khiethy:

Ten years ago on March 28th, 2002, a great series was born. Some people didn’t think it would work, finding it extremely strange to blend Final Fantasy characters into Disney movies, and others were drawn in because of how unique and unexpected it was. Even the people who made the game were unsure if there would even be a second one. When Kingdom Hearts released throughout the world, it captivated young children and adults alike with its wondrous story of a boy searching for his friends alongside iconic characters like Donald Duck and Goofy. Each character managed to worm their way into people’s hearts, especially Sora with his big yellow shoes and gravity-defying hair!

Fans have grown up with Kingdom Hearts, having laughed when Kairi called Sora a “lazy bum” when she found him sleeping on the beach, and got frustrated when they couldn’t win the race across the island against Riku. Everybody smiled when Sora, Donald, and Goofy promised to go look for their friends together, and when they stuck together even at the End of the World. Tears fell when Riku stayed on the other side of the Door to Darkness with Mickey Mouse in order to lock it, and when Sora promised to return to Kairi and their home world.

The games that followed Kingdom Hearts have each become memorable entries into the series. Nobody will ever forget in Chain of Memories when Sora promises to tell Naminé “thank you” when he wakes up after she fixes his memories, or when Sora and Riku finally make it home to Destiny Islands and Kairi in Kingdom Hearts II. Even all of the sorrow people felt in 358/2 Days when Xion slowly fades away in Roxas’ arms, in coded when Data Sora doesn’t remember anything about his journey in the Datascape, and when Aqua makes the decision be trapped in the Realm of Darkness in order to save Terra in Birth By Sleep are precious memories to fans.

Today we celebrate the success of the Kingdom Hearts series and hope for only more good things to come, especially with the release of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] tomorrow! In order to give you all the best experience, we will not be reporting about any game spoilers on our main site! You can still drop by our Spoilers sectionwhere any post-release story information, gameplay impressions, and videos will be kept!

Tetsuya Nomura, director of the Kingdom Hearts series, is also celebrating the anniversary and release of the new game with a few messages to the fans on the Official Kingdom Hearts Twitter!

“Today we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Kingdom Hearts! So far, It has become a long series thanks to the fans who support it, so thank you very much! Now, I hope you are still reading this. There are already festive tweets. I will do my best.

Finally, tomorrow will be the release of Kingdom Hearts 3D. It will be the masterpiece of the series. By all means, please play the game. The secret ending, by design, can be seen even by the best beginners.”