Kingdom Hearts Fans Have Grown Up. The Game Should Too.
Kingdom Hearts’ biggest pitfall is the same charm that brought it to success in 2002
I am not going to attempt to unravel the story so far for the fans who might need it, partially because I myself am still very lost, even after having experienced most of the games first-hand. But if there’s one plot point that anyone who’s played a main-series Kingdom Hearts game can follow, it’s the relationship between Sora and Kairi.
Betwixt all of the narrative issues found within Kingdom Hearts, it’s the epitome of childishness that sticks out the most. And while it is that childish quality that made gamers fall in love with it nearly two decades ago, it’s time for the franchise to grow up with its fans and mature. Assuming rumors and speculation that Tetsuya Nomura has plans for it, Kingdom Hearts IV is the perfect opportunity to jump into a more mature territory, and Sora and Kairi are a great place to start.
This is a beloved franchise for good reason. It creatively endowed an original fantasy setting and the characters such as Sora, Kairi, and Riku, and combined them with Disney movies to create a completely original concept. As an 11-year-old child playing the game for the first time on the PlayStation 2, I loved venturing into the lands of my favorite classic Disney films, like The Little Mermaid and Halloween Town. In Kingdom Hearts II, I loved, even more, the introduction of Port Royal from Pirates of the Caribbean and Land of Dragons from Mulan, as did most others who played the games. It felt slightly more aged than the original game but kept with the same theme of the series.
Kingdom Hearts III would keep this same trend but add something unique from the more recent years of Disney animation: computer-generated animation and Pixar films. I agree that 14 years was too long to wait for the next main-series game, prolonged by several spin-offs that would convolute the timeline and lore, but we wouldn’t have been able to dive into Big Hero 6, Tangled, and Frozen without that hiatus. Though the list of visitable worlds was unexpectedly short, it added something unique to the series and built on its successful foundation. However, the game failed to adapt to fans’ wants and progressive needs in those fourteen years. A simple place to observe this flaw is within gaming’s most redundantly teased couple: Sora and Kairi.
Arguably the main draw, aside from the Disney settings, that has kept its fans around for so long is its characters. But it’s also those same characters that can be seen as Kingdom Hearts’ biggest detriment. Kingdom Hearts sets the first game’s story on its course by ripping Kairi away from the boy who loves her dearly, Sora, and he sets out to find her and his best friend Riku somewhere within the Disney worlds. Kairi spends most of the game as a lifeless husk until Sora eventually sacrifices himself to return Kairi’s heart to her body, effectively (and briefly) turning himself into a Heartless. But Sora still needs to find Riku, so his journey isn’t over, and Kairi is forced to wait around for him on Destiny Islands.
Sora would then spend all of the time between Chain of Memories and most of Kingdom Hearts II away from his damsel in distress until she decides “waiting isn’t good enough” and sets out to find Sora and Riku herself. Once eventually reunited with the latter, he conjures a makeshift Keyblade out of thin air, effectively making Kairi a Keyblade Warrior. This set in motion fan expectation that she would either become a playable character or, at the very least, receive a much larger role in Kingdom Hearts III than she had in the past. But unfortunately for us avid fans, this didn’t turn out to be the case. Once again, not only would Kairi spend almost another entire game away from Sora, but would still only appear in a handful of cutscenes in training to be a Keyblade Warrior — training that never comes to much fruition since she ends up being the damsel in distress yet again.
Kingdom Hearts has put in the groundwork for breathtaking, emotional moments by creating strong characters that fans have become wholeheartedly attached to throughout the years. Yet, this franchise has become lackluster by holding back in areas players look towards the most. Once the pair is reunited (again) at the end of Kingdom Hearts III’s ReMind DLC, they share a solemn moment before Sora fades into the wind. The franchise has a notorious habit of teasing couples and never fully following through with them, but perhaps Sora and Kairi have it the worst, being alluded to since 2002 and still not being proven a canon couple. There’s so much tension built up between the two that it’s odd they haven’t once shared even a small kiss or confirmation of their feelings.
And Kairi, along with most of its other female characters, is one of the series’ biggest pitfalls. She’s built up as a powerful player in the second Keyblade War, but it’s only in the DLC that she can be used as a playable character, rather than in the main game. It is worth mentioning that the upcoming spinoff Melody of Memories will be focused on the princess, but this is a rhythm game rather than a main series installment. It’s certain that Kairi, Aqua, Namine, and Xion are powerful and strong in both a mental and physical sense, and yet their roles are minimized compared to their male counterparts. Kairi barely spends any moments not being babysat by some man, and each of these female supporting roles ends a game being tragically split from their love interests while the men go off to adventure and defeat the darkness. The writers have done an excellent job by creating these iconic characters, but it’s time to offer them more important roles.
The next main series installment, presumably Kingdom Hearts IV, is the series’ chance to remedy these issues and fans’ complaints. Kingdom Hearts is a franchise children grew up with and thus, was geared towards a young age group, but it’s time for the franchise to grow up alongside those children who are now adults.
For this, I look towards a close neighbor to Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, as a franchise that reaches a wide audience age range. The series isn’t childish, but still just as suitable for children as they are adults. It’s only in more recent years and in future titles that Final Fantasy has become a bit too mature for younger players. Though it has flaws of its own, FF sprouts in areas that KH lacks, such as in its romances and the narrative directions they take.
But to follow in the footsteps of worlds like Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s one method that Kingdom Hearts could use in its favor to mature with its audience.
Since the first Kingdom Hearts games, Disney has acquired majors franchises and studios such as Fox, Marvel, and Star Wars. This possibly means that Square Enix could have access to many new worlds yet to be explored in the massive game series that would fit right alongside an intention to be both suitable for adults and children. Take Star Wars as a grand example: though it was originally geared towards children and is still accessible to them, the franchise sees a fanbase mainly made of adults.
Additionally, the graphics Square Enix unexpectedly brandished when visiting Port Royal once again in Kingdom Hearts III were absolutely stunning. They came out of nowhere, but that doesn’t mean Square can’t stylize New York City with Iron Man and Thor in the same fashion. It just means doing away with the cheesy script and childish dialogue that fans have grown tired of, and in the process, aging Sora, Riku, and Kairi enough that more matured themes can be explored for its adult fans.
