Kingdom Hearts, Territoriality and Flow William Humberto Huber Stephen Mandiberg UC San Diego, Art and Media History UC San Diego, Communication 9400 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 9400 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT with an unnamed Disney executive that led to the This paper explores the relationship between companies collaboration between the two companies. The work is Square-Enix and Disney as played out within the games of primarily the product of Square: the directors, producers, the Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ) franchise. We and team leads are all Square employees, merchandise from contrast the relationship between these two transnational the game is sold by Square-Enix's merchandising group, companies within the franchise's aesthetics and theoretical and Kingdom Hearts merchandise has very little presence in logics over the course of the various games. We are Disney retail spaces. Disney's contribution has been to give particularly interested in the games' own thematization and the development team authorization to create worlds based problematization of concepts of globalization, on Disney properties. transnationalism and cultural flow. The games narratively Reflecting this industrial relationship is the structure of the and interactively foreground the collapse of membranes that games as traversable narrative spaces. The main protagonist separate worlds, producing legitimate and illegitimate is Sora, who begins the first game on Destiny Island. Sora modes of territoriality and intermixture. is a Square-created character; character design in Square Author Keywords games has institutionally been accorded authorial status, with character designers joining composers, art directors role-playing games, franchises, Japan, globalization, and producers in the short list of named credited artists. The translation, transmediation director of the game, Tetsuya Nomura, distinguished THE FRANCHISE himself as a character designer on Final Fantasy titles. The The Kingdom Hearts franchise consists of a collection of character design process can precede story development, disparate Disney and Square-Enix franchises that each exist and is a reflection of the producer's perception of its within the Kingdom Hearts universe as separate ‘worlds.’ audience: the Final Fantasy games usually feature males in Half of the worlds like 100 Acre Wood, Wonderland, their mid-to-late teens, while Sora is 14 years old in the first Atlantica, Agrabah and Port Royal, are Disney owned or game, aging appropriately in subsequent games. licensed material with their appropriate characters. The other worlds, Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Twilight Sora is joined by Donald and Goofy in Kingdom Hearts and Town, Hollow Bastion, Radiant Garden, and The World Kingdom Hearts II ; in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of That Never Was, were created specifically for the series, Memories , Donald and Goofy are resources for certain with either randomly migrated Final Fantasy or newly battles, and do accompany him throughout his passage to created Square-Enix characters. These worlds are different worlds; yet the player-avatar is clearly and interesting as means of looking at ideas of national unambiguously mapped onto Sora (or his doppelganger, boundaries, distributed authorship and along lines of Roxas) for the larger part of all the games. The worlds translation and transmediation. themselves are generally drawn from Disney properties, however, with a few exceptions. The franchise had its origins in a chance encounter between two executives. In 2002, Square Soft (now Square-Enix's 1) If the game has been actively authored by Square-Enix, HQ was in the same building as Disney's Japan branch, and then the Disney Interactive (after a reorganization, re- Square producer Shinji Hashimoto began a conversation named “Buena Vista Games”) contribution could be described as somewhat more aloof. Nomura reported that Square-Enix was unsure whether they would be able to use 1 Mickey Mouse extensively in Kingdom Hearts II , receiving When we refer to decisions and policies clearly belonging authorization to include the character prominently only after to the corporate entity that existed before the 2003 merger development of the title was well underway. of Square, Inc. with Enix, Incorparted, we will refer to “Square” and “Square Soft;” otherwise, we will refer to “Square-Enix.” Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory. Proceedings of DiGRA 2009 © 2009Authors & Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). Personal and educational classroom use of this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author. THE GAMES between people and the ideas of both true and false The Kingdom Hearts franchise consists of four main games, memories, how they are created and whether they are more Kingdom Hearts for the Playstation 2, Kingdom Hearts: or less real. Sora’s side ends with him entering a sleeping Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance, Kingdom pod in order to exchange his memories of everything that Hearts II for the Playstation 2, and finally Kingdom Hearts happened in the Castle for getting back his previous 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS. There are numerous memories lost during the journey up the floors of the castle, variations with versions, remakes and also two off platform which include his previous journey and particularly of cell phone games. For this work we are analyzing the Kairi. In Riku’s journey you arrive at the castle through the English and Japanese versions of the four main games with machinations of DiZ (who the player does not know is the as much variation as we can including the English, Japanese true Ansem) masquerading as Xehanort’s Heartless (still and Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts , the English known to the player as Ansem). Riku works his way up version of Chain of Memories , the Japanese remake, Re: from the basement dealing with his previous abandonment Chain of Memories for the Playstation 2, the English and of his friends and family in order to gain the power of Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts II and finally the darkness and how that darkness resides as Ansem (really Japanese version of 358/2 Days . Xehanort’s Heartless) in his heart. The story culminates in Kingdom Hearts was released in Japan on March 28, 2002. Riku’s decision to walk the middle path between light and It was released with a few additional elements, and an dark. English translation in North America on September 17, Kingdom Hearts II was released for the Playstation 2 in 2002. Finally, Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix was released in Japan on December 22, 2005 and was translated into Japan with the added elements from the North American English and released in North America on March 28, 2006. release, a few additional tweaks and additions, an extended Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ was then released on ending and the English language cutscenes on December March 29, 2007 in Japan with additional, added elements, 26, 2002. English cut scenes and including the previously mentioned Kingdom Hearts follows the story of Sora as he becomes a remake, Re: Chain of Memories . refugee in Traverse Town from his original home in Kingdom Hearts II begins roughly a year after Kingdom Destiny Islands. He teams up with Disney characters Hearts with the player controlling Roxas, who we learn in Donald and Goofy and travels to various Disney franchise the first few hours is Sora’s Nobody. After seven days in a worlds such as Tarzan ’s Deep Jungle world, Little computer generated world Roxas rejoins Sora and the Mermaid ’s Atlantica and Nightmare Before Christmas ’ player then takes over as Sora who has no memory of the Halloween Town searching for his lost friends Kairi and events of Chain of Memories . After briefly meeting King Riku, fighting Heartless and Disney villains such as Jafar, Mickey Sora, Donald and Goofy then continue their search Captain Hook and Maleficent and sealing the keyholes that for Riku by visiting new and old worlds, and trying to lead to the hearts of those worlds. The story culminates with unravel the mystery of the Nobody’s plot. Eventually, Sora the defeat of Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness, who the (and the player) is informed that what was previously player later learns is really the Heartless of Xehanort, the thought to be Ansem was really Ansem’s out of control first disciple of Ansem. disciple Xehanort’s Heartless and the leader of the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released in Japan Nobodies is Xemnas, Xehanort’s Nobody. The second half for the Game Boy Advance on November 11, 2004 and the of the game involves trying to find a pathway to the world English translation was released in North America under of the Nobodies in order to stop their plot to utilize month later on December 7, 2004. It was then remade for Kingdom Hearts. The game culminates with Sora and Riku the Playstation 2 as Re: Chain of Memories and released in fighting Xemnas, returning to Destiny Islands for a final a compilation with the Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ on reunion with friends, and then the implications of a future March 29, 2007. Re: Chain of Memories was then translated journey when a letter from King Mickey arrives (by bottle and released individually in North America eight months in the ocean). later on December 2, 2008. The most recent game, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days was Chain of Memories is a two part game: in the first part you released in Japan for the Nintendo DS on May 30, 2009 and play as Sora entering Castle Oblivion on the ground floor it is slated for a September release in North America. and traveling up to the 13th floor, and in the second part 358/2 Days takes place between right before the end of you play as Riku entering from the 12th level basement and Kingdom Hearts and the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II .