KH13 Giveaway: Share your fondest Kingdom Hearts Memory and enter for a chance to win a copy of Simple & Clean: Unlocking Kingdom Hearts

[WakelessDream 2,278]

What's your fondest Kingdom Hearts memory?

In collaboration with former KH13 staff member and author @Ajexmi_Arts (@Ajexmi)we're running a giveaway for a free copy of Simple & Clean: Unlocking Kingdom Hearts. Entering the giveaway is simple - all you have to do is reply to this article with your fondest Kingdom Hearts memory. After a week at 9 PM EST all entries will go into a lucky draw and one person will be randomly selected as the winner.

 

 

Prize Details

If you're the winner you will be contacted by one of our staff members to sort out redeeming your prize, a paperback copy of Simple and Clean: Unlocking Kingdom Hearts.

And that's everything! If you have any questions please ask below. Good luck!

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[junior 2]

my most precious memory is at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2, at the beginning with Roxas. I love that moment and I always come back to play those days.

[Dynamightkatz2 2]

I have been playing kh since it came out. Throughout the many years and many replays its hard to pinpoint a fond memory. If i had to it would be when kingdom hearts 2 came out. My mom got it for me as an Easter present and i knee she did so i begged her if i could play it early, just for a bit. She let me. I wound beating the game the day before easter. My mom not so pleased but she did rewrap the game and give it back to me. Also, I remember toting around my ps3 to play it at different houses. When the truth came out about roxas i was so sad for him. I went to softball practice and I remembered just standing on the field and just started crying over it. My team didnt get it, but it meant a lot to me. <3 

[CompletelyCleverName 2]

my fondest kh related memory has to be the first time i beat kh2! it was the summer back when i was 10 and older my brother was watching me play [and playing as riku during the final fight] and cheering me on. i watched the final cutscene for the first time, and we talked about how we'd play kh3 together when it came out. 

kh means so so much to me, it's always been a game that my older brother and i have bonded and connected over! 

[Synderfella 2]

There are so mamy fond memories all across the board. The one that sticks out the most is involving KH2. I remember being the 'responsible' teenager I was, I preordered it and failed to inform my mother that we needed to go pick it up [as in, she had no idea I had done so in the first place]. I was adamant to go get it, and she refused to bring me, [understandable since I did not communicate this]. My grandmother somehow got roped into making the drive so I could go finish paying for it at Gamestop and bring it home.

Fast forward to later that year, I moved out of my mother's home temporarily since we were not getting along [things were rough at the time when I came out] and I moved in with my grandmother for a while. I remember playing the game a lot to cope with everything happening, and I was living there when I had finally beaten the game. She is no longer alive, but every time I play it, I have special memories of her during a rough time in my life.

 

[Kristi 2]

Kingdom Hearts has been a constant comfort in my life; my twin and I have been playing together since we were little. One of my fondest memories was finally completing the first game with her, and seeing Sora and Riku work together to close the door was an emotional moment for us, and then again when Sora made his promise to Kairi to come back. As the years went on, and Sora kept his promise to come back, my sister became more connected to Riku and I to Sora, so their development throughout the series as friends is something that resonates within us, and that moment has a special place in my heart with every replay. ♥ 

[Hauntr 2]

I remember when I was a kid, I played Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 (the TV commercial for the game was the main reason I even wanted a PS2!). I loved the intro so much, but you could only watch it of you were starting a new game. So sometimes before playing the game, just for fun, I'd pull out the memory card and start it up just so I could watch the intro and listen to Simple and Clean. Then I'd play the game. I wouldn't give up that memory for the world.

[Angelicshadow16 2]

Kingdom hearts itself is a memory for me. I played it during some hard times in my life and the idea of getting to play the game always made the struggles worth it. 

My favorite memory is using "Simple and Clean" to help ease my anxiety. Anytime I had an anxiety attack I just sang "regardless of warning the future doesn't scare me at all" and it helped ease my nerves.

