My Life Would Be So Different If I Never Played Kingdom Hearts

It’s hard not to believe in fate sometimes. Little moments in life that steer your existence in a specific direction that, when looking back, changed everything. Where you’re at and who you have become is a direct consequence of everything big and small you’ve ever been through, the effects of which often don’t become clear until years after the fact. But this isn’t a therapy session to help our readership unpack their collective trauma, it’s an article about a little gem called 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom Hearts. It has anime boys and Mickey Mouse.

As a kid, I didn’t realise I was getting in at the ground floor for this ambitious crossover when I stepped into a video game store with my dad one weekend. He was visiting from out of the country, trying to restore faith with my mother after abusing her and having us swiftly move in search of a new home. As some sort of peace offering, we went shopping and were asked to pick a present of our choosing. I asked for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but considering I was yet to hit double digits at the time, it was deemed too violent and inappropriate for a tiny little gamer like me. So someone suggested Kingdom Hearts, and I went along with it because I already had a history with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy. This was just that with Disney chaꦛracters? Cool!

It was indeed very cool, but it also changed my life. Kingdom Hearts only served to help double down on my obsession with role-playing games and anime melodrama, encouraging me to check out shows, films, manga, fanfic, and so much more for the first time in my life. I was a severely undiagnosed neurodivergent kid who was given no supervision and unfiltered access to Kingdom Hearts, of course it changed my life.

I even remember drawing my own rendition of the Kingdom Hearts 2 box art and proudl🌊y displaying it on the fridge. Even today, I remain an accomplished artis🉐t.

In wa🃏ys that helped me pursue this dastardly career in video games, animation, and queer critique, and a wholesome approach to life despite my debilitating mental health problems. My friends are my power and all that.

After completing Kingdom Hearts for the first time in under two weeks, I started a new h🔜obby on the side born from reading gaming magazines. I wrote my own reviews in Microsoft Word, and even created bespoke bronze, silver, and gold medals in paint I could display alongside them as my own personal scoring system. These weren’t insightful or scathing critiques, but it set a fire in my heart that lives on to this day. A desire to analyse the things I love in a way♎ that not only speaks to me, but others, as I delve deep into story, characters, and mechanics to show that video games are more than just momentary playthings.

Cover Arts For Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far, Featuring 1.5, 2.5 and 2.8 Remix Art Works.

This would grow into a greater appreciation for the medium as I entered my teenage years and began writing similar fiction and c꧑ritique in my spare time, slowly letting that bleed into my schoolwork and love for the humanities. I found myself drawn to these sorts of things, and much of that can be factored down to a hyperfixation with Kingdom Hearts and my horrible father’s refusal to buy me Vice City instead. While I haven’t seen him in decades and there remains a solid chance I never will again, part of me has to thank him for that decision.

When Kingdom Hearts 2 cam🐎e out, I talked my way out of school, so I could play it all day, and found myself absolutely lost because, like a fool, I hadn’t played Chain of Memories. Even at a young age, Tetsuya Nomura was ruining my life with his anime shenanigans. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, and I imagine the same can be said for millions of fans around the world.

Whenever I meet another fan of the series, they are equally if not more obsessed than I am. They forgive the nonsensical lore and cringe whimsy because Kingdom Hearts brings them back to moments in their life that proved fleeting, and Sora’s story, d💯espite decades having passed, is still far from over. We don’t know when his journey is going to end, and we can say the same for ourselves in the here and now.

Kingdom Hearts 3 felt like someone we’d been waiting for had finally come home with a desire to offer resolution, before leaving us on yet another cliffhanger as it walked away. Many of us still remain obsessed thou๊gh, ready and willing to see what comes next and witnessing exactly how this series has matured alongside it. It has no other choice, and players will forever hold dear how Kingdom Hearts represents past, present, and future.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Cover Art featuring the trios from each game amidst a saturated city skyline

I𝓡t’s h🍬ard to believe what my outlook on life would be if I hadn’t picked up that game in that shop over two decades ago, and what I’d be doing now if Sora didn’t take me on an adventure which is now poised to last a lifetime.

God, maybe this is a therapy session after all...