There is a fundamental fact about storytelling that appears has never been found, nevermind documented, based on my knowledge.
It's this simple truth: Fairy Tale re-tellings are a conceptual failure.
At BEST, they are a flawed analogy to convey the themes of a story. For example, a story re-telling the tale of the beauty and the beast to talk about the dichotomy between carnal desires and reason.
At WORST, they are stuck inside the past glories of these tales, incapable of telling anything themselves beyond the border of the fairy tale they chose to replicate. They have nothing new to say. For example, the mindlessly boring first hours of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, in which nothing is said and everything is merely a re-telling of something humanity has already seen before: Fairy Tales that everybody knows.
The story has nothing new to add, no insight whatsoever; the protagonist serves as a passive observer that has no particular thoughts whatsoever on the events that happen in front of him.
When, in addition, I was forced to walk through the same superficial landscapes with nothing interesting inside them over and over and over again, I soon grew too impatient and gave up on the whole thing.
The main plot of the first game is nothing special: "The Chosen One" is used as an anology for people born with higher intelligence who are capable of changing the world. He then learns about the different parts of it through exploring the different fairy tales. Then he defeats stagnation/the darkness/nihilism/the heartless. Nobody cares.

It's utterly baffling how this series is considered one of the greatest artistic achievements in the medium. But perhaps that is prove that nobody seems to have ever bothered to think about the inherent nature of fairy tale re-tellings? It's all so bizarre.
The awesome cover art and great main theme really fooled me into thinking this would be special.
Nobody should bother with it.