Kingdom Hearts is an action role-playing game developed and published by Squaresoft for the PlayStation 2. It is the result of a collaboration between Square and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney's animated features with those from the Final Fantasy series, developed by Square.

Kingdom Hearts was a departure from Square's standard role-playing games by introducing a substantial action-adventure element. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which included many of the Disney characters' official voice actors. Kingdom Hearts was longtime Square character designer Tetsuya Nomura's first time in a directorial position.

The game uses an experience based progression system, with experience gained by defeating foes. Experience gained rises in relation to the strength of the foe, and is consistent for each enemy over the course of the game. Levels are gained with experience, and provide increases to stat attributes in strength, defence, magic, hit points, magic points and ability points, with a new, predetermined ability unlocked approximately every four levels.