[Allwil13 754]

Not exactly a memory of the games themselves, but Kingdom Hearts was the one big thing my mom and I had in common. After i got the first game for Christmas in 2002, my mom started her own file and we were quickly sharing theories and discussing our favourite moments.

As I got older, we drifted apart. I won't go into detail on that here, but even though she wasn't interested in any of the games that came after it, the original entry in the series was always our big connection.

She passed away a few years ago, but ever since then I have played through the first game around her birthday in honour of her memory and that bond we shared.

[Cristipr 2]

My favorite memory of kingdom hearts was back in the year 2005 when I was in the fifth grade. My best friend at the time who is still my best friend today introduced me to kingdom hearts and said that I resembled Kairi and that she was Sora. We would watch clips of the game during class on the computer and I fell in love with the opening cut scenes of kingdom hearts one. I remember being so entranced with what I was watching and I absolutely adored Destiny Islands and the friendship that that Sora,  Riku and Kairi shared.

Eventually everyone in our class wanted to be a character from the game. We would role-play as the characters during recess and even during class we would write our character names on our assigned papers. Our teacher didn’t really care. She probably thought we were just very imaginative kids haha. 

Still to this day we still call each other by our kingdom hearts nicknames and have a strong passion for the franchise.

[Rooney 2]

I actually got into KH by playing number 2 first. I remember, I got so frustrated by 1 boss fight, the constant calls of "Dance Water Dance" before I died that I stopped playing the game made me stop playing for about 5 months. After my 14th birthday, I picked it up again and beat that boss first try and it was probably my happiest moment so far.

Then my memory card got corrupted and I had to save up, get a new card and play it all over again! I never took a break again though, I played that game all the way through and it was, and still is, my favorite game of all time

[PseudoFanboy 3]

I think for me it might have been finishing KH2 for the first time.
It came at a time when I was just beginning to learn appreciation for story and emotional narrative in media, and looking back the series might have even been one of the first things I engaged with on that level.

The transition between actively playing a video game (fighting Xemnas) and watching a story cutscene took its time 'getting to the point' enough that I was settled into the experience to actually experience it when the events of the ending really started to compile in emotional meaning - Sora and Riku burying their rivalry hatchet, Kairi's letter that bookended the beginning of the game (another early instance of learning a narrative tool to evoke meaning and emotion), finding their way back to light and the ocean, I guess - and then hearing Kairi call out to them. That moment. That moment where I realised where they were, and the cut to Destiny Islands as a new arrangement of the opening song started playing - instantly recognizable but completely different in tone - another, arguably the strongest bookend to an experience.

As I'm typing this I'm getting emotional - after all these years, the emotional flow of the scene is baked into my mind not just because I love the story and the characters' happy ending, but because of how effectively it worked on me. It's difficult for media to "make" the audience think or feel anything at all, you need to structure it to guide and almost trick them into experiencing it 'right'.
The comedy of Donald and Goofy's sprinting in is there but not only isn't funny enough to take you out of the heartwarming emotion - which the music helps immensely to keep with - but along with some other beats like Mickey and Riku's hug they let you acclimatise to the feeling of the reunion long enough that the Wayfinder moment - again, along with timing it to the song's segment transition - really drives and delivers it with compounded magnitude. It's a callback I'd almost forgotten about, a promise fulfilled after so much time and struggle. Roxas and Namine briefly appear to fulfill theirs. Sora and Kairi find that they're finally home and clasp hands as they cut to credits on the note the chorus kicks in.
It's a scene that uses everything it has and needs with a timing and pacing that works with the emotional journey of the audience to guide it through the right ups and downs to feel something about it.

I'm not saying it's the best (or most effective) scene ever put to screen, but it's important to me. I grew up to be an (amateur) playwright and actor and dissecting stories became what I do, and one of the first experiences I can remember being so affected and carried by the choices made in developing a piece of media is this ending sequence. It's something I genuinely keep thinking about when I consider emotional beats.
It's really hard to get right because audiences - people - are too different and unreliably invested in journeys to cater an experience for. No matter what you do, you can't reach everyone with art and you can't make everyone feel the way you need them to feel to.
That's why I feel so lucky and grateful that this scene did to me. I feel it every time. I cry about it every time, it's almost embarrassing. Kingdom Hearts isn't for everyone - but it's for me. This scene was for me.
I love feeling things so much.

