Pap the
Disney Gamer Presents a Year
Long Celebration

Ten Years of Hearts,
Keyblades, and Disney Magic: A
Kingdom Hearts 10th
Anniversary Celebration
Last time on the
Kingdom Hearts Retrospective
'Princesses!
Sidekicks! Villains! Original
characters! Final Fantasy
characters! It's a regular
character cavalcade!'
And now...
Part 11: The
worlds and their fate lie in the
mighty Keyblade
In every good
story worth telling, a hero is
always carrying himself a
weapon. The uses and symbolism
of the item changes from story
to story. For example, the
mighty Excalibur was a sword
that defined the journey of King
Arthur. In another, more recent
example, the Star Wars saga
features the Lightsaber, a
weapon wielded by both the light
and dark side of the force. But
regardless of who wields the
weapon, it is a representation
of what the characters stand
for, and often defines the
journey the characters will
embark upon. Kingdom Hearts not
only follows this loyally, it
extends it even further into the
Disney worlds we are about to
visit.
![]](GameTuesKingdomHeartsPart11-1.jpg)
The Keyblade in its original
design
So, what exactly
is a Keyblade? As the name
states, a Keyblade is a fusion
between a sword and a key.
Square Enix is no stranger to
fusing different weapons in
order to create something that
ties directly into the narrative
of their games. In Final Fantasy
VIII, the main character Squall
yielded a Gunblade, a sword
whose handle was shaped like a
gun. Doing this also led to many
silly looking weapons, the
Keyblade being no exception.

During the
development of Kingdom Hearts,
both Sora and the Keyblade went
through several designs. Sora
was originally presented as a
lion boy, and the Keyblade
resembled a chainsaw
But as silly as
a Keyblade may be, its
significance in the Kingdom
Hearts mythos is a very
extensive one, one that yields
many years before the story
actually begins. A Keyblade is a
weapon used to combat the forces
of darkness, i.e. the Heartless.
It is the one thing that will
cut between the pure darkness
these creatures emit. Being the
designated weapon to confront
these beings, its wielder needs
to be someone special and pure
of heart. Such is the demands of
the Keyblade that way before
events of the first game
started, many Keyblade warriors
had to learn about its power and
become masters. This quickly
lead to the fabled Keyblade War,
an event chronicled in Kingdom
Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
The Keyblade
ties itself tightly to its
wielder based on both the
actions of his heart and his
beliefs. In the first Kingdom
Hearts, Sora seemingly gets the
Keyblade as it appears out of
nowhere. Clever gamers have
realized how and why the
Keyblade became Sora's weapon
(beyond the fact that he is the
main character and thus needed a
weapon in a combat heavy RPG).
The first time Sora gets the
Keyblade is when he meets Riku
just as Destiny Islands is being
destroyed by Heartless. Riku has
embraced the darkness that has
fell upon his home, and Sora
desperately tries to save Riku.
A large cloud of darkness
engulfs them both, showering
them completely in negative
energy. Just then, a burst of
light appears and sends Sora
back with Keyblade in hand.
Later on as we
confront Riku, now a full
servant of darkness, he
confesses to Sora that the
Keyblade was meant for him from
the beginning as the Keyblade
somehow knew that Riku was the
more valiant of the two. Yet,
the Keyblade was still Sora's.
After a few battles, Riku has
now accepted darkness into his
heart, meaning that the Keyblade
must now find an owner with a
pure heart of light. Guess who
it goes back to... that's right,
Sora!
Like with any
good RPG, the Keyblade is key
(no pun intended) to the
character development of Sora.
The Keyblade Sora starts with is
the most basic weapon of them
all. It serves as an
introduction to the real time
combat mechanics and the power
it yields upon its wielder. As
the story progresses so does
Sora. The more he levels up, the
more powerful he becomes. The
Keyblade will also grow in power
as Sora gains keychains that
level up the weapon and even
changes the appearance of the
Keyblade.
The Keyblade
also ties itself into another
big part of the narrative story:
the Disney worlds. Why is that?
Because Sora has the chance to
save the worlds that have yet to
be consumed by the Heartless
using his Keyblade to, quite
literally, lock the world's
heart away from them. When
selecting the worlds, Square
Enix made sure that the
selections represented Disney in
the past, present and even the
future. They also were selected
to fulfill a certain need in
gameplay design and variety.
Much like with the story and
characters, these worlds also
needed to keep the Disney spirit
alive in its digital form.
The worlds as
featured in Kingdom Hearts are
as follows:
Wonderland:
Based on Alice in Wonderland
(1951), this is the first Disney
world Sora and friends encounter
in their journey. As they enter,
they see that Alice has been put
on trial for the alleged theft
of the Queen of Hearts' heart.
Hoping to clear her name, Sora
goes around the maze that is
Wonderland in hopes of finding
evidence that will save Alice's
head.


