Kingdom Hearts accommodates quite a lot of secrets and techniques inside its worlds. Hidden paths that result in treasure, or direct shortcuts to shave time, and so they require curiosity to seek out these spots and the willingness to work together with out-of-the-box pondering. It is a divisive design for loads of followers. Gamers like myself love being extra concerned, whereas others get misplaced and confused.
Of all Kingdom Hearts’ worlds nevertheless, a couple of have emerged as probably the most reviled by the neighborhood. Deep Jungle and Monstro are accused of being mazes, however neither of them are as infamous as Atlantica, dwelling of The Little Mermaid. Even from the very starting, I by no means agreed with these criticisms. Easy exploration and curiosity solves the maze points, and as soon as mastered, you’ll at all times keep in mind the format. Every world additionally provides to the general tone and story, and that features the a lot hated Atlantic.
Swim This Manner
It is becoming we simply had an article from our Vlad Mazanko about Soulslike platforming failures, as I really feel Kingdom Hearts 1 has some similarities to FromSoftware’s design. Clues about the place to go are purposefully cryptic, and sure, there’s quite a lot of non-obligatory platforming to seek out uncommon synthesis supplies and stat boosts, one thing you’ll be able to ignore if you’re so inclined, however are rewarded whenever you pull it off.
Atlantica sees you swimming as a merman as an alternative of platforming, and Sebastian the crab even makes positive you may have your sea legs by a fast tutorial. Maintain sq. to swim down, circle to swim up, and you’ll swim on to something you lock-on to. It’s nonetheless a sudden shift in gameplay, so even with a tutorial, I perceive why gamers could be put-off by it. Nonetheless, between the sturdy tutorial and the easy controls, it manages to nonetheless really feel at dwelling with the remainder of the sport. It is taste to make this world stand out extra, and I at all times felt it nailed it.
However removed from the cumbersome slog followers complain about; all it’s a must to do is maintain sq. to go down and circle to go up, and you’ll even swim on to something you lock-on to! With leaping now not potential, Atlantica as an alternative asks you to depend on magic to unravel environmental puzzles. Utilizing hearth to blow up a sea urchin that unlocks a shortcut, or the color-coded clams that give Mythril Shards when attacked with the matching spell.
Atlantica grows on you extra when you understand the answer to your issues is counting on magic for exploration and fight. Many enemies are out of attain, so magic closes the hole. Magic may forestall Sheltering Zone Heartless from changing into small Sea Neons, in contrast to whenever you depend on smacking them.
The important thing to having fun with Atlantica is knowing this rule. Suppose like Ursula, and depend on your magic over every thing else.
Dive To The Coronary heart
The Atlantica part additionally marks one of many greatest narrative twists in the complete sequence. That is the world the place King Triton drops a large lore bomb: that the Keyblade wielders aren’t the heroes Sora was instructed they’re, and that as an alternative they carry chaos and wreck. It is the precise reverse of every thing we have heard earlier than, however there’s by no means a counterpoint to show Triton is mistaken. Sora proves he is a seeker of peace, however the actuality that Keyblade wielders are villains is a chilling revelation.
The place story points are tougher to swallow is the Kingdom Hearts 2 model of Atlantica. Like many Disney worlds, it was diminished to a retelling of the Little Mermaid film with little distinctive plot. And this time, it was a musical minigame marathon.
And but I’ve grown to like this model of Atlantica too. Positive, utilizing songs straight from the film is fairly on-the-nose when it comes to references, however that is The Little Mermaid we’re speaking about! There are authentic songs too, and so they kinda blow, however in a so-bad-it’s-good kinda manner. You may even replay these missions and refuse to hit the prompts, laughing on the chaos you have ensued. Guess Triton was proper about Keybearers bringing destruction.
Kingdom Hearts would not be the identical with out Atlantica. Between the intelligent use of magic, the lore drops, and sure, even the swimming and the singing. I’ll at all times love how Kingdom Hearts portrayed Atlantica. For me, it was and at all times shall be a welcome change of tempo, crammed with the secrets and techniques and story beats that make Kingdom Hearts what it’s.
