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Kingdom Hearts
"Simple and Clean" by: Utada which is featured in many of the games in the introduction of the Kingdom Hearts series.
What is Kingdom Hearts?
Kingdom Hearts is an RPG (Role Playing Game) by Square Enix that blends Final Fantasy narrative style with Disney cartoon worlds and characters along with hack and slash combat. (1) Hack and slash resembles third person shooter games but instead of a gun, the main protagonist relies on more close range melee weaponry. The genre also resembles an adventure where the player/hero has a goal that they need to accomplishment, more times than not the main goal is to kill as much enemies as possible.(2) In Kingdom Hearts, you fight along with many other Disney protagonists in their worlds, some being Simba, Jack Sparrow, Beast and many more characters. This story centers around main character, Sora and his two friends, Riku and Kairi, who at first are separated and set out to find each other once their world is plagued by darkness. Throughout the game series, where they meet several characters from other Square Enix games (Final Fantasy, As the World Ends) as well as Disney movies and stories, along the way the fight off multiple evil enemies from the villains from the Disney franchise, heartless creatures called, Heartless, and battling a black-coated organization called Organization Xlll
that have ambiguous motivations throughout the series. During the series, they learn the truth and history around the weapon called the Keyblade and the wars surrounding them. Later in the series, we learn that there is one person named Xehanort behind most of the mayhem.(1) The series features philosophical themes such as the importance of friendship, good versus evil, light and darkness, heart, body and mind, etc..
Sora, Riku, Kairi, and characters from Final Fantasy franchise
Creator:
The creator of Kingdom Hearts is none other than Tetsuya Nomura, he was born on October 8th, 1970. He began working straight into Square after he had graduated from vocational school, where he created art for advertisements.(3) He quickly made a name for himself in the company very quickly first being recruited as a debugger and moved to be involved in the graphic design team in Final Fantasy V designing monsters and battle sequences. He then moved to basic character designs while working on Final Fantasy VI. Not soon after the long-time character designer, Yoshitaka Amano left Square in 1995, this promoted Nomura to working on lead character design on Final Fantasy VII. (4). He is considered the main character designer and illustrator of various Square Enix games, those works being Final Fantasy X. Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi and Musashi: Samurai Legend. (5).
Nomura’s first game in which he was the lead designer was for Kingdom Hearts which is a crossover with Disney and Final Fantasy. He designed the main characters, Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Additionally, he holds most of the control over the direction of the Kingdom Hearts series. Along with Kingdom Hearts Nomura oversaw the development of The World Ends with You (also an RPG game) set in modern-day Shibuya.
He also was the director for the CGI animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2006). He also redesigned characters featured in the film. Nomura also provided new character designs for games in the compilation of Final Fantasy VII including Crisis: Core Final Fantasy VII. (4) He is considered in most part to be Square Enix's quarterback, being heavily involved in most of the development of their video games.
Square Enix/Disney Interactive Studios:
Square
Founded in 1983 by Masafumo Miyamoto after graduating from Wasada University in Japan. Square became an offshoot of a power line construction company which was owned by his father. Before focusing their time and
energy in making video games, the company first began working on computer technology and with that were able
The original Square Logo
to generate revenue by renting out computers to students that needed them. In the early two year time frame of its existence, two programmers Hironobu Sakaguchi and Hiromichi Tanaka, who were just hired as Square had began taking their focus off of computers and into entering the video game making business. Their first game was released on PC, and the game was titled "The Death Trap", this game flirted with the idea of storytelling being a main aspect in video games, this would later become the companies main staple of what the company is known for even today. The game was so successful that the company worked on a sequel and released the game very next year, during this time as well Square had stepped away from computers being the main way of playing video games and released their first console game the same year when they were overlooking the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and Thexdor. By the end of 1986, Square was able to become its own independent company and became officially known as "Square Co. Ltd."
In 1987, the company had faced bankruptcy and they only had enough money and resources to make one game, and the game that they had relied 
their companies future on was Final Fantasy. Sakaguchi knew that his ability to tell a compelling story could save the company so he assembled a team that saved Square's current existence in the video game industry. The success of Final Fantasy and its sequels made it Square's main franchise and many other games including Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and many more titles that role playing games became synonymous with Square.
