358/2 DAYS IS MY FAVORITE KINGDOM HEARTS GAME
To say that Kingdom hearts is a ridiculous franchise is almost passe at this point. ‘It’s
those games with complicated lore and tonal dissonance’ [HEY FELLAS DOOR TO DARKNESS].
We know. To borrow a phrase, [“kh isn’t that complicated, it’s just a lot to remember.”]
This popular perception of the franchise has spawned the equally popular counternarrative
that “sure, kingdom hearts LOOKS really dumb but it’s actually DARK and DEEP if you look at it bro”
which has almost become just as overstated as the “kingdom hearts is stupid” narrative.
So I'm not going to try to spend too much time convincing you that kingdom
hearts is “good” or “not bad” or whatever. At this
point, either you’re on board for the kingdom hearts formula, or you’re not.
What Kingdom Hearts is is dramatic, overager, and best of all, unapologetic.
So–I’m just going to tell you about my favorite game.
And to me, 358/2 Days is exemplary of many of the franchise’s best qualities.
Or three five eight days over two. whatever.
358 AND ME
Days wasn’t my first kh game. My intro to the series was actually the even more awkward starting
point and even more cryptic chain of memories on the gameboy advance. It appeared in my house one
day, I don't remember ever buying it or receiving it. So when I played I had no context, no idea
who these people were or what past events were being referenced. So maybe it was meant to be.
So by the time I bought days of my own accord, I'd spent enough time watching cutscene compilations
on youtube [kh-vids intro joke] and reading the khwiki, that 358 meant something to me.
Days was the first game that felt mine.
I love the stupidly charming emotive text boxes and crunchy graphics and the tedious missions and
the weird panel system and roxas’s stupid run and the persistent sense of dread throughout.
Maybe less deserving of my affections are infernal engine or ruler of the sky battles,
or those missions where you have to follow Pete without invading his personal space
But Days has this immersive melancholy that feels unique even among kingdom hearts games.
With all the things that don’t work about this game on a technical level,
there are so many that do for the story.
THE KEYBLADES
Before we jump into the juicy story stuff, a more minor point:
the keyblades in Days are really unique. You may not be able to
do flashy combos with them [Aerial Gear asid] but you will look very, very cool.
From the design to the incredibly symbolic names, I'm just obsessed with the whole arsenal of them.
They feel very much like something I would've scribbled in my notes as an 11 year old,
and very at home with the general 2009 hot-topic vibe of the Organization.
Days also gets points for giving us that INCREDIBLE piece of KH iconography when you
briefly get to dual wield oathkeeper and oblivion at the end of the game.
If only you could do that in real life.
I actually have a tattoo of a Days specific keyblade, and if you can
guess which one I'll reward you by being really impressed.
PACING AND AMBIANCE
Days has
the most intense emotional impact, because, like I said, I find it the most immersive
game in the franchise. And this is thanks to the very structure and pacing of the game.
Gameplay consists of “missions'' which range from investigating crusts on castle walls to mindlessly
smashing enemies to getting the shit kicked out of you by monochrome versions of yourself.
Not exactly the stuff grand adventures are made of.
And that’s what sets days apart:
you're not sora, and you're not even riku the antihero. You’re a depressed,
semi conscious boy doing errands for a cryptic and aloof cult. And unlike other games with a
goal and villain to defeat, there’s not really a clear idea of why you're doing what you're doing.
Which is exactly the point.
Every other kh game has a nebulous sense of time, but Days breaks it down for you,
literally day by day. Each with the same exact beginning, middle, and usually, end.
It forces you to slow down, to think of each mission as one day. Regardless of how fast you
play the game, you’ll be forced to consider each set of missions as a self contained 24 hours.
So the player experiences things as Roxas would: tedious, and repetitive.
The monotony is a FEATURE of the game, not a bug [ha ha].
And this is only emphasized by the game’s gloomy ambiance. The castle is sterile and
alienating and feels too big, especially when Org membership gets halved really early in the game.
The furniture is boxy and unfriendly and beds have no blankets. No one really likes talking to you.
It’s just Roxas, an unfriendly castle, and the next mission.
So when Roxas has his first mission with Axel, you feel how much of a lifeboat it
is to this poor kid. In the middle of this weird, frigid institution,
Axel extends a little frozen olive branch [ice cream]. This little spark of humanity.
And so Roxas–sweet, sweet boy–immediately takes it
upon himself to do the same for the other office pariah.
If they can choose to be kind to each other, the Organization doesn’t feel so empty after all.
The idea that these people are beings incapable of emotion is immediately, obviously untrue.
At first, Roxas had nothing to look forward to. Now, he has two things.
And so Roxas and the player have fundamentally the same motivation. The missions become a
means to an end: complete one, and you get to hang out with your friends for a little while.
