This upcoming Tuesday is the release of Kingdom Hearts 3 by Square Enix. Supposedly this will be the last in the series(Can’t confirm because there’s so many spoilers floating around the internet right now and I’m trying to avoid them as best as I can because I’m a fan before anything else. Just like you.)
The series has had multiple side entries as well as the 2 main games that came out in 2002 and 2005 respectively. Yes, over 13 years ago was the last “Official” entry in the series but the side games have actually been fantastic in their own rights. Allow me to explain a bit more for those of you that are unfamiliar and for those of you that don’t understand : This game shouldn’t work as well as it does.
Kingdom Hearts starts out as a story about 3 friends : Sora, Riku and Kairi that want to leave the island that they’re stuck on and they want to go on adventures together. Eventually the island gets attacked by beings called “Heartless” which are made of the darkness in people’s hearts. Sora, one of the main characters has the power to control the Keyblade which is the weapon that can banish darkness and unlock the light in people’s hearts. His world is gone and his friends have vanished so Sora goes to look for them in other worlds.
At this point, the game probably sounds a little weird anyway but whenever you realize it’s a JRPG(Japanese Role-Playing Game) then you’re like “Eh, it’s kinda par for the course so far.” This is when you also realize that Sora will occasionally run into characters from other Square Enix games. But wait! Here’s where the weird part happens : Sora will also run into Disney Characters. As in Donald and Goofy. Yup These guys :
Donald is a Mage and Goofy is a knight of the Disney Kingdom. Mickey is the king and he’s gone missing because he also has the ability to wield a Keyblade and is also attempting to figure out why the darkness is spreading and how he can save it. So the first game is all about Sora looking for Riku and Kairi while teaming up with Donald and Goofy to help them find Mickey. That’s the basic gist of the first game and during this game and the proceeding entries they travel to all different kinds of worlds such as Agrabah from Aladdin, Port Royal from Pirates of The Caribbean, The Grid from Tron, Pride Rock from the Lion King and many, many more.
So why shouldn’t this game work? Well mainly because the tone should be all over the place with the drama of a Square Enix storyline mixed with the fun, bright colors of Disney but the creators manage to nail a nearly perfect balance between these aspects. Will you laugh when Donald and Goofy do something silly while trying to be heroic? Yes. Will you cry when Roxas, Axel or Xion begin question their own existence as what is effectively a shadow of a full person? If you don’t then you’re basically soulless. This is a serious with incredibly hopeful highs and some moments that will absolutely tear your heart out but that’s why it works.
The balance can be perfectly exemplified by the “Symphony Of Sorcery” level. The level is based on the events of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and there’s a point where you have to go into the realm of music where there is no dialogue and very few sound effects. Just the music. Every action you take progresses the music forward whether it’s walking, dodging or even hitting an enemy in a fight. It is honestly one of my favorite moments in the entire series because it’s just so different from anything else they had done. The level ends with a conversation about the darkness in Riku’s heart and how he can defeat because of how strong his rekationship with Sora and the rest of his friends is. This culminates in the music switching from Fantasia to the main menu theme. It all fits so perfectly and that’s why it works because they keep a reverence to the original material while still forging their own stories and that’s why it’s one of my favorite games and why it works when it really shouldn’t.
