They say that time flies, that you don’t realize how fast it goes until you start to get older. What a great truth. Yesterday ‘Kingdom Hearts’ , the game that united two universes as disparate as Disney and Square Enix , turned a whopping 10 years , and it seems that it was yesterday when we started the adventure of Sora and company without knowing very well what to expect. Today we remember this magnificent game by reviewing the five reasons that made us fans of the saga. Too bad the 13 installments released, between special versions and sequels, have not kept the type all that many expected.
The history of Kingdom Hearts
When we found out about its development, most of us were perplexed, uniting the Disney characters with those from ‘Final Fantasy’ made us think of some children’s platforms that would produce more rejection than joy, but as names like Tetsuya Nomura began to joining the project the feeling changed completely.
Fortunately, Square ended up having more weight than Disney in the development, and the result was a story that, without abandoning its audience, presented a script and deep characters, with twists of those that you had to analyze carefully so as not to end up totally lost. A childish-looking game, but with a spirit recommended for adults.
Combat system
It was 2002 and Square Enix was facing its next RPG after an era in which ‘Final Fantasy’ was beginning to decline. Turn-based battles still worked for the more advanced users, but you had to create something that a child could also enjoy, so they ended up deciding on the real-time combat system that we all know. The result could not be more successful.
Moving with Sora through the mapping, looking for areas to climb or house to enter, and suddenly finding yourself with a legion of enemies willing to steal your heart (literally), without pauses, demanding immediate action, was a delight. Special attacks, magic, objects and invocations within the reach of a couple of buttons, a system that was not easy to master , but that with the passage of time we ended up mastering it, showing even more its vast possibilities.
Invocations
Among the editors there is always a certain joke regarding the admiration I have for the Disney universe, lived halfway between the films and licensed games that I devoured as a child, and if there is something capable of making a “big boy” happy, it is allowing get back to controlling Simba’s roar after that excellent adventure for Megadrive.
There were only six invocations, all presented with a masterful design and animations, and although as the hours passed only Tinker Bell’s life injections and Mushu’s attacks would get us out of trouble, we were always looking for an opportunity to let the Genie out of the lamp or Dumbo to enjoy their pleasant company.
The fight against Sephiroth
Nomura’s work with character design was excellent for the most part, but what he accomplished with Sephiroth was to remove his hat. Accompanied by his mythical sword and a dark wing, we faced him in the tournament of the world of Hercules. He was the last enemy we would face in the Olympus Coliseum, andI admit to having sweated blood to kill himfor not reaching that point with the appropriate level.
Hard as few, beating it was a challenge, and with the passage of time it became one of those emblems of the hardcore world, with thousands of players uploading videos to YouTube to prove their worth by beating it without using magic, invocations or objects . Something like the speedrun of the PlayStation generation.
Kingdom Hearts soundtrack
I have always said that the Japanese industry will not be dead until it is surpassed in all its aspects, and that of the soundtracks is a universe that the Japanese still reign, and it seems that things will go on for a long time. The case of ‘Kingdom Hearts’, with Yōko Shimomura at the helm and the Philharmonic orchestras of Tokyo and New Japan at its command, is something worth remembering from time to time.
They were no longer simply variations on the original themes of Disney movies or arrangements like the One Winged Angel from ‘Final Fantasy VII ‘, it is that the specific themes of the game were those that were burned in the mind, thrilling whoever was at the helm every time Sora’s world, along with his hopes, fell apart. As a closing to the special I leave you with the main theme of the game.
Video | Youtube
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