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113-468: Kingdom Hearts Coded is an episodic action role-playing puzzle video game developed and published by Square Enix , in collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios , for mobile phones . Coded was a Japan-only release announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show . Its Nintendo DS remake titled Kingdom Hearts Re:coded was released in Japan, North America, Europe, and Australia. A cinematic remake of

226-460: A Kingdom Hearts spin-off for mobile phones that would have a different gameplay style than previous titles and allow players to explore the game like a playground. The game was originally released in eight parts and one preview to mobile phone gamers from June 2009 to January 2010. To reach a wider audience, it was remade for the Nintendo DS and released internationally. Kingdom Hearts coded

339-723: A job in Final Fantasy . Like the Emblem Heartless, the Nobodies have an insignia—an upside-down, incomplete heart—which was designed to resemble a splintered heart as a complement to the Heartless emblem. Upon being defeated, a Nobody fades into a state of non-existence until its Heartless counterpart is destroyed with the captive heart released, recreating the original being. Within the series, two Nobodies, Roxas and Naminé are considered "special cases" regarding

452-401: A "delightful mixture of two enchanted worlds". Video game critics of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories expressed disappointment at the limited number of new worlds to explore in the game. 1UP.com 's Bryan Intihar lauded Kingdom Hearts II ' s environment, calling it appealing and stating it was an improvement over the first title's. He described the level designs as "impeccable", citing

565-539: A Birth by Sleep -- but as an appetizer for better things to come (like the forthcoming 3DS game), it will suffice." VentureBeat reviewed the HD 2.5 Remix , and called the Re:coded part of the game collection as a long and not particularly interesting retread of plot points from the original Kingdom Hearts , further complicated by elements added from other games and containing many complex subplots. Game Revolution called

678-582: A Nobody, Ansem seeks out the Door to Darkness to gain access to an artificial Kingdom Hearts created from the hearts of worlds, while Xemnas seeks to create his own artificial Kingdom Hearts from the hearts of people. These artificial constructs, however, are only small-scale versions of the "true" Kingdom Hearts, which can only be accessed with its counterpart, the χ-blade. Each Kingdom Hearts takes different shapes depending on from which hearts they are created. The first game's Kingdom Hearts, artificially created from

791-399: A digital Sora to enter and repair the journal so that the meaning of the hidden messages can be deciphered. The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising the graphics and gameplay variety, but panning the story, camera and controls. Kingdom Hearts coded is a puzzle game with action elements mixed into the gameplay, which is similar to the action-RPG style of the previous titles in

904-402: A four-part 2019 entry . As of 2024, Deltarune is being released in an episodic format. The first two chapters of the game are available together as a free demo , and the third and fourth chapters have been announced as releasing in a paid bundle. The game's menu implies there will be seven chapters, however Toby Fox has only officially confirmed the first five. Since episodic gaming

1017-553: A full remake. Two additional hours of cinematics were created for the game to cover the entire story and show the game's connections to other Kingdom Hearts titles. The collection features the game as HD cinematics, much like 358/2 Days was in the HD 1.5 Remix collection. The collection also includes both Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix in HD and with added trophy support. Additional events occur in

1130-424: A line he does not remember writing: "We must return to free them from their torment." King Mickey digitizes the contents of the journal to investigate this message, only to find the datascape has been corrupted with bugs , which take the form of red-and-black blocks and Heartless. Mickey creates a virtual Sora named "Data-Sora" to guide him through the datascape's multiple worlds and debug the journal by destroying

1243-496: A lot of originality. We want variety... so we don't want too many of one sort of world, that would look the same. For each world there has to be some meaning for it, in the plot... Also, gameplay-wise, is that world something that would make gameplay fun?" The game does not feature any worlds based on Final Fantasy . In addition to the Gummi Ship mini-game , mini-games feature prominently in certain worlds. While Atlantica

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1356-500: A means through his former apprentice Ventus and his personified darkness Vanitas , who Xehanort created and enlisted to ensure his plans succeeded. Though Ventus and Vanitas fuse back into one being with the χ-blade in hand, the unstable χ-blade explodes due to Vanitas' destruction within Ventus. Dream Drop Distance reveals that, as a contingency to his previous plan, Xehanort arranged the formation of his thirteen "Seekers of Darkness",

1469-594: A new program. Nomura had wanted to include a world based on The Lion King in the first game, but was unable to since the engine could not process quadrupedal character models properly, a feature included in Kingdom Hearts II . Birth by Sleep introduced several new Disney-based worlds to the series: Castle of Dreams , Enchanted Dominion , Dwarf Woodlands and Deep Space . Dream Drop Distance included more new Disney worlds, such as La Cité des Cloches , The Grid , Prankster's Paradise , Country of

1582-473: A new secret movie and a few hints about the then-unreleased Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance . Gameplay elements from other titles in the series were also used, including the leveling system from 358/2 Days , and the random encounter system from Kingdom Hearts Mobile . The game was released in Japan on October 7, 2010, in North America on January 11, 2011 and Europe on January 14, 2011. In

1695-540: A remake. At first, Nomura asked for an "as is" recreation of the original game, and when the game cartridge was still not full, he asked for a full 3D remake. Development took almost a year, and h.a.n.d. told Nomura that the task was "nearly impossible". The scale of the game grew so large that the Square Enix team in Osaka that had worked on Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep was brought in to assist. The lower screen of

