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Count the pouches, belts and zippers. Yup, it's Tetsuya Nomura's doing.
Upon hearing the premise of the game, even the very concept, fans had very mixed expectations.
The king of the RPG, SquareSoft (now Square-Enix), was to team up with Disney to produce the ultimate Cross Over game. Characters from Disney's beloved animated classics would join forces with characters from Square's Final Fantasy series, in a game equivalent of the Trapped In TV Land trope. An Anime-esque hero named Sora in Mickey Mouse pants hits inky black creatures with a giant key. He joins forces with Donald Duck and Goofy to fight evil in settings from Disney's library of classics. If anyone but Square had been involved, it would have been laughed off as some fluke, a crazy marketing synergy strategy given life in a boardroom.
And then it was released.
RPG fans and newcomers alike fell in love with it. The characters are true to their origins while still fitting in to the larger world, partly due to how iconic both universes have become. The story is heartwarming, exciting, and emotional. The combat is bloodless, yet action-oriented and extremely fun.
Its content is appropriate for any age, but the difficulty may be too much for the youngest.
A different style of game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released to the Game Boy Advance not too long after the PlayStation 2 original, which actually explained why and how Sora and the gang lost all their equipment and levels between titles in the main series. (Interestingly, despite being on another system, it is not a Gaiden Game but connects the storylines of both PS2 games.) The true sequel was released in early 2006, with most of the minor complaints from the original handily addressed.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Commands (Used in the form of Reaction commands in Kingdom Hearts II)
- Adaptation Decay (The Kingdom Hearts manga)
- All In A Row
- Anvilicious (About all of its moral messages)
- Artificial Human (Vexen made one in Chain of Memories)
- Author Appeal (Tetsuya Nomura's obsession with zippers and belts is all over the games)
- Badass Longcoat (Mickey Mouse)
- Beehive Barrier (Protective spells and other areas)
- Beta Baddie (Organization XIII)
- Black Cloak
- Black Magic (The ever-vague 'darkness' everyone keeps talking about can be controlled by strong people, but for those who aren't...)
- Blue Bishonen Ghetto (Despite many players' first impressions, only one of Organization XIII is actually a girl. Good luck guessing which one!)
- Bonus Boss (several)
- Chaos Architecture (Kingdom Hearts II; Same worlds, radically different layout)
- Cherry Blossoms (Part of Marluxia's power. Apparently, sakura symbolize death among other things, so this is actually appropriate in a What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic kind of way.)
- Colossus Climb (Groundshaker)
- Crouching Moron Hidden Badass (Demyx)
- Cutscene Incompetence (Sora is a big offender of this, while Goofy is not.)
- Dark Is Not Evil (From the first game to the end of Kingdom Hearts II.)
- Deadly Upgrade (Anti-Form in Kingdom Hearts II)
- Deceptive Disciple (Xehanort)
- Disney Death (Well, Disney did help produce the game.)
- Draco In Leather Pants (All of Organization XIII. There's even a few fans who think Kairi is more evil than the Organization.)
- Dropped A Bridge On Him (Considering how much he contributed to two of the games, a certain person's sudden Redemption Equals Death comes off as a bit anti-climactic.)
- Duel Boss
- Easing Into The Adventure (Destiny Islands and the intro in the second game)
- Elemental Powers (Organisation XIII. They really stretch the definition of "element"...)
- Empathic Weapon (the Keyblades)
- Epic Fail (Roxas' role in Kingdom Hearts II, especially his anticipated fight with Sora. At least it happens properly in Final Mix.)
- Era Specific Personality (referenced with The Timeless River)
- Evil Is Not A Toy (Almost every single antagonist of the first game eventually succumbs to this.)
- Evil Makeover (Riku, Anti-Form, all of Organisation XIII)
- Fake Memories (A major plot in Chain of Memories and KHII)
- Fan Nickname (Roxas had several--his two appearances in Deep Dive eaned him the named Dual-Wielding Unknown (DWU) and Glowing-Eyed Unknown (GEU). His appearance in early KH 2 trailers then earned him the name Blond-Haired Kid (BHK).)
- Fighting Your Friend (Also That One Boss for many people.)
