I was evern more easily influenced, so I myself dont know where to begin. I remember seeing this commercial in a theater of all places before a movie. Maybe it was Spy Kids 2 as it feels like it was August, but I dont quite know. 12, easily the most impressionable kid on the planet, and Disney was a pillar of my entire childhood and now a pillar of my entire life. Didnt play the FF games back then as I wasnt really interested, though a while later I knew they were cameos. They did resonate with me though all the way through to that meaningful 1000 Heartless Battle.

But I dont think FF was too important besides that. I've enjoyed the games, even XIII(and Nomura said somewhere that Sahz would be his choice for KH) and Balthier is freakin badass, but they're not really too necessary anymore. The FF cameos were put in to sell to the hardcore FF fanbase and nothing more.

Forgot about the game until i saw it sitting on a video store shelf, begging me to be rented. 5 days later and I didnt get past clayton. second time some weeks later I rebooted, or at least continued and didnt get past clayton, or at least barely got past him. Finally, I got it for Christmas and beat the game about two weeks into January. the rest is history. :P

I'm sort of in the same boat here. I never even heard of Final Fantasy when playing Kingdom Hearts. I thought Cid, Yuffie, etc. were original characters for Kingdom Hearts. It wasn't until I brought the game over to a cousin's house that he introduced me to Final Fantasy and explained that these characters were cameos.

I feel that KH in of itself is very similar to FF, so maybe that's why I never noticed much of a difference when Zach was the only FF character in BBS until people started pointing it out. KH3D was the first where I really noticed it. Mainly because they had SUCH a good opportunity to put Tidus and Jecht as a cameo to a world, seeming that in FFX they were physical manifestations of "dreams." Sure, Tidus was already a kid in Destiny Islands, but then again you saw two different Mickeys in the dream worlds. You could've easily made the same logic with Tidus. That would have just been a perfect cameo. Despite this, I enjoyed the game very much. And I think that I think Kingdom Hearts is at the point where it can stand on its own.

HOWEVER there is definitely an exciting feeling about seeing your favorite Final Fantasy characters, much how there is an exciting feeling about seeing your favorite Disney movies. I keep saying that my envisioning for the perfect Olympus Coliseum would be take Hades plot to unleash the titans, and then have Jecht be the pawn that Hades tends to get with different FF characters. And it's always cool when they tie in plotlines together. Having Auron in the Underworld in KH2 was great because people who never played FFX could still get it, but it's even cooler when you have played FFX and you realize that Auron's reason for being in the Underworld is because he's dead. Stuff like that is always neat. Of course, this is an issue that they also need to fix with Disney worlds along with it.

yeah, sephiroth and cloud does resonate a bit more after FFVII, and I felt a little ping for Zach in the credits of BBS.

I disagree somewhat with you Monkey because from my point of view KH is mainly a Disney/Square mix than a Disney/Final Fantasy mix. I think the numerous appearance of FF characters in KHII (10 of them alone in Hallow Bastion) did not help the story or the atmosphere of the game, that's why I'm glad they were reduced in BBS.
The main problem I have with most these guys is that they are bringing their own plot from their own games with them and are constantly refering to it, even to the point that you won't understand what's going on if you don't know (or read about) the games they are from (Cloud and Leon mostly).
That being said I don't have a problem with crossovers, fanservice or whatever but I'd like better to give them their own new background (like it's done for Tidus, Wakka and Selphie and the important Disney characters), their own world or reduce their appearance drastically.

tl;dr: I would love to see a FF character that is developed in the same way the original characters are in the next KH title, but cameos for the sake of cameos are often just missed opportunities.

Oh, Kingdom Hearts! The first game brings such memories with it! :D

I know I fell in love with the series with the first trailer I saw. (although since it was one that had some of the opening in it, I admit to thinking for some reason that Riku was a girl; and being a silly, romantic minded girl at the age of twelve, I also admit to being an unintentional RikuxSora shipper before I was educated. *I blame this on the fact that it looks like Riku's wearing eyeliner and and that his hair was just long enough...*) Even though I didn't get to play the game until 2004 when my parents finally got a PS2 for me for Christmas with Kingdom Hearts included in the deal; nice when the listen, huh?

