When Kingdom Hearts was first revealed, you were either into it because you saw Donald Duck waving a staff around Tarzan’s jungle, or you saw Cloud, Squall, and Sephiroth and your inner Final Fantasy nerd had a meltdown.
If you say you bought it because Sora looked cool, or because the Keyblade is clearly the best weapon in gaming, you’re right on both counts, but you’re also a liar. Sure, 20 years later it can be argued that Sora has as much star power as the IP he adventures alongside (just look at all the screaming reactions to him joining Smash), but back then, you were in it for Disney or Final Fantasy, or maybe both if you had particularly good taste.
That’s why Kingdom Hearts 3, completely devoid of Final Fantasy characters, was a bit of a let down for many. In an interview with Game Informer, Nomura argued that Final Fantasy inclusion isn’t a key part of Kingdom Hearts and confirmed its characters were initially included to “lend a hand for everyone to get to know these characters better.”
What Nomura is saying here is that Kingdom Hearts is a collaboration between Disney and its own original characters and that Final Fantasy’s iconic stars were just marketing. Even if this isn’t a surprise to many fans, it’s still insulting.
When I first got into Kingdom Hearts, I was seven years old and didn’t have a clue what a Final Fantasy was. The shot of Chicken Little running into Sora’s arms to help him in battle set to obnoxiously loud J-pop is what gripped me, not Cloud, Squall, or Sephiroth. They were just another set of spiky-haired anime boys to me.
Despite that, the Final Fantasy characters quickly became as important to me as the rest of the cast. Squall, Yuffie, and Cid are some of the first characters that Sora runs into when he lands in Traverse Town, and are the ones who teach him the importance of the Keyblade.
Their role in Kingdom Hearts was only furthered in the sequel, where they all teamed up to form the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. Until Radiant Garden was turned into a plot-sensitive world in Birth By Sleep, it was basically presented as a Final Fantasy world in Kingdom Hearts 2, and it was all the better for it.
Nomura’s recent comments seem to be forgetting one of the best moments in the whole series: the battle of 1,000 Heartless. This scene in Kingdom Hearts 2 sees Sora, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, and pretty much every Final Fantasy character that had been in the series at that point all fighting off hordes of Heartless together and making quips the whole time.
As Sora made his way through what was easily the most dramatic moment in the series up to that point, he had the chance to fight alongside all of the Final Fantasy characters. It was pure wish fulfilment. One of the best scenes in all of Kingdom Hearts. And it would be much less special without Final Fantasy characters. Even if, like me, you weren’t a massive Final Fantasy fan, you knew how big of a deal it was to see Cloud and Squall stand back-to-back fighting with one another.
The true potential of Final Fantasy in Kingdom Hearts was realised in Hollow Bastion and it should have been built on. We saw glimpses at that potential with Zack in Olympus Coliseum and The World Ends With You takeover of Traverse Town, but instead of carrying that power forward, Kingdom Hearts 3 decided to let it go completely.
I’ve always argued that Kingdom Hearts could be its own thing without Disney or Final Fantasy, but I don’t think it should, and the lack of Final Fantasy in Kingdom Hearts 3 reinforced that. Going without all of the characters we know and love until a few cutscenes in Remind felt off, and long-requested characters like Noctis and Lightning missing out after nearly a decade of hoping was a big disappointment.
Kingdom Hearts 3 had many issues, but that lack of Final Fantasy was one of its biggest. Although Nomura argues the series isn’t about Disney and Final Fantasy teaming up, the series has been at its absolute best when it was, and it needs to stop trying to hide from that.
Kingdom Hearts 4 looks to be a brand new start for the series as it enters a new saga, but there’s never been a better time than now to make Final Fantasy as important as it once was, something that seems even easier with the realistic world of Quadratum. Rather than hiding from its own identity, Kingdom Hearts needs to embrace the wackiness of being a Disney-Final Fantasy mashup once more, and finally be comfortable in its own skin.