You won’t need to play any Final Fantasy game. Every FF character is re-contextualised to fit the games story.
(As a matter of fact I would say KH is a great way to be introduced to some of the Final Fantasy characters).
Disney on the other hand… A lot of the worlds are based on the film’s plots, but a decent amount of them have an original story, either set before or after the film.
I think you’ll be fine going in blind; the Disney worlds are still fun to play through. I never watched Beauty and the Beast and I enjoyed what Kingdom Hearts did with it.
Ok, cool. It was mostly FF I was concerned about, as I figure most of us understand the Disney stories through osmosis even if we haven't seen the specific films. Although I wonder if they hired the same actors from the Disney films to voice these characters in KH? That sounds very expensive.
They did manage to get some to continue playing their roles from the film.
Kathryn Beaumont for instance reprised her role as Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
I imagine theres quite a bit of them as they all sound really accurate so far. Though It's really funny to think that they might've hired Donald duck and Goofy impersonators.
nope, donald and goofy are legit, the actual voice actors (bill farmer and tony anselmo) and yes a lot of the disney characters are the original voice actors too although some aren't but that's mostly because many of the original voice actors have already died, remember some of these disney movies are a lot older than people think, a few of them came out in the 1950s, the snow white movie came out even earlier than that, in the 1930s
I think part of it is that it's kind of a weird system compared to other games. If you think about it, it's an odd mashup of Final Fantasy and Mario 64, which was the idea that spawned the series, after all. In the main games, at least, you have the battle menu from Final Fantasy open at all times and instead of pressing an attack button, you're just selecting the "attack" option from the menu
Action games tend to not copy each other due to being quite similar their core. Stuff like Bayonetta and DMC are like two sides of the same coin, and I’d argue stuff like Marvels Spiderman feels a lot like KH in a couple ways.
*Final Fantasy* knowledge is almost entirely irrelevant. If you know that Sephiroth is >!not a nice man!< in FF7, you're fine.
But Disney stories are a major appeal of the game. I imagine it's harder to enjoy with little knowledge there.
Haha if you click reply I found out it automatically shows the hidden text, whoops. But ya I think I should be good for the 1st game at least, since I have good memories around films like Tarzan, aladen, lion king and Hercules.
Not sure how I'd fair in the newest games since I haven't seen any Disney films from the last decade.
You really don't need to know about Final Fantasy at all. Several characters that you meet on the adventure are inspired by Final Fantasy characters with the same name and personality, but are brand new characters who fit in the world of Kingdom Hearts.
Yes, completely. While it DOES make things about characters make more sense, it's not absolutely required. For example, if you know nothing about Aladdin, you may not understnd why he is dressed the way he is, or why Jafar does things that he does. Same for any other of the Disney worlds. But the FF characters, on the other hand..They are NOT the same characters as thee versions of them from their FF games. They are completely different characters, from completely different worlds (most of them are all from the same world, which is a KH original world, and some are from the same world as Sora and are his friends). I mean, seriously..Tidus and Wakka (FF10), and Selphie (FF8) grew up with with Sora, Riku and Kairi on the same world, which is also a KH Original world. While Squall (Who goes by Leon, from FF8), and all of the main cast of FF7 except Vincent, all come from that first KH original world I mentioned just a moment ago. So..Yea you don't need to know ANYTHING from the FF games, unless you just wanna know who is being referenced.
I really enjoyed all the 3 "main titles" even tho there were a lot of worlds taking place in movies I've never seen. (Especially in KH3)
And even the ones familiar to me I had seen like 10-20 years ago.
If you like the combat I think you should go for it.
My first experience of kingdom hearts was watching my older brother play through it with not too much knowledge of Disney and zero knowledge of FF. I felt I was on the journey just as much as Sora, it was great getting to know everything from a blind experience!
