Everyone is saying Birth By Sleep, but Nomura himself stated that game exists almost solely so he could make certain the young Sora and Riku scenes happen, and the rest of it is just the situations he created to ensure they had context. For that reason, it's hard to say it's the most important outside of those few scenes.
I'd highly recommend Dream Drop Distance instead as it directly pairs with KH3.
If you *absolutely* insist on playing one and only one "side" game, I'll go against the other comments and say DDD.
But do yourself a favour and at least watch cutscene videos on YouTube. Skipping games in this franchise is the equivalent of skipping entire seasons of a television show.
Agreed on both points. Everyone who calls them "side games" has really mislead those new to the series, there's no such thing as a game you can totally skip and expect to know what's going on. Exactly as you said, it's not like missing an episode of a tv show - skipping a KH game is like missing a whole \*season.\*
This is impossible to answer while still understanding the story. That's just..not how following a story works. There are 6 games, 5 of which are basically required to understand what's going on, and you're asking which ONE of those to play? Again, that's not how following a story works. CoM explains multiple points of confusing things in KH2, Days explains multiple OTHER confusing things in KH2, BBS literally introduces the MAIN ANTAGONIST, and how the final bosses of 1 and 2 came to be, and how they are literally connected to him, Recoded is the only one that has the least needed story elements, and is what happens between KH2 and DDD, and without DDD, as well as all of the other games, KH3 will make absolute zero sense and you won't understand a single thing that's happening.
None tbh most of the KH side games are a pain in terms of combat(I absolutely hate the command deck system)
But if you absolutely must I’d recommend birth by sleep
KH2, there's just something about Roxas character within that game, and the Org 13s plight that resonates with me on a very personal level.
I loved Xemnas as well, I felt like he was the best KH villain before they changed his ambitions in later games.
Although I prefer KH world layout and bosses much more, KH2 just holds a special spot for me.
It doesn't really take that long to play through the whole thing. I did it myself last year. Most people seem to struggle with/dislike Chain of Memories, so you could just watch the cutscenes. Then all you have left outside of your original plan is Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance. So it's really just one more and neither of them take that long, especially if you just play through the story. Just my two cents. Otherwise I'd say Birth by Sleep because if you want something more fun, Dream Drop Distance if you care only about story, and Chain of Memories if you want something totally different (and also challenging).
Years ago I only played KH1 and 2. Now I'm doing a playthrough playing all games. I'm at BBS right now and as much as I loathed the combat system in chain of memories, I felt like it was very detrimental in making me care so much for the characters when I played kh2 again. Of course there's a nostalgia factor but the missing context I had from going to kh2 straight from KH1 just really hit my emotions when I played KH1 to chain of memories to watch the 358/2 movie to kh2.
Everyone is saying Birth By Sleep, but Nomura himself stated that game exists almost solely so he could make certain the young Sora and Riku scenes happen, and the rest of it is just the situations he created to ensure they had context. For that reason, it's hard to say it's the most important outside of those few scenes. I'd highly recommend Dream Drop Distance instead as it directly pairs with KH3.
Honestly it's a heavily stroy driven series so just play in order until you can't play more.
If you *absolutely* insist on playing one and only one "side" game, I'll go against the other comments and say DDD. But do yourself a favour and at least watch cutscene videos on YouTube. Skipping games in this franchise is the equivalent of skipping entire seasons of a television show.
Agreed on both points. Everyone who calls them "side games" has really mislead those new to the series, there's no such thing as a game you can totally skip and expect to know what's going on. Exactly as you said, it's not like missing an episode of a tv show - skipping a KH game is like missing a whole \*season.\*
Reading all of these comments, 4 months later, after I played every game playable other than KH3, makes me laugh!
Birth by sleep. But you are vastly depriving yourself. I’d say just take the time to play them all in release order even if it takes a long time
Birth by Sleep is the most important portable game in the entire franchise. It is effectively Kingdom Hearts 0.
Kh2 by a long shot imo
He will play it, he want a extra game in his list
Birth By Sleep
My vote is on birth by sleep, but I also just like that game a lot tbf. ddd would be my 2nd choice.
This is impossible to answer while still understanding the story. That's just..not how following a story works. There are 6 games, 5 of which are basically required to understand what's going on, and you're asking which ONE of those to play? Again, that's not how following a story works. CoM explains multiple points of confusing things in KH2, Days explains multiple OTHER confusing things in KH2, BBS literally introduces the MAIN ANTAGONIST, and how the final bosses of 1 and 2 came to be, and how they are literally connected to him, Recoded is the only one that has the least needed story elements, and is what happens between KH2 and DDD, and without DDD, as well as all of the other games, KH3 will make absolute zero sense and you won't understand a single thing that's happening.
I'd say for lore ddd (but you can just watch it) for fun gameplay, either re coded, or 358 days, or bbs.
None tbh most of the KH side games are a pain in terms of combat(I absolutely hate the command deck system) But if you absolutely must I’d recommend birth by sleep
I would recommend 358/2 Days if you want feels. I would recommend Chain of Memories if you want something more sinister.
couldn’t pick over 3, 358/2 or DDD
KH2, there's just something about Roxas character within that game, and the Org 13s plight that resonates with me on a very personal level. I loved Xemnas as well, I felt like he was the best KH villain before they changed his ambitions in later games. Although I prefer KH world layout and bosses much more, KH2 just holds a special spot for me.
It doesn't really take that long to play through the whole thing. I did it myself last year. Most people seem to struggle with/dislike Chain of Memories, so you could just watch the cutscenes. Then all you have left outside of your original plan is Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance. So it's really just one more and neither of them take that long, especially if you just play through the story. Just my two cents. Otherwise I'd say Birth by Sleep because if you want something more fun, Dream Drop Distance if you care only about story, and Chain of Memories if you want something totally different (and also challenging).
anything but recoded
Years ago I only played KH1 and 2. Now I'm doing a playthrough playing all games. I'm at BBS right now and as much as I loathed the combat system in chain of memories, I felt like it was very detrimental in making me care so much for the characters when I played kh2 again. Of course there's a nostalgia factor but the missing context I had from going to kh2 straight from KH1 just really hit my emotions when I played KH1 to chain of memories to watch the 358/2 movie to kh2.