Kingdom Hearts is the ultimate “you had to be there” game. If you played 1 and 2 back when you were 9 to 14, it was magical and you’re chasing that nostalgia for the rest of your life. Anything outside of that, you see it for what it really is: a half assed Final Fantasy with a plot line akin to that freaky boat ride scene in Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka
Don't forget Final Fantasy characters, that's what drew me in. All the way until KH stopped the cameos from them and FF itself started modeling its gameplay style more close to KH. Then the games started leaving a bitter taste in my mouth
The soundtrack for KH is fantastic no one can deny that. Someone on SE team always makes sure to get a stellar composer to fill out the soundtrack to their games, be it Uematsu or Shimomura or whoever else they wrangle. No matter how estranged I get with the games I can always bet one a Sqaure Enix game to have a stellar soundtrack
Yeah I was introduced to the game cause my friend was playing the Sephiroth fight and kept losing over and over, I couldn’t watch him keep dying so I told him “give me the controller and give me 30 mins”
that’s a shame, but to each. I don’t love kh1’s gameplay, but I don’t think it’s bad. I yell at it sometimes and say it’s terrible for being slower, but I understand how some people like it over the other games.
with that said, give yourself a KH2 crit run if you haven’t. good experience
Me and my friends were 14 at the time, they loved it to death and lent me the first one. I got really bored after an hour or so and just gave it back. I guess it just wasn't for me then
I remember being like 10 and I'd dream about that fucking game before it ever came out. Even the sounds they used when magical things happened felt like some whimsical shit I had never heard before. I still love it, but it has devolved into a bunch of nonsense.
It's an excellent hack and slash if anything. I'll still be playing KH4 as a fan but the story has been off the rails since forever ago. Like before KH2.
I was right there when it came out. I was 11. I hated Disney back then and I hate it now. So I said back then I ain’t playing this crap and to this day I’m saying, I ain’t playing this crap.
Dude when 3 came out i watched a recap of the story like 4 times and I still don't understand it. What a convoluted ass story. I think i just enjoyed all the disney characters and worlds.
KH3 is like the 11th game in the series. Did you honestly expect a recap to properly explain the story from scratch??
Like obviously a 10 minute recap isn't going to tell you much. You need one of those in depth youtube vids that are over 30 mins at least. Because, again, there's like 7 full mainline games between 2 and 3.
A recap video for the story of kingdom hearts leading up to KH3? Yes I did expect it to tell me the basic story of kingdom hearts leading up to that game
lmao i was 6 years old playing that game and i will admit, that it’s 100% had a significant lasting impression on me to this day , from music, to nostalgia, all of it
Ahh much of my family and even my brother fell in love with KH and they played at release. I only ever watched them play and I actually have KH3 on my shelf. I played it once, tried to like it, never picked it up again.
They waited too long with 3. I devoured 1 and 2 and even got the Kingdom Hearts official game guide because my sister and I wanted to get the Ultima weapon. We even beat Sephiroth in the Coliseum! (We traded off when our fingers cramped lol.) But when KH3 came out I was super excited, but it quickly fizzled. I don't think I ever finished it.
I loved the crap out of it when I was in that age range. Then Chain of Memories came out and I didn't have a gameboy advanced to play it. Then all the other spin off's came out and still I didn't have the devices to play them. By the time KH3 came out I just shrugged my shoulders b/c the magic had gone away and the lore was so confusing I didn't see the point. I have KH3 on xbox1 b/c I picked up it up a couple years ago secondhand, but it's just gathering dust in a box.
Some games capitalize on right place right time. I say this often about OGRE1. People skip it all together and start with RE4 or remakes...all great, but if you were there for OGRE1 you know how special that game was.
In its best form it definitely has way more going on for it as an action RPG, it's fluid as all heck and the skill ceiling it practically unlimited, otherwise ya I agree with everything else story wise.
I played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 for the first time a few years back and it had that magic for sure. Especially KH1, even though I would say objectively the game is very clunky and annoying to play.
Not sure if it counts but I didn't play KH until I was in my 30s during lockdown. Borrowed the collection from from brother and liked it enough to actually play through every game and loved all of it. However I did enjoying watching my brother play the first 2 when I was a kid.
As a kid, it was basically the equivalent of throwing together Marvel and King Of The Hill. Two totally different worlds, and you had no clue how it would work - but holy shit it did.
