For the sake of keeping this accessible to everyone interested, this is spoiler-free.
I've never really found issue with the story of the franchise before college because my experience was limited to; Kingdom Hearts I, a friend telling me the existence of Chain of Memories in Grade School (nothing much other than that), and playing roughly the first half of Kingdom Hearts II. So I never really got the confusing elements of the franchise until I played the whole franchise by the end of my sophomore year of college. Here's what I witnessed.
1. Literal Metaphors:
What an oxymoron, right? But it sadly makes sense when taking a closer look. Hearts in Kingdom Hearts function like souls, except they are physical embodiments, but are not the physical blood pumpers. Confused? Sorry, we're rolling. Nobodies are the empty bodies left behind when a strong-willed person becomes a Heartless (when they lose their "Heart"). So there are metaphors here, like how a Heart can be corrupted, succumb to darkness (take a shot every time I say darkness/light), or bathe in the light. A Nobody can represent how a strong-willed person's presence can linger even after death. But because Kingdom Hearts plays these themes so literally, it comes off as confused and convoluted.
2. Constant Retcons?:
It's hard to give examples of this while remaining spoiler-free, but from KHI to KHDDD, the series constantly changes the rules. When going through the 1.5 + 2.5 and 2.8 collections, keep these concepts in mind: Nobodies, Ansem, Emblem Heartless, Keyholes, The Lanes Between, Organization XIII, Kingdom Hearts, and The Keyblade War. These concepts change from game to game randomly and lead to a lot of inconsistency. These aren't all the concepts that change, nor do they change at the same magnitude. Most of the time, it seems these rules are broken purely out of convenience. But classic plot-holes sink any story.
3. Style Over Substance:
This point was made more clear to me in Johnny's video, but the visuals are excellent in Kingdom Hearts. Tetsuya Nomura has been a character and/or creature designer for the Final Fantasy franchise since V and has moved up the ranks since then to direct several games, including the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise. His talent is clearly design, as proven by pretty much all of his work. And while he can tell a compelling narrative, Johnny makes a good point that it's design first, explain second. And while that can work, it's not something to rely on.
4. WRITING:
This is the biggest point, the dialogue is AWFUL. There are some genuinely heartfelt moments (I'll go over that later) and interactions can feel natural, but darkness and light are so overused the dialogue gets corny to the point of cringe, not ironic enjoyment. It gets to the point where I tune out the words and skim the subtitles in order to get the basics on what's happening.
Bottom line, Kingdom Hearts has a big problem with world building, whether it's with bad writing, inconsistent rules or under-explained or even over-explained mechanics, players are not invested in the universe because it's so underdeveloped. So why do I like it so much? Not just the game, the story? Well...
1. Characters:
I love most of the characters. There are some that suck and I don't care enough about, but most of the characters are great. The running joke is that characters come in 3's: The Destiny Islands trio, the main trio, the Sea-Salt Ice Cream trio, the Wayfinder trio and the Twilight Town trio. Then there are the Final Fantasy characters, special mention to "Leon", Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid. Don't forget the Organization members, or the Xehanorts (not a typo). So can characters carry a broken story? Personally, yeah. For me, in order to be invested, I need to be invested in the characters. Sure the world they inhabit doesn't make sense, but I get invested in the characters and their interactions with each other.
2. Style Over Substance:
Yes, like Johnny, I too can overlook convoluted nonsense in favor of the pretty colors. It's not a substitute, but it is a nice distraction. I noticed this in his designs for Final Fantasy XIII, that he can make things that look, busy. That same idea is present in the whole Kingdom Hearts franchise, except it's more vibrant and stylized to the universe.
3. Motivations:
This is a big one. Sure, I'm not sure how the rules work, but lots of the characters seem to know, and the writing has not overlooked one key problem, mixed motivations. Speaking of Final Fantasy XIII, a big problem when making a story is having characters whose motivations change without warning or are inconsistent. Kingdom Hearts never falls into this pitfall, and thus, the audience is never confused emotionally, even if they are confused practically.
In conclusion, the confusing narrative never really cripples me and my enjoyment, although I completely understand why others don't feel the same way.
2. Constant Retcons?:
It's hard to give examples of this while remaining spoiler-free, but from KHI to KHDDD, the series constantly changes the rules. When going through the 1.5 + 2.5 and 2.8 collections, keep these concepts in mind: Nobodies, Ansem, Emblem Heartless, Keyholes, The Lanes Between, Organization XIII, Kingdom Hearts, and The Keyblade War. These concepts change from game to game randomly and lead to a lot of inconsistency. These aren't all the concepts that change, nor do they change at the same magnitude. Most of the time, it seems these rules are broken purely out of convenience. But classic plot-holes sink any story.
3. Style Over Substance:
This point was made more clear to me in Johnny's video, but the visuals are excellent in Kingdom Hearts. Tetsuya Nomura has been a character and/or creature designer for the Final Fantasy franchise since V and has moved up the ranks since then to direct several games, including the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise. His talent is clearly design, as proven by pretty much all of his work. And while he can tell a compelling narrative, Johnny makes a good point that it's design first, explain second. And while that can work, it's not something to rely on.
4. WRITING:
This is the biggest point, the dialogue is AWFUL. There are some genuinely heartfelt moments (I'll go over that later) and interactions can feel natural, but darkness and light are so overused the dialogue gets corny to the point of cringe, not ironic enjoyment. It gets to the point where I tune out the words and skim the subtitles in order to get the basics on what's happening.
Bottom line, Kingdom Hearts has a big problem with world building, whether it's with bad writing, inconsistent rules or under-explained or even over-explained mechanics, players are not invested in the universe because it's so underdeveloped. So why do I like it so much? Not just the game, the story? Well...
1. Characters:
I love most of the characters. There are some that suck and I don't care enough about, but most of the characters are great. The running joke is that characters come in 3's: The Destiny Islands trio, the main trio, the Sea-Salt Ice Cream trio, the Wayfinder trio and the Twilight Town trio. Then there are the Final Fantasy characters, special mention to "Leon", Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid. Don't forget the Organization members, or the Xehanorts (not a typo). So can characters carry a broken story? Personally, yeah. For me, in order to be invested, I need to be invested in the characters. Sure the world they inhabit doesn't make sense, but I get invested in the characters and their interactions with each other.
2. Style Over Substance:
Yes, like Johnny, I too can overlook convoluted nonsense in favor of the pretty colors. It's not a substitute, but it is a nice distraction. I noticed this in his designs for Final Fantasy XIII, that he can make things that look, busy. That same idea is present in the whole Kingdom Hearts franchise, except it's more vibrant and stylized to the universe.
3. Motivations:
This is a big one. Sure, I'm not sure how the rules work, but lots of the characters seem to know, and the writing has not overlooked one key problem, mixed motivations. Speaking of Final Fantasy XIII, a big problem when making a story is having characters whose motivations change without warning or are inconsistent. Kingdom Hearts never falls into this pitfall, and thus, the audience is never confused emotionally, even if they are confused practically.
In conclusion, the confusing narrative never really cripples me and my enjoyment, although I completely understand why others don't feel the same way.
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