016: Untangling the Kingdom Hearts Saga Part 1
As should be evident by my internet handle, I really love Kingdom Hearts. How much do I love it? Well, I'll just say this: I wore Sora socks at my wedding and walked into our reception wielding a homemade Keyblade that Cocoashade and I worked on together. Instead of a wedding cake we had cookies in the shape of Paopu Fruit. All that should tell you what you need to know. I have several posts planned about some of the individual games in the series, but I know the best way to tackle something like this is to start with an overview post. So this entry will be explaining the Kingdom Hearts series, my history with it, and discussing the (admittedly) overly complex story line that has unfolded over the past 18 years.
This is a pretty big undertaking. Kingdom Hearts started out very simple, the story of a boy and his friends on a small island. Darkness invaded, they all got separated, and then everything went crazy. With each new installment in the series and each new side game and mobile game, the story has grown until it has become one of the most dense, complicated stories in all of video games. As I started writing this, I realized it was too much for a single post, so I'm splitting it into three parts. With these three posts I'm going to give an introductory look at the story and characters, and do my best to simplify things. (Even with three posts, it's a lot to cover.) Many spoilers follow, of course. And since I don't want this entry to be too massive, I will be glossing over many many things and trying to get at the (apologies, but this word will come up a lot) heart of the series.
Harsh, man. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
To be completely honest, when I first heard of Kingdom Hearts, I thought it sounded horrible. I was (and still am) a huge Final Fantasy fan, and at the time I was working my way through the installments of the series. I had no idea why Square Enix would want to team up with Disney and didn't understand how a tonal mashup like this would possibly work. I wasn't planning on ever playing it. But then I saw one of my brothers playing the first game and I was instantly intrigued. The portion I saw was very early in the game, Sora running around Destiny Islands at night, hacking at Shadows with his basic Keyblade. It looked much better than I had expected. Soon after were cut scenes with Donald and Goofy, and Leon/Squall from Final Fantasy 8. Somehow the interactions with such drastically different characters worked. When I saw that Final Fantasy characters were involved, I decided to try it. Once I did, I was fully hooked and never looked back.
Kingdom Hearts is a series of action RPG games across various platforms created in joint effort by Square Enix and Disney. They are overseen by Tetsuya Nomura, one of the main character designers for the Final Fantasy series. Kingdom Hearts covers the story of Sora (no last name) a boy who lived on a world called Destiny Islands. He would often go to a smaller island to play with his friends Riku and Kairi. One night darkness invaded, the friends were separated, and Sora was given a sword in the shape of a key with the power to defeat the shadowy creatures that were pursuing him. The shadowy creatures are Heartless, and they seem endless in number.
So I mentioned Destiny Islands is a world... See, the worlds of Kingdom Hearts are small and fragmented. Normally there is no way to travel between them and these worlds are kept isolated. There are various ways, however, to traverse the worlds. You need a Gummi Ship (more on those later), a transformable Keyblade and armor, or the ability to travel through darkness via the Corridors of Darkness. (This last method is very dangerous, however, as you run the risk of being tainted by darkness.) Most of the worlds are based on Disney properties.
The Universe of Kingdom Hearts is made up of three realms. The Realm of Light is where most of the games take place, and is where the worlds exist. The Realm of Darkness is home to the Heartless. So what's the third realm? This would be the Realm Between. Some locations in the series exist there: Traverse Town and Twilight Town, which serve as hub worlds, are the most notable of those, but other key areas exist in this realm.
Believe it or not, Goofy’s the smart one. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The games are populated with a mix of Disney characters, Final Fantasy characters, and original creations such as Sora, Riku, and Kairi. The main character you control is Sora, a messy-haired boy with odd fashion sense and a naive optimism. Sora has an unending supply of courage and will do anything to protect his friends. He treats everything as an adventure. He's also a bit dense. (Are you starting to see why I identify with him?)
In the main numbered installments Sora is accompanied by his constant companions Donald Duck and Goofy. Donald, in this iteration, is a Court Magician. Goofy is somehow Captain of the Castle Guards. What Court and Castle? Why, Disney Castle, of course, presided over by his majesty King Mickey Mouse.
King Mickey (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Yes, that's right. Mickey Mouse is royalty in this. It's not as weird as you may think, and it really didn't take me long to get used to it. I was never a huge Mickey Mouse fan growing up (I liked Donald more since he had a funny voice and had no control over his temper) but I do like the Kingdom Hearts version of Mickey. He's noble, helpful, and an expert swordsman. (He fights like Yoda… a lot of hopping around.) In the first game he appears as a silhouette and mostly unseen character, and much of the second game is spent chasing him... so when he finally appears, he seems bigger than life. He's had a bigger role in the later games, but he still retains his sense of mystery.