 

[Amaari B. James 0]

My fondest Kingdom Hearts memory is when Sora,Riku and Kairi are on Destiny's Islands hanging out and talking about traveling the world together

 

[SunGuardian524 2]

I think 1 of my many fondest memories of KH would be every year in high school, a week before school would start, I would replay a day of KH2's beginning. When Roxas' summer vacation ended, so did mine.

[SaberSomnus 2]

While I could write an essay on why I love the series and what it means to me, instead I'm gonna focus on a few specific memories that really stand out.

My first experience with the series was watching my older cousin play kh1. I was completely enthralled by all the characters and flashy gameplay and so I begged my mom to buy me a copy. We weren't able to afford much at the time so I had to go to my faithful video rental store and rent a copy for myself. Of course I wasn't able to finish the game in a few days since I was 6 or 7 so I had to wait months until my birthday before I had my own copy. Once my birthday rolled around, I still wasn't able to get it but my cousin gave me his copy (we played the entire day trying to do everything). Whenever I think of kh1 it brings me back to those warm summer days spent with my cousin. After that point, I was hooked. We didn't have internet or anything like that at my home for years and so anytime I was around a computer l, I was watching kh videos. Whether it was the openings, soundtracks, or the classic "kh3 trailers with box art", I watched it all.

I also remember the first time I went to the beach and decided to make it a tradition to stand in the waves listening to dearly beloved (which I still do to this day haha). Another tradition I had during my time in school was playing through the kh2 prologue 7 days before school starting. I would play each day in real life and the game up until my "summer vacation was over".

As I was writing this, more and more memories kept resurfacing. Long story short, I love this series beyond explanation and it provides me with so much nostalgia of happier days when everything was simple and clean. Thanks for reading.

[parkerjames02 2]

I love the entire series of Kingdom Hearts as a whole and throughout the entire series there have been moments that make me feel overwhelmed with happiness, moments that would make my heart ache with sadness, and moments that would shock me and fill me with so much intrigue. Despite my desire to list off all of the different amazing moments of Kingdom Hearts I will say that my one most fond memory of Kingdom Hearts would be the very end of my 100% playthrough of Kingdom Hearts 1 when I was collecting synthesis items to make the ultimate weapon and defeating waves of heartless to hit level 100 while listening to a playlist of different Kingdom Hearts original tracks, remixes, and covers. When I had first started Kingdom Hearts 1 I didn't really hate it but I also didn't consider it to be my favorite game and by the time I had reached this moment I had absolutely fallen in love with the game a thousand times over. To this day Kingdom Hearts 1 is still my favorite game of all time and I honestly don't think anything will ever top it. I'm so happy that I had decided to play through this series because it brought me so much joy.

[Baldramuh 1]

The defining memory I hold for the series was when I returned to Twilight Town in Kingdom Hearts 3. The world holds a very significant place in my heart to me and a friend of mine that I met by what now feels like a miracle.

Around the time of 1.5's release I was an avid Tumblr user and commented on another user's profile pic. That user and I got to talking about KH, really hit it off, and we became wonderful friends. What's wild about the encounter is how I, from the United States, became acquaintances with someone all the way from Libya. It blew my mind and still does!

We always loved talking about 358/2 days, twilight town, and any offshoot facets of the KH franchise involving either subject. It was a dream to reminisce about living there and interacting with the town and everyone in it. Climb the tall brick hills, appreciate the architecture, eat that delicious sea salt ice cream, sit at the clock tower, and watch the sunset; we wanted all of it.

Fast forward 7 years and we're still the best of friends. We had gone and done so much in that time. However, Kingdom Hearts 3 is where we found each other crossing roads again. It truly felt like we had waited our whole lives for it's release. We knew there would be some seriously heavy emotions going into this final saga, but we weren't ready for something seemingly trivial like we experienced.

