Well, they could've gone for some originality.

Might as well say it copied "The Wizard of Oz".
All 'evidence' from the OP aside, I didn't find it to be all that similar to Star Wars--only in broad archetypical ways. Some of the primary arguments were:

A roguish character who acts as a mentor for the central character,
An evil-but-used-to-be-good character who redeems themselves and
An evil emperor who goes from being apparently benign to full-out evil

Go read some Joseph Cambell. It'll do you good.

Although I did think something like that while playing it, because some of the same elements are there and because of the way the Judges talk, I have to say, Khuutra wins the thread. The similarities are only on the surface. If you think it's a copy from Star Wars you probably weren't paying too much atention to the story.

The original Kingdom Hearts is like Star Wars.

The hero's home gets burnt to the ground.
The principal enemies of the story have the ability to destroy a planet.
The hero must rescue a princess.
The story revolves around the dynamics of light and darkness.
The hero must resist the temptation to turn to the darkness, while constantly trying to find and rescue someone close to him who already has.
The only thing that's important to this hero is his friends.
In order to do this, he travels to many exotic worlds and meets many allies, solving individual problems for the betterment of the whole.
When he finally turns said close person, that person sacrifices themselves to keep the darkness from winning.



Ergo, Kingdom Hearts clearly cribbed off Star Wars.