Kingdom Heart-ish? (A novel review)

Master Wolf Here.

It is no question that I love Kingdom Hearts <3 perhaps the best game series to ever blessed the gaming world with its memorable characters to the story itself. Countless fans have grown attach to the many characters in Kingdom Hearts with their unique personality and the worlds they traveled to and made friends with both Disney and Final Fantasy characters as Sora, Donald, Goofy, and friends battle Xehanort and his ambition to merge Kingdom Hearts. With the long awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 and the end of the Xehanort saga, its no question we have come a long way since the first Kingdom Hearts was released and fans begin to love and always wonder what will our Heroes adventure will be next.

However, we are not going to be talking about the Kingdom Hearts series, nope we are going to read a novel that has similar aspect to the beloved series with some changes here and there. I am talking about 'Faith of the Heart' by DisneyFan01

Faith of the Hearts Part 1 Chapter 1: First Sight

So as of right now, there is 3 parts (or books) that follows Marina, Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Jiminy Chriket, and Captain Silver travel from world to world to not only find more about the Nightmares and the Prophecy, but to save their wizard friend Merlin from the clutches of Darkness. As their adventures continues, they meet countless memorable characters and new friends, such as Jose, Panchito, and Genie, as the mystery and adventure continues to unraveled and each world brings new danger to the group.

So right of the bat, there is something I have to bring up; and that is the main character is very flawed and does comes off as Mary Sue-ish. Now there is nothing wrong with a lawful good character, however I do wish to see Marina Seadrift's flaws play an important part. She does have moments where her weakness comes up; but nothing really character changing (with the exception to her becoming the adopted mother to Kopa after Sarabi died from her wounds).

Another thing that I really wish the author to do more is give the boys of the group some character development that makes them stand out and memorable. Like Kingdom Hearts, Sora, Donald, and Goofy have much different personality from one another; however, they are able to play off each other perfectly as they went on many adventures and have a lot of development between the three. But in 'Faith of the Hearts', we've barely have any development or some conflicts between characters (with the exception between Donald/Marina and Marina/Captain Silver; but that's just it). It would be nice to see some interesting character building.

However; despite all the nitpicking of the series, its not at all bad.

Let me explain; Despite being Kingdom Heart-ish and often kept true to the movies (Aladdin and Little Mermaid), its actually a good read and I see it more as a tribute to the beloved series. It is enough that it's completely it's own series and made use of settings and locations to it's advantage. There is a sense that there is something much bigger at play and we have only seen the surface of the big plan. Even though the story can be slow at start, it does starts going when we get to the battles.

As of right now, the story is in Book 3 and continue to impress me. Disneyfan01 has a lot of potential in being an amazing writer as well as a great artist. I can't wait to see what else is in stored to 'Faith of the Hearts' in future chapters. So with that, I say that this series is a great read and worth your time.

Final Verdict: 5/5