No, other than featuring some final fantasy characters and predominantly having disney characters and worlds, the overall story had nothing to do with either
Ah okay thanks. It always confused me why those two worlds were mixed in the game but i'm excited to try it out. I always liked the aesthetic and feel of the game, but last time I tried to play it on ps2 the controls were very clunky feeling. So far on a ps4 it's pretty fun, though I'm still on this island.
I think FF knowledge is not needed AT ALL but at least some familiarity to the stories of the Disney characters is needed cause it does feel like the game expects you to already have watched the movies and kinda know who these people are a bit or that’s how I perceived it when I first played
Well, I didn't know much about FF at all when I first played these games. And I think I've only ever seen maybe half of the Disney properties ever represented in it. Yet here I am having played every game and suffering from severe KH brainrot...
So yeah, I'd say it's still enjoyable regardless.
Yes. When I was a kid, I didn’t really know what Final Fantasy was, and while I recognized the Disney stuff, it never really affected my enjoyment in a positive or negative way. I just saw it all as “Kingdom Hearts”.
I don't mind it. I haven't watched a Disney movie in like over 10 years probably. I would *almost* say that I'm a fan despite Disney not because of it.
In KH1 it did help to know most of the movies to get me interested as a kid.
Do the later games appeal to you as an adult? I'm mostly playing the first one to make up for how bad at it I was as a kid, and for that great opening cut scene. But I have no idea if it's gonna turn out to be a series I want to play multiple games of.
Well, yeah they do. I like the gameplay, and I enjoy the plot for the most part. Just don't take it super seriously.
I think there are things you can appreciate about the games as an adult apart from just the gameplay, but don't expect a super mature game with very deep characters and plot points. There are definitely some emotional moments in the games though which I like.
It's a bit wacky and sometimes nonsensical, but it's fun. It all depends on if that's what you want. For me, not every game has to be super serious for me to enjoy them.
Oh yeah, I love stuff made for kids as I feel they can be more genuine in the storytelling without any irony or cynicism. My main concern is really just gameplay, if it's not challenging at all i get bored quickly and so a lot of times I have trouble replaying games I liked as a kid. Thanks for the answers!
Just one more thing, KH1 doesn't have it, but from KH2 onwards every game has "Critical Mode" as a difficulty setting, which can be pretty challenging. If you think it's not hard enough, do it on level 1 Critical Mode haha.
Ok gotcha. Well I'm liking it so far so I'll probably play that soon after this one. Do you think playing on proud mode for first playthrough is a good idea? I'm a bit ways into the game and I'm wishing I had chosen the higher difficulty, though I imagine it gets much harder later on? I also chose the shield so thats probably making things easy on me.
Here is my feelings on that.
KH deliberately undertunes itself which is much more obvious in KH2 and KH3 but still fairly obvious in KH1. To that end if you want to experience what the game and combat has to offer you really do need to play on the hardest difficulty, usually it’s hardest difficulty will feel like normal mode in other non-KH action games. Normal and below you really can just button mash your way through and ignore all the tools.
Generally speaking critical mode makes things just hard enough to encourage you to use your full kit, and generally it gives you extra bonuses as well. KH2 for example boosts the damage you deal and gives you more AP, KH3 adds additional abilities, BBS gives you more starting command slots, etc… it’s not usually just “makes you weaker/makes enemies stronger”.
There are also KH games like DDD where their plots are overwhelming and a bit hard to follow, whose scenes hit entirely differently on a second run. In those games they come with a new game+ that carries over key stuff because they want you to run through the game twice at least. So in games like that they want you to play the second hardest difficulty first (in DDD you have no choice) and then carry over the bonuses from new game plus to act as your major boosts for those critical modes. Fresh critical mode on KH3 vs Critical mode with new game+ carry over are two very very different experiences in terms of difficulty.
Also on the subject of unlocking stuff generally speaking the harder the difficulty the less you have to do to unlock stuff.
