A Clearer Narrative
Ok, so we’re getting this one out of the way early.
If there’s one critique both fans and non-fans have about the Kingdom Hearts series, it’s how convoluted the story has become. Everything from clones and time travel to survivors of a world-ending war being kept in stasis via a virtual reality-thing have been tossed into the bubbling cauldron that is Kingdom Hearts’ story.
Admittedly, Kingdom Hearts 3 condensed a solid portion of this insanity into a cohesive story – save for the bits it left open to entice people into keeping up with future entries in the series – but as a whole, the franchise still feels like an unruly garden Tetsuya Nomura continues to let grow as it will, dropping story ideas in at random to see what happens.
Moving into the next entry, it would be a huge boon to fans and Nomura himself if the story tried to narrow and focus itself, if only just a bit. As fun as it is to throw things against a wall and see what sticks, carefully choosing what goes into the story could save fans the headache of trying to keep up with everything.
Plus, if done correctly, it could also save Nomura and his team the trouble of trying to find explanations for new story elements that don’t tie in that well to pre-established canon.
