How to get into Kingdom Hearts – a short manual for a beginner

A couple of months ago, I decided to expand my horizons and get acquainted with a series that only knew that it … exists. For a long time, Kingdom Hearts attracted me with its colors and the very concept of interconnected worlds, where the characters of Final Fantasy and Disney coexist. I had no idea about the gameplay of these games, or even more so about the plot in which you can easily get confused yourself, you know which fan of Zelda. So how to get into Kingdom Hearts and what should be expected from each individual game? Let’s figure it out!

The main scourge of the series

Before the PlayStation 3 era, Kingdom Hearts fans were quite problematic and expensive to monitor the development of the series, and all because these games were released on a variety of platforms. While Square Enix still did not think of releasing unified collections, interested players needed to have at least PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, 3DS and PSP. This applies primarily to all kinds of spin-offs, of which the vast majority in this series.

Ignoirs may assume that spin-offs are not so important, and that you can limit yourself to license plates, but this is fundamentally incorrect. Yes, in most game series of spin-offs, they play an optional role rather, and their plots practically do not intersect with the main ruler, but specifically in Kingdom Hearts, things are completely different.

The problem is that if you want to follow the plot of this franchise, then you will have to familiarize yourself with each spin-off. Otherwise, you are guaranteed to lose the thread of the narrative already in Kingdom Hearts II, and most of the story moves in Kingdom Hearts III will seem to you incoherent delirium (although, this is not far from the truth … But we will talk about this later!)

Fortunately, the problem with the availability of spin-offs is already in the past, and now you can freely familiarize yourself with almost the entire series with almost any current platform, including PC. I will consider PC ports that came out a couple of years ago exclusively for Epic Games Store and reached Steam last week.

It should also clarify that current collections include mainly remasters of old games. I, of course, did not play in the original versions, and therefore I can’t tell in detail about all the differences. I only know that remasters offer a tightened visual, in some places a processed balance, improve the quality of life and additional content like secrets, new kitszen and super -bosses.

There is no Russian localization, so you have to be content with English. Nevertheless, the text in these games is quite simple, so there was no problem with understanding what was happening.

What sequence to play?

If you still decide to test the Kingdom Hearts series, then the most stupid thing you can do is to go in the games in the plot chronology.

This is the way to nowhere. You instantly get confused in what is happening, most terms and events will remain incomprehensible to you and so on. Only already burned fans can be decided on such experiments, and even then a doubt pleasure is at least because the earliest (in terms of the plot) game in the series is now dead mobile gacha.

Taking into account all of the above – it should be played strictly in the order of releases. Thus, the scale of the intra-game lorus will open to you gradually, and everything that happens will remain more or less understandable despite the stubborn numbering.

More than a dozen projects in the series, but collections save the situation. On PC, the most optimal chronology looks as follows:

• Collection Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix. He includes:
– Kingdom Hearts Final Mix;
– Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories;
– Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix;
– Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days;
– Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix;
– Kingdom Hearts Re: Codeed.

• Collection Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. He includes:
– Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance HD;
– Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage;
– Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover.

• Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind DLC.

• Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.

All of the above games (except Melody of Memory) are combined into the collection Kingdom Hearts Integram Masterpiece – It is available in the Nintendo Switch cloud.

If you play PlayStation, then take the collection Kingdom Hearts: All-in-One Package.

Without going far from the theme of the plot, I will say that special revelations in the spirit of truly philosophical jrpg are not worth expecting. The story is extremely infantile and overloaded with complicated game, which with each part is becoming more and more in the best traditions of Tetsui Nomura. Nevertheless, there are also positive elements, such as personal arches of the development of individual characters and a general mood in the narrative – a series of children’s good and in some places can even break into emotions despite the widespread stupidity.

So, if you do not care about the plot and you came for the gameplay, you can safely skip most of the series and try only those games whose gameplay I praise. The benefit of them really has something to offer.

Before starting to talk about each game in separateness, I consider it necessary to briefly paint the features of the entire setting. I must say right away that you can not wait for a detailed analysis of the Laura in this blog, because otherwise the text will stretch for a couple of thousand words. The next segment will be devoted only to a brief description of the key elements of the entire series:

Where are we generally?

At the first glance at Kingdom Hearts, an anime boy immediately catches the eye, running along with Donald Dak and Guphi … What a damn, you ask? What, let’s look at the in-game world, and to be more precise, worlds.

