Kingdom Hearts is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney properties. The series spans many consoles, including a few handheld titles and a currently running mobile game. I went with my friend to one of the Sydney showings of Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World of Tres.
Kingdom Hearts Orchestra
The most recent music event I had gone to prior was the Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions. In comparison, World of Tres is on a bigger scale. It’s performed with a full orchestra including a chorus. This is the third Kingdom Hearts concert, touring to celebrate the release of Kingdom Hearts 3.
While you can see the whole layout of the orchestra, a projection screen displayed scenes from the games the music came from. If you haven’t played most of the games I wouldn’t recommend going, as it shows plenty of emotional and story important scenes.
World of Tres
The event went for slightly over two hours. The first half had a couple of individual songs, but then went into medleys and overtures for different games, including one of the DS titles. After the intermission the concert went on to focus on Kingdom Hearts 3. Including an instrumental version of the theme song ‘Face My Fears’, you can listen to the original version here:
Asides from some of the new songs, there were rhapsodies of each of the Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3. I especially liked when they reached the Toy Story world, as I got to listen to a beautiful instrumental version of, ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’.
Don’t Think Twice
They also have merchandise you can buy exclusively at the event. The priciest of which is the conductor’s keyblade set, which are designed to look like Roxas’ keyblades. The price of the album in Australia was $60 which was much more than I was expecting so I couldn’t pick it up.
There are still some upcoming showings in the following other countries, America, Brazil, The UK, Mexico and Japan. If you go make sure you bring your clapping hands.
Handheld Kingdom Hearts
While there are only three numbered titles in the series, all the other games are relevant to the story. Four of which released on Nintendo handhelds. These are, ‘Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories’ (GBA), ‘Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days’ (DS), ‘Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded’ (DS) and ‘Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance’ (3DS). ‘Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep’ is the only PSP game in the series. If you’re a mobile gamer you can play Kingdom Hearts Union X, which includes online co-operative play and some really cute Disney outfits for your avatar.
While those who have a Playstation 4 can access most of the series in ‘Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far’, which has most of the games although the DS ones are relegated to remastered cinematics.
If you love video game music check out Evriun’s Game Soundtracks We Love series.