The announcement of Kingdom Hearts 4 means a new opportunity to replay the main games of the saga: not so much to enjoy its gameplay and satisfy our nostalgia, but also to take advantage and refresh our memory a bit, because the narrative is not Precisely well-crafted… Even so, there will also be many who approach the story of Sora and company for the first time, so we will talk about which are the important games and the proper order to play them.
Because if the story isn’t intuitive, the number of games out there doesn’t help much in that regard. There are several works that integrate remastered titles and that complicates the decision of which one to start with. The problem was that Tetsuya Nomura, the main architect of the saga, has built the plot from games that came out on multiple platforms : Nintendo DS, PSP, PlayStation, mobile… and also the fact that it is a constant trip to the past and at present, it makes it difficult to understand.
But don’t worry, because we are here to help you. If you haven’t played it yet, don’t worry, we’ll make it spoiler-free. And if you have played it, it will help you remember the logical order of events.
The proper order to understand Kingdom Hearts
The first game you have to have is Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX , since it has 3 of the main titles of the work and they are precisely the ones you have to start with.
With him you will start playing Kingdom Hearts 1 , the work with which it all began. It is probably one of the best. Later, and although it is not mandatory to play it but it is recommended, you have Chain of Memories , whose gameplay is tedious and boring but it is the direct continuation. The original is from GBA and, although the port leaves a lot to be desired, it introduces you to an interesting character.
Then you could try Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days , which is simply an improved rescue of the cutscenes from the original that came out on the Nintendo DS and shows us the story of Xion, Roxas and Axel, who will be important in Kingdom Hearts 2 , the crown jewel and the one with the best story and gameplay .
After seeing the best, you have to go through some mud. The next titles to look at are Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded and Kingdom Hearts X (which is incomplete), both of which you might as well skip over. They relate, through cinematics, events that could help you better see what is happening.
Now it will be your turn to delve into one of the favorites… and it is not for less. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is a remake of the original that came out for PSP, but its gameplay and story are practically the best. In it, we will see 3 keyblade apprentices who lived for a few years before the events with which we started the series. And the story of each one and its outcome mark everything that happened from then on.
And after Kingdom Hearts 3 , what to do?
You had all these games in the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX compilation , but there are still others, such as Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue , which includes titles that, in our opinion, do not contribute much in this respect.
Among them is Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance , which lets us delve even deeper into the story of Riku and Sora and how their story is related to the protagonists of Birth by Sleep . Also included is a kind of DLC for this title, called A Fragmentary Passage , which is expendable.
And the moment of the end arrived. Kingdom Hearts 3 is the last part of the story. You can play it with its DLC RE:Mind , which is entertaining and will let you play it at a higher difficulty, adding more scenes and bits of history that, for sure, will clarify much of what we will see soon in Kingdom Hearts 4 .
Another alternative, if you’ve already played them all and you don’t feel like doing it again, is to enjoy Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory , a unique rhythm title that will allow us to relive the most stellar moments of the saga. And as a complement, an explanatory video of the story, because surely, even playing, you will have more doubts than you think.
Nomura has left us with a complicated plot to follow but that has managed to conquer the hearts of a crowd attracted by the love and affection that each and every one of its protagonists exudes.