I knew a little bit about Final Fantasy because we'd just gotten IX, the one that'll be my favorite forever because it was also my first. While I was disappointed that Zidane and the others didn't show up, I liked seeing the other FF characters in there; and my brother, being the know-it-all that he likes to pretend he is, informed my about Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and the rest of them. I think I probably would have find my way over to Final Fantasy in a little while because of IX, but Kingdom Hearts gave the extra little shove to get me over there quicker, and thus, hooked a lot faster.

I'm going to admit to being one of the ones disappointed by the lack of FF characters in recent games; Zack was terrific in BBS, and I'd like to see more characters integrated into the story in a fluid way, something the series has been falling short on since KH. Do I think KH needs FF to carry it? No, I don't. Do I appreciate the cameos when they don't feel tacked on? Not just yes, but hell yes! I'd love to see Cecil in here; as someone else said, his struggle between the light and darkness as he went from a Dark Knight to a Paladin would fit very well in the series, especially if he was made a party member!

Beatrix, please.

Oh, and Beatrix.

I think that's mostly concerning Kingdom Hearts II because the execution of their cameos were poorly thought of compared to the first game. I mean, it could have been better if the script was changed but for some odd reason they decided to borrow too heavily from their respective game scripts.

Yes, Final Fantasy definitely still has a place in Kingdom Hearts, and in my opinion, it needs a bigger role. In fact, all characters, whether Disney or Final Fantasy, need to have their roles upgraded. You can only go through carbon copies of Disney Stories with cloned characters for so long before it becomes very stale, same with FF. In my opinion, they need to do away with this "only Keyblade wielders (and Donald and Goofy) can travel to other worlds" business. It just doesn't make any sense. I'd rather be able to pick and choose my party, sorta like an FF game. Cameos do not do anything for me. We need this whole Cloud/Tifa/Sephiroth thing explained and resolved. We need FF characters with real power (Keyblade anyone?). AND we need an FF world, but not, for the love of God, XIII. In short, Kingdom Hearts has been the same for 10 years. It needs to evolve.

Final Fantasy characters with Keyblades? No thank you. They don't need Final Fantasy worlds because they have original worlds for them to reside by. The series is using newer mechanics such as flowmotion, the command system, etc. They are trying on implementing newer concepts.

I can agree with you with the heavily borrowed script and upgraded roles of characters would be much better like Maleficent used to have a group of collaborated Disney villians and that just suddenly disappeared into lesser roles.

I love the Final Fantasy characters in the Kingdom Hearts series. To be completely honest I really really miss Leon and the rest of the restoration committee. I remember when I first KH2 and was reunited with Leon and the others, it felt so good to see them again. And then to have them team up with Sora during the battle of the 1000 heartless was an amazing display of their friendship. I was surprised when Leon and the others didn't appear as kids in BBS (Although they were originally meant to) and I think they missed a good opportunity to go more into detail about Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth's KH version of their backstory.

Without Leon and the others the series would loose a bit of magic for me to be honest, because in my opinion the restoration committee is just as much a part of the main cast of characters as Mickey and the Disney Castle crew.

In KH3 I expect and hope that the restoration committee team up with the apprentices of Ansem, and considering that Radiant Garden is where Xehanort performed a lot of his research, it is likely that it will be a major battle point in KH3 and so hopefully we'll see the restoration committee teaming up with the Guardians of Light for an epic battle with the Seekers of Darkness. I'd love to see Leon fight Xehanort since it was Xehanort that caused Radiant Garden to fall to the heartless years ago.

