Kingdom Hearts
Retrospective
By: Zach (a.k.a That
Guy On The Futon/Cpt. Crunchy)
Hi everyone, I am That Guy On The Futon but since this is an
informal, out-of-character blog post you can just refer to me as Zach if you
feel the need to comment or anything. I have made some videos before but not in
character and they are damn awful so I actually do not think I will be posting
them, maybe one day as an April fool’s joke or something. Anyways, I must begin! I am going to talk
about the first game in this first part and then if this gets decent response I
will type up the next part, but I will probably just do it for the hell of it!
I will be discussing the story, characters, the gameplay, and my personal
experience and the effect it had on me when I played it at the tender age of
11. So, let us begin…
The Story
Kingdom Hearts is the simple tale of a boy using an
extraordinary power to rescue his friends from a darkness plaguing the many
worlds in the KH universe. However, throughout the first outing and the
following games, it becomes more than that. It starts out on Destiny Islands
(Don’t you just love symbolism?) with a boy named Sora having a strange dream
that acts as the opening cinematic and the game’s tutorial. The music playing
during the cinematic is “Simple and clean”, originally called “Hikari”,
performed by Japanese pop singer Hikaru Utada who also provides another of the
series’ themes “Sanctuary”. Both are beautiful (especially the orchestral
version of “Simple and Clean”) and catchy and set up a nice JRPG feel to the
game that I personally love. Anyways, Sora awakes on the beach to his friends
Kairi and Riku (not Rikku) and they set out to make a boat to travel to distant
lands in search of adventure. Seems like an innocent enough story, but the
light-hearted feel is interrupted one night by a sudden dark storm that lurks
over the kid’s home. Sora awakens to find Riku standing near the water. He
invites Sora to join him but he is too confused by the situation and Riku
disappears into the darkness. Suddenly Sora is attacked by small shadows, the
Heartless, that serve as the game’s primary enemies. Before they can harm him,
a weapon appears in his grasp in the form of a giant key. Yes, it seems silly
but it actually makes sense further in the story. He uses the Keyblade to fend
off the creatures but the island is destroyed by the darkness and Sora is hurled
into space. The story shifts over to another world where the iconic Disney
characters Donald Duck and Goofy are revealed. Donald is the court wizard and
Goofy the knight/captain of the gaurd of Disney Castle. They are given a note
from the King, Mickey Mouse, to seek out the “the key” so it can be used to
defeat the darkness that is going to destroy every world. Back to Sora as he is
awoken in Traverse Town by King Mickey’s dog, Pluto. Sora meets Final Fantasy
VII and VIII characters, Squall (preferably Leon in the game, picky bastard),
Yuffie, Cid and Aeris (Aerith in the game, due to that debate that is easily
settled by anyone who has actually played FF VII). Leon tells Sora that the
Keyblade is the only thing that can truly slay the Heartless, who are beings
that consume hearts, and that they are studying on a man named Ansem who is
told to have vast knowledge of the creatures.
