Man, right in the feels.

Kingdom Hearts - I know I've talked about it before, but I just can't get enough. This series has everything I love: nice visuals/art style, solid game-play and a STORY. (Hoo mama, I love the story). While we're on the topic, I'm gonna throw down an obligatory spoiler alert as I'm about to go into some of the finer details of the series. (Although if you haven't played this game by now, you should rethink your RPG choices). The charm, the level of detail, the way they evolved the game-play over time... everything is just too good. Now, I'm not completely blind to the downfalls of the series - some of the titles should never have been released and some pivotal game-play choices within certain titles were... questionable. Never the less, the story boggled my mind and made me wish I had a Keyblade every single day.

Maybe one day I'll finally buy one off eBay...

Above image from http://th04.deviantart.net/fs36/PRE/i/2008/254/c/e/Kingdom_Key_Keyblade_by_The_Celestial_Dragon.jpg

So here's a brief run down of the first title, Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts gets released, people everywhere cry tears of joy. There's Sora - a little kid that chills on an island with his two friends, Kairi and Riku. Kairi washed up outta no where on their island one day, and ever since, the three of them have vowed they would visit other worlds and find Kairi's home. The day their about to leave, though, some evil looking dark creatures called Heartless show up. Sora goes to this secret cave where a mysterious robed man shows up. He gives some speech about the door and it is revealed that Kairi is there as well.  She says Sora's name before the door opens and projects a wave of darkness that sends Kairi through Sora (THIS IS IMPORTANT) and both of them flying out of the cave. When Sora comes to, ends up being able to wield this magic key thing (the Keyblade) and fights a big ole Heartless. He defeats it and Riku shows up, interested in where the darkness leads. Sora is also consumed by the darkness and gets sent across the universe to Traverse Town, the place where all people who survive their world getting consumed by darkness end up.

There, Sora also Leon (from Final Fantasy) and learns that the king of his world was studying the Heartless. His name, was Ansem. He also meets his boys Donald and Goofy. Their King (King Mickey) sent them to find a "key" and stick with it.  The three team up to find both Sora's friends and the King. As they travel from world to world looking for answers and locking the Keyholes of each world (pathways the Heartless use to steal hearts), they notice there are a bunch of Disney villains who have formed an alliance to capture the "Princesses of Heart" (essentially the Disney Princesses) so they can open the Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts. On top of this, Riku joined them due to Maleficent building distrust in him while promising to help him find Kairi. Riku eventually locates a comatose looking Kairi on his own.

Sora and the gang end up in Hollow Bastion - the setting of the final showdown, the home-world of Ansem and Maleficent's HQ. Upon arrival, Riku scoops the Keyblade from Sora, claiming that it was his all along and Sora was "just the delivery boy." Since Donald and Goofy have to follow the key, they begrudgingly leave Sora to follow the crazy, angsty Riku. Unwavered, Sora follows and challenges Riku to a fight, giving a big speech about how his heart gets strength from his friends. The Keyblade magically warps from Riku back to Sora and Goofy and Donald follow suit (since they gotta follow the key and all). Riku gets butt-hurt and runs off into the depths of the castle, where a hooded man tells him to give in to the darkness.

Sora and the gang have at this point defeated Maleficent. Riku comes back looking super evil and holding a new Keyblade that unlocks hearts (whatever that means). He leads them to Kairi's body, which as it turns out is missing its heart. (She's alive, but can't feel anything. She's an empty shell). Riku then reveals that he's actually Ansem possessing Riku's bod. He also reveals that Kairi is a Princess of Heart and that her heart has been hidden within Sora ever since he destroyed their island home. (Remember the whole passing through Sora thing?!?!) He also ALSO reveals that the Keyhole to this world can't be opened while the final Princess of Heart sleeps. Sora does't give a crap and beats Ansem. But something is amiss... he can't seal the Keyhole. How oh how can he do it? Looking at the Keyblade that unlocks hearts, Sora stabs him self in the, well, heart. This sends both his and Kairi's heart out of his body. Kairi wakes up with her newly recovered heart, while Sora turns into a Heartless. Sora follows the "voice of Kairi's heart" and finds his group again. Kairi returns Sora to human form. They then decide its time to end Ansem's plan.

