In my last blog, I teased some ideas for what my next serial blog project ('bloject'?) for Giant Bomb might be. For a while it was looking like the Diary of a Monster Hunter idea was going ahead (and it may yet still, running concurrently with this project, as I'm really keen to get stuck into MH4U while it still has a large active community). I toyed with the idea of leaping into Blue Dragon or Wild ARMs for a new Enduring... series. But judging by the comments left on my last blog, this is the teased feature that was most in demand. This is the new project I've decided to commit to. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
The Story So Far...
It's the winter of 2002. A fresh-faced young boy steps into his local video game emporium. His hands are buried deep in his jeans pockets, fists clenched around paper notes that constitute his game allowance for the remainder of the year. Experience has directed him towards the bargain bins filled with second-hand games, his eyes darting over cheaper titles that will ensure his money goes as far as possible. As he flicks through the stacks of preowned titles, something catches his eye - a distant shimmering on one of the display shelves. He glances up from the bin, bringing the shimmer into focus. It's the holographic cover art of a brand new PlayStation 2 release - Kingdom Hearts.
The boy's eyes wander from the intriguing Tetsuya Nomura artwork adorning the game's case to the iconography above its title. On one side, the fluid script of the Disney logo. On the other, the angular Squaresoft emblem. Both are clear indicators of quality to the boy's mind - the former stirs up memories of classic childhood films, and the latter connotes the gaming pedigree of Final Fantasy. Suddenly the bargain bin no longer matters. The boy pulls one hand out of his pocket and places it on the shiny new box. He's not entirely sure how, but he knows an incredible adventure is about to begin...
So began my relationship with Kingdom Hearts, a series of video games that has intrigued and perplexed me for well over a decade now. I guess the most logical place to start this new series is to outline that relationship in slightly more detail for the uninitiated.
As I've written above, I stumbled upon Kingdom Hearts rather by accident in the winter of 2002. It was a time in my life when I enjoyed playing video games, but wasn't yet following the industry and development process of specific games, probably due to not having a home internet connection at the time. Consequently, I had no knowledge that Kingdom Hearts was even in development. I had my reservations back then about the viability of the seemingly incongruous Disney/Squaresoft crossover, but I put those aside in favour of my established faith in Square. Having recently come off the back of the fantastic Final Fantasy X, I was confident that Kingdom Hearts would be able to transcend its unusual premise and deliver a great game.
It's been twelve years since then, so I can't be absolutely certain, but I think it took me about six or seven weeks to make it to the very end of Kingdom Hearts for the first time. I won't go into too much detail here (otherwise I'd have a lot less to say in my next blog), but I enjoyed pretty much every second of that time, and by the end (which teased a clear sequel) I was thrilled at having discovered this new series that I could follow as it continued upon the still pretty new PlayStation 2. It was around this time I started following games journalism online, and I found myself keeping my ear pressed to the ground for signs of the approach of the inevitable next instalment in the Kingdom Hearts series.
When that announcement finally came, it broke my heart. The next game in the series, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, was to be a Game Boy Advance exclusive. This put me in a conflicted position. On the one hand, I wanted to play the new Kingdom Hearts game, but on the other, I had precious little allowance to spend on games, and my ignorant young mind thought shiny new full-3D PS2 releases a much higher priority over 2D handheld titles. My ignorance ultimately won out, and I decided to skip Chain of Memories for the time being. At some point on this hazy timeline, Square (who'd become Square Enix by this point) announced Kingdom Hearts II, a full-fledged 3D sequel for the PS2 that would pick the story back up where Chain of Memories left off.
When Kingdom Hearts II released in 2006, I was working a part-time job, and thus able to afford to buy games off my own back. I'd tried to track down a copy of Chain of Memories in order to bridge the gap, but to no avail - the Nintendo DS had all but forced the GBA market out of the bricks-and-mortar stores, and I still harboured a yokel-like distrust of online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. In a last-ditch attempt to bring myself up to speed with the series' happenings, I digested a plot summary of Chain of Memories on GameFAQs. It was pretty shoddily written and fan-fiction-esque from what I can recall, but it served its purpose and told me what Sora (and Riku) had been up to in the game I'd missed out on.
