22 years ago, Kingdom Hearts nearly grounded me for life

Before we see her, we can hear her flip-flops slapping against the concrete steps leading to the basement. “Shh!” we hissed at each other, exuding a relaxed, calm atmosphere as we both assumed casual sitting positions on the worn couch. However, my sister’s breathing gave us away – her chest heaved violently as she tried to catch her breath.

“I know you two are being stupid here,” our mother snapped from the landing. “Stop talking, or I’ll take the PlayStation away.” She turned and walked up the steps, the rhythm of her flip-flops like the beginning of a boss battle.

Hearing the creaking of the floorboards upstairs, we resumed our activities.I unpause kingdom hearts My sister picked her giant stuffed bear off the ground, started singing and tossing him in the air. This was our ritual – at ages 11 and 8, kingdom hearts This was the first video game that challenged us: me (the gamer) and my sister (the viewer). I’m having difficulty with the tutorial. I had a hard time taking advantage of its system. I had a hard time piloting my gummy boat between locations. I struggled with every boss fight.

kingdom heartsSquare Enix’s Disney-themed role-playing game from which final fantasy game, released 22 years ago on March 28, 2002. This was the first game that I almost quit, and it almost drove my parents crazy.

Goofy, Sora, and Donald Duck stand together in a bright white room.

image: Square Enix

kingdom hearts This is my first big gaming challenge

Remember, this was 2002, before I had the internet and no idea about printed travel guides.My parents bought it for me kingdom hearts Because of its connection to Disney, but also because it seemed pretty innocuous in a sea of ​​guns, boobs, and petty crime. But I struggled with Square Enix’s RPG because I wasn’t used to its systems and combat, and was still a bit clumsy with the controller.

read more: 5 years have passed and I still haven’t recovered from the pain Kingdom Hearts 3

Faced with these struggles, my sister, usually a passive spectator of my gaming efforts, did a weird dance while I played in an attempt to appease the gaming gods. If the fight wasn’t going well, I’d plead with her to “Get the bear!” and she’d start spinning and leaping gracefully, just like you’d expect from a slightly gangly third grader.The bear would often hit the basement ceiling, or knock over a water glass, or bounce off my dog’s head, all of which would send us into hysterics that would make my mother like Ring of EldenThe soul summoning bell.

For months, this routine wore us down: We would take the same bus home from school at the same time, leave our bags at the door, then rush downstairs to fire up the PlayStation and try to make some progress in our studies. kingdom hearts.At first, I thought I would give up after struggling in Wonderland, but I finally succeeded alice in wonderlandworld.then i thought Heracles The planet would get in my way, but the bear dance ritual got me through.This is Clayton deep in the jungle Mount TaiHowever, this world not only threatens me to give up kingdom hearts Forever, but keeping my sister and I grounded for life.

Boss battle database

You see, everything about Deep Jungle is fodder for my and my sister’s bad behavior. To two elementary school kids, Tarzan’s line delivery was the funniest thing in the world.and kingdom hearts doesn’t let you skip cutscenes, so the final boss fight deep in the jungle drops us into a 30 seconds long scene between Sora, Tarzan and Clayton Several times a day. These conversations are seared into our soft little brains. We would yell “Not Clayton” out of the school bus window, moan “No” in Sora’s tones whenever something bad happened, or grow like a gorilla during Sunday services. Walking around in the chair.we were Mount Tai– Pilling, which drove our parents crazy.

The difficulty of the final boss fight means frequent deployments of the bear dancing ritual, which escalates in intensity until the dance moves several pieces of the basement ceiling, or someone is injured when bumping into another person. Sprinting at full speed. When my mom suddenly comes downstairs and yells at us, every time she sees a black void where the tiles used to be, my sister smiles shyly under the empty crack, or one of us sits On the floor she would get angry and rub the growing lumps on our heads. Another attempt at a Clayton boss battle failed frustratingly, only because we were punished like two kids raised in the wild: writing 100 lines in our spiral notebooks, or canceling the appointment, or, at best, What’s Bad: PlayStation Ban.

Eventually (I don’t remember when or how) I defeated Clayton and moved on AladdinIt’s Agrabah. While I no longer struggle with this part of the game and no longer need the bear ritual, my sister and I still find ways to be noisy by belly dancing and loudly singing nonsense words to match the game’s Score, our shirts flip up and tuck into themselves to expose our midriffs.when i finally beat kingdom heartsI don’t know who is more relieved: myself or my parents.

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