Square had maintained a good relationship with Nintendo in providing games for their consoles, but when Square had stated that they desired to have and make a 3-D animated Final Fantasy game to really push the boundaries of technology this led to a dispute with Nintendo in the mid 1990s. Square did not want to stick to cartridge based game like Nintendo had wanted them to. This severed the two companies, Square then looked into Sony's PlayStation that was running on discs in 1996. This led to the release of Final Fantasy VII, it broke records internationally and holds the title for
the highest Final Fantasy game sold to date, with this also gained acclaim around the world.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
After joining with PlayStation, the company began to branch out to other genres and into fighting based games. The release of the fighting games was nothing compared to the RPGs that the company was notoriety and success for making. With the release of the PlayStation 2, Square continued to expand the games that they would release by also trying racing games Driving Emotion Type S, a game along with another that was received negatively by critics.
(6)
In this video featuring the game play of the first Final Fantasy, which made its debut on the NES.
Enix
Was founded in 1975 by architect turned entrepreneur Yashuhiro Fukushima , but was originally called the Eidansha Boshu Center, the company began by publishing tabloids that would advertise real-estate. The name change to Enix occurred in 1982 after the company failed to go nationwide in and before they made their name in the video game industry (the name Enix was a wordplay off of Phoenix which mythological bird that is reborn from its own ashes) (7). Enix's earliest games were released on the Japanese NEC PC-8801 and Fujisu FM-7 computers. Although games like The PORTOPIA Serial Murder Case was popular in Japan, Enix's first game to be released on an international level was Dragon Quest under the title Dragon Warrior in the United States. (8)
Enix along with Square has had a series that helped shape their name in role playing games and it was Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior). Dragon Quest is in fact older than Square's Final Fantasy series. What the Dragon Quest game includes are turn-based combat, random encounters and grind-heavy mechanics. The storyline lacked expectations of fans but meaningful nonetheless. In this game, the main player meets up and gathers party members along the way as well as fighting evil. One of the major things that the game lacked however its appeal to western players since the game had been in Japan since 1986 and began making an appearance in the western market in 2005 (about a 20 year time gap). (9) It was first role playing game produced.
Throughout the 1980s, Enix continuously released gaming titles on PCs as well as the Dragon Quest series. As the 1990s approached, the use of consoles exploded in Japan and in the United States as well. Enix had slowed down the production of computer game titles and moved their resources into publishing their games onto consoles. When 1990 approached, Enix had expanded their partnership to several consoles developers, one of the them being Nintendo in which Enix published titles for. This really furthered Enix's notability in video game consoles besides their success with the Dragon Quest franchise. From 1990 until their 2003 partnership with Square, Enix had published well over 100 gaming consoles and hand held games as well.
In the 1990's, had not only expanded their name from the Dragon Quest series and consoles but also ventured into outside the video game industry. In 1991, Enix partially funded a school that taught others how to develop video games and is funded by Enix presently. Enix had also dipped their toes into the creation of Ganagan Comic, which is a manga magazine published monthly, their ventures in publishing the magazine including some manga that is well known even today, such as Full Metal Alchemist, and manga focused on their games such as Dragon Quest and Star Ocean. (10)
The first video outlines Enix's first game which was Portopia Serial Murder Case. It is an adventure game in which the user must become the detective, allows the user to uncover clues, wander to other worlds, and interact with characters that are in embedded in the video game, it was the first game released by Enix. The game also involved a narrative story line and a role playing aspect. (11)
The next video focuses on their first successful game to leave Japan which was Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior).
