STACK Magazine December Issue 122

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GAMES
DECEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
FEATURE
042
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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.
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
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
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
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.