I could pretend I understand Square Enix’s action-RPG series Kingdom Hearts, but I don’t need to, ‘cos what I do understand is how popular it is. Until fairly recently the nearly 15-game-strong series, where Disney characters cross over with Final Fantasy and go to war alongside a child wielding a key (I said I don’t properly understand it), wasn’t on PC. After some games arrived on the Epic Games Store in 2021, Squeenix have confirmed that multiple Kingdom Hearts games are coming to Steam next month, on June 13th. Unlucky for some, maybe, but not Donald Duck and Goofy, two of the main characters. Long has Goofy been seen as just a joke character in the minds of people people who didn’t watch A Goofy Movie. Hopefully this brings his heroism to a wider audience.
The titles coming to Steam are Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind DLC, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you realise they’re compilations that each contain several games therein. You could also get the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece, a bundle containing all three. At this point making jokes about Kingdom Hearts’ naming conventions is about as tired as calling the actor who plays Dr. Strange “Englebort Cucumberthatch” or whatever, so I will just point you to Squeenix’s post about it, which has a pretty comprehensive breakdown of what is in which compliation.
To expand on my glib summary in the intro, Kingdom Hearts is actually about a young man with huge gloves called Sora, who becomes a hero in the first game when his homeland is almost consumed by a faction of evil goons called the Heartless. The Heartless are also encroaching on the Disney kingdom (ruled by King Mickey, obviously), and Donald Duck and Goofy are sent to find Sora. The series continues from there with many subplots involving Disney villains, new enemies, quests for special weapons, and so on. The popularity of the series, which plays quite like Final Fantasy, as I understand it, is in part because there are extremely dramatic scenes featuring love, loss, sacrifice, and so on, and, like, a cartoon duck without pants on is just there. Which, to be fair, is a good pitch.
Look out for Kingdom Hearts on Steam on June 13th