Square Enix
Square Enix is a video game and publishing company both from Japan, known for their console based role playing games and franchises Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and action role playing game Kingdom Hearts. On April 1st 2003, Square and Enix merged together to form Square Enix, in which Enix legally absorbed Square. As a result of this merger the main leaders in Square became heads of Square Enix. (12) Before merging together in 2003, Square and Enix were very competitive, both releasing role playing games and in the same market. (8) Square had taken part in the merger so that they would be able to cut costs, and gain a more competitive edge. (13) . In 2000, talks had began to merge the two companies together but was delayed when Square had funded the CGI movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and was unable to gain a profit off of it, causing a blow to the esteem of Square. On November 26th, 2002, the companies had announced that they would be merging under the new name Square Enix. Since Square had taken a blow for the Final Fantasy movie, this resulted in Enix to gain controlling interest in the company merger. (10) Some of the titles Square Enix has are: Tomb Raider, Valkarie Profile, Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and of course Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts was published and released in 2002, a year before the Square Enix merger. In the first game, it was the last time that Squaresoft's logo appeared on a video game. (Squaresoft was the company name of the North American distributor of Square products and was included in the Square Enix merger in 2003)
Some of Square Enix's famous gaming titles that they have published that you may or may not have heard of:
Disney Interactive
Walt Disney Computer Software (WDCS) was created in 1988 (14) and was Disney's very own in house gaming unit. They created computer software and spinoff games such as Aladdin and the Lion King in 1993. They used the existing Disney characters to create these games. The WDCS had trouble finding the difference between film and games and this ultimately led to third parties publishing the games.
In 1994 the WDCS merged with Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications division and Disney Interactive (DI) was born. In 1997 DI stopped the production of in-house video games as a result of making a staff reduction. Third party game companies now wanted licensing to these games. The other game companies now had the development and production cost risks but decreased their revenue per unit and Disney had nearly 100% of licensed game sales. A few of the games created by DI are Disney's Magic Artist Studio, Disney's Adventures in Typing with Timon and Pumbaa, and Disney's Arcade Frenzy which were all made to be played on Hybrid PC/Mac.
Buena Vista Games
Buena Vista Games (BVG) was a spinoff of Disney Interactive (DI) in 2003. While DI kept it's focus on children's games, BVG worked on all other content games including mobile and online. (16) BVG is best known for the Kingdom Hearts games that were created with Japanese developer Square Enix. A few other games made by BVG are Disney's Hannah Montana for DS, Herbie: Fully Loaded for Game Boy Advance, and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest for PSP.
Disney Interactive Studios
Buena Vista Games was renamed to Disney Interactive Studios in 2007 by the Walt Disney Company. (16) This studio publishes Disney and non-Disney video games. Featured brands are Disney, ABC, ESPN, Touchstone, and Disney/Pixar. The studio also licensed Disney intellectual property to Activision and THQ, which are other video game publishers. In 2008 Disney Interactive Studios and the Walt Disney Internet Group joined to create one business that is currently known as the Disney Interactive Media Group. One of the most recent games by DIS is Brave, which can be played on WII, Nintendo DS, PS3, and XBox. (17). (15) Disney Interactive Studios is widely known to make the games that are based of off Disney's most beloved movies new and old, from Lion King to the latest Disney movie featuring a red headed heroine titled Brave. More recently their projects have included Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey II: The Power of Two.
Disney Characters in Video Games Before Kingdom Hearts
Before the heavily blended mix of Disney and Kingdom Hearts, Disney's characters had started out in video games way before the development of the PlayStation and even before being featured on the Atari in 1983. Mickey Mouse had appeared on a portable handheld console called a Game & Watch. Although many of the current generation is familiar with the playable character Mr. Game and Watch from Nintendo's Super Smash Brother's Brawl, not much is known about the hand held portable. It was on this device in 1981 that for the first time that Disney's iconic mouse was featured on the gaming console. The game featuring Mickey was remade again on the Game & Watch in 1984 to include more features. This not only began Disney to integrate their characters in video games but over a length of time, Disney characters began making their appearances in all major consoles from the 1980s until this present day including Disney's princesses, Donald Duck and expanding to include Pixar's movies such as Finding Nemo and Wall-E. The games story lines mostly revolving around the same plot, characters, and actions that would occur in the games specific movie. Since then Disney has expanded from the Game & Watch handheld to the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance/color, to the Nintendo DS/3Ds. It has expanded from the Atari to other home video game consoles such as Sega, home computers, the original PlayStation and onto the PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360, cell phones, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Nintendo's Wii, and onto the newly released Wii U. (With the release of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, made its way onto the PlayStation Portable (PSP)) (18)
Here is a quick look at what the Game & Watch looked like as well as the graphics and function of the early handheld portable game.