As for new characters I think could appear:

1. Rinoa (Hinted at with the letter Leon receives during the credits of KH2)
2. Vincent (Cloud was wearing some of his clothing in KH1 and he was originally supposed to appear in KH1. So he is definitely a possibility.)
3. Lightning (Yes the XIII series has it's flaws, but Lightning is one of the bright spots of the series. The girl is the type of girl I like. Serious, smart, beautiful, responsible, yet compassionate and a loyal friend. Plus I can easily see Sora and Lightning developing a relationship similar to Hope and Lightning in some respects)
4. Jenova (Yes, this character can be done in a new way in KH. Instead of Jenova being the alien in a tank that Sephy thinks is his momma, Jenova could be a more active character in KH. She could be an experiment of Xehanort's or Ansem that went really wrong or something. But I think there is some interesting potential for her if they use her in KH.)

I have being dying to see sora and lightning interact. Sora's carfee personality clash with lightning's no nonsense attitude would make my day. She just has to appear in kh, she just has too. Also, i would like to see a return of cloud, and a resolution with his conflict with sephiroth.

We really don't need Final Fantasy Characters in the next Kingdom Hearts game. The fact of having FF characters in the previous games made the game more appealing to fans of the Final Fantasy series. However the series sold so many games that we have a very consistent fanbase. Despite that we also have to consider that there are many things needed to be told in this next KH3 so Nomura needs to worry about the things that we're left undone instead of working on characters from FF to have a good place in the game, or creating side-missions for them...

I think they have to. How can we even call it an alliance (of Disney and Square) if it's very one sided?
In my opinion, future titles should introduce FF characters from some of the older games, like how Disney did with some of their older movies.
I would love to see the Warrior of Light, or maybe even Cecil Harvey interact with Sora and/or Riku.
Hell, why not Gilgamesh! Have him appear out of the Rift, (Realm of Darkness, or something) he sees Sora, mistakes him for Bartz and have one hell of an epic boss fight!
Now THAT would make my day.

I disagree. They do refer to the plot, yes, but not to the point where anyone who has never played the game can't understand them. When playing KH2, I never played FFVII. I just barely got done with my first Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy X. But was I confused throughout the time? No. Because even if they refer to it, they explain it enough to where it makes sense for new audiences. And this was before I turned eleven years old. It's really not that hard to understand, guys.



I disagree completely. I thought the cameos in KH2 were the best they ever were. And what's wrong with borrowing from their own game? That's like complaining about Disney worlds borrowing too much from the movies they came from. And I already said before how I thought the cameo of Auron was absolutely fantastic.

I think the series needs to keep its balance of disney, final fantasy, and original content. I love the final fantasy cameos and I don't want them to go anywhere. FF is one of my favorite game series and if it wasn't for Kingdom Hearts I would have never touched a Final Fantasy game because I thought they look boring.

I personally feel that FF very much still has a place in KH and should actually be stronger represented. For a Disney/Final Fantasy crossover game there's not really a lot of Final Fantasy characters in it. In my opinion they don't even have to have big roles they could just be background characters.

That said KH doesn't need FF characters to sell itself and help promote it, it's become strong enough after just KH1 not to need it anymore, though I'm sure it doesn't hurt. Still it's nice to have the characters in it. I feel the presence of FF characters can actually benefit both series, it can bring FF fans into KH and KH fans into FF, even if this benefit isn't needed to sell games. I probably wouldn't have gotten interested in FF if it weren't for KH.

As skyfoxx said there's something special to seeing your favorite FF character in KH. Personally the FF characters were one of my favorite things in KH1 and in KH2. I might not have know who they were when I first got the game, but even so I liked them very much they felt so cool and interesting. After I learned more about FF and got KH2 it felt very special seeing Tifa, Yuna, Rikku, Pain and Auron in it. I really like how they have their own plots going on it just makes the KH universe feel bigger.
I was quite disappointed that we didn't get any cameos of the Restoration Committee characters in BBS, they didn't even show up as npcs that you could talk to...

To say that there was really a 3 sided balancing act is not very logical. I love the cameos and miss them but they arent that important anymore. Maybe in kh4

Additionally, the final fantasy characters in KH are are used as original characters. Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith were all kids that lived in Radiant Garden until it was destroyed, forcing them to take refuge in Traverse Town. In KH Sephiroth is not a former member of SOLDIER who went rouge after learning the truth about who he really is, but the physical manifestation of the darkness within Cloud's heart. These characters can not bring in additional plot points from their individual games because they are technically not the people featured in those games.

