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Kingdom Heart 3 comes out today, so here we have Aqua and Kairi merging their hearts to overcome a throbbing lance of darkness!....I have quite a bit to say on this one. So if you're not up for a video game rant, I'll just say I hope you like the pic of two girls sharing a cock, and offer my thanks for being a $5 supporter.
Kingdom Hearts came out on the Playstation 2 in 2002. And at the time, there had never been anything like it. (Hell, even now there's never been anything like it.) The concept was to take the Disney property, which contains the most iconic characters in American animation history, and cross them over with Final Fantasy, Japan's most prolific role playing series. The only comparison I can think of would be if you were to take Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang and toss them into the universe of Dragon Quest. And yet Kingdom Hearts was a real thing that happened.
In the story they plunk you down as a Final Fantasy-styled avatar character, complete with the spiky nonsensical hairstyle that remains a hallmark of the brand to this day, and team him up with Donald Duck and Goofy in an action rpg. Throughout your adventure you explore a variety of classic Disney worlds based on their most popular movies, while also meeting a handful of Final Fantasy characters along the way. This led to some outright bat-shit scenarios as the game went on. The fact that Sephiroth, one of Final Fantasy's most powerful and infamous villains, can conceivably be bested by two cartoon animals and a boy in baggy shorts would make one think that this game is a parody, maybe something with a comedic tone? Nope! The whole thing is played dead serious, even leaning towards full-on melodrama at times. This game was truly a unique beast.
And for my part? I loved it. So much so that I even suffered through the portable spinoff game with obnoxious card-based combat that bridged the gap between the first game and the second. Little did I know at the time that portable spinoffs of varying quality would become the series standard for over a decade.
Yep, Kingdom Hearts is one of those series that, for the longest time, couldn't count to three. I don't personally know what was stopping them from making a proper third installment for so long, but I do know that the games they made in the interim could best be described as "filler." And the problem with making so many filler games is that in each one, you have to throw in at least some relevant canonical story bits to make the game worth buying for fans. And after so many games, after all these years, the Kingdom Hearts timeline is probably the most confusing, convoluted mess in the history of the medium. If you feel like the entire Metal Gear Solid saga was too short and easy to follow for you tastes, then this is the series for you.
But here we are on the launch day of Kingdom Hearts 3. A game that, by all means, is bound to attract new players. I mean, a lot of Frozen fans weren't even born when the first KH game released. But now Elsa is featured in a major new game release and they're bound to be at least curious. So what recourse does a new player have? Sure, they could watch hours and hours of cutscenes from previous games on Youtube, but personally I'm going a different route. My local community college is offering a class called Kingdom Hearts: What the Fuck is Going on and Who All These Hooded Assholes Are. I figure with perseverance and diligent note-taking, I'll be at least 30% less confused when I start Kingdom Hearts 3.
Well I think I've gone on long enough. If you have anything to add on the subject I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Though do me a solid if you would: don't mention any spoilers please (especially anything at all about the latest game released today.) Just in case I have any supporters considering diving into the games for the first time, I'd rather not ruin it for them here if I can help it.