At the end of the month — outside of any electric potential , agonise last - bit delay — one of the most awaited moments for games in 2019 is going to befall : After years and class of wait , Kingdom Hearts 3will finally amount out . Are you a Disney fan who ’s wildly disordered as to what the deal is ? We ’re here to … let ’s say help . [ Ed ’s Note : Well , that sound threatening . -Jill P. ]
Yo , thatMickey Mousehas a goddamn sword .
A keyblade .
A what ?
A keyblade ! It ’s like a sword , but … also a key , that can unlock the warmness of a macrocosm . And there ’s a whole cluster of them in the world(s ! ) of the picture game series , Kingdom Hearts .
Sure , fine . So why does Mickey Mouse have a sword ?
Because he ’s King Mickey . Well , more specifically , Mickey is a Keyblade Master , the best of the best when it make out to Keyblade wielders . He utilize it to jaunt the unnumbered worlds of Kingdom Hearts , struggle back the duskiness alongside his friends .
You ’re gon na have to rewind here . Like , a lot . Why is Mickey Mouse oppose the darkness alongside a bunch of anime - looking people ?
So … back in 2002 , Square Enix — the people who make the Final Fantasy serial — launch Kingdom Hearts , an action - RPG collaboration with Disney that commingle unexampled characters , Final Fantasy characters , and Disney character into an original crossover write up . The game primarily keep abreast the exploits of a young son distinguish Sora , who find himself suddenly in the possession of his own Keyblade and whisked forth from his island home ( share with his two best friend , Riku and Kairi ) , tasked with fighting back a sinister darkness — an regular army take over out of the fugacious darkness inter within all dwell things , given word form by shady - creatures called the Heartless — and find his lost friend along the way .
Where does the Disney material get along in then ? This all sounds very … not Disney .
Well , for appetizer , by from the whole King Mickey thing I mentioned previously , early on Sora meets Donald Duck and Goofy , who are initially on the hunt for the wanting Mickey . This threesome is essentially the main party of the game , and for the most part , the primary supporter of the series … at first .
At first ?
We ’ll get to that . This is n’t your usual Donald and Goofy though . In the secret plan , they ’re part of Mickey ’s royal court of justice : Donald is the Royal Magician , so he becomes the spellcaster of your company ( he ’s pretty much a Final Fantasy Black Mage , throw elemental spells out and what have you ) , while Goofy is actually the captain of Mickey ’s Royal Knights , and acts as the party ’s independent “ tank , ” drawing tending and soak up damage .
Okay , cool . So the Disney thing in Kingdom Hearts is just that Mickey , Donald , and Goofy are in it ?
No , there ’s more ! Kingdom Hearts follow Sora ’s pursuit across a variety of humankind in its own macrocosm , and those worlds are principally the lands of various classical Disney properties . The first biz alone , aside from a few original locations , has worlds based on the ilk of Aladdin , Alice in Wonderland , Winnie the Pooh , Hercules , The Nightmare Before Christmas , and more , and they ’re all filled with intimate characters , broadly speaking tied into the stories of their respective film .
That ’s a trend which has continued over the series — the 2nd secret plan added locale ground on Tron , Pirates of the Caribbean , Beauty and the Beast , The Lion King , and more , while the forthcoming third secret plan has add worlds from the likes of tangle , Frozen , Toy Story , Monsters Inc. , and Big Hero Six . And some of the original voice doer from the films are actually reprising their roles !
tasteful ! So it ’s a Final Fantasy game that just go on to take place in a bunch of Disney movies , with some original characters ?
Not really — while a few Final Fantasy favorites like VII ’s Cloud and Aerith or VIII ’s Squall ( who goes by “ Leon ” in the Kingdom Hearts universe , take from his last name Leonheart ) do show up , they ’ve gotten less of import to the overall story Kingdom Hearts is trying to say at this point . In fact , so has Disney , in some ways .
expect , really ?
The first game has all the material about the Darkness and Keyblade masters and an original villain that would amount to push back the distinguished overarching story of Kingdom Hearts , but it was mostly border around a plot of land that various Disney Princesses—(Princesses of Heart ) were being kidnapped by agents of the Darkness ( the Heartless ) for nefarious purpose . And a whole bunch of Disney villains like Maleficent , Hades , and Jafar were in on it . At first , before the real threats were revealed , Maleficent was pretty much the villain of the first game .
But since then , Kingdom Hearts has become much more of its own affair , focusing on the original characters and story , while the Disney and Final Fantasy component have become more like set fecundation . They ’re still there , they ’re just not as much of the focusing . The appeal is still get to visit all these Disney worlds and characters , but the story is driven by a immense mould of novel villains and allies that have been flesh out and looped into the wider level over the last 17 year .
You ’ve danced around that “ wider story ” stuff a lot . What do I postulate to know if I want to get on board ?
The intellect for that is a ) there ’s a lot of it and b ) Kingdom Hearts has a bit of an ill-famed reputation for having a terribly incomprehensible and heavy story for citizenry outside of its most diehard fans . That ’s not really true , because at its gist , it ’s an geezerhood - old saga about the residuum between light source and obscure , and salvage worlds from being consumed by vicious forces . This might “ only ” be Kingdom Hearts 3 , but there ’s in reality a lot more to it than that , as you ’ll discover later .
