Kirby and the Forgotten Land surprised a few players when the game was revealed to be rated E10+ by the ESRB for potentially scaring younger audiences. As the ratings board wrote that Kirby's latest Switch adventure involved scenes that may strike fear into young players, fans were able to take away that the villain of the game would be rather monstrous as a result. However, Kirby loyalists would know that this is nothing new for the series.
After all, many Kirby fans have memories of being frightened by the imagery from previous series entries such as Kirby's Dream Land 3, and the games have dealt with grim concepts such as possession rather frequently as a number of the villains are mind controlled. Kirby and the Forgotten Land shares many similar themes with other Kirby games, and all of them seem rather interconnected.
How the Forgotten Land was Forgotten
The environment in Kirby and the Forgotten Land is presented in a way that may lead players to believe that the world found in the game was victim to some sort of calamity like many similar games before it, but the world in this game truly was forgotten rather than destroyed. The story of the Wondaria theme park and its relevant figures tells players that the people who lived in the Forgotten Land before dreamed of interplanetary travel. The tour recording found in Lab Discovera states that once scientists captured ID-F86, the being in which Elfilin was born from, these people finally had the means to travel the stars through experimenting on them. The tour guide also says that this planet had used ID-F86's warp abilities for 30 years.
The recording also reveals that the people of this planet left this world behind entirely by stating that Elfilin, as ID-F87, has "yet to be recovered," meaning that Elfilin was never recaptured before this civilization "entered a land of dreams," as Leongar puts it. The wording the Leader of the Beast Pack almost implies that the people of the Forgotten Land may be the ancestors of those who live on Dream Land. However, the cities and structures found in the new world resemble Earth more than Kirby's home. This paints a bleaker picture for the people of the Forgotten Land as Kirby 64: the Crystal Shards features a planet that looks just like a frozen Earth known as Shiver Star. Considering how many elements Forgotten Land takes from Crystal Shards, this could be where those who used to inhabit the new world ended up after leaving their planet behind.
The Story of the Beast Pack
While the main society on the planet left the new world and never returned, ID-F86 remained alone in the Eternal Capsule on a planet full of animals. According to their figure description as Fecto Forgo, their dreams in the capsule released psychic energy that slowly took control of the animals they reached. Other figure descriptions and level names reveal that the Beast Pack had evolved from Originull Wasteland, which features all the remnants of a successful tropical resort. It's borders also matches those of the Natural Plains and Everbay Coast, which implies that the original inhabitants of the Forgotten World left almost eons ago. So long ago that a continent split apart and evolution has changed the wildlife somewhat in the time since.
Kirby has already dealt with a group of enemies-turned-friends who were possessed by something much more sinister. Daroach and the Squeaks in Kirby: Squeak Squad started off as the small group of rodents who had stolen Kirby's cake, but they had also stolen a treasure chest sealing away Dark Nebula. Once the Lord of the Underworld was set free by Daroach by accident, he was soon possessed in a very similar way to Leongar, down to the purple fur. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse also has a similar plot twist, as Claycia was being used by Dark Crafter the entire time just like Leongar was. However, something prominent separates ID-F86 from Dark Crafter and Dark Nebula.
ID-F86's Containment and Anguish
ID-F86, also known as Fecto Elfilis, was experimented on for 30 years, and trapped and forgotten for eons more. With this in mind, it would be understandable for the creature to be tormented by its captivity. In Kirby and the Forgotten Land's post-game, players unlock Forgo Dreams - the dreamscape of ID-F86 as they try to resurrect themselves. The final area is a warped version of Lab Discovera that seems to be torn apart, playing a distorted version of the tour recording and music. "And here we are," and "specimen ID-F86" are repeated to almost annoying levels, and the distorted sound comes back as players face Elfilis one last time as Chaos Elfilis, a form made completely out of hatred for Kirby.
This is very reminiscent to the true nature of what happened to Queen Sectonia, Kirby Triple Deluxe's antagonist. While Sectonia's corruption was accidental and caused by the dark presence lurking inside the Dimensional Mirror she received as a gift, she became what the game describes as a "power-hungry monarch." Both Sectonia and ID-F86 were driven mad by what happened to them, and both have more or less died as a result of their obsessions. It could be argued that ID-F86's story ended happier than the insect queen's, as what remained of Elfilis willingly rejoined with Elfilin in the end, accepting defeat and allowing the two to properly become one just as ID-F86 wanted.
Despite Forgotten Land's ESRB rating, the content found in the game isn't anything too dark for the series, as in many ways, all of it has been seen in other titles. As early as Kirby's Adventure, plenty of the pink puffball's adventures have ended up showcasing topics such as betrayal and possession, with some entries going into the repercussions and damages that these situations can cause. While Forgotten Land was given an E10+ rating, Crystal Shards was soon after re-rated for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack release, ending up with a rated T for teen rating years later due to "blood" and "violence."
However, the latest Kirby game makes these secrets and undertones much easier to find than previous installments. In the past, players would need to look at the flavor text in the pause screen to be treated to the true nature of the story at hand. This wasn't entirely a problem, but Kirby fans lamented that anyone who didn't look at the pause menu may miss exactly what's going on with some key characters. Kirby and the Forgotten Land moves this flavor text into figure descriptions as well as into the details of its own environment, so it's much harder to miss what exactly occurs in the story. It seems as if Kirby's lore will be less of a scavenger hunt, and more something for fans to piece together as they absorb the presentation of future games, evolving the series' storytelling beyond simple pause menu text going forward.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is available now on Nintendo Switch.
