Kingdom Hearts on PC: a beginner’s guide to getting into the series

With (almost) the entire Kingdom Hearts series coming to PC next week, here’s some guidance and advice for potential newcomers.

Chances are that if you at least recognise the name Kingdom Hearts, you already have some idea of what it is. Namely, that it’s Final Fantasy meets Disney and is hopelessly confusing. And while that second point isn’t entirely inaccurate; it isn’t always as complex as some make it sound.

Still, with nearly every game in the series coming to PC via the Epic Games Store next week, newcomers may find themselves being overwhelmed with how many titles there are and put off by horror stories about the light and the darkness and keyblades and what have you.

But there’s a reason why the series has persisted for as long as it has and it’s because it’s one well worth experiencing. So, for those of you interested in checking it out, here are some spoiler-free pointers that will give you an idea of what to expect and how to prepare yourself.

Play in release order

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s one that’s easy to get wrong because of how the titles are listed. Basically, here’s how the games were originally released and how long-time fans first experienced them (we’ll use the names from Square Enix’s website for consistency’s sake and to minimise confusion).

• Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
• Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain Of Memories
• Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix
• Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
• Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD
• Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage-
• Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover
• Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind
• Kingdom Hearts Melody Of Memory

Fortunately, for the most part, this is how the games are listed on both Square Enix and Epic Games’ websites. However, 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts 2 are swapped around.

While 358/2 Days chronologically takes place before Kingdom Hearts 2, the fact that it initially came out afterwards means it kind of expects you to already know certain plot details from Kingdom Hearts 2, as certain characters will appear with little introduction. Plus, it gives away a major plot point from Kingdom Hearts 2’s prologue, so be sure to play Kingdom Hearts 2 beforehand.

Aside from that, follow the above list and you’ll be golden. You may be tempted to try and play the games in chronological order but trust us when we say that’s a bad idea. If anything, it’ll just make you even more confused.

Expect major gameplay changes

While Kingdom Hearts is described as an action role-playing game series, the core gameplay hasn’t been particularly consistent from one game to another. Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2, Kingdom Hearts 0.2, and Kingdom Hearts 3 are all fundamentally quite similar, but the other games love to shake things up.

Firstly, Re:Chain Of Memories’ combat is completely card-based. And we don’t mean in a tabletop turn-based game kind of way. You still run around in a 3D space and fight in real-time but every swing of your weapon and magic spell cast requires you using a card from your own custom deck that you build from the various cards you acquire from battles and the in-game shop (this released before microtransactions were ever a thing so don’t worry about those).

Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance, meanwhile, have something called the Command Deck. Spells and special abilities you unlock can be set in the deck and used whenever you want. You only need to wait for them to reload to become available again, rather than needing to spend magic points or similar.

These are the bare essentials and the games do offer tutorials when you get started, but it’s something to keep in mind when jumping in. With any luck, you’ll take to the gameplay changes fine, but if you end up really disliking them, every game has difficulty options so just pick the easiest one and make the adventure a bit more of a breeze for yourself.

Knowledge of the Disney movies helps

For the most part, the trips to the various Disney worlds are brief retellings of their respective movies. As a result, this means they tend to skip over certain scenes so having prior knowledge of the movies means you can easily fill in the blanks yourselves. This isn’t always an issue but, every once in a while, pivotal moments from the movies get left out, meaning later scenes are almost devoid of context.

This is recommended even for the Disney worlds that feature original storylines not taken from their respective movies, like the Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Don’t try to prove yourself

One thing the series is famous for is how challenging it can be. Most, if not all, of the games offer extra hard difficulty modes and even an option to play through them at only level one. And even on the easiest difficulty, there are optional super bosses that can take you out in only a few attacks if you aren’t prepared.

It may be tempting to take on these challenges from the get-go, but we advise that you hold off for the time being. These challenges require skill, a deep understanding of how the combat works and enemy patterns, and a lot of patience.

The best thing to do is simply experience the games’ base offerings. Don’t get too wrapped up in side-content, beat the final boss, sit through the credits, and, if you really, really enjoyed yourself, maybe then try the tougher challenges.

