Kingdom Hearts recently finished its first major story arc. The Xehanort Saga has been going on since the beginning of the series, even before Xehanort was introduced. Ever since then, many additional story elements have been introduced to build the saga into the interdimensional epic, culminating in Kingdom Hearts 3 going beyond the bounds of reality itself. The fanbase is still basking in the afterglow of all its revelations and plot twists, with Melody of Memory and Kingdom Hearts Union Cross helping to tide them over until the next big entry. For lore keepers of the franchise, it has never been a better time to be a Kingdom Hearts fan.
But for everyone else, it's never been harder to get into Kingdom Hearts. A major issue KH's narrative runs into is an overabundance of important nouns. Sometimes these nouns, such as Kingdom Hearts itself, refer to more than one thing or person. With many side plots having been built up over the years, there is a lot of data that someone needs to know to get the optimal story experience out of Kingdom Hearts. That's why now is a perfect time for a fresh start going into Kingdom Hearts 4. Square Enix should look to its competitor Atlus for storytelling inspiration, as a Persona-like approach would benefit the series greatly.
RELATED: Why You Should Play Neo: TWEWY Before Any New Kingdom Hearts Game Releases
One of Persona's greatest strengths is that it segregates its games into self-contained stories. While the Persona games do share a continuity, they do not have much overlap and mainly share concepts and gameplay. Each game is marketed to look different, and is told with a different framing device. A good example is how Persona 4 is about a detective club, while Persona 5 is about a gang of Phantom Thieves. In this way, the Persona games all stand out from one another, and new fans are able to enjoy the story of any given game without playing the others.
Kingdom Hearts couldn't be more different. The series is known for building its newest story on the combined plots of every game that came before. While there are technically side games, there are no spin-offs. The story of every game is accounted for when proceeding to the next, which can make the original Kingdom Hearts feel odd and disconnected. This has the unfortunate effect of keeping newcomers away from the series and forcing them to either do research online or play most of the games themselves. There are game collections that help them accomplish this, and Kingdom Hearts 4 is long enough away that it can be done, but it really shouldn't be like this in the first place.
Now that the series is moving on to Kingdom Hearts 4, or whatever the next major Kingdom Hearts is called, there is a chance to begin anew. The story should make use of the new setting of Quadratum to introduce elements and let them stand on their own. The story of Sora and Riku will have to conclude eventually, and Yozora has implied that he knows Sora somehow, but that plot thread can wait. Yozora and his own friends can be given their own problems to deal with, separate or related to the Foretellers, who could be taken in many directions.
This new style of storytelling should not end with the next game. Even if the various upcoming Kingdom Hearts games need to jump around the multiverse to different parties of characters, every individual story should make an effort to stand on its own. Not every plot point needs to build on top of the rest every time. This will help the series draw in new fans, and could even provide the first good starting point the series has had since Kingdom Hearts 1. Anything that Kingdom Hearts can do to stop being confusing for newcomers should be a priority.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.