The Destiny Islands are a beautiful paradise where children's laughter abounds.  Day after day, Sora, Riku, and Kairi talk and dream of new places, new worlds beyond their islands.  They ponder the usual questions that adolescents do -- about the world outside, about their own existence.  Little do they know a great destiny awaits them.  One stormy night, a terrible darkness invades the Destiny Islands.

Thus does their journey begin...

Sora awakens in another world, in a place called Traverse Town.  His hopes of seeing new worlds are realized, but his friends Riku and Kairi are nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy have also arrived in Traverse Town.   They have come from Disney Castle in search of a "key" and its owner.  Their king, who has mysteriously disappeared, has left them a cryptic message:

"Now, there's somebody with a 'key' -- the key to our survival...  We need that key"

What is happening to this world?

The "somebody" mentioned by the missing king turns out to be Sora.   To find Kairi and Riku, Sora joins Donald and Goofy and embarks on an epic journey.

-- excerpt from the Kingdom Hearts manual

---- < ---- < ---- > ---- > ----

     Kingdom Hearts is a PS2 videogame developed through the joint efforts of Square-Enix (then known as Squaresoft) and Disney Interactive, who's Japan office just sits right below Square's in the same building.   First developed as a Disney RPG (Role Playing Game, for those who don't know) featuring hundreds of classic Disney characters from their numerous classic movies, it later included cameos from Square's most beloved characters, those of the Final Fantasy series, such as Squall and the ever so dearest Aeris, er, Aerith.  Many videogamers were quite skeptical about an RPG featuring both Final Fantasy and the almost-always-regarded-as-"kiddie" Disney characters... some worried that it couldn't be done correctly or faithfully, others believing it would just end up being another kiddie Disney game.  Were they able to pull it off?

     Now over a year old, Kingdom Hearts has been regarded by many as a masterpiece.   Receiving countless awards from gaming magazines and other media, such as "RPG of the Year", and selling millions of copies worldwide, Kingdom Hearts has spawned quite a following, as well as action figures, two sequels presently in development (one for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance and another for the Sony PlayStation2), a possible movie or TV series, and will be released as a "Greatest Hits" budget title this Holiday Season!  This is also the series that will truly catapult director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura (famous for his character designs for many of the Final Fantasy's, and other games such as Parasite Eve) to stardom.  Without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts will grow into something truly big, and will be remembered for years to come as the masterpiece it truly is!