The story of how I got into Kingdom Hearts and ultimately, Square Enix PART 1

It was the summer of 2002, in September. I had finished playing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, and I was ready to buy a new PlayStation 2 game. I had no idea what I wanted. I thought about the game Sky Gunner, which was cute and a fly-shooter genre, but I knew there were other choices.

I remember a trailer for a video game that I watched from a demo DVD from the now defunct Official PlayStation Magazine. This was a trailer for Kingdom Hearts. The music was cinematic and there were Disney characters like Donald Duck and Goofy. It seemed that the main character was this spiky-haired boy with blue eyes. My first thoughts were “What? Who’d wanna play that game? A boy enters the world of Disney and meets Tarzan and Ariel and everyone else? What the f***? Tsh, who cares.”

Then on September 20 (and it was a Friday, I remember that detail) sitting in my keyboarding class in high school, I was looking forward to buying a new video game later that afternoon. It was a really good day, and knowing I’d buy a new game made it even better. Later that day at home, I was watching Pokémon (when I still watched it) and during a commercial break, a TV ad for Kingdom Hearts began. It started with a piano key note in “A” with the words SQUARE ENIX on the screen. Then as the visuals for the game were showing, the chorus for “Simple and Clean” played in the background. “Oh, I love that song. That sounds nice! What game is it for…Kingdom Hearts? Ya know, I just might buy that game!” And ultimately I did…because I liked the song.

I got the strategy guide for it too. It was the very first video game strategy guide that I bought (and there would be more to come).

Later, I’ll write about how my love for Kingdom Hearts led me to my love for Final Fantasy VII and generally Square Enix. I’ll give you guys a hint: it’s spelled C-L-O-U-D.   ^,^