Remember Kingdom Hearts Chi?
Well my young friend I certainly do
Hi, hello there again friend or reader or ye old bored soul. Gotta say its been a week for me. First a Fate post after a long while and now a KH post. What a week for my endless shower thoughts~
This week has been quite a ride hasn't it? First you had Missing Link cancelled then immediately got KH4 screen shots. There's jokes I could make (and have) or complaints an older me would raise but no.
This entire event has sparked talk about whether the mobile gaming story line was good or bad for the series direction overall. This, oddly enough, got me nostalgic.
Why? Because all the talk of what KHUX "used to be" made me realize that a lot of younger fans don't know what KH Chi is. It's been so long now but so few remember that KHUX was a rebrand.
The tale of the keyblade war was originally a web browser game. Still free to play, albeit locked to Japan if I recall, way back in the yonder years of 2013.
Look at that banger title screen
You're likely wondering why that'd make me nostalgic when it was Japan only. Well, for one, the region lock did not hamper fans at the time. Even though I never played it we still had forums of people in Japan or who could read the language that'd play it share the story.
And that story was, quite frankly, good. Now now before you throw hypocrisy at me let me make one thing clear. I may be critical of what KHUX became and what it did to the story but I've never said it's initial premise wasn't good.
In fact, UX had things that even I could enjoy even if I didn't like what it was doing in a broader sense. It's a ramble for another day mind you but one of those things worthy of praise was the initial story.
See that? Originally it was cards like CoM rather than medals
For the near entirety of Chi's original run it was a self contained story. It had intrigue, it had an air of Greek tragedy since we know the war was unavoidable, and it had a simpler mystery of the disappearance of the 'master of masters' and his sixth apprentice.
That's all there was to it. No characters being shoehorned into the past, no datascapes, or other such things. It was just a simple story of a world marching headlong into it's death.
Perfectly self contained.
It was quite frankly interesting. After seeing Xehanort do all his machinations over an unseen war we were getting to see how that war happened. It was a perfect hook.
Despite my old man ranting I have no problem with side games or stories in a series. If anything, they can be a fun way to flesh out a world without dealing with the main storyline or character.
It is one issue I have with Nomura to this day, his inability to just let a story be a story. It always has to tie into what Sora is doing or the present events.
No, this isn't some Anti-Nomura tag or hidden post. I don't even like that tag tbh. I have my gripes but it is also true that corporate has bared down on him over the years. I only point it out here because he is the main writer/director.
And I feel this need of his to make everything super relevant hurt this story.
Furries the lot of them
The initial story of Chi was actually good. Granted, I should've seen the writing on the wall when it ended with you waking up from a "dream" and Maleficent showing up.
(fun fact, the start of KHUX was actually the ending for Chi that a lot of later players to UX were skipped through)
But prior to that ending you didn't have any time travel shenanigans or the like. It was a straight forward story. Hell, even if you factor in the dream eaters and dandelions there was till a neat story there.
it didn't really lose itself until the UX rebrand when all that came barreling in. And while I often say this hurt the future story I rarely mention the fact that I think this hurt Chi's story as well.
Just as the mobile games gained a choke hold on the future events they became chained by tying that together in the past. You now had to explain how Ventus got to BBS, you now had to tie it into Marluxia and Elrena, and this even stretched to Xehanort through Dark Road later.
Many like that kinda thing in the fandom I know but I feel it hampered the chance for something truly original to flesh itself out.
Realistically, all you needed to tie to the present day was explain how someone (or a group) survived to begin the keyblade tradition that would be ancient in Sora's time.
And while I'm a staunch fan of Occams Razor I'm not even arguing that Chi needed to be kept super simple. You could've had that as big a mess as you wanted and it would've been fine since it was self contained.
We often joke about all the Xehanort's and Sora's but Chi in it's original form was something that could've made a mark without them. All you had to do was remove that Maleficent cliffhanger.
We could've seen how the world operated when it was still one. Perhaps even see how the pureblood heartless came to be. The potential there was endless and thinking about it makes me sad because it was chained to the modern events.
And I'm not even arguing that UX, Dark Road, or even Missing Link should've had existed. It would've been fine if they had in this self contained context since they would be their own events...well not Dark Road but at least UX and Missing Link.
To me, the worst part about all of this wasn't just the wasted potential for something truly unique but that the practice of making KH mobile incredibly relevant completely undercut the endeavor to stop the console spread issue of the day.
Before remixes you couldn't find a KH1 or KH2 final mix state side and many of the titles building toward KH3 back then were on scattered handheld systems.
It was a serious problem and one that began with Chain of Memories. So many started KH2 lost back then.
And even when it was "resolved" the mobile story line had grown so important that was shaping scenes in KH3. Hell, it even got a movie in the 2.8 remix even though that movie didn't give you anywhere near enough to fully grasp the story happening in that era.
It's this aspect of the mobile games that many argue about. I'm rambling about wasted story potential but for many the core issue was that locked away lore and genuinely good story moments KHUX had.
Especially with UX unplayable at the time of this posts creation. To even grasp the Luxu reveal in KH3 you'd have to sit through some youtube scenes.
Hours of it if you wanted a full understanding since some stuff did happen in world missions sporadically.
Ray Chase is the one thing selling this character right now
I've rambled myself out of words so I'll end here. I am not sure how well I got my feelings out but here we are. Thank you for reading~
And if you're one of those sad about KHML's cancellation I'd advise you to have hope. As I said, Nomura is chronic about tying everything back into itself. Whatever was in Missing Link will not be left to rot.
You just may not get it in the form you were hoping for.
Either way, remember kids, Verum Rex is now owned by Disney! Farewell~