1808-471: A result of in-game events, while others can be obtained by completing mini-games. A driving element in the first game is the ability to seal the "heart" of a world by locking the keyhole to the door leading to it, preventing it from being destroyed by Heartless. In Kingdom Hearts II , the player uses the Keyblade to unlock pathways between worlds that were closed after the events of the first game. While Sora

1921-504: A strong will. However, in worlds closer to darkness, the Heartless are more powerful and uncontrollable. They invade worlds through corridors of darkness, which are unpredictable pathways that interlink the worlds. When Heartless are created, the body and soul of those with strong hearts that have lost their hearts to darkness become another type of creature called a Nobody ( ノーバディ , Nōbadi ) . As they lack hearts possessing light and darkness, they are "nothing", yet still exist within

2034-525: A surprise. He praised the level designs, commenting that many familiar elements from the Disney films were integrated into them. Marriott further stated that though the stages were small, interacting with beloved characters and exploring familiar settings were enjoyable aspects. Maura Sutton of Computer and Video Games attributed the Disney elements as a major factor in creating the game's "astounding worlds". She summarized her review by calling Kingdom Hearts

2147-621: A trailer was shown in a photo-prohibited theater. New trailers were shown at the 2008 Jump Festa in December 2007 and the DKΣ3713 Private party in August 2008. Playable demonstrations, as well as new trailers, were available at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show in October 2008 and the 2009 Jump Festa in December 2008. Early trailers highlighted coded ' s gameplay, while later ones focused more on

2260-491: A type of Dream Eater called Chirithy appears in Kingdom Hearts χ and Kingdom Hearts III as NPCs. Keyblades ( キーブレード , Kīburēdo ) are key -shaped melee weapons created to combat darkness and are the only thing that can free hearts from a Heartless form, thus allowing the restoration of complete beings. Keyblades are also capable of locking and unlocking doors and keyholes. Initially, Keyblades were crafted in

2373-431: A virtual Roxas to endure the pain of forgetting his friends. Sora defeats Roxas and is allowed access to the deepest portion of the data. There he and Mickey encounter a virtual Naminé, who reveals the real Naminé was the one who left the message after discovering a set of memories relating to people tied to the real Sora's heart—herself, Roxas , Axel , Xion , Terra , Aqua , and Ventus —while restoring his lost memories;

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2486-399: A world based on The Jungle Book was considered for the first game, but was omitted because it was similar to Deep Jungle from Tarzan . They also took into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting. For example, Nomura chose to include a Mulan world for its unique atmosphere. The Tron world's design was meant to emulate an old computer game in the style of

2599-640: Is a decent game for Kingdom Hearts fans and will keep them entertained until Dream Drop Distance comes out". 1Up.com 's Joe Leonard said that "While Re:coded never does anything that's particularly groundbreaking, it does what it sets out to do very well and adds some fun and interesting twists on the standard formula." Jamin Smith of VideoGamer.com said, "While this latest Kingdom Hearts has its fair share of problems, long-term fans shouldn't find it too hard to forgive and forget. "Kat Bailey of G4tv stated "It's obviously no Kingdom Hearts III -- it's not even

2712-399: Is an add-on to an original, non-episodic product however; something of a lower order. In an episodic series there is no dominant '"first" game': each installment, although perhaps of the same length and price point as an expansion, is a main event that drives the core experience forward. This particular aspect of this type of game underpins the developer focus on the game's story. In terms of

2825-503: Is an ordinary world in Kingdom Hearts , albeit with a unique "underwater" control scheme, it becomes an interactive rhythm game in Kingdom Hearts II which is unrelated to the overall story and serves as filler. Space Paranoids features a Light Cycle mini-game that strongly deviates from the original film, which Nomura included because he knew people associated the Light Cycles with Tron . The worlds created specifically for

2938-479: Is mostly driven through linear storytelling, outside of story-driven single player games, it is mostly found in MMOGs . Much as they worked for offline games, expansion packs have often been sold to increase available content to MMOG players by adding additional worlds to explore and additional gameplay features, such as new weapons and characters. As the term relates to this genre, episodes are typically contrasted to

3051-553: Is normally not possible, and they are protected from extraterrestrial interference by an invisible shell. When the heart of a world is opened, the shell breaks apart, appearing as a meteor shower. Fragments from the wall are called "Gummi blocks" and are used to make spaceships called "Gummi Ships", which can be shaped into any structure, and the origin of the material used to build them allows travel to other worlds. Gummi blocks serve different functions, from navigation to offense and defense. Other methods to travel between worlds are

3164-748: Is one of the heaviest supporters of episodic gaming thus far, as well as its successor, AdHoc Studio , after its closure. Their game Bone is an adventure title that literally adapts chapters from Jeff Smith 's Bone comic book saga into game episodes on a periodic basis, with two episodes having been released. Telltale's Sam & Max Save the World was their first fully completed episodic series, followed by Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse . Other series based on various other franchises include Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People , Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures , Tales of Monkey Island , Back to

3277-494: Is subsequently destroyed within Ventus's subconscious, but are temporarily restored following his return during the events of Kingdom Hearts III . Kingdom Hearts Coded includes software bugs , referred to in-game as Bug Blox ( バグブロックス , Bagu Burokkusu ) or simply "Bugs", who serve as the game's main antagonistic force. To investigate a message hidden in Jiminy Cricket 's journal that Naminé left, King Mickey has

