A Tale From The Heart

Hey everyone, My name is James, I'm new to the Game Fix crew. Here is a little bit of who I am, enjoy!

I have been a gamer my entire life. Started with a pong system when I was 4 years old. My dad and I used to play it all the time.

From the pong system, it was Atari 2600, then the 5200, then the 7800. NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis. At one point in my life I even owned a TG16. I was the special kid on the block who owned something that nobody else did. I also did the arcade scene in the 90's. Street Fighter 2, was my drug. I loved the crap out of that game. If I were to guess how much I spent on Street Fighter 2 in the arcades, I would own a large share of Capcom right now.

Through the years. There have been only a handful of games that really got my excited to be a gamer. Pac-Man, Zelda, Metroid, Half-Life, Street Fighter 2 for that competitive itch.

Those games came and went. I had a lot of fun with them, and I loved every minute of them. The countless hours I spent eating yellow dots, or exploring Hyrule, made me the gamer I am today and while I enjoyed every game I played that wasn't listed, I wasn't really... Excited for them. They were just something to do in between the games that truly made me love to be a gamer.

The year 2000 came rather quickly, and the PS2 was the hottest thing around. It had a lot of great games, probably eclipses the SNES in some of the greatest games ever released. But it didn't have that game, that one game that really got me excited to be a gamer.

Insert Square Enix. 2002, Square unveils Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts was fusing the worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney, with a little Square weirdness thrown in. I was a fan of Final Fantasy, been playing it since the NES days. I am also a fan of Disney animations, having grown up watching Disney movies (Sword and the Stone is still the best damn Disney cartoon movie ever released.. Come at me).

This is a weird fusion. I read everything I could, watched everything that Square released. Getting more and more excited as time went by.

And finally, March 28th 2002, the Japanese release date. The US release date is around the corner. I watched everything I could from the Japanese fans playing it. The US release date couldn't get here fast enough.

September 17th, 2002 Kingdom Hearts was released in the US and I was right there buying my copy. I sunk so many hours into that game and I loved every single
Minute of it. Square went all out, and even included some voice actors. The list is very 00's. Haley Joel Osment, Billy Zane, Mandy Moore, Lance Bass, and of course
David Boreanaz (made me wicked excited, cause I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan). They even brought in the Disney voice actors to voice the rolls of the various Disney Characters. Unfortunately, they didn't get Robin Williams to voice the Genie. But it is what it is. Dan Castellaneta did a great job at doing his voice.

The plot of Kingdom Hearts was simple, at first. You are Sora, the chosen one, the wielder of the keyblade. A magical key that you use to close key holes that have opened through out the worlds of Disney and search for your friends who are missing. Donald and Goofy are looking for King Mickey, and Sora is looking for Kira and Riku. Childhood friends that went missing after the darkness consumed their world. Along the way you run into Final Fantasy characters like Cloud, Cid, Leon, and even Sephiroth.

The worlds vary greatly, from Olympus Coliseum (Hercules) to Agrabah (Aladdin). You even travel to the 100 Acre Wood and, to my surprise, the world of "Nightmare before
Christmas". Which probably has one of the coolest boss battles in the entire game.

For being a "Disney game", its not a kids game. Its very dark, and has very dark tones to it, while at the same time, being very Disney. The music, the moods, the way the
Characters interact, its all very Disney. It has that innocent Disney feel to it, while the main plot is dark. This is after all, a Square game.

The game did well enough that a sequel was announced, and the US even got the release of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. Which was the same game, with duel shock support now (first game didn't have it), some new weapons, and special bosses.

Kingdom Hearts 2 came out in 2005, it brought back some of the original voice actors, same combat system, some new worlds. But the main thing Kingdom Hearts 2 did was completely change the plot. You're still the keyblade master, and you're still closing key holes while searching for your friends. But Square added this whole other element to the plot that made it very convoluted. Even hardcore Kingdom Heart fans have given up on trying to figure the plot out. Despite all of that, I enjoyed the game.

Then a whole bunch of games came out that I never got into. For one, they weren't released for the PS2, and they just continued this convoluted plot that started in KH2. My time with Kingdom Hearts is done and I have moved on.

Now we fast forward to today.

I have changed as a gamer. I'm now 37 years old, and my tastes in games have changed. I now focus on competitive multiplayer games. My current addiction is Overwatch, yes, another person here is super into Overwatch. But I don't just play Overwatch, I also play Heroes of the Storm, and I am still into fighting games (super hyped for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, so look for more blogs about that). I am also very much a PC gamer. I have, given up, of sorts on consoles. So I built a gaming PC and my gaming time has been on that. I am on Steam and blizzard, and pretty much everything in between.

I do however, own a PS4. I had one since launch, but never gave it the time of day. I didn't open it until I bought a new TV and Horizon Zero Dawn came out. I put a little time into Hoizon, and I loved it. I really did. But, I missed that competition. I missed playing against other people. So I went back to Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm (with a little Marvel 3 on Steam).

One day, I'm walking around Target, in the PS4 section, and I noticed Kingdom Hearts 1.5\2.5 Final Mix for the PS4 and I bought it with out question.

I'm about 25 hours into Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and I'm loving every single minute of it. Its almost like I'm playing it for the first time again. I know the story still to this day, and I know the secrets, and I know where everything is. I'm still loving it and I cannot wait to play Kingdom Hearts 2.5 (Final Mix). The US never got this version of the game, so it will be the first time I have played it (this version). I am now also very excited for Kingdom Hearts 3. Disney has changed a lot since then. They now own both Marvel and Lucas Arts. So the possibilities of worlds is staggering. Is there going to be a Star Wars planet? Or can I have Wolverine as a team mate? The possibilities of having a lightsaber keyblade makes me gitty like a school girl.

I know I can never relive that first moments I had with the original Kingdom Hearts. That time has come and went. But this game has peaked my interest in more single player games. After I complete this, I will probably go back to Horizon, and maybe even open World of Final Fantasy and play through that.

.. Oh hell, who am I kidding? The anniversary of Overwatch is around the corner, and I still haven't done my season 3 placements yet. D.va Just got released for Heroes of the Storm and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is coming out!