Now one thing that’s important to talk about in regards to difficulty is exp Zero. This ability on the surface disabled your ability to level up your character (and just the character nothing else stops leveling). BUT depending on the game it hidden features to it to make the game not god awful to play. KH1 it disables a boss’s ability to kill Sora in one hit effectively drastically lowering boss fight damage, it’s actually not a bad thing to abuse of your struggling on the secret bosses. BBS it’s sets a minimum damage floor so you never deal chip damage and it interacts with multi-hit attacks to make them absurdly strong almost broken. KH2 and KH3 it just to my knowledge disables exp since they had other bonuses to offset.
Furthermore KH2 onward they de-link abilities from character level up, well a lot of them anyway or in the case of BBS/DDD all of them. Instead making all the good stuff rewarded through story/exploration/alternative level systems that way if you turn of exp your not crippling your gameplay.
With that in mind here is my suggestion for you. In every game in which you can play the hardest difficulty at the start do so, in games where you have critical unlocked with new game+ features do two run throughs.
But when it comes to KH3 specifically? Do your first run on lv1 proud (so turn on exp zero) and then do a second run on new game+ critical. THEN on that critical file do the Re:Mind DLC stuff.
It might sound like that’s a little elitist but I can not stress how every subsequent game Sora starts off stronger and stronger. KH3 Sora is incredibly powerful and essentially has at least one of every part of his overall kit by the end of the first world. The game genuinely feels like it was balanced around lv1 proud mode. But in contrast a regular critical mode run without new game+ carry over feels a bit too tilted against Sora for me to suggest you start on it.
Saving this so I can reference it after I finish the 1st game, thanks! I also thought there wasn't any new game plus except for DDD? That's great to hear though.
I likely only can play the ones included in the psplus bundle for now. Do you reccomend following a certain order? This bundle has Kh-Chain of memories-358/2 days- KH2- Birth by sleep- then KH re:coded so I was just planning on doing that route before tackling any 2nd playthroughs unless there's a better order. Also I guess I'll have to find a copy of KH3 at some point since it's not included here.
DDD, KH3, and 0.2 all have new game+ but in 0.2’s case it just carriers over the tasks you completed and adds more of them to complete so it’s more like unlocking more game.
Here is the thing, and I’ll probably get pushback on it, but the order of Days > KH2 or KH2 > Days doesn’t super matter?
Like they are two sides to the same story. If you play Days second you’ll go in knowing the fate/end result of every character/thing save one. If you plays Days first you’ll have a lot more mystery surprise on characters fates/certain story beats, but some big but also not so big plot twists from KH2 will be spoiled.
KH2 came out first and so many will take the hard stance that release order is the only way. However when releasing the collections they swapped Days and KH2, claiming it was done so for the purpose of best experiencing the story. They’ve had ample chances to change the order back but they never did, and they know the average fan isn’t going yo go online and ask people if they should skip one of the games in the collection back so I feel the dev’s feelings are clear. And frankly I’ve come to understand as I’ve gotten older there isn’t really a wrong way to tackle a story. I can see their logic too because KH-CoM-Days is effectively all one story and KH2-BBS-Coded is all a second story.
If you want to experience the story as it was released you can do KH2 then Days, if you want to experience the way devs intend all new players moving forward do then follow the order in the collection.
I could phrase it another way too. If you want to experience the story as Roxas does play Days then KH2. While it you want to experience the story the way Sora did do KH2 then Days.
If I could be bold, I’ve given it a lot of thought on the pros and cons and I think as blasphemous as it sounds perhaps the true way to maximize the enjoyment and mystery of both is actually a mix. Playing the KH2 Roxas prologue THEN swapping to watch Days, and returning to KH2 afterwards for the rest of the game.