3390-459: Is the Guild Wars series developed by ArenaNet . The company's business model involves releasing new, independent chapters for the game on a six-month basis. Since Guild Wars does not charge a monthly fee, and there is no requirement to own the newer chapters, it is one of the few games entirely reliant on the episodic games model to continue its service. To this end, Guild Wars Factions

3503-520: Is the fourth installment in the Kingdom Hearts series and is set after Kingdom Hearts II . Jiminy Cricket 's journal, chronicling Sora 's fight against the Heartless and Organization XIII , is found to have two secret messages written by persons unknown, and after the journal is digitized for further analysis, the contents become corrupted. This leads King Mickey and his friends to make

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3616-417: Is the only one who uses the Keyblade in the first game, later games reveal more characters who wield Keyblades. In Birth by Sleep , Keyblades can be transformed into hovercraft called Keyblade Gliders, which can be used to travel from world to world, making Keyblade wielders the only people with the means of transportation between worlds before Gummi Ships are used. The "gates" Sora would open later are known as

3729-574: The D.I.C.E. Summit on the subject. His "Three Laws of Episodics" lay out rules by which GameTap determines whether a title is episodic or not, and rules out Bone and Half-Life 2 Episodes due to the unknown duration of time between episodes. Dimps and Sonic Team created the episodic video game, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for various formats, the first episode of which was released in October 2010, with Episode 2 released in May 2012. A third episode

3842-695: The Genie appear in Agrabah from Aladdin . The game worlds consist of interconnected field maps where battles and plot-related events occur. Players travel between worlds in different ways in each game, such as the "Gummi Ship" in the original Kingdom Hearts , "Keyblade glider" in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep , "Corridors of Darkness" in 358/2 Days , and "Sleeping Keyholes" in Dream Drop Distance . Worlds created specifically for

3955-421: The Kingdom Hearts series, acting as forces of darkness who seek to consume more hearts, including those of worlds. Their name derives from their lack of a heart, despite originating from people's hearts after darkness consumes them. Initially, the Heartless existed within an all-encompassing variety, the "Pureblood", and, prior to the events of the first Kingdom Hearts, they were typically only encountered in

4068-513: The Kingdom Hearts universe. Despite this, Nobodies can gain new hearts of their own over time, separate from their original selves. Nobodies typically assume malformed, inhuman shapes, but the members of Organization XIII keep their human forms because they possessed strong hearts as humans and thus remember their original self. Most members of the Organization control one type of Nobody suited to their fighting style, each corresponding to

4181-428: The "corridors of darkness" and the "lanes between"—interdimensional pathways through which frequent travel eventually erodes unprotected users' hearts with darkness. Heartless and Nobodies normally use these paths, but other characters have used them, including Riku and Mickey Mouse. Those who travel between worlds are advised to limit their interactions with their inhabitants to avoid causing chaos. For this reason,

4294-477: The "game-isodes" that the company has developed include The DinoHunters , which documents a group of off-key time travelers hunting dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, and the controversial Kuma\War , which focuses on recent military action in the world, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently, Kuma Games produced a series mirroring The History Channel's Shootout! series. The games created were modeled on

4407-409: The 1982 film. Nomura got the idea to include this world after seeing a Disney employee working on Tron 2.0 . He hoped that the fact that it was so different from the other worlds would make it enjoyable to players. The Heartless ( ハートレス , Hātoresu ) are creatures born from the darkness of people's hearts, and lack a body or soul. They are the most common type of enemy the player encounters in

4520-549: The Future: The Game and The Walking Dead . Minerva is a single-player modification that has adopted an episodic development structure. It is one of the first mods to do so for Valve's Half-Life 2 . Turner Broadcasting 's GameTap has made large investments in episodic game development. The online game service's first episodic game, Sam & Max , was co-published with Telltale Games . Each episode premiered on GameTap 14 days before becoming available on

4633-424: The Keyblade is used to defeat the Heartless, the stolen hearts go to the realm of darkness and turn into Heartless again. This, combined with Maleficent's quest to gather the seven Princesses of Heart by using the forces of darkness, make the Heartless a common sight within the realm of light by the time of the first Kingdom Hearts . Ordinarily, the Heartless are mindless and function on instinct, but obey those with

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4746-442: The Keyblade, and after the restoration of Beast's Castle, he becomes a pawn in the plot of Organization XIII during Kingdom Hearts II . During the development of Kingdom Hearts II , Nomura had more creative freedom due to advances in technology, which Port Royal/The Caribbean , Space Paranoids , and Pride Lands benefited from. In Port Royal and Space Paranoids, the character models were generated from live-action pictures using

4859-531: The Lanes Between, which can be accessed by any Keyblade wielder. The χ-blade ( χブレード , Kīburēdo , pronounced the same as "Keyblade") is an ancient weapon of unknown origin introduced in Birth by Sleep that is capable of directly unlocking Kingdom Hearts. It is a double-handed weapon that takes the shape of two "Kingdom Key" Keyblades that intersect in an "X" shape, with additional features that give it

4972-464: The Musketeers , and Symphony of Sorcery . Kingdom Hearts III introduces more worlds, such as Kingdom of Corona , San Fransokyo , Toy Box , Monstropolis , and Arendelle . When questioned on the possibility of including worlds based on Disney-purchased properties such as Pixar , Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm , co-director Tai Yasue said, "We have to come up with a world that has