But it ’s also sorta dead on target , because it ’s a basic write up evidence in the most tangled mode possible . There are clones as well as characters who just happen to look like each other for reasons that are often just to obfuscate or confound you while you try out to fancy out the crook and turn of the narrative . There are people taking over each other ’s bodies . There ’s a whole bunch of amnesia . There ’s this whole thing where multitude without a heart are split into their normal and “ nobody ” self , with the latter being their own sentient being with weird mixed up versions of their “ original ” names . There are stories sweep immense periods of sentence covering ancient warfare and mysterious prophecies . The primary baddie , Xehanort , has had multiple incarnation under different epithet over the old age . And there ’s time locomotion !
Oh boy .
It can get pretty wild , and if you ’re connive because of the Disney aspect it can definitely be daunting at first . It ’s why fan have devote themselves to trying to parcel out every clue and whodunit they can from trailers and from the other game for years while they ’ve waitress forKingdom Hearts 3 .
The new game is meant to pretend as a finish to the current chapter of the saga — the narration of Xehanort ’s long architectural plan to re - counterfeit the original , all - powerful Keyblade called the χ - vane — which I swear to god is pronounced as “ fundamental - blade , ” just to flurry you even more — and use it to get to the fabled Kingdom Hearts itself : the mythologic realm mean to be the home of the assemble visible radiation of every world in the cosmos and a source of huge wisdom and power .
Okay , so this third secret plan is out at the end of the month . All I got ta do is trifle one and two to get catch up , ripe ?
No . Because while this might just be the game that happens to be called Kingdom Hearts 3 , it ’s been over a decade since Kingdom Hearts 2 derive out . In the sentence since , a total ofseven other games — with some of weirdest titles in video games — cover the backstory and flesh out the ongoing traditional knowledge of this entire saga , have been relinquish . And despite not being number “ chief ” parts of the story , they are perfectly vital parts of it . So do n’t think of Kingdom Hearts 3 as the Return of the Jedi of its trilogy , but really more like … theStar state of war : Episode IXof an entire saga .
Oh , and now that I ’ve made that credit , no , there are n’t any Marvel or Star Wars populace or theatrical role in Kingdom Hearts , despite them being Disney - own at this percentage point . distressing .
There ’s some good news though ! If you ’re trying to get on board now , it used to be way arduous to act all these game — they were spread across multiple platform , from home console to handheld to even roving phones , and across different companies . There are hundreds of hour of game to ferment through — by the time Kingdom Hearts 3 is out , you will be nowhere near quick if you go now .
These days , there ’s really a set of collections — with the absolutely atrocious names , Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue — that bunch up and remastered the games , turned some of them into extended “ movie ” aggregation of cutscenes , and made moderately much every biz in the serial accessible on one political platform . Specifically , it ’s the PS4 . These collections are n’t available on the Xbox One , despite the fact it ’s getting Kingdom Hearts 3 . It would n’t be Kingdom Hearts without some incomprehensibly spoil decisions !
Can I … just jump on board with Kingdom Hearts 3 then ?
I think of , you could try . In fact , Square - Enix is really desire you do — Kingdom Hearts 3 will in reality come with a 20 minute long series of recapitulation videos that are designed to get raw players enamour up on the basics of what they need to know . you could watch themonlinenow in Japanese ( with English subtitles ) , if you want to do it in advance .
Suffice to say though , 20 minutes ca n’t possibly cover everything you need to know — but fans have been so excited for this game for so long that there are actually plenty of other in - depth video recording recap for the entire saga that can aid flesh things out . ( Here’safewto get you started , and a few years ago our babe site Kotaku wroteits own guide to the story ! ) But even then , those wo n’t to the full prepare you for every twist and sprain Kingdom Hearts 3 might have either , at least compared to actually playing the intact serial publication yourself .
Just know that if you ’re go to climb up in with this wonderful conclusion of a nearly 20 - year saga to join the conversation and see what it ’s all about , you ’re stick to to overlook a few thing . Google , and maybe a friend who ’s already been through this , will be helpful ! Even if you ’re just coming for the Disney stuff , it ’s amazing to see these darling worlds furnish in modernistic gaming artwork . As uncanny and obtuse as Kingdom Hearts has gotten , that ’s still a big joy for many fans , so there ’ll be fun to have even as you render to beat together the story .
Okay . Got it . One last thing though : What actually are the Kingdom Hearts ?
God . So , a bunch of things ? Everything has a heart in Kingdom Hearts — the light of the inner self , from the smallest sentient being to the actual worlds of the universe . And then there ’s the Kingdom Hearts , as in a singular entity that just happen to sound like a plural one because , well , who would want to make this easy on you ?
Anyway , Kingdom Hearts is actually three things :
It ’s the name of the series , duh .
The true Kingdom Hearts is a fabled realm made out of the gathered eye of every world in the Kingdom Hearts universe , that will award you untold wisdom and power if you access it ( which is what Xehanort and a crowd of other characters in the series have been trying to do ) . The only truthful way to access it is with the χ - blade , which was shattered into 20 sherd of light and non-white in a war called , unsurprisingly , the Keyblade War .
There ’s also the phony Kingdom Hearts , because of course there is . Remember how I said there ’s a whole bunch of people call “ Nobodies , ” who are created when a person ’s heart is split from them ? A group of them call Organization XIII attempt to gather the hearts of citizenry from all over the universe in an endeavour to forge them together as their own facsimile of the honest Kingdom Hearts that would yield them heart to live as full mortal .
That ’s not confusing at all .
Sure is n’t . receive to Kingdom Hearts ! The long wait to see how it all comes together ends when Kingdom Hearts 3 is released on January 29 .
For more , make indisputable you ’re following us on our new Instagram @io9dotcom .
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