Reception
The music of Kingdom Hearts was overall well received. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot felt the background music was appropriate for each setting. However, he complained that the music loops were too short and repetitive. IGN reviewer David Smith was impressed by the production values that went into the music of Kingdom Hearts, namely the use of the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and excellent arrangements of pieces such as "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Under the Sea". He also praised composer Yoko Shimomura's ability to maintain the atmosphere while keeping a "common thread of character running through the soundtrack". Daniel Kalabakov of SoundtrackCentral.com called Shimomura's orchestral composition sophisticated and stated that the score possesses unique qualities. He also stated that though the album is excellent, he considered it one of Shimomura's weaker albums overall. In reviewing Shimomura's compilation album Drammatica, SoundtrackCentral.com reviewer Adam Corn considered the Kingdom Hearts tracks one of the highlights of the album. Jim Cordeira of Gaming Age stated the music was one of the best aspects of the first game and the orchestrated soundtrack is better quality than the "midi-sounding" tunes of previous Final Fantasy games. GameSpy's Benjamin Turner had positive comments about the main theme, but found some worlds' background music weak. A second GameSpy reviewer, Gerald Villoria, complimented both PlayStation 2 game soundtracks, but stated Kingdom Hearts II's soundtrack was not as good as the first game's.
Several tracks garnered extra attention and their own positive reception. "Hikari" debuted at number one on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart in Japan. It stayed at number one for three weeks and stayed on the chart for thirteen weeks. "Hikari" sold more than 270,000 copies during its first week on sale, and by August 2002, it sold over 860,000 copies in Japan. In 2008, Guinness World Records listed it as the best-selling video game theme song in Japan. Kalabakov complimented Utada's singing and the instrumentation of "Hikari", but commented that he was not a fan of pop songs. Turner was impressed by the translation of "Hikari" into English, and felt Utada's vocals were a good addition to the opening and ending segments of the game. "Passion" debuted at number four on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart in Japan where it stayed on the chart for nine weeks. G4TV's Miguel Concepcion was particularly pleased by "Dearly Beloved", the track that plays during the title screen. IGN echoed the sentiment and listed it as number four in their top ten list of RPG title tracks. They commented that the track lifted the doubts they had about the game's potential. Kalabakov referred to it as a fitting "fairy tale-style" piece to the game's setting. He further stated that it was a simple piece that was "not short on emotion".
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