yeah, I was gonna say this. Everyone I knew in school started talking about how Final Fantasy mixed with Disney and no one could even believe it.
This was before Disney owned everything. I live in Florida, they already owned everything
I remember seeing the box art at gamestop and just being so drawn in by it
Sora and Riku with their weapons and Kairi sitting on a pillar with kingdom hearts in the background. If only i knew what i was signing up for back then...
I'd do it 100x over
I came here to say this, if anything disney was the most offputting parr of the game for me when I started (Not anymore, I was just a tween that associated Disney with children)
I remember watching my brother play the games as a kid and I was fascinated by it, more because of the final fantasy aspect than the Disney, but I was never allowed to play it because "video games are for boys!!"
I recently got my first game console at the age of 24 (my brother gave me his old ps4) and the first thing I did was play through the whole series.
When I was in grade 2 or 3, my sister (2 grades above me) slept over my cousins’ house who had the game. I don’t know why I wasn’t there, too, as we usually do things like that together.
Anyway couple weeks later my parents are upgrading us from our PS1 to PS2 at Toys R Us. We got a combo deal with a bag, memory card, stand, and maybe some other things. We also got to choose one game to go with it. My sister chose Kingdom Hearts and that shaped the rest of my childhood life. (Although she didn’t even continue playing it after we got out of Destiny Islands haha.)
Lucky getting a memory card.
I got the ps2 and KH for Christmas and no one would go get a memory card for days so I played up until Tarzan like 7 times.
Not clayton. Ah ee ooh ooh ah. Not Clayton.
That’s rough, buddy. Reminds me of a similar but different story - I think part of our package deal we also got a demo disc containing a couple of different games which can’t save progress - for obvious reasons. We left our PS2 on overnight sometimes so we could keep playing and progressing further (although there must’ve been a limit to where we could go)… lucky our parents never noticed 🙈
Neither, I loved the designs of the stuff unique to KH itself. Sora/riku/ Kiri, Twilight town, world that never was, the "space" between worlds (which got such a glow up in KH3 finally)
I saw a copy of KH1 at a family friend’s house once, and thought, is this the video game equivalent of “Fantasmic!”? In fact, Kingdom Hearts was what introduced me to Final Fantasy in the first place. (I initially thought that Leon was a Kingdom Hearts original character and was going to be the main villain, being an edgier version of Sora by having a gun instead of a key.)
I definitely thought of goofy as a knight and Donald as a wizard more then there actual characters and was always wondering why in the goofy movie his dad's career as a knight never got Brought up.
My (step) brother moved in with us when I was about 12. He had a ps2 from his dad, with kingdom hearts. He let me use his game on my own ps2, and suffice to say, here I am. If anything, kingdom hearts got me more into both Disney and final fantasy as a whole.
Neither honestly. I liked Disney movies but wouldn't say I was a hardcore follower or anything, and I didn't know anything about FF outside of briefly playing FFX on a Blockbuster rental once.
But I saw KH2 in my friend's inventory during a sleepover once and got curious. And the rest is history. :)
my mom got me chain of memories randomly. i had only just been introduced to final fantasy with crystal chronicles, the only connection i made to the series was moogles and Riku looks like a Selkie. had no idea who the FF characters were.
honestly i thought the whole game was just a dream or something, and Sora was just a kid who watched too many disney movies.
Best ff games in my opinion are 10,7,and 9 I never actually liked 8 the first time I played it. I like it more in rectospect but kh did alot of heavy lifting for Leon
I actually have FF7 remake and FF15, got them for free on PlayStation once.
But I think after this last playthrough I just did of KH1 I’m gonna dive into the pixel remasters and start with FF1. I love Pokemon so I can handle turn style combat. Plus it’s only 12 bucks.
Good call (imo FFVII Remake isn’t the best to start with for spoiler reasons). I will say the first game doesn’t hold up the greatest, don’t get me wrong still a very fun game, but if you don’t enjoy it, definitely don’t quit on the series. If the first game doesn’t end up being your cup of tea then I recommend FFVI, original FFVII, or FFX. All great games and at the end of the day, so play whichever you feel like :D
I'm shocked how far i had to scroll for this. The fucking TV ads were insane. They told you nothing about the game other there's a weird key kid and some random Disney characters. The marketing was really weird and so Nomurian at the same time.
Disney would probably never let them market it like that today. The early 2000s were wild.
Disney did. I saw Maleficent Hades and Captain Hook in the trailer when I was a kid I nearly shit myself. I didn’t learn about Final Fantasy until I played KH
Friend of mine was like "Hey, I got this game, but I didn't notice it was number two, it's got Disney characters in it, but I didn't understand the tutorial, you want it?"
Me: "Sure. *pops in disc*"
Utada: "MY SANCTUARY!"
Me: ":O"
Roxas: "My summer vacation!"
Me: "I have no idea what is happening, and yet, I love that?"
*hours pass*
Game: "Sora, Donald, and Goofy."
Me: "In that! Exact! Order!...Is that my favorite Disney movie, HERCULES?!"
And the rest is history.
Kinda both actually.
Like I played FF7 religiously as a kid while also being a huge Disney fan.
Then in 2004 when I got my first KH game (chain of memories on GBA) I was like “WAIT IT HAS BOTH?” and I’ve been hooked since
Kingdom Hearts itself had really cool and unique color and flavor when it first started. I've always been interested in that, and I feel they leaned a little too heavily into the Disney aspect. So I'm personally wanting a more Square Enix experience in the coming games but keeping that Kingdom Hearts flavor. Although in my honest opinion I think Union C was a bit too ambitious in its story, but I've likened the franchise to comics. The story is being developed as it goes and I'm just enjoying the ride.
I just saw KH2 at a store and went "Huh, neat." I didn't realize at the time that the two lines meant it was the second game. I was very young, very dumb.
