For better and for worse, the Kingdom Hearts saga is a rich story filled with numerous characters and lore that intertwine from top to bottom. What started out as a simple crossover between Square Enix and Disney became something far more profound and rich. That being said, there are things within the story that don’t make sense, and fans have called that out over the years as the series has expanded far beyond its “core titles” and into numerous spinoffs that have built up the lore in various directions. One of those spinoffs, Birth By Sleep, celebrated its 15th anniversary today, and series creator Tetsuya Nomura decided to reveal an interesting tidbit about that game and the others that connect to it on Twitter.
As you’ll see below, Nomura reveals that in multiple Kingdom Hearts games, there are sequences featuring Sora, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, and others that involve a “crossroads.” The Keyblade Graveyard is one such place where a crossroads occurs, and another is just outside of Castle Oblivion, both places of which hold a special meaning to the saga in various ways.
The director notes that, based on American folklore, the crossroads is a place where “deals” are made, and you often have to lose something in order to gain something. Multiple games in the franchise have this theme or storyline within them, such as when Sora enters Castle Oblivion and loses his memories to “gain ones” that were “lost in his past.” Obviously, that was a lie, as fans well know. However, the events of the prequel game with Terra, Ventus, and Aqua did indeed have all three keyblade wielders lose something in order to gain something important to them.
A key note, no pun intended, is that at the end of his anecdote, Tetsuya Nomura teases the next game in the franchise, as there’s still more to this story to tell:
This anecdote is a very curious thing. One wouldn’t expect a Japanese developer to base a key part of his game on American folklore. Typically, it’s the other way around, with numerous American developers and creators taking from Japanese folklore to inspire parts of their games or even the many characters that live within them. Yet, it shows that no matter where folklore comes from, it has an impact, even if you don’t realize it at the time.
One can only wonder about the influences that Nomura will put into his next title whenever it is released.