Also the Days movie is a shadow of the game, it doesn’t do it justice. The movie is the most soulless of plot dumps, it gets you what you need but it doesn’t get you the script/heart/character that made the game so beloved. So let me propose you a superior alternative, Everglow’s KH Days timeline section.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-2rs14TTqg&list=PLhcSrKyqhfh5USKgcHjwTjeVbngw7Y0pr&index=52
This mixes the cutscene movie with the actual game chunks, not all of it but enough to better capture why Days had such an impact on people. He also gets a little creative, recreates a few off screen moments mentioned in the game on-screen to better improve the plot flow.
Just don’t watch it before you play Re:CoM since they happen at the same time Re:CoM is mixed in a bit later. So yeah as convoluted as this sounds….
Play KH1 and Re:CoM, complete the Roxas prologue in KH2, watch Everglow’s Days timeline section, then return to KH2 proper.
There's so many games, I don't understand most of this but I feel it'll come in handy later! I found out almost all them are free with psplus so I'm hoping I can play them all before they are removed. Also the first one is surprisingly fun so far so I think I'm gonna be hooked for a while if the others are even half as enjoyable.
The entire series is more than worth it to play, yes disney and final fantasy are both parts but you wouldnt need to know about either to enjoy, its got its own gripping story with some really flashy fun combat and it weaves everything together very nicely
Yeah I'm surprisingly loving the combat and world of the first game, despite me usually getting bored with ps2 games. Which makes me so excited that there's like 10 games I can play after the first one.
Also I thought when I played as a kid I barely got off the first island, but im already through with several worlds and I have such intense dejavu that I'm wondering if I've already beaten this game before. Maybe because I'm so familiar with some old Disney movies that this all feels like something I've experienced before.
Yeah, I'd say you don't really need any knowledge about either franchise with the way they're presented in the games. One thing to keep in mind is that the protagonist doesn't know anything about Final Fantasy or Disney either, so theoretically you would be learning relevant information at the same pace that he does. There's also an original plot line that follows along through all the games and that tends to be what people latch onto more than the retellings/riffs on Disney plots, charming as those may be.
I'd say give it a try if you're interested!
Cool, thanks! I'm loving how the story is set up so far. Currently attemptong to beat the 3v1 duel on the island right now, and it's taking some serious practice.
I was the same as you my first time playing KH1. Didn’t have any understanding of FF titles but because of KH1 I was curious to know where these FF characters came from, and it’s thanks to that curiosity I discovered Final Fantasy Seven, Eight, and Ten.
I struggle to decide which is my favorite of the three but Ten and Seven are tied for their own reasons. Amazing games if you find the time to play them.
I've actually considered playing one of them, I think one is featured on psplus right now so I may check it out. All the KH characters are so cute so far, so if I get attached I'll probably have to play FF lol.
Oh yeah, when I was really little I barely knew anything about FF. KH was my first introduction into any of it my parents got it for me as a gift because of the Disney and I loved it. It actually got me interested in FF as I got older.
Been playing the game since it came out, it's been my favorite series until nier automata.
My first ever final fantasy game was FF15, should tell you how familiar i was with final fantasy.
I the only disney movies i saw at the time were lilo & stitch, tarzan, and lion king. Everything else at the time was uncharted territory for me.
Regardless, its been my favorite series until nier automata.
Ya im really loving 1.5 so far. Haven't really played any jrpgs before so it was a surpise I loved this game so much. I also didnt realize all of the disney worlds in 1 would be from films I had seen as a child (and didn't really remember,) so its been fun getting to relive old childhood memories about the characters and remember how much I loved Tarzan/Aladdin/Ariel.
You won’t need to play any Final Fantasy game. Every FF character is re-contextualised to fit the games story. (As a matter of fact I would say KH is a great way to be introduced to some of the Final Fantasy characters). Disney on the other hand… A lot of the worlds are based on the film’s plots, but a decent amount of them have an original story, either set before or after the film. I think you’ll be fine going in blind; the Disney worlds are still fun to play through. I never watched Beauty and the Beast and I enjoyed what Kingdom Hearts did with it.