Square-Enix and Disney
In 2000 it was announced that Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) and Disney were beginning a project together. This announcement shocked many people because Square-Enix and Disney are very different from each other. Square-Enix is the head of Final Fantasy and Chrono Series which are games that are much different from the usual Disney productions. Many gamers thought that the two companies creating a game together was a bad idea and they were sure the game would be a failure. After being released in 2002, Kingdom Hearts was considered a masterpiece. Kingdom Hearts received great reviews and was a pleasant surprise to gamers. Since the release of the first Kingdom Hearts, Square-Enix and Disney have produced five sequels/prequels that have made Kingdom Hearts into a major franchise for both companies. Disney characters used in the Kingdom Hearts games have been created the same as their originals in the films and the voicing was matched as closely as it could be if not the same. (19)
Disney Characters in Kingdom Hearts
This table shows the Disney characters that were used in the Kingdom Hearts games (20)
Disney Worlds in Kingdom Hearts
This table shows the Disney-inspired worlds in Kingdom Hearts (20)
Linage of Role Play Games:
Final Fantasy:
Final Fantasy is a Role Playing Game created by Hironubu Sakaguchi in 1987 (release date). Hironubu Sakaguchi joined square fresh out of college. Square was in danger of bankruptcy because their games were not selling so Sakaguchi decided he wanted to leave a mark on the gaming community before they were shut down. He wanted to make one final game, a fantasy epic. This is where the title Final Fantasy came from. Originally planned for release on the Famicom it was instead released on the NES in Japan in 1987. Approximately 3 years later the game reached America in which it instantly became a hit. It made enough money to keep Square from going bankrupt and created a good relationship between them and Nintendo (21). There is no continuity to the Final Fantasy games, each one are their own and can stand alone. The storyline do not run together, but there are aspects of the other games in each Final Fantasy game. The most popular game of the franchise is Final Fantasy VII. It was released for PlayStation in 1997. Final Fantasy VII was the death of all Final Fantasies before it and was the start of a new era. It was in 3D and had new CGI technology that made the experience bigger and better than ever before. It had sold over 2 million copies in the first 3 days of release (ign.com). It was so successful they based a CGI film on it called Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Eventually Final Fantasy crossed into a new genre with Final Fantasy XI. The new genre was called a MMORPG (Massive-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Shortly before the release of FFXI Final Fantasy made a new hybrid game with Disney called Kingdom Hearts. It features the main character (Sora) going through the different worlds of Disney and saving the princesses. He is aided and hindered by fellow Final Fantasy characters and Disney characters. Final Fantasy is still going strong today with many loyal fans still playing the original games. Square has even announced a new Final Fantasy that takes off where FFXI left off. It is going to be a MMORPG called Final Fantasy XIV. (22)
Characters From Final Fantasy that appear in Kingdom Hearts:
- · Setzer- Final Fantasy VI
- · Yuffie- Final Fantasy VII
- · Aerith- Final Fantasy VII
- · Cloud- Final Fantasy VII
- · Cid- Final Fantasy VII
- · Tifa- Final Fantasy VII
- · Sephiroth- Final Fantasy VII
- · Zach Fair- Final Fantasy VII
- · Squall- Final Fantasy VIII
- · Seifer, Raijin (Rai), & Fujin (Fuu)- Final Fantasy VIII
- · Selphie- Final Fantasy VIII
- · Vivi- Final Fantasy IX
- · Tidus & Wakka- Final Fantasy X
- · Auron- Final Fantasy X
- · Yuna, Rikku, & Paine- Final Fantasy X-2
- · Moogles- Final Fantasy III (23)
Timeline of Games In The Kingdom Hearts Franchise:
How Kingdom Hearts Came To Be?
