Riku Plays 'Kingdom Hearts'

Aug 12

The Kingdom Hearts fan community has a new stream to follow. David Gallagher, the voice of Riku, is playing through the series for the first time on his Twitch channel igobygraven. The livestream’s chat has a few rules. Don’t backset the game and don’t give Graven any spoilers.

He has somehow managed to avoid spoilers which is impressive considering he’s voiced roughly half the cutscenes in the franchise. The stream runs from 4-8pm central time on Wednesdays and 2-6pm central time on Fridays, but sometimes Graven will go over the time limit to wrap things up.

RELATED:

Featured

'Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link' Announces Closed Beta The Day After Franchises 22nd Anniversary

Graven is playing through the games on Steam using a PS5 controller. He made a comment early on about speedrunning the game, but he’s done enough backtracking and exploration that “slowest speedrun” is now a running joke. He quickly caught on to some of its mechanics like swinging the keyblade to get a longer jump. It’s clear the game has charmed Graven. Even some of the cheesier Disney humor evokes a smile or slight chuckle from him. He admitted that he wasn’t expecting to be as affected by the Disney nostalgia as he has been. Gallagher had a wholesome moment on his most recent stream. He was in the Mostro world when his character Riku appeared. As a young Gallagher delivered the lines in game, a smile spread across Graven’s face. He told the chat he was expecting to cringe at his performance but instead found himself fully enjoying the moment.

It is a bit fascinating seeing Graven go through the story from Sora’s point of view but also bringing in Riku’s view. He has become a Sora-Riku shipper and has leant his voice acting skills to some of the unvoiced cutscenes. There was one moment when the game crashed shortly after an unvoiced scene with toddler Sora and Riku. The repeated cutscene inspired Graven to lend his voice to the young Riku and Sora, marking the first time the scene was dubbed by one of the game’s voice actors.

Watching Graven’s journey into the worlds of Kingdom Hearts has been a true delight. For those that can’t commit to watching a four-hour livestream, he uploads these Twitch streams to his YouTube channel igobygravenLIVE, so fans can catch up at their leisure. The stream is more than just Graven playing Kingdom Hearts. He also shares memories of recording sessions.

According to Gallagher, the final studio day was the most fun. In that session, he was instructed to make a lot of battle noises. The final take was the character’s death scream for when they die in gameplay. Apparently, that final scream takes a lot out of your voice, so they save it for the final day.

So far Graven has conquered Cerberus, saved the gorillas from Clayton, brought down Jafar, and visited Winnie the Pooh and friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. He has also hunted down a lot of trinity marks from the previous worlds he’s visited. He’s at the midpoint of the game where the worlds start getting harder, the bosses get tougher, and the plot really thickens. It may seem like the stream’s coming to an end but Graven’s just getting started. He plans to play through the entire series, which means during two games, he will get to play as the character he voiced.

Those interested in following the journey can join the Twitch livestreams or track his progress on YouTube. It’s also a great way to catch up on the series lore if you don’t have the time to play the games yourself. Graven is dynamic and engaging and pretty good at responding to the chat while keeping the focus on the game. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the plot twists in this game and future ones.

READ NEXT:

Featured