Kingdom Hearts Vol. #04

By Julie Rosato     August 02, 2006
Release Date: July 11, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Shiro Amano
Translated by:N/A
Adapted by:

What They Say
The saga comes to a close as Sora, Donald and Goofy are forced to choose between their duty and their friendship to each other. The evil truth becomes apparent as our heroes discover who is really behind Heartless and the Darkness. Each must follow their own heart if they are to succeed and defeat the growing Heartless menace. But the choice will not be an easy one!

The Review
Sora and friends make their way to Hollow Bastian where they must face their final obstacles. Things start off poorly when Sora loses confidence after being confronted by Riku, but he soon realizes the power he needs is in his own heart. Meanwhile Riku has given in to the darkness and become someone else -- literally. Possessed by Ansem and having disposed of Maleficent, he squares off against Sora for Kairi's heart, the final key needed to open the door to darkness. As it turns out her heart has been with Sora all along, but in freeing her, Sora nearly dooms himself (and all the worlds) to eternal darkness.

This final volume definitely moves quickly, taking several liberties with the game's events in order to do so. Things play out more or less the same, however, with the changes adding to the amusement and smoothing over some of the more complicated details. The Riku fans even get a little something extra. (Though I remain convinced that Shiro Amano is a Cid fan, because he is such a scene-stealer!) The major players all have a hand in sealing the keyhole in Hollow Bastian but our heroes must travel alone into the abyss after Ansem.

The climactic battle of the game is replayed here in short fashion and, as we all know, light vanquishes darkness -- a common theme shared by both RPGs and Disney. Drawing on the power of Kingdom Hearts (the heart of all worlds), the gang works together to seal the door to the abyss, leaving King Mickey and Riku trapped inside afterwards. With Ansem defeated and the door to darkness closed, the worlds are restored but once again separated, and so Sora, Donald and Goofy must begin a new journey - one that will somehow reunite them with their friends.

The technical aspects of this volume remain as they have been, serviceable but not spectacular, and the full-color bonus Winnie-the-Pooh chapter is, as expected, reproduced in black and white. Nonetheless, with this volume the events of the first game are concluded and fans of the franchise should not miss it. Judging by various industry reports, this has been a pretty successful series for TOKYOPOP, (Can I say I told you so?), so I'm hoping that Chain of Memories, the continuing two-volume series based on the Gameboy game of the same name, enjoys both equal success and improved production quality. I expect the former (as it should sell just as well, maybe even better thanks to those who didn't play this bridge between the Playstation games), and I'll hope for the latter, Kupo!