I played Kingdom Hearts II shortly after release, and while I remember enjoying the improved gameplay mechanics a ton, I also recall not being totally enamoured of the story it told. I'm not sure if it was the fact I'd hurriedly caught up with a badly-written version of the story so far, or rather a symptom of my growing distaste for Japanese RPGs in general at the time. I think part of it may also have been down to the incorporation of the Disney elements, which seemed a little less faithful to their source material this time around. By the time I reached the end of Kingdom Hearts II, I felt like the series had reached a reasonably satisfying conclusion, and I was content to cut my ties with it and move on to other things.
It appears I missed out on quite a bit while I was out of the crazy Kingdom Hearts loop. I briefly thought about getting back in with the announcement of a 3D remake of Chain of Memories for PS2 (dubbed Re:Chain of Memories) in 2008, but that plan was scuppered by its lack of a European release. I was aware of the release of 2009's confusingly-named 358/2 Days on DS, and consciously chose not to play it - the Roxas prologue of Kingdom Hearts II never really grabbed me, and I had little desire to return to the series from that character's perspective after a three-year hiatus. 2010's PSP-only Birth by Sleep stirred similar feelings within me, and also re-ignited my frustration with the series' tendency to platform-hop - at this point the franchise consisted of five different games across four different platforms, making following the overarching story of the series even more of a logistical nightmare to follow (although I did own all four of those platforms at this point, so I guess I was raging vicariously on behalf of those who didn't). I ended up distancing myself so far from the series that 2011's Re:Coded on DS and 2012's Dream Drop Distance on 3DS flew completely under my radar, releasing completely unbeknownst to me.
2013 was the year that my interest in the Kingdom Hearts franchise resurfaced, for two primary reasons. The first was the official announcement of Kingdom Hearts III at E3 that year. I don't know if it's the psychological effect of a definite roman numeral at the end of that name, but from the moment I heard about that announcement, I knew I wanted to play it. Of course, there's one small problem with that - I have absolutely no idea what's been going on in the series since the end of Kingdom Hearts II, and my memory of all the games I did actually play through is hazy at best. If only there were an easy way of playing through all the games in the series up to now...
That brings me nicely on to the second thing that turned me back onto the series - the release of the confusingly named Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, an HD collection of the series' opening chapters on the PlayStation 3, in late 2013. The prospect of replaying a slightly prettier version of the original game, plus finally being able to see the events of Chain of Memories for myself, was enough to get me to trop the incredibly modest £20 on it. Unfortunately the packaged-in version of 358/2 Days wasn't playable, but instead a 'cut-scene movie', so I decided to pick up a cheap second-hand copy of the DS game to play through. 2014 saw the release of another HD collection (HD 2.5 ReMIX) that brought together Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, and a 'cut-scene movie' of Re:Coded, making almost the entire franchise available to play and witness on a single console. Needless to say, I snapped that up too, along with a playable DS copy of Re:Coded. I purchased the final piece of the puzzle, a copy of Dream Drop Distance, in early 2015.
So that's my history with Kingdom Hearts, right up to the current state of play - I'm a man with seven lengthy games to play through across two different platforms, all with a view to finally putting myself in a position where I might be able to understand the narrative of the upcoming eighth game. Will I succeed? Will I falter? Will I manage to comprehend any of the overarching plot? You know, those questions (and the answers to them) might just make for a pretty interesting blog series...
The Premise
This is where this project comes in. The Keyblade Chronicles will be my attempt to keep a record of my time spent with the Kingdom Hearts series over the coming months. Think of it like my own little 'Jiminy's Journal', a written account of my journey through the many worlds of Kingdom Hearts as I attempt to decipher its mysteries and wrap my head around its labyrinthine narrative. By the end of this series, I hope to have a fuller appreciation for the series as a whole, a better grasp on its plot, and hopefully be in an optimal position to jump straight into Kingdom Hearts III when it releases.
Entries for this series are probably going to be reasonably spaced out, as these games are lengthy, and I'm playing them on the side rather than dedicating big chunks of time to them. I'd say to expect one every couple of months or so. After finishing each game, I'll come to Giant Bomb and write up an entry detailing my thoughts on several different aspects of it - the gameplay, the aesthetics, the characters, the story (both on its own and as a piece of the whole), the chosen Disney worlds incorporated, and other such things. Like the games themselves, these blogs are likely to be pretty long - probably akin to this Final Fantasy XIII retrospective from 2010, and with a likely pretty similar stucture too. At the end of each blog I plan to summarise my thoughts on the game in question as a whole, and at the end of the series I may even go back and try to rank the series through some largely arbitrary quantifiers. Assuming I get that far, that is. I guess we'll see.
