Another Spin Off Title

According to the most recent information, while Nomura has stressed that he and his team want to release Kingdom Hearts 3, knowing full well that is what their fans are looking for, it will not be the next video game to come out under the Kingdom Hearts title. In fact, the next game to hit stores will not star Sora at all, but another character of equal importance to the story, which will connect all of the tales together. No further news regarding the game’s title, characters or platform has been mentioned.

Yearly Releases

Nomura also said that ideally, he would like to release a new Kingdom Hearts game every year, in order to keep fans happy. Presumably, the next game would be this mystery title, coming out in 2011. When asked about Kingdom Hearts 3 being released in 2012, if a new game was to indeed come out every year, Nomura refused to comment.

Opinions?

Let us know what you think of this news. Personally, I’m a bit wary. Two spin off games is about my limit before I simply want to be reunited with Sora, Donald and Goofy, and frankly, a new RPG game every year sounds like bad news. Trying to put out a game so magical, like Kingdom Hearts, year after year will just burn Square Enix out and the last thing any fan wants is to see their hero fall to the enemy, ‘god-awful game.’ If something is going to be great, I can wait for it.

Was it the Keyblade? The Magic? The Characters?

1. What was your favorite Disney world to visit?
Halloween Town and Wonderland, definitely. I’m a sucker for Tim Burton to begin with, so being stuck in Halloween Town with Elfman’s music and Sora and crew sporting their own costumes was just adorable and fun. Wonderland on the other hand wasn’t my favorite because it had the same enjoyment and excitement as Halloween Town but because of how the developers were able to implement such a bizarre story into a game so well.

2. What was your least favorite Disney world to visit?
Atlantica. I despised the swimming controls, but I think that annoyance was compounded by the fact The Little Mermaid was probably one of my lesser favorite Disney films. Donald as an octopus was kind of creepy, too.

3. What was your favorite ability Sora learned?
Flying, oh it was totally the flying ability. I know outside of Neverland it was more gliding than anything, but when I was first able to fly around Big Ben in London, after completing Neverland, there was something so magical about it. I felt like a little girl, screaming, ‘look, I’m flying with Peter Pan!’

4. What Disney character were you most excited to use on your team?
Beast! I know his castle was featured in the second game, but remember Beast was a team member when Sora was left behind at Hollow Bastion. He’s an unstoppable tank and it’s his level of defense which makes him ideal when it’s just him and Sora, since his protection gives the player time to change between keyblade offense and magic. That was helpful while the team was one member short. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, too, so just the chance to fight with him to save Belle, oh it was too cool.

5. What moment in the entire game moved you the most?
I’ve already established how much of a nerd I am for the Hollow Bastion area, so my favorite moment was when Donald and Goofy left Sora behind to follow Riku and our poor hero was left with nothing but a wooden sword and Beast. Every time I replay the game, that moment always pulls on my heart.

You’re Turn!

Fill out these questions with your own answers below and let’s find out what we, as players and fans of this series, have in common.

Kairi is Not a Keyblade Master

Near the conclusion of Kingdom Hearts II, once Kairi, Riku and Sora have been reunited and prepare to take on the final Organization members, Kairi receives a keyblade and then proceeds to do absolutely nothing with this miraculous gift. While this is a video game, I have a degree in film studies and learned how to critique and analyze storytelling effectively and to me, this feels like a copout. Giving Kairi a weapon that was created and welded specifically by the chosen ‘keyblade master,’ as seen in the fact that when others pick up Sora’s keyblade, it vanishes and goes back to his hand, it makes me ask suddenly, why is she so special now? Kairi was already found out to be one of the Seven Princesses and that I never had a problem with, but that doesn’t make her a keyblade master out of nowhere! In fact, from a story point of view, it makes it look like they were trying to boost Kairi’s popularity with gamers and make her role more useful in the story, which it can’t be argued, wasn’t very critical to the plot of the second game.

Why it Works for Riku and Not Kairi

Unlike Kairi, who was safe, fine and otherwise just a normal girl once she was rescued in game one, Riku continued to be important to the Kingdom Hearts story, as he is basically a mirror of Sora, should he have chosen the darkness instead of the light. It made sense that Riku should obtain a weapon similar in use and appearance, as he was in the beginning, Sora’s number one enemy. While in the soon to be released game, Birth By Sleep, which features three new characters known as keyblade apprentices, may explain why multiple keyblade wielders can exist more than the current games do; it does not currently explain Kairi’s sudden keyblade.