He then later meets Donald and Goofy and they embark on their journey to
seal keyholes on different worlds. The keyholes are essentially the core of
each world and if Heartless get to it the world can e destroyed. Maleficent
from the movie “Sleeping Beauty” is revealed to be the ringmaster of sorts for the villains,
also including Hades from “Hercules”, Jafar from “Aladdin”, Captain Hook from
“Peter Pan” and a few other memorable baddies. Maleficent is trying to gather
the Seven Princesses of Heart (made up Disney’s princesses…and Kairi) to open
Kingdom Hearts, which is essentially, where infinite wisdom and power fueled by
every existent heart can be gained. So, pretty heavy stuff. Maleficent has also
brainwashed Riku who is just trying to find Kairi, unknowingly being deceived
by the witch. Sora and friends eventually arrive at Hallow Bastion, the
villains’ base, and where Ansem resides/resided. Riku confronts Sora and says
that he is the true Keyblade master, which for reasons explained in further
games, allows him to wield the weapon, despite earlier in the game not being able
to. Donald and Goofy hesitantly leave Sora, due to the sidekicks being told to
follow the Keyblade no matter who has it. Sora though (with the help of The
Beast from, well, you know), catches up to them and says that he monologues for
dramatic effect. No, but really he gives a speech about friendship, which
ultimately allows the Keyblade to come back into his possession. Riku is
displeased and they fight. Riku then is convinced by a hooded man who stalks
the heroes throughout the game to come into the darkness, so being a little
asshole he does. After a battle with
Maleficent and then in her dragon form, the three confront Riku who is
possessed by Ansem (Gasp! The man who is obsessed with the Heartless is evil!),
revealed to be the hooded man, and are told that Kairi’s heart has been inside
of Sora the whole time. Sora fights Ansem one-on-one and wins, but then impales
himself on Ansem’s Keyblade to release
the hearts of both himself and Kairi, which in turn would turn himself into a
Heartless, but at the same time seal the final keyhole. What follows is one of
the few stupid sappy moments in the game where it seemed like they phone it in
with the friendship crap. The light in Kairi’s heart turns Sora back into a
human. Sora, Donald and Goofy then go to the End of the World where all of the
worlds destroyed by the Heartless converge into a big mess. There, the three
heroes fight Ansem for the last time (you really fight him like four times) and
at the end of the long battle the door to Kingdom Hearts is open. Ansem thinks
he is getting the ULTIMATE DARKNESS, but little does he know, “Kingdom Hearts
isn’t darkness! Kingdom Hearts is light!” Ansem then slowly drank himself into
a deep depression and then passed away shortly after. No one came to his funeral.
Seriously though, the light overwhelms him, King Mickey and Riku are on the
other side of the door, and the Keyblade wielders use their powers to seal the
door. The worlds that were once destroyed are reformed and Sora returns to
Destiny Islands with Kairi. Sadly, Sora and his two pals set out to find Riku
and the King and he must leave her behind. That is actually a very sad
cinematic. I have only recently gotten to the point to where I do not tear up
(I am a man, dammit!). That concludes the story to the first game in the
Kingdom Hearts series.
The Characters
Now I am only going to touch on four characters here: Sora,
Riku, Donald and Goofy. They are the most developed through the game so there
is more to talk about unlike some characters like Cid or Kairi (she gets her
time in the sequel). Let us start out with the main protagonist of the story,
Sora. Sora is a typical 14-year-old boy. He likes to play with his friends and
dream about going on adventures. That is what I consider typical, and I was weird
at that age. He is not like a lot of Final Fantasy and Disney male protagonists
though, in that he does not need to grow into himself. Take Tidus from FF X for
example (love it or hate it). He starts as a scared kid, just wanting
everything to go back to normal, not ready to fight to make things right. Sora
however is willing to himself on the line for his friends’ right from the
beginning and that strong and selfless heart allows him to wield the Keyblade
and overcome the darkness. He and Riku are different in their approaches to
saving Kairi, due to the differentiation of the light and darkness in their
hearts. Sora believes that with the power of light and friendship you can
overcome anything, while Riku believes that the right amount of power can get
you what you want. This leads to our next character of discussion, Riku. Sora’s
best friend and all-around “cool guy” (think early Albert Wesker meets Balthier
from FF XII), Riku is probably the most interesting character in the series due
to his confliction with the darkness. He feels as if he needs the darkness to
gain the power to save Kairi. Of course this is all implanted in his mind by
Maleficent, but I think he starts becoming convinced of it himself as the game
nears the climax. When he comes across Kairi’s body on Captain Hook’s ship, he
becomes enraged that he isn’t strong enough to save her, but Maleficent only
uses that to make him more antagonistic. Riku does have light in his heart, and
it is strong, but his mind filling with the witch’s verbal toxin only allows
for the darkness in his heart to overcome the light, and allowing Ansem to
possess him, which is actually explained later in the series. Finally, I want
to talk about Donald and Goofy, Sora’s moral support throughout the first three
games. In this entry, they are not as close to Sora as they are later in the
series, but a strong friendship does form over the course of their journey.