Sora, Riku, and Kairi. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The other original characters are Sora's best friend Riku, and his love interest Kairi. Riku serves as one of the villains of the first game, having succumbed to darkness and jealousy. Over the course of the series, Riku has clawed his way back to the light, worked through many of his issues, and has become a Keyblade Master. Kairi is sweet and gentle, but brave. In the first game she was a damsel in distress, but in the second and third games she got the chance to be a hero of sorts as well. (Although she was seriously under served in the third game. Why give her a Keyblade and extensive training only to not show her actual battle? Ugh. Well, hopefully the DLC fixes this injustice.)
Other important characters include Master Yensid (the sorcerer from Fantasia) and three former Keyblade wielders: Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Final Fantasy characters from Part 7 - 10 appear. Characters from The World Ends With You (a Nintendo DS game also made by Square Enix) joined the series in Dream Drop Distance.
Many Disney characters make appearances in the games. Jiminy Cricket apparently lives in Sora's clothes somewhere, which is gross. Pluto the dog is always wandering around as well. Chip and Dale are mechanics and inventors. Each Disney-themed world includes the relevant characters such as Aladdin, Rapunzel, and Hercules. Merlin the wizard has a book which serves as home to Winnie the Pooh and his pals. The Hundred Acre Woods is used for a variety of minigames. We also got this little gem…
Eww. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
There are many other characters, but I'm not going to get into all of them here. Between the Square Enix properties, Disney characters, and the original characters, there's quite a cast.
On the other side are the forces of darkness. The main antagonist of the series is a former Keyblade Master named Xehanort. In various games you meet other incarnations of him that go by the names Ansem and Xemnas. Organization XIII, a group of mysterious and quirky characters in robes, cause problems in Xehanort's name. Disney Villains such as Maleficent, Pete (Mickey's rival), Jafar, Hades, and many more also pop up to cause trouble.
In the fight against darkness, the player character can wield magic and perform various skills. Exactly what tools you have in your arsenal depends on the game. Some games allow for summoning of friends to assist. The main weapon in your fight, however, is the Keyblade. The Keyblade appears when needed, and can be made more powerful by attaching keychains that change their appearance and stats.
The weapon of champions. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
So what is a Keyblade exactly? Well, the game doesn't really get into it much. Keyblades are magical swords in the shape of keys that are bonded to their users. They are said to be able to open any lock.
Well, almost any lock I guess? (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The game doesn't explain where Keyblades come from or how they get bonded to wielders. Who makes them? How do they choose who wields them? Who makes the keychains that change their appearance and why are the keychains on various worlds? Who owns that mysterious voice that sometimes speaks to the heroes in the stained glass realm? What exactly IS Kingdom Hearts? There are a lot of questions that have so far gone unanswered.
Full moon, full heart. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Kingdom Hearts, at least, is given several different explanations. Depending on how you view it, Kingdom Hearts can be darkness or light. Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all the worlds. It is the source of ultimate power and wisdom. In Part II, the Organization created an artificial Kingdom Hearts (which took the form of a moon) made up of all the hearts recovered from the Heartless. In Part I, the Door To Darkness led to both the Realm of Darkness and Kingdom Hearts. So is it a physical place? Another realm? It's hard to say at this point, however we can infer that Kingdom Hearts acts as the counter and natural alternative to the Realm of Darkness.
Despite all these explanations, Kingdom Hearts itself is still a very mysterious and murky force in the series. It drives many people's actions, and looms over everything threateningly.
The Heartless, the main antagonists of the game, are born naturally of the darkness in people's hearts. They reside in the Realm of Darkness and when they escape, they prey on beings who have hearts, stealing them. This is, presumably, because the Heartless don't have hearts of their own. They also seek out the "Heart of the World" in order to destroy it, causing that world to fall to darkness.
There are two types of Heartless, Pureblood and Emblem. The Emblem heartless have a symbol on them and were artificially created due to the experiments of Ansem/Xehanort. The most basic and recognizable of the Pureblood Heartless is the Shadow.
Aww. You've already stolen my heart, little guy! (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The second type of enemy was introduced in Part II... creepy entities called Nobodies. When a person loses their heart to the Heartless, the empty body left behind becomes a Nobody. They creep around, attacking the living. Those who had strong hearts in life retain much of their personalities, and it's these higher class Nobodies that make up Organization XIII. The members of Organization XIII control the lower class Nobodies.
This really seems like an inconvenient conference room. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
In Birth By Sleep we were introduced to the Unversed, which are monsters created from strong negative emotions. They were controlled by a villain named Vanitas who worked for Xehanort. In Dream Drop Distance, the monsters are called Dream Eaters, because that game takes place in the realm of sleep. In that game there are good Dream Eaters called Spirits who help you. The bad Dream Eaters are called Nightmares.