Uh no. Not at all. You sound like some butthurt hater or hold some kind of irrational grudge towards that entire series. I'm into JRPGs and KHs isn't even among my top series either. I enjoyed both of the PS2 ones as unique action JRPGs. I don't see them as 10/10 experiences necessarily either. They were just a love letter to Disney and FF (It was nice/beautiful to see a few of my favorite characters from both franchises come together). They were relatively less half-assed than FF9 and especially every FF post FFX.. You can think of it like Marvel vs. Capcom or any other crossover series. Some people appreciate these moments that's all.
I call bs. I wasn't in to Disney at that age outside live action stuff and odd stuff like Atlantis and I hated it. The controls especially sucked and I dont like the combat
lmao it's not like Final Fantasy is breaking anh records. it's weak gameplay also upholds itself on a highly dedicated fanbase that chases magic that was never there
I played it back when it came out, thought it was cringe, tried to give it another go as an adult, still cringe.
It's to me like all the worst parts of final fantasy, disney and the early 2000s all rolled into one.
FF7,8&9 loved em, had a few disney games that I loved, but adding them together was such a bizarre choice to me.
By the time i learned about kingdom hearts I was too old to care, had i got into it as a kid id probably be on board to this day but starting now? Nah I'm good.
You know, back when they were really pumping out all those Disney live action shows I thought they were trying to do some shared cinematic universe and Kingdom Hearts movies would be their Avengers equivalent that brings them together.
Turns out there wasn't that much of a point to them after all and I was reading too much into it.
it just had a vibe that nothing else had back then. It also seems to be the first Disney game where you could properly explore iconic Disney movie locations AND fight alongside Donald and Goofy. I still can't think of many games where Disney let Donal and Goofy fight in general.
Dude same. And everyone I know is obsessed. I just can’t enjoy the mechanisms at all where I am at my gaming life. I know the lore is good I’m just stuck
Tbh I think the lore is a mess and convoluted af for the sake of it. The first kingdom hearts was the best in terms of it actually being a game. II came around and then it was exposition every 15 min. I don't know about the other games as I was not willing to jump platforms to play them. Was super confused going from 1 to 2 as a result.
I was the younger brother watching my older brother play through it, so I enjoy the first two from a story perspective, but once they started making 50 million different splinter games, my brother was done playing it, and I was done watching it.
It's unique in some regards, and I always enjoy games that do something different with either gameplay, story, themes, etc., but it's gotten ridiculous to the point of parody over these past 20 or so years. They made a niche game even more niche
Me and my peers were 14 and in middle school and got into it. Not 100% of my JRPG peers, but 60-70% tops. Only the ones like me who loved Disney as much as FF. If Disney was boring or lame to you, it wouldn't make any sense at all to try it.
Tbf it only seemed convoluted because like you pointed out, the accessibility of the series which at the time was notoriously bad. Parts of the story can be a little hard to understand, but it's a lot easier now that the collection exists. But yeah, if you hadn't played any of them since then, it would still seem that way.
For me I enjoyed the slower pace of the new god of war titles. While I do agree with the first enemy being tanky point I also feel like the further in you get the faster things start dying
I think im gonna try out kh3. I know fans for some reason hate it, but it looks competent enough for me to play it, especially if i have to play it before kh4.
The story's a mess, like wdym 12 different soras exist?
From what Ive seen a lot of people have come around to kh3, especially after putting into perspective how their expectations changed how they went into it. People overcomplicate how convoluted the story is in general, but its also not for everyone. All that to say that I hope you enjoy the games if you do play them.
It's a new all in one collection (which still inexplicably excludes Melody of Memory, the rhythm game that is also canon to the story and provides valuable exposition following the end of 3) and looks to be an almost identical set to Integrum Masterpiece.
I played the first one when it came out many years ago. I remember getting to the Tarzan level and then couldn't progress ant further. Literally couldn't go any further on the map to progress anything. I gave up.
Oh man, I had to pretend to like it once and I just didn’t get it. 5 mins in and I looked over at my now-ex scrutinizing my every reaction and it was just so meh.
I enjoyed it at the time because it was a Disney series that felt like it was aimed more at teens and gave me a chance to revisit a number of Disney franchises at a time when I thought I was too edgy for that stuff.
