Kingdom Hearts: The best franchise of all time?

     In a word, yes. Kingdom Hearts is a true cinematic experience that true and fake fans of Disney and RPGs alike can come together through to watch Mickey Mouse kill a creature of darkness with a sword that looks like it was made to unlock his front door. Kingdom Hearts is a weird concept for a single game, much less an entire franchise, and one that I truly cannot believe took off. I love it dearly, but I'm surprised that other people like it as much as they do. I've always been a Disney fan (as I feel like i've mentioned a time or two perhaps) and so, as you can imagine, the idea of a character teaming up with Disney characters like Donald Duck, Tarzan, Ariel, and Jack Skellington was a done deal for me as a kid. I was in Second Grade when the first one came out, and I loved it immediately, even though I didn't have the PS2. I got Chain of Memories for Game Boy a few years later, and though I loved the idea, the game itself was kind of rough, and that became even more apparent when I got a PS2 and played the original.

    This is a game with a lot of character(s) and by that, I mean, there are really only three or four characters that are important in the first game. Those characters are: Sora, the protagonist of the series, Riku, Sora's rival/best friend who is evil in the first game and later has a redemption arc, Kairi, who's the love interest for both Sora and Riku, and of course, Mickey mouse, who's missing until the end of the game. Other characters really aren't that important, all of the Disney worlds are disconnected from each other because it would go against the natural world order to let people know that there are other worlds out there. A big selling point for the first game was that you can see all of your favorite characters from Final Fantasy, although they're almost all in one world, and they do almost nothing except for Cloud Strife who you have to fight in the Hercules level (then are completely taken out in Kingdom Hearts 3). After the original game, however, they introduce Organization XIII, made up of 13 new characters all trying to take over the universe (I think) although, really only two or three of them matter. Master Yen Sid is also introduced in Kingdom Hearts 2 and acts as a good way to hurry the plot along. He tells you what the quest is for the game and tries to distract you from how it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Later they introduced Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, who were Keyblade masters when Sora was a kid, but they stay the same age while everyone else grows up... don't worry too much about it. Of course, the characters are just one draw of the game, the worlds are yet another one.

    The game was incredible and I loved every moment of it, except for the Tarzan level... and the Monstro level... and the Halloween Town level... Atlantica... oh wait.... Okay, maybe I didn't love the individual levels so much, but overall the game was great and I was excited when they announced the sequel, which would go on to be much easier to understand (in terms of gameplay anyways, the story is, well, another story). Just having Donald Duck and Goofy following you around and defeating enemies of darkness as you travel through the interesting and colorful worlds of Disney films is truly exciting and a lot of fun for at least the first time through. Unfortunately, to get to the interesting parts where you're going through disney worlds, you have to do what is basically a long tutorial, followed by you going in and out of buildings trying to get to the end of Traverse Town.... Needless to say, I've tried to play through Kingdom Hearts with some friends but they don't have the patience for it... it takes about two hours or so to get into the swing of things, and with busy people who don't have a lot of free time as it is, it's a hard sell to get them to give it the time of day. I would say that you could just start in Kingdom Hearts 2, except at that point you'd be so confused, it could turn you off to the series all together.

    If you recall, I mentioned that the plot to Kingdom Hearts 2 (and the entire franchise at this point) is a tiny bit convoluted, and it's like that right out of the gate. Kingdom Hearts 2 begins with a character named Roxas who is the protagonist's "Nobody." Now, what is a Nobody? It's very obvious, you're gonna kick yourself when you hear it, because it's almost surely on the tip of your tongue. A Nobody is created whenever someone loses their heart to darkness, the husk left behind becomes its own organism. Near the end of the original Kingdom Hearts, Sora realizes that his love interest's heart is trapped inside of his heart, so he kills himself to release the heart back to her, then it only lasts for a second because he didn't kill himself actually, he just becomes a creature of darkness which Kairi hugs and he comes back. Simple, right? But wait, I hear you ask, if Sora is still alive, then who is this guy? How is Roxas still around if he's supposed to be so connected to Sora? Oh, it's very simple. Sora is in a Coma and needs Roxas to give up his life in order to come back to life. Like I was saying, it's pretty crazy. You live five days as Roxas as he lives his normal life and enjoys summer vacation, but don't worry, it doesn't matter at all. After the prologue, you meet master Yen Sid, who you may recognize if you're familiar with Fantastia (and is also Disney spelled backwards, as Walt used him as a self insert character of sorts), and then it's off to the races. That's all the first two hours or so, if the explanation felt longwinded and like it didn't make any sense, that's how the game feels in the beginning. Gameplay wise, however, Kingdom Hearts 2 is a much more fun and varied experience than the first, with significantly less time spent wandering around and hoping that you're going the right way.

