Hello there. My name is Keri and I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan and apologist. I know the overarching story arc for these games is beyond convoluted. I know how ridiculous it sounds when I try to summarize or explain it to people. I know there’s no real defense over the number of games the series has or how many consoles/handhelds the games originally appeared on. It never stops me from defending any of it, though. I’ll even defend the ending to Kingdom Hearts III and say it all wrapped up nicely for me.
With that in mind, I am less than pleased that Square Enix has announced they have two new teams working on additional Kingdom Hearts games, one of which will release “surprisingly soon,” according to their recent Q&A . We now know that this “surprisingly soon” title is a mobile game based upon Xehanort, which, if Square Enix keeps doing what they do with their KH mobile titles, will be ported to console eventually. (Yes, I know Kingdom Hearts χ Union will not be ported, but that’s an entirely different beast. Just work with me here.)
This all begs the question: if Kingdom Hearts III truly ended Sora’s story as they said the game would, do we need any more games?
I love a good story, but I’m always fine with the story actually ending. Not much is worse with a book series than when the author obviously pads it out to make it last longer (I’m looking at you, Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire series). TV shows can obviously suffer from this problem as well. Any anime fan can name at least five series that pad just to pad. None of these are enjoyable. The same goes for games.
At this point, especially with the Re Mind DLC that is out now, Square Enix is milking the Kingdom Hearts franchise for all it believes it can get out of fans. We’ve seen a similar dance with Activision and its Guitar Hero franchise. At some point, it will become too much and people will stop caring. When that happens, it often leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths about the series as a whole. While I do remember when Guitar Hero was fun, none of that sticks out in my mind as greatly as getting sick of all the new game releases that required new hardware.
Square Enix had its chance to end Kingdom Hearts gloriously. Whether you like the ending of KHIII or not, it was still an ending to the story as a whole. Opening it back up again will lead us down the same path as Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns – Final Fantasy XIII , aka nothing good.
It’s time to let sleeping Keyblades lie, Square Enix. You’ve already had your big wink-wink-nudge-nudge moments with Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover , all of which were wrapped up in Kingdom Hearts III . What on earth is left to explore and unravel? Prequels? You’ve don’t that. Rewrite the ending to KHIII to keep it going? You did that with Final Fantasy XIII-2 . Provide backstory to other characters? Isn’t that what Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days did?
No. Enough is enough, Square Enix. Stop trying to squeeze yen out of this franchise, keep your The End, and let it go like Elsa. Surely that’s the real reason Frozen was included in the most recent title. Besides, don’t you have a Final Fantasy XVI to work on instead?