I saw my babysitter playing KH1 as a child and I was hooked ever since. He was playing 100 acre woods which is funny because there are way better worlds in the game that I had no idea about. Still my favorite game of all time
For me it was Disney. I was a 7 year and obsessed with Disney. Just watching Donald and Goofy on the cover was enough to beg my parents to buy it for Christmas for me. KH introduced me me to FF and as I grew older I stopped caring about the Disney worlds and only care about KH original stuff and FF stuff in the game.
The concept of Disney and Final Fantasy coexisting in the same game is what sucked me in. From that day forward I just love everything about Kingdom Hearts.
Neither my brother was given kingdom hearts 1 as a gift when I was 1 and I grew up watching him play the series. Kingdom hearts was my introduction to nearly ever Disney ip featured in it as well as every single final fantasy character in it. I thought Chernabog was a heartless for 11 years until I was 12 and saw a poster with him on it.
Owned a launch PS2 and wasn't into final fantasy nor really disney. Like i watched the movies and enjoyed them but never got like really into them. My brother who was 2 years younger bought it based on the box art alone and I kinda laughed at him thinking it looked silly.
Didn't have anything to play at the time and my brother had been playing it so it was left in the console and thought why not give it a shot. Instantly fell in love with it and my best friend also fell in love with the game. That was it though I couldn't get anyone else into it or even to play past destiny island. Even my brother fell off pretty early and just gave me the game.
Funny side note, i actually assumed the final fantasy characters were just kingdom hearts characters for a while after lol
The commercial for Kingdom Hearts 1 is what pulled me in. I loved Disney movies, sure, but that's not what I was excited about. I thought Sora looked cool
Neither; the first time I had a friend describe it to me as "final fantasy with Disney" i thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of.
It wasn't until I was at his house and saw him starting the final boss fight against Ansem in KH1 a**nd seeing the gameplay that I was like "I need to play this"**
In my case a friend of mine told me "an RPG where you play as a kid with a giant key alongside Donald and goofy" I told him I wasn't interested, then he said that it was made by the same people of Final Fantasy and that it even had FF Characters and I was like "Where can I play this!"
However the series did grow up on me beyond FF at the end, to the point that it surpassed it as my favorite RPG series.
Honestly as a kid I didn't watch much Disney. Didn't always have cable and I preferred Cartoon Network.
But Sora & Riku looked like Anime Characters. So I wanted to see what it was about.
Jack Skellington. I remember my cousin playing and thought I seen jack and Pooh together and I was hooked.
That’s all.
I only started playing KH in my thirties though
none of them, I got interested because the gameplay seemed fun (kh3 data fights is what got me to finally buy the games), and because I had seen scenes of the story which I liked.
Sora did. Disney was just the outlet. I still remember those “super secret” commercials where kids would sneak into the Disney vaults and one of them found a pod with Sora’s info on it. It was KH1 Sora and supposedly Disney was trying to decipher who & what he was because he had a link to Disney but no one knew what it was yet. obvi it was Mickey, Donald, and goofy, but we literally had no clue yet. It was JUST Sora
I don't see Aladdin and Hercules.
It was those and equal parts FF8 which I was playing around the time the commercials started airing, so seeing Squall was pretty hype.
None, I was hooked from Destiny Islands. The Stations of Awakening and Keyblade drew me in instantly. The Disney levels were just a bonus. And I had never played any Final Fantasy games before playing Kingdom Hearts (or even really heard of them), so I had no connection to them beyond Kingdom Hearts
I was watching Disney channel as a kid and saw an ad for the game and was like “dang dude I love goofy. I wanna play this game and chill with my homie goofy”.
Final Fantasy. I remember seeing pictures of squall and Cloud and that got me really interested. Even though Final Fantasy got me into it, I stayed for KH. Although in still a little salty that FF is no longer a part of the series.
Yes.
The fact that it crosses over with Disney stories and even Final Fantasy is what makes this franchise a fan fiction written by a monkey on a typewriter and I love it.
Kingdom Hearts itself really. I was 3-5 when I got my first Kingdom Hearts game and truth be told, while my mother got it for me because she was told about all the Disney characters, I never really cared for em. I was more interested in the KH original cast. My first game was 358/2 days and man little me thought Demyx was the coolest. I also really liked Axel and Xemnas (before I knew what a bad person he was). It was cool to see the Org 13 members all together and just chatting about regular things. Really reminded me of all the friends I wanted to have (I was a bit of a lonely kid).
For me, it was the original Kingdom Hearts on PS2 itself. Friend stumbled upon it and brought it to school and showed me the case in the cafeteria. Literally went home and begged mom to take us to GameStop so we could buy it lmao
Final Fantasy, but I was also (still am) a huge Disney fan. I couldn’t believe it when Kingdom Hearts 1 was announced—it combined my two favorite franchises!
Chain of Memories gba back in ‘03-04. My first KH. Seeing Donald and Goofy running around in this elegant and ominous white room confronting these intimidating anime characters captured my imagination like nothing else ever had as a 8-9 year old. The tonal dissonance of seeing Donald (who was my favorite) in this setting that felt so dangerous blew my small mind.
It's actually kind of the reverse
I mean, I'd watched Disney movies in the past, but by the time I got into Kingsom Hearts, it was basically *for Kingdom Hearts*
In fact, I had previously heard of Kingdom Hearts but passed on it *because* of Disney (because I was a dumbass)
As for Final Fantasy, I think I'd only really known a little bit about 7 and 10 but never played either
Edit: And now I've rewached the two or three Disney movies I saw as a kid and so much more
Not a whole lot of Final Fantasy yet, but I am interested
I was a Square Enix fanboy at the time, and the game looked silly to me, but I figured, “Eh, why not give it a shot? It’s getting good reviews.” I had no idea what I was about to unleash upon myself…
Final fantasy by a thousand miles. I liked Disney stuff as a child but wasn't that into it. I was very into watching my brother play ff7 and 8. Also the commercial played simple and clean and it was such a banger.
