Originally, Kingdom Hearts was so difficult that at Square they compared it to a Takeshi Kitano game

If, like me, you remember the launch of the first Kingdom Hearts, it’s time to go to the pharmacy to reserve the Sintrom. The Square saga is already 22 years old (read it again: 22!) and even the most ardent fan would take hours to explain the surface of its incredibly complex plot that navigates through main games, spin-offs, prequels, sequels, and even post-credits of compilations. It’s a mess. And the worst part is not that, but that originally, in addition to the complexity of its plot, we would have had to add the complexity of the game itself.

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Another puzzle, it’s war!

According to Tetsuya Nomura, his initial idea for the game was very different from what we ended up having: “My concept was a game with a lot of depth, something you could play for a long time. I wanted to try to make a game where the player could do anything. Although Kingdom Hearts is from Disney, there are still some hardcore elements“. In fact, as an example, he mentions that it has a 3D map but not a 2D mini-map, forcing players to get lost and explore the cities and worlds.

And originally it was even more complex: “We had some puzzles that made you think ‘What is this, Takeshi’s Challenge?’. We lowered the difficulty a bit, but it’s still harder than most mainstream releases today”. If you don’t know what Takeshi’s Challenge is, you’re lucky: it’s a NES game created by Takeshi Kitano famous for its extreme difficulty: basically, if you don’t know all its tricks and little quirks, like hitting the start screen 30,720 times to reach the final boss immediately, it’s almost impossible to progress.

Luckily, Kingdom Hearts is much easier to understand than that game, but not because Nomura wanted it to be initially. “It’s the Disney factor, it’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing, right? I think the gameplay defies players’ expectations“. It certainly does. At least you don’t have to hit anyone 30,720 times with the keyblade to unlock anything!

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