Unfortunately it’s a Disney franchise I have a hard time recommending to young kids because SE decided to pull a .hack// and make it so you have to be sufficiently autistic to follow much of it after the first game, and it was worse in the 2000s because the convenient collections didn’t exist then and even RE: Chain of Memories on PS2 came well enough after KH2, so I’m sure plenty of people got the sequel and had no idea what was going on.
As a kid/teen I was obsessed with KH and loved 1 and 2. Then when 3 came out I started out all excited, but didn't even finish it. I think I outgrew it.
Granted having a good chunk of the sequels on different platforms other then the one it started on made it difficult to fallow for a lot of people. I for one did not have a psp
I am just in love with the gameplay for the most part (I despise the side content), but it certainly isn't for everyone. I forced my siblings to play it. One couldn't learn to block for beans the other got the hang of it nearly instantly but hates they story (because I forced it on them).
First one was great. 2nd one was the exact same story but a little different and that pissed me off. It became a cash cow with everything else that came after that. Didn't bother with 3 or the smaller games the released in between.
You get very angry at the awful controls especially where any vertical play is demanded
And the game has a very poor sense of direction and no indicators
It’s like bridging a time of negative hand holding to an era of minor directional assistance and it doesn’t do it well
2 is a genuine masterpiece in many facets
The mini games are frustrating to a degree first go around but grow on you
The movement and camera is absolutely spot on like the best camera and movement work I’ve ever seen in a game. You can move so fast and still have complete agency over sora to move any direction with purpose and never feel griefed.
Goofy and Donald are incredibly well made in that they can’t actually kill shit for you so there’s no cheesing but the impact they have in combat is felt and it feels good to actually have them.
The upgrade system and chasing ultimate gear feels good because it’s basically just attainable enough for all skill level of player that it’s not exactly a “chase” but maxing everybody’s loadout out does require a chase that it trains you up to.
Items become very farmable over time but you can choose to chase them early and it feels good every time.
And the gummi ship shit isn’t absolutely god awful and again the actual sensory feedback of killing things in gummi form is gratifying.
It has a perfect blend of particle effects and impact that keeps the good brain chemicals moving.
The boss battles are absolutely incredible and the “impact” of your attacks especially in forms just feels and sounds so god damn gratifying.
Mixed with a really beautiful balance of practical difficulty vs meat walls.
Pile on top of that that every combo in the game is approachable and every modifier to them is usable so you never feel like you stick to a singular combo at any given moment because one thing is super OP (excluding slamming max combo minus to spam the ultimate sphere attack thing)
I quit 3 around Toy Story world as it was far too easy.
Edit: I edited my wall of text for 2 like 3 times because I kept thinking about how well made the game is lmao
I was SUPER into 1 & 2 when they came out. Bought 3 with much excitement when it dropped... and could not for the life of me get into it or even understand wtf was going on. The story got extremely convoluted, and so many things happened in the canon between 2 and 3 within other games and media that it just felt impossible to catch up with. Huge bummer.
Never cared about Disney. Don't want it in my Final Fantasy. I want to give it a fair chance, but what little I have played the game had very poor "game feel" for being an ARPG.
Kinda like how when you swing weapons at enemies in Fables it feels like you're attacking a blade of grass and not an enemy that is way larger than your character.
Yep. Agreed 1000%. Wanted to love it. Story is not deep or complicated, it’s just stupid, obviously the Disney shit is cool if you’re into that, and the gameplay is dull.
I love Final Fantasy and 90s Disney. Somehow KH manages to not do either franchise in a way that appeals to me. Doesn't help that the MC's character design is awful
Yes, I hated it. Clearly was designed for children. But, when my friend rented that game for a weekend trip away. I was so miserable watching him play that PoS game. I love Final Fantasy he said, so I'll lloooveee this.. ERGH Wrong...
Starting with 1 (or 1.5??? Whatever stupid naming scheme), it is veeeery slow, very clunky, very confusing. No explanation for anything that’s going on, and it feels like they cheaply threw together other IPs. Disney and Final Fantasy stuff really? Like omg.
I tried to get into it for my friend and wound up nearly having an aneurysm trying to get the sliding on lava part in the Hercules world because the game refused to accept any directional input I gave. I felt crazy. 🤣
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u/bye-standard Aug 19 '26
A mixture of I couldn’t play it and when I did, I just couldn’t get into it.
Kingdom Hearts