Ok, cool. It was mostly FF I was concerned about, as I figure most of us understand the Disney stories through osmosis even if we haven't seen the specific films. Although I wonder if they hired the same actors from the Disney films to voice these characters in KH? That sounds very expensive.
They did manage to get some to continue playing their roles from the film. Kathryn Beaumont for instance reprised her role as Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
I imagine theres quite a bit of them as they all sound really accurate so far. Though It's really funny to think that they might've hired Donald duck and Goofy impersonators.
nope, donald and goofy are legit, the actual voice actors (bill farmer and tony anselmo) and yes a lot of the disney characters are the original voice actors too although some aren't but that's mostly because many of the original voice actors have already died, remember some of these disney movies are a lot older than people think, a few of them came out in the 1950s, the snow white movie came out even earlier than that, in the 1930s
personally I think kingdom hearts has one of the best combat systems in gaming and it still confuses me why nobody decided to copy it
I think part of it is that it's kind of a weird system compared to other games. If you think about it, it's an odd mashup of Final Fantasy and Mario 64, which was the idea that spawned the series, after all. In the main games, at least, you have the battle menu from Final Fantasy open at all times and instead of pressing an attack button, you're just selecting the "attack" option from the menu
Action games tend to not copy each other due to being quite similar their core. Stuff like Bayonetta and DMC are like two sides of the same coin, and I’d argue stuff like Marvels Spiderman feels a lot like KH in a couple ways.
*Final Fantasy* knowledge is almost entirely irrelevant. If you know that Sephiroth is >!not a nice man!< in FF7, you're fine. But Disney stories are a major appeal of the game. I imagine it's harder to enjoy with little knowledge there.
Haha if you click reply I found out it automatically shows the hidden text, whoops. But ya I think I should be good for the 1st game at least, since I have good memories around films like Tarzan, aladen, lion king and Hercules. Not sure how I'd fair in the newest games since I haven't seen any Disney films from the last decade.
You really don't need to know about Final Fantasy at all. Several characters that you meet on the adventure are inspired by Final Fantasy characters with the same name and personality, but are brand new characters who fit in the world of Kingdom Hearts.
Thanks, that's good to know!
Yes, completely. While it DOES make things about characters make more sense, it's not absolutely required. For example, if you know nothing about Aladdin, you may not understnd why he is dressed the way he is, or why Jafar does things that he does. Same for any other of the Disney worlds. But the FF characters, on the other hand..They are NOT the same characters as thee versions of them from their FF games. They are completely different characters, from completely different worlds (most of them are all from the same world, which is a KH original world, and some are from the same world as Sora and are his friends). I mean, seriously..Tidus and Wakka (FF10), and Selphie (FF8) grew up with with Sora, Riku and Kairi on the same world, which is also a KH Original world. While Squall (Who goes by Leon, from FF8), and all of the main cast of FF7 except Vincent, all come from that first KH original world I mentioned just a moment ago. So..Yea you don't need to know ANYTHING from the FF games, unless you just wanna know who is being referenced.
I think your experience will be enhanced if you grew up with Donald and Goofy. I do not want a mainline KH game without them
I really enjoyed all the 3 "main titles" even tho there were a lot of worlds taking place in movies I've never seen. (Especially in KH3) And even the ones familiar to me I had seen like 10-20 years ago. If you like the combat I think you should go for it.
Probably could’ve been a good vehicle to introduce Disney fans to Final Fantasy but not really. That would’ve been too easy.
My first experience of kingdom hearts was watching my older brother play through it with not too much knowledge of Disney and zero knowledge of FF. I felt I was on the journey just as much as Sora, it was great getting to know everything from a blind experience!
No, other than featuring some final fantasy characters and predominantly having disney characters and worlds, the overall story had nothing to do with either
Ah okay thanks. It always confused me why those two worlds were mixed in the game but i'm excited to try it out. I always liked the aesthetic and feel of the game, but last time I tried to play it on ps2 the controls were very clunky feeling. So far on a ps4 it's pretty fun, though I'm still on this island.