In an interview with creator Nomura, he revealed that the idea of Kingdom Hearts came along when talking with Shinji Hashimoto (Square Enix's corporate executive) and Hironobu Sakaguch (a producer) when they had mentioned that they would like to work with Disney. At that same time, Nomura had been bouncing around the idea of creating an original action role playing game and already had in mind that it would be released on the PlayStation 2. Nomura took it upon himself to everyone on board in creating a Disney role playing game. However, in setting this goal he had faced man obstacles, getting Square Enix, Disney, and himself all had to agree on terms and neither of them were seeing eye-to-eye with one another, he stated, "Square wanted to make a game starring Mickey Mouse, and Disney wanted a Donald Duck title. Meanwhile, I wanted neither, so I built a project plan for KH and began negotiating with both sides. That plan was largely what you see now; a game featuring lots of characters without focusing on any particular one." This though was one of many things that defined how difficult the approval of these two people and a persons vision would be. In stating why he had chosen a key to be the main weapon, Nomura explained that at first the weapon was not to be a key but a chainsaw and noted Disney's reaction to his proposal, "the first weapon I showed Disney was a chainsaw. It was this chainsaw-like weapon that I had a rough sketch of when I first showed my concepts to Disney. Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room. Dead silence. " In the end Nomura ended up deciding that a key would be the weapon. (24)
Kingdom Hearts
2002: Kingdom Hearts is released it is the first game of its time to integrate a combination of two franchises-- Disney and Final Fantasy. In this game there is an integration of original characters set for a main storyline and as the game continues, the user is wondering in settings in beloved Disney movies. The first game is focused on and meet the main characters, Sora, his best friends Kairi and Riku. Darkness plagues their world and they separated. Sora spends the game finding his friends, while Donald and Goofy travel to locate the person who wields the keyblade in hopes that they can help find their king, Mickey. The three are told of ominous creatures known as the Heartless - beings without hearts derived from an unknown dimension and as it turns out, manipulated by Disney villains and the ones responsible for the devastating storm. Upon discovering the link between the Heartless, the storm and the disappearance of King Mickey, Sora, Donald and Goofy join forces and help familiar Disney heroes to save their worlds. (25)
What the game features:
- Real-time battle system that incorporates innovative new elements with traditional RPG gameplay
- Meet other Disney characters from films like Aladdin, Tarzan, Hercules & Alice In Wonderland
- Disney characters act like their film personas - Peter Pan flies, Tarzan climbs and King Triton swims, among others
- Cameo appearances by Final Fantasy characters - Meet Selphie (FF VIII), Tidus & Wakka (FF X) and others
- Integrated voiceovers, with actual voices of Disney characters (26)
Game Play:
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
2004: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is the second game that is in the franchise and was released on Nintendo's Gameboy Advance. This game continues the storyline between the console games looking for Riku and King Mickey, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. It was the best selling portable game from the franchise thus far. This game was also re-released for the PlayStation 2 in 2007, after the release of Kingdom Hearts). Sora, Donald and Goofy, continue their quest to rid the world of darkness, rid the world of darkness, and be reunited with their friends. Sora is confronted by a mysterious man in a black cloak. The "Egnimatic Man" warns Sora "Ahead lies something you need, but to claim it, you must lose something dear." Sora and the gang are then lead to Castle Oblivion, where they revisit worlds, old friends who have forgotten them, and slowly lose their own memories as well.(27)
What this game contributed to the franchise:
- Combine different cards for new abilities, spells, combo attacks, and tactics
- Use special cards to summon familiar characters from the original Kingdom Hearts
- Travel through interactive environments by unlocking doors and find treasures
- Meet over 100 Disney and Final Fantasy characters, all from the previous Kingdom Hearts game (28)
- This is the only game in the franchise where the games combat was focused on the use of cards for battle, after this game, developers abandoned this method in current and future Kingdom Heart games. Many fans did not like this combat method and is linked to why its been scraped.
Game Play:
Kingdom Hearts II
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2005: Kingdom Hearts II returned to the PlayStation as the sequel to the popular Kingdom Hearts game. The beginning story line confused users who had not played Chain of Memories, when they started playing as new character Roxas instead of Sora. This game was highly anticipated not only because fans had wished and enjoyed playing the first game, but also with a sequel it ideally means that the major problems in the first game are fixed or improved in the second game. This case remained true, the camera angles that had bothered most users in the previous game had been fixed and instead of the E rating that it had received on the last two games had upgraded to an E+10 rating. The events of this game happen one year after Chain of Memories, but when we re-introduced to our hero, the player learns that the heartless are still around and creatures called nobodies exist as well. On top of that a group that Sora had faced in Chain of Memories are still up to no good. It is up to him, Donald, and Goofy to take down this organization who calls themselves Organization 13, who are trying to acquire the power that resides in Kingdom Hearts.