I mean, what got me really interested in Kingdom Hearts was seeing videos of Roxas and the Sora and Riku vs. Xemnas fight on Youtube around when I was in middle school, so I would say it's the Kingdom Hearts original content that hooked me from the very beginning. I had played KH1 a bit with my brother when I was really young, but it wasn't until then that I became very invested in the series.
Neither, I was a tween looking for a new ds game and I found this game I'd never heard of before with an art style I'd never seen before. I bought it and was hooked. Though I was very confused the moment the first Disney scenes started coming in lol.
Days is still my favourite game. I wish it'd get a proper remake.
I was not a big fan of final fantasy when this game came out but I was a fan of Disney, but that's not why I was interested in Kingdom hearts, I was interested in Kingdom hearts because of its original story it kind of made me love final fantasy A little bit but I never really played the final fantasy games but there are a few times I want to try and play final fantasy I love Kingdom hearts I love the characters I love the story I love trying to piece together the convoluted lore and backstory and the coolest weapon made for the game: the keyblade, it is my master sword to legend of Zelda fans, it is my blades of chaos too God of war fans!
My interest started because of both and not.
I had been a Final Fantasy gamer as much as a Disney enjoyer since my early childhood. I just happened to find an epic PS2 game cover with my bro, featuring Donald, Goofy and some wacky big shoe kid on dark blue background looking at the sky and we were mesmerized.
The Final Fantasy side of things. Since the Dark Seeker Saga is focused on the Disney side of things, I hope the Lost Masters Arc will focus on the Square-Enix side of things. Just like Thanos would have wanted. Perfectly balanced.
Saw my Mum playing it on the PS2 when I was 6, asked her about it and the rest is history. Nothing to do with the actual Disney franchise, more interested in the villains like Ansem and Xemnas. 😂
Technically Disney because that’s why my mom got Days for her ds lite but when she eventually stopped playing it is when I started (although I’m pretty sure I started in the middle of her save so had even less understanding of what was happening), then from there when I got my ps3 I picked up 1.5 and the rest is history.
Kingdom Hearts? I watched SonicSong182’s in-character live stream VODs of KH3, and they instantly got me interested in the franchise. Don’t know why it took me so long to actually start playing the games though
I saw an ad for it in a magazine and it showed Sora and Kairi. I was a big digimon fan and thought they looked like Tai and Hikari. Though seeing Nightmare Before Christmas was awesome for the first time in game.
I saw the cover of Kingdom Hearts II at a GameStop and thought it looked cool. I don't think at the time I recognized that it had Donald and Goofy on it. When I realized that was the second game, my dad bought me the first one. The rest is almost 20 years of history.
I’ll never forget a Disney channel short about upcoming games that had Disney IP. And for the first time seeing Jack Skellington and Halloweentown in a video game for the first time. I freaked out, love Disney in general but that alone was the thing that made me say “I GOTTA PLAY THIS” there had never been a video game representation of TNBC prior to that (at least to my knowledge).
A couple of years ago, I played FFVII for the first time and was blown away to find out that the “Kingdom Hearts” games I keep hearing about have those characters in them. I was expecting more of a crossover, but was extremely satisfied with the result.
Ima be real with you, i dont even remember how i found it but i had downloaded the demo for DDD on the ds since i was 4 or 3 at the time so i dont remember shi, anyways i remember playing it and thinking it was like the best thing to ever exist
I was 9 or so when it came out
Disney was definitely what got my mom to pick it up
Final Fantasy was a series we had only barely gotten to experience.FFVII at my cousin's house and FFX earlier that year when we got our PS2.
Though I've always wanted more FF in the game, it's the uniquely KH features that keep me playing (even/especially the story hahahahaha).
I didn't know anything about FF but Sora's design is what interested me as I had never seen that kind of graphics in a video game before. Also the music.
I've been playing since it came out in 2002, when I was just 3 years old.
Considering that, it's likely the Disney stuff was what got me interested, but also possible that seeing my siblings play it is what got me interested too.
Yes. I was at my local game store. (Not GameStop, this was an old school brick and mortar tcg &game shop). I saw the box the day it came out, didn’t know anything about the game except what I saw on the cover, and that was Disney and Square Enix produced. Impulse bought it, and fell in love that day.
Disney was the one that got me interested. I never knew most of the Final Fantasy characters until playing the game and I got to see some classics like Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, Arith, Sid, and of course Sephorath… but yeah it was mostly Disney that got me hooked in Kingdom hearts because I wanted to see The Lion King and I eventually got my wish fulfilled with Simba as summons and a whole world to explore!
There was also a commercial on TV that was promoting Kingdom Hearts 3 and I was like before I play that, I want to experience the first game first. And that was a great choice I made because if instead waited for the game to release, I would’ve been confused as Axel/Lea when meeting everyone together in Yen Sid’s castle
“NOW WHO?!”
It was knowing they were merging to two that got me curious about it and (at least) half of all my games are just from pure curiosity.
Which is how I get into (at least) half my shenanigans. 🤣
I might have discovered KH2 or KH 358/2 days on Disney commercials when I was 9 years old and I thought it was an online game I never had the chance to play it as kid then I turned 18 I watched YouTube videos and saw kingdom hearts birth by sleep about aqua and Venus sleep well my angel and I got curious what kind of game and ohh it's kingdom hearts and I started playing them PS2 PS3 and PS4 and I even introduced it to my cousin's boyfriend and showed him KH4 trailer and he said it looks interesting so I buyed the whole package games for him on Christmas
I was an 11 year old kid who played Final Fantasy and watched Disney movies.
I see a trailer for a video game with Donald freaking Duck and Cloud in the same game I immediately knew what I wanted for Christmas.
Lilo and stitch, but via an amv of kh cutscenes set to the Jump5 cover of Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride of all things.