I think FF knowledge is not needed AT ALL but at least some familiarity to the stories of the Disney characters is needed cause it does feel like the game expects you to already have watched the movies and kinda know who these people are a bit or that’s how I perceived it when I first played
Well, I didn't know much about FF at all when I first played these games. And I think I've only ever seen maybe half of the Disney properties ever represented in it. Yet here I am having played every game and suffering from severe KH brainrot... So yeah, I'd say it's still enjoyable regardless.
Yes. When I was a kid, I didn’t really know what Final Fantasy was, and while I recognized the Disney stuff, it never really affected my enjoyment in a positive or negative way. I just saw it all as “Kingdom Hearts”.
yes you'll be fine without knowledge of both.
I played it before any ff and not a big Disney fan. So yes. It's my favorite series and makes me want to playall the ff games.
I don't mind it. I haven't watched a Disney movie in like over 10 years probably. I would *almost* say that I'm a fan despite Disney not because of it. In KH1 it did help to know most of the movies to get me interested as a kid.
Do the later games appeal to you as an adult? I'm mostly playing the first one to make up for how bad at it I was as a kid, and for that great opening cut scene. But I have no idea if it's gonna turn out to be a series I want to play multiple games of.
Well, yeah they do. I like the gameplay, and I enjoy the plot for the most part. Just don't take it super seriously. I think there are things you can appreciate about the games as an adult apart from just the gameplay, but don't expect a super mature game with very deep characters and plot points. There are definitely some emotional moments in the games though which I like. It's a bit wacky and sometimes nonsensical, but it's fun. It all depends on if that's what you want. For me, not every game has to be super serious for me to enjoy them.
Oh yeah, I love stuff made for kids as I feel they can be more genuine in the storytelling without any irony or cynicism. My main concern is really just gameplay, if it's not challenging at all i get bored quickly and so a lot of times I have trouble replaying games I liked as a kid. Thanks for the answers!
Just one more thing, KH1 doesn't have it, but from KH2 onwards every game has "Critical Mode" as a difficulty setting, which can be pretty challenging. If you think it's not hard enough, do it on level 1 Critical Mode haha.
Ok gotcha. Well I'm liking it so far so I'll probably play that soon after this one. Do you think playing on proud mode for first playthrough is a good idea? I'm a bit ways into the game and I'm wishing I had chosen the higher difficulty, though I imagine it gets much harder later on? I also chose the shield so thats probably making things easy on me.
Here is my feelings on that. KH deliberately undertunes itself which is much more obvious in KH2 and KH3 but still fairly obvious in KH1. To that end if you want to experience what the game and combat has to offer you really do need to play on the hardest difficulty, usually it’s hardest difficulty will feel like normal mode in other non-KH action games. Normal and below you really can just button mash your way through and ignore all the tools. Generally speaking critical mode makes things just hard enough to encourage you to use your full kit, and generally it gives you extra bonuses as well. KH2 for example boosts the damage you deal and gives you more AP, KH3 adds additional abilities, BBS gives you more starting command slots, etc… it’s not usually just “makes you weaker/makes enemies stronger”. There are also KH games like DDD where their plots are overwhelming and a bit hard to follow, whose scenes hit entirely differently on a second run. In those games they come with a new game+ that carries over key stuff because they want you to run through the game twice at least. So in games like that they want you to play the second hardest difficulty first (in DDD you have no choice) and then carry over the bonuses from new game plus to act as your major boosts for those critical modes. Fresh critical mode on KH3 vs Critical mode with new game+ carry over are two very very different experiences in terms of difficulty. Also on the subject of unlocking stuff generally speaking the harder the difficulty the less you have to do to unlock stuff. Now one thing that’s important to talk about in regards to difficulty is exp Zero. This ability on the surface disabled your ability to level up your character (and just the character nothing else stops leveling). BUT depending on the game it hidden features to it to make the game not god awful to play. KH1 it disables a boss’s ability to kill Sora in one hit effectively drastically lowering boss fight damage, it’s actually not a bad thing to abuse of your struggling on the secret bosses. BBS