Goofy is definitely the more levelheaded of the two while Donald has a very
short-temper, which is a great portrayal of their actual characters in the
cartoons. Donald and Sora bicker a lot while Goofy keeps up his dim-witted
stoner persona, “Uh-huh! Pass the bong Sora! Uh-huh!”. When Sora loses the Keyblade to Riku, Goofy is
really the one who does not want to leave him, but Donald (though showing some
hesitation himself) tells him that they have to follow the King’s orders. I
think that was the one thing holding them back from really developing their
friendship further. It was like Sora was merely an accessory that the Keyblade
couldn’t go without, so Donald and Goofy had to stick with him. Of course, they
show no signs of disliking their time together, besides when they argue, but
all friends argue at some point so it is understandable. While Sora and Riku represent
the theme of the duality of one’s heart, Donald and Goofy definitely represent
the theme of friendship, surprisingly more so than Riku and Kairi, which is
actually touched upon in the game and used by Maleficent to fuel Riku’s drive.
All four are great character’s that are written perfectly for their parts.
The Gameplay
The one thing that sets this game apart from other
Square/Square Enix RPG’s is the gameplay, namely the combat. It is a linear
hack and slash style of gameplay, but there is much more to it than that. Basically
how it works is through a HUD system where you select option during combat with
the D-Pad or right analog stick (latter is more useful in my opinion). You have
a basic strike where you can press the button several times to create a combo,
a section for magic, a section for items and a section for event-based
abilities. Better yet, there is a quick-select function when you hold down the
L1 button for easy access to preemptively placed spells, abilities and items.
Square really hit the nail on the head with the controls and I do not think it
could be done that much better with this type of game. Level progression is
done like any other RPG, defeat enemies, earn experience, level up. During the
tutorial level, you are allowed to pick either a sword (representing strength),
a shield (representing protection) or a staff (representing wisdom). Whichever
one you pick slightly raises the respective statistic it represents, and you
are asked a couple of questions that can affect the way you gain experience for
the remainder of the game. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. The game is much
harder than the sequel due to the strategic and slow-paced combat. One wrong
move can change the tide of the battle, but luckily you have the Dodge Roll
move to avoid a good portion of enemy attacks. Now one universally panned
segment of the game is the Gummi Ship sequences. Gummi Ships are the space
transportation of the series and when traveling to new worlds you are forced to
undergo a tedious and boring space shooter stage. Now don’t get me wrong, I
love space shooters, but this is just awful. I mean, it’s not that bad if you
compare it to bad space shooters, but I don’t see how they could make it so
boring. I don’t even know how to explain it, you just have to experience it
yourself. The Gummi Ship stages are improved massively in the sequel to make
them very enjoyable so it’s not a consistent flaw. One of the cool things about
the first game is the option to fight four secret bosses located in Agrabah,
the Big Ben area in the Peter Pan world, and two in the Olympus Coliseum. One
of these in the Coliseum is the final battle you unlock. The final battle you
have to unlock? You have to go through a grueling 100-round tournament and
fight one the very difficult secret bosses to unlock this one? Yes, and it is
none other than FF VII’s own Sephiroth! This badass will take you out with a
blink of an eye if you’re not careful. It takes long hours or training and a
test of your fullest abilities to defeat him. Only the bold can withstand his
onslaught, and only the truly heroic can bring him to his knees. One of the
other side-quests in the game is the Moogle Synthesis challenge. The Moogles
are those adorable little fellows from the Final Fantasy series with the big red
noses and tiny purple wings. They’re so cute that you’ll want to suffocate a
fanboy! Anyways, the challenge is to create all of the Synthesis items using
materials you can find by defeating enemies and opening treasure chests. Pretty
easy right? WRONG! This takes countless hours of grinding and properly killing
rare Heartless in order to get their random item drops. So what do you get for
completing the challenge? You get to create the Ultima weapon and do the same
thing over again. It’s a drag and undoubtedly harder than the continually
mentioned sequel, but it’s worth it to show off to your friends, or to just
stare at it for hours, having fantasies of marriage and having little Ultima
weapon babies. You know, normal things like that. There is also a fetch quest
to find all 101 Dalmatians and all you get for that is a set of every Gummi
ship item, because you know, you were already spending so much time with your
Gummi ships. This game contains enough hours to spend doing things that RPG
fans love than you’ll know what to do with.