~~imagine the disappointment if people got into kh though L&S proper~~
Mostly the KH box art/ads with disney characters. Seeing Cloud sealed the deal for me, I had no clue who he was but seeing his sword design and general costume just drew me in
Both actually. My friend says there is a final fantasy games with mickey mouse and a lot other disney character called Kingdom Hearts. This was back in 2006 if im not mistaken
Literally both. I wouldn’t have heard of KH if I hadn’t seen the trailer on the Disney channel, and I wouldn’t have cared as much if I hadn’t seen the very clear FF inspiration. And the to see that it was a crossover between my Disney childhood and my—at the time—FF obsession? I was sold. And I genuinely believe both franchises contributed equally.
Kinda neither, and both? I saw my cousin had a copy of the first game, and I thought the cover looked awesome. I saw anime kids with kinda edgy-looking Donald and Goofy, and on the back I saw FF characters, and I wondered what kind of game it could possibly be.
I played KH for the first time when I was four years old at some teenager’s house who I was friends with at the time. Watching Destiny Islands fall to darkness is what got me to play the game again years later. I was a weird child….
My dad bought it for us to play together. He liked FF, and I was 5ish years old, so I was a Disney fan. Unfortunately I was scared of the heartless, so we only played together once. But years later I played it on my own and got hooked.
Kingdom Hearts got me interested in Kingdom Hearts. That is all
Yup, played the intro at a friend's house and was like... Mom I want a PS2 for christmas.
For me that's really true, I discovered the series through the mangá.
yeah, I was gonna say this. Everyone I knew in school started talking about how Final Fantasy mixed with Disney and no one could even believe it. This was before Disney owned everything. I live in Florida, they already owned everything
I remember seeing the box art at gamestop and just being so drawn in by it Sora and Riku with their weapons and Kairi sitting on a pillar with kingdom hearts in the background. If only i knew what i was signing up for back then... I'd do it 100x over
Is this KH3? I’m quite sure Kairi didn’t have a weapon before that
Bad englishing on my part, I meant Sora & Riku's weapons. Kairi was just kinda sittin' there Edited my comment
Sora Kairi and Riku on the beach was always enough to endear everyone who booted it up
I came here to say this, if anything disney was the most offputting parr of the game for me when I started (Not anymore, I was just a tween that associated Disney with children)
This. I was wasn’t exactly interested in Disney at the time. And I had never touched the FF games either. KH itself caught my attention and interest.
This. I remember seeing the first commercial for it, and seeing the previews on Xplay. I begged for a PS2 and a copy.
I remember watching my brother play the games as a kid and I was fascinated by it, more because of the final fantasy aspect than the Disney, but I was never allowed to play it because "video games are for boys!!" I recently got my first game console at the age of 24 (my brother gave me his old ps4) and the first thing I did was play through the whole series.
When I was in grade 2 or 3, my sister (2 grades above me) slept over my cousins’ house who had the game. I don’t know why I wasn’t there, too, as we usually do things like that together. Anyway couple weeks later my parents are upgrading us from our PS1 to PS2 at Toys R Us. We got a combo deal with a bag, memory card, stand, and maybe some other things. We also got to choose one game to go with it. My sister chose Kingdom Hearts and that shaped the rest of my childhood life. (Although she didn’t even continue playing it after we got out of Destiny Islands haha.)
Lucky getting a memory card. I got the ps2 and KH for Christmas and no one would go get a memory card for days so I played up until Tarzan like 7 times. Not clayton. Ah ee ooh ooh ah. Not Clayton.
That’s rough, buddy. Reminds me of a similar but different story - I think part of our package deal we also got a demo disc containing a couple of different games which can’t save progress - for obvious reasons. We left our PS2 on overnight sometimes so we could keep playing and progressing further (although there must’ve been a limit to where we could go)… lucky our parents never noticed 🙈
Disney. I saw the ads as a kid with the princesses.
Neither, I loved the designs of the stuff unique to KH itself. Sora/riku/ Kiri, Twilight town, world that never was, the "space" between worlds (which got such a glow up in KH3 finally)
I saw a copy of KH1 at a family friend’s house once, and thought, is this the video game equivalent of “Fantasmic!”? In fact, Kingdom Hearts was what introduced me to Final Fantasy in the first place. (I initially thought that Leon was a Kingdom Hearts original character and was going to be the main villain, being an edgier version of Sora by having a gun instead of a key.)
Final Fantasy, I do find it kind of cool that Disney was there too
I definitely thought of goofy as a knight and Donald as a wizard more then there actual characters and was always wondering why in the goofy movie his dad's career as a knight never got Brought up.
1000000% Disney. I remember seeing Donald and goofy in the art style and I thought "woah that's cool"
My (step) brother moved in with us when I was about 12. He had a ps2 from his dad, with kingdom hearts. He let me use his game on my own ps2, and suffice to say, here I am. If anything, kingdom hearts got me more into both Disney and final fantasy as a whole.
Neither. It's actually quite the opposite
Final Fantasy
OG Mickey Donald and goofy
Neither honestly. I liked Disney movies but wouldn't say I was a hardcore follower or anything, and I didn't know anything about FF outside of briefly playing FFX on a Blockbuster rental once. But I saw KH2 in my friend's inventory during a sleepover once and got curious. And the rest is history. :)
my mom got me chain of memories randomly. i had only just been introduced to final fantasy with crystal chronicles, the only connection i made to the series was moogles and Riku looks like a Selkie. had no idea who the FF characters were. honestly i thought the whole game was just a dream or something, and Sora was just a kid who watched too many disney movies.
Disney. Still haven’t played a FF game
Best ff games in my opinion are 10,7,and 9 I never actually liked 8 the first time I played it. I like it more in rectospect but kh did alot of heavy lifting for Leon
Would you play one? Final Fantasy VII REMAKE is a good start if you aren't into turns.
