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Kingdom Hearts, Territoriality and Flow

Huber William Humberto, Mandiberg Stephen
September 2009 Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory
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This paper explores the relationship between companies Square-Enix and Disney as played out within the games of the Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ) franchise. We contrast the relationship between these two transnational companies within the franchise's aesthetics and theoretical logics over the course of the various games. We are particularly interested in the games' own thematization and problematization of concepts of globalization, transnationalism and cultural flow. The games narratively and interactively foreground the collapse of membranes that separate worlds, producing legitimate and illegitimate modes of territoriality and intermixture.

Keywords: role-playing games, franchises, Japan, globalization, translation, transmediation