Cosmos in the Kingdom Hearts universe nothing more than the endless ocean of darkness, and each star is a separate world. Most of the inhabitants of these motley worlds do not even suspect the existence of each other, but outstanding personalities like powerful wizards and elected warriors Klynka are able to make interstellar travels. Among such lucky ones and our main character is Sora.

About 90% of the worlds are based on the famous Disney cartoons and offer to visit familiar childhood heroes like Hercules, Aleladin, Mulan and so on. The structure of the narrative of each game is built according to a single formula – the protagonist has a global task, the solution of which in one way or another requires a trip to the Disney worlds. At the same time, each world offers its own separate plot, in which we have to help local inhabitants. In this regard, the developers either recreate the plot of Disney work with small changes, or offer their original story.

Here we smoothly move on to the main problem of narrative in almost every game of the Kingdom Hearts series – in fact, all the most important always happens only at the very beginning and at the very end, and the events in the Disney worlds, which occupy most of the game time, nothing other than fan -service filler with attractions, only intersects with the main plot through Kitsen and dialogs.

It becomes all the more difficult to monitor history when reticns enter into business. Be prepared for the fact that in almost every subsequent game already known facts will be canceled, expanding, gaining a different meaning and so on.

As for Final Fantasy, the role of this franchise is limited only to a simplified system of magic, as well as small cameras. Although, I will not lie, see familiar faces is always nice.

So, I devoted the significant part of the entry of this blog to the transfer of key shortcomings of the entire series, and therefore it may seem that it has left mostly negative impressions. In fact, the opposite is true – despite the disadvantages, I still consider these games not just worthy of attention, but also extremely charming in a number of aspects (which is the only music of Yoko Shimomuri). What, let’s already start the main part of today’s event, where I will briefly describe each separate game, so that you have an idea of ​​what to expect.

Kingdom Hearts

With this game, the gamedector career of Tetsui Nomura, who had previously worked on the games of Final Fantasy as an artist and designer of characters, began. Although the series is famous for its confusing plot, everything starts quite simple. On one beautiful (not so) day, the native world of the protagonist (solo) is absorbed in darkness, and his close friends are missing. Sora himself was able to escape thanks to the mysterious key-cut, which suddenly appeared in his hands at the very last moment.

Once in an unfamiliar world, Sora is faced with Donald https://winshark-casino.co.uk/ and Guphi – the faithful associates of King Disney Mickey Mouse, who went to investigate the causes of unimaginable cataclysms. The king told them to find a “warrior with a key”, after which they will have a chance to resist the darkness.

So the heroes combine efforts and begin their journey through various worlds in order to find the king, understand what is happening and save the missing friends.

The gameplay base of the game is quite simple, although at first you need to get used to the active use of the command menu. The gameplay is offered by the JRPG and Action-RPG mixture with small platforms.

Most of the time we run along the locations and exterminate the waves of opponents, spawning at certain points each time when going to the room. XP is earned exclusively by killing enemies, and with an increase in the level, in addition to improving the characteristics, we get additional abilities like a roll, combo attacks, a higher jump, and so on.

Basically, Sora specializes in close combat, but over time we also open access to various Final Fantasy spells, which are especially effective in the late stages of the game, and when the Disney worlds are held, the hero receives new clinics key with his characteristics.

The worlds themselves differ among themselves by the scale and quality of execution. Somewhere these are just a couple of rooms with mobs, somewhere a pleasant and terribly atmospheric adventure, and somewhere just krivatous hell.

The greatest discomfort is caused by the camera and sections with the platforming, because the 3D platformer of the beginning of the 00s from people who had previously made Jrpg exclusively is a truly terrible thing. Nevertheless, these sections are quite short, so there were no excessive frustration (with the exception of Tarzan’s world).

Many Western reviewers forgive Kingdom Hearts by its shortcomings under the influence of nostalgia, because for them this is one of the favorite games of childhood. For obvious reasons, I am not yet subject to nostalgia for this series, and therefore I can not ignore the most obvious disadvantages that can scare the players from acquaintance with further parts, which, believe me, there is something to surprise. Specifically the original Kingdom Hearts I can only call the “successful experiment” that gave the beginning of the third most successful Square franchise.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

This is the first spin-off in a series, which is part-time with a direct continuation of the original KH. The plot of Chain of Memories starts immediately after the end of the events of the first Kingdom Hearts. Pursuing a mysterious figure, Sora, Donald and Gufi fall into the castle of oblivion, where they gradually lose their memories. So the heroes begin their way along the floors of the castle, visiting the halls of the mind and fighting with members of the mysterious organization XIII.