My Personal Experience With The Game
When I turned ten years old, I got my first Playstation 2.
Man was it awesome. My first game was Dragon Ball Z Budokai. It’s actually a
pretty crappy fighting game, but when I first played it, it blew my mind. It
was great not knowing that my PS1 memory card couldn’t be used to save it, so I
would just keep playing the story mode over and over again, not caring about
not being able to save. I eventually got my first PS2 memory card, and then I
started hearing things at school about this game called “Kingdom Hearts”. I
didn’t have internet so I couldn’t check it out, and it came out several months
prior to me getting a subscription to Game Informer, so I was kind of SOL. Then
this older kid I would hang out with got it, and I watched him play it for a
little bit. It was so awesome. All the colors and sounds were converging
together in a mish-mash of hack and slash madness! He wasn’t allowed to lend
out his games, so I knew I had to get it myself. I never grew up in the
wealthiest of families though, and the only reason I had the PS2 is that my
stepmom did some illegal stuff at the Target she was working at to get it cheap.
I never complained though, I just bided my time, letting the anticipation
build, waiting until Christmas for me to scribble it down in excited messiness
on my letter to Santa Claus. Christmas hit, I was psyched, I tried to sleep but
just couldn’t even close my eyes! Right when my siblings and me woke up my mom
and stepdad and dragged them out to the living room, I saw it. I saw a
rectangular wrapped present. Santa’s smug mug smiling back at me, as if to say,
“You what it is you little bastard. You know you want to jump at it right now, unwrap
it and not come out of your room until school starts again.” Paper wrapped
Santa was right. Unfortunately, my parents had a rule to where you have to open
from biggest to smallest. Figures, have to get the clothes out of the way. Finally,
I reached it. The magnum opus of presents. My own copy of Kingdom Hearts! I
closed my eyes while unwrapping to add drama and tension to the situation, but
I had no doubt it was the only thing I have ever lusted for in my ten years
alive. Hell, I didn’t even know what “lust” meant. I shredded at the paper, I
felt the plastic wrapping, I opened my eyes as wide as I could, and there in my
hands lied:
HULK on DVD
I was stunned, my face could show it. I hid my massive
disappoint in Kris Kringle as best I could. I felt like Ralphie when he didn’t
see the Red Rider BB Gun under the tree. It was okay though; I was raised
better than to act like some spoiled yuppie. I had a birthday coming up! 29
days away! My dad came through again and got me the one thing I asked for, and a
new bike! That bike was kickass but that didn’t matter, I had Kingdom Hearts!
Well guess who got grounded the following week? Anyways, the game took up so
much of my time, and I sadly lost it during a move. I lost interest in the
series, even when the sequel came out I played it and skipped the cut scenes.
It was a friend’s so I wasn’t getting all mad about it. It wasn’t actually
until about five months ago that my love for the series was renewed. I was
living in Washington and a buddy from Oregon came up and brought the first and
second with him. I had nothing better to do and played through the first one. I
flew through the main story and loved every second of it. Waves of nostalgia
hit me at once, it was almost overwhelming. When I defeated Ansem (something I
did not do when I was younger) and sealed Kingdom Hearts, I almost shed a tear,
knowing this nine-year journey was finally complete. I continued to tear up,
admitting how sad it was seeing Sora have to leave Kairi. It felt so good to
have completed such a cherished part of my childhood. I played every entry I missed
since then, besides RE: Coded, and loved them as well, but not as much as I did
the original. My heart felt complete, just like Sora’s when he finally made it
back home. It’s like I made it back home as well. I fought long and hard to get
back to that one place that made me feel secure, warmed me when I was cold,
cheered me up when I was down. Kingdom Hearts did that for me, and I wanted to
write this to pay my respects to something that will always be in my heart, and
to share it with others that have had a similar experience, or may have never
even played the game before. I thank you, the reader, for checking this out,
even if you skimmed it.
Special Thanks
Dom, for being the one to draw me back into this franchise.
Square Enix and Disney, for producing my favorite game of all time.
“Hulk”,
for giving me something truly awful to laugh at after facing disappointment.
