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Kingdom Hearts' Intro

3 years ago2,453 words

I decided on a game to (re)play: the entire Kingdom Hearts series. I might even get through them all before I turn 40 if I start now!

I've spent many hours playing the Kingdom Hearts games in the past. I got most of them as soon after they came out, starting with the first, but couldn't get Birth By Sleep because of it being exclusive to a console I didn't own - I remember being really frustrated about that - and then I felt I couldn't play any subsequent installments since I'd missed that one. Playing things in order and completely is very important to me!

So when I downloaded the Epic Games store/app thing to play Soulstorm a few weeks (months?) ago, I was quite excited to see PC ports of the entire Kingdom Hearts series on there... though I was put off by the huge time commitment and high cost (three compilations around £50 each). I did get the third on sale a while ago, but felt I should play the others again first and had been putting off taking the plunge.

There were a few games people suggested in comments on the weekly update, but most were completely unfamiliar to me so there was this largely subconscious uncertainty barrier - "what if I don't even enjoy it?" - plus the feeling that I'd be constantly analysing any indie games, comparing them to my efforts. I'd already mentioned KHIII in the post, and TheFifteenthMember recommended the series, which gave me the little push I needed to invest in the first compilation (which has more games than I thought so it actually seems like great value).

I think I'll try to play these as 'comfort games' to destress; I'll try not to analyse them and I probably won't write about them afterwards (to the torturous disappointment of all the dozen people who skim these game 'review' posts, I'm sure). Since I'm currently working on Atonal Dreams' intro though, and was recently wondering how other games started to the point I looked at a handful of longplays' beginnings, I wanted to make a few notes about how this game begins.



I got an overall impression of vagueness from the intro.



It begins with a custcene with Sora floating in an ocean-like void, and some short quotes (something like "I've been having some weird thoughts lately; is this all real?") which give a vague feeling that's familiar in its oddness... or something I'm struggling to put into words. Essentially it flirts with beyond pondering in a way most teenagers would have experience with; surface-level profundity, or something. It doesn't say anything about the specifics of the wider story though (it's not like he's in a dream or simulation or anything - at least in the first one - from what I can recall? Or maybe he is and I've just forgotten).

It puts you into a mental state but doesn't exactly tell you anything. Something like that.



Then Sora awakens on a beach, the camera focused closely on his face (I wonder whether some of my own stuff was inspired by half-forgotten memories of playing this as a teen). It's daytime, and he sees Riku enigmatically out at sea, then they're both consumed by a wave.



Sora emerges and it's now suddenly night, with Kairi beckoning him in a more friendly manner from the shore. He then sees another of himself falling from the sky into the sea.

This all feels like it was intended to have some meaning, but - even though I've played these games a lot and know the characters somewhat even though it's been a while since I last met them - I'm not exactly sure what that meaning is. I feel like the friendly vs rival roles of Kairi and Riku respectively are shown in a nice, wordless way, but it's interesting that Riku's in the light while Kairi's in the dark.

(Though I still remember a scene from later where Sora meets up with them both after searching for a while, and to Kairi - ostensibly his love interest? - he's like "hey, glad you're okay", whereas he runs at Riku pouring his heart out and sobbing into his crotch about how much he missed him or something; I found it both funny and baffling as a teen, so I wonder how I'll interpret it this time around. And how accurate my memories are!)



A peppy pop song plays throughout this cutscene (or 'video sequence' as I called them as a child, for some reason), which I always had mixed feelings about ("simple and clean" always made me wonder what sex thing it was referring to, or at least the singer had in mind). The whole scene always felt more like an excuse to show of the at-the-time very impressive CGI and to shove in the song, which always seem to be pushed as if they're somehow more significant than the often-better-composed orchestral BGM and grumble grumble... That's a whole other rant though.

Overall this bit was vague, and more about giving a feeling rather than dumping lore on the player. Maybe that's the best way to do it, though, since little of what's shown in the first few minutes would be retained... plus it's meant to be a dream, and it feels like a dream. Interesting seeing how they approached that, anyway!



One of the Soras falls from the sky through the sea and into a tutorial. A void with some platforms patterned with stained-glass-like Disney princesses. These small floating-in-a-void arenas are something I can appreciate as a creator since they focus attention and wouldn't have taken much effort to make... or to model, anyway; the textures are impressively intricate. They give princesses with no later story role a chance for inclusion too, which is nice. Plus starting with the most historical of the princesses - Snow White, from Disney's first animated film - was something I appreciate more now than when I knew less of the world.



There are a couple of choices to customise your stats, kind of? But this too is incredibly vague. What are the exact statistical values of the choices made here? I didn't really care to know back when I first played it, and I wonder whether I've been veering too far in the opposite direction by making every little stat - and its effects - visible in Atonal Dreams!

(I chose to focus on attack and sacrifice defence, which completely clashes with my personal values!)

I've been wondering about text size for a while - what's normal? Or the lower limits? - and it's interesting how HUGE this text looks on my PC screen, right in front of my face. It never looked huge on a distant TV, which is obviously why it's so big. I suspect the text I'm using in my games these days - designed for close-by PC monitors - is too small! I wonder how much other devs think and have meetings about and revise such things. So few words fit in each text bubble at this size, which is neither a good nor a bad thing.



