“A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory. A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream. I wanna line the pieces up—yours and mine.” – Sora, Kingdom Hearts II
CONTENTS
1. PART ONE: A New Beginning
3. PART THREE: Missing the Mid-Point
4. PART FOUR: Motivation, Meaning and the Key Question: Why?
5. PART FIVE: Missing Ingredients - What made Final Fantasy & Disney a Perfect Match?
6. PART SIX: Dreaming of the Future, Neglecting the Present
Kingdom Hearts III. From the moment I completed its numbered predecessor in 2006 those words have held unlimited potential. And for the past 13 years, my mind has been brimming with possibilities for every beloved character and thematic thread. The stark reality, however, is that Kingdom Hearts III’s narrative is a meandering mess which knows exactly where it’s going, but has no idea *why* it’s going there – or how to create a satisfying crescendo to the series so far.
The reason for this, I believe, is that Kingdom Hearts III is a conclusion without a story; a game that lacks a complete, evenly-spread, fully-realised narrative, and is instead only concerned with its final few hours – a climactic event called the Keyblade War, which the past decade of games have been leading up to. Specifically, this essay is an examination of Kingdom Hearts III’s approach to storytelling and the issues on display; it is not about lore, consistency, or convolution. While I adore the series, this critique is largely written from a game developer’s perspective, albeit with the insights (and frustrations) of a lifelong fan.
Now, in order to examine this assertion, we need to determine exactly what Kingdom Hearts III is a conclusion to. Players without an extensive knowledge of the series may be surprised to learn just how many narrative threads are introduced in this game - and left completely unresolved. And those threads which are concluded often have their origin in games over a decade old.
To use the official PR, Kingdom Hearts III is the conclusion to the ‘Dark Seeker Saga’ – a long-running narrative which involves our heroes fighting the villainous Xehanort in one of his many incarnations. As such, this latest game is billed as a sort of finale to every prior entry in the series. And this is one of the biggest challenges when attempting to examine Kingdom Hearts III’s narrative – rather than building its own story on top of what’s come before, its purpose is more to wrap up the past 17 years worth of games. That’s a tall order, with a lot of baggage to sift through; but so much build-up and legacy should have provided a solid foundation for a final chapter. And yet, Kingdom Hearts III has very little to say; about its story, about its characters, or about any of the series’ larger themes. Consequently, I believe that Kingdom Hearts III is a conclusion in search of a story; an ending to a series of games, yes, but one lacking a clear identity and without a tale of its own to tell.
But before we begin exploring this, I wanted to address a few general topics.
This essay has been written over a 9 month period, and predates the release of the Re:Mind downloadable content. While this release may address some of my points, it won’t change the original Kingdom Hearts III experience and so I decided to treat it as a separate product.
I am a big Kingdom Hearts fan who has beaten every game multiple times (except Re:Coded), knows the lore, and first played the original game in 2002. Sometimes I may not elaborate on a plot point to the level of detail that other fans would like, or I’ll fail to mention some caveat to a statement I’ve made. Generally, this isn’t because I’m unaware of something; it just comes down to a desire to keep my writing as concise and digestible as possible. Unless it was important to the discussion at hand, I tried to cut down on any narrative bloat that was present in my writing.
I quite enjoyed my time with Kingdom Hearts III and consider it a genuinely great game; one that I would happily recommend to fans of Disney and the Action genre. Even though this article is primarily a critique of the game’s narrative flaws, I am not someone who hates the game or spends his time attacking it. An essay skewed towards writing and game design felt like the most constructive way of conveying my thoughts and feelings about this title.
This essay was not only written to be an analysis of Kingdom Hearts III, but also to discuss topics and techniques that readers can potentially apply to their own games. My hope is that highlighting the pitfalls of this story will allow other developers to avoid them in future; especially as some of these issues are not always immediately obvious during the writing process.
Full spoilers will be included for the base Kingdom Hearts III storyline, so if you have not finished the game yourself, please be aware of this.
Finally, I know this essay is quite lengthy, and so to anyone who decides to read through it, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you enjoy it – and maybe even gain something from it – then you’ll have made all the weekends I’ve spent writing this worthwhile.
So with all of that out of the way, let’s follow our hearts and see where they lead us.
“There is so very much to learn. You understand so little... One who knows nothing can understand nothing.”
– Ansem (Seeker of Darkness), Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts III begins with the classic trio of Sora, Donald, and Goofy visiting Olympus (the world of Hercules) in hope of finding some way to restore the spiky-haired hero’s lost abilities. In the words of series creator Tetsuya Nomura, “…Sora has lost all of his powers and needs to get them back, and there was once a hero who regained his own powers in the same way, so it was a perfect fit for the start of the journey.”[1] And Nomura’s absolutely right - this is a set-up with a lot of potential! It:
Continues the story from the moment where the previous games left off, while also serving as a comfortable jumping in point for new players – especially as it uses the setting of a popular Disney film.
Uses the characters’ past experience to provide a logical reason for visiting this world (as Hercules had to regain his strength in Kingdom Hearts II).
Immediately throws the player into the action without much need for exposition, ensuring the game opens with a bang and subverts past games’ slower paced openings.
The problem is that, while these events do get Kingdom Hearts III off to a running start, they amount to very little. By the time you leave Olympus, Sora hasn’t learnt how to restore his powers; and the frustrating part is that he never explicitly does. Even the villains are given no progress – a subplot about Pete and Maleficent looking for a mysterious black box goes nowhere, and Organisation XIII (the primary antagonists) only put in a brief appearance, spouting their usual brand of vaguely ominous dialogue. To compound these issues, the protagonists are ultimately left not knowing where to go or what to do next. Only two hours into the game, and the plot has no sense of momentum or direction.
By comparison, Kingdom Hearts II’s opening was significantly slower paced – to the point that it was a detriment to some players. However, so much more was achieved in a similar space of time; II’s initial hours establish the game’s tone and major themes, as well as introduce a large cast of brand new characters (while simultaneously reintroducing old ones in new contexts). It sets up a wider world, a series of intriguing mysteries, and even tells a self-contained, tragic tale. It’s not perfect, and Kingdom Hearts III deserves praise for immediately engaging the player by comparison. But love it or hate it, by the time Kingdom Hearts II’s logo appears, significant events have taken place and a foundation for the overall narrative has been formed.
Returning to Kingdom Hearts III, we leave Sora behind for a moment in order to catch up with Riku and King Mickey. They’ve ventured to the Realm of Darkness to rescue Aqua – a Keyblade Wielder who has been trapped there for many years.
