Kingdom Hearts Series Review (Xbox, PlayStation & PC)

Kingdom Hearts immediately claims the accolade for being one of the most convoluted video game series in all of creation. On the surface, it’s effortlessly pulpy—simple, even. But then, as you gradually peel away its layers—Heartless, Nobodies, Keyholes, and veils that seemingly act as guises for a much, much darker tapestry of tainted realms and interwoven stories—it becomes a lot tougher to decipher. Alas, Kingdom Hearts isn’t a beginner-friendly Disney-Pixar affair about friendship and banishing darkness; it’s about spoon feeding you as much information as possible until you’re sick to your stomach with Jiminy Cricket’s encyclopedic fantasies. It gets lost, yet it still finds all of these ways to keep you seeking out keys to match its locks. The downside to this is that, there isn’t just the one key, and there isn’t just the one lock.

There was a time where I thought I knew Kingdom Hearts like the back of my own hand. Like countless others, I figured that, if it was just about a boy with a giant key and a tyrannical force of darkness plaguing Disney worlds, then it wouldn’t be all that difficult to squeeze an entire trilogy out of it. And I would have happily subjected myself to such a journey, too. But then, the layers were suddenly introduced—the cloak-and-dagger versions of characters; the nonsensical character arcs that you could only understand if you happened to watch a thirty-minute movie or endure a rhythm-based spin-off iteration that would have been solely on Android devices for a limited period of time. Suddenly, you needed a finger in every pie to make sense of the plot. In other words, if you didn’t attend a four-hour lecture on the ins and outs of the franchise, then you wouldn’t understand the lore. That, really, was what sullied the experience, not just for me, but for most die-hard fans of Square Enix’s love letter to Disney.

The Weaver of Worlds

It started off with a simple idea: a boy inherits a giant key that just so happens to act as a powerful weapon, and, through the use of connected portals that lead to alternate worlds, embarks on a noble quest to banish the “Darkness” and seal the keyholes to restore their balance. That was the easy part. But then, after several swaps of writers and directors, it all went south, into an oblivion of questions and irrelevant answers. Oh, the keyholes were still there, but along came a million other problems to rock the apple cart, so to speak. It was around that time, mainly during the launch of the second mainline installment, when Kingdom Hearts lost its footing, and quickly began to stumble on its own breadcrumbs. And frankly, I don’t think it has been able to find the grounds to regain its composure since.

It doesn’t help, I suppose, that Square has given itself more obstacles to overcome without needing to in order to establish context. It could have been simple, but it seems that the developers have been hell-bent on adding one too many sticks to the fire ever since the second homecoming. It hasn’t stained the journey; it’s just made it a heck of a lot tougher to understand. And to think, at one point it was about a key and a giddy Mickey Mouse. What on earth happened there?

An RPG With Heart

The story is one thing, but let’s be honest, in spite of all its shortcomings and perplexing plot points, the series itself is still structurally sound and a lot of fun to play. While it didn’t spearhead the idea of colliding with alternate worlds, it was one of the first to blend the ever-evolving tapestry of Disney into a formidable RPG that could keep rolling for generations. Frankly, it found liquid gold in the palm of its hand—a chance to streamline a plot that could span hundreds of tales and incorporate thousands of characters without ever having to fret about losing momentum. But then, as if to put a fork in the road, the writers decided to write in one too many curveballs. Kingdom Hearts evolved, but a plethora of seemingly alien nations soon found the means to latch on like parasites with mouse ears.

Of course, if you can ignore the messiness that is the storyline and its swathes of characters, then honestly, it’s surprisingly easy to roll with Kingdom Hearts and just enjoy it for what it is: a compelling RPG with a lot of heart and soul. It’s pulpy and it’s lovable, quotable and bottomless, with an in-depth customization suite and a tremendous amount of room for improvement across a wide array of play styles, key bindings and accessories. Granted, it isn’t the “child-friendly” RPG that it often makes itself out to be, and it doesn’t often make an effort to hold your hand as you work through its frequently brutal boss battles and tactical combat situations. But then, almost as if to slap a band aid on this predicament, it takes the initiative to introduce new features, genres, and spin-offs to appeal to the broader demographic. There are rhythm games, deck-building chapters, and simple mobile iterations that, while still a little rough around the edges, help you to understand the lore without needing to experience the breadth of the mainline RPGs.

Suffice it to say that, with the Pandora’s Box of Disney at its disposal, Kingdom Hearts more or less has the capacity to expand beyond its current boundaries, with mounds upon mounds of worlds to explore and hundreds of characters to introduce to the fold. The only thing preventing the series from capitalizing on this sweet, sweet nectar is its lack of comprehension of its own plot. Here’s hoping, then, that it’ll eventually find the means to fill the blanks and restore the balance. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Verdict

In spite of all its weaknesses, Kingdom Hearts still makes for one of the most enjoyable jack-of-all-trades RPGs on the market, with a unique twist on Disney-centric storytelling and a carefully crafted progression style that allows you to explore, evolve, and bathe in the magical ambiance of an ever-shifting universe of wonder and childhood fantasy. It’s still a lot to take on, and it doesn’t help itself by adding thousands of seemingly endless strands that make little to no sense to the overarching plot whatsoever. That said, if you can ignore the weighty details and bypass a lot of its perplexing elements, then you might just find yourself enjoying just about everything that fleshes out the saga.