Non-Essential to the Game’s Climax

She literally received the weapon in order to aid her friends but as we can all recall, did nothing in the final scenes. Despite her appearance at the location and clearly holding a weapon, she is ignored. Riku is instead put on the team, allowing gamers to once again battle with a character whom has proven his worth time and time again throughout the second story within Chain of Memories. This is the crux of the problem with Kairi receiving a keyblade. Not only is she not a chosen master, but she is given the item merely to give her an excuse to be in another world and nothing more. If this were a wise decision on behalf of the storytellers, then both Riku and Kairi would have been put on Sora’s team, but that never happened.

Emphasis Taken Off Sora

Instead of writing in a good scene which allows us to accept Kairi’s presence and reunion with her friends, the keyblade thrown at her without just cause actually makes Sora’s less important and this is upsetting, as he is the hero of the game. Forcing her importance when it is clearly uncalled for makes me instinctually want to repel her character, which is a shame. As a gamer, I shouldn’t want to dislike one character in replace of another, but that’s what I feel has happened for a lot of players. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of grief for this article, as there are some hardcore Kairi fans out there, but my opinion still stands firm as to Kairi’s keyblade being completely uncalled for.

Donald The Wizard

I always begin the game by choosing sword for Sora, which I have felt is a perfect choice, given who my future partners will be. Donald is a wizard and a very good one at that. He has incredible magical abilities and if balanced correctly, never fails to heal Sora or Goofy in a tight situation. His single drawback is when he is given unlimited use of items, can consume ether faster than Sora can collect munny to purchase more.

Goofy The Shield

Where I trust Donald to have my back when magic is involved, I also trust Goofy to defend Sora against attacks too powerful for him. Goofy is one of King Mickey’s knights and brandishes a large shield at all times, which he can often combine with Sora’s abilities, making the attack ruthless against adversaries. Choosing Sora’s sword gives him a healthy balance of both might and magic and when either of these options fail him in battle, the excellence of his teammates are there to back him up.

Go On Give It A Try!

Instantly, I am compelled to continue playing a game that has such good dynamics in a team and often never choose to allow my guest to join, such as Jack or Aladdin, simply because I could never bare to let Donald or Goofy leave my side. They create a security blanket for me and I have only willingly given them up in battle to use Beast, simply because of my attachment to Beauty and the Beast since childhood.

Still, I can see how my friend was so reluctant to play a game where he had to consider Donald or Goofy to be impressive in an RPG battle system. After just a few good jabs at some local heartless, I was sold on the concept. Team balance aside, the voice acting is compelling and full of emotion and the bond between the two and Sora is obvious from the start, making a trio that is clumsy, funny, serious, and dedicated to the game’s story, even though these are Disney characters and not Square-Enix’s.

Unbeatable Story Lines

I absolutely adore the game’s storytelling abilities because in a scene near the first game’s conclusion, when Sora is separated from his friends, I was heartbroken. Never in my life had I ever liked the character Donald, usually changing the channel when his cartoon was on television, but Square-Enix had managed, through story, to not only make him a successful and trustful mage when enemies attacked, but they had made him my friend.

Love Thy Team

It isn’t often in an RPG that you love your entire team without hesitation, because there is always that one that annoys you just enough to take every opportunity to remove them from active status. This is not the case with Kingdom Hearts. Donald and Goofy are fiercely loyal and protective of Sora, and vice versa, and not only manage to be wicked in battle but they still retain their cartoonish jaunts they’re known for.

Sure, Cid Highwind and Zell Dincht are great and vibrant characters for a team battle system, but Donald and Goofy come not only with notable abilities, but an emotional bond that makes Kingdom Hearts unforgettable in the minds of players and that is why, after beating it several times, I go back again and again.

The introduction of Organization XIII into the Kingdom Hearts franchise created endless possibilities for the continuing of Sora’s story and adventure. Thirteen new, mysterious and tricky villains would harbor new obstacles, worlds, possibilities, and alliances in the universe of Kingdom Hearts. Although having said that even something as fresh and intriguing as these nobodies comes with its set of drawbacks.

Unstoppable Faction Or Not!

I feel that, while the concept of this group is truly original and fantastic, there actually being thirteen living and fighting forces for Sora to confront is a bit of an overkill. The fact that half of the group is eliminated in Chain of Memories alone takes away the danger this once thought unstoppable faction held.

