The Kingdom Hearts franchise is a series of games conceived by fusing together popular elements of Final Fantasy story telling and classic DIsney characters.
Overview
The Kingdom Hearts franchise is the product of studio cooperation between Final Fantasy producer Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft), and Disney Interactive Studios. The series was first announced at 2001’s E3, the project was presented as a fusion of Final Fantasy art style and storytelling elements combined with Disney’s most famous characters and movies. The puzzling partnership of Square Enix, who is known for their rather serious and story intensive games, and Disney, who is famous for their numerous children’s movies and cartoons stunned many people and led to doubts about how compatible the characters would be.All doubts were cleared however when the first game in the series launched in 2002 and was widely received as an excellent story and a great action RPG. The critical and commercial success of the first game has helped the franchise grow to see a spin-off for the GBA named Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and a proper sequel, aptly named Kingdom Hearts II.
A proper Kingdom Hearts II sequel has been put on hold, as series creator Tetsuya Nomura is busy working on Final Fantasy XIII, however, three spin-off games for the PSP, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones are planned named Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, 358/2 Days, and coded respectively, but beyond that no main series sequels have been announced.
Plot
The Kingdom Hearts storyline follows the adventures of Sora and his quest to reunite with his friends. At the beginning of the first Kingdom Hearts game, a horrible storm caused by the Heartless ravages Destiny Island (the island Sora and all of his friends live on). He is separated from his friends Tidus, Wakka, Salphie (from the Final Fantasy universe), and more importantly Riku and Kairi. After mysteriously recieving the keyblade and battling a giant heartless, he wakes up in Traverse Town where he meets Donald Duck and Goofy. The two of them are on a quest to find their King (King Mickey) and the three soon become friends and search for Riku and Kairi, and King Mickey respectively.After a while, Riku is manipulated by Malificent and begins to believe Sora to have forgotten all about him, as he begins his quest to single handedly get Kairi (who's heary was purged by the heartless) her heart back. He was eventually possessed by "Ansem" and is sent to the realm of Darkness. At the game's cimlax, Sora opens the door to Kingdom Hearts (which Ansem believes to be filled with darkness). Upon its opening, it is revieled to be filled with light, which destroys Ansem. Sora enters, only to find King Mickey and Riku. Riku decides to travel with King Mickey, and King Mickey and Sora use their keyblades to lock the door to Kingdom Hearts. As the door is locked and all the worlds lost to the hearltess are reconstruct, Sora vowes to save Kairi (who restored her heart).
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories see's the introduction of Orginization XIII, a key part of the overall Kingdom Hearts story. In this game, we see Sora enter Castle Oblivion, only to find out that the castle makes you forget your memories. As Sora progresses up the Castle, Riku progresses up from the basement. As each character progresses, they fight members of Orginization XIII, Riku searching for his light to errode the darkness left in his heart. Orginazation XIII manipulate Sora as he progresses up the castle, making him forget Kairi using Namine (who can erase and change memories). After he defeats all of the Organization members that confronted him, he meets Namine who tells him the truth. She then puts Sora, Donald and Goofy to sleep, restoring their lost memories. Meanwhile, Riku meets a mysterious character named "DiZ", and also battles a replica of himself created by Orginization XIII. He finally learns that he needs no light, and that he needs to find a balance between the light and dark inside himself.
In Kingdom Hearts II, the player is introduced to Roxas, a teenager who lives in Twilight Town who has dreams about Sora's adventures. It turns out that Roxas is Sora's nobody (the being created when a strong willed person is turned into a heartless, and Sora was briefly turned into a heartless during Kingdom Hearts), which explains why he is able to weild the keyblade. He searches the mysterious mansion outside of Twilight Town only to find a sleeping Sora. Upon finding him, the two become one and Sora wakes up from him slumber (which was placed on him to restore his memories by Namine). Goofy and Donald wake up as well, and the three continute their adventure to find King Mickey and Riku. They soon take a train out of Twilight Town, which takes them to Yen Cid's castle, and he soon tasks them with finding Riku and defeating the remaining members of Organization XIII. After travelling to various Disney Worlds (similar to the original Kingdom Hearts), Sora returns to Hollow Bastion to find that it is overrun with Heartless, and he, with the help of Cloud, Squall, Yuffie and Tifa defeat all of the heartless. Previous to this, it is revealed to Sora, Donald and Goofy that the "Ansem" they defeated before was not actually Ansem, but his apprentice, Xeharnort's heartless. Perhaps even more suprisingly, Xeharnort's nobody is the leader of Organization XIII.
Sora then begins his mission to defeat the remaining members of Organization XIII. He successfully defeats Demyx in Hollow Bastion previous to his battle with the heartless, and then Xaldin in Beast's castle. Upon successfully finding "The World that Never Was" (Organization XIII's base), he then goes on the defeat Xigbar, Siax and Luxord. It is also revealed to Sora that the cloaked figure that has been helping Sora out is actually Riku (who has taken on the appearance of Xeharnort's heartless because he used the power of darkness while he was battling Roxas a year ago in order to reunite him with Sora). Riku had also successfully rescued Kairi, who had been captured by Organization XIII and taken to The World that Never Was. At the game's conclusion, Riku and Sora successfully defeat Xemnas, and in the ending CG are seen returning to Destiny Island's through a mysterious door. Riku, Sora and Kairi are then seen recieving a letter from King Mickey, and as they read it the movie fades out.
Kingdom Hearts games
Edit
| Name | Platforms | Developer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep |
PSP | Square Enix | |
|
Kingdom Hearts coded |
Square Enix, Disney Interactive, Inc. | ||
|
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days |
DS | Square Enix, h.a.n.d. Inc. | |
|
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories released on Dec. 2, 2008 |
PS2 | Square Enix | |
|
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ released on March 29, 2007 |
PS2 | Square Enix | |
|
Kingdom Hearts II released on March 28, 2006 |
PS2 | Square Enix | |
|
Kingdom Hearts released on Feb. 4, 2005 |
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|
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories released on Dec. 7, 2004 |
GBA | Square Enix, Jupiter Corp. | |
|
Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix |
PS2 | Square Co., Ltd. | |
|
Kingdom Hearts released on Sept. 17, 2002 |
PS2 | Square Co., Ltd. |














































































































