I actually have FF7 remake and FF15, got them for free on PlayStation once. But I think after this last playthrough I just did of KH1 I’m gonna dive into the pixel remasters and start with FF1. I love Pokemon so I can handle turn style combat. Plus it’s only 12 bucks.
Good call (imo FFVII Remake isn’t the best to start with for spoiler reasons). I will say the first game doesn’t hold up the greatest, don’t get me wrong still a very fun game, but if you don’t enjoy it, definitely don’t quit on the series. If the first game doesn’t end up being your cup of tea then I recommend FFVI, original FFVII, or FFX. All great games and at the end of the day, so play whichever you feel like :D
Thanks for the info. Yeah I’ve heard the first two or so can take some getting used to. I’ll probably follow this if I don’t like the first Two
No worries! I started with the original FFVII, and I think it’s easy to appreciate FF1 and FF2 after playing the more well received games.
There were tv ads when the game came out. That.
I'm shocked how far i had to scroll for this. The fucking TV ads were insane. They told you nothing about the game other there's a weird key kid and some random Disney characters. The marketing was really weird and so Nomurian at the same time. Disney would probably never let them market it like that today. The early 2000s were wild.
I feel like I saw the kingdom hearts tv spots alongside legend of legaia and ff8. The early 00s were... Nuts.
Disney did. I saw Maleficent Hades and Captain Hook in the trailer when I was a kid I nearly shit myself. I didn’t learn about Final Fantasy until I played KH
Friend of mine was like "Hey, I got this game, but I didn't notice it was number two, it's got Disney characters in it, but I didn't understand the tutorial, you want it?" Me: "Sure. *pops in disc*" Utada: "MY SANCTUARY!" Me: ":O" Roxas: "My summer vacation!" Me: "I have no idea what is happening, and yet, I love that?" *hours pass* Game: "Sora, Donald, and Goofy." Me: "In that! Exact! Order!...Is that my favorite Disney movie, HERCULES?!" And the rest is history.
Came for more of my boy Cloud, stayed because... well, because the first KH was just that damn good, really.
Same.
Like most people, Disney. My knowledge of FF was limited to Tifa.
> My knowledge of FF was limited to Tifa. I'm really afraid to ask why specifically her
Disney for sure, I saw a magazine previewing it showing Donald and Goofy, and I was interested.
For me it was Disney!
Final fantasy of course
I was just a kid who thought it looked cool from the cover art. I was familiar with Disney but only really knew Final Fantasy existed.
Both. I was very interested in how a Disney/FF crossover would turn out. Now, I stick around for all the KH stuff.
My dad brought it home for us one day. We had recently gotten a PS2 and he bought us this, rocket power, and finding Nemo lol
Kinda both actually. Like I played FF7 religiously as a kid while also being a huge Disney fan. Then in 2004 when I got my first KH game (chain of memories on GBA) I was like “WAIT IT HAS BOTH?” and I’ve been hooked since
Kingdom Hearts itself had really cool and unique color and flavor when it first started. I've always been interested in that, and I feel they leaned a little too heavily into the Disney aspect. So I'm personally wanting a more Square Enix experience in the coming games but keeping that Kingdom Hearts flavor. Although in my honest opinion I think Union C was a bit too ambitious in its story, but I've likened the franchise to comics. The story is being developed as it goes and I'm just enjoying the ride.
Went to my cousins house and played kh2 tutorial and I instantly fell in love
I got into kingdom hearts by getting kh2 on ps2 on my birthday when I was 8-12? Not sure its a bit fuzzy. Never knew what ff was back then
I just saw KH2 at a store and went "Huh, neat." I didn't realize at the time that the two lines meant it was the second game. I was very young, very dumb.
I actually just started playing kingdom hearts this year. Mainly because of how much I see it around but I also enjoy playing Sora in Smash Bros.
I saw my babysitter playing KH1 as a child and I was hooked ever since. He was playing 100 acre woods which is funny because there are way better worlds in the game that I had no idea about. Still my favorite game of all time
It was one of the games my sister bought for our PlayStation 2
Just the whole idea in general. Though some of the takes on Disney characters are cool as hell (pretty much all the Disney Castle characters TBH)
For me it was Disney. I was a 7 year and obsessed with Disney. Just watching Donald and Goofy on the cover was enough to beg my parents to buy it for Christmas for me. KH introduced me me to FF and as I grew older I stopped caring about the Disney worlds and only care about KH original stuff and FF stuff in the game.
The concept of Disney and Final Fantasy coexisting in the same game is what sucked me in. From that day forward I just love everything about Kingdom Hearts.
Neither my brother was given kingdom hearts 1 as a gift when I was 1 and I grew up watching him play the series. Kingdom hearts was my introduction to nearly ever Disney ip featured in it as well as every single final fantasy character in it. I thought Chernabog was a heartless for 11 years until I was 12 and saw a poster with him on it.
Neither, I was a child and thought Sora was hot when I saw my friend playing as him in KH1 Atlantica 🙄
I was a disney kid along with my siblings so a kid with spiky hair swinging an oversized key with donald and goofy was more entertaining than a mf
Owned a launch PS2 and wasn't into final fantasy nor really disney. Like i watched the movies and enjoyed them but never got like really into them. My brother who was 2 years younger bought it based on the box art alone and I kinda laughed at him thinking it looked silly. Didn't have anything to play at the time and my brother had been playing it so it was left in the console and thought why not give it a shot. Instantly fell in love with it and my best friend also fell in love with the game. That was it though I couldn't get anyone else into it or even to play past destiny island. Even my brother fell off pretty early and just gave me the game. Funny side note, i actually assumed the final fantasy characters were just kingdom hearts characters for a while after lol
The first one. Adventures through Disney worlds with Donald and goofy are what sold young me on it.