5085-498: The Nintendo DS was used for the gameplay panel like Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days . The gameplay mechanics of the game were completely changed from the original: the lack of an analogue control stick on the Nintendo DS was a "challenge" according to Nomura, leading to a more simplified combat system and mechanics that borrowed from Birth by Sleep . The story of the remake did not change, although more scenes were added, including

5198-424: The Organization's other restored members he should take with them. Kingdom Hearts coded consists of eight episodes, released monthly between June 2009 and January 2010, as well as a preview episode released November 2008. In mid-2007, Nomura mentioned a desire to create a spin-off Kingdom Hearts game on a mobile platform and wanted it to play slightly different than other titles in the series. The game's concept

5311-622: The Telltale Games web site. GameTap's second foray into episodic games was monthly content deliveries for Myst Online: Uru Live an online massive multiplayer game by Cyan Worlds . In February, GameTap announced a third episodic game, Galactic Command: Echo Squad , developed in conjunction with 3000AD . Their most recently announced game, the 24 episode American McGee's Grimm , was announced in May 2007 for an early 2008 launch. GameTap's VP of content, Ricardo Sanchez, has written for sites like Gamasutra and GameDaily and presented at

5424-405: The appearance of boss-level Heartless that Sora had defeated in Kingdom Hearts . Villains and boss-level Heartless make use of the bugs to assist them in fighting Data-Sora. It is later revealed that the recording of Sora's Heartless had gained sentience and is responsible for the journal being blank even after Sora's memories were restored, because the book revolved around him. It seeks to devour

5537-537: The battles featured in the TV show, adding another level of media depth to episodic gaming in general. From 1994  ( 1994 ) to 2000  ( 2000 ) , the world's first digital satellite radio broadcaster, St.GIGA , transmitted episodic video games with voice acted overdubs (a technique called SoundLink ), to be played in Japan on partner Nintendo 's Super Famicom video game console with its Satellaview peripheral. The first SoundLink title, BS Zelda no Densetsu ,

5650-541: The beginning of the Kroz series , a seven-part series of games featuring similar text-based graphics and gameplay, with renewed levels. These were not released on a regular schedule, but were sold in packages, with the first episode being available freely as shareware . During 1993-1994, the Italian publisher Simulmondo published several games in bite-sized episodes, among them the comic book adaption Diabolik (11 Episodes) and

5763-528: The blocks and digitized Heartless that appear. While this happens, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy are imported into the datascape by an avatar of the journal's uncorrupted data, which takes the form of a virtual Riku, to better assist Sora in debugging the journal. They discover that Pete and Maleficent have also entered the datascape to use it in their latest attempt at world domination. After Sora makes significant headway into his mission, Maleficent destroys his Keyblade and kidnaps Riku, but he continues through

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5876-408: The blocks in order to progress towards enemies. Blocks are also used to solve puzzles or reach higher ground. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded has an added system to incorporate multiplayer experiences called "tag mode". If other Nintendo DS players are nearby, they do not need to be playing the game and they will be registered in the game as "ghosts". The game is set after Kingdom Hearts II and follows

5989-468: The book digitized to uncover the mystery. However, due to the "hurt" the message contains, most of the data ended up corrupted and caused the data worlds to be infected with bugs. They primarily take the form of cubes that the game's main protagonist, a virtual replica of Sora called "Data-Sora", can destroy or use as platforms. There are several different varieties of Bug Blox, with the most common, breakable variety being black-and-red in color. Other bugs take

6102-399: The bug responsible for the data's corruption, which takes the form of Sora's Heartless. Sora destroys the bug while Mickey and the others are returned to their world by Riku before the reset occurs. With the journal debugged, Riku uncovers extra data that contains the secret to the journal's message. Mickey guides the reset Sora to an extra world based on Castle Oblivion, where he is tested by

6215-409: The bugs are also revealed to have been an unintentional side effect of her message. Before disappearing, Naminé explains that it is the real Sora's duty to save these people. Mickey relays this message to the real Sora through a bottled letter. In a secret ending exclusive to Re:coded , Mickey and Yen Sid discuss the location of Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. During their conversation, Yen Sid reveals that

6328-484: The character Sora , a boy who searches for his lost friends and encounters Disney and Square Enix characters as he travels between worlds. In the first game, Kingdom Hearts , he fights against the villainous Heartless and seals each world he visits to prevent their return. In Kingdom Hearts II , he helps the residents of these worlds again while searching for his friend Riku . The Kingdom Hearts games have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, and

6441-418: The cinematic scenes not seen in the original, with new voice acting, orchestrated audio, and including new battle scenes and a scene that ties Re:coded and Dream Drop Distance together. The collection was released in Japan on October 2, 2014, North America on December 2, 2014, Australia on December 4, 2014, and Europe on December 5, 2014. Prior to Coded ' s release, Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com praised

6554-399: The circumstances of their births. Both were created when Sora used Xehanort's Keyblade of heart to release his and Kairi's hearts, respectively, but coexist alongside their original selves, rather than in lieu of them. Unlike most of Organization XIII's members, who resemble their original selves with their memories and personalities intact, Roxas resembles Ventus rather than Sora due to holding

6667-532: The credits of HD 1.5 Remix , clips of Kingdom Hearts Re:coded were shown, hinting at its inclusion in another collection. On October 14, 2013, Square Enix announced that Re:coded would be part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix collection, released exclusively on the PlayStation 3. Due to the game's touch screen use on the Nintendo DS , console conversion was ruled out as it would necessitate