Days also lacks the sense of adventure from the other games. Rather than exploring worlds,
you’re doing a job. You’re not going anywhere, you’re settling into a routine,
and making the best of it because it allows you to have a few minutes of peace with people you like.
You’ll spy on some Disney characters, get condescended to by the edgelord of the day,
and watch a perpetual sunset. Not much, but enough to keep going [not much but it's honest work].
This creates a slow pace that puts you directly in Roxas’s shoes,
and gives you the small comfort of predictability.
But more importantly, it gives you and Roxas something to lose.
Because you can never get too comfortable;
the clock is always counting. With every boring day, that number on the box gets closer.
What’s gonna happen at 358??
You know instinctively that it can’t end well–because we already
know Roxas’s fate in kh2, and xion is nowhere to be found in future games.
The characters even spell it out for you. [“even if we cant be together forever”]
So you get this sense of dread as the days increase.
On one hand, it means more time with Axel and Xion.
On the other, it means advancing towards that “something bad” you know is coming.
ROXAS’S JOURNAL
At the start of the game, we find out Saix has instructed Roxas to keep a journal,
which, storywise, is for his data collection, but gives us direct insight into Roxas's thoughts.
It’s such a simple and effective tool for worldbuilding.
The first person descriptions tell us not just recaps of “what happened,” but how they felt.
Since Roxas is a perfect newborn-fish out of water, we get a bunch of journal entries that
elaborate on the nature of hearts and nobodies and [darkness]. But even better, as Roxas wonders what
it means about him. It’s not just a lore dump, but in a way that emotionally matters to the player.
THE SETTING
In contrast with the numbered titles and CoM, games where you play as the
relentlessly optimistic protagonist, Days puts you on the side of the established
villains. Which includes being at least coworker chummy with characters sora
methodically SLAUGHTERED in succession. It’s a fun little exercise in perspective,
to see who these people are when they’re not melodramatically taunting you.
Sure, xigbar is a bit of a bully and saix is a straight up dick,
but demyx? Even luxord gets this weird fun uncle relationship in the late game.
The intro is fantastic. It’s all very edgy AMV, from the intro card with
each member’s little freeze frame bio. The melodrama of it all is inherently a
little goofy. The fact that there’s all these powerful, dramatic freaks living
together in this giant castle. No WONDER they made a manga about it. [it’s camp]
PHILOSOPHY AND THE SELF
The setting and premise of the game alone lead to some fun philosophical questions.
Already, spending time with an alternative perspective shakes up any ideas of clean
cut morality. YOU LITERALLY BEGIN EVERY DAY IN A SECTION CALLED THE “GRAY AREA.”
Kingdom hearts’s attempts at “deep” have always swung on a pendulum between incoherent
and surprisingly thoughtful. [check out regular pat’s chain of memories video,
which i wholeheartedly concur with]
Regardless of the success of the execution, the series does play with some really interesting
ideas. And by virtue of centering around Nobodies, Days is particularly good at this.
The nobodies are actually one of the coolest concepts in the series. They’re easy villains,
but when we pull back the curtain in Days, it’s more sad than anything else.
Days poses the questions: what constitutes a “self,” and how much of that comes from
our environment? From where do we craft identity and purpose? The
pursuit of power and how it insulates you from connection. I’m not saying
it’s the most subtle or original take on these ideas, but it’s there nonetheless.
I love that Roxas and Xion are inherently tragic characters–because while they search for identity,
they’re people who don’t belong to themselves. There’s a tragic irony in their finding purpose
through each other, when who they are means they can never coexist.
They’re pieces of something else ‘more important’: the “actual” protagonist.
Experiencing this up close really adds dramatic weight to Sora’s whole arc,
that there are very real sacrifices necessary to uphold his heroism.
THE DIALOGUE
The kingdom hearts dialogue ranges from stilted, deep fried google translate to
unintentionally hilarious to occasionally profound. Pieces of 3 even border on witty.
But Days is charming. And sometimes funny.
With very little voice acting, this is maybe some of the most natural dialogue in the series,
and it’s a crime it got hacked down to pieces for the “movie” in the kh 1.5.
Dialogue with members in the common room, little asides while in the worlds,
and the clocktower conversations are all bursting with personality. [roxas that’s a stick] This
leads to enormous amounts of character building for the trio,
but also for everyone else. [roxas and axel learning to
fly in neverland, how giddy roxas and xion are when her keyblade works again]
I find Roxas and Xion’s mutual protectiveness and Axel’s big
brothering the two of them disgustingly endearing.
The fuzzy friendship stuff is the heart [ha ha] of the game, but we also get peeks into the darker,
bitter side of interpersonal relationships. Saix’s deteriorating partnership with Axel
and his jealous ex routine feels like some of the more mature writing in the series.