Their deaths, while also blamed on the fact that there was an internal strife within the Organization that led to their defeat as well as Sora’s strength, does not take away from the fact that meeting a new member every other floor of Castle Oblivion was beginning to become repetitive. It had lost its charm and uniqueness after several victories.

Let’s Pull A Roxas

After playing all of the current Kingdom Hearts games, what I feel would have been an interesting concept would be not to have introduced every member. Pull a Roxas, by which I mean, he was the missing member, the rogue. Have the Organization hold thirteen nobodies, but they don’t all have to be in the same place, fighting for the same goal.

Creating conflicts within the conflicts of Marluxia’s band could have spared some of the members and held onto their mysteriousness a bit longer, perhaps even going so far as to not even introduce one or two of the nobodies, or already have some dead at the start. These ideas would have, I feel, helped create more of an impact with the members that Sora did meet and confront and I wouldn’t have just groaned and complained about having to stop what I was doing to fight another Organization XIII member.

Instead, I would have been much more excited, such as when Sora is first introduced to these black cloaked figures and I thought that Kingdom Hearts couldn’t possibly get any cooler.

So What’s The Up Side

It’s not all negative though, when it comes to the Organization. Linking the group to the antagonist of the first game was genius but introducing those like Roxas and Axel was a truly awesome. These two give sympathy to the group, make them human, in a sense. Not all of the members are out to destroy Kingdom Hearts, the keyblade and Sora, there are those like Axel, who mirrors the struggle of Sora in trying to find his best friend.

Axel creates problems for our heroes, but he is a conflicted character, desperately in search of his only friend, Roxas, and that leaves Sora with confused feelings towards Organization XIII, good drama for any role playing game.

Final Words

I love the Organization and I feel that they fit into the world well, even adding a bit more darkness to it, since Sora is older and it’s necessary to up the danger for any sequel. Organization XIII is still being explored with the soon to be released 358/2 Days and this game is looking to promise more development with the many characters as well as the introduction of a new one.

Oh and a big thank you to allzquiet for the image used in this article.

As expected the event focused heavily on both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts but other titles such as Sigma Harmonics and The 3rd Birthday (Parasite Eve III) were also there.

So lets take a look at the release dates for the Kingdom Hearts games which despite being tentative are still a good indication of when these games might be available for release.

The dates mentioned are of course for Japan only so when and whether these games will be released outside of Japan still remains a mystery. In fact whether Coded will even be released in the West seems quite doubtful as unlike Japan where mobile gaming is quite popular, the west is still very far behind. 

For more information and articles surrounding the event be sure to check out some of the other sites such as IGN, GameSpot and KHInsider which have more details on the actual games, stories and trailers that were presented at the event. We’ll keep you posted on any major updates.

As expected Square Enix’s top selling game was Dragon Quest IV which sold 1,052,827 copies positioning it as the 9th most sold game of 2007. In 15th place was Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker which sold in excess of 825,065 copies, followed closely by Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII which sold 735,939 copies (18th place) helping Square Enix to three top selling titles in the top 20.

Despite some solid results in the upper quarter of the Japanese charts I have to say not all titles performed as well. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings only sold 524,009 copies which was a lot lower than Square expected. Despite some dismal sales for Revenant Wings the series was not completely let down as Final Fantasy IV which was re-released for the Nintendo DS during 2007 gave the series a well deserved boost landing a little over 447,087 sales in a matter of months. 

Other titles of note include Final Fantasy CC: Ring of Fates with netted 389,845 copies landing yet another game for Square Enix in the Top 100. Overall not a great 2007 run for the Final Fantasy series but not too bad either. 

Moving on we see in 46th place one of the most wanted titles in Europe and North America, Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ selling some 337,091 copies, followed closely by Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for the Sony PSP which sold 301,796 copies. Lastly Square Enix’s worst preforming game in the top 100 was yet another Final Fantasy title namely, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift which sold 287,871 copies putting it in 58th place (not bad I guess).

Overall the Japanese market is always unpredictable but Square Enix would have been quite dissapointed with their sales standings for the Final Fantasy series which usually take the charts by storm. Lets hope 2008 will be a little more uplifting for this extremely popular series. Overall very well done to our favourite company Square Enix and lets hope for more success later this year.