6780-424: The data from Jiminy's journal entries. Because the game's setting is based on the first game , Data-Sora resembles the original Sora in his attire from the same game. Three other original Kingdom Hearts characters— Riku , Naminé , and Roxas —similarly appear as virtual avatars of themselves. Like previous Kingdom Hearts titles, coded features numerous Disney and Final Fantasy characters who have appeared in

6893-400: The datascape with the help of Donald and Goofy until he regains the ability to conjure the Keyblade. Atop Hollow Bastion, Pete infects Riku's code with bugs and forces him to fight Sora, endangering the datascape. Seeing no alternative, Sora chooses to debug Riku from inside, which would cause everything in the datascape to reset, including his own memories. The debugging process also activates

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7006-561: The design of the worlds have been praised for their faithfulness to the source material. Nomura intended hearts and the strengths and connections of the heart to be a common theme in the games. Characters within the Kingdom Hearts series are composed of three parts: body, soul, and heart. The body acts as a vessel for the heart and soul, with the soul giving life to the body. The heart holds their memories and gives them emotion, light, and darkness. The Kingdom Hearts games are divided into various game levels , referred to as "worlds", which

7119-471: The destruction of Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody will inevitably bring about the return of Master Xehanort . To prepare for this threat, Yen Sid orders Mickey to bring Sora and Riku to him, intending to examine them for the Mark of Mastery. In a secret ending exclusive to the HD 2.5 ReMIX cinematic version, a restored Braig discusses Xehanort's plan with the time-traveling Young Xehanort before asking which of

7232-424: The development team planned on adding online gameplay. The game was discontinued for download on Japanese mobile phones on April 30, 2013. In May 2010, the new English voice actor for Jiminy Cricket , Phil Snyder , who took over the role after the passing of Jiminy's former voice actor Eddie Carroll , wrote on his official website that he was recording his first voice work for the game Kingdom Hearts Re:coded ; it

7345-480: The end, Kingdom Hearts was consumed in the darkness caused by the conflict, and the worlds became separate from each other. During Birth by Sleep, Master Xehanort seeks the return of Kingdom Hearts, and while it does appear over the Keyblade Graveyard, the flawed reunion of Ventus and Vanitas causes the unstable χ-blade to explode and Kingdom Hearts to vanish. After splitting himself into a Heartless and

7458-539: The episodic alternate reality game Majestic , as it required an initial download of an hour or more on a dial-up connection. Another example of a more casual episodic game is Goodnight Mister Snoozleberg! , an online game created by Sarbakan that was released in 1999 on TF1's website, later on CBC and now available for download on Trygames. El Dorado's Gate was a Japan-only episodic game released by Capcom in 2001. Kuma Reality Games has developed first-person shooter episodic games since its inception in 2003. Some of

7571-435: The fifth Dragon Slayer title Sorcerian in 1987 introduced a scenario system where the player can play through fifteen scenarios in their order of choice . Soon after, additional expansion packs were released containing a number of new scenarios. The game introduced an aging system, where one or more years pass by and the characters age during each scenario, with the additional scenario packs in mind. That same year saw

7684-577: The film. Most worlds that appear in the games are based on Disney films and follow abridged versions of their stories, such as in Wonderland , the Land of Dragons , and Castle of Dreams . Agrabah covers the first two Aladdin films in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II , while Atlantica and Halloween Town have original plots in the first game and plots based on their films in the second game. Worlds like Monstro and Neverland focus heavily on

7797-489: The first game of the series, including Destiny Islands , Traverse Town , Wonderland ( Alice in Wonderland ), Olympus Coliseum ( Hercules ), Agrabah ( Aladdin ) and Hollow Bastion . Castle Oblivion also appears as the game's final level. The main protagonist and sole player character of the game is an artificially intelligent virtual avatar of Sora , occasionally referred to in-game as "Data-Sora", created from

7910-560: The first game. Some characters include King Mickey Mouse , Pluto , Jiminy Cricket, Donald Duck , and Goofy , the latter two of whom appear as computer-controlled partners of Sora in one of the game's levels. The main antagonists of the game are software bugs that corrupt the data of Jiminy's journal, which take the form of red-and-black blocks and Heartless that Sora encounters in the first game. Recurring series antagonists Maleficent and Pete also appear. Jiminy Cricket organizes his journals chronicling Sora's journeys when he discovers

8023-573: The former's heart within himself, and lacks Sora's memories due to the short duration of Sora's Heartless state. Meanwhile, Naminé was born of Kairi's heart through Sora's body and, in addition to not having Kairi's memories, has the ability to alter the memories of Sora and those close to him. The Unversed ( アンヴァース , Anvāsu ) are creatures that are introduced and predominantly appear in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep . Described by Nomura as being "those who are not well-versed in their own existences", they are Vanitas' emotions given form and feed on

8136-571: The game in a wide screen format, based on the idea that more future models will feature a swivel screen. Few mobile phones, however, were able to support the game's technical specifications, so the planned expansion to other Japanese phone carriers and to the United States were not possible. It was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 2007, where

8249-554: The game in chapters just like on the mobile phones' original version. Nomura's prime reason for wanting to re-release the game was to reach a broader audience however, so the Nintendo DS , being the most popular portable video game system in America and Europe, was chosen. The development team originally planned on simply re-releasing the game, but after they selected software developer h.a.n.d. , who had done an "excellent" conversion of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days , they began to consider

