My definitive guide to Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is a confusing and impenetrable franchise for some. I don’t blame them. Even after putting most of the games in one place, questions still abound. Are the games not in the collections worth playing? Are these games even good? Well today, I’m going to try to answer them. I will be going down the games in release order, will give a summary of my thoughts on the game and whether or not it’s worth playing.

Kingdom Hearts:

The simplest game in the franchise, from both a gameplay and a story perspective. For the story, this works in it’s favor. It’s simple and clean, easy to understand, ties up all of it’s biggest plot threads. It’s just a story about a boy trying to find his friends, and he gets swept up in an evil plot. It’s pretty by the numbers, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The gameplay has some very simplistic action elements. This is no DMC, to be sure. It’s completely serviceable though, and it has some light platforming elements. KH1 is a fun romp, that is unfortunately a bit hard to go back to in my opinion. Absolutely worth playing if you want to invest in the series.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories:

A bit of an oddball this one. The gameplay is very different, what with it being a GBA game. It’s all centered around using cards for attacks. It is interesting at first, but towards the end, it becomes very easy to cheese the game by just using some specific attacks. The story provides some context for how Sora and friends got to be in the situation they’re in in KH2, but it’s not immensely important. It does also go deeper into Riku’s inner struggle, but it’s also not vital. Play this if you want an oddball and kinda janky combat system, or just REALLY want to know what happens between KH1 and 2.

Kingdom Hearts 2:

Many would consider this the crown jewel of the series, and for good reason. Almost entirely abandoning the platforming from KH1, this focuses on combat. There are moments in this game that will trick you into thinking that this is a real character action game in the vein of DMC. While moments like that are fleeting, the overall experience is a whole lot of fun. While some bosses lack the depth and dynamic nature that a character action game boss should have, they are usually a good spectacle. The story is when things in this series start to get a little shaky. Not too much, the mine cart is still on the tracks, it’s just getting a little bumpy. It’s all about trying to find Riku, dealing with a new enemy threat called Nobodies, and the Final Mix version drops several hints at Birth By Sleep. Unfortunately, I think these hints can come off as just confusing to a newcomer. Absolute must play.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days:

Wow, this game is dull. The Remix collections only have this game in movie form, and that’s for the best. The gameplay isn’t noteworthy, and I’d even argue the story isn’t noteworthy either. It delves deeper into the machinations of Organization XIII, but it’s more like bonus information than anything of vital importance. There is one character though that might be coming back in KH3, so I guess watch it if you don’t want to be confused. Not worth playing, watch it you’re interesting.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep:

This games story is immensely vital to KH3. As for how it is to play…it’s very conflicted. It starts out fine, but as you play it, issues start to pile up. The command deck system makes combat very stiff. Attacks do not flow seamlessly into other attacks. You perform an attack, the character stops, you perform another attack. Most attacks in general often have very limited or almost no usefulness. There is an awful board game mini-game that you have to play to get some certain things. There is now basically a crafting system with the command deck attacks, which means you’re gonna be grinding a lot. The bosses in this game are very poor, particularly the super bosses. Most of these guys are straight up unfair and generally require some luck to beat. Play it through once on normal mode, don’t bother with the side stuff.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded:

A game that’s surprisingly fun and better than you’d think it would be. It polishes some things up from BBS, significantly improving the gameplay. Only qualm is that in every world there’s some minigame you have to go through and they’re almost all pretty terrible. The story is extremely inconsequential, and exists in the Remixes as a movie. If you want to play this, you’ll have to buy a copy yourself. Even though I do think it’s fun, I wouldn’t say it’s a must play.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance:

This game sucks. All the problems in BBS get compounded with enemies that don’t react to being hit and boss fights where you spend more time dodging than attacking. The way you get new abilities is completely asinine, and the game forces you to switch characters. Like, even if you’re in the middle of a boss fight, the timer can run out, and you get switched. Then when you switch back, you have to start over. This is just a very poorly made action game. It’s actually astonishing, rather than trying to make the good parts of BBS better and the bad parts less bad, they did the opposite. They made the good parts bad and the bad parts exponentially worse. The story, boy howdy, the story. The mine cart has jumped the rails and is careening into an endless abyss. Any chance of KH3 having a concise story are thrown right out the window.

Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you’re invested at this point, and you need to know what’s gonna happen. Do not play this game. Go on youtube, find the cutscenes, go wish you had never gotten invested in this series to begin with.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2: something something prologue

Hey, the devs learned some things. Hooray! Not a lot of things, but it isn’t the shitshow that DDD was. The story does tie directly into KH3, so it’s necessary watching at least. I wouldn’t recommend buying KH2.8 for what amounts to a demo of KH3, so go find cutscenes on youtube.

That mobile game:

There’s the Kingdom Hearts mobile game. It’s a trash mobile game. Fortunately all relevant information is in the movie Back Cover. Delves even further into the series past with what happens before the keyblade war. Leaves you with a couple mysteries. Will KH3 answer them? Maybe.

In summary:

Really, this series probably has more bad in it than good. Unfortunately, I’ve been invested in this for almost half of my life, so I buy the next game hoping for some payoff. Will KH3 finally give it to me? Probably not. If all you wanna do is play some good video games, load up KH1 and 2, have a good time, then walk away. If you wanna go down Nomura’s rabbit hole, then follow this guide, and you too will be anxious to be depressed by KH3.