For the first time, Chain of Memories was released in 2004 at the Game Boy Advance portable, but after a couple of years the developers presented a full-fledged 3D-radiation for the PlayStation 2, known as Re: Chain of Memories. It is he who is part of the above collections and reprints.

In terms of gameplay, the authors made a sharp turn towards the card combat system in real time. At first glance, the battles look identical to the previous game, but in reality everything is tied on maps in your deck, which you make yourself. In general, everything is elementary – during attacks you and your opponent use the card. If your card has more denominations than the enemy, then damage passes through it, and vice versa. You can also (and in the case of battles with bosses – you need to) put in three -digit combo. Moreover, some combinations of cards are transformed into stronger attacks and magical abilities.

Left-design was noticeably simplified. The actions of the entire game unfold in the castle designated above, whose rooms are transformed under the influence of the memories of the solo, accepting the forms of Disney worlds from the first game. To advance from room to room, we also spend cards, and the selected card determines what kind of next room will be. For example, one card will spawn more enemies, the other put the chests with treasures around the room, the third will spawn a room with a checkpoint and so on.

Frankly, gameplay is my most unloved part, and it’s not even so much about cards as rehearsal. Too long the game (about 30 hours) and monotonous, from which by the middle passage begins to tire. Of the pluses, I can only note a good story, so if the gameplay is completely strangled, I recommend that you at least get acquainted with the Katsen on YouTube, because the events of Chain of Memories are directly related to the following games in the series and they are critical for understanding the general plot.

Kingdom Hearts II

Without any exaggeration and with great confidence, I can say that Kingdom Hearts II is the brightest example of the “perfect sequel”, created on the principle of “let’s take everything that worked in the first part and do it several times more”. The game is more and better than the original Kingdom Hearts literally in every aspect, and many fans to this day are not unreasonably consider it the greatest in the series.

The gameplay deserves special attention, which has become much more convenient and more diverse than in the previous parts. This is an advanced camera, and improved AI of companions, and, of course, a combat system that evolves from a single -button bitemap to a almost full -fledged slasher with many combines during the passage.

Now our satellites not only help in battles, but also directly affect the ability of the protagonist – with the accumulation of energy, we can “absorb” companions, thereby transforming into various superforms with our unique skills.

It is also worth noting the qualitatively directed battles with bosses, some of which will really make you sweat. And these are only bosses from the main plot – the fighting is revealed to the maximum when it comes to the superbosses, for the sake of the victory over which you will have to make a lot of mobs. Immediately, I strongly recommend going down how exactly the pumping of individual forms of the protagonist works, because some of the particularly important skills are opened in a completely unobvious way.

Otherwise, the game is also much more complex than the original Kingdom Hearts. As before, we have openly more than a dozen various worlds for research, which have become not only larger, but also richer on content, including all kinds of secrets. Events in the Disney worlds are now better integrated into the main plot, and the visual design of some of these worlds without exaggeration causes delight.

Despite the traditional confusion with rhetoric, monitoring the plot of KH2 is much more interesting than the history of the original, and all thanks to more adult topics and perhaps the best antagonists tall in the entire series.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Lord, well, the name … With this game, things are somewhat different than with all the previous ones. You see, the only “playable” version of Days is still on only one platform – Nintendo DS, where it was published in 2009.

The fact is that, unlike Chain of Memories, the developers for some reason decided not to make a full-fledged remake for senior platforms, limiting themselves to the re-release of Kitszen in HD. Thus, the DAYS part of all collections is not a game, but a gaming movie, watching which takes only a couple of hours. Therefore, this part should be perceived as a thematic cartoon inserted in the break to close a couple of KH2 storylines.

DAYS events unfold in the interval of Kingdom Hears: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hears II, telling the tragic story of one of the key characters of the sequel. The name of the game reflects the number of days during which we follow the fate of the protagonist with his best friend (358 days separated between two people, something like this).

Perhaps one of the main advantages of the game is a closer acquaintance with the above team of antagonists – the organization of the XIII, in which the main character consists. Almost every day he moves on a mossy with one of the members of the detachment, where he has the opportunity to recognize them better.

