CHARACTERS CONTINUED
VILLAINS
The villains are one of the primary draws of this franchise! After Disney completely botched their villain team up in Mickey’s House of Villains Square absolutely nailed the Disney villains. Some would argue that they are slightly more menacing than their original film counterparts. Villains that were originally played for laughs will become menacing, powerful and bad ass when the right button is pushed. The original villains are also excellent! They are wonderfully tied into the themes of the series. These are the villains of Kingdom Hearts!
THE HEARTLESS
The Heartless are the primary villains that are encountered on the field as part of normal battle. There are also a few Heartless bosses for worlds that don’t really have a villain such as Wonderland, Monstro and the original world of Traverse Town. The Heartless are darkness made real and are the darkness inside people’s hearts. And there is darkness within every heart (except the 7 Princesses). The Heartless are animalistic in behavior. As the name implies they have no heart and have an instinctual need to steal hearts from the innocent people of the worlds they ravage. It’s like the TERMINATOR they can’t be bargained with, reasoned with, they don’t feel pity or remorse and they won’t stop. The hearts of people are not the only hearts they’re after. The worlds also have hearts and that is what the Heartless want most when they are in a particular world. If the Heartless were to find a location that has the mystical keyhole (passage to the world’s heart and core) they will go inside, steal the heart of the world and it is destroyed. It’s Sora’s job to use the Keyblade to seal the keyholes so the heart of that world is protected. The heartless can be controlled through an outside force and Maleficent and her followers control the Heartless. The Heartless would continue to be the main field enemies for the majority of the series except for the prequel and the new game set to come out later this year.
DISNEY VILLAINS
The Disney villains can be divided into two parts independent villains are Disney villains that have nothing to do with Maleficent or the main villain of the game. They act on their own. Maleficent’s  group are the main Disney villains that conspire to attain godhood by harnessing Kingdom Hearts to guess what? TAKE OVER THE … wait! They’re not settling for one world they want to take over all of the worlds!! They want to TAKE OVER THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!
These are the classic villains!
INDEPENDENT VILLAINS
SABOR:Â Â voiced by no one
The evil leopard from Tarzan returns and is the one to greet Sora when he appears in Deep Jungle. Sora bests the predator at first, but Sabor uses trickery to get Sora off guard leaving Tarzan to save him. Sabor is fought 4 times. The first 3 times you fight the feline it is merely a skirmish, but the last one is a full on boss battle where Sabor is lightning fast and it’s recommended Tarzan be with you to help with the battle and for character reasons. An animal with no heart.
CLAYTON: voiced by Brian Blessed
The hunter returns however the greed factor has been taken out of his motivations leaving only his lust for blood and death. He doesn’t like the goody goods of Tarzan, Sora, Jane, Donald, and Goofy and wants to do what he does best: hunt. It’s this lust for death and power that attracts the Heartless to the world (The Heartless don’t appear till you are about halfway through the world’s story). The story also focuses on the consequences of Clayton’s actions by having Tarzan say “Friends. Same Heart. Clayton lose Heart. No Heart. No see Friends. No Heart. No friendsâ€.  Clayton tries to kill the gorillas, but you stop him and the result is Clayton’s death. A video of the boss battle is below.
MALEFICENT’S GROUP
HADES: voiced by James Woods
The Lord of the underworld is back and he’s better here than in the original film! While originally played for laughs he is now very diabolical and genuinely angry and hateful towards Hercules. This is how Hades should be written if his portrayal is a villain. James Woods is great giving him the snappy dialogue of the character yet still giving him the cruelty and evil that I described above. He manipulates Cloud and with the trio’s intervention he wants them dead too. He is also insanely powerful (he better be he’s a god). He spouts out flames from his arms and when he is red he is invulnerable to attack!
CERBERUS: voiced by no one
While only being Hades’s pet he still technically is part of Maleficent’s group because his master is. This monster was extremely underused in the film, but now is a full fledged boss battle and the main boss during the initial visit.  He spits fireballs and attacks with all 3 heads and even spews dark matter from its mouths that will follow you for a short period of time. This boss can be quite difficult if you’re underleveled so you might want to level up the characters before you engage him. Here is a video of the boss below.
JAFAR: voiced by Jonathan Freeman
The evil vizier is back! Now that he has joined Maleficent’s group he now has control of the Heartless and has easily taken over Agrabah fulfilling his goal in the original film, but he’s not going to stop there. He has been ordered by Maleficent to track down Jasmine because she is a Princess of Heart and it’s up to the trio to stop him. Jonathan Freeman gives Jafar a great sinister voice and shows the character’s arrogance and that he relishes in his newfound power. He is very powerful and is a true sorcerer! He can create a giant blizzard in the middle of the battle field shoot lasers from the snake eyes of his staff and much more. Oh and by the way his incantations are actually from the song “You’re Only Second Rate†from Return of Jafar. That is insane attention to detail!!! To know my thoughts on this I refer you to Angry Joe’s reaction when he found out ants were in SKYRIM! His powers are amplified even more in genie form, but he let the security of his lamp be in the hands of Iago and the key of the battle is to hit the barrier of the lamp that Iago is carrying until the health meter is empty.
OOGIE BOOGIE: voiced by Ken Page
I already talked about this character in one of my world showcases so I’m not going to say much. He’s still the same charismatic bag of bugs and wants to attain the heart Jack and the doctor are working on.  His fight is very interesting because you have to mainly dodge the attacks from his wheel of doom as opposed to his attacks. Once the pattern is figured out he can easily be beaten with patience.
