In every young person’s childhood, many find ways of entertaining themselves. From playing with toys to watching tv, to even playing with friends. My form of entertainment was playing video games. Through the endless cavalry of video games in the world, from Super Mario to Sonic the Hedgehog, my favorite video game was Kingdom Hearts. Yes, the Disney based video game was one of my most (and still is) favorite games of all time. With the third titled installment on the horizon, I’m going to tell you why this game series influenced me and became such an important part of my childhood.

What is Kingdom Hearts?

Kingdom Hearts is a collaborative piece between Final Fantasy creators Square Enix and Disney. Kingdom Hearts is the story of Sora, Riku & Kairi three kids who live on Destiny Island who longed for adventure in search of other worlds. The story becomes a story of light versus darkness when Sora is forced out of his island by the darkness and goes on an adventure with Disney’s Donald Duck and Goofy in search of the missing King Mickey and Sora’s friends. With the magical Keyblade at hand, Sora fights against the darkness while going through famous Disney worlds, and combating against famous Disney villains and teaming up with plenty of familiar faces.

How it came to be:

Kingdom Hearts came to be when a Square Enix developer and a Disney executive met in an elevator since their companies shared an office building in Japan. At the time Square Enix was in talks to create a game that would be open world like that of Super Mario 64 that released around that time. With many ideas clashing and deciding what’s best, Kingdom Hearts was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2.

How many games in the series:

The Kingdom Hearts series is a series with many titles in the mix that revolve around a whole story. There are roughly 10 games in the series(without the inclusion of the HD remixes) and the 11th game on the horizon, Kingdom Hearts is a huge story with many games to enjoy. Such as:

• Kingdom Hearts
  • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories or Re:Chain of Memories(same game different system)
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts 2
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
  • Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded
• Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
  • Kingdom Hearts: Union Cross
  • Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X Back Cover(the x is pronounced key)
  • Kingdom Hearts: 0.2 Birth by Sleep- A Fragmentary Passage
• Kingdom Hearts 3

Why I love the franchise:

But what is it about Kingdom Hearts that makes me so drawn to it? The answer is, the story. Many spectators who’ve heard of Kingdom Hearts are always confused by the overall story (it does have a complicated plot) and are usually thrown off by the spin-off titles and never know where to exactly start to understand the story. I for one, understand the story completely and still love the franchise. The franchise is dark for a Disney game and is honestly one of the best told Disney stories of all time. The story’s morals revolve around the power of friendship, having a strong heart, what it’s like to lose a friend, and the battle of light vs. darkness. The games try to convey it’s Disney touch and follow through some of the Disney stories like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron, etc. One of the other aspects I love is the game-play.

The Kingdom Hearts game-play is unique for its time. Starting from the PlayStation 2 and making it’s way to handheld systems like the DS, 3DS, and circling back to home consoles like the Sony PSP, PS3 and now the PS4 and Xbox One. The games are fast paced for an action role-playing game and provides attentive quick reaction to it’s fighting mechanics. While the games also provides a beautiful and memorable soundtrack with theme songs sung by Japanese artist Utadah Hikaru. But that’s not the only reason why I love the games either.

Kingdom Hearts cannot be Kingdom Hearts without the inclusion of Final Fantasy characters such as Sephiroth, Cloud, Squall, etc. or the Disney characters! The Disney stories add a huge part to the story as many of the Disney worlds visited are accompanied by characters of that specific movie with the inclusion of Donald and Goofy on your team. As you go through the story of that Disney movie while fighting off Disney villains as bosses for those worlds like Jafar, Maleficent, Hades, or even Ursula.

Going through my childhood of Disney films and fighting off the villains of each movie made it so satisfying to me as a kid and grabbed my interest even more. As each game finds it's way of bring forward new (familiar) Disney characters into the mix and finding it's own twist on the story. The franchise does an amazing job with it's unique story, that anyone interested and haven't yet played could easily be drawn and stuck to it. It's rich and enticing and a fun time for people of all ages.

Why I'm excited for Kingdom Hearts 3:

As mentioned, the newest numbered title in the franchise is to arrive soon. As E3 2018 is just around the corner with the release date to be announced at the conference, I and thousands of fans are anxious in anticipation. It’s been almost 13 years since the release of a numbered title since that of Kingdom Hearts 2, and 5 years since the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3 being in development. Many fans are eager to get their hands on the game since the announcement as Square Enix and Disney try their best to feed fans juicy new details and trailers while keeping the fans at bay with many surprises in store. Last week a hand-picked few of well known Kingdom Hearts Youtube content creators such as Skywardwing, HMK, The Gamers Joint, etc. were selected to be the first to try the new installment with just a small demo and give their early review of the game. Labelling the game as a masterpiece and one of the best games in the franchise. And that honestly sparks up my interest. For fans and I still have no idea what’s in store for the franchise and what other Disney worlds would be announced. As Toy Story, Tangled, Monsters Inc. and Big Hero 6 have been announce to be amongst the newest worlds in the bunch. The game will also be the last of the current saga in the franchise and was told to be quite darker than the rest of the games in the series.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts holds a dear place in my heart (pun intended) and will always be apart of my childhood. As a fan since the first game until now, the franchise will always live on with me. I recommend this game franchise to anyone interested in Square Enix products and action RPGs or is into Disney. So go out an pick out a copy of Kingdom Hearts and may your heart be your guiding key.