Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix Review

"As you move closer to the light, the darkness grows."

Story

Sora and his friends, Riku and Kairi, get separated when his home get's attacked by the Heartless and is given a key-shaped sword that has the power of locking and unlocking everything and being a sharp,pointing thing. Donald and Goofy are tasked by King Micky to find this keyman and use him to find the King while Sora searches for his friends. And Disney adventures ensue.
This game is a good starting chapter for a story. While it's a full story, it has little setting pieces like a little talk about how destructive keyblades are or who can have a heart, which is a big deal in this setting. The Disney worlds are mostly good but there are a few that annoy me, mainly the Atlantica world because of Ariel. The biggest warning I can give to this is nothing to do with spoilers but that writing can be very cheesy with all this talk about hearts and light and friendship. There are also a few new scenes in the final mix.

Gameplay

The game is an action RPG with a party of three. Not much to say about the combat, it's pretty simple with very little thought needed until later in the game. Camera is pretty sensitive at times and makes some fights and jumping sections awkward.  I know many people hate the water level but once you get use to the controls of going up and down, it's not so bad. I don't have much else to except it's simple and fun.
There are also little space section between worlds that also very simple but the final mix added missions to them to encourage you to make new ships as some missons require a type of ship part. Also added in the final mix was not only a hard boss but new enemies that you have to find and beat to get items for crafting. I wouldn't mind as it makes you see the enemies but some of them aren't fun to fight, the worst being a mushroom you have to use stop on and then hit him as many times as you can before it wears off, and it's annoying as gnats in a swarm.  do like the the robot one and the black ballad was a fair mini game.

Presentation

The graphics are pretty good as the Disney characters don't feel out of place ext to the anime Square characters. Music is good, voice acting is good, everything's good. However I do have one big nitpick: Why are most of the enemies recolored. I say that because most of them aren't even that good and the fact that most of the new enemies are also recolours. One of worst was the search ghosts which use to have white heads but now they are orange for some reason which I don't understand.

Verdict

If you want to start with the Kingdom Hearts series , nothing is better than the one that started it.
8/10