- The Force (The Light; among other possibilities, this is the stuff of which worlds and people are made; it's apparently also the source and distributor of the Keyblades and Sora's initial visions. Can also impart Mysterious Monologues with the best of them.)
- Funny Animal (Mickey and Co.)
- Good Is Dumb (Riku's ambition and independence radically decreases with each game until he's perfectly content to play the Mysterious Protector and wait for Sora to finish the real work.)
- Gotta Catch Em All (The Dalmatians and Princesses of Heart in the first game)
- Green Lantern Corps (If the previews are anything to go by, Keyblade wielders were a knighthood)
- Guest Star Party Member (Most worlds have one)
- The Heartless (The creatures from which the trope is named)
- Heroes Want Redheads
- Ho Yay (Watch the ending sequence to Kingdom Hearts II. It only reinforces the jealous boyfriend vibe from the first game.)
- Hundred Percent Completion (Earns you the Sequel Hook)
- I Am Not Making This Up (This series exists.)
- Impossibly Cool Clothes (Zippers galore, even on hats!)
- Improbable Weapon User (Sora's giant key, Goofy's shield, Demyx's sitar, Zexion's book...)
- Insurmountable Waist Height Fence (Subverted in Kingdom Hearts, played straight in Kingdom Hearts II)
- Internet Backdraft (Even TV Tropes is not immune. Go to the What Measure Is A Non Human discussion page and watch someone get Godwin'd over the morality of fighting Nobodies.)
- It Was With You All Along ( Kairi's heart in the first game)
- Large Ham ("It is I, Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness.")
- Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Edition (Final Mix, Final Mix+, re:Chain of Memories)
- Living Shadow (The Heartless)
- Lovable Traitor (Axel)
- Low Level Run (Only possible in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+'s Critical Mode, where you have access to an ability called "No EXP", allowing you to finish the game with Sora at Level 1)
- Kid Hero (Sora)
- Mad Scientist (Vexen, the Chilly Academic)
- Manipulative Bastard (Axel in Chain of Memories. Not so much in ''Kingdom Hearts II''.)
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover (between Disney and Square Enix)
- Meaningful Name (Sora means sky, Kairi means sea and Riku means earth. Also, the Keyblade Knights in Birth By Sleep happen to be called Ven, Aqua and Terra. Hmmmmm.)
- Message In A Bottle (In Kingdom Hearts II, one that opens a portal between worlds)
- Metal Slime (White Mushrooms and Rare Truffes to some degree, Black Fungus all the way)
- Mind Screw (And possibly The Chris Carter Effect. Good luck trying to make sense of the cosmology, especially when the characters who would theoretically be best qualified to explain are of somewhat questionable sanity.)
- Missed The Call (By being so eager to rush into adventure that he jumped too soon, at the wrong opportunity.)
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast (All of the X obsessed Organization XIII)
- Narm - Recreating the breath-taking Hun army on the hill scene... with a dozen cute little Heartless.
- Saix's introductory cloak removal came complete with a hair flip.
- Nerf Arm (In the first game at Hollow Bastion)
- Nightmare Fuel (As long as Disney is involved, there's bound to be some Nightmare Fuel. That's not even including the bizarre Nobodies.)
- God damn Halloween Town scares the pants off of this troper. It's the combination of the music ("This is Halloween Town" is one of my terror-inducing songs...) and that disturbing orange lighting...just ick. Or Atlantica's boss fight. There's something just plain disturbing about fighting a GIANT, MORBIDLY OBESE OCTOPUS' HEAD. While her eyes follow you. Just ugh.
- No Export For You (A particularly bad example. It's not just a few bosses added, it's entirely new playable areas that set up the sequels (KH1) and an entire Updated Rerelease to the Gaiden Game attached to the other Updated Rerelease {KH2})
- Now Where Was I Going Again (Jiminy Cricket's Journal)
- The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness (In the first game, overlaps with the Legion Of Doom)
- One Winged Angel (that is, besides Sephiroth.)
