Dispatch from the Dive: A Kingdom Hearts Diary, Preamble

EDIT, January 4: fixed image with one that spells “diary” correctly. Perhaps the original version was an omen of things to come

Over the past few years (probably 2017), I’ve become more and more invested in classic, turn-based Japanese Role-Playing Games. It’s not that I’ve never played the genre before; it’s just that it rarely went beyond Nintendo: Paper Mario, EarthBound, Chrono Trigger, and plenty of Pokémon. But I’ve tried to explore this genre more and more. A lot of that came from Super Smash Bros., which has added characters from JRPGs that intrigued me, but not all of it. It’s a relatively new field for me, and exploring its grand soundtracks and distinct mechanical elements has become quite satisfying.

Some of these games – NieR: Automata, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Persona 5 – became some of my favorite games of all time. Others were more mixed (the fun, problematic, wildly ambitious Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the significantly less compelling Dragon Quest XI, the strong but bloated Final Fantasy VII REMAKE), but no matter which game, I’ve learned a lot. And there’s still room to explore; I bought Final Fantasy XV half a year ago and could try something like Bravely Default or Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I’d like to play one JRPG that’s new to me a year, at least, from now on. Last year, it was Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country (and a replay of Xenoblade Chronicles 2) and Fire Emblem Awakening.

But there’s one IP that looms large, which I’ve never played under any capacity, and now has a Smash Bros. connection of its own: Kingdom Hearts. I’ve never played a single entry in the series, and even though I know many plot and character details, it’s a completely new field for me to explore. Smash adding its main protagonist spurred me on to want to finally see what this series is. But it’s not just one game; this is a series, one that’s had continuous releases since 2002. Kingdom Hearts came out the same year as Metroid Prime, The Wire, and… wow, that was a rough year for movies, huh? If I play the series, will it be as good as May, as bad as The Master of Disguise, or as ugly as Half Past Dead?

Oh, Half Past Dead. Such a great punchline in the low comedy act that is Steven Seagal’s career. May, on the other hand, is pretty rad.

Here’s how things will go: every week, I’ll try to play through some of the Kingdom Hearts series. Every Sunday, I’ll submit a written account of my time. Like a book report. And while I’m not sure what the pace will be, I intend to finish as much of the series as I can by the end of this year.

There are a few notes and caveats here. First, I will not actually play every single game. I’ll be initially going through The Story So Far, a collection of “Kingdom Hearts experiences” that was made in preparation for Kingdom Hearts III (which took many, many years to release). “Experiences” is right, as some of the games were only included as multiple “movies” cobbled together from cutscenes. I’ll be watching them, but not actively seeking out their individual games. The same goes for games only released in Japan. If I want to keep going after this, I’ll play through Kingdom Hearts III, Melody of Memory, and any new theoretical games that come out before the end of 2022.

On that note, I reserve the right to give up at any time if I dislike the series or the story or the gameplay too much, or for any other personal reason. I have a history of sticking with things I don’t like, but I have just as strong a history of quitting. In 2019, I wanted the experience of watching a terrible, long-running shōnen anime series, because that’s something that people of my generation did. I chose Bleach and hatewatched 248 – yes, two-hundred and forty-eight (that’s just a little less than 250! I remember learning that in school!) – episodes of television, disliking each one. I dutifully listened to endless banal exposition, saw every boring, identical character and every boring, identical fight, and took in each moral about how we need to protect the authoritarian government from the people it victimized. Why subject myself to that? Because I wanted that feeling of waiting for an improvement that never comes. But I couldn’t keep going right before hitting the semiquincentennial, because after a point I just couldn’t press that “play” button on Hulu anymore. Subjecting myself to Ichigo’s miserable little world would be even dumber of a thing to do (and, naturally, two years later my best friend would show me a few dozen episodes of Naruto, a show that’s somehow substantially more awful, so I suppose it could’ve been worse). I’ll be turning 31 in less than a week; I don’t want to do an upsetting long term project for no pay.

And my concerns about this aren’t unfounded in this case, because Kingdom Hearts is a series that’s distinctly unappealing to my interests. The biggest thing is that I don’t like the Walt Disney Company; I haven’t since I was a child. Even back then, I found that big Walt signature and Disneyland castle to be scary and intimidating, and time has not changed that. Of the Mouse’s many current holdings, the things from them that I like can largely be reduced to Gravity Falls, Coco, The Princess and the Frog, the two Star Wars movies with “Jedi” in the title, The X-Files, the first two seasons of the DuckTales reboot, and from that, Donald Duck. But Kingdom Hearts has Donald, at least!

But I also know enough things about the plot and writing and acting – particularly from my work in the SSBU Spirits Project – to know that the original content may be something of a trial as well. It involves nonlinear narratives and very similar looking characters (many of whom are literally built out of other characters) and some questionable writing decisions. And a lot, a lot, of flat acting by celebrities I mostly like. And don’t think I don’t know about the “press X and sometimes △” meme about its gameplay. But that’s part of the fun!

And I’m sure there’ll be things I like. The soundtrack is by Yoko Shimomura, who is consistent in delivering a banger of a score. Source Gaming’s own Phantom once compared Sora to Steven Universe, and I love Steven Universe, so the spiky-haired, voiced by the kid from The Sixth Sense twerp will hopefully be compelling in his own right. And there’s no Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean level! Sure, these things may seem small, but sometimes, a hook just needs to be small to grab you – and for long enough to find new positives that can’t be seen so easily from a distance.

Plus, there’s this. This really worked for me.

I’d also like to thank Voyager for providing the excellent image templates I’ll be using for the header image for every entry. They’re really good.

At the time of publication, it’s January 1st of 2022 (a Saturday, but waiting until January 2 seems silly). I’ll be sleeping off an all-day New Year’s Eve marathon, but I’ll also be playing the very first Kingdom Hearts. May what I find be exciting, entertaining, but above all surprising. And if you will, please be there with me.