A Guide To Playing 'Kingdom Hearts' for Newcomers

Video Games

Jun 7

Kingdom Hearts art — Image Source: Games Radar

The entirety of the Kingdom Hearts series aside from the mobile games are arriving on PC in June. With a complete package spanning 5 and a half games and three movies. It’s difficult to know where to start. The trailer for the Steam release went through all the games in chronological order, but this is a series that builds itself on previous games. If you want to be eased into the world, it’s best to play the games in release order. This allows the story to evolve naturally. Otherwise, you’re jumping right into a convoluted plot, and by the time you get to the original, certain things will no longer make sense. So let’s go through all the games in release order.

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix

Kingdom Hearts Finala Mix — Image Source: Cynical on X

Kingdom Hearts is the original game. In contrast to the other games, it offers a straightforward story that manages to combine the whimsy of Disney with anime-esque Final Fantasy characters. This game has more platforming elements than others in the series and has a balance of combat and exploration. It follows the story of Sora, a boy from a small island who dreams of seeing other worlds. After his world is threatened by Heartless, Sora finds himself on an adventure with Donald and Goofy to visit various Disney worlds and seal their keyholes. The game was initially released in 2002 and some of the gameplay reflects that but it's still very playable in 2024.

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Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain Of Memories

This game is the true sequel to Kingdom Hearts, picking up right where the first one left off. All the games after Kingdom Hearts 1 included some sort of gameplay-defining gimmick. This game’s gimmick is a controversial card system. It was designed for the GameBoy but was redeveloped into a PlayStation game with fully voiced cutscenes, between worlds that is. Sora, Donald, and Goofy find themselves in a strange castle that starts draining their memories. This castle is ruled by cards and Sora must build a deck with a bend of attack, magic, item, and enemy cards. The only free actions are moving and dodging. After Sora’s journey is complete, players can explore the castle basement as Riku. His journey is similar except his decks are preset for each world and can’t be changed.

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix

Kingdom Hearts 2 is a sequel much more akin to the original game. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are back to exploring Disney worlds looking for the King and Riku. This sequel is far more focused on combat than exploration. As such, a new gimmick called drive forms were added. These forms emphasize Sora’s strength and magic and unlock certain movement abilities like High Jump and Glide, which make traversing the worlds much easier. As a numbered sequel, it is filled with cinematic twists and turns and is labeled a favorite among many Kingdom Hearts fans. However, these twists and turns are the beginning of a story that would only get more convoluted.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Initially a game for the DS, the story has been reformatted to a three-hour movie focusing on the characters of Roxas, Axel, and Xion during their time in Organization XIII to the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2. This story is crucial to events in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

This game was initially for the PSP before being remade for home consoles. The story takes place ten years before Sora begins his adventure. It follows the story of keyblade wielders Terra, Ven, and Aqua training under Master Eraqus. The story is split into three parts with Terra, Ven, and Aqua as the playable characters. The way the story progresses, it is recommended to play as Aqua last as her story wraps up the endgame. Terra should be played first as his strength slows him down, while Ventus’ main ability is speed.

Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded

Re: Coded’s main gimmick was the gameplay changing up during the boss battles. However, the game was repurposed into a movie in the 1.5 & 2.5 ReMIX collection. This game is so far the only story nonessential to the overarching narrative. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy decide to investigate Jiminy’s Journal from the first game which had been completely erased except for a “Thank Namine” message. A new message appears in the journal, prompting the gang’s curiosity. They digitize the journal and recruit the help of Data-Sora to get to the bottom of the mysterious message.

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

This game initially launched on the 3DS hence the three D’s in the title. This game takes place after Kingdom Hearts 2 and involves Sora and Riku taking their Mark of Mastery by unlocking the keyholes in sleeping worlds. The drop part of the title refers to the core gameplay mechanic. The gameplay is split between Sora and Riku with a drop meter counting down. When the drop meter reaches the bottom, the player character is switched, and the player will continue as the new character until the drop meter falls again. The other core mechanic involves the collection of Dream Eaters which Sora and Riku can team up with for special moves.

Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover

This is an hour-long movie that tries to sum up some events from the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. This game is not part of the Steam collection and the mobile app has since closed. Although it remains in a theater mode. Alternatively, you can check out YouTuber Damo279’s fandub of the entire Union Cross story interspersed with scenes from Back Cover. Another mobile game Missing-Link is set to take place between Union Cross and Dark Road but hasn’t been released yet. The movie included in the Steam collection focuses on the Master of Masters and his six apprentices who start to suspect each other of betrayal.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage

This is the half-game mentioned in the opening paragraph. The roughly three-hour continues Aqua’s story as she explores the Realm of Darkness and doubles as a tech demo for Kingdom Hearts 3. Since it’s told in flashbacks, the game takes place both immediately before Kingdom Hearts 3, immediately after Birth By Sleep, and during the end of Kingdom Hearts 1. There’s no real gimmick to this game, but you can customize Aqua with cat ears and tweak her outfit.

Kingdom Hearts 3 & Re: Mind

This is the culmination of a twenty-year narrative. It builds on a history of gameplay too, incorporating almost every ability from past games and introducing Keyblade transformations. Rather than just whacking his enemies with a key, Sora can transform his weapon into drills, yo-yos, hammers, and more. The story follows Sora, Donald, and Goofy as they visit the Disney worlds looking for the power of waking, so they can save the lost keyblade wielders and take down Master Xehanort. Re: Mind is the DLC that revealed more story, a new boss rush, and allowed players to play as every guardian of light.

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road

This is another mobile game and focuses on Xehanort’s origins as he trains with Master Eraqus in Scala Ad Caelum. It is not part of the Steam collection, but the cutscenes may be worth a watch on YouTube as Xehanort was largely responsible for everything that happened in these games.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody Of Memory

This is another game not in the Steam collection but is available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC through Epic Games. While this is mostly a recap of the above stories, the endgame does reveal some new information and hints toward the future of the series. Melody of Memory is a rhythm game that takes players through iconic locales and scenes with even more iconic music tracks by Yoko Shimomura and Utada Hikaru. The story in the game is the main characters are diving into Kairi’s memories to search for a clue of Sora’s whereabouts. As such, Kairi serves as a narrator recapping previous events. Despite being a Kairi-centered game, Kairi is only playable in one level. The rest of the gameplay is handled by the teams of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Riku, and two Dream Eaters, Roxas, Axel, and Xion, or Aqua, Terra, and Ventus.

Playing the games in this order will help you understand how long-time Kingdom Hearts fans experienced the story and the gameplay changes. However, if you’re committed to chronological order, you can find the timeline below.

Back Cover

Union Cross*

Missing-Link*

Dark Road*

Birth By Sleep

A Fragmentary Passage

Kingdom Hearts

Re: Chain of Memories

358/2 Days

Kingdom Hearts 2

Re: Coded

Dream Drop Distance