Unfortunately, the lion’s share of interaction with the organization’s members took place during gameplay, which was completely cut in the gamingfilm. Because of this event, in abandoned Katsens may seem somewhat chaotic, although in general it is not critical.

The story turned out to be quite emotional, and since in the center of the plot there are one of the best characters in the series, these two and a half hours Kitszen fly in a good fast, leaving pleasant impressions. Thanks to this, the project in any case deserves familiarization even in such a circumcised form.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

And again, we have spin-offs, this time published in 2010 on PSP. At its core, Birth by Sleep is a prequel that tells about events 10 years before the start of the original Kingdom Hearts.

The plot campaign of the game is divided into three parts, revealing the same events from different prospects of the three main characters – Terra, Ventus and Akva. Each campaign lasts an average of 10 hours, during which we still visit various Disney worlds in order to confront darkness. At the end of all three plots, the final campaign appears for 30-40 minutes, however, to open it, you need to collect certain objects, with which difficulties may arise with the first blind passage. Therefore – be sure to highlight individual saving slots for each hero and do not hesitate to use the google.

The game protagonists are novice masters of the key-clinka, the gameplay for which is similar at its core, but differs in details. For example, the terra is slow, but strong, Aqua is best in spells, and Ventus is simply fast.

Since the game was an exclusive portable, in terms of the combat system and convenience of the camera, it somewhat degraded compared to Kingdom Hears II – now we have not at our disposal not a diverse slasher, but just a good bitemap.

Nevertheless, in the gameplay Birth by Sleep there are also some distinctive details that can diversify the battleship. First of all, it is a simplified command menu with a new system of combination of various spells, which allows you to create and pump more powerful abilities.

In terms of the design of the Disney worlds, the game is in places in places in the predecessors, since almost half of them are the worlds of classic Disney princesses, which are not distinguished by special originality. However, there are also quite entertaining examples.

The main story itself has a value at least because it fully introduces players with the main antagonist of the saga of the “Seeker of Darkness”, which lasted until the end of Kingdom Hearts III. It is quite exciting to follow this plot, which is also facilitated by the small duration of the plot of each of the heroes.

Despite the fact that they go through the same worlds, their paths are not identical, and therefore in each campaign you will meet all new characters, study different locations, and so on, and the plot interweaving of the campaigns will not let you get bored and keep up to the epic finale.

Kingdom Hearts Coded

Among all projects in the Coded series, it stands out by its bad reputation “The most meaningless part of Kingdom Hearts”, without which it was possible to do without. I will not hide, by and large it is true that in general it is not surprising, especially courting that Nomur came up with the plot for this game, being drunk.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the story of the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was repeated here – the original CODED reached Nintendo DS, and the developers instead of creating a remake for senior platforms decided to compile chatstes in elevated resolution, calling the re -release of Re: Codeed.

Thus, we have a second gaming company comparable in duration of 358/2 days. I can’t judge this or badly, because I simply did not play the original version. And yet, there is often an opinion on the Web that despite the frankly weak story, Gameplaino Coded is a rather pleasant game, but again, I personally cannot confirm this.

During the passage of previous games, the protagonist was gradually filled with a magazine in which we could read about past events, learn more about the characters met, and so on. So, the plot Codeed completely unfolds in the digitized version of this very magazine, where a virtual copy of the solo passes through already familiar locations and fights with bugs.

70 percent of stories are really stupid, and in my opinion, the series would definitely not have lost anything if this plot was simply cut out. But the remaining 30% really is of value, raising rather serious questions about the fate of the protagonist and connecting the previous games with the following parts that were already under development at that moment.

Given all of the above, CODED should still be familiarized, since it will take no more than 3 hours. Just be ready for the fact that most of the story will be quite unnecessary and meaningless.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

While the fans of the series were looking forward to the third number of the license plate, Square decided to release another spin -off, this time for Nintendo 3DS. And what can I say? The DDD gameplain was one of the best games in the series, although the plot of Nomura continued to complicate everything, once again a rhetoric event of the previous parts and adding even more confusion with such a scenario reception as a time travel (as if it seemed to him that before that everything was too simple!)