A common theme in the series is darkness... there is darkness in everyone's heart, even the most good among us. If people let the darkness dominate them, they give up their heart and become a Heartless. This has happened to a few of the antagonists of the games. It was also something a couple of the heroes struggled with... Riku and Terra mostly. Darkness gives you great power, but you also lose control of it. Those who revel in the power of darkness also seem to be able to use Keyblades, which is interesting. Mickey’s golden Keyblade came from the Realm of Darkness. This shows that Keyblades are not good or evil... they're tools and like any tool, they reflect their user's alignment.
Look at this sleek vessel. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Some other important aspects to the game: I mentioned earlier one of the more common ways to travel between worlds is the Gummi Ship. Gummi is a mysterious material that comes from space and can be bonded together and taken apart (like Legos) and doesn't require any outside adhesive. I don't think anyone has tried eating the Gummi material, but it looks pretty edible. That's really beside the point, though. Because the material is so resilient, it allows for safe space travel. (Space is referred to as the Ocean Between worlds.) In each of numbered installments of the series, you either build a Gummi Ship or use a pre-made blueprint. The controls and game play while in the Gummi Ship changes depending on the game, but essentially it's a space shooter minigame. In Part I you are on a fixed path. In Part II it's a rail shooter, with the camera changing as you go. Part III opens it up to free exploration.
For some reason the Heartless can also pilot Gummi Ships of their own. I don't know if they have to go through specialized training for this... I can't even picture what a Heartless Flight School would look like. Or do all the Heartless just instinctively know how to fly spacecraft? (So many unanswered questions!)
Way better than the latest iPhone. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
In Part III there is something called a Gummi Phone, which due to the name, we are led to believe is made of Gummi material also. (This just brings up more questions for me.) At any rate, kudos to Chip and Dale for throwing together a smart phone out of junk they found floating in space. We should all be as industrious as those little chipmunks. However they managed to do it, I'm just trying to figure out the roaming charges for making calls from the Ocean Between.
Time travel features fairly heavily in the games. Kingdom Hearts has an interesting take on the concept of time travel. In order to travel back into the past or forward into the future, it has to be during your timeline... as in, an aspect of yourself must exist in the place you're traveling to. You also need to leave your body behind and you inhabit your body from that time period. So, for instance, you couldn't go back to medieval times, but you could "possess" yourself while you're sitting in study hall in High School. You could also jump forward five years to see what you're up to in your future. I assume if you're dead in the time period you're trying to jump to, it would just fail? It would suck to be stranded bodiless in the future. It's not explained, so we just have to wonder. (I wonder about a lot of things when it comes to Kingdom Hearts.)
Time is also fairly hard to manipulate. It continues on in its normal path, set in stone. Also, once returning to your own time, all memories of the trip are erased, only remaining etched in the traveler's heart. One notable exception to the rules of time travel was the magical doorway in Kingdom Hearts II that led Sora and his friends to Timeless River, a past version of Disney Castle. A mystical item called the Cornerstone of Light existed there, and Disney Castle would later be built on top of it. Not only did this excursion break the rules of time travel, but there was a very real chance that the present could be effected if the Cornerstone had been destroyed in the past. No explanations so far have been given for why the rules were different for Timeless River, but it probably had something to do with the Cornerstone. (Which also was not fully explained.)
This never fails to make me laugh. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Another recurring concept is data. In the Kingdom Hearts universe, memories and feelings can be converted to Data. This factors pretty heavily into Part II and the game re:Coded. When this data is put into a computer, a virtual reality world called a Datascape can be created and visited using a digital avatar. This is first shown in Kingdom Hearts II, and is the setting for the beginning of the game. Datascapes also feature prominently in Kingdom Hearts re:Coded and Kingdom Hearts Union Cross.
Going along with the Data concept are Replicas. Vexan, a member of Organization XIII, mastered the art of creating Replicas. Replicas are empty vessels that can be imbued with the memories of others. Once this happens, the Replica believes they are the person they were based on and can grow to be more like that person. This becomes very important in Part III, but it's also key to the plots of the games Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days.
The last concept I'll cover is connection. A recurring theme in the series is worlds becoming connected to each other, usually by the magic of the Keyblade unlocking the barriers between them. In the Age of Fairy Tales, all the worlds were connected in light before becoming separated when people's hearts became filled with darkness. Hearts are also connected, generally in friendship. The Paopu Fruit is a fruit that grows on Destiny Islands. It's said that two people who share the fruit will be connected forever. In Birth By Sleep there were star-shaped talismans called Wayfinders that worked in much the same way, representing an unbreakable connection even over long distances. You could also use them to access the powers of those you have made connections with.
Axel has a nice view. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Okay, now we've gone over the main concepts of the series and some of the characters. I would say that's a good stopping point for this post. I hope you're enjoying it so far. I'll be back very soon with part 2, where I'll get into some of the actual games and the plot. See you then!
