There have been many Japanese franchises that have drawn confusion and alienation from Western culture, but there is nothing like them compared to Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. The details of the series have fascinated a few generations of gamers. The replicating and copying of its characters and sheer convolution of the story became legends for the 21st century. Hindsight lets us look back to analyzing it's flaws, but when we ask who should have made the story of III better and how many opportunities they missed, we lose sight of a larger, more timeless lesson. From the modelers to the Square-Enix officials, from the technicians providing the technology to the most talented writers, everyone was participating in a continuity built on the sands of retcons and rewrites. The series simply did not operate in the ways the fans had expected them to be. Our society is probably working under some confusions of its own right now. People see this in Kingdom Hearts' story, they understand that it was more than a video game filled with Disney characters; they see confusion and tragedy that echoes the way of Japanese storytelling. The novel of Grave of the Fireflies told the story of two siblings stuck in hubris of their innocent pre-war world and the Gods of death struck them down, banishing them to the afterlife of fireflies. People also see examples of heroism and sacrifice that resonate to the core of everything we feel about human nature. In the end, Kingdom Hearts is not just the story of a boy that went out looking for his friends, but the story of those who were affected by him, whether physically or in spirit.
There have been many Japanese franchises that have drawn confusion and alienation from Western culture, but there is nothing like them compared to Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. The details of the series have fascinated a few generations of gamers. The replicating and copying of its characters and sheer convolution of the story became legends for the 21st century. Hindsight lets us look back to analyzing it's flaws, but when we ask who should have made the story of III better and how many opportunities they missed, we lose sight of a larger, more timeless lesson. From the modelers to the Square-Enix officials, from the technicians providing the technology to the most talented writers, everyone was participating in a continuity built on the sands of retcons and rewrites. The series simply did not operate in the ways the fans had expected them to be. Our society is probably working under some confusions of its own right now. People see this in Kingdom Hearts' story, they understand that it was more than a video game filled with Disney characters; they see confusion and tragedy that echoes the way of Japanese storytelling. The novel of Grave of the Fireflies told the story of two siblings stuck in hubris of their innocent pre-war world and the Gods of death struck them down, banishing them to the afterlife of fireflies. People also see examples of heroism and sacrifice that resonate to the core of everything we feel about human nature. In the end, Kingdom Hearts is not just the story of a boy that went out looking for his friends, but the story of those who were affected by him, whether physically or in spirit.