Does Kingdom Hearts Have a Problem With Over Complicating Its Narrative

Now before you get angry let me pre-empt this by saying I am a Kingdom Hearts fan of that is not clear from the multiple posts here I have made on the franchise before this. In fact I believe the opposite could be argued as well for fans of the series who analyse everything in depth to be able to make accurate predictions. As a series it depends where you look at the narrative/lore of Kingdom Hearts to where you get confused or enjoyment out of it. The main purpose of this post is to look at how that has evolved and how that is now overly complicated. Personally for me I do still enjoy the games but do feel the overall story is confusing in parts to fully keep track of which I hope to explain in more detail below.

When you think about longform narratives video games are an interesting format for this. Unlike in films where the actors get older the characters in your game don't have to unless you want them to. While consoles change you can keep a cast of characters for as long as you want. Think of Yakuza was 7 instalments of the franchise featured around Kazuma Kiryu while he ages this is mainly for the plot and the progression of time. Films have to deal with you seeing the character get older whereas video games can chose to avoid that. Obviously issues arise with voice actors/actresses with this and then looking to depart a project, passing away, retirement or a contact being terminated or failing in a renegotiation. Kingdom Hearts has had this issue with especially with having to recast Master Xehanort.

However with a long form narrative you have to find ways to keep people interested and coming back. Marvel has on overarching 'saga' revolving around the Infinity Stones for a decade to build up to Avengers Endgame. With Kingdom Hearts we are entering the 20 year mark I wonder if they have been able to do the same thing. The most recent activity was the finale to Union χ which again as the games in this series seem to do raises more questions than answers questions. It had me thinking as someone that enjoys the lore of these games is it a real confusing mess from the outside looking in, does someone enter this series now dazed and confused having to spend a vast amount time playing of catch-up. I wanted to use this post to breakdown the latest developments in the plot of Kingdom Hearts and why this is an issues over a long form narrative of adding plot point onto plot point

It will be interesting to see how Kingdom Hearts goes into a new arc. Compering it to Marvel again it seems the next step is to change the world using 'unreality' for Kingdom Hearts and the Multiverse for Marvel it allows for previously unexplored areas to just show and then use that for a plot device. While Marvel has used Loki and will likely use Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but I worry that the next Kingdom Hearts game will explain less and just add more questions as ever. In an ideal world the next game would look to establish unreality as a concept and work to introduce key characters for the next arc and help explain the setting of the new realm much like how the original Kingdom Hearts helped lay the groundwork but I do think we will get a massive lore dump which won't make sense for 5 years. 

All in all we are in a situation where we are just sitting just waiting to see what happens with Kingdom Hearts. They have the perfect opportunity to change their story telling devices to make sure they do not overcomplicate the new arc. If it was down to me have a full story mapped out keep the villains and enemies simple and please just work out what you're doing before going into it but I guess we will just have to wait and find out next year.