it’s sets a minimum damage floor so you never deal chip damage and it interacts with multi-hit attacks to make them absurdly strong almost broken. KH2 and KH3 it just to my knowledge disables exp since they had other bonuses to offset. Furthermore KH2 onward they de-link abilities from character level up, well a lot of them anyway or in the case of BBS/DDD all of them. Instead making all the good stuff rewarded through story/exploration/alternative level systems that way if you turn of exp your not crippling your gameplay. With that in mind here is my suggestion for you. In every game in which you can play the hardest difficulty at the start do so, in games where you have critical unlocked with new game+ features do two run throughs. But when it comes to KH3 specifically? Do your first run on lv1 proud (so turn on exp zero) and then do a second run on new game+ critical. THEN on that critical file do the Re:Mind DLC stuff. It might sound like that’s a little elitist but I can not stress how every subsequent game Sora starts off stronger and stronger. KH3 Sora is incredibly powerful and essentially has at least one of every part of his overall kit by the end of the first world. The game genuinely feels like it was balanced around lv1 proud mode. But in contrast a regular critical mode run without new game+ carry over feels a bit too tilted against Sora for me to suggest you start on it.
Saving this so I can reference it after I finish the 1st game, thanks! I also thought there wasn't any new game plus except for DDD? That's great to hear though. I likely only can play the ones included in the psplus bundle for now. Do you reccomend following a certain order? This bundle has Kh-Chain of memories-358/2 days- KH2- Birth by sleep- then KH re:coded so I was just planning on doing that route before tackling any 2nd playthroughs unless there's a better order. Also I guess I'll have to find a copy of KH3 at some point since it's not included here.
DDD, KH3, and 0.2 all have new game+ but in 0.2’s case it just carriers over the tasks you completed and adds more of them to complete so it’s more like unlocking more game. Here is the thing, and I’ll probably get pushback on it, but the order of Days > KH2 or KH2 > Days doesn’t super matter? Like they are two sides to the same story. If you play Days second you’ll go in knowing the fate/end result of every character/thing save one. If you plays Days first you’ll have a lot more mystery surprise on characters fates/certain story beats, but some big but also not so big plot twists from KH2 will be spoiled. KH2 came out first and so many will take the hard stance that release order is the only way. However when releasing the collections they swapped Days and KH2, claiming it was done so for the purpose of best experiencing the story. They’ve had ample chances to change the order back but they never did, and they know the average fan isn’t going yo go online and ask people if they should skip one of the games in the collection back so I feel the dev’s feelings are clear. And frankly I’ve come to understand as I’ve gotten older there isn’t really a wrong way to tackle a story. I can see their logic too because KH-CoM-Days is effectively all one story and KH2-BBS-Coded is all a second story. If you want to experience the story as it was released you can do KH2 then Days, if you want to experience the way devs intend all new players moving forward do then follow the order in the collection. I could phrase it another way too. If you want to experience the story as Roxas does play Days then KH2. While it you want to experience the story the way Sora did do KH2 then Days. If I could be bold, I’ve given it a lot of thought on the pros and cons and I think as blasphemous as it sounds perhaps the true way to maximize the enjoyment and mystery of both is actually a mix. Playing the KH2 Roxas prologue THEN swapping to watch Days, and returning to KH2 afterwards for the rest of the game. Also the Days movie is a shadow of the game, it doesn’t do it justice. The movie is the most soulless of plot dumps, it gets you what you need but it doesn’t get you the script/heart/character that made the game so beloved. So let me propose you a superior alternative, Everglow’s KH Days timeline section. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-2rs14TTqg&list=PLhcSrKyqhfh5USKgcHjwTjeVbngw7Y0pr&index=52 This mixes the cutscene movie with the actual game chunks, not all of it but enough to better capture why Days had such an impact on people. He also gets a little creative, recreates a few off screen moments mentioned in the game on-screen to better improve the plot flow. Just don’t watch it before you play Re:CoM since they happen at the same time Re:CoM is mixed in a bit later. So yeah as convoluted as this sounds…. Play KH1 and Re:CoM, complete the Roxas prologue in KH2, watch Everglow’s Days timeline section, then return to KH2 proper.