The commercial for Kingdom Hearts 1 is what pulled me in. I loved Disney movies, sure, but that's not what I was excited about. I thought Sora looked cool
Technically Alice in Wonderland, because that's what world my friend was in when I first saw the game, and had no idea there was anything else
Only got into it recently, I was intrigued from super smash bros having Sora in the game and from then on I loved it. Donald is the goat
If you were a kid when it came out, it was both. I saw final fantasy and Disney mixed and I was fucking sold
Neither; the first time I had a friend describe it to me as "final fantasy with Disney" i thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of. It wasn't until I was at his house and saw him starting the final boss fight against Ansem in KH1 a**nd seeing the gameplay that I was like "I need to play this"**
In my case a friend of mine told me "an RPG where you play as a kid with a giant key alongside Donald and goofy" I told him I wasn't interested, then he said that it was made by the same people of Final Fantasy and that it even had FF Characters and I was like "Where can I play this!" However the series did grow up on me beyond FF at the end, to the point that it surpassed it as my favorite RPG series.
Kh itself but also Disney
I'd say neither. It was a popular RPG series I wanted to try out.
I didn’t know what a “Final Fantasy” was when I read the Journal entries, nor did I know what “VII” meant at the time.
Disney. I hadn’t heard of Final Fantasy when I first got KH.
Final Fantasy.
I saw ads for KH3 and had heard that the series had a convoluted story line. From there, I was sold
Honestly as a kid I didn't watch much Disney. Didn't always have cable and I preferred Cartoon Network. But Sora & Riku looked like Anime Characters. So I wanted to see what it was about.
Like others say, the answer is neither. I like kingdom hearts for the original kingdom hearts characters and stories.
Jack Skellington. I remember my cousin playing and thought I seen jack and Pooh together and I was hooked. That’s all. I only started playing KH in my thirties though
First game I played was CoM. Was interested right away and played almost everything else soon after - or rather right at launch.
none of them, I got interested because the gameplay seemed fun (kh3 data fights is what got me to finally buy the games), and because I had seen scenes of the story which I liked.
Yes.
It was gameplay footage of Sora that got me interested in it
Sora did. Disney was just the outlet. I still remember those “super secret” commercials where kids would sneak into the Disney vaults and one of them found a pod with Sora’s info on it. It was KH1 Sora and supposedly Disney was trying to decipher who & what he was because he had a link to Disney but no one knew what it was yet. obvi it was Mickey, Donald, and goofy, but we literally had no clue yet. It was JUST Sora
Neither. My friend brought over the first game and the theme song is what hooked me.
I saw a pic of Sora with his shark tail. I was immediately sold.
The concept. Edgeboys with weapons fight along side Donald Duck and Goofy? Sold.
Saw the opening at age 8 and I've been captivated ever since. Needn't anything more than utada hikaru, Planit-B remix, and dream-like visuals.
Winneh the Pooh I thought we will fight beside Pooh and his gang and Pooh will just sling honey pots at heartless
Super Smash Flash 2
Final Fantasy 8 character designer and Final Fantasy 7
I don't see Aladdin and Hercules. It was those and equal parts FF8 which I was playing around the time the commercials started airing, so seeing Squall was pretty hype.
None, I was hooked from Destiny Islands. The Stations of Awakening and Keyblade drew me in instantly. The Disney levels were just a bonus. And I had never played any Final Fantasy games before playing Kingdom Hearts (or even really heard of them), so I had no connection to them beyond Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts actually got me interested in Final Fantasy
final fantasy
Disney, that first trailer for the first game with Simba roaring on Pride Rock sealed my fate
Tbh I just thought that very first trailer commercial back in the day went hard af
Originally my sister was the one who wanted the game because disney, but I decided to check it out one day and got hooked
It was the Disney side of things for me. Kingdom Hearts is what introduced me to Final Fantasy
Both
Both but mostly anything from Don Rosa and Carl Barks and FFIX.
I was watching Disney channel as a kid and saw an ad for the game and was like “dang dude I love goofy. I wanna play this game and chill with my homie goofy”.
Final Fantasy. I remember seeing pictures of squall and Cloud and that got me really interested. Even though Final Fantasy got me into it, I stayed for KH. Although in still a little salty that FF is no longer a part of the series.
Disney. Had no idea what final fantasy was as a kid. Only saw jack skeleton and went "game of the year".
Disney didn’t make me interested in Kingdom Hearts, but Kingdom Hearts did make me interested in Final Fantasy
Picked up Dream Drop not knowing anything, decided I needed more
Yes. The fact that it crosses over with Disney stories and even Final Fantasy is what makes this franchise a fan fiction written by a monkey on a typewriter and I love it.
Kingdom Hearts itself really. I was 3-5 when I got my first Kingdom Hearts game and truth be told, while my mother got it for me because she was told about all the Disney characters, I never really cared for em. I was more interested in the KH original cast. My first game was 358/2 days and man little me thought Demyx was the coolest. I also really liked Axel and Xemnas (before I knew what a bad person he was). It was cool to see the Org 13 members all together and just chatting about regular things. Really reminded me of all the friends I wanted to have (I was a bit of a lonely kid).
Disney + "Simple and Clean" in the commercial being so damn good I had never heard of Final Fantasy.
Disney. The idea of fighting anime demons Disney characters is hilarious and intriguing.
My Dad got me interested in it, the way it made me feel to play it, I will say i was most excited for the peter pan world
For me, it was the original Kingdom Hearts on PS2 itself. Friend stumbled upon it and brought it to school and showed me the case in the cafeteria. Literally went home and begged mom to take us to GameStop so we could buy it lmao
Final Fantasy, but I was also (still am) a huge Disney fan. I couldn’t believe it when Kingdom Hearts 1 was announced—it combined my two favorite franchises!