What this game contributed to the franchise:
- Explore both new and familiar worlds from Kingdom Hearts, plus new Disney worlds to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Beauty and the Beast and Mulan
- A more advanced battle system that allows for a wider range of commands, powerful new combos, and cooperative attacks with members of your party, introducing another layer of strategy
- All-new Drive command that lets Sora change into a variety of new forms, altering his skills and abilities
- A revamped camera system that keeps you in the middle of the action
- New transportation system that takes Sora and friends from world to world in the style of theme park rides (29)
Game Play:
Kingdom Hearts: 365/2 days
2009: This is the first Kingdom Hearts game that was released on the Nintendo DS. This game actually takes place in between the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. It was also given an E+10 rating (due to violence and language) It is also the first game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise that allows players to play and interact with one another. In the original Kingdom Hearts, Sora had to turn the keyblade on himself in order for Kairi to get her heart back, but also in that process he had also released is in own. In this game, we learn that Roxas is Sora's Nobody. A common trait that Roxas does not share with the rest of the nobodies around him is that he his no memory of his past life. He joins Organization XII and slowly begins to uncover why he exists and the organization that he has entered. In this process he meets and becomes friends with the fourteenth member of this black-coated organization and like Roxas she has no memories of her past as well. This game outlines Roxas' time within the organization and he and this mysterious girl start piecing together their connection to Sora.
What this game contributed to the franchise:
- Familiar action-packed Kingdom Hearts gameplay that has captivated fans worldwide.
- The brand new "Panel System" that allows the user to customize Roxas’ arsenal by placing abilities, items, and weapon parts into allotted slots.
- Learn about the origins of the "Organization XIII" name.
- A series-first multiplayer mode, allowing up to 4 players to control any Organization XIII member.
- Additional unlockable characters in multiplayer modes, including: Sora, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey and Riku.
- Get to know the members of Organization XIII, including the mysterious fourteenth member.
- Finally experience the Kingdom Hearts storyline’s missing chapter. (30)
Game Play:
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
2010: Birth By Sleep had made its way onto the PlayStation Portable (PSP) for its third debut on the handheld gaming system. Like the handhelds this story does not take place immediately after Kingdom Hearts II, in fact its the prequel to the series. This is the first game of the series that allows the user to play the game from three different characters perspective. Each of the characters has their own unique abilities and so forth. In this game, the user meets Aqua, Ven, and Terra who participate in a test that is to signify their status as keyblade wielders, however the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Xehanort, sabotages the test for Terra who is then seen as unfit to wield due to the darkness that is and he demonstrates in his heart; upset Terra joins Xehonort while Aqua and Ven try to reason with and save him and his heart from being completely swallowed by the darkness. The three of them encounter Disney characters new and old in a quest to find each other and prevent the destructive, unimaginable Keyblade war from beginning. And like every other Kingdom Hearts game, the character Ven has a mysterious past connecting himself to the darkness that he struggles to deal with throughout the game. This game as well features the younger revisions of Sora, Riku, and Kairi, all of whom Aqua, Ven, and Terra encounter throughout their journey in Birth by Sleep.
