Release
Friday, October 1, 2004
Player score
Awaiting reviews
Platform families
1
Connected releases
Core game only
Editorial overview
Inside Kingdom Hearts
What it is
Kingdom Hearts brings back the gameplay elements featured in the original Kingdom Hearts, though it was developed exclusively for V Cast, Verizon Wireless's broadband services. Sora moves similar to a tank, with one button on the control pad moving him forward, another moving him backwards, and two more turning him left or right. Even with these new controls, Sora can still perform a number of moves aside from running and jumping. He can climb trees and ladders, grasp the edges of platforms and pull himself up, lift and throw objects, and use the Keyblade to slide down zip lines.
Sora can still use the Keyblade and also magic, the first spell he learns being Blizzard, to fight like in Kingdom Hearts. Munny and Experience are still earned by defeating Heartless. As opposed to Kingdom Hearts, however, Kingdom Hearts introduced "assistant characters," such as the Caterpillar and Swordman Parrot, as opposed to guest party members.
The premise
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy Cricket are traveling across the universe in the Gummi Ship when they decide to go to sleep. They put the Gummi Ship on autopilot, and in their sleep, a strange creature creeps undetected into the vessel and subsumes Sora's dreams. When he wakes up, he is shipwrecked on a deserted island called Swordman Island, and Donald and Goofy are nowhere to be found. His goal is to find his friends and leave the island, but even after searching every nook and cranny of the island, Sora cannot find Donald and Goofy, so he builds a raft and leaves the island to find them.
The story of Kingdom Hearts V CAST, aside from familiar characters, settings, etc., has nothing to do with the original plot of Kingdom Hearts, and is almost completely irrelevant to the series because its plot is not canon. Kingdom Hearts V CAST also appears to have no plot of its own other than finding Donald and Goofy and it was never directly stated when the events in Kingdom Hearts V CAST happened during Kingdom Hearts because it was not considered a side game of importance, but there are many theories.
The first is that it could have taken place in or during Kingdom Hearts because Sora has already met Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy Cricket and they are traveling in the Gummi ship. It could have happened when they were traveling between different worlds, namely Hollow Bastion and the worlds before it because of the periodic cutscenes showing Maleficent watching Sora through a magical cauldron with green, misty water. These cutscenes suggest that Maleficent is attempting to stall Sora in a dream-like state as he is reaching her lair.
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