    After Kingdom Hearts 2 came out in 2005 or 2006 and ended on a huge cliffhanger with Sora and Riku coming back to Destiny Islands and receiving a letter from Mickey Mouse, fan hype went crazy. When was Kingdom Hearts 3 coming out? "I'm sure it won't take too long," said we hopeful fans back in 2007, hoping for a quick follow up to the incredible Action RPG which came out for our PS2, but... nothing was said. Kingdom Hearts had many many games come out for handheld consoles, all with some strange gimmicks, some of them clunky and hard to understand like the Card system of Chain of Memories, with others flowing pretty well, with Dream Drop Distance introducing Chao Garden-esque mechanics thrown in for good measure. The years ticked by and speculation went crazy whenever Kingdom Hearts 3 was first teased at E3 in 2013. Everyone knew that the next game was coming and it was gonna be soon. Fast forward 6 years later when Kingdom Hearts 3 was finally released (after several more games were released and rereleased for other consoles) and everyone was so excited. This lasted for a few weeks and then people realized... the game wasn't what they thought.

    Kingdom Hearts 3 is a weird game. I love it a lot, but I also understand that a lot of people got something very different than what they were signed up for. Variety is the spice of life, and in my opinion, it's what makes this game so fun. You can fight in giant robots alongside Buzz Lightyear and Woody, dance through the streets of Corona with Rapunzel, smash blocks with Wreck it Ralph, cook different dishes with chef Remy (the rat from Ratatouille) who works in a cafe run by Scrooge McDuck, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, Kingdom Hearts is a franchise associated with being pretty difficult, and at launch, KH3 was just... not. Again, that's fine with me, I don't need to be killed a million times in order for a game to be fun, but others definitely disagreed, and the developers eventually added an extra difficulty mode which is pretty darn challenging. To me, Kingdom Hearts is a great series, and as the third game wrapped up, I was happy to see all of these characters that I cared so much about come to a happy conclusion. I was concerned when [REDACTED] was killed, but it was great in the end when everyone came back together. That moment only lasted for a moment though because [REDACTED] suddenly disappeared just before the screen cut to black.

    That's right, folks. The series is not over yet. Leading up to the release of Kingdom Hearts 3, Tetsuya Nomura spoke for a long time about how it was going to wrap up the "Dark Seeker" saga, although no one knew what that meant. Now it seems like whatever is coming next is going to be all about finding the character that disappeared at the end of the game, and so far we've learned of a rhythm game which is coming out this November, which normally I would assume doesn't have anything to do with the overall plot of the series, but this is Kingdom Hearts, after all. It seems like this game is going to actually take place in Kairi's mind maybe, though they still haven't shown enough to tell. I'm a big fan of the Kingdom Hearts music, so I'm excited to play through it when it comes out, and I'm curious to see exactly what is in store for the future of Kingdom Hearts, especially with the secret ending of KH3 when Sora and Riku ended up in Japan seemingly.

    This is a confusing post, I understand, but it's meant to capture how strange and confusing the game can be, so I think I got the point across. Thanks so much for reading, and if you didn't read, I'll put in a TL:DR. Kingdom Hearts is awesome and probably perfect, though can be a touch convoluted at times. I love it, but it's not for everyone! Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!