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Kingdom Hearts: Retrospectives + Beginner's Guide

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
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Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming out in less than 6 days of this posting. There are plenty of plot lines, characters, and misc. world stuff that is to expected to be resolved at some point in the latest entry. Not everyone has been able to play all the games, so I thought I would provide some excellent resources so you can get caught up in the various plot lines, characters, and terminology that you will see in Kingdom Hearts 3 this upcoming Tuesday.

I have two videos that are pretty much perfect for covering most of the Timeline and plot issues you may have. The first is EverGlow. They have basically taken every important lore bit and cutscene from every game in the franchise and put it together in a long video series. If you are lazy and don't want to deal with the gameplay (or simply lack the time to complete 6 JRPGs, a mobile title, and 3 films), then I would highly suggest you give this a watch.



The second is our old pals over at the now defunct GameTrailers who helped create the "Timeline" series. This is a pretty good synopsis in 1/100th of the time it takes to watch Everglow, however it does lack any and all games past 2013 (Kingdom Hearts Chi, Fragmentary Passage, and Backcover). I have attached a comprehensive video explaining Chi's story to that one as well.



Recapitation also does a pretty good job with the explanation of the series' titles:




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For those of you who may want to buy Kingdom Hearts 3, but are waiting for a price drop or want to actually *play* the titles in the series, I wanted to provide a quick beginner's guide as to where to start and whether you should play in Chronological or Release order (hint: never play in chronological order).

The series was written as it went on, this means that many of the plot threads and characters in later entries, even if they were prequels (like Birth By Sleep) require you to have knowledge of the world and history that is presented to you in the earlier games. If you will be lost and you will be confused if you try to play them outside of the order of their original release schedules outside of 358/2 Days which can be played before or after Kingdom Hearts II. I personally find it to be far more enjoyable after you learn more about the organization in KH2. It is also important to note that Final Mix only denotes that it is an upgraded version with a handful of new cutscenes, bosses, items, and areas. If you play the original console releases, you will not be missing out on anything important to the story.

*Denotes being a part of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix Collection
**Denotes being a part of Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix Collection
***Denotes being a part of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
†Denotes being a part of the "Story So Far" collection.


Release Order:
†/*Kingdom Hearts/Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
†/*Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories/Re: Chain of Memories (PS2 3D remake of the GBA title)
†/**Kingdom Hearts II/Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix
†/*Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
†/**Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep/Birth By Sleep Final Mix
†/**Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (DS remake of a phone game)
†/***Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
†/***Kingdom Hearts: χ Back Cover
†/***Kingdom Hearts: 0.2 Birth By Sleep A Fragmentary Passage


The mobile title, Chi Unchained, may/may not be necessary to play. We currently have no way to find out. Back Cover covers the most important plot points of the phone title, but knowing Nomura - he may just pull one over on us. If you are itching for some more KH action then go ahead and play it.

I also highly suggest you watch SuperButterBuns over on Youtube if you are curious about how to start in Kingdom Hearts:



I hope that helps y'all interested in catching up or getting into Kingdom Hearts.
 

Verdanth

Member
Nicely timed. Was thinking of running to youtube and see a retrospective about the game.

Well, not need it anymore, I've found it!
 
I personally couldn’t stomach kingdom hearts for beginner videos, so i would recommend doing the excellent kh timeline series. As Well as watching the latest translated scenes from the mobile game
 
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