My youngest brother was 6 years old when I first sat him down to play Kingdom Hearts II.

Some might call it crazy to throw a child headfirst into a convoluted story without playing the previous titles; but this was the exact experience that I had at his age back in 2006. Naturally, I wanted to see if the game could imbue the same child-like wonder that it had on me once upon a time.

And it did! We binged our way through the entire game. I was there to guide him through the RPG systems and helped with most boss fights, which removed a lot of the frustration that troubled me as a kid. Witnessing his reaction to each world, the music, and the characters was seriously magical.

For me it was the perfect way to recapture that nostalgia within myself, while also passing it down. He's 11 now and we've been bonding over JRPGs ever since! We've played Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy VII and XV, and continued to play through most of the KH series together.