STACK #122 Dec 2015

GAMES

FEATURE

visit www.stack.net.au

game managed to hit an arguably perfect style between the two franchises. Sora, our spikey- haired protagonist, looks like a FF protagonist in Mickey’s clothing... which is fitting, because he was originally supposed to be Mickey Mouse. For fans of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts was a way to reunite with old friends. Besides adding some further glimpses into the lives and thoughts of characters they loved, the game was responsible for finally deciding on Aerith’s name. While western regions had dealt with Aeris since FFVII and FF Tactics , the international release saw her named Aerith, and thus ended a highly entertaining schoolyard debate. In an unusual move, the follow-up, Kingdom

Without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is the most eclectic video game series of all time. By rights, it shouldn’t exist, much less make sense. But there it is, mixing the worlds of Disney and Square and combining deep RPG elements and existential philosophy.The title, over its fourteen iterations,

has managed to shift around 21 million units to date. And it all started with a conversation in an elevator.

Hearts: Chains of Memories, released in 2004, made its way onto Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. Its purpose was to set up the events that would take place in Kingdom Hearts II, which was released in 2005 on the PS2 (and later re-released on the PS3). Again, the franchise was met with critical praise, and Kingdom Hearts II became one of the top ten sellers in 2006. The next instalments in the

B ack in the olden golden days of the PS2, Squaresoft (which became Square Enix in the following year) occupied a building in Tokyo – the same building that housed the Disney offices. A conversation sprang up between a Disney executive and Shinji Hasimoto, and the concept of Kingdom Hearts was born. Square were incredibly confident in the title from the start, claiming at E3 in 2001 that the Kingdom Heart franchise ‘had the potential to be bigger than Final Fantasy’. Fifteen years prior, it had been Final Fantasy – the last game that Square was supposed to develop before going under – that had saved the company. It was a bold claim to make. The one thing that Kingdom Hearts did have over its sibling title was its star power (warning:

if you weren’t alive in the ‘90s, these names will

have no meaning to you). The voice cast included the likes of Haley Joel Osment, David Gallagher Hayden Panettiere, Billy Zane and Mandy Moore. This was largely thanks to the fact that Kingdom Hearts was originally being produced in America, as both parties wanted to ensure the best mix of their cultural icons. When the game released in 2002, it was met with almost universal praise for its graphical accomplishments and its stunning soundtrack. The main criticisms of the game revolved around the guileless camera and the convoluted symbolism that impeded the main narrative. However, it was widely agreed that the

series jumped from handheld to handheld and back and forth in

time, all the while receiving praise and drawing in further acting legends like Mark Hamill and Leonard Nimoy. The announcement at E3 in 2013 of the forthcoming Kingdom Hearts III reignited the fervent enthusiasm for the series. Along with the HD remakes of both Kingdom Hearts I and II, it seems the franchise has the chance to expose itself to an entirely new generation of fans, and the best way for old-school fans to relive their favourite gaming memories.

DECEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

042