There are these even vaguer choices too, which I like - it's the sort of thing I've been considering including to determine a player's runes if I make a game with custom characters (and runes), like similar things I had in old games to determine element etc - but which I don't understand the consequences of even now!



Also, I find it odd how Sora's silent throughout this whole tutorial. His face screams out but there's no sound. It feels completely detached from the story and world, but it introduces the general aesthetic feel of it all... though I'm so familiar with these games I can't remember what it was like to experience them for the first time! The tutorial is taught through notably short bits of text which adds to the detached feeling.



The combat's introduced through some effectively harmless enemies (but I wonder if you can die to them, and what happens if you do), then a boss which looks much more imposing than it actually is. I always found it weird how you target one of its wrists! I think they should have made the target spot on the crotch instead, totally.

Is it just a big monster representing the concept of the heartless in general (which it - with its heart-shaped hole in its chest - feels like a paragon of), or is it specifically meant to be Sora's personal shadow? It's hinted here that it's the latter, but I forget if that has any further plot relevance.



I like this line, though it's another of those things that feels ~deep~ in a general sense but which isn't really all that applicable to this specific story or character... maybe? I shouldn't be relying on my foggy memory for such assessments, probably!



After this, Sora wakes up and the player's briefly acquainted with him, Kairi, and Riku. I have greater appreciation for things like their models and animations - especially the facial expressions - now that I've had experience making such things myself!



Their personalities are hinted at; I remember hating Riku as a lonely nerdy teen because he's portrayed as this cool alpha here who Kairi blushes over.

I also noticed a lot of camera shots that evaded the faces, focusing on weird things like:







I wanted to save and quit as soon as I regained control, but couldn't find a save point and was annoyed by that! Took me ages to find it too.



You're then effectively forced to just play around and explore a bit on your own by being told to find some items scattered about the island. A good way to give the player autonomy early on, and probably a wise decision, since - for me at least - early plot stuff isn't retained well since it's too unfamiliar and the mind's not yet started forming connections etc. (I know this, and yet I'm packing my own intro with lore. WHOOPS.)



You can also optionally battle these Final Fantasy characters, who'd be familiar to many players - they were to me - though why they included child versions of these three was something I wondered about as a teen! I think FFX was released around the same time, so Tidus and Wakka make sense, but why Selphie, from VIII? Was she a fan favourite in Japan or something?? One of the developer's waifus??



They don't explain who they are or how Sora knows them or anything; they just immediately ask you to play-battle with them. Then once you've beaten them all, you can fight them all together. I enjoyed this more than I expected for a game I've previously played to death! It's interesting how I've spent hundreds of hours with these combat mechanics, but here I felt I'd regressed back to level 1... Seems I had some reflexes for evading and blocking that led to some frustration because they weren't unlocked yet, though (hardly the game's fault!).



I beat the solo fights first try, but had to attempt the three-on-one one several times. But I retried eagerly and really enjoyed it, since the battles were short, snappy, and each time I felt like I almost had it. A great level of difficulty. Plus you gain EXP mid-combat for parrying, meaning I was growing stronger with each attempt. A variety of optional, consequence-free, repeatable practice battles is a great way to introduce the combat system - on the player's terms - without hand-holding, I'd say!

Makes me wish I had something similar in Atonal Dreams, but this action combat is such a different animal anyway that it'd probably work better for this than for AD. This is about visceral reflex rather than cerebral strategising, so repetition helps here but wouldn't as much for turn-based battles.



You also get to battle Riku...



...who my Sora was overjoyed to have a 25% win rate against.

He does this counterattack that I couldn't dodge because it usually happened when I was mid-combo, so I don't know if you get anything for a certain number of wins and can't be bothered sticking with it. It's good narratively though as it shows Riku's dominance... as if his overall behaviour hadn't already made that clear.

I finally found the save point after this and quit. Overall I enjoyed it more than I expected to; I thought maybe it'd be too familiar and boring as a result of that, or that I'd be disappointed in some way now that I'm older than when I first played.



The series was so odd when it first started, combining Final Fantasy and various cool Japanese designs and tropes with Disney's American sweetness. Feels like a pink cake served by a katana-wielding mecha... or something. I never really knew (or can't remember) what anyone else thought about it before the release, but I remember being both old and young enough that I was embarrassed about giving it a go because I feared it was 'for children', which I of course no longer was, but people will think I am, aaaahhh... Ha, teenage insecurities... How we outgrow them!! Right?!?

The series' story eventually grew so convoluted I think its complexity became a kind of meme, which always surprised me too; I wondered whether Disney would have preferred something more accessible, but allowed it anyway for some reason.

But the games have been successful and found a pleasant place in many people's hearts, my own very much included, so I look forward to spending the next several years of my life working through them all at a snail's pace even though I should really be playing new indie games to get an idea of how the modern market works! But whatever!!

Like I said at the start (then completely did the opposite for this post), I really shouldn't analyse and compare these; I should just play them for fun, so that's what I'll try to do from now on... though I suppose it's impossible to completely shed the developer's eyes. We'll see how it goes!

("I'll just spend 20 minutes writing a quick post about it!", I thought, then spent longer writing this than I'd spent playing the game. Brevity is not my forte!)