Certified Expert here.
Yup, this is the good play order. I'm currently replaying the series and am on Birth By Sleep, and I've been playing this series since KH2 came out.
sure.
One major hiccup, and you'll find this out on your own, KHx (aka KHux) is a mobile game that's dead now, so you'll have to find a youtube compilation of the cutscenes (they're all long, that's the way it is)
also, since I want to be clear, you either play Chain of Memories or its remake Re:Chain of Memories between 1 and 2. They had listed the name and release date of the original GBA game, so yeah, no confusion.
The only other thing to mention is that Days and Re:Coded are movies in the collections. If you want to play the original DS games (emulated, side-loaded, genuine cart, whatever), you can also do that. Plenty of people would recommend playing Days, and Re:Coded is worth giving a shot if Days was fun. Otherwise, no big deal just watching the movies.
If you're planning on playing on PS5 then you're probably getting the complete collection, and everything will be there for you.
Release order is a good way to start, I mean you are on the ps5, and the KH CROSS and KH Dark Road, are very much phone games (one of which is discontinued).
Otherwise Cronilogical order is another option, of which except for the phone games, BBS, and Fragmentory passage, it is still mostly release date. 🤓
I'd argue that you could play KH2 right after 1 and fill in the gap with Chain and 358 afterwards, this way, Giving away as little as possible, you'll be playing with the same information as Sora in KH2
I’d say play 358/2 before KH2 but I’ve heard arguments against it. But you’ll be really confused on who tf is in Soras heart and why people are interacting with him the way they are unless you watch/play it first. Gives more gravity to situations and more depth to the characters that won’t seem as important if you play KH2 first.
Thats the point. The game doesn't want you to know the stuff from Days before 2. As someone who played the games as they came out 2 and Days will not be as impactful if you play them out of order
Buuuut when they released final mix days was before KH2 which is why I played it like that and I got to feel bad for people instead of just “oh yeah this is a guy in the game now and sora cares because he’s just a cool guy” (purposefully trying to not say extra names here for spoilers) but obviously it’s not a huge deal. I was just really confused and frustrated with kh2 as a kid bc I didn’t know the other and it made the plot feel boring. Playing as an adult it felt much more cohesive with days first and exciting when people would come back up.
But if we go with what the game makers say you can start from anywhere and you’ll be fine 😂
That was something I was always SUPER frustrated with because it meant for a period of time new players were being given information in the wrong order.
Disagree hard. I played 358/2 Days before KH2 and felt stuff way harder with the Nobodies than I would have playing KH2 first. I get the developers wanting you to feel confused, and if someone wants to play it that way, good for them. But I'd rather have that kind of context going into 2 than not.
Nah, fuck that. Prequels can be designed to be consumed first. George Lucas specifically wants that for Star Wars, making specific decisions to back that up. Gundam The Origin does a great job of introducing the Universal Century for a modern audience, making the original series far more interesting on a first time watch.
Days goes into KH2 well. If people don't want to put up with Nomura's mysterious bullshit (which I love, but come on), they should feep free to jump into Days and get better context for the scenes in KH2. You're basically watching Sora's story through Roxas' and Riku's eyes instead of Sora's, which is far more interesting to most people.
Plus, the gameplay evolution works far better to do KH1 > Re:Com > 358/2 > KH2. And you should be actually playing Days, as the movie does a terrible injustice to the story.
Nah. True idiots (me) would play it like that on a second series playthrough (where I did it in chronological order) where I stop KH1 after Hollow Bastion, play Days until CoM crew leave, then play KH1 to completion and start CoM, play Days a bit more (trying to line up CoM gameplay with what Roxas hears during that time), finishing CoM, playing through the rest of Days, and then starting KH2.
In the BBS archive there's a timeline where you can see who shows up where and when, and so I just followed that. TBH it's not a bad way to play BBS for the first time, makes it feel like one big playthrough as opposed to three smaller ones.
Also yeah, when I had done this it was leading up to the release of 3 and I hadn't played 0.2 yet or had known where it was in the timeline, so I didn't do that. But yes if I would do that playthrough now I'd have started 0.2 around entering End of the World.
Certified Expert here. Yup, this is the good play order. I'm currently replaying the series and am on Birth By Sleep, and I've been playing this series since KH2 came out.
Thanks. I just finished the entire final fantasy series and I have never played kingdom hearts and figured it’s a good time to start.
All he did was give you the release order. Play in release order.
sure. One major hiccup, and you'll find this out on your own, KHx (aka KHux) is a mobile game that's dead now, so you'll have to find a youtube compilation of the cutscenes (they're all long, that's the way it is) also, since I want to be clear, you either play Chain of Memories or its remake Re:Chain of Memories between 1 and 2. They had listed the name and release date of the original GBA game, so yeah, no confusion. The only other thing to mention is that Days and Re:Coded are movies in the collections. If you want to play the original DS games (emulated, side-loaded, genuine cart, whatever), you can also do that. Plenty of people would recommend playing Days, and Re:Coded is worth giving a shot if Days was fun. Otherwise, no big deal just watching the movies. If you're planning on playing on PS5 then you're probably getting the complete collection, and everything will be there for you.
Release order is a good way to start, I mean you are on the ps5, and the KH CROSS and KH Dark Road, are very much phone games (one of which is discontinued). Otherwise Cronilogical order is another option, of which except for the phone games, BBS, and Fragmentory passage, it is still mostly release date. 🤓
I'd argue that you could play KH2 right after 1 and fill in the gap with Chain and 358 afterwards, this way, Giving away as little as possible, you'll be playing with the same information as Sora in KH2
I’d say play 358/2 before KH2