URSULA: voiced by Pat Carrol
The evil sea witch is back!! She is in control of the Heartless and wants to use Ariel to obtain the trident and kill the Keyblade Master. She is very adept at magic and draws her power from her cauldron. She has a really high defense that you can’t attack her directly so you must fire magic attacks at the cauldron so the spells that emanate from it will backfire and stun Ursula so you can attack her. With Flotsam and Jetsam attacking you this won’t be easy. In the next fight she turns into her giant form and becomes even more difficult. With the ability to cast multiple spells at once this sea witch is tough to defeat, but she can be beaten. Here’s a video below and it actually has the end to Atlantica’s story as a bonus!!
CAPTAIN HOOK: voiced by Corey Burton
Peter Pan’s enemy is back and much like Hades is more sinister than in his original film. He still has his goofy paranoia of the crocodile, but his cruelty and power in battle is quite intimidating. He is a master swordsman and if you’re not careful he will kill you. His attacks are fast swift and have such precision and when he goes into rage attacks that’s when it’s highly advised to run, fly or wait. Here is a video of the battle.
MALEFICENT: voiced by Susan Blakeslee
The Mistress of All Evil is back and at her best. She’s suave, she’s sophisticated, she’s diabolical, she’s a leader, she’s cruel, she corrupts Riku, she’s powerful, she’s just evil and I love her for it. For the longest time we think that she is the main villain, but in classic Final Fantasy fashion we figure out who the main villain is. She is the most powerful Disney villain in the game especially when the power of darkness makes her turn into Dragon Maleficent!!!!! That battle is very hard! I can’t tell you how many times I died in that fight and I even had Beast in the party. She uses fire breath seeking fireballs and a stomp attack that she chain attacks you with and that can kill you before you get even one hit in! Still if you’re at the right level it’s a very awesome battle!  Here are some videos of the various villain meetings. One is where all the villains discuss the Keyblade Master and they are all in silhouette except Maleficent. Another is where they talk about Clayton and Jafar reveals himself. The last is a conversation between Riku, Hades, Captain Hook, and Maleficent.
OTHER VILLAINS
CHERNABOG: voiced by no one
Bet you never thought you’d see him here huh? He was a genuine and welcome surprise! He appears in the last world and is the guardian to the inner parts that lead to the final boss. He appears as part of Bald Mountain and then he awakens and Sora, Donald and Goofy fight him to a cool remix of Night on Bald Mountain. Sora, Donald and Goofy engage him by flying due to Tinkerbell’s assistance with pixie dust. Chernabog has multiple attacks that range from firbreath and launching fireballs at you, but the deadliest is when he makes Bald Mountain erupt. It covers a limited range at first, but as the fight wears on it covers a much larger range and does more damage. When he is defeated he fades away, but I doubt he is dead. The player can then descend into the lower half of Bald Mountain that is a crater and inside contains the entrance to the caverns that lead to the final boss. Who is the final boss? Here he is now!
ANSEM THE SEEKER OF DARKNESS: voiced by Billy Zane
This is the main villain of the game and the final boss. He is now considered by hardcore fans as a Disney villain and he is my favorite!! He is suave, sophisticated, cold, arrogant, power hungry and all the qualities a villain has, but not for the normal reasons. He isn’t evil for the sake of being evil. He’s evil because he views villainy and logic is part of the natural order. He believes darkness is the only real power and that light is weak so why would anyone place value in light and kindness? It’s driven by logic over morality and his arrogance says that he is right and he will kill anyone who says otherwise especially Sora. I love his speech on darkness and it sums up his character and his world view excellently! His origin is also interesting because he’s basically a Disney character gone wrong, but I’ll get to that when I review the prequel. He is accompanied by a dark shadow called the Guardian and it unleashes a volley of darkness based attacks. He has multiple forms and the final battle is a whopping 11 parts!! Some of them are short where you simply clear a room full of Hearless, but still it’s insanely long before he dies. His demise is brilliantly executed where his worldview is proven wrong and it’s great and then a few scenes later and the ending commences!!
GAMEPLAY
We’re actually going to finally talk about the gameplay! The basic combat is better shown such as in this let’s play.
Full Grown Gaming’s Let’s Play Kingdom Hearts Episode 1 Dive into the Heart
MAGIC
There are many types of magic and here’s a listing of the spells you acquire at various points in the game and these spells are upgraded by various criteria.
Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Aero(protective wind barrier), Gravity(does a fair amount of damage to enemy), Stop.
LEVELS
As with most games characters level up by gaining experience from defeating enemies and with enough experience they gain a level and increase in power whether it’s strength, defense, HP, Mp or ability points which I’ll discuss next.
ABILITIES
Abilities are actions that make a character more effective whether it’s in battle or exploration. You can have defensive ones such as the extremely useful Dodge Roll ability and Guard. The offensive ones are the player’s main trump cards and by activating them Sora can give major damage to the target. Ability Points are basically like money in a bank and each ability equipped is a withdrawl of a certain amount. If the player has 5 ability points in the pool and Dodge Roll is equipped with a cost on AP then 4 Ap will be left to equip other abilities with.
SWIMMING IN ATLANTICA
The game actually takes time to give you an entire tutorial on the controls and it’s effective enough, but for those that have a tough time you use the left analog stick to move and the circle button to rise and square to descend. This may seem odd and stupid, but if you lock on to enemies then you automatically rise and descend to the enemy’s level making fights much easier.
FLYING IN NEVERLAND
When Tink gives Sora, Donald and Goofy the ability to fly it’s just like swimming with the same button controls and everything, but if you are flying over a surface that can be walked on just descend until you hit the ground.
Well that’s it for gameplay! Next time I’ll be talking about all the extra content that is in this game!! See you then!