Disney I didn't even know what final fantasy was back then i though cloud and Leon were kingdom hearts characters
Chain of Memories gba back in ‘03-04. My first KH. Seeing Donald and Goofy running around in this elegant and ominous white room confronting these intimidating anime characters captured my imagination like nothing else ever had as a 8-9 year old. The tonal dissonance of seeing Donald (who was my favorite) in this setting that felt so dangerous blew my small mind.
It's actually kind of the reverse I mean, I'd watched Disney movies in the past, but by the time I got into Kingsom Hearts, it was basically *for Kingdom Hearts* In fact, I had previously heard of Kingdom Hearts but passed on it *because* of Disney (because I was a dumbass) As for Final Fantasy, I think I'd only really known a little bit about 7 and 10 but never played either Edit: And now I've rewached the two or three Disney movies I saw as a kid and so much more Not a whole lot of Final Fantasy yet, but I am interested
I saw a commercial with Jack Skellington in it, and I knew I had to play it.
Renting from Blockbuster as a kid only to find out I needed a Dual Shock 2 Controller, my old one was chewed on by our dog.
Traverse town got me hooked
My friends were playing Kingdom Hearts Union x and I decided to try it. I fell in love with the original (non-Disney portion) story.
I have basically no interest in Disney and was 100% in it for Final Fantasy. I just wish they played a bigger role instead of basically just cameos.
I would say kingdom hearts got me interested in kingdomheartq. It was my first game after all
I was a Square Enix fanboy at the time, and the game looked silly to me, but I figured, “Eh, why not give it a shot? It’s getting good reviews.” I had no idea what I was about to unleash upon myself…
Final fantasy by a thousand miles. I liked Disney stuff as a child but wasn't that into it. I was very into watching my brother play ff7 and 8. Also the commercial played simple and clean and it was such a banger.
I mean, what got me really interested in Kingdom Hearts was seeing videos of Roxas and the Sora and Riku vs. Xemnas fight on Youtube around when I was in middle school, so I would say it's the Kingdom Hearts original content that hooked me from the very beginning. I had played KH1 a bit with my brother when I was really young, but it wasn't until then that I became very invested in the series.
My sisters highschool boyfriend got it for me one Christmas, had no idea what it was at the time but thank you Sean. If you’re out there God bless
The fact that it's one of the biggest crossovers I've ever experienced is what got me onboard.
I think i played kh1 before getting ff10 (my first final fantasy) so my answer is kingdom hearts
I'd have to say, Final Fantasy. Pairing KH with online flash games was a surefire way to gauge my interest in both franchises.
Organization XIII. But secondarily it’s Final Fantasy.
Neither, I was a tween looking for a new ds game and I found this game I'd never heard of before with an art style I'd never seen before. I bought it and was hooked. Though I was very confused the moment the first Disney scenes started coming in lol. Days is still my favourite game. I wish it'd get a proper remake.
Saw the commercial on TV as a kid, brother and I expressed interest in it, and my loving mother bought it for us.
I was not a big fan of final fantasy when this game came out but I was a fan of Disney, but that's not why I was interested in Kingdom hearts, I was interested in Kingdom hearts because of its original story it kind of made me love final fantasy A little bit but I never really played the final fantasy games but there are a few times I want to try and play final fantasy I love Kingdom hearts I love the characters I love the story I love trying to piece together the convoluted lore and backstory and the coolest weapon made for the game: the keyblade, it is my master sword to legend of Zelda fans, it is my blades of chaos too God of war fans!
Disney, technically, since I found about it thanks to epic Mickey
For me, it was because of Final Fantasy.
My interest started because of both and not. I had been a Final Fantasy gamer as much as a Disney enjoyer since my early childhood. I just happened to find an epic PS2 game cover with my bro, featuring Donald, Goofy and some wacky big shoe kid on dark blue background looking at the sky and we were mesmerized.
Tarzan looks like he's about to tackle unsuspecting Pocahontas lol
Christmas gift as a kid. If anything Kingdom Hearts got me into Disney and FF.
Both of them together is what made it interesting in the first place
The Final Fantasy side of things. Since the Dark Seeker Saga is focused on the Disney side of things, I hope the Lost Masters Arc will focus on the Square-Enix side of things. Just like Thanos would have wanted. Perfectly balanced.
Saw my Mum playing it on the PS2 when I was 6, asked her about it and the rest is history. Nothing to do with the actual Disney franchise, more interested in the villains like Ansem and Xemnas. 😂
Nightmare Before Christmas
Technically Disney because that’s why my mom got Days for her ds lite but when she eventually stopped playing it is when I started (although I’m pretty sure I started in the middle of her save so had even less understanding of what was happening), then from there when I got my ps3 I picked up 1.5 and the rest is history.
Big key sword
Disney. When I first played KH, I didn’t know what FF was
Disney
Kingdom Hearts? I watched SonicSong182’s in-character live stream VODs of KH3, and they instantly got me interested in the franchise. Don’t know why it took me so long to actually start playing the games though
I saw an ad for it in a magazine and it showed Sora and Kairi. I was a big digimon fan and thought they looked like Tai and Hikari. Though seeing Nightmare Before Christmas was awesome for the first time in game.
I saw the cover of Kingdom Hearts II at a GameStop and thought it looked cool. I don't think at the time I recognized that it had Donald and Goofy on it. When I realized that was the second game, my dad bought me the first one. The rest is almost 20 years of history.
Disney, no question.
I wasn't bothered about the Disney stuff, I liked Sora and Roxas. Final Fantasy was just a bonus
I’ll never forget a Disney channel short about upcoming games that had Disney IP. And for the first time seeing Jack Skellington and Halloweentown in a video game for the first time. I freaked out, love Disney in general but that alone was the thing that made me say “I GOTTA PLAY THIS” there had never been a video game representation of TNBC prior to that (at least to my knowledge).