Try to turn your brain off for the story

This one seems a bit harsh because Kingdom Hearts’ story isn’t bad nor is it completely nonsensical. In fact, there are moments of genuine brilliance and legitimately emotional scenes. But the series has its reputation for being infamously confusing for a reason.

What you need to do, to truly enjoy the series for what it is, is to embrace and accept its weird logic. The moment you stop trying to come up with logical explanations about how hearts, the Heartless, Nobodies, etc. work, things become much easier to digest.

In fact, the reason why some may find things too confusing is not because of the writing itself but because of how much story there is, and it is tough trying to remember everything that happens. Thankfully, that’s what fan wikis and YouTube are for and later games come with story recaps of the previous games and bibliographies of their own.

Much like a classic Disney film, Kingdom Hearts is ultimately a fairy tale, where friendship is a legitimate source of magic and the story is dependent on the emotions it can generate from its audience.

Maybe skip Melody Of Memory

Melody Of Memory is the one game that completely changes genre, becoming a rhythm game that acts as a nostalgic trip through the previous games and their soundtracks, as well as a celebration of the series so far.

While this makes it a fantastic game for die-hard fans, anyone with little or zero interest in rhythm games will be left wanting more, especially in terms of story content.

If, by this point, you have been completely sucked into the lore but don’t like the idea of playing a rhythm game to learn what comes next, then we’d advise you skip Melody Of Memory entirely.

What new story there is doesn’t come until right at the end of the game and consists of roughly 25 minutes of cut scenes. At that point, you may as well watch those scenes on YouTube.

The three movies

Wait, there are movies? Yes, not every game is technically included in the collection. Square Enix already explains this on the website but 358/2 Days and Re:coded have instead received cinematic retellings of their respective stories.

Both movies are incredibly long (clocking in at roughly three hours each) and are required viewing if you want to understand later plot developments. Fortunately, it is possible to save your progress, allowing you to take breaks and come back to them later.

The third movie is Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover. Considering the mobile game, Kingdom Hearts χ, isn’t available, you may think that Back Cover is a retelling of that game, right?

Wrong. Back Cover introduces additional story for the mobile game, focusing on a set of characters called the Foretellers and explaining what they were doing in the background during the mobile game.

It’s thankfully much shorter than the other two (only about an hour long) and you could probably watch it without touching the mobile game. But, if you don’t want to risk going into it and being completely lost, here’s what you can do beforehand.

How to catch up on Kingdom Hearts χ

Honestly, there’s very little reason to actually play the mobile game now since it will be shutting down in May. It will still be available to download; it will just feature the cut scenes and no gameplay.

If you don’t want to bother with that, YouTuber Everglow has been consistently uploading all the story missions when they become available. It’s obviously not complete yet so maybe hold off for the time being until you have all the other games under your belt.

What about Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road?

Dark Road is another mobile game included with Kingdom Hearts χ. Much like χ, it will be shutting down in May, but will come back as an offline game in September, since there’s still a bunch of story it has yet to cover.

Since it will keep its gameplay, it may be worth checking it out after it’s released again. But, if you really don’t want to play a mobile game, Everglow is also uploading all the story for that game too and will no doubt continue to do so.

Chronologically, Dark Road takes place after χ and focuses on the backstory of a very important character in the series, so we recommend saving this one till last.

The internet is your friend

If there is ever something that really leaves you lost and scratching your head like you’ve taken a wrong turn in Wonderland, there is bound to be an answer online.

Kingdom Hearts has one of the most dedicated fanbases out there and there are countless gameplay and story guides that can clear things up for you, especially regarding the secret endings.

Most of the games contain additional ending scenes that act as set-up for the next game but unlocking them is never easy. What is easy, is looking up how to do it online, but if it’s still too difficult for you don’t be afraid to just watch it on YouTube.

As we said before, never feel like you need to prove yourself. So long as you’re having fun, that’s enough to be a fan of the series.

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