8362-547: The game was included in the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix video game compilation for the PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , Windows , and Nintendo Switch . The gameplay is centered mostly around puzzle solving , with action role-playing elements, similar to previous Kingdom Hearts games. Mini-games and platforming are also featured, with three dimensional backgrounds and two dimensional characters. In mid-2007, game director Tetsuya Nomura decided to create

8475-476: The game's enemies; and benevolent "Spirits", which the player can create to serve as party members and combat the Nightmares. Several boss enemy Nightmares appear under the control of Young Xehanort and various Disney villains throughout the game. Riku temporarily turns into a Dream Eater by subconsciously entering Sora's dreams upon sensing Xehanort's interference within the Mark of Mastery exam. Additionally,

8588-419: The game's final dungeon. The series' setting has garnered mostly positive reception from critics. Following Kingdom Hearts ' initial announcement, publications expressed skepticism towards the first game's viability. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer stated that despite the extreme differences between Final Fantasy and Disney properties, they blend well together along with the new content created for

8701-568: The game's graphics and scope. He stated the graphics were comparable to those of the PlayStation Portable and commented that coded was a sign of mobile games turning into "full-fledged" games. 1UP.com 's Kevin Gifford commented that the game deserved the attention of video game enthusiasts, and praised its features: the themes and the online mobile phone portal. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded received mixed reviews. IGN praised

8814-613: The game's story, which would fill in some plotholes present in the first Kingdom Hearts game. Coded was first released pre-installed on the Docomo PRIME Series "P-01A" mobile phone. Because many mobile games offer free content, Nomura planned to try a new business model from Square Enix 's usual practice in order to lower barriers to entry . Included on the phone was an online mobile phone portal called Kingdom Hearts Mobile which will allow users to create avatars and play minigames. As mobile phone technology improved,

8927-481: The gameplay variety and graphics, but criticized the story and platforming. GameSpot said that "Frustrating platforming and a tepid narrative mar this journey into classic Kingdom Hearts realms." Game Informer called the game "The most skip-worthy entry in the series". Nintendo Power said it was "the best 'Kingdom Hearts' game to yet grace a Nintendo platform." Official Nintendo Magazine stated that "While it may suffer from some unforgivable camera problems, it

9040-506: The hearts of worlds, has the appearance of a sphere of light beyond a white door. The Kingdom Hearts made by Organization XIII, on the other hand, takes the form of a yellow heart-shaped moon. The authentic Kingdom Hearts called upon by the χ-blade is depicted as a blue heart-shaped moon in Birth by Sleep and yellow in Kingdom Hearts III . The Kingdom Hearts universe is divided into planes of existence called "realms". Most of

9153-652: The image of the original "χ-blade" by those who wanted the light within Kingdom Hearts for themselves and those who sought the opposite. Wielders acknowledged as "Keyblade Masters" can bequeath the power to wield a Keyblade to one they deem worthy by letting them touch the handle of the blade or connecting their heart to another. There are also Keyblades like Xehanort's, which are passed down from different owners through generations. Keyblades change in both appearance and strength with different keychains, which augment its wielder's fighting capabilities; some are obtained as

9266-414: The look of the worlds. GameSpot referred to the worlds as "wonderfully rich familiar environments", and GamePro described the worlds as "spot-on with the original movies." Following the release of the first game, the Disney settings were well received by critics. Allgame 's Scott Marriott stated the Disney settings are the most attractive feature of the game and considered some of the world choices

9379-438: The main characters change their appearance in certain worlds to avoid standing out. In the worlds based on The Little Mermaid and The Nightmare Before Christmas , Sora, Donald, and Goofy transform into undersea creatures and Halloween monsters, respectively. For The Lion King , they transform into savannah animals because Nomura felt that it would be odd to have them appear in their standard forms when no humans appear in

9492-585: The main plot, the latter being reduced to Captain Hook 's ship, where Riku reveals to Sora that Kairi has lost her heart. These worlds would not be able to be explored fully until the releases of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance , Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep , respectively. In Beauty and the Beast , the Beast appears in Kingdom Hearts to aid Sora when he temporarily loses

9605-555: The movie "boring", as the cut scenes were intended to fill in between sections of gameplay and never as a film unto itself. Episodic video game Such a series may or may not have continuity , but will always share settings, characters, and/or themes. Episodic production in this manner has become increasingly popular among video game developers since the advent of low-cost digital distribution systems, which can immensely reduce their distribution overhead and make episodes financially viable. Alternatively, it can be used to describe

9718-428: The narrative framework, episodic games tend to end in cliffhangers because it serves as a tool to deploy a seamless transition. These scenes are also dramatic, drawing the interest of the players so that they anxiously await for the next installment. The first episodic game appeared in 1979. Automated Simulations ' Dunjonquest series started with Temple of Apshai , and in the same year several mini-episodes using

9831-432: The narrative of the game. Examples of episodic video games include most Telltale games, Alan Wake , BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea , Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City , Life Is Strange , Resident Evil: Revelations (and Revelations 2 ), Half-Life 2: Episode One (and Two ) and Star Trek Online . To consumers, episodic games are very similar in nature to expansion packs . An expansion

