An End Written From the Beginning
When I begin a new game I tend to feel weak, powerless, and a little bit lost as I grapple with an unfamiliar control scheme and face battles that are […]
Sora, Donald, and Goofy: A Threefold Cord
One of the core themes of Kingdom Hearts is teamwork, and as Sora faces the darkness that threatens him, his friends, and his world he found support from an unexpected […]
Kingdom Hearts: A Lower Level of Difficulty
I tend to play most games on their default setting, but when my young daughter wanted to play Kingdom Hearts with me I dropped the difficulty level down to the […]
Limited Continues: One Life to Live
I am always deeply appreciative of any video game that allows me to “press continue” after my character meets their demise… even if it is for the hundredth time. I […]
Unskippable Cutscenes and Unwanted Waits
I have a love/hate relationship with cutscenes in video games… the first time I watch them, they typically provide meaningful exposition as well as a chance to catch my breath. […]
Waiting Between Answers: A Kingdom Hearts Conundrum
The Kingdom Hearts franchise launched over twenty years ago, and with only a few entries in the mainline series the wait between each has felt impossibly long. Sure, there have been […]
Kingdom Hearts 3: Unfair Expectations?
The tremendous success of the first two titles in the Kingdom Hearts series placed an even larger amount of pressure on Kingdom Hearts 3 to be one of the greatest […]
Kingdom Hearts: Beauty and Purpose Within Our Diversity
On paper, the concept behind Kingdom Hearts shouldn’t work… the development studio that was responsible for serious gaming franchises like Final Fantasy was going to create a game that would […]
Keyblades, Armor, and the Weapons of our Warfare
The sheer accessibility of playing a Kingdom Hearts game is one of the reasons the series became so popular, but that doesn’t mean the missions they contain are easy… success […]
Kingdom Hearts and the God of “Enough”
Playing Kingdom Hearts on an easier difficulty level ensures we will typically finish each level with an abundance of resources to spare… but on higher difficulty levels and during the […]
Finding God in Video Games 