When I got to Twilight Town in KH3, the borders of my heart and mind dissipated entirely. This place that was so dear to me and my friend was more real than it had ever been in that moment. Sunlight was peeking over the walls and through the brick structures, people in the streets were having fun and had joy in their hearts, the town's theme played as proudly as it had ever been conducted, and that clock tower still stood tall as it did the first day I saw it. I felt closer than ever to a friend that I never had the chance to meet in real life. It was a moment that I'll never forget.

Eventually I got to meet this friend on a long brick hill just like the one we dreamt about, and that, without a doubt in my mind, is what destiny must feel like.

[ocean's rage 772]

fondest memory? that is a tricky one. i suppose the entire experience of playing KH2 for the first time is up there. even though we'd only gotten 1 two years before hand it really felt like we had been waiting so long for it. and it was worth the wait. a great line up of worlds, awesome boss fights and it gave us one of the best boss fights in the world with "the encounter". it was one of the few times i replayed a game right after finishing it with out the incentive of a new game plus.

[Viper017 2]

My most precious memory from Kingdom Hearts is always the last level of Kingdom Hearts 2 in the World that Never Was. Just that big climatic race to Xemnas with all the reaction commands make it feel very epic. Always got me hyped. 

[KH-Novel-Fan 2]

My most fondest memory from kingdom hearts, would have to be right after I did the final fight with Ansem in the first kingdom hearts, after a frustrating fight of dying over and over again which sent me back to the start again. Eventually the battle ended with me letting Donald and Goofy doing most of the damage and me waiting for an opening to finally finish the fight. After the fight I remember just having this massive wave of relieve over me and when I was watching the final cutscene, I just remembered crying at the scene in which Kairi was looking at the drawings of her and Sora with simple and clean playing in the background. Just such an amazing way the game was able to make you feel so tense a moment before and then emotional the next. Especially with the ending just playing simple and clean just shows how much Kairi and Sora want things to be in their lives. 

[SamiFire 1]

KH was my biggest memories I could ever have.

my first play KH was in 2012 (I was only 11 years old) every time I went to my cousin house, he always show me new game for me to play and I love it so much. Then my cousin decide to shared me KH game. I never knew the game. As Disney castle scene came. Donald Duck walk to giant door who turn out to be small door! We laugh loud together. I was so keen to watch whole story (so I sneak in YouTube and watch rest… sry) (bc I don’t have any PS where my cousin does) once I finally got PS4 and I found remix of 1.5 n 2.5. I can finally play myself at home. However I always shared my cousin what happen and what should I do if I got lost.

another stupid part. When I play KH2 in critical mode. From the very beginning, just before first boss, I turn all the ability on and play alone untill I realise I wasn’t level up. I check my ability and found out I turn ‘no exp’ on. I was speechless and went chat with my cousin. He laugh then cheer me to go for lvl 1. So I did! I in love playing crazy critical mode with lvl one!

it been such a lovely memories and I would never forget KH and my cousin. (We still shared game ) 

[Hoshiko Hikari 300]

There's so many moments to choose from but I'll go with a rather unusual one where I wasn't even playing the games at the time. Back when I first played KH1 (the original PS2 version) I used to get really annoyed with how Riku and everyone else on the Island thought he was better than Sora (and in turn myself since I was controlling Sora). Then with everything that happened during KH1 I disliked Riku even more as he tried to take everything away from Sora. But at the end of the game, of course, he helps Sora to close the door and says the famous words, "Take care of her," before trapping himself in the Realm of Darkness, which led me to be rather uncertain as to how I actually felt towards him afterwards because I'd spent the whole game being irked by him and then suddenly he does that.

Fast forward a few years and KH2 has just come out in Japan. I found myself watching a KH Youtube music video which unexpectedly included part of the scene from the KH2 ending where Sora and Riku return to the Destiny Islands together. Usually I hate spoilers but I was so happy to see that Riku comes home safely together with Sora that I was literally bouncing up and down with a stupid grin on my face whilst the rest of my family thought I was really weird. It wasn't until that moment that I realised I did actually care about Riku after all and he's now my favourite character!

