This one of the games I waited like a kid in Christmas Eve to get to my PS2 (after the Final Fantasy X).
Just imagining of having a game mixing the great Squaresoft Final Fantasy like characters with the Disney magic was just blowing your mind.
I know that these days the kids don't have to wait for the next Disney instalment to get to watch cartoons. But 20 or more years ago there was Disney rulling all over the planet and behond!
I don't know if you can see but the game's cover is a bit shiny and holographic. It's special!
I bought it right on the release (March 2002) so I got this cover which soon was replaced by a more common one.
I confess I started playing the game at the time but then got stuck in one of the levels and...well...It has been years since that and now I'm playing it again decided to finish it.
It all start with some kid characters in, what seems, a lost island. There are some quests to do at the island and then all turns up-side-down and the Heartless appear!
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| You can see that at least two of them are from FF X |
The main character is Sora, that along side Donald and Goofy starts a journey throughout main Disney worlds.
This is no typical JRPG in which you attack by turn or need to wait the gauge bar to get full to atack. It's real time where you only control Sora.
You have to hit the enemies with the Keyblade and always pay attention to the menu where you chose from to get potions and restore your health and chose magic spells.
It requires some training to get it all right or you'll get hit and might die if you're not speedy enough chosing the right option form the menu.
You cannot control the other characters but you can use, for instance, potions to restore Donald and Goofy's health.
The first stop is a town called Traverse Town that serves as a connection point to the other worlds with some shops and where you learn more about the game and its mechanics.
From there we can travel to planets, representing a Disney story and world, using King Mickey's Gummi spacheship. Which you can upgrade and even re-build from sketch.
The first world I went was Alice in Wonderland. It says it's an easy level (they are rated with a star system) but it has some plataform tricks.
After that I went to Hercules' world Olympus Coliseum which has more fighting than plataforms. Here you get to 'know' Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. He's a bit on the dark side but in the end he gets over it.
The bad guys from Disney films are all together trying to make the world fall into the dark side. And some of the characters that appear and we thought were good are not.
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| Dark Cloud! |
The Vines plataforms are not difficult but need some learning. This is a more mixed level but mainly plataforms like Alice's world.
Since I play more than one game at a time and since I don't have much hours to spend playing like so many years ago I think I'm doing a pretty good job.
Since I'm still playing this game I'll be posting about my progress in the game.
I live you with a map of all the worlds/levels. The game looks huge! Even more if you want to collect all the extras, like saving the poor 101 Dalmations puppies that got scattered all over the worlds, and you have to return to worlds you already visited.
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| Still so much to play! |
Good games.
I remember all of my students playing this game years ago. Graphics look really cool... especially for the PS2. Might need to pick this one up the next time I see it at the flea market.
ReplyDeleteIt did pushed a lot from the PS2 graphics and processing system. But you never noticed a break and even the change from cut scenes to gameplay were somthly.
DeleteThis is a must have for PS2. If you have the oportunity to get it you must! Even more for all the Disney memories.
I just noticed that they have it for the PS3. After thinking about it, I don't have my PS2 hooked up. There's a chance my PS3 will play the PS2 games... but I might just end up picking up the PS3 version. Otherwise I'll need to dig out my PS2... but I'm pretty sure I'm too lazy to do that ;)
DeleteYou are right. They released a new HD version of both first two games. They are called 1.5HD and 2.5HD. I don't know if they have some extras but they might.
DeleteIf you get them for PS3 it's good too.
Do you think it's worth the money to pick up the 2.5 version? It's about $20 more on eBay.
DeleteFor what I've seen in ebay they are selling around 35$ which I don't think is lower price than I was expecting.
DeleteThis game, like ICO, is one you must have in your collection. If you get one in second hand that is in good conditions you might get it for less $.
But I think it's a good choice ;)
Thanks. I'll keep you posted.
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