In light of the stress of living in a global pandemic and the abundance of upcoming assignments before finals, I recently made the best decision for my mental health I’ve made this entire year — I started playing Kingdom Hearts again.
“Kingdom Hearts?” you may ask. “Isn’t that the video game with the Disney characters and the dudes with the really spiky hair?”
Yes, yes they are — and they are so much more.
The first Kingdom Hearts was released in 2002 under the creation of Tetsuya Nomura as the most ambitious crossover of its time, incorporating Disney’s wholesome worlds and Square Enix’s angsty Final Fantasy characters as if — in some far off universe — the blend made perfect sense. No one really expected a video game series where Sephiroth canonically exists in the same universe as Winnie the Pooh to become as popular as it has, but almost twenty years later, the series has two more main-numbered titles and several in-between games expanding the Kingdom Hearts universe.
At the risk of writing a full-fledged academic thesis on why these video games are so near and dear to my heart, I’ll just jump right into the reasons why you should play them too.
- The Storyline
-
At its simplest, the Kingdom Hearts franchise follows a goofy spiky-haired teenager named Sora as he travels throughout Disney’s worlds fighting adorable little creatures called the “heartless” with a now-iconic weapon in the shape of a key — the keyblade. The story is simple enough in the first installment, but with each new game, the ongoing series’ story grows more and more intricate. At its most complex, this series has almost twenty years worth of theories and convoluted plot lines that could be explained in full over the course of maybe twelve hours or so. The heart of the story and its extreme attention to detail have been glorious inspiration for video theories and a wealth of fanfiction from the series’ most passionate followers.
- The Characters
-
Although the series consists of several memorable characters from the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy that certainly helped the franchise’s marketing technique, the original characters are the heart of the story. You’ll fall immediately for Sora’s kind heart, and even though the series starts as a goofy and lighthearted adventure, there’s an existential melancholy underlying the later installments that makes the characters seem so undeniably real that you’re bound to develop a strong emotional investment in their success. Kingdom Hearts is complete with lovable protagonists, tragic heroes, sympathetic villains and a redemption arc later in the series that’s arguably on par with a certain Avatar: The Last Airbender character. That’s right, I said it — Kingdom Hearts introduces characters that stay with you even after the TV’s been turned off.
- Epic Boss Fights
-
There’s nothing like a good and challenging boss fight, and Kingdom Hearts has some pretty memorable — and sometimes surprisingly emotional — battles. If the phrase “dance, water, dance” doesn’t make you physically cringe and want to curl into a ball of helpless frustration, trust me, it will. The regular bosses between Disney’s worlds have their own set of challenges, but the series’ original bosses are often formidable foes and sometimes even once cherished friends. I had never cried during a boss fight before, but “358/2 Days” had me struggling to see through my tears as I was trying to compose myself for the final boss.
- The Voice Cast
-
The kid from The Sixth Sense as Sora? David Gallagher as Riku? Kovu from The Lion King 2 as Demyx? Bloo from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends as Marluxia? Willa Holland as Aqua? Ex teen pop star Jesse McCartney as Roxas? We’ve also got the voices of Spock and Luke Skywalker duking it out in the background and the voice of Count Dooku making questionable moral decisions throughout. Not to mention, Lance Bass from NSYNC as Sephiroth? Say less, I’m there.
- The Music
-
The Kingdom Hearts soundtracks as a whole might just be the greatest set of musical compositions to ever grace this world. Yoko Shimomura is, to this day, my absolute favorite composer. Her music in Kingdom Hearts is the backbone of the entire series. From intense and epic boss battle soundtracks to emotionally poignant and heartwrenching character themes, the music in the franchise will leave you anywhere from leaping over a table and wildly headbanging to cuddling up in a ball in a pool of your own tears. One of the most iconic pieces is the song that plays over the games’ menu screens known as “Dearly Beloved.” The serene and emotional composition is so beautiful that, if my man isn’t okay with me walking down the aisle on my wedding day to this specific song, then he’s just not the man for me.
- The Comfort
-
There’s obviously a major nostalgic element that comes with this series. When you’re feeling low, who wouldn’t want to sit down and travel to Disney worlds and run around in a ragtag party alongside Goofy and Donald Duck? However, the comfort that comes from Kingdom Hearts is so much more than goody-goody fun and games and happily ever afters. In all its wholesome lightheartedness, Kingdom Hearts has a surprisingly dark and mature undercurrent. It deals with heavy themes of loss, betrayal and doubt of what it really means to be alive — to be a person. However, in spite of all this loss and hurt and sadness, these games bring out a light of hope to not only their characters, but to their players too. Kingdom Hearts taught me that I don’t have to be stronger or smarter or better to be worthy of friendship or to be worthy of living. It taught me that even when the world is completely falling apart around me, I’m still worthy. I wouldn’t have made it this far in life or become the person I am today without this hope.
- There’s a New Game Coming Soon
-
There’s a new Kingdom Hearts game coming soon, so what better time to start than now? Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory will be hitting shelves on November 13th, and all the talk and buzz is sure to have new players feeling curious. Why not satisfy this curiosity?
Kingdom Hearts is a series of games for all ages. Whether you’re five or fifteen or twenty-five or fifty, the experience is one that is certainly worth having. Without shying away from the reality of sadness and anger as very real and valid human emotions, Kingdom Hearts will give you a sense of hope in the world and reveal your own inner strengths that you may have never known you even had.