What this game contributed to the franchise:
- Disney worlds and characters never before seen in Kingdom Hearts, such as Enchanted Dominion (Sleeping Beauty) and Castle of Dreams (Cinderella) who make their first appearances in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
- Unravel the mystery surrounding the origin of the Kingdom Hearts saga through the tales of three unique characters - Terra, Ventus and Aqua. The whole story is revealed only after playing through with all three characters
- The familiar action-packed experience that fans have come to embrace returns with an enhanced battle system, with all new features such as Command Styles, Command Decks, Shotlocks and Dimension Links making it the most advanced Kingdom Hearts title to date
- Four brand-new multiplayer modes: Versus, Arena, Command Board and Rumble Racing (31)
Game Play:
Kingdom Hearts: Dream, Drop, Distance
2012: Kingdom Hearts: Dream, Drop, Distance was released in the Summer of 2012 to celebrate its ten year anniversary. Many had hoped though that Kingdom Hearts III would have been the to commemorate the games achievement. It was released on one of Nintendo's newest portable console the Nintendo 3Ds. Along with the other portable games it is rated E+10. The game connects to Birth By Sleep, and the other portable game's storylines. This game features an element that not much games incorporate a function that forces the player to switch characters. Unlike Birth by Sleep, the game forces the user not to neglect a storyline (maybe to combat what have been done in Birth by Sleep). It is the second game in the series to have the introduction, "Sanctuary" by Utada (who sang "Simple and Clean" for the first Kingdom Hearts game and the other portable games), the first game to feature this song was Kingdom Hearts II. The plot in this game is focused on Sora and Riku as they work to become full-fledged keyblade wielders in preparation of Xehanort returning. The worlds that they return to are asleep and they must go to the worlds and restore them from a new enemy connected to dreams. During this quest, they travel to worlds previously mentioned in the Kingdom Hearts as well as some new ones, meeting some new members of the Disney franchise along the way and aiding them in their storylines.
What this game contributed to the franchise:
- Dual protagonists - Play as the two most popular characters of the franchise, Sora and Riku
- "Free-flow" action - Enjoy fast and effortless movements while interacting with the environment and performing acrobatic attacks
- Brand-new creatures - Dream Eaters inhabit the Sleeping Worlds, and are split into two categories: Spirits and Nightmares. Recruit over 50 different types of Spirits as allies to fight alongside Sora and Riku
- New Disney worlds - Beloved Disney worlds and characters, such as La Cité des Cloches (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Grid (Tron: Legacy) make their series debut
- Drop Feature - This feature allows certain amount of time played per character, once the time limit is dropped the user is switched to another character to ensure that both story lines are being played and not neglected.
- Story progression - With updated looks for Sora and Riku, and the impending conflict made clear, this title is a big step forward in the series (32)
Game Play:
Kingdom Hearts III
???
TBA: TBR Many fans are anxious for this new game to start, but the creator behind the franchise has made it clear that Final Fantasy is his top priority right now. Though rumors are already surfacing that this game may include Pixar story lines and characters or Marvel characters/story lines, and even Star Wars (three franchises that Disney now owns). Other rumors address that the developers are currently working on the game.
Sales Figures:
Kingdom Hearts Sales Figures as of December 2012:
Courtesy of VGChartz
Another visual way in looking at these sales figures:
*Note: Kingdom Hearts games sold exclusively in Japan were not included in the pie representation of the sales figures.
Breakdown of this graph displays that 60% of the games sold are played on the PlayStation 2 console, 40% of the games sold in the franchise geared for portable devices are purchased by Kingdom Heart players. Leading to some correlations either fans unwillingness in purchasing portable devices to play games on exclusive handheld consoles and/or the preference of playing the franchise on a system where it started.
In comparison to other Square Enix games:
Here is a glance at the top selling games that was published by Square Enix, this includes games that both Square and Enix had published before the two companies had merged.
Courtesy of VGChartz
As you can see this list mostly comprised of games from the Final Fantasy franchise that was originally by Square. Enix's Dragon Quest did not even crack the top being beat out by Final Fantasy and the original Kingdom Hearts game. Another thing to note is Square Enix's wanting to align their products particularly with Sony and its consoles. The only handheld game to make the list was Dragon Quest which is interesting considering that a Kingdom Hearts game was specifically released for Sony's PSP. The seven Final Fantasy games sold a combined 46.75 million units or 6.68 million each on average. This is also 73.4 percent of the total games sold in the top 10. The two Dragon Quest games sold a combined 10.83 million units or 5.42 million each on average. The one Kingdom Hearts game sold 5.85 million units. The total for each console being:
Play Station 1 (3 games): 23 million copies (7.6 million copies per game),
PlayStation 2 (5 games): 30 million copies (6 million per game),
PlayStation 3 (1 game): 4.8 millions copies
Nintendo DS (one game): 5.6 million copies (33)
Awards
- The three main games have scored a 36 out of 40 from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. (Kingdom Hearts, Chain of memories, Kingdom Hearts 2)
- Game informer considers the series the 11th "must play PS2" series.