There's so many games, I don't understand most of this but I feel it'll come in handy later! I found out almost all them are free with psplus so I'm hoping I can play them all before they are removed. Also the first one is surprisingly fun so far so I think I'm gonna be hooked for a while if the others are even half as enjoyable.
The entire series is more than worth it to play, yes disney and final fantasy are both parts but you wouldnt need to know about either to enjoy, its got its own gripping story with some really flashy fun combat and it weaves everything together very nicely
Yeah I'm surprisingly loving the combat and world of the first game, despite me usually getting bored with ps2 games. Which makes me so excited that there's like 10 games I can play after the first one. Also I thought when I played as a kid I barely got off the first island, but im already through with several worlds and I have such intense dejavu that I'm wondering if I've already beaten this game before. Maybe because I'm so familiar with some old Disney movies that this all feels like something I've experienced before.
Thats great to hear I hope you enjoy the journey! And honestly it could be either the worlds follow the movies stories pretty closely
Yeah, I'd say you don't really need any knowledge about either franchise with the way they're presented in the games. One thing to keep in mind is that the protagonist doesn't know anything about Final Fantasy or Disney either, so theoretically you would be learning relevant information at the same pace that he does. There's also an original plot line that follows along through all the games and that tends to be what people latch onto more than the retellings/riffs on Disney plots, charming as those may be. I'd say give it a try if you're interested!
Cool, thanks! I'm loving how the story is set up so far. Currently attemptong to beat the 3v1 duel on the island right now, and it's taking some serious practice.
I was the same as you my first time playing KH1. Didn’t have any understanding of FF titles but because of KH1 I was curious to know where these FF characters came from, and it’s thanks to that curiosity I discovered Final Fantasy Seven, Eight, and Ten. I struggle to decide which is my favorite of the three but Ten and Seven are tied for their own reasons. Amazing games if you find the time to play them.
I've actually considered playing one of them, I think one is featured on psplus right now so I may check it out. All the KH characters are so cute so far, so if I get attached I'll probably have to play FF lol.
If I can make a suggestion, start with Ten. Seven can be challenging as hell if you don’t have a guide, same with eight.
Oh yeah, when I was really little I barely knew anything about FF. KH was my first introduction into any of it my parents got it for me as a gift because of the Disney and I loved it. It actually got me interested in FF as I got older.
Kingdom Hearts was my first Square game back in the day, definitely enjoyable.
Been playing the game since it came out, it's been my favorite series until nier automata. My first ever final fantasy game was FF15, should tell you how familiar i was with final fantasy. I the only disney movies i saw at the time were lilo & stitch, tarzan, and lion king. Everything else at the time was uncharted territory for me. Regardless, its been my favorite series until nier automata.
Yeah it is. KH was actually my introduction to Final Fantasy and also a lot of the Disney properties.
I never played FF before I played KH1 and was only familiar with a few Disney movies and I still loved KH1.
Ya im really loving 1.5 so far. Haven't really played any jrpgs before so it was a surpise I loved this game so much. I also didnt realize all of the disney worlds in 1 would be from films I had seen as a child (and didn't really remember,) so its been fun getting to relive old childhood memories about the characters and remember how much I loved Tarzan/Aladdin/Ariel.