now he can ram at you with a powerful charge attack, which must be guarded. This took me several tries to learn but I eventually got it down. The next several phases of The Final Boss Included The Heartless Ship, as I like to call it. It included defeating a frenetic Ansem wielding a dual ended blade in space with powerful beams aiding him. Destroying Pustules, shooting laser beams and entering dark space to save Goofy and Donald, and finally defeating Ansem whilst he is using a powerful gravity attack.
Overall I think Kingdom Hearts Final Mix stands the test of time. While there are some minor gripes with swimming controls like in Atlantica, it does not detract from an overall great product. The battle system is extremely challenging, rewarding and satisfying.
