Kingdom Hearts could have been something really cool, but the Square Enix elements in everything make it not.

(to me)

If you don't love a good helping of Disney, you're probably an entity of pure malice from another dimension. I've always thought all things Disney were the greatest, especially when I was a kid. Toy Story's a masterpiece, The Lion King is fantastic, Mickey's pretty cool... I could go on. This is not news to anyone.

One day, my mom got some comic books with Disney characters on the cover from the local library. However, these books were not what met the eye. They were actually part of an elite class of graphic novels known as "magnas" that played by Hebrew rules. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, and I was very confused as I tried to make sense of the alien order of the panels. I think I may have figured it out, but looking back I can't say if I did with 100% authority. Not helping matters was the issue of only having, like, parts 2 and 4 of the series.

More vexing than this was the actual plot. It concerned a spiky hair kid named Sora, who wants to find his friends who went someplace (remember I did not know the setup of the story). There are these dark creatures known as Heartless that go around being evil, and there's also this guy named Ansem who wrote a journal about them and Sora maybe needs to find him too. So Sora gets a big key and starts purging the darkness and whatnot. Give me that description and the character designs and I don't think I could have been less interested. Wasn't this book supposed to be about Disney?

Aha! Sora's now traveling with Donald Duck and Dippy Dawg, alias Goofy. And all the places they need to go are whimsical Disney worlds, where the movie plots loosely happen! We get to hang out with Aladdin, Ariel, and Jiminy Cricket and see what they're up to. Give me THIS description and I would be all over this book. Do you see how Kingdom Hearts is bipolar for me? And this was all before I ever knew it was actually a video game!

Unfortunately, these problems stick with me to this day. On the one hand, you have these iconic, creative, and magical Disney characters meeting each other and teaming up, like... I don't know, House of Mouse, if anyone remembers that show. on the other hand, you have all these stupid-ass boring anime characters that I couldn't care less about! They're the ones the story revolves around. They get all of the important character moments. Comic or game, this has always been what has stopped Kingdom Hearts from being one of my favorite things of all time.

Let's fast forward to when I've seen full playthroughs of Kingdom Hearts I and II, and have solidified my gaming tastes. Every complaint I had reading that manga applies to the story of the game (except maybe the weird ordering). I can't comment on the gameplay, but the story's the same it's always been. When you get down to it, you have the conservative Disney licensing its properties out to a game that so lovingly recreates them, more than any other at that point in history... as the blurry background of a stupid-ass boring anime plot.

Every Disney world looks like this:

• Sora shows up.
• The main conflict of the movie is happening.
• Oh, it turns out that it's actually the Heartless.
• The main character of the movie teams up with Sora because he is just the most likable guy in the multiverse
• Sora beats the Heartless/Disney villain in an abrupt approximation of the movie's events.
• In the process, he steals the spotlight from the actual Disney character (ex: putting Jafar in the lamp)
• Sora usually gets a clue towards the greater mystery and then leaves.

When there are no Disney characters around except Donald and Goofy hanging in the background, things are much longer-winded. Sora and Riku can't decide if they're friends or not. The world ends.Everyone loses their memories and has to do everything all over again. Organization XII happens, and someone finds out he's Sora's alter ego, and three or more hours into the game we see the first Disney character. And that's not even getting into the Final Fantasy cameos, a series people like for literally no discernible reason.

In some ways, it's the perfect representation of the contrast between the two companies. Disney is light-hearted, has colorful characters and worlds, and stories that are a concise ninety minutes. The typical Square Enix joint is dozens of hours long, has a plot you need a flowchart to understand, and stars characters about as memorable as a bale of hay.

It's such a strange chain of events to me. Why did Disney look at this series of light-darkness-key-door mumbo jumbo and think it was a good fit for their properties, when they characteristically never do that? Why were they okay with their characters and stories being pushed to the background? Actually, screw that. How were the SQUARE ENIX people okay with doing that? This is the goddamn holy grail of licensing opportunities! You have free reign to do whatever you want with all of Disney, why in hell would you ever decide this was the best way to utilize that chance?

jesus christ

Now that Johnny V's out of the picture, Kingdom Hearts is the only mass Disney crossover game out there. Is it a good representation of the company? Well, what little is in there is enjoyable. The characters are all lovingly modeled and most their voice acting is very well done. Heck, their writing isn't that bad, either. I look at that and I see evidence of developers who love Disney just like everyone else. That's why it's so disappointing that they took the direction they did. What if they stripped out all of the dumb stuff? What if you played as Mickey Mouse, who would actually do stuff he's supposed to instead of this?

I don't know. I'm sure the game is fun enough, if you're into that style. And I won't deny that the series has a ton of fans who presumably enjoy this stuff. But to me, Kingdom Hearts will remain as a marker of one of the biggest missed opportunities in games.

(to me)

I don't think there is a human being in the world who is gonna defend the nonsensical narrative of Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts is a fun little romp through pastiche set pieces. I would argue the bloated crazy story is such a departure that it doesn't lend itself to comparison with the Disney properties it is using. It evokes them instead of imitates.

Disney animated movies are typically highly refined examples of tight well executed storytelling. Asking a videogame to live to that standard is a hard ask. Has a videogame ever lived up to that standard? Even come close?

I'm not saying videogames aren't art, but with the realities of production and gameplay focus can they really be measured well against other mediums? I would argue that isn't the point of Kingdom Hearts. It doesn't measure up on Disney terms, but on its own insane terms its a blast.

