Kingdom Hearts/Walkthrough

Awakening
After the cutscene, you gain control of Sora, our main character. You're asked to pick between a sword, shield, and a staff. After choosing one, you have to sacrifice another one. Though it's the first choice in the game, it's crucial because it determines your starting statistics and which abilities will be learned first during leveling up. Here are the stats you'll recieve with each combination.

Choose Sacrifice   Strength Defence AP MP
 * Sword  Shield     6        1       3  2
 * Sword  Staff      6        2       1  2
 * Shield Sword      4        4       3  2
 * Shield Staff      5        4       1  2
 * Staff  Sword      3        3       3  3
 * Staff  Shield     5        1       3  3

If you want advice on what to choose regarding abilities, that's completely up to you. No matter what, you'll always have the same abilities by the time you reach level 100. As for stats, the choice should be between choosing the shield and staff. If you choose the shield, you will have 2 more item slots by level 100, whereas with the staff, you will have 1 extra MP. (The sword gives you more strength, but that's unimportant as you can easily get and Strength boost item and get maximum strength either way). The choice is up to you.

Once you've made your decision, you'll be transported to another platform. It's time for your first real battle with a Heartless.

You'll encounter a few Shadows now. They're the weakest enemies in the game because of their low-damaging and slow attacks. The annoying thing about them is when they meld into the ground. They will become a literal shadow, and they cannot be hit while in this form. Wait until they come back up from the ground (They'll most likely come up behind you). You shouldn't have too much trouble here. Once they're done for, you'll go to yet another platform.

Here you must examine a door, and then a chest will form behind you. Open the chest. A wooden crate will appear. Pick up up and throw it to get a potion. After doing the same with the barrel, the door will open and you'll be transported to an island treehouse with 3 children you may recognize.

Day 1
The task is to collect items to build a raft. There are two logs to collect. One is underneath the bridge going to the island, on the beach. The other is on the island. There is a cloth to collect. Go up the platforms on the tree until you get to a room. The cloth is hanging on the wall. Finally there is a rope. The rope is on the elevated area past the boats.

Day 2
The task is to collect provisions. There are two coconuts to collect, just hit the coconut trees (the thicker ones) until they drop two yellow coconuts (ignore the brown ones, they don't count. There are three fish to collect, just find them out in the ocean. There is one seagull egg to collect, on the ledge that connects to the island are three trees. Climb the skinny tree and jump to the top of one of the others to get the seagull egg. To get drinking water, just wade into the area by the waterfall until you fill up the bottle. Finally, the three mushrooms, one is in the secret area by the waterfall, go all the way to the end, it's to the right of the door. The other two are in the cove area, one is near the base of the wooden tower, the other is near the raft, behind a boulder (push the boulder out of the way).

Traverse Town
When you wake up go talk to Cid in the item shop and tell him you're looking for your friends. Jump on to the counter then onto the shelf to the right to find a chest. Now leave the shop and head behiind it to the second area of Traverse Town. Fight off the Heartless and continue to the right, then straight forwards until you come to the Gizmo Shop. A long chain of battles can be fought here for a lot of munny, or you can simply head out the back and jump down the balcony. Head into the Dalmation manor to see a cut-scene with Donald and Goofy. Now leave the opposite side of the manor and head through the alley way to the door leading back to the fountain. Leave back to the first area and go see Cid again. After telling him you couldn't find your friends leave the shop and "Leon" will challenge you to a fight. This fight is fairly difficult, but it doesn't matter whether you win or lose. You will wake up in a hotel room after the fight. Leon and Yuffie will explain whats been going on. Talk to Yuffie to learn yourn Keyblade can open almost anything, then unlock the chest on the table. Talk to Leon to trigger a cut-scene. Head out of the alley as before, then cut across the square to another side alley. More Heartless spawn, but you can ignore them if you want. Head through the door to the third area. After a short cut-scene you will be attacked by several Heartless soldiers. After defeating them a large boss drops down. Just target his chest and swing away, this boss fight is simple, pluss Goofy will give you a potion if you fall low on health. You are pretty much done with Traverse Town for now, though there are many items to find.