I love the nods to their shared history and, sure, maybe the “truth” was retroactively filled
out in future entries [khux/kh3], but it’s still deliciously dramatic and mysterious.
The voice acting is pretty impressive by KH standards. Jesse mccartney and alyson
stoner especially carry it in the handful of fully voice acted scenes.
In fact, one of the few redeeming things about the Days movie is the addition of this
voiced cutscene that McCartney absolutely kills. [“WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH WANTING SOME ANSWERS”]
Enormous fan.
A PREDETERMINED MESS
The standard monotony of the game makes the devastating climax even more intense.
This is still maybe my favorite stretch in a kingdom hearts game.
From the minute Xion runs away, nothing is ever the same.
I’m always struck by how lonely the late game feels. Missions are mostly solo, clock tower
visits are sparse and quiet, and xion’s return to the organization doesn't feel quite right.
And you can’t even be surprised! It was never going to last, you just never knew when.
By the time everything falls apart, it's built up so much momentum you know there’s no going back.
“THEY'RE GONNA DESTROY
YOU”
I still get chills!!
And the whole time, you're roxas,
desperately believing he can hold it all together by sheer force of will.
The last act of the game has this tangible hopelessness that’s really
something to experience the first time. Roxas’s fragile family broken,
his sense of trust gone, he goes to the last and only place he felt content.
Maybe, if he sits there like he used to, he can pretend everything is alright.
But the clock is still counting down.
“Roxas. I’m out of time”
That is so. Haunting.
Honestly, I don't love how the remaster decided to score this scene with the beginning of the fight
music. It’s infinitely more impactful just with the heavy, stunned silence.
But this is the entire game summed up in one line. I’m out of time. They’ve always been on
borrowed time, enjoying scraps of peaceful moments while the inevitable crept closer.
This last act is a mini boss rush, but with zero sense of triumph.
It just pummels you with bad, and worse. On paper, it’s similar in this way to Birth By
Sleep, but when I compare the two in my mind, I easily prefer Days.
There’s something about the smaller, more personal stakes that hits me much harder.
There’s no grand battle, no heroic standoff. Just friends undone by their circumstances,
doing the worst possible things to each other.
[“Who are you, again?”] [You’ll be… better off now, Roxas”]
Loss without the ability to mourn.
One last battle, and you don’t even win. You
just lead Roxas back where you left him, in the KH2 prologue.
Before Kh3, this was it! Remember Roxas, that tragic character with a tragic end? Well,
actually, it was even worse! We have the solace of Kh3 now, but this was 2009. Even with hints
or speculation, it would still be another twelve years until any of this was undone.
Days ends, and this is all you get. Everything we've done this whole game, erased.
Not even the courtesy of a memory.
CONCLUSION
Days is something I would pretentiously categorize as an “experience” first and
game second. It’s a lucky case in which even the clunkier aspects of the game work in its favor.
And sure, arguably, a game has the responsibility to be FUN to play first.
Unexciting and frustrating gameplay isn’t better by virtue of if you think it enhances the story.
But it’s a similar feeling I have towards first person walking simulators that prioritize story
over gameplay. If the story is good, there’s a lot that won’t bother me.
And storywise, Days was a complete success for me.
It accomplished 2 things: first, it made Roxas my favorite character–because he’s cool and edgy
for sure, but largely, I just got to know him so well, because I spent so much time in his head,
something I never really got from other characters in the same way.
And second, this trio’s reunion in kh3 made me cry harder than any other kh moment. And
that’s 100% thanks to the setup in this game. I believed in the anguish of these people,
in their friendship, and the relief of their
reunion. Compared to the other trios, their conflict felt comparatively more intimate.
At its core, it’s a simple story: three people trying to hold onto their friendship
despite its limited shelf life. Of being in absolute shit, fucked up circumstances,
but trying to make the best of it–even just a little comfort, even for just a little while.
I’m a big fan of the concept of liminality and liminal spaces, these places not quite one thing
or another, but sites of transition. Places we don’t go to for what they are, but as places
between. Staying in the Organization is just a means to spend time with Axel and Xion. Days has
the same feeling as a gas station on the highway, or empty school hall, or waiting for a bus.
Days is a game with this persistent feeling of unsteadiness.
Of holding your breath, waiting to exhale but never being able to.
Everything about this game is liminal!! Its place in the series, its internal narrative,
its themes of fragility. Roxas's special spot is in perpetual twilight–beautiful
but frozen in time; nobodies are “in between” existence and non existence.
It's all very harmonious and melancholy in a way I enjoy a lot.
Very hadestown, “it’s a sad song” with a predetermined ending,
but one you’re compelled to play anyway. Regardless of whether you
think the weight was undone by kh3, for me, the impact of Days still holds up.
Like twilight town, this game lives in my head with a perpetual nostalgic amber glow.
Days isn’t the best kingdom hearts game. But it is my favorite.