Kingdom Hearts fans are currently in the middle of a very passionate debate about what button is best for which magic shortcuts.
If you've played Kingdom Hearts 1 and Kingdom Hearts 2, you'll already be familiar with the concept of command shortcuts. To save Sora from flicking through the magic and item menus in the heat of a battle, players can instead assign things like magic and potions to a button on the controller. For argument's sake, we're talking about when Kingdom Hearts released the first time around on PS2, so your options are X, Circle, Square, or Triangle.
For many, including myself, X was always the go-to for the magic ability Cure; which would give Sora back some of his HP if he was on his last legs. It turns out, however,
that there are some people out there that actually prefer to use other buttons. This has actually come as quite a shock and caused a divide within the Kingdom Hearts community. It seems that most fans go for X, some go to Triangle, and some unhinged individuals go for Square or Circle.
- The original Kingdom Hearts was initially "more hardcore" until Square Enix toned it down: "We had some puzzles in there that would make you go, 'what is this, Takeshi's Challenge?'"
- Kingdom Hearts 4 has been radio silent for 1,005 days, but don’t worry - Tetsuya Nomura teases he has the story planned out
The majority of this debate has taken place on Twitter. As one tweet reads: "If cure isn't X you are one of the following: Odd, strange, weird." Another chimed in the discussion with: "The only time Triangle is acceptable for cure in Kingdom Hearts is when you are playing Birth by Sleep or Dream Drop Distance" - two of the spin-off games in the series.
The tweets have since got a little bit more personal though. As pointed out by Team Triangle, it makes sense to apply Cure to the green PlayStation button as the color of the item matches. Although this makes sense in theory, one fan has responded to this by bringing the PS5 into the discussion, which doesn't have any colored buttons on it at all.
Another just went straight for the jugular by making a chart that gives each of the shortcut buttons their own personality types and frankly calling each of them out in their own way.
If you put Cure on ___, You are.. pic.twitter.com/ow4WQJnD6aDecember 6, 2022
For the record, the best shortcut setup is X for Cure, Square for Thunder, Triangle for Fire, and Circle for Blizzard. I will not be taking any questions at this time.
We'll probably be waiting to find out the result of this discussion long after Kingdom Hearts 4 has released.
Kingdom Hearts 4 has been radio silent for 1,005 days, but don’t worry - Tetsuya Nomura teases he has the story planned out
The original Kingdom Hearts was initially "more hardcore" until Square Enix toned it down: "We had some puzzles in there that would make you go, 'what is this, Takeshi's Challenge?'"