Deep Jungle:
The first Disney world based on
a modern day Disney film, Deep
Jungle is based on the 1999
movie Tarzan. Much like
in the film, Sora meets Tarzan
as Professor Porter, Jane, and
Clayton make a campsite in order
to study the gorillas. Clayton,
however, wants something more
out of the expedition.


Olympus
Coliseum: Unlike the two
previous worlds, Olympus
Coliseum (based on the 1997
movie Hercules) is
actually a tournament based
world in which Sora faces off
against Heartless enemies and
rivals hoping to earn the name
of hero. Even if it is a
coliseum, you will still meet
the likes of Hercules,
Philoctetes and especially
Hades. Other characters from
Final Fantasy also make
appearances here.


100-Acre Wood:
One of the most charming
aspects of the 1977 film The
Many Adventures of Winnie the
Pooh (it being a collection
of shorts that were produced
then edited to make a feature
film) is that we actually see
the characters live within a
storybook that is just as alive
as they are. In Kingdom Hearts,
the 100-Acre Wood is not a
battle based world, it is
actually a mini-game based one,
all wrapped around cute
encounters with the denizens of
the forest. Unfortunately, the
pages of the book have been torn
off by the Heartless, which
means you must first find the
pages in order to fully continue
the story.


Agrabah:
Much like in the 1992 movie
Aladdin, Agrabah is a
scorching city of mystery, of
enchantment... and the finest
merchandise ever! All kidding
aside, in here you get to meet
Aladdin as he goes all the way
to the Cave of Wonders, rescue
Jasmine and do battle with Jafar.


Monstro: In
Pinocchio, Gepetto sets
out to find his boy Pinocchio
and ends up in the belly of a
whale named Monstro. In Kingdom
Hearts, you do get to travel
down the entrails of the giant
whale. While this is the first
time a Pinocchio-based world
appeared in any Kingdom Hearts
game, it would take till the
release of Dream Drop Distance
for a full world to make an
appearance.


Halloween Town:
In what many consider to be
the oddball choice, Halloween
Town is based on the 1993 stop
motion animated classic The
Nightmare Before Christmas.
It was a world that was
completely unexpected as
originally, the film was still
under the Touchstone Pictures
banner, while the majority of
the worlds came from the Disney
animated canon. This is a world
that sees its characters
transform into Halloween icons.
Storywise, this takes place way
before Jack discovers Christmas
Town and takes over the holiday.


Atlantica: A
movie that many consider to the
be starting point for the
animation rennaisance of the
90s, The Little Mermaid
inspired this world. This is an
unique world in that it takes
place completely underwater,
turning Sora into a merman,
Donald into an octopus, and
Goofy into a turtle. Fun fact:
Atlantica is considered to be by
many the worst world you visit
in the game due to the controls.
For the sequel, the world was
changed into a musical based
world that followed the story of
the film even closer.

Neverland:
What is peculiar about this
world is that even though it is
called Neverland (based on the
1953 film Peter Pan
To tie itself
even more with the worlds, at
the end of each world Sora
receives a keychain that can be
attached into the Keyblade. This
changes the Keyblade into a
design inspired by the world and
the characters he experienced.
There are many more Keyblades to
discover, each one with
different stats and abilities.
And that's the
Keyblade and the Disney worlds
of Kingdom Hearts in a nutshell.
There is a lot to talk about
them, both in terms of gameplay
design and how it presents the
original Disney stories. But
rest assured, these are indeed
some of the most creative
attempts at keeping the Disney
magic alive in video game form.
The last entry
of the series will be upon us
next month, and instead of
diving into other aspects of the
Kingdom Hearts concept, I will
be talking about what the game
and the series as a whole means
to me as both a gamer and a
Disney fan. Stay tuned!