According to the plot, before the events of Trikvel, Sora, along with her best friend, decides to go through a test for the master Klink, so that they have more chances in the battle with the main antagonist of the series. Thus, the heroes plunge into a deep dream in order to awaken seven sleeping worlds that are imprisoned during the last cataclysm. Both characters who study alternative versions of the same worlds fall under our control under our control.

The developers significantly improved the heroes management system, making them faster, more responsive and deftly, which in turn helps in the study of more large -scale locations, which, in everything else, have become multi -level. Platforming has never brought such pleasure in the series, and compared to the original Kingdom Hearts, this is just heaven and earth.

But even in this barrel with honey, there was no spoon of tar, which is the most annoying mechanic in the game, known as Drop. The fact is that the study of locations is limited in time, which involuntarily forces the levels. At the expiration of the timer, the game switches us from one hero to another, forcing us to re -reproduce some segments with subsequent switching.

This is especially infuriated in the case of battles with bosses – if during a drop in the middle of the location you continue to pass from where you stopped, then the bossfite opposite is completely dumped, forcing the adversarial adults. Imagine such a picture – you will hit several stages with the boss, he has only a quarter of HP left before the defeat, but then the timer expires and throws you to another character, and upon the return of the bossfite starts from the very beginning. So, my advice to you, if you reached the boss with a low margin of time, then click on the drop button yourself. Save a bunch of nerves.

If it seems to you not very exciting, then I hasten to please-this system is completely optional, so if you wish, you can completely ignore it, which in general did it. The only thing you are to follow the health level of your Eaters, because if they die, you will have to boot.

In general, I will call DDD one of the most worthy games in the Kingdom Hearts series. With the exception of the mechanics of the drop, the gameplay gives a lot of pleasure, and the final series of battles with bosses can make even the most burned players sweat .

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage

Laconic name, isn’t it? With the protracted production of Kingdom Hearts III, the developers decided to switch to the new Unreal Engine 4 engine for themselves in order to bring the series to a completely new level. In order to demonstrate progress, a short 0 was released.2 Birth by Sleep.

If you have not yet understood, this is not a full -fledged game, but a demo version designed to show the players the technical component of the ambitious Kingdom Hearts III. The passage of the demo occupies an average of three to five hours, telling about some key events during the finals of the first Kingdom Hearts.

In order not to spoil, this time I will omit the plot details. I can only say that this demo looks more beautiful than all previous games, and it allows you to test the basic mechanics of the Kingdom IArts III who are preparing at that time.

Kingdom Hearts χ

Also known as Kingdom Hearts Unchained or Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. So we got to those debrs in which even fans of the series are with difficulty … In parallel with the production of Kingdom Hearts III, the developers from Square wanted to deepen the ENT series, telling about the events for several generations to the first Kingdom Hearts, which gave rise to all future cataclizms.

So Kingdom Hearts χ was born-at first glance a mobile gacha at first glance, offering step-by-step jrpg-transfers with interspersed cosmetic donat.

And you know what is the most offensive? It is in this now dead game that almost the most adult and elaborate plot in the entire series, which can now be found only through vidosiki on YouTube. Fortunately, the fans retained all the most important katsets, and some even decided to gather in the group and voice them, which at times simplifies the study:

Special attention in Kingdom Hearts χ deserves the addition of Dark Road, which tells the tragic story of the main antagonist of the current saga.

As for the Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover collections, this is again a gamefill, which is extremely superficially passing through the events of the main campaign from the prospects of the chapters of the fractions that allowed the beginning of the all-destroying war-clink.

Unfortunately, you will have little to learn from this hourly film, and its production is comparable to the third -rate anime based on Among US, which does not at all favor the adult history that I praised above.

The events of Kingdom Hearts χ are still not related to the main line of games, but it’s no secret that they will definitely be of key importance in the new saga starting with the release of Kingdom Iarts IV. So, for a better understanding of the history of the future game, it is still recommended to get acquainted with this project.

Kingdom Hearts III

At the beginning of 2019, 6 years after the official announcement, the light finally saw the third number of Kingdom Hearts, which completes the almost 20-year-old saga of the “Seeker of Darkness”. Whether she met the expectations of fans? Well … and yes and no ..

Of course, at the moment it is the most colorful game in a series, which is a pleasure to pass. On the other hand, it is the most “light” in terms of gameplay, because she does not offer a special challenger even at the highest level of complexity (not counting of of course super -bosses from DLC).