[Letter 2]

My fondest memory from Kingdom Heart is from 358/2 Days. It was winter break and I was playing the game for the first time curled up beside a bed with my dog stuck into the room. There's a scene early on in the game where Roxas is telling Axel and Xion that he wishes the moments he has with them could last forever, and Axel tells him that nothing can last forever. At the same time, Axel assured the two that it was okay for things to change, and that conversation really stuck with my tiny teenage self. I was always the kind of person that struggled with accepting change, and it was the first time young me had ever seen change and endings discussed in a way that accepted how they could be sad but it was okay. It was reassuring at the time, and even today I still think about it.

The themes in days are by far my favorite in the series.

[Brettt 0]

It all started when I was a little kid when Kingdomhearts first came out, My brother and I who is about 11 years older than I he always got a lot more stuff for Christmas and special occasions then I did because I was only so young about 5/4 years old. But one day my brother has ended up getting prince of Persia and some other games along with a new gaming chair while my dad had found for me Kingdomhearts I didn't know if I liked it at all really I thought it was odd, Seeing a spikey haired boy with a key sword and some Disney characters eventually it dragged me in seeing my other favorites from final fantasy series like cloud and squall recognizing them if it weren't for my brother playing them all the time I would have been so lost and I had a good intuition on the story of the game because of me seeing all of these Disney films already as well. But then on from there I knew I love Kingdomhearts everything about it got me Into speed running it to reading books to getting merch for it and so on. But the following year after I had gotten it my father had passed away from well his own hands. It was a dark place for me I was really into boxing while young but when ever I was really down Kingdomhearts always taught me such a great and valuable lesson. And what that may be I honestly would say is be there for everyone that's in your heart love and appreciate the moments you have with people because one day it could all be lost you'll never understand how hard things are till it's to late and that can drag you down into the deepest darkness. Not a cringe formated rant, but truly it does inspire you to look at the things you have around you as a greater deal then to believe at face value. I thank everyone who has made this game the friends I've made because of it and how it's given me a leg up. To be more optimistic about situations rather than to be face down at the ground in the hardest of times. Once it came to the series and how sora has lost his friends many of times and had the multiverse at sake and he's the only one to save it when he's able to get up from that it's very leadership like to take charge and go for the things you love no matter what. Don't ever give up.

[unicornsforall 0]

I was 13 when Kingdom Hearts II came out, it was my introduction to the franchise. My fondest memory (out of many) would probably be the day I first played the game.

In Christmas 2006, I received Kingdom Hearts II as a present. I already knew I was getting it, I had asked for it months earlier. I had seen the game at the back of a videogame store in town, and knew nothing about Kingdom Hearts. The only reason I was interested at the time was because there was a tiny screenshot of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch in a cutscene on the back. Stitch was my favourite Disney character, but I honestly didn't know what to expect.

The first time I booted the game up on my PS2 my sister was sat next to me, wanting to see what this game was all about. I didn't play many RPGs at that point, most of my experience was with Pokemon. I wasn't a huge gamer. That one day in Christmas 2006 changed everything, I played it for 10 hours straight. At the start in Twilight Town, when they've lost the word _____, I thought it would be some kind of strange educational find-the-word game. After completing Roxas's story, I thought the game was over and couldn't believe I'd finished it so quickly. But then it just kept going, and it felt like my world was opening up in front of me. I have never played a game with so much story depth. I got all the way to Olympus Coliseum before it was time for bed. And I completely forgot that I wanted the game just because of a Stitch cameo.

I think this is my favourite memory because it sparked the start of who I would become. I don't remember my other presents from that day, I don't remember the food. But I remember Kingdom Hearts II so vividly. It had such a huge impact on the person I am now, that almost every facet of my values and interests trace back to that day. Even now I know I can put on Kingdom Hearts II especially if I want that cosy feeling. I still have my original copy from Christmas 2006. It feels like coming home.