When the Kingdom Hearts series first launched, it was the strange combination of Square Enix's Final Fantasy JRPG series and Disney's film catalogue that first captured the attention of fans of both franchises. The result is a combination of starkly distinct characters that act as references themselves with fewer subtle callbacks within Kingdom Hearts' original characters.
However, while many of the characters in Kingdom Hearts are more on the nose with how they relate to the connected crossovers, one heartless makes for one of the best visual references in the series. This would be the Blue Rhapsody, the ice version of the small spellcasting heartless that appear in every world throughout the first game at one point or another. These heartless have a similar design to a number of different enemies throughout out the game, but its bright yellow hat and blue body are what harkens so well back to an old Final Fantasy staple.
Final Fantasy's Black Mage
The reference that the Blue Rhapsody makes, and actually all of the musically named spellcasting heartless, is to one of the most iconic characters from early Final Fantasy titles. Coming all the way from the first entry in the series and reappearing throughout, Final Fantasy's black mage has become a template for similar characters both across the series and in many other fantasy titles looking for a familiar spellcaster design. Naturally, the long robe and large hat were already a pulled from older depictions of mysterious wizards and sorcerers in fantasy, but the vibrant colors applied to the pixelated graphics have set the standard for video game mages.
This is what makes the inclusion of the Blue Rhapsody and its fellow spellcasting heartless in Kingdom Hearts such a brilliant nod to designs from earlier Final Fantasy titles. Later on in the series, Kingdom Hearts 2 would include Vivi, one of the most notable versions of the classic black mage to appear in any of the 3D Final Fantasy titles, leaning further on this reference. Of course, that doesn't mean that the archetype doesn't appear again throughout the series, although the original Blue Rhapsody doesn't return outside of Chain of Memories and Re:Coded which reuse the first game's worlds and enemies.
Kingdom Heart's Spellcasting Heartless Archetype
The spellcasting archetype has continued to persist all the way through to Kingdom Hearts 3, with the designs evolving through each of the numbered titles as new flair and detail is added as the series goes on. As a result, the simple designs of the Blue Rhapsody from the original Kingdom Hearts grew to have a similar aesthetic and memorable quality to them as the original black mage, with newer interpretations escalating in a similar way to how Final Fantasy 9's Vivi reimagined the character. Although, while the design is reminiscent of this older callback, it's the smaller details that set the heartless apart and make them an effective enemy that winds up becoming cannon fodder as Sora grows stronger.
One of the most notable little details on the Blue Rhapsody and similar heartless is the inclusion of the tiny feet that can be seen to poke out of the bottom of the blue robes whenever it quickly darts across the map or casts a spell. The effect is most notable on the thunder based Yellow Opera in the first game, but later versions of these spellcasting heartless in other games would leave the legs hanging much more visably on the larger, more visually distinct designs. Of course, getting close enough to one in the wild to see the these smaller additions that helps bring the heartless to life is difficulty, which makes the close-ups in Jiminy's Journal useful for anyone looking to get a better look at any of Kingdom Hearts' heartless.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is set to release for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One on November 11 in Japan and November 13 worldwide.