Hey everyone, it's Lydia. This week I want to introduce you to a game of my childhood: Kingdom Hearts. It's a game that was first introduced to me when I was around 10 years old by my sister's ex-boyfriend. Now, I'll be the first to say, the story may seem a little cheesy and cliche around the light, darkness, and hearts - but it is a story that stays with you forever. It is very inspiring, especially when matched with the phenomenal graphics, stunning soundtracks, and amazing gameplay. It's a game for all ages but don't take that lightly - its gameplay is a challenge.
I would like to thank my layouter, Krystle!
Remember to click on the photos to access enlarged screenshots, trailers, and soundtracks from the game!
Note: The pictures of the logos are the game trailers. If you only watch one, I highly recommend it be the one to the left of this box.

The very first installment of Kingdom Hearts was released in 2002 and was a collaboration by Square Enix (famous for the Final Fantasy series) and Disney. Yes - THAT Disney. When originally released, Kingdom Hearts I was the tenth best-selling Playstation 2 game of all-time, the most commercially successful installment of the game to date and is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all-time. Yet, weirdly, I find that many people have still never heard of the game.

Now, the series consists of 8 games - KH, KH: Chain of Memories, KH2, KH: Coded, KH 358/2 Days, KH: Birth by Sleep, KH 3D: Dream Drop Distance and KH Unchained X (soon to be rebranded as KH Union X). Kingdom Hearts 3 is currently in development. In preparation for the release of KH 3, Square Enix have remastered all games (minus KH Unchained X as it is an app game that is still online) onto the PS4 including the 2.8 Remix which fills in any plot holes, ready for the future release.
The new remix of all the past games shall be named Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD and shall be released on the 31st March 2017.

The series follows Sora, a boy who lives with his friends on a small island. At the beginning of the series, Sora and his friends, Riku and Kairi, are planning to set sail and find the other worlds that exist beyond their own island. Their plans are cut short when darkness destroys their island and causes the friends to be separated - but leads Sora to a weapon called the Keyblade. With the Keyblade, Sora must find his friends and help to restore worlds that fell into the darkness, including his own. This is how the majority of the games flow and include Sora in some form or another.
However, 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep both follow different protagonists. 358/2 Days is a game that I cannot go into too much detail over for risk of spoilers, but Birth by Sleep is a game that is a prequel to the entire series.
In Birth by Sleep, the game is set 10 years before the events of the original game, and we follow 3 separate characters: Terra, Aqua,and Ventus. The 3 live on a world for Keyblade Masters in training and hope to follow in the steps of their Master. Terra and Aqua attempt the Mark of Mastery exam but when Terra fails due to sabotage, the darkness in his heart grows, and tragedies begin to strike, setting up the path for what shall occur 10 years later.

You're probably confused as to how Disney fits into this? WELL. The worlds that exist within the game are a mixture of originals and Disney Worlds. Some of the worlds that you shall travel through include: Atlantis (The Little Mermaid), Halloween Town (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Agrabah (Aladdin), The Grid (Tron + Tron: Legacy), Captain Hook's Ship (Peter Pan), Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland) and many others. Some appear multiple times throughout the series such as Agrabah, Wonderland and the Olympus Coliseum (Hercules). Others appear only once in certain games such as Captain Hook's Ship (KH 1), the Land of Dragons (Mulan - KH2), Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean - KH2) and La Cité des Cloches (The Hunchback of Notre Dame - KH: Dream Drop Distance). Kingdom Hearts 3 is set to see the introduction of worlds such as Corona (Tangled) and a world based upon Big Hero 6.
In these worlds, you help some of your favourite Disney characters and help to save them from the darkness. Other's you can summon to aid you into battle such as Simba (Lion King) and Stitch (Lilo & Stitch).

Now, a game that has been ongoing since 2002 cannot simply be summed up in one tiny article - as you may have guessed. For that reason, Krystle has amazingly added a screenshot gallery as well as, game trailers and soundtracks. This game is one for casual as well as hardcore games. You can set what level you want to play the game at with there being: Normal and Expert (later games, such as Birth by Sleep, introduced levels - Beginner, Standard, Proud and Critical). If all of this hasn't already convinced you to check out the game (even if you simply check out walkthroughs on Youtube - which trust me, there is an abundance of) the games also feature the voice acting of some well-known figures including: Haley Joel Osment (Sora + Vanitas), Hayden Panettiere (Kairi + Xion), Alyson Stoner (Kairi + Xion), Tony Anselmo (the Official voice of Donald Duck since 1985), Bill Farmer (Official Goofy since 1987), Jesse McCartney (Roxas + Ventus), Willa Holland (Aqua), Leonard Nimoy (Master Xehanort - the main Antagonist of the series) and Master Eraqus (Mark Hamill - It's Star Wars vs. Star Trek, baby!).

Fun Fact: Very few of the original/official Disney voice actors appear in the game, but one of the few who does is Tate Donovan - best know for Hades from Hercules. He loves his role as Hades so much that he voices him any chance he gets including the 3 KH games Hades is in Kingdom Hearts 2 (where you visit the Underworld), Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded and Kingdom Hearts HD: 2.5 Remix.

If you would like to learn more about the Kingdom Hearts Universe then feel free to visit the Wikipedia page or go even deeper with the Kingdom Hearts Wikia page - both are abyss' cause trust me, I've only scratched the surface of this universe......
I hope you enjoyed this article and didn't get too lost.
Have you ever heard of the series or played any of the games?