When kingdom hearts was released I got my first glimpse of how some people seem to throw their logic and taste out the window for Disney. It just seemed the dumbest thing to me. And why was the sword a key.. [edit: this was my teenage selfs opinion]
surprisingly one of the simpler questions to answer. The Keyblade is the key that can open (or close) any door. And that was the theme of the first Kingdom Hearts: doors. the big villians plan is to destroy all worlds by opening the door to the Dark World and flooding the existing Light dimension with hoards of monsters. you also spend a lot of time closing off the doors to the heart of the world to protect their cores (monsters destroy core = destroyed world).
In addition to bashing enemies and being a large narrative hook, it's a nifty explanation for why you are able to simply tap on a chest and open anything you want. Or break and enter into a bunch of buildings (although the game forgets constantly that it can do that).
Because it was a really fun action RPG with camera control issues, that then got fixed in Kingdom Hearts II (actually sooner with Final Mix Plus I think but most people weren’t importing that). It started life as a collab, and it took on an identity of its own almost from your first moment in the game. I literally don’t have a conception of what Donald or Goofy are like outside of Kingdom Hearts anymore, well except for Donald’s contribution to the Ducking Hardcore Mix of It’s a Small World.
I only played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 on the Playstation 2 as a teenager, and I did enjoy them while playing, but I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea what the hell happened story-wise by the end of the second game. The story just got increasingly convoluted and harder to follow, and the juxtaposition of serious Final Fantasy characters and Disney characters never really stopped being funny to me.
100% agreed on the story. There’s a recap video that’s probably not too hard to find on youtube which takes 30 minutes to explain the story up to the start of KH3 and I remember a predictable amount of it. There’s also this gem: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fCWjSOSWiUw
I only know enough about what “Aqua got ‘Norted” means to put an apostrophe in front of ‘Norted. (Xehanort possesses people or whatever.) I also literally never saw Aqua in any game I played before KH3, except maybe as an extra I didn’t notice.
Somewhere in the middle between the serious recap and the short joke remains this incredible video essay trying to explain the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwEwxKkCGJE
I didn't play KH for the story; it was just a fun ARPG. I couldn't tell you the plot to the Mana games either, and they had some ridiculous stuff too (traveling by cannon?)
The first KH was fun I guess. And the combat mechanics Square made for KH are now the standard in Final Fantasy. But the story of KH went completely off the rails in all the sequels and spinoffs and I don't understand how anyone still cares about the story anymore.
KH is a beautiful mess that makes absolutely no sense at all, from the idea to the execution, a complete fever dream that is somehow a very enjoyable experience, but only if you embrace the silliness of it all.
If you're a teenager that may be much easier... or much harder, in cases such as yours.
To me at least, I liked Kingdom Hearts as a kid despite the Disney stuff, not thanks to it. I played it after Final Fantasy IX and X so I really enjoyed the change from turn-based combat.
