Gaming: Kingdom Hearts

If there is one game that I don't understand, it is Kingdom Hearts. It's not like I don't understand why it's amazing and entertaining, but what went on in the minds of its creators. Why on earth did Disney work hand-in-hand with the Japanese video game titan that founded the Final Fantasy megaseries, Square (now Square Enix), to produce such an oddity of a video game? It's a ridiculous idea that ended up utterly brilliant.

This is the original Kingdom Hearts, for those who are not familiar with the series:

This was the origin of the hybrid Disney-Final Fantasy role playing game that became a surprising phenomenon. I happened to be one of many people who were caught off guard with such a concept. Cartoon characters for little children mixed with flashy warriors, mages, beasts, and critters targeted for teens, young adults, and adults alike? Amazingly, the concept worked and the game series has achieved global success since 2002.

The first Kingdom Hearts installment started a fantasy story about a boy named Sora, who lived on his tropical island home alongside his friends Riku and Kairi. Sounds like a very simple, straightforward story ideal for followers of Walt Disney. But no. Weird entities that embody pure darkness called "Heartless" fall into the lives of our three friends, tossing them into an epic adventure. In the process, Sora, Riku, and Kairi are separated. Our hapless protagonist, Sora, finds himself a chosen wielder of the "Keyblade," a key-shaped sword that represents the powers of light. Now Sora goes on his quest to find his friends, fight off darkness and the Heartless, figure out what the hell this supernatural world called "Kingdom Hearts" is, how to grow up, how to control his feelings, and everything else that can possibly fit into a single Playstation 2 CD.

Oh, along the way, Sora teams up with Donald Duck and the silly Goofy. In this game, though, Donald is a magic wielding fighter and Goofy is still goofy, except he has a big shield and likes to ram himself into enemies that get in the way. Still like a Disney story? Well, the princesses (i.e. Jasmine of Aladdin, Ariel of The Little Mermaid, Aurora of Sleeping Beauty, etc.) are there. The villains from many major stories are there. Tarzan still swings around on vines in his jungle. Alice is still completely confused in Wonderland. But what happens when you mix in Final Fantasy aspects?

Now we have the enigmatic, antisocial, superhuman Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII who dons his blasphemous monster-sized sword, the somewhat emo, brash, though quiet Squall Leonhart (simply named Leon here) from Final Fantasy VIII, child versions of Tidus and Wakka from Final Fantasy X, and the list continues. The Final Fantasy series lies in stark contrast to typical Disney storylines. There are no damsels in distress represented by the princesses. Likewise, there are no Prince Charmings. There are no cliché climactic endings (usually) that have the protagonists suddenly getting epiphanies in order to deal the main villains any final blows. Instead, the series tend to lie in dark atmospheres, emotional surges and upswings, life and death issues, individuality issues, subtle political and/or radical messages, and a whole myriad of topics normally absent in Disney-related media.

With the aforementioned Final Fantasy elements combined with Disney elements, we now have this hybrid RPG that can pretty much please players of all ages. It is still a story about a boy who's on a mission to find his friends and go back home. But in addition, we have darker topics about figuring out personal identities, understanding emotions, questioning morals and justice, and so on and so forth. Instead of just playing a happy-go-lucky game based on Disney concepts, now we have this just partially happy-go-lucky game that is also curiously interesting in its heavily plot-driven story.

Back in 2004, when I first played this game, I found myself sucked into its universe pretty much two or three hours into play. By the time I hit around a cumulative 30 hours of gameplay, I was 100% finished. No, that does not mean I simply beat the game... I beat the game to a point where there was absolutely nothing left to do except stop playing. In RPG terminologies, my characters were maxed out, I found every single item possible, I completed every optional quest available, and I had nothing left to do. So what now?

Oh yes, coincidentally, the second installment for the series hit the stores late that year. However, I never went forward until sometime until 2005 when I picked up the second game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for Nintendo's Gameboy Advance. Just to go ahead, I beat the game, but I wasn't quite obsessed enough to reach 100% completion. It's still a great game, but I guess I had better things to do then?

Plot-wise, at the end of the first Kingdom Hearts -- spoiler warning -- Sora reunites with his friends, Riku and Kairi, but it was only for a brief moment. Worlds split, weird things happen, and they get separated again. Unfortunate red-haired girl Kairi luckily returns to their island home, but she was miserable without her friends. Aw. By the way, we get the message that she developed some romantic feelings for our protagonist Sora. Oh, the drama intensifies.

Anyway, in Chain of Memories, we resume Sora's journey back to his friends and home. Donald and Goofy are still with him, and their quest takes us to a mysterious castle that houses very mysterious people in trenchcoats. From here, the already heavy plot from the first Kingdom Hearts now become overwhelmingly thick and juicy. For the sake of spoilers, I'll only say, it's a pretty ridiculous ride. The already dark tones from the first installment become magnified. Issues regarding emotions, general feelings, morality, friendship, etc. fall into the spotlight and become reoccurring themes.

