Universe of Kingdom Hearts
The Kingdom Hearts video game series, developed by Square Enix in collaboration with Disney, is set in a universe consisting of numerous self-contained worlds based on intellectual properties from both companies.
In the first game, Kingdom Hearts, he fights against the villainous Heartless and seals each world he visits to prevent their return.
The Kingdom Hearts games have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, and the design of the worlds have been praised for their faithfulness to the source material.
The worlds' graphics resemble the art style from the originating Disney film, and the worlds are inhabited by characters from their respective films; for example, Hercules and Philoctetes appear in Olympus Coliseum from Hercules, while Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, and the Genie appear in Agrabah from Aladdin.
[6] After determining the number of worlds in the universe, Nomura picked ones he felt would fit into the series' scenario, which was then evaluated by his team and Disney representatives.
The Unversed (アンヴァース, Anvāsu) are creatures that are introduced and predominantly appear in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
Vanitas pits these creatures against his counterpart, Ventus, to strengthen him as part of Master Xehanort's plan to obtain the χ-blade.
To investigate a message hidden in Jiminy Cricket's journal that Naminé left, King Mickey has the book digitized to uncover the mystery.
They primarily take the form of cubes that the game's main protagonist, a virtual replica of Sora called "Data-Sora", can destroy or use as platforms.
It seeks to devour the rest of the digital Heartless for power and escape into the real world to sate its hunger for hearts.
Keyblades (キーブレード, Kīburēdo) are key-shaped melee weapons created to combat darkness and are the only thing that can free hearts from a Heartless form,[29][30] thus allowing the restoration of complete beings.
[31] Initially, Keyblades were crafted in the image of the original "χ-blade" by those who wanted the light within Kingdom Hearts for themselves and those who sought the opposite.
A driving element in the first game is the ability to seal the "heart" of a world by locking the keyhole to the door leading to it, preventing it from being destroyed by Heartless.
In Kingdom Hearts II, the player uses the Keyblade to unlock pathways between worlds that were closed after the events of the first game.
[33] The χ-blade (χブレード, Kīburēdo, pronounced the same as "Keyblade") is an ancient weapon of unknown origin introduced in Birth by Sleep that is capable of directly unlocking Kingdom Hearts.
He finds such a means through his former apprentice Ventus and his personified darkness Vanitas, who Xehanort created and enlisted to ensure his plans succeeded.
Dream Drop Distance reveals that, as a contingency to his previous plan, Xehanort arranged the formation of his thirteen "Seekers of Darkness", the new Organization XIII composing of his various incarnations and vessels, to fight the Keyblade users, who would form seven "Guardians of Light".
These artificial constructs, however, are only small-scale versions of the "true" Kingdom Hearts, which can only be accessed with its counterpart, the χ-blade.
The Kingdom Hearts made by Organization XIII, on the other hand, takes the form of a yellow heart-shaped moon.
In the Kingdom Hearts universe, travelling between worlds is normally not possible, and they are protected from extraterrestrial interference by an invisible shell.
In the worlds based on The Little Mermaid and The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sora, Donald, and Goofy transform into undersea creatures and Halloween monsters, respectively.
[11] Most worlds that appear in the games are based on Disney films and follow abridged versions of their stories, such as in Wonderland, the Land of Dragons, and Castle of Dreams.
Worlds like Monstro and Neverland focus heavily on the main plot, the latter being reduced to Captain Hook's ship, where Riku reveals to Sora that Kairi has lost her heart.
During the development of Kingdom Hearts II, Nomura had more creative freedom due to advances in technology, which Port Royal/The Caribbean, Space Paranoids, and Pride Lands benefited from.
[11] Birth by Sleep introduced several new Disney-based worlds to the series: Castle of Dreams, Enchanted Dominion, Dwarf Woodlands and Deep Space.
Dream Drop Distance included more new Disney worlds, such as La Cité des Cloches, The Grid, Prankster's Paradise, Country of the Musketeers, and Symphony of Sorcery.
[55][56][57] Andrew Reiner of Game Informer stated that despite the extreme differences between Final Fantasy and Disney properties, they blend well together along with the new content created for the series.
Allgame's Scott Marriott stated the Disney settings are the most attractive feature of the game and considered some of the world choices a surprise.
Marriott further stated that though the stages were small, interacting with beloved characters and exploring familiar settings were enjoyable aspects.
[57][65] 1UP.com's Bryan Intihar lauded Kingdom Hearts II's environment, calling it appealing and stating it was an improvement over the first title's.
