Kingdom Hearts; or 1001 Stories
Color, pop, thrill, princesses, chunky shoes. I can't tell if I'm describing 2022 fashion aesthetic or Kingdom Hearts 1. Ah, that is probably not fair of me for 2022 fashion; but it is incredible to see how the aesthetics of the early 2000's have come back around and how much of that was encapsulated within Kingdom Hearts.
So, beginning at the beginning is best, if this were the beginning. But I have been playing through the first Kingdom Hearts HD Final Mix 1.5 with my partner and it has been a great time to share on the couch. I think the game has so much going on that is so exceptional for 2001. The color, the goofy story (pun intended), and the interesting blend of RPG and action elements. However, there is a lot stuck in 2001 that is part function and part form.
The style, beats, music, and overall vibe of this game is elite. It is absolutely without parallel and Square Enix is foolish for not using more and more licensed and original music in their games. It is such a cornerstone aesthetic that I cannot help but be charmed by it.
In fact, over the course of the game I was constantly charmed by the aesthetic, the zones (mostly, but definitely not Monstro), and the characters dumb faces. Playing it with my partner who is less experienced with the franchise has led to hilarious inside jokes and turned nostalgia into something new, exciting, and honestly fun. That's maybe the best way to look at revisiting a childhood classic--dwelling in the revisited experience rather than nostalgic lenses.
The sheer maximalism of KH is by far the greatest part. In a way that is just so uniquely Kingdom Hearts, it has SO MUCH. The throw back FF characters, Clouds sudden talkative moodiness, Herc's absolutely blind, dumb cheer, and Sora's amazing "surprise" face. The game feels like a dessert: crafted to balance so many little things, including full indulgence. From the rough gummi ship fighting to the gullibility of the characters and even looking at the unbelievably high stakes, Kingdom Hearts seeks to include everything it possibly can for 2002. And that inclusion is it's strength--it allows for a unique application of existing media within a space that seeks to tell its own story.
The characters from Disney are never lifted above Sora, Kairi, and Riku's plot. They serve to support and bolster it by means of our three Destiny Islands children. The game feels like lens focusing late 90s culture into an amalgamation that asks players to wonder, laugh, and celebrate the parts they know. Never once is a player punished for not recognizing Aerith and Cloud or Arial and Sebastian. Instead they are invited to rejoice in the characters they know and learn to love the ones that they don't.
Unlike the Matrix, which took so much of film, book, and game culture into it's lens and distilled it into a dystopian nightmare. Kingdom Hearts simply offers something new, yet old to players. As if saying: "come see what we've done here, I think you'll have some fun." Of course, you're welcome to flip that script as see it as a corporate nightmare-fueled dystopian melange of IPs, but where's the heart in that?