I agree that Sora shouldn't be the ones beating the various villains in their respective universes; he should be doing something on the sidelines that helps Aladdin/Hercules/whoever the hell it is to save the day. Sure, we don't get the big fight against (insert Disney Villain here), but they could give us an equally cool fight against some giant heartless that's inspired by the villain in question.

As for your issues with Final Fantasy...you're on your own. That series has had it's ups and downs, but I enjoy it quite a bit. I think KH is made the better for all the FF insanity.

"And that's not even getting into the Final Fantasy cameos, a series people like for literally no discernible reason."

Come now.

But... But every original character in Kingdom Hearts (Sora, Riku, Kairi, Organization XIII, Dogstreet those 3 characters in Twilight Town) are Disney characters. Or are owned by Disney.

So, long story short, anime is for jerks. Not that I disagree with the statement, but I don't have the imagination to see how KH could have been with someone else at the helm without the result falling into obscurity.

What if you played as Mickey Mouse, who would actually do stuff he's supposed to instead of this?

Isn't that Epic Mickey? Never played it but it wasn't exactly well-received. KH is fine for what it is I think, though it certainly isn't for everyone. And like any crossover, if you don't care about one side of it then of course you'll see more problems than virtues.

Here you go, OP. This is exactly it.

Actually while I think Sora is Disney, Org. XIII is SE? I could be wrong but I think that lot is Square's technically. Not sure how exacting it is with Kairi, Riku, and Roxas' friends and anyone else in TT that wasn't an FF character.

That being said the framework of Sora/the player exploring the worlds and "hijacking" the story of the movie and co-starring with everyone from Simba to Tron, Stitch to Alice allows the games to pull a variety of movies to choose from while still being the same sort of game from world to world. A world/movie like Mulan's that is inherently very action heavy, unlike Alice's that is more surrealabstract one (where it would have been more than strange to have her in the driver's seat and fighting, though it would have been cool if that world was way more bonkers with psychedelic sequences) can coexist. At times Sora drives the in-world story forward(Wonderland), others he lets the actual main character do a lot of the talking, and some in between.

Not to say the "Kingdom Hearts" part of KH is not flawed, because it certainly is flawed and silly for many reasons, but the framework has its purpose.

I think they should get rid of the Disney stuff. KH story is MGS levels of crazy or even more. Thats what keeps it going.

I liked the Disney parts of the first KH well enough. I like how it sorta tried to toe the line between Tetsuya Nomura JRPG bullshit and Disney so you get dumb (in a good way) stuff like Donald Duck covered with zippers. I might actually have been willing to play the rest of the games if it was still mostly about that, but at some point it definitely seemed (from the outside) that the focus started shifting more and more towards the Organization XIII story or whatever.

Emperor's New Groove is the best Disney film. Otherwise, I don't have a horse in this race.

So you are telling me that Kingdom Hearts the video game series is based off some other source material?

You, sir, have blown my mind.

Every single character created for Kingdom Hearts is owned 100% by Disney. Most of them are designed by Tetsuya Nomura but they're all owned by and approved by Disney. The only ownership that SE have of characters in those games are the ones they pull in from Final Fantasy.

If Disney decided they wanted to stop making those games, SE wouldn't be able to use any of the KH characters without Disney's permission. If Disney decided they wanted to make a part of their theme parks be full of KH characters - they own them and they can do what they want with them - they just couldn't put say Squall or Cloud in there.

KH as a whole has always felt like a series which plays heavily on pre-established affection for its characters. As someone who's never had much love for Disney (I've enjoyed several films, but I don't think I hold much fondness for any of the characters) or for the PS1/PS2-era Final Fantasy style (again, I've played and enjoyed those games but didn't really fall in love with many of the people) it's always been a series which eluded me.

I'm not a particular Disney, or FF fan but I loved the First 2 Kingdom Hearts.

The anime ass anime parts of KH got out of control after 2. KH 2 wrapped up what I wanted, Sora, Riku, And Kairi getting home. So for me all these other games are just a bonus.

BBS AND DDD are games I "enjoyed" but there is way to many moody bullshit main characters, and unearned nonsense story points for my taste.

I didn't mind the shitty anime villains in KH2 because 1) I knew I was going to kill them, so they can suck as much as they like. 2) I like Sore, Donald, and Goofy being silly rolling through Disney stuff and jacking fools.

But I'm hopeful, and pretty confident that Sora, Donald, and Goofy are the main characters in 3 and they'll hit the tone I want.

I do think it's an odd choice that in your weird Square Enix/Disney mashup game, like 75% of the convoluted plot revolves around a bunch of original characters that no player has any immediate investment in, and the Disney/Final Fantasy characters are generally of secondary importance.

It would be like if Disney Infinity had you play as new character Fred the Dog who is for some reason the hero of every Disney play set he loads into. Like, sure maybe I'll like Fred the Dog given enough time, but when you're pitching that concept to me in the first place, all I'm thinking is "In this clearly super nostalgia driven series, why aren't you just playing as existing, fan favourite characters?"

But this is a mistake they made 15 years ago with the basic concept for the first game, so we're very far past the point where they could've dropped Sora and his atrocious character design.

I just don't understand why the games have such a dumb ass and over complicated story. Otherwise whatever, if people dig it, then let them dig it.

"And that's not even getting into the Final Fantasy cameos, a series people like for literally no discernible reason."

???????????