Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ, Kingudamu Hātsu) is a series of action role-playing games (RPG) developed and published by Square Enix. It is the result of a collaboration between Square and Disney Interactive Studios and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square character designer. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which includes many of the Disney characters' official voice actors. Characters from Square Enix's Final Fantasy series make appearances and interact with the player and Disney characters. The series centers around the main character, Sora's, search for his friends and his encounters with Disney and Final Fantasy characters on their worlds.
The Kingdom Hearts series currently consists of six games across different video game platforms, with three remakes, and three spin-off games. Future titles are planned. Most of the games in the series have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, though each installment has seen varying levels of success. As of December 2006, the Kingdom Hearts series has shipped over ten million copies worldwide, with 2.0 million copies in PAL regions, 3.0 million copies in Japan, and 5.6 million copies in North America. There have been several types of merchandise released along with the games, such as soundtracks, figurines, and companion books. In addition, the games have also been adapted into a manga series and novels. In the U.S., the manga stopped production after Kingdom Hearts II Vol. 2 because of company issues. Japan has already moved onto Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days manga and the novels of all the games are only available there.
Creation and Influence
Early sketch of Riku, Sora, and Kairi.
The Kingdom Hearts series is directed by Tetsuya Nomura, who also works as the character designer of the games. Nomura has stated that unlike working with Final Fantasy characters, keeping the main character Sora alive and interesting over multiple games is a challenge. He has also stated that though many of the Disney characters are not normally dark and serious, there were not many challenges making them so for the story, and despite this, their personalities shine because they maintain their own characteristics. Though Disney gave Nomura freedom in the characters and worlds used for the games, he and his staff tried to stay within the established roles of characters and boundaries of the worlds. When deciding which worlds to include in the game, the development staff tried to take into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting.
The inclusion of specific Final Fantasy characters was based on the opinions of fans and the development staff. Another criteria for inclusion was whether the staff felt the characters would fit into the storyline and in the Kingdom Hearts universe. Initially, Nomura was hesitant to use characters he did not design, because he was unfamiliar with the background work of such characters. For Kingdom Hearts II, he changed his mind after receiving pressure from his staff. Throughout the development of the games, Nomura has often left certain events and connections between characters unexplained until the release of future games. Nomura did this because he feels that games should have room for fans to speculate and use their imagination. He stated that with speculation, even though a game gets old, people can still be happy with it.
The original design for Sora and his blade
The making of kingdom hearts 1
Games
The series is mostly in sequential order. The first game in the timeline is Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, which tells the story of three Keyblade wielders (Terra, Ventus, and Aqua) after the Keyblade War. Ten years later is where the first Kingdom Hearts picks up, revolving around the first adventure of Sora. Next are Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days which take place around the same time as each other. Kingdom Hearts II follows Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories & Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and takes place one year after Kingdom Hearts though it is more so a sequel to Kingdom Hearts rather than the Gameboy Advance game. Kingdom Hearts coded takes place briefly after Kingdom Hearts II but before the latter's final ending, seen after the end credits. Following Kingdom Hearts coded will be Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and the game's ending will lead fairly directly into Kingdom Hearts III, which will serve as the final chapter of what Tetsuya Nomura calls the "Xehanort Saga".
This is the chronological order of the games released within the series:
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Main Story)
Kingdom Hearts (Begun)
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Begun)
Kingdom Hearts (Ended)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Ended)
Kingdom Hearts II (Main Story)
Kingdom Hearts coded
Kingdom Hearts II (Epilogue)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Epilogue)
Final Mixes and Remakes
Three games in the series have been re-released with bonus content, and two games were remade completely.
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (Japanese release only)
Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ (Japanese release only)
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories PS2 remake of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories which was included with Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ in Japan and later released speparately in the US (Japanese and US releases)
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Nintendo DS remake of mobile phone game Kingdom Hearts coded (Japanese, US and European releases)
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix (Japanese release only)
Kingdom hearts 2 commercial
Interviews of some of the famous voiceactors of Kingdom Hearts 2
