kingdom hearts It has opened a door that we will have a hard time closing. I’m just sorry. As silly as it may sound, it worries me. Yes, the game about a kid with impossibly big shoes who goes on adventures through Disney worlds with Donald Duck and Goofy in tow irritates part of my brain. The unforeseen success of the merger final fantasy aesthetics and mechanics with the properties of several authentic House of Mouse hits such as The Little Mermaid It’s a surprisingly uncomfortable prospect.
In case you’ve been under a rock, a new phenomenon has taken over the world; his name is kingdom hearts. This bewildering new RPG from Square Soft is directed by Tetsuya Nomura, best known for his character designs in games like last year’s acclaimed game. Final Fantasy X. Despite the implications of that lineage, kingdom hearts it happily eschews tradition, crafting a hybrid of turn-based combat and real-time action that’s as bold as it is uncomfortable.
In kingdom heartsYou play as a boy known as Sora who swings a keyblade (it’s exactly what it sounds like) and fights against the forces of darkness, namely an army of mischievous figures known as the Heartless. As he does so, he travels through multiple worlds ripped from the imaginations of Disney animators, traveling from the jungles of Tarzan to the alleys of aladdin‘s Agrabah, as he befriends the world’s respective heroes and beats up their worthless.
So why do I care about this children’s game about the power of friendship? The game that has quickly generated so much Game of the Year buzz? What could offend in the story of a boy who dreams of adventures beyond his home, freeing worlds from their darkness and saving his friends along the way?
Nothing, really. At least, not at first glance. I have no ill will towards kingdom heartsa game that is as fun as having fun in a real Disney park. I mean, I wish it was platforms was close to the level of Super Mario Sunbut it’s still a pleasure in most other respects. But by its very nature, there is something that silently uncomfortable about kingdom hearts It feels like we’re all lost. A disarming quality that the game puts in the faces of its players.
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The brand synergy of all this bothers me. The ease with which the merger is performed kingdom hearts takes shape. And listen, I’m not immune to the joy of a crossover. Damn, I was excited for him. “Always red“Episode of Power Rangers Wild Force which paid homage to and featured the Red Rangers of the series’ past, all in one place. Watching the heroes of my favorite Saturday morning show come together to combat a great evil has a way of warming my heart and producing a smile a mile wide. But it feels like a significant difference between the effect of a “Forever Red” and the kind of things that kingdom hearts seems to be paving the way for.
I loved putting together the disparate action figures of my youth as much as the next person. My Spider-Man figure is very used to fighting the Ninja Turtles. But that played out on the battlefield of my mind. It was not repackaged or sold again. It’s not a product packed with big symbols of corporate ownership, seemingly to play on my nostalgia and love for the properties more than my love for the stories, characters, and themes that made those properties resonate in the first place.
kingdom hearts It bridges the gap between media with such aplomb that I’m sure it inspires envy among developers around the world. Licensed games are dreaded affairs, a necessary discomfort for many developers to keep the lights on, but here’s one that has managed to shed much of that baggage. And while it’s great to see a title like this beat those odds and know that the work of Square developers is being celebrated on a grand stage, I can’t help but wonder how much it costs when I look kingdom heartsAn endearing game that sometimes turns out to be a mess.
To be clear, kingdom hearts He probably could have conveyed the same themes and reached the same conclusions with his story without the use of established Disney characters and worlds, as well as cameos from Square himself. final fantasy. Sora, Kairi, and Riku are a strong enough trio to base a plot on, especially one that relies on their youth, naivety, and kindness. But it doesn’t depend entirely on them. In fact, he leans on characters like Mickey Mouse (a king with a mischievous edge in this game) and Maleficent, using them as crutches to get him across the finish line.
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It is neither unfounded nor confusing for kingdom hearts use this cast of Disney characters and these settings from Disney properties, properties whose stories often revolve around neat depictions of good and evil, to get their point across. But the fact that he does it and that he does it a lotit makes the whole thing seem terribly disingenuous, and its implementation results in a flattening of some of the more nuanced arguments the game tries to make. The same goes for the inclusion of final fantasy cast members like Squall Leonhart and Aerith Gainsborough, who are most obviously ripped from their settings wholesale to fit an entirely new narrative.
Ought kingdom hearts continue, I’m afraid it might be a bit unwieldy. A real hodgepodge of images without a clear direction and cameos that come out of the wazoo. Frankly, seeing the success of a crossover like this makes me wary of the day when media becomes a major crossover. The day we stop telling stories and start breaking action figures for the fun of it. Well, for that and capital.
Despite these fears and concerns, it is worth saying that I believe kingdom hearts He has a good and exceptionally big heart. I don’t think you can do something so endearing and, let’s be honest, deeply cheesy work piece like kingdom hearts without him. Near the end of the story, Sora confronts his best friend, now corrupted by darkness, using the power of friendship and forging a weapon from this love. Spoilers: Sora wins. To try to transmit kingdom hearts‘ messages of acceptance and forgiveness in the light of one’s inner darkness, and especially to try to convey this to such a young and impressionable audience, suggests a big heart.
Believe kingdom hearts‘However, the big heart could be both its magic and its potential downfall. While it’s pretty magnanimous of the work to try to impart that morality, I think the premise also betrays naivety on the part of its developers. How long until it also becomes another tool in the hands of a corporation? I mean it already is, but how long until maybe it’s emptied of even its big heart? What will happen the day it becomes clear that it is more useful as a propaganda vehicle than as a canvas for stories? Is it already there? And if that’s the case, what’s stopping others from eventually trying to replicate it? kingdom hearts‘ effect on a larger scale?
It’s impossible to say now, but the chances of kingdom heartsThe ridicule about success seems endless and worrying in equal measure.
The story you just read. is part of the 2002 edition of Warp Weeka Kotaku series that takes readers back to gaming’s past through a combination of time-lapse reviews, retrospectives, and on-the-ground reporting.