9944-479: The negativity of others, which allows them to assume more powerful forms. Vanitas pits these creatures against his counterpart, Ventus, to strengthen him as part of Master Xehanort's plan to obtain the χ-blade. Upon defeat, the Unversed's negativity reintegrates with Vanitas, allowing him to recreate them no matter how many times they are destroyed. The Unversed cease to be after Vanitas integrates back into Ventus and

10057-464: The new Organization XIII composing of his various incarnations and vessels, to fight the Keyblade users, who would form seven "Guardians of Light". The titular Kingdom Hearts ( キングダムハーツ , Kingudamu Hātsu ) is the "heart of all worlds" and the source of hearts. It is an object of immense power, which caused conflict as its light drove many to fight over it in what became the Keyblade War. In

10170-403: The number of worlds in the universe, Nomura picked ones he felt would fit into the series' scenario, which was then evaluated by his team and Disney representatives. He tried to maintain the same number of worlds in each game and tried to minimize any overlap in the overall look and feel of each world, which he and his staff did by categorizing Disney worlds by appearance and setting. For example,

10283-500: The original bug and resets the entire datascape. Dream Eaters ( ドリームイーター , Dorīmu Ītā ) are primarily featured in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance . Like the Heartless, they are beings of darkness that inhabit the Sleeping worlds isolated from the realm of light and are compelled to find the worlds' keyholes. Dream Eaters manifest in two kinds: hostile "Nightmares", which devour good dreams and create bad ones and serve as

10396-713: The original series Time Runners (30 Episodes). Adventure games Shin Onigashima , Yūyūki , and Famicom Tantei Club series for the Family Computer Disk System were released in two disks, with both disks being separate releases but forming a single game. Single-player games, particularly real-time strategy games and first-person shooters , have in the past experimented with a limited form of episodic gaming, by adding new stages, levels, weapons, enemies or missions with expansion packs. Early examples include Wing Commander: Secret Ops , which

10509-470: The player progresses through. Worlds vary in appearance, typically dependent on the Disney setting on which they are based. The worlds' graphics resemble the art style from the originating Disney film, and the worlds are inhabited by characters from their respective films; for example, Hercules and Philoctetes appear in Olympus Coliseum from Hercules , while Aladdin , Princess Jasmine , and

10622-565: The realm of darkness, although people with a strong will may summon them to the realm of light. While studying the Pureblood Heartless, as a side effect of their research to control the mind through the heart, Xehanort and Ansem's other apprentices found a way to create artificial "Emblem" Heartless via the corruption of living hearts, which are differentiated from Purebloods by an insignia on their bodies. Unlike Purebloods, Emblem Heartless release hearts once defeated. However, unless

10735-421: The rest of the digital Heartless for power and escape into the real world to sate its hunger for hearts. While its most basic form is the weak and common "Shadow" variety of Heartless, it grows increasingly powerful and gains the ability to take other forms, such as an entirely black lookalike of Sora with yellow eyes or an enormous variety of Heartless called "Darkside". The bugs cease to be after Data-Sora destroys

10848-435: The route of episodic development and distribution, only to decide against it. Examples of this include Quantic Dream 's Fahrenheit , Ubisoft 's Rayman Origins , and a planned series of episodes starring Duke Nukem by ARUSH Entertainment . Valve 's Steam platform is being used as a content delivery platform for several episodic games including Half-Life 2 Episodes developed by Valve themselves. Telltale Games

10961-409: The same game system and world were released. The sequel Hellfire Warrior and several full-sized add-on packs for both main games followed 1980–1982. Wizardry was likewise appended with additional scenarios that allowed importing of the first games' save data. Following Nihon Falcom 's 1986 expansion pack Xanadu Scenario II for the 1985 action role-playing game Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu ,

11074-468: The series mirror the overall appearance of other worlds and predominantly feature characters from Square Enix games and original characters. Though Disney gave director Tetsuya Nomura freedom to choose which characters and worlds would be used in the games, he and his staff tried to stay within the established roles of characters and boundaries of the worlds. Nomura found managing and keeping multiple worlds consistent to be problematic. After determining

11187-428: The series predominantly feature original and Square Enix characters and are more integral to the series' overarching plot. The first world of each game serves as a tutorial to introduce new gameplay elements and frame the story. Both they and the Disney worlds are fragments of the original world, which is identified in Kingdom Hearts III as Scala Ad Caelum, the seat of power for the ancient Keyblade masters that serves as

11300-545: The series takes place in the "Realm of Light". Opposite the Realm of Light is the "Realm of Darkness", where Kingdom Hearts resides and where Heartless are born. The "Realm Between" is a plane where Nobodies come into existence. Additionally, there is the "Realm of Sleep" where the Sleeping Worlds featured in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance are located. In the Kingdom Hearts universe, travelling between worlds

11413-481: The series. A second Game Informer reviewer, Matt Miller, described the concept as a "hard sell", describing the combination of the two properties as "ridiculous". He also stated his belief that the franchise's formula is successful. The graphics of the games have received generous praise, with particular focus on their similarity to the source material. IGN stated that the "worlds look very much like their filmed counterparts". Japanese gaming site, Gpara.com also praised

11526-426: The series. It also features a similar interface with fight, item, and "magic" in the command window. There are also minigame and platforming elements. The game features a mix of different graphic styles, with three-dimensional backgrounds and two-dimensional characters . The initial trailer showcased the main character, Sora , in dungeons with floating red and black blocks. Battles feature a "debugging" mode to remove

