Spoilers: You don’t need to play the card game
[Kingdom Heartsis a confusing series that continuously stacks iterations of story, weaving prequels and interquels into an incomprehensible mess. Luckily, TheBlondeBass has a great primer to people looking to find a foothold. Great news for me considering I now own a PS4 with an upcoming HD remaster coming later this year. ~Strider]
Kingdom Hearts. A game series started on PS2, that managed to fit in eight titles and multiple collections across consoles and portables alike beforeKingdom Hearts IIIeven launches on PS4 and Xbox One. The multiple non-numbered entries sinceKingdom Hearts IIhave been a source of confusion for many and a seemingly impenetrable wall for those who are curious to check out the series and see what the fuss is all about.
Well, this is about to change. For the few select people who take the time to read this article, at least. TheKingdom Heartsseries can be divided into what I consider essential, important, and unimportant titles, and the collections easily allow you to play the most important games as long as you own either a PS3 or PS4. Ready to dive into the series that managed to make a fusion of Disney andFinal Fantasywork?
The essentials
Kingdom Hearts(2002)
The game that started it all. Three kids, Sora, Kaiki, and Riku, live in totally-not-Japan, playing together on a mostly deserted island known as Destiny Island in their free time. They dream of seeing what lies beyond the boundaries of their tiny world and are building a raft to make this dream come true. After calamity strikes the island, however, they won’t able to journey together.
The originalKingdom Heartsdefinitely has the clumsiest mechanics of the lot. There’s a surprising amount of platforming considering the clunky jumping controls, in particular. But beyond that lack of polish, there’s a very charming game that takes you to iconic Disney world like Agrabah, Wonderland… and even Halloween Town! The story is also the simplest and most tailored for kids of the bunch, which gives it a nostalgic feel. Sora’s the chosen kid wielding a weapon of destiny, the Keyblade. He defends Disney worlds from beasts known as the Heartless and tries to reunite with his friends. Do you need anything more than that?
Kingdom Hearts II(2005)
Still the highest-rated entry in the series,Kingdom Hearts IItakes place roughly a year after the events of the original. Roxas, a young teenager, and his bunch of friends are enjoying the last week of their summer vacation. Unfortunately, stranger and stranger events start happening, which threaten to bring an end to their happy days together. Indeed, despite Sora’s heroic efforts inKingdom HeartsUno, the worlds aren’t completely at peace, with a new enemy faction, the Nobodies, appearing alongside the Heartless.
Kingdom Hearts IIwas an impressive refinement of theKingdom Heartsformula. Jumping became smoother, combos flow together better, magic was more varied, and the addition of drive forms to switch the gameplay up made the game a blast to play. The world selection also included classics like Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mulan, and others… All around a straight up improvement over the original.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep(2010)
Yep, a non-numbered entry is in the essential category! First shown in a secret ending inKingdom Hearts II,Birth by Sleepis a prequel to the first two games. In a time where the art of wielding the Keyblade is mostly extinct, a few keep the torch burning. The story focuses on three of them: Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, which have parallels to the three friends ofKingdom Hearts I(Sora, Kairi and Riku respectively). After a test of mastery where only Aqua is deemed worthy of being called a Keyblade Master, a new threat appears across worlds: The Unversed. In a desperate attempt to prove his worth as a potential Master, Terra rushes to action, with the other two following after him. A new tale begins, one that sets up events that happened in the first two games, and one that doesn’t necessarily end well (as shown in theKingdom Hearts IIpreview).
Birth by Sleepwas originally designed for the PSP, and as such isn’t the most impressive visually. The game’s structure is pretty different from the first two games. First of all, the menu based system is replaced by a Command Deck. Instead of pressing down on the d-pad to reach magic, then selecting magic, all magic, techniques, and items are on a sort of carousel you’re able to browse through with the d-pad. This means there is no MP, since everything on the Command Deck has its own cooldown. You play through the game with all three characters, with different sections of each world being locked off depending on who you play as. New worlds like Enchanted Dominion, Dwarf Woodlands, and Deep Space are introduced, with some key worlds reappearing from “earlier” entries. While I personally thinkKingdom Hearts IIis the strongest game in the series, this one isn’t far behind either.
