Almost 20 years after playing Kingdom Hearts, I love Final Fantasy

Like many children born in the mid-90s, I spent my childhood obsessing over Kingdom hearts. I dove into the show for Donald, Goofy, Aladdin, and that constant teasing from Mickey Mouse. But I kept coming across characters with gunblades, giant swords, giant shuriken, and zippers that I didn’t know about. These were, of course, Final Fantasy staples Leon (Squall Leonhart), Cloud Strife, and Yuffie – characters who would lead me to love Final Fantasy 20 years later.

At first I didn’t care about these people – I bought the game for the talking duck who does magic. But repeat the original over the childhood years Kingdom hearts, survived my old strategy guide and waited three years for sequel, these characters became part of my Disney canon. I didn’t fight alongside Leon, Yuffie, Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth from the Final Fantasy series, which I never played; it was Leon, Yuffie, Cloud, Aerith and Sephiroth out Kingdom hearts.

Even though I knew they were from other games – just like Aladdin, Peter Pan, and Ariel from their own films – I never opened my heart to Final Fantasy. I didn’t like the idea of ​​switching to a turn-based series with a lot of reading when I was growing up. But decades later, I got deep into Final Fantasy Final Fantasy 7: New edition, Yuffies Intergrade DLC, Final Fantasy 15, and Final Fantasy 14. Final Fantasy 7: RemakeContinuation and Final Fantasy 16 are some of my most anticipated games for the next few years. Almost 20 years later, it feels like mine Kingdom hearts Education is finally paying off.

Kingdom Hearts: The JRPG gateway drug

If you haven’t played Kingdom hearts Since childhood, you’d be surprised to go back and see that it’s more of a Final Fantasy game than a Disney game. Aside from a few glances at Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, and the chipmunks in the Renaissance Fair cosplay, the first few hours are hanging out on a beach with Final Fantasy characters Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. When Sora lands in Traverse Town, Pluto pounds his chest and he wanders through a town that has more Final Fantasy characters than Disney characters.

“Who the hell are these people?” I remember thinking as a kid. But either in my sheer excitement at the glimpses of Donald and Goofy or the sheer boredom of being a kid with unlimited free time, I pushed my way past Leon’s un-winning boss fights and exposed speeches. I quickly got warm to Leon, who got his Big Stupid Sword Gun (the infamous gunblade that I still think is cool).

I’ve added all the different Final Fantasy characters to my brain over the years of college Kingdom hearts and its continuation. I sorted them into boxes filled with half-truths and a 10-year-old’s understanding of their background. I assumed Yuffie and Leon were from the same Final Fantasy game, and I never knew Aerith’s true fate. As a kid, I distanced myself from the Final Fantasy series, but I locked that box of all these memories away in my brain.

Harvest years in the making

I bought a copy of Final Fantasy 15 in college, though I can’t remember why. I was excited but skeptical to dive into the 15+ entries in the series. To my surprise, I loved everything about it. I was really touched by a moment when a party member lost his sight and tried to keep fighting. “Is The what I missed? ” I thought. When I discovered that many Final Fantasy lovers didn’t care fifteen, I have cataloged my experience as a coincidence.

When Final Fantasy 7: Remake came, it changed my entire perspective and sparked my interest again. I had learned through fifteen that I could love Final Fantasy without the show’s rich history, and at least I’d heard it during my time with Cloud Strife Kingdom hearts. In New edition, I found something of the same kind of storytelling and frenzied fighting that I loved Final Fantasy 15. But even better, I dug up this box of memories that I had hidden years ago.

Here were the characters I knew from my childhood! Cloud, the brooding idiot, at odds with his dark past. Aerith, that quiet girl who’s hanging out with Donald and Goofy. Sephiroth, that piece of shit with the impossible boss fight. I knew these people; Well, I knew a version of it.

Yuffie really got that knowing feeling Intergrade DLC last month as she was one of the most vocal actors in the original Kingdom hearts. It was bizarre to see this character I met in childhood, without what I considered to be their original backdrop, put back into the series it came from. I have to rediscover who Yuffie is and how she differs from the confident smiley Yuffie Kingdom hearts.

It felt like watching Space Jam and then get back to a Bugs Bunny cartoon or Samus in Super Smash Bros. before playing any of their games. I am familiar with these characters, but they are not the same. I know her, but only through an impostor.

Kingdom hearts spent years getting me interested in Final Fantasy, but all I got were a few names and fond memories of Winnie the Pooh, Merlin the Wizard, and Cid the Rubber Mechanic. As a kid, I ignored Tetsuya Nomura’s call, but as an adult, I came back and found all these characters waiting for me.

In a way, I’m grateful for this perspective. If I had followed the path that Kingdom Hearts took for me as a kid, I could have seen the entire Final Fantasy series through to this year fifteen and New edition. But I could have gotten tired of the formula or even the fandom. My way to Final Fantasy was a detour, covered in bizarre feverish dreams with Ansem and Alice in Wonderland. But it has created a fan who knows just enough about the original versions of these characters to look forward to the future without the burden of the franchise’s 34-year history.