I got into Kingdom Hearts fairly late. I never even had a Sony console until I got a PS2 near or after the launch of the PS3, so 2006 or 2007. This has always left me in a bit of an odd position with the series: none of the teenaged nostalgia, but enough of the joy of playing the newer games along with everyone else and discovering the series' mysteries and high points. It's become an important part of my life, and it's for that reason that I've started this in-depth retrospective series, to talk about the series from end-to-end.

This is is a series about joy - both Kingdom Hearts and this retrospective. It will be fairly detailed, taking a good long look at each moment, with a look at game design, narrative, art and art direction, and an attempt to capture both the perspective of an experienced fan and what I remember of being a new one. To better facilitate the latter, I try to discuss only what’s in front of us and what’s come before, to see what mysteries a new player could solve. Not so much "no spoiler" as "low spoiler." With any luck, someone unfamiliar with a particular game could read along and get almost as much from it as an experienced reader. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

The Kingdom Hearts retrospective updates Tuesdays and Saturdays.

 

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You may also be interested in my first-impressions Final Fantasy journal series!

I'm only a couple pages in and I'm already very much enjoying this. Thanks for taking the time to write a retrospective. My own experience with the games isn't dissimilar but there is an age gap since, when KHI first came out, I was only 6 years old, but I've been with it since the beginning. Only once have I taken a real break from the series and that was after KHII when they started getting into the handheld titles. The HD collections mostly fixed that problem for me and the series has hit me in most of the right places ever since. (some glaring problems with the series that I have notwithstanding)

Edited June 25, 201510 yr by Kaweebo

Thank you!  I hope you continue to enjoy.  I'm glad to see we had such similar experiences despite the age gap!

I've been informed that one of the posts (the second post for the Traverse Town revisit) was missing a link to the next article for weeks now!  Sorry about that!  The first Agrabah page is here. If you haven't read past the last Traverse Town entry, I have new entries up through Monstro!For anyone worrying about missing posts through my screw-ups, you can always check the "Recent Posts" sections on the sidebar, click the Category links on the side bars for the Categorys' raw feeds, check the Directory Pages, or subscribe on Wordpress, email or RSS.I recommend either the Recent Posts section or the subscription options, since those are updated automatically and can't be messed up like the manual links.

 

*nervous laughter intensifies*  Well, we're here.  The happiest place on earth!

Today we hit up Hollow Bastion and two of the most important scenes in the original game: Riku taking the Keyblade and Sora taking it back. As a result, I give the game's central and recurring themes a close, involved look, the likes of which we'll be seeing a lot more of towards the end of the game and into more narratively deep games like CoM.  This, in other words, is where we begin the long game of Kingdom Hearts' extended narrative.