Suggested playing order for the essential games:
Kingdom Hearts -> Kingdom Hearts II -> Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
How to play the essential games:
Why do these collections have silly decimals? Well, 1.5 focuses onKingdom Hearts Ibut has another game and a movie, 2.5 focuses onKingdom Hearts IIbut has another game and a movie. Anyway, if you want nothing but the essentials beforeKingdom Hearts III, your journey ends here. If you want a bit more meat on the bones, then stick around for…
Pretty important entries
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories(2004)
This game takes place in the year betweenKingdom Hearts IandII. Sora finds himself in a mysterious castle known as Castle Oblivion while looking for his friends and King Mickey. He ends up climbing in the hopes of finding someone who is dear to him, but the castle is having a strong influence on his memories. As he climbs, he forgets more and more about his past and his adventures during the original game… what will be left of him when he reaches the top?
Chain of Memoriesis a very different game from the rest. Its Game Boy Advance incarnation was sort of a demake ofKingdom Hearts, being a sprite-based adventure that had him fight in worlds that were already part ofKingdom Hearts I, against bosses he had already fought before. Battles are fought using cards instead of a traditional menu: Even standard attacks are cards and can be beaten by stronger cards from enemies. You can stack multiple cards together to create a stronger move, but you end up losing one of your cards for the remainder of the battle as a result. As such, there was a clever form of resource management. Unfortunately, the card battle system doesn’t translate that well to the 3D gameplay of the PS2 remake, at least in my experience.
Still, it’s a creative gameplay concept either way and if you’re curious about the time skip betweenKingdom Hearts IandIIyou’ll want to check this out.
The entirety ofKingdom Hearts 2.8 HD(2017)
Alright, so this is a collection, but two of the elements contained within were made purely for the sake of the collection, so I might as well throw in the HD remaster with the rest.
In terms of gameplay,Dream Drop Distanceis most similar toBirth by Sleep, with some additions that go with the sleeping theme. Your time in a world is limited, and you’re forced to switch between Sora and Riku when the time is up. Your allies are also friendly monsters instead of being actual Disney characters. You also have crazy movement and combat abilities called Flowmotion which let you scale walls and just waltz everywhere… Meaning there’s no platforming to be found here.
(Dream Drop Distanceis DDD is 3D because it was on 3DS, get it?)
Suggested playing order for the essential and important games:
Kingdom Hearts -> Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories -> Kingdom Hearts II -> Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep -> Kingdom Hearts 3D -> Kingdom Hearts 0.2: BBS -> Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover
How to play the essential and important games:
Since the remake ofChain of Memoriesis included inKingdom Hearts 1.5 HD, the suggestions remain mostly the same:
You’ll wantKingdom Hearts 2.8, on PS4, to play the rest, however. But if you’re still curious about the remaining games in the series, well…
The unimportant stuff
Kingdom Hearts: Coded(2008)
This game was originally developed for mobile phones, and it is particularly silly. AfterKingdom Hearts II, Jiminy Cricket finds out that his journal, which documented Sora’s adventures, had two secret messages written by unknown people. The contents of the journal are thus scanned, and the game follows adigital Soraas he goes through a corrupted version of his previous adventures. Very silly. This game has been adapted into a movie for theKingdom Hearts 2.5 HDcollection.
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days(2009)
Developed by h.a.n.d for the Nintendo DS, this game follows the adventure of Roxas and another Keyblade wielder known as Xion in the year betweenKingdom Hearts IandII. Leaving aside having to use DS controls with a 3D action-RPG, the main reason why this game is better left aside is how unimportant this story is in the whole scheme of things. There really isn’t much going on narratively, and most missions simply end with some ice cream eating on top of a building. Still, if you’re desperate for moreKingdom Hearts, this game has been adapted into a movie for theKingdom Hearts 1.5 HD collection.
If you’re curious about the strange title, the game takes place during a period of358 daysover two characters.
Suggested playing order for the entire series:
Kingdom Hearts -> Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories -> Kingdom Hearts II -> Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days -> Kingdom Hearts Coded -> Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep -> Kingdom Hearts 3D -> Kingdom Hearts 0.2: BBS -> Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover
How to play the entire series:
BothCoded and 358/2 Dayshave been adapted as movies for1.5 HD and 2.5 HD, so my suggestions are the exact same as the previous category. If you want to play these two games, however, they are both playable on DS.
In any case, that’s as muchKingdom Heartsvideo games as you can get, so if you went through all that there’s nothing left to do but wait forKingdom Hearts III! Whenever that comes out.
Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HDlaunches on PS4 on January 24 andKingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 HDlaunches on March 28, also on PS4. You would think they would release the collections in the opposite order.