- Or Was It A Dream (The intro of Kingdom Hearts)
- Playing Tennis With The Boss (Ice Titan)
- Playing With Fire (Axel)
- The Power Of Friendship (This concept is key to the series, but it's done in such a well-executed manner as to still feel natural, despite being idealistic. Keyblades in particular appear to be drawn to individuals who have strong hearts, and thus, exemplify this trope.)
- Power Trio (Sora! Donald! Goofy!)
- Rival Turned Evil (Riku in the first game is the epitome of this trope)
- Satan (According to Jiminy Cricket's Journal, Chernabog -- the devil from the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Disney's Fantasia -- is the head honcho of the Darkness and the Heartless. He's a minor boss at best, with no speaking part at all. Apparently a Nietzsche Wannabe Mad Scientist is badder than Satan)
- Saving The World (Worlds, plural)
- Say My Name (Hayner! Pence! Olette!)
- Sequel Hook (The Hundred Percent Completion secret movies)
- Sequential Boss (the final bosses of both KHI and KHII take this to extremes)
- Ship Tease (Kingdom Hearts II in particular.)
- Ship To Ship Combat (Particularly in regards to the Ho Yay.)
- Significant Anagram (All of Organization XIII)
- Sinister Scythe (Marluxia)
- Sound Track Dissonance ( During the battle against Roxas in Final Mix, a remix of his melancholic theme called "The Other Promise" is used. A stark contrast with your average KH frantic battle theme.)
- Space Whale: Monstro.
- Spoony Bard (Demyx)
- The Starscream (Marluxia)
- Story To Gameplay Ratio (Set incredibly high, even during playable sections because of all the mandatory Action Commands)
- Surprisingly Easy Mini Quest: Both Riku taking the keyblade from Sora and Sora becoming one of The Heartless fall under this in the first game, as does the need to kill 1000 Heartless in the second.
- Squishy Wizard (Donald, in spades)
- Take My Hand (Seen a lot with Riku and Sora.)
- Technical Pacifist (It's stated in the manual that Goofy fights with a shield because he dislikes conventional weapons.)
- That One Boss (The first game has two back to back, Dragon Malificent and Ansem-Riku; Chain of Memories's Replica Riku (more than once!); KHII's Demyx, Xaldin, and Xigbar. And let's not even get started on Sephiroth, although at least he's a Bonus Boss.)
- Chernabog is harder then Dragon Malificent will ever be. Ursula(without trident) is anoying if you don't know the trick.
- Theme Naming
- Two Guys And A Girl
- Two Scenes One Dialogue (An Info Dump variation in the first game)
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon (End of the World in Kingdom Hearts, Castle Oblivion Top Floor in Chains of Memories and The World that Never Was in Kingdom Hearts II)
- Totally Radical (Seifer's undeniable proof of owning the lamers
 )
- This editor would like to point out that Seifer's proof is gone in Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix+.)
- Updated Rerelease (Only available in Japan, naturally)
- Viewer Gender Confusion (Where to start with Organization XIII? For one, Marluxia would be much cooler if he actually were a woman instead of a bishonen)
- Villainous Breakdown (Zexion in Chains of Memories)
- Villain Decay (One name: Maleficent. She's paired with Pete in the sequel, for gods' sake. Meanwhile Axel passed from being the Manipulative Bastard to a guy with an annoying Catchphrase, and an unhealthy obsession with the newest member of the Organization in Kingdom Hearts II.)
- The War Sequence (You get to mow down 1,000 enemies in KH II)
- What Measure Is A Non Human (The Nobodies. Sora in particular sticks to his "You don't exist, you don't feel anything" mantra right until the end, even after one of them pulls a Heroic Sacrifice for his sake.)
- (Mind you, Nobodies aren't the only "species" of villain killed in this game, there's also Octopus People, Talking Lions, Sentient Computer Programs, and Humans, among other things.)
- White Haired Pretty Boy (Several--though two or three, depending how you count, are kinda the same person.)
- Womb Level (Monstro. Also a You Fail Biology Forever to the nth degree, moreso than most Womb Levels. How the hell did they drop from the "bowels" back into the "mouth"?!)
- Your Mileage May Vary - Kingdom Hearts II is either an incredibly fun and solid entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise or a confusing, underwhelming mess of a sequel.
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