Kingdom Hearts creator Nomura explains lore behind hyperrealistic Sora
As a Kingdom Hearts fan, you learn to deal with quite a fair bit of nonsense being hurled your way – both by the series itself, and by onlookers who think the entire thing is absolutely absurd and question how anyone could ever take it seriously. And, to be fair, they ain’t wrong. The secret, however, lies in that last part: the reason why I and so many folks continue to love the franchise, despite all its meandering incomprehensibility, is that we both do and do not take it seriously. We’re invested in the world and characters, but also recognise that the very concept and execution are top-shelf bonkers. I mean, you’re crossing over Disney and Square Enix, what did you expect, narrative cohesion?
For the uninitiated, we’re dealing with time travel, amnesia, characters who both are and aren’t who they say they are (Roxas and Namine brick my brain to this day), retcons, jumbled jargon and ever-changing prequels aplenty, vital lore being hidden away in pay-to-win mobile games… the list goes on. One moment you’ll be having a jolly singalong with Ariel, then the next you’re watching Goofy apparently die after being conked on the head with a rock as a vicious-looking anime immigrant looks on. Oh, and let’s not forget Mickey Mouse strutting about in an emo coat talking about doors to darkness. Or Buzz and Woody engaging in philosophical discussions concerning the human heart. Or Winnie the Pooh being mentioned in the same breath as Sephiroth. It’s a paradoxical, hilarious mess. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Nomura attempts to explain Kingdom Hearts
That doesn’t change the fact, though, that things still look clinically insane to casual spectators – a grand tradition that was continued with the reveal of Kingdom Hearts 4 this week. Its trailer features a (frankly revolting-looking) realistically rendered Sora in a location that resembles Japan. For fans who are all up on the lore, they’ll know this is pretty hype and that it follows on from the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 and Melody of Memory, which saw Sora being magically transported into this hyperreal dimension after performing some time travel shenanigans with his heart to rescue his ever-frustrated love interest Kairi.
As for everyone else? It looks… well, different, to say the least. They may very well be thoroughly confused as to the reasoning behind this drastic artstyle shift. Thankfully, series creator and dependable resident madman, Tetsuya “Character Bloat” Nomura, is here to help. As Kotaku reports, he’s outlined the lore gamers will need to know leading into Kingdom Hearts 4.
The fourth mainline game (fifteenth overall if you actually want to be able to follow the damn plot) “is set in a world called Quadratum, a place much like our own reality that functions like an afterlife for the series’ protagonist,” he offers in an interview with Famitsu. “From Sora’s perspective, Quadratum is an underworld, a fictional world that is different from reality. But from the point of view of the inhabitants on the Quadratum side, the world of Quadratum is reality, and the world where Sora and the others were is the other side, the fictional world.”
Final thoughts
In essence, Nomura ran out of confusing directions to take the narrative with the setting as it was; he’d used up time travel, light and dark worlds, dream worlds and digital worlds, so now Sora is quite literally breaking out of fiction, and in doing so, breaking our minds and wills. You brilliant lunatic, Tetsuya.
The Kingdom Hearts director “goes on to explain that Goofy and Donald are currently searching for Sora, and that the keyblade-wielding hero may appear like his old self again if he ever makes it back to his original reality.” I’m sure this will be music to the ears of fan artists who were terrified the last ten years of work on their DeviantArt accounts were about to be rendered obsolete. Plus, we may yet see the survival of Sora’s clown shoes. We live in hope.
What’s your take on the new Kingdom Hearts artstyle? Are you a passenger on Mr. Nomura’s wild ride already? Let us know!
Via, Kotaku.
