Image via Square Enix
Video games are influential media. For many of us, nostalgia is a powerful, driving force when replaying older titles and picking up the newest installment of a series. From the newest Pokémon game to the retelling of an iconic story like Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, longtime fans are committed in both memory and curiosity.
However, there is one series I only want to replay, because anything new may alter the place it holds in the fundamental development of my own person. Kingdom Hearts 2 isn’t just a video game, it’s a snapshot of my life, and replaying it is a precious photo album of memories.
Kingdom Hearts 2 Isn’t Your 2020s’ Square Enix
Kingdom Hearts 2 was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. I was Fourteen years old and had barely wrapped Kingdom Hearts over the first semester of my eighth-grade year. It was the first game I’d ever finished properly, and I still needed help from my best friend to complete the final boss fight.
I remember sliding the disk into the PS2 and watching it load up. I was blown away as the then-amazing cinematic cutscene blended with “Sanctuary” by Utada Hikaru. I raced to the hook and yanked the phone off the charger, holding the big, black brick to my ear as soon as I finished dialing, and started gushing to my best friend even before playing because I knew this game was going to be special.
As I dove into Twilight Town for the first time, I wasn’t wrong. Square Enix managed to capture a truly magical world in Kingdom Hearts 2 conveyed via a stellar soundtrack, emotionally driven characters, and a lack of pressure to drop something that would “be approved of by streamers, influencers, and the internet”.
Kingdom Hearts 2 Didn’t Need Twitter or TikTok To Be Amazing
Kingdom Hearts 2 was born into a world without smartphones. The closest thing to social media was a budding Facebook, DeviantArt, and word of mouth. Despite the lack of worldwide connection, the game’s popularity exploded. Fanart flooded DeviantArt, Cosplayers invaded YouTube, and merchandise flooded Sundace Videos and GameStop.
The first Anime Convention I went to after Kingdom Hearts 2 released was filled with Axel, Sora, Riku, and Roxas cosplayers in inky black robes and giant shoes. Wig styling tutorials enveloped on Cosplay forums, and the very first con vlogs on YouTube showed cosplayers carefully applying Got2Be freeze spray and tacky glue to loving crafted spikes. Kingdom Hearts 2 gave birth to a fandom culture as intense and prolific as Harry Potter, and it pulled fans together from all around the world.
I remember sitting at my desk, sculpting my very first Demyx wig at fifteen, and watching TealPirate and KellyJane’s Demyx Time videos as they were released, listening to Twinfools and Nova doing candid YouTube videos in character as Riku and Sora. I had never met them, and the fuzzy, ten-minute videos weren’t cinema masterpieces, but they connected us. We were all fans of this game that talked about friendship, and being a better version of yourself. We all wanted to share that feeling, and it became the cornerstone of the Kingdom Hearts 2 community.
At The Bottom of My Closet is an Old Kodak Digital Camera
But what makes Kingdom Hearts 2 so special to me? Why is this one game so important to me that I haven’t really played past it? For me, Kingdom Hearts 2 is a time capsule. In the bottom of my closet, a Kodak Digital Camera sits nestled in a black, velcro case. A faded sticker of Sora sits by the lens, and a Keyblade keychain rubbed free of the decal hangs off the strap.
Inside that Kodak is a 5MB SD card the size of my thumb. When it turns on, it shows a lush backyard covered in vines. Five stupid teenagers in poorly styled wigs sit in the foliage. The cosplays aren’t good. The eyeliner isn’t on point. Pictures of blanket forts where we would pass RP notebooks back and forth and images of us taking turns trying to fight Xemnas while surrounded by pizza take up all the space on that card.
I don’t get to talk to most of those people anymore, but I can still feel the sunlight on my skin from those photos. I still remember laughing as we smeared the makeup on our faces.
When I pick up a Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts 2 in 2024, I get to go back to 2008 for just a little bit, and memories trapped inside picture frames don’t feel so far away.
I can’t play the rest of the games, because the world I experienced Kingdom Hearts in doesn’t exist anymore, and the people who made it special are gone. It’s just another game, trying to live up to internet hype.
It Isn’t Perfect, And I Love It That Way
We all have a video game that holds nostalgia. Whether it was your first video game ever played, or one you related to at a specific time in your life, it holds a special meaning other gamers may not completely understand.
I am extremely grateful to Kingdom Hearts 2 for being what it was. It wasn’t perfect, but it was everything I needed. I can definitely say it is part of what made me a lifelong gamer. It got me into cosplay. It nurtured critical friendships throughout my life and gave me a home when there wasn’t one for me to go to.
For me, Kingdom Hearts 2 will always be where the story stops, and it will be cemented in my heart like a fuzzy 2000s music video on YouTube. Perfect, occasionally painful, and mine.
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