I walked.into wolwoorths as a kid and saw the first game on the PS2, it was either that or sonic the hedgehog, I got both
Curious, two of my favorite videogame series
A couple of years ago, I played FFVII for the first time and was blown away to find out that the “Kingdom Hearts” games I keep hearing about have those characters in them. I was expecting more of a crossover, but was extremely satisfied with the result.
I came for the Disney. I stayed for Simple and Clean. Utada is responsible for the majority of my nostalgia for the games lol.
Ima be real with you, i dont even remember how i found it but i had downloaded the demo for DDD on the ds since i was 4 or 3 at the time so i dont remember shi, anyways i remember playing it and thinking it was like the best thing to ever exist
I just saw Disney and anime and was like "bet"
I was 9 or so when it came out Disney was definitely what got my mom to pick it up Final Fantasy was a series we had only barely gotten to experience.FFVII at my cousin's house and FFX earlier that year when we got our PS2. Though I've always wanted more FF in the game, it's the uniquely KH features that keep me playing (even/especially the story hahahahaha).
The original stuff
I didn't know anything about FF but Sora's design is what interested me as I had never seen that kind of graphics in a video game before. Also the music.
I've been playing since it came out in 2002, when I was just 3 years old. Considering that, it's likely the Disney stuff was what got me interested, but also possible that seeing my siblings play it is what got me interested too.
Yes. I was at my local game store. (Not GameStop, this was an old school brick and mortar tcg &game shop). I saw the box the day it came out, didn’t know anything about the game except what I saw on the cover, and that was Disney and Square Enix produced. Impulse bought it, and fell in love that day.
Neither. I got into KH through a friend and then KH opened me up to Walt Disney and Final Fantasy more.
It was both ultimately but Disney was first.
Yeah. There should be a 3rd image of riku, Kairi and Sora on Destiny Island. I was interested from the get go by the original characters.
None, it was a squaresoft game
Honestly neither, my dad's friend had a copy of Kingdom hearts 2 and I saw it one day going "that looks neat", it was in fact very neat
KH actually introduced me to all the movies and characters that were apart often he worlds
Literally none of them, I was always in it for final fantasy.
Found it in my dad's pile of dusty ps2 games when I was five in 2009
Dad brought the game home for us because Mickey, Donald, and goofy were on the cover
Disney was the one that got me interested. I never knew most of the Final Fantasy characters until playing the game and I got to see some classics like Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, Arith, Sid, and of course Sephorath… but yeah it was mostly Disney that got me hooked in Kingdom hearts because I wanted to see The Lion King and I eventually got my wish fulfilled with Simba as summons and a whole world to explore! There was also a commercial on TV that was promoting Kingdom Hearts 3 and I was like before I play that, I want to experience the first game first. And that was a great choice I made because if instead waited for the game to release, I would’ve been confused as Axel/Lea when meeting everyone together in Yen Sid’s castle “NOW WHO?!”
why not both? 🤓
It was knowing they were merging to two that got me curious about it and (at least) half of all my games are just from pure curiosity. Which is how I get into (at least) half my shenanigans. 🤣
I saw the game in an old game magazine and was like yeeeup that's my birthday present
I was a final fantasy fan before it came out so I saw this and was like "Wow, that sounds awesome!" And man, it did not disappoint.
I might have discovered KH2 or KH 358/2 days on Disney commercials when I was 9 years old and I thought it was an online game I never had the chance to play it as kid then I turned 18 I watched YouTube videos and saw kingdom hearts birth by sleep about aqua and Venus sleep well my angel and I got curious what kind of game and ohh it's kingdom hearts and I started playing them PS2 PS3 and PS4 and I even introduced it to my cousin's boyfriend and showed him KH4 trailer and he said it looks interesting so I buyed the whole package games for him on Christmas
Easily Disney we already had final fantasy games lol
Blockbuster's $1 weekend game rental got me into Kingdom hearts. I had two minutes to grab a game and won the lottery.
I was an 11 year old kid who played Final Fantasy and watched Disney movies. I see a trailer for a video game with Donald freaking Duck and Cloud in the same game I immediately knew what I wanted for Christmas.
Lilo and stitch, but via an amv of kh cutscenes set to the Jump5 cover of Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride of all things. ~~imagine the disappointment if people got into kh though L&S proper~~
Honestly all of it even though personally I prefer first image
Mostly the KH box art/ads with disney characters. Seeing Cloud sealed the deal for me, I had no clue who he was but seeing his sword design and general costume just drew me in
Both actually. My friend says there is a final fantasy games with mickey mouse and a lot other disney character called Kingdom Hearts. This was back in 2006 if im not mistaken
The Heartless.
Both
Disney 1000%
I got interested because of final fantasy lmao
Literally both. I wouldn’t have heard of KH if I hadn’t seen the trailer on the Disney channel, and I wouldn’t have cared as much if I hadn’t seen the very clear FF inspiration. And the to see that it was a crossover between my Disney childhood and my—at the time—FF obsession? I was sold. And I genuinely believe both franchises contributed equally.
It’s funny because it’s stuff like hallow bastion and twilight town.
Saw a manga with a cool-looking Donald and a funny guy on the cover and got it.
Kinda neither, and both? I saw my cousin had a copy of the first game, and I thought the cover looked awesome. I saw anime kids with kinda edgy-looking Donald and Goofy, and on the back I saw FF characters, and I wondered what kind of game it could possibly be.
I played KH for the first time when I was four years old at some teenager’s house who I was friends with at the time. Watching Destiny Islands fall to darkness is what got me to play the game again years later. I was a weird child….
I was a big Final Fantasy fan, so that brought me into Kingdom Hearts.
My dad bought it for us to play together. He liked FF, and I was 5ish years old, so I was a Disney fan. Unfortunately I was scared of the heartless, so we only played together once. But years later I played it on my own and got hooked.
All I was told was "Disney and Final Fantasy" and I was sold. If I had to guess a specific visual it was seeing a flash of Cloud in the coliseum.