The Kingdom Hearts series changed my life. That's no exaggeration. I'm going to tell you why now.
It all started In 2002, when Kingdom Hearts 1 came out to the world and little me was non-existent. Kingdom Hearts is a series that is a collaboration effort between Square Enix (formerly Square Soft) and Disney where they combined their original characters from each company together, along with some new ones, to make a baby.
I first found out about Kingdom Hearts before I can remember, but I do know the circumstances, It was on my 3rd birthday and my brother got me Kingdom Hearts II, well, he got me it but he really got it for himself because I didn't know how to play games properly yet. Either way we played "together" (and by "together" I mean he gave me an unplugged controller, oh well, I never found out until years later that all that time I was never playing the game so props to him I guess) and we had a blast, the flashy combat and game play mixed in with the funny Disney characters had me hooked, however, by the end of the game he had gotten bored and left the rest of the play through to me since I had never actually been playing the rest of the time, I had a struggle starting right at the end of the game, it took me until my 5th birthday, (which I actually remember) where I finally beat it, after restarting the game again to play through the tutorial and the rest of the game.
It was exhilarating. The final boss fight was the hardest thing I had ever put myself through at that point of my life and I finally did it, watching the final cut scenes of the game brought tears to my eye as my 2 year long journey with all these characters had came to an end, I sat through the credits patiently (because I wasn't able to skip them) and watched the final scene of the game.
My little mind was so confused. Everyone was happy, what more could there be to the series? what does the letter say? I asked my brother, for some reason expecting the answer. I was asking him for what seemed like hours (probably was actually like a minute) until finally saying "I can't wait for Kingdom Hearts III".
And I waited. And waited. And waited. Years passed by with no hear of the fabled game, every year at E3 I would ask my brother if Kingdom Hearts III had been mentioned. Remember, I finished Kingdom Heart II in mid 2008. 5 years passed by with news, I eventually started finding out how to watch E3 by myself as my brother lost interest, nothing seemed to ever come, I remained patient and hopeful playing the first 2 games in the series if I ever got the chance to. My PlayStation was at my dad's house at this point and I rarely visited him, but when we did we played together, he enjoyed watching me play and he enjoyed the plot of the games too, he would explain things to me that I didn't get, as the series is notorious for a confusing story and it became a nice bonding method for us.
Finally in 2013, after 5 years of waiting, the day came, I was doing my yearly tradition of watching E3, not expecting much, but still had the hope in the back of my mind, the showcase went by revealing some good looking games, not that I'd ever buy most of them, but oh well, and then, it came.
The moment the Disney logo showed itself, at a gaming conference, I edged toward the screen... Sora's face (the main character of the series) showed his face.
"OH ****! OH ****!" I screamed "Oh my god!!!" "It's happening!" I cried in pure joy. I had been waiting for 5 years for anything new Kingdom Hearts related, the entire trailer was amazing, I remember freaking out about how good the sand looked.
And so, the waiting game for it to actually come out begun.
In the time between the announcement and the game coming out, the fan base went looking for any piece of information that could be found about the game, we stayed up all night at any conference that had even a slither of hope for any news showing up, we analysed any dialogue or code from the previous games for any hints on a release date, and, we did get some pieces of information, but nothing major.
Years went by without an end in sight (noticing a theme yet?) 2013 - 2015 was the great "dry season" of Kingdom Hearts III where almost no news ever showed it's face in 2017, we finally got a window for 2018 (even though it was delayed to 2019 eventually), when we finally did get a release date, it was in a private event in America and I had to find out second hand through twitter which was disappointing to not be able to be there and experience the release date the we'd been waiting for, for 5 - 10 years depending on how you're counting them, either way, the date was the 29th of January 2019... I finished Kingdom Hearts 2 In July of 2008 (the game came out in 2005 so some people had been waiting even longer) So, in total, I waited for 10 and a half years for this game to come out. From the time said "I can't wait for Kingdom Hearts III" I waited 10 and a half years and I never even waited as long as others as I joined the wait slightly after the die hard fans.
When the fated day finally came, the most anticipated game of the decade, hell, even millennia so far, finally came, It was nearing midnight on release day, and I lay in bed, listening to the amazing soundtrack that had blessed my ears for so many years (I'm listening to it now too) I had the game downloaded, waiting for the release date restriction to drop and let me play the game, it was a weekday, but oh well, I'd only been waiting for 10 years I ain't waiting longer, not another second. The countdown on my PS4 was coming to a close the day was finally here.
I pressed X on my controller. The game launched. The main menu loaded. Rejoice. The music rang in my ears, the title screen music for both the 1st and 2nd game, but remade into a more triumphant score, as if the game is celebrating the fact that it had finally come out after so long. I was crying. Literal tears running down my face, I could finally see the conclusion to the epic saga, memories flooded me about my brother and my dad that I never knew I even had, is any of this for real? Probably not, but oh well it's beautiful.
Yeah, it's safe to say I didn't have a social life for the next few days. Every free moment I had went to Kingdom Hearts III and it was amazing, the characters finally gathering and letting everyone get the happy ending they deserve, ("but didn't you say Kingdom Hearts II had a happy ending?" Yeah I did, but I also said that it's notorious for having a complicated story, so let's leave it at that.) speaking of the ending, it was one of, if not the best moments that I'd ever experienced in a game ever, hell in real life too, I can't explain so here's a video you'll get the gist.
You can stop watching when the credits start.
What? Where's Sora going? Oh my god I'm so happy it's such a happy ending, but Kairi died, oh wait, she's back, did Sora save her with the power of waking? Did it work? Oh my god it's such a perfect happy end to the series, oh wait, Sora, where are you going, where's Sora gone? what the hell? did he die? oh no, did he sacrifice himself. I asked myself these things expecting an answer to appear out of thin air just as I asked my brother about the ending of Kingdom hearts II all those years ago, I didn't know whether I was crying because the ending is so happy for everyone (except for Sora dying), if it's because Sora's dead, or if it's nostalgia hitting me like a truck remembering my entire life with this series, the music so powerful it can put me to tears instantly, but I was crying, ugly crying.
I really hope no one reads this far, or even this at all because at this point I'm writing my deepest, darkest secrets in here and how much my life has genuinely been affected by this game and series as a whole, It's taught me how to be determined with it's impossibly hard bosses for 4-5 year old me, it's taught me patience with it's 10 and a half year wait for the next numbered game in the series, and it's always given me something to look forward to in life, even if thing are looking bad, there's a door to light at the end of the darkness.
And with that said, I'm proud to say, "I can't wait for Kingdom Hearts IIII"
Comentarios