Whew. Apologies for the huge essay, but this just goes to show how detailed the story is. I'm sure while reading this, there will still be fragments that don't quite makes sense; and this is about as diluted as I could make the story. (I didn't even put in how the game ends). Now let's take a look at why this story is so amazing, why it's definitely influenced the way I write and how it elicits feelings. Right off the bat, there's three best friends. In a matter of MINUTES, these guys are split up and sent across the universe. You really see how much fun they have and how great life is on the island - it really, really hurts to watch Riku sinking into the darkness with his hand outstretched for Sora, asking him to join, while Sora reaches and reaches; unable to clasp his comprades hand. This whole juxtaposition, this come with me, this almost taunting way of saying "come find me," is a really big theme through a lot of the game.

No, seriously. The number of times this image shows up in cutscenes and such is staggering.

Above image taken from http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/089/4/1/_mmd__riku_kh1___dl____by_kazuki9484-d5zu8wo.png

On top of this, there's a whole overriding theme of friendship and never being apart from people even when you are, since you are connected through your hearts. This is shown whenever Kairi/Riku is mentioned to Sora and when Sora meets new friends as he travels from world to world. The message behind the came just generates good feels all around. I know for a fact that I cried when Kairi came back to life and at the very end of the game when (SEMI-SPOILER ALERT) all of Sora's hard work is for naught. The friends we worked so hard to see just get split back apart. (SPOILER OVER).

Even Riku has it rough - being badgered by Maleficent into thinking that Sora ditched him and Kairi for Donald and Goofy. (I swear that initial trip through darkness did something to him). While we're on the subject of Riku, he is really a pivotal point in showing just how crazy the writing in this game series is. Let's look specifically at the line I chose to include, "you were just the delivery boy." Within the context of the first game, this line actually makes no sense. Why would Riku believe he is the one who is supposed to wield the Keyblade? Maleficent hasn't said it was his, Ansem hasn't said it was his... so who did? 8 years later, we got our answer.

KH: Birth by Sleep was a PSP game released in 2010. It details events that take place years before the initial Kingdom Hearts and reveals a heck of a lot about these three's past. Turns out that a Keyblade master before Riku (Terra), could see the potential in young Riku and deems him worth of being able to wield a Keyblade, feeling that "one day, he will need to protect his friends." He then let's Riku place his hand on his Keyblade. (That's like, the prerequisite to being allowed to wield one). Aqua (one of the other main characters from BBS) senses a strong tie between the young Sora and Terra and Ventus (the other other main character from BBS) but DOESN'T LET HIM TOUCH HER KEYBLADE AND MAKES NO STATEMENTS ABOUT HIM BEING ABLE TO WIELD ONE. 

Sora was never deemed worthy of a Keyblade - Riku was. Sora only got to wield one since, at the end of BBS, Ventus is put into a deep sleep. His wandering heart ends up merging with Sora's, a la same fashion as the whole Kairi-Sora heart thing, confirming the tie Aqua predicted. Since Ventus' could wield a Keyblade, Sora now can since he has Ventus' heart. If you look at Ventus' character design, he looks JUST like Roxas (Sora's Nobody). Roxas was revealed in Kingdom Hearts II - once again, before we, the player, had any knowledge of BBS. This shows even MORE of just how well thought out this whole story is. Again, I apologize for throwing names that mean nothing to you, but I actually can't even explain small parts without expanding into the larger scope.

Ventus (left) & Roxas (right)

Above images taken from http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/The_Keyhole

  

Looking at this from the perspective of the player, we don't get this information until we're 8 years deep in this series. Heck, when BBS was getting screen shots EVERYONE thought that Ventus was Roxas. People used to think that Kingdom Hearts was "dragging on" as they kept adding titles to "build on the story." Well, I say HA to those people. HA to your stupid beliefs. You don't put a line like, "you're the delivery boy" in for the sake of putting it in. Every element of this game has been planned from day one - since its release in 2002. There are several other ties in that we don't learn (like Kairi being from a certain homeworld -wink wink, nudge nudge-) or just what/who Roxas is until later on in the series... even the hooded man from the beginning of the game is given context as the series progresses.

To wrap this up, all I can say is I really hope you, the reader, are craving to understand the gaps my re-iteration has left. Kingdom Hearts is a beautiful series and game; and with the release of the Kingdom Hearts HD remake (for the PS3), you now have no reason to not play it.

But seriously, this is in the intro to KH2.

Above image taken from http://www.khextreme.co.uk/kh2/fmv/intro/KH2_Intro_High_Riku3.jpg