At the end of Chain of Memories -- spoiler warning -- Sora is put to sleep in order to regain memories that he was losing since the beginning of the game. His friend Riku remained rampant, fighting friends and enemies alike. Kairi idly sat at home, unbeknownst to her that her memories of Sora were fading as well. Once the climax struck, the plot only skyrocketed. Cliffhangers weren't for me, but as soon as the game was over, I knew there was another installment in the works.

Well, what do you know? It was a given that another installment was on its way, but back then, I never knew it was going to hit U.S. soil so fast. Christmas of 2005, Kingdom Hearts II hit stores. I wondered, though, if Chain of Memories was the second game to be released, why wasn't this "Kingdom Hearts III?" I didn't mind, but I guess it made sense after I realized Chain of Memories was meant to be an in-between game for filler purposes.

Usually, the first for many series tend to be the best. As stories drag on, the creators feel less creative and the series drops dead and rots. However, in the case of the Kingdom Hearts series, the creators felt more and more creative. In turn, I found Kingdom Hearts II the best of the entire series. Not only does the plot just keeps pounding into the players, the entire storyline just overrides the gameplay and the series started to feel like a movie. That's not to say there were no great gameplay elements, believe me, playing the game was a huge plus. Even though I finished the game a few years back around 2006, the universe that Kingdom Hearts drew me into is still fresh. Ah, I guess I should mention that just like in the first installment, I managed to eat up around another 30 hours of my life in order to manage my way to 100% completion of the game.

Characters tend to be reoccurring in the series, but if there are any familiar faces, whether they belong to the Disney world or the Final Fantasy world, constant cameos can only put a smile on your face. They sure did for me. Wondering how Simba from The Lion King can play a role in the story? How can Yuna from Final Fantasy X influence the storyline (technically she didn't do much, but it was an interesting cameo)? Honestly, this game pretty much epitomizes creativity.

Like its previous installments, Kingdom Hearts II was driven heavily by plot. Now the game represented action, adventure, fantasy, drama, romance, and comedy in its storyline, in addition to all the aforementioned themes and concepts. It's still Disney-like with its good versus evil themes, as well as the basis of the game, light versus dark. The Heartless are still weird and Sora's Keyblade is still doing the talking. The introduction of the mysterious trenchcoat-donning characters back in Chain of Memories representing the Nobodies (the counterpart to the Heartless) only add to the already thick plot. Taking it as purely a children's game is a legitimate opinion. Likewise, taking it as a more complicated game with somewhat more mature aspects is just as fair.

Rest easy, everything is resolved at the end. Not only did virtually everything from the earlier installments improve with the release of Kingdom Hearts II, but a warm, happy... dare I say it... Disney-like happy ending greeted the audience.

In summary, it's a damn good series...

But no. No, no, no. Disney and Square Enix were not finished yet. In mid-2009, they released Kingdom Hearts Coded for mobile phones in Japan. Obviously, since I can't read Japanese, there was no way for me to play the game.

I can handle that, though, since from outside reviews, this mobile game was a filler. Even though it's technically a sequel that moves past the conclusion of Kingdom Hearts II, I don't think I'm missing too much. It generally recounts the past events of the series in a short, puzzle-style format.

Apparently Disney and Square Enix were still not finished yet. Here we are in late 2009 and we have yet another installment for the Kingdom Hearts series. Titled Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, what? ...What? Ask me what "358/2" means.

Is it 358 divided by 2? So it means 179 days, right? I don't think so...

Is it 358 days viewed from 2 characters' points of view? In the process of playing the game... I haven't noticed that.

Is it 358.5 days? That makes the least sense... I doubt it.

Since this game was only recently released, I'm currently about three-quarters of the way through. I probably could have completed it by now, but since I'm used to RPGs, I tend to try and do every little side quest, find every little detail I can, prior to forwarding the main plot. Perhaps I can figure out what "358/2" means by the end of the game.

This is no sequel to Kingdom Hearts II or Kingdom Hearts coded. Rather, it is a prequel to Kingdom Hearts II and, by canon, on the same time plane as Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Instead of starring Sora, it focuses on Roxas, Sora's Nobody. To clarify, the Nobodies that I mentioned before when I talked about Kingdom Hearts II are entities that are created whenever Heartless are created. Way back in the first Kingdom Hearts, spoiler warning -- certain happenings resulted in Sora becoming a Heartless and then reverting back to his original self. However, during that time, players never knew that a Nobody version of him was born at the same time, somewhere far away. That Nobody would be Roxas, who initially made his debut in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II and later played significant roles in the story's plot.

But now in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, players get to play as Roxas. Personally, I think this is a way that the creators up at Disney and Square Enix feel is the easiest way to tie up loose ends and plot-holes that may have formed in the last few installments. Since I'm a man of detail, so far that's my judgment, as there are parts of this new game that do help me understand some details in the past installments.

Even with all this writing, most of it will make absolutely no sense unless the games are played and experienced first-hand. To get the most out of the games, attention and patience are necessities. Anyone with zero attention-spans will have subpar experiences. I know my attention-span is limited, but I guess it's sufficient since I really enjoyed the series. It comes with my most enthusiastic recommendations. True, I am still in the process of finishing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but so far it's enjoyable. When I do finish it, I don't doubt that it will be the last installment to hit the game shelves...