Which raises the question;what made them resemble their characters in their own respective games? Obviously,each of them went through various situations that defined who they are,what they think and how they live.

But don't you think that if Cloud, for example lived his life in this KH universe as any other rogue,he would have a completely different personality? Since he didn't join SOLDIER,his hometown wasn't burned by Sephiroth(because it didn't even exist),meaning he couldn't possibly be that angry towards Sephiroth because he doesn't have a huge motive behind his actions.

Which in the end,makes it seem like all the characters just "happened" to be there.I know im over thinking this as they are merely cameos in the end,but still.

Well who is to say that similar events haven't taken place during their lives forming them into who they are? It's also possible that Cloud doesn't originally come from Radiant Garden but from another world where similar events took place.
Considering that Traverse Town is where most people ended up, if they're world was destroyed it would make sense that things could get pretty hectic there causing similar developments for the FF characters.

Does Kingdom Hearts need Final Fantasy characters? Hell yeah. It is ONE of the reasons why it so popular. If you just had disney characters it might only be geared for younger audiences, but then again you have the nobodies who gravitate to older and younger people. Kingdom Hearts have expanded because of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy was in the oringal kingdom Hearts and in the second one which where the series got popular on a game console rather than a hand held system. I think they are very popular and since they have Radient Garden, Destiny Island etc. I definity thing they need new characters. I really love that they have Cloud and Leon interact with each other and hope they continue with them. They need more of a role.

It is so funny that they have half of the Final Fantasy VII cast in Kingdom Hearts including the Vincent Valentine (oringally a turk for Shinra in the Final Fantasy games) who worked for Hades besides Cloud. But we don't have Reno or the other Turks. I would like to see them especially Rufus and Reno. If you think about it Xenmas or the Xeohanorts are falling in Shinras's foot steps especially when it comes to clones experimenting. It would be awesome to entwine that in Kingdom Hearts somehow.

Reno would be a great addition besides the fact that he is the oringal character design for Axel/Lea and if it weren't for him Axel/Lea wouldn't exist. So in a way we should thank Noruma for thinking about Reno to create Axel/Lea. They also have similar personalies, traits, and are a lot alike. Axel admitted he had friends before the organization and he wasn't just talking about Isa, so maybe he was talking about Reno. Noruma created a similar character from a different world, and intentionally have all the same VAs to voice the two characters in every media they appear in. but NEVER said he wouldn't include him. Reno also has history with Cloud, Tifa, and the rest of Cloud's gang so I see it happening. Reno's life is shrouded in a mystery (and has some unique abilties) as well as Axel/Lea. Whether if Noruma decides to make him an adversary or neutral wouldn't matter to me. I just want to see Reno again and hopefully he meets Axel/Lea.

There are so many people that would LOVE to see Reno in Kingdom Hearts in the future. Although it is sad that some people don't even know who Reno is, yet they are familar with Axel and sometimes think that Lea from Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance is Axel. Another character they should add is Chad from Final Fantasy 9 who looks strikely similar to Demyx so you would think that he was Demyx's somebody. lol. Then we have Elena who resembles Larxene could be her somebody yet she has connections with Reno. Kind of similar with Axel and Larxene in KH COM RE: in some ways. So we have ties from different characters from different worlds that could blend in nicely. Now with Rude he usually stays with Reno, but it wouldn't be a problem, but then again Reno tries to be independent and it would be nice to see how he can carry out independently even if it were a cameo or more.

If some people don't think it wouldn't work to add Reno then that might because of dividing the Reno and Axel/Lea fans, but then again it could mostly impact them as well. Reno deserves more than a shadow to Axel and needs to be given a chance.