11639-408: The shape of an actual sword. It has the power to open the heart of all worlds, and exists alongside Kingdom Hearts as its guardian. It led to "Keyblades" being crafted in its image by those seeking Kingdom Hearts' power, those who sought to extinguish the light, and those who sought to protect it. This resulted in the Keyblade War, which ended in a world known as the Keyblade Graveyard; the aftermath led

11752-578: The story of Jiminy Cricket , Mickey Mouse , Donald Duck and Goofy in Disney Castle . In the game, players progress through a series of levels which are virtual representations of worlds contained within the digitized version of Jiminy's journal from the first Kingdom Hearts game, and are arranged according to the order in which Sora visited the worlds originally in Kingdom Hearts . These virtual worlds are based on various locales from many Disney animated films as well as original worlds seen in

11865-519: The traditional expansion pack, as in the Asheron's Call franchise, where episodic content was downloaded without an additional fee (to the standing subscription price). This included new expansive story arcs comparable to those found in offline RPGs and were updated on a bi-monthly basis. Retail expansion packs were still created for the Asheron's Call games. Another MMOG featuring an episodic design

11978-528: The χ-blade to shatter into seven pieces of light and thirteen pieces of darkness. These seven lights, which are said to be the source of all light in the World, later became the hearts of the Princesses of Heart, who are targeted by Organization XIII as a result. In Birth by Sleep , Master Xehanort 's over-eagerness to obtain the weapon causes him to seek two hearts of equal strength—one of pure light and one of pure darkness—to fight each other. He finds such

12091-439: Was developed with 3D and 2D graphics to have the game available on a range of mobile phones for distribution overseas. The game was designed around hardware that was more powerful than any yet available, like Final Fantasy Agito , but developer were not as aggressive with this boundary-pushing with Coded to help it spread to overseas markets where mobile phones were not very powerful in terms of hardware. Early screenshots showed

12204-498: Was devised by Nomura, who wanted to make the game feel like a "playground" for fans. Tabata originally thought the plan was terrible, but still interesting. The story was initially supposed to be "fluid" and did not fit into the chronology of the Kingdom Hearts series, but later developers tied the game's final chapters into Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days . The development team planned to make use of mobile phones communication abilities to facilitate interaction between players. Coded

12317-1533: Was planned, but was canceled. Joey Drew Studios Inc. Created Their First Horror Game, ‘’ Bendy and the Ink Machine ‘’ On Gamejolt And Itch.io With Chapter 1 On February 10 2017. The First Chapter Success Leads To Four More Chapters Being Made As Paid DLCS, Chapter 2 Was Released On Gamejolt On April 18 2017 Before Both Chapters 1 & 2 Were Released On Steam On April 27 2017, Chapter 3 Was Released On September 28 2017, Chapter 4 Was Released On April 30 2018, And Chapter 5 Was Released As Part Of The Complete Edition On October 26 2018. Glowstick Entertainment Created Their First Horror Game, ‘’ Dark Deception ‘’ On Steam With Chapter 1 On September 27 2018. The First Chapter Success Leads To Four More Chapters Being Made As Paid DLCS, Chapter 2 Was Released On January 21 2019, Chapter 3 Was Released On June 24 2019, Chapter 4 Was Released On September 28 2021, And Chapter 5 Is Scheduled To Be Released In 2025. Mob Entertainment Created Their First Horror Game, ‘’ Poppy Playtime ‘’ On Steam With Chapter 1 On October 12 2021. The First Chapter’s Success Leads To Four More Chapters Being Made As Paid DLCS, Chapter 2 Was Released On May 5 2022, Chapter 3 Was Released On January 30 2024, Chapter 4 Is Scheduled To Be Released In January 2025, And Chapter 5 Is Scheduled To Be Released At An Unknown Date Telltale's episodic adventure games inspired Roy and Ronen Gluzman to revive their popular Israeli video game franchise Piposh with

12430-410: Was released episodically over the internet in 1998. However, this series was a failure and was discontinued after it failed to attract significant player numbers. One of the contributing factors was its 120 MB download size, which may have been prohibitively large in an age in which 56k internet access was the norm. Limitations in bandwidth have also been cited as one of the reasons for the failure of

12543-465: Was released in four discrete broadcast episodes starting in August 1995. Nintendo has said it to be the world's first integrated radio-game. Shining Force III is a three-part RPG released by Sega for the Sega Saturn between 1997 and 1999. The narrative of the game was distributed through three distinct "scenarios", each showing a part of the complete story. Other games have contemplated going

12656-645: Was released on April 28, 2006, which was subsequently followed by Guild Wars Nightfall , released worldwide on October 27, 2006, and finally Guild Wars Eye of the North on August 31, 2007. Universe of Kingdom Hearts#Disney worlds The Kingdom Hearts video game series, developed by Square Enix in collaboration with Disney , is set in a universe consisting of numerous self-contained worlds based on intellectual properties from both companies. Most worlds are based on different Disney films, although several original worlds also appear. The series centers on

12769-555: Was speculated to be a remake of Coded in the same way Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories brought Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to the PlayStation 2 . However, it remained unconfirmed until Re:coded was presented at E3 2010 . Game director Tetsuya Nomura wanted to re-release Kingdom Hearts: coded , and considered releasing the game on the Wii through the WiiWare digital game store, which would then allow players to download

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