- Kingdom Hearts was awarded the "best crossover since Capcom vs. Snk in gamespots 2002 Best and worst of the year awards.
- IGN named Kingdom Hearts "Best Art Style/Direction" in their 2003 list of "Best looking games on PS2"
- G4 awarded it "best story" at their 2003 G-Phoria awards show.
- Electronic gaming monthly awarded Kingdom Hearts 2 "best sequel" of 2006.
- It ties with Resident Evil 4 as Famitsu's Game of the year 2005. (34)
This if Kingdom Hearts placement on G4's top 100 videos games of all time coming in at #55.
Kingdom Hearts Merchandise
Kingdom Hearts has been able to branch out of the video game market and into other markets such as clothing, manga, action figures, figurines, soundtracks, novels, trading cards, posters, etc. Items in the merchandise feature the original characters in Kingdom Hearts as well as many Disney characters that were featured in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. The franchise has also encouraged many fans to cosplay as their favorite characters in the games, many of whom cosplay at events like E3 and Comic Cons hosted around the world.
Here are some videos of a Kingdom Hearts fans who shows all of the Kingdom Hearts items that they have collected throughout the years of being involved in Kingdom Hearts Fandom.
Although all the games in the Kingdom Hearts franchise is developed and published by Square Enix, Disney (Disney Interactive Studios, teamed in creating Kingdom Hearts) gets the final approval of anything regarding the series. According to Kanji Tashiro, who is the National Manager of Merchandise at Square Enix, said that the people at Disney approves every step in the design from sketches to color scheme. With the trust that these two companies have gained with one another, Disney Interactive Studios, they listen to what the creators at Square Enix suggest, and developers of merchandise are able be creative when designing merchandise and are open to receiving feedback. The characters belong to Disney and is important so it is very understanding that they take a key part in the process of merchandise. (35)
Manga:
Shortly after the release of Kingdom Hearts II in 2005, a manga version of the Kingdom Hearts storyline was adapted by Shiro Amano. The manga covered the storyline of events in Kingdom Hearts and continued to include illustrating the story lines of the other games in the series including Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. The manga stays very true to the original storyline in the games but has minor differences in regards to game interactivity that the game had structured. With many of the revised games being released in Japan and not in the United States, the manga allowed room to include scenes and events that were included in the remixes. The manga was originally published in Japan but was translated and published by Tokoyopop in the United States (well known manga publisher) to be sold to global audiences. The manga not only allowed players to familiarize themselves with the story lines on portable devices that would have to be purchased. The manga also encouraged players to replay the games after they had re-read the manga and it was also able to engage and attract manga readers who had not otherwise heard or played the video game. (36)
Covers for all the Kingdom Hearts manga:
Kingdom Hearts
Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Volume 1 Volume 2
Kingdom Hearts II
Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4
Impact:
Although the game is only celebrating its ten year anniversary this year since its release in 2002, the game although not widely played yet (could be due in part of its exclusive hold onto the PlayStation 2), though many that do play video games or not have heard or better yet have played one of more games in the Kingdom Hearts series. What Square Enix has done though through its success with Kingdom Hearts was the ability to capturing a larger American role play gaming audience and in addition a larger age demographic, from those who were drawn in due in part to the Disney elements of the game and/or gamers who were familiar with Square/Enix/Square Enix's previous successful franchises such as Final Fantasy before the Kingdom Hearts series came around. But since its 2002 has been leaving the foundation on which it had famously build itself on: appealing to a wide audience. According to Bob Mackey, writer for 1UP.com, he and others feel that the franchise is now limiting itself that is not good for what used to be considered a mega franchise and a gaming franchise to compliment Square Enix's other mega-hits, " These days, its hard to shake the feeling that Kingdom Hearts games aren't made for anyone but Kingdom Hearts fans alone." (37)
Chart Cited:
"Kingdom Hearts Sales Figures." VGchartz. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=kingdom+hearts>.
"Square Enix's Top Best Sellers." VGchartz. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2012 <http://www.vgchartz.com/article/250282/top-10-in-sales-square-enix-games/ >
Work Cited:
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