This should be fun to chronicle, irrespective of whether or not I ultimately enjoy my time with these games (although I'm pretty sure I will). I'm excited to revisit the couple of games I have played, and intrigued to see where the series goes beyond them. It's going to be a pretty long journey, but I'm excited to be embarking on it, and I hope you all are too.
The Games
The Keyblade Chronicles will be a series in a minimum of seven parts, with each part dedicated to a single game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. As the series progresses, I'll come back to this blog now and then to update my progress and link to the latest chapter below. These are the games this series will be covering, in the order I'll be covering them in:
1. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
The game that started it all. I've played the original PlayStation 2 release of Kingdom Hearts a good three or four times, but this series marks my first time through the Final Mix version included as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX collection. It established the series' core tenets, with its blend of real-time action combat, exploration of several Disney-inspired worlds, and an overarching story centred on themes of friendship and strength of heart. I have incredibly fond memories of this title, and I'm looking forward to discovering the differences present in this Final Mix version.
2. Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
Originally a Game Boy Advance release from 2004, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was reworked in full 3D in the Kingdom Hearts II engine and released as Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories in America in 2008. That version of the game saw its first European release as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX collection in 2013, and that's the version of the game that I'll be playing. Swapping out the real-time action combat in favour of a card-based system, Re:Chain of Memories bridges the narrative gap between the original Kingdom Hearts and its bona fide sequel, Kingdom Hearts II. Having never played any version of this game before, I'm curious to see how it plays and how its story unfolds.
3. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix
The 'true' sequel to the first Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II picks up about a year after the events of Re:Chain of Memories and continues the story of Sora's battle with the Heartless. Renowned for its myriad gameplay improvements, Kingdom Hearts II is also considered by some (myself included) to be the point where the series started to become a little too bloated, complex and platform-hoppy to keep following. I've only ever played Kingdom Hearts II once, way back when it released in 2006, so revisiting it after all this time is going to be an interesting experience. I'll be playing the Final Mix version included in the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX collection for PS3.
4. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Released for the Nintendo DS in 2009, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is an interquel that runs from just before the end of the original Kingdom Hearts right up to the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. It tells the more detailed story of Roxas, the playable character from the prologue of Kingdom Hearts II, and gives greater insight into the machinations of the mysterious Organisation XIII encountered by Sora in Re:Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. Given the version of the game included with the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX collection is only a cut-scene movie, I'll be playing the game first and then watching the movie afterwards to get the full experience. I've never played this one before, and I'm curious to see how the series' trademark gameplay translates to the comparatively limited handheld DS hardware.
5. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix
Originally released for the PSP in 2010, I'll be playing the Final Mix version of Birth by Sleep included in the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX collection for this project. Another game in the series that I'm yet to touch in any way, my understanding is that it's a prequel set ten years prior to the events of the original Kingdom Hearts, and centres on three young apprentice keyblade wielders named Ventus, Terra and Aqua. I've done next to no research into this game beyond that, so I'm not really sure what to expect from its story or mechanics.
6. Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
Originally released only in Japan for mobile platforms in 2008 under the title Kingdom Hearts: Coded, this game saw a global release on the DS in 2011 with the Re:Coded moniker. Again, my current knowledge of the game is sketchy at best, but I believe it's set after the events of Kingdom Hearts II and involves a digital recreation of Sora travelling through a digitized version of Jiminy Cricket's journal. Much like 358/2 Days, Re:Coded was included in the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX collection as a cut-scene movie, so I plan to play the DS game and then watch the cut-scenes to get a better understanding of both the gameplay mechanics and the story.
7. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
The most recent addition to the series, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance is a 3DS exclusive released in 2012 and is the only game in the franchise not available as part of either of the HD ReMIX collections released for PS3. I've done my absolute best to avoid looking too deeply into the game's premise in order to avoid spoilers, but my understanding is that it bridges the gap between Kingdom Hearts II and the inevitable release of Kingdom Hearts III, following Sora and Riku as they go through some kind of keyblade master training. Much praised for its FlowMotion mechanics that streamline both exploration and combat, I'm really excited to find out how this one plays, but I know that's a long way off at the moment.
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So there you have it - that's what the Keyblade Chronicles will be. I realise I've rambled on far too long, but I think that's just a symptom of how excited I am to get this feature up and running. I've already beaten the first game (spoiler alert), and I'm hoping to complete the write-up for it next weekend, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. Until then, thanks very much for reading. Take care, and I'll see you around.
Dan
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Currently playing - Far Cry Classic (X360)
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