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.
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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