Also I agree with AdrianXXII about their quote of Cloud not oringally from Radient Garden. I think all the final fantasy characters are from different worlds in their universe and more will most likely surface. Since this game is a crossover it is not far fetch .Also Cloud and Sepiroth disappeared somewhere after their fight in KH 2.

Actually Auron's script in KH2 is quite more original because it intertwines with Hades's plans. They didn't borrow so much from the original gaming script and that's why Auron is much better.

In Kingdom Hearts 1, Maleficent had a group of Disney Villians which occurred alongside Sora's adventures and I'd like to see the same implemented again.

I'm sick of mostly FF7 cameos, they need to use the other games.

I agree!! I would love to see characters from 1-6 like Terra. I think Cecil would be perfect considering the light darkness theme and I would love to see Lightning.

I could definitely see both Terra and Cecil work, though their might be a some name confusion with Terra...

I doubt it would be much more of a problem than "Riku" and "Rikku." :P

I got interested in Kingdom Hearts soly because of the Disney Characters, I had no idea who the FF Characters were, and in all honesty I didn't care who they were. Yea i got into the FF Series as a result, but if I want to play a game with FF Characters, i'll play an FF Game. I will be honest when I say I really dont care for the final fantasy characters involved in this series, and I hope they will continue just treating them as minor characters.

The SE characters have very little, to zero, involvement in the main story. So far the only SE character to have any major interactions are Cloud and Auron, and even then their parts are small compared to the various Disney characters who make up 95% of the game.

You notice that as the series continues, there have been less and less SE characters involved, while its focus constantly shifts more on the Disney characters.

KH Days only had a Moogle, BbS only had Zack. KH3D had those TWEWY characters but even then, they only appeared in Traverse Town. And KH Re:coded only had Cloud.

Personally I hope they continue focusing more on the Disney aspects of the series, and continue making the SE aspects less prominent. This game series does belong to Disney after all, so their characters, both the KH Disney Original Characters and the Disney Film/Shorts Characters, should continue getting the spot light.

I think the only FF Character I would like to see in this series is Terra from FFVI, and even then I would want her part to be small. But seeing a Nomura has said hes agents including characters he didn't design, only putting in Vivi due to high fan demand, It's highly unlikely.

Well if she gets a minor role like Rikku and is part of a group it's not. But if she'd be introduced alone and in a more prominent role like Leon or Cloud it could be more confusing, hence why Yuffie was in the first game and not Rikku like they originally intended.

FF still has a place in KH. I think KH isn't KH without the 2 worlds combined(Disney & FF). Being as there are so many FF games they have a ton of characters that they can bring into the game. Or FF boss battles(like Sephiroth) except don't make them secret bosses, actually add them into the plot of the story. FF Baddies teaming up with Disney Baddies. There's still so much the creators can do with FF so I don't think they will just leave them out. Personally, I would like to see more original KH based characters tho. More keyblade wielders and villians that have yet come to light. And more KH worlds like Traverse Town, Destiny Island, etc. . .

First of all, excellent article. And second of all, I came into the series completely blind. I hadn't even seen any commercials untill KH II came out and I was obsessively watching them each and every time they aired. I was simply strolling through the video game section at Toys R' Us with some birthday money to spend, and I came upon a title that caught my eye. "Kingdom Hearts".

Now, while I had never heard of it in my life, it just resonated with me somehow. Upon closer inspection I noticed the Disney characters-which was certainly interesting being that my mother had instilled a great love for Disney in me. lol However, what clenched it was Tetsuya Nomura's awesome designs. Sora and Riku were-and probably still are-the absolute coolest characters I had ever seen. The visuals just grabbed me. (The only other game at the time to grab me like that was Jak and Daxter. God I love Jak and Daxter. lol)

And the rest is history. I am now one millions of hopeless addicts to the weirdest combination of IP's in the gaming world. And I love it. lol

Hi Kire-Kitsune! Welcome to KHI!

As you've probably noticed, the last post in this thread was made in January, and discussion has long since concluded. If you're still interested in continuing the topic, you are more than welcome to create a new thread for it!