![]() ![]() In the last 11 years, a total of 10 games have been released (and re-released): Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, Re: Chain of Memories, coded, 358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep, Re:coded, Dream Drop Distance and HD 1.5 Remix. The success of the franchise has led to these releases being spaced out across multiple consoles and handhelds. Part of the excitement of anticipating a new Kingdom Hearts game is wondering just what combination of Disney worlds and Final Fantasy characters Square Enix will come up with next. This is another tradition that has continued across the other games throughout the franchise’s history. Square decided to play further lip service to its fans by creating cartoon versions of some of the most popular Final Fantasy characters of all time and inserting them throughout the game. There were some who said that the game was a better RPG than Square’s own Final Fantasy X. The Disney characters attracted young children, which was the initial goal of the game, but Sakaguchi’s idea to create an epic story on the level of an adult Japanese RPG ended up hooking older generations on the game as well. The game was an immediate and overwhelming success. This is now a tradition that has been used multiple times throughout the history of the franchise to tease fans about upcoming games. No one was sure what the initial reception to the game would be, so Nomura put in a hidden video at the end of the first game that hinted at a possible sequel just to see what the reaction would be. Square was given unprecedented access to the Disney vault and while the company wasn’t given too many restrictions, the developer still tried to ensure that everything in each of the Disney worlds felt like it fit with the already established guidelines for those worlds created by the House of Mouse. Development began in February 2000 with Hashimoto serving as producer and Tetsuya Nomura, the lead character designer from Final Fantasy VII as director. The random meeting gave Hashimoto the opportunity he needed to present Square’s idea directly to Disney. Square and Disney had at one time worked in the same office building in Japan. One or both of the men remarked that perhaps only Disney had a stable of intellectual property that was as well-known worldwide as Nintendo’s.Īs fate would have it, one day Hashimoto found himself standing in an elevator next to a top executive from Disney. The company decided to get started on its own project but the two lamented the fact that one of the reasons the Mario game had been so successful is that the Italian plumber was already a well-established character. Shinji Hashimoto, a Square game producer, had been discussing the possibility of creating an open world game like Super Mario 64, with Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy. Have you ever heard the old adage about having an “elevator speech” to explain your big book or movie idea? The concept is, if you randomly bumped into a high-ranking executive in an elevator who could turn your dream into a reality, would you be able to effectively communicate your idea in the time it takes to go from the ground floor to the top of the building? Looking back, it appears that at least one Square executive had the concept down pat. When it was announced that the company had entered a partnership with a Japanese RPG developer known for creating games with dark and mysterious plot lines, the concept raised more than a few eyebrows across the industry. Disney is a company that historically has been quite finicky about the way its intellectual property is portrayed. Vanitas manages to fuse with Ventus to reforge the original keyblade and Terra gets tricked into darkness, which allows Xehanort to transfer his heart into him.That wasn’t the case when the game was in development at the turn of the century. After Xehanort kills Master Eriqus, the trio fights him in the Keyblade Graveyard. The unconscious Ventus is then taken to Destiny Island with a broken heart to die, but his heart is healed by young Sora, whose voice reaches through to him.įollowing Ventus' brush with death, he loses his memories. Xehanort takes him to the Land of Departure to train as a Keyblade Master, alongside Terra and Aqua, under Master Eriqus. When Ventus, Terra and Aqua go on separate journeys to stop a new threat called the Unversed, Xehanort slowly manipulates Terra to make him a new vessel. However, Ventus refuses to use darkness to fight, which prompts Xehanort to use his keyblade and create Vanitas, the Heartless counterpart to Ventus. Xehanort takes on young Ventus as an apprentice to use him as a vessel.
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