Kirby Star Allies Assignment: Narrative
Kirby is a platforming series that focuses on being simple and fun. Story often takes a back seat. Many of the games will have only a simple cutscene at the beginning showing how Kirby got into this mess, no story in the middle, then an exposition dump right before the final boss.
This pattern has its advantages and disadvantages; it allows the player to focus on the gameplay without interruption, and the exposition dump gets the player invested and makes the final boss more exciting.
After the most recent main-line game Kirby and the Forgotten Land had the most intense pre-final boss emotional whiplash of all Kirby games, I found myself wondering whether Kirby storylines would be better if they slowly revealed the story throughout the game, rather than saving all their cards for the very end. Kirby Planet Robobot and Kirby Star Allies came the closest to achieving this.
The introduction cutscene shows the final area of the game. We see a white-hooded figure cast a spell on a crystal heart, which splits the heart into purple and pink pieces that scatter across the galaxy; a group of them fly towards Kirby's home planet. Kirby awakens to Waddle Dee servants carrying a lot of food to the castle of Dedede, Kirby's friend.
Kirby and friends defeat Dedede to stop him from stealing all the food, and see a dark heart fly out of him and away, explaining his sudden antagonistic behavior. There isn't any plot in the second world. The third world has Kirby explore an enemy spaceship that has anchored itself to the planet. Through spoken dialogue, we learn that these aliens are gathering the dark hearts for their leader Hyness. The fourth world has Kirby meet and fight the alien Mage-Generals again, but unfortunately no new information is given. We come to the classic pre-final boss exposition dump, but because the fact they're gathering the dark heart pieces and Hyness's existence have already been introduced before, the exposition dump isn't as heavy. The only new information introduced here is the fact that the dark heart pieces are being used to revive the Dark Lord Void Termina.
The post game has a very sweet story. After thwarting the Mage-Generals and Hyness's evil plans in the main game, Kirby travels through Another Dimension to save them from their corruption. We learn here that Hyness was once a kind person, and that the Mage-Generals follow him out of love. Because of Kirby's help, they are able to live happily again. Even the Dark Lord Void Termina seems to find happiness. I find Kirby's kindness towards his enemies very inspiring. I think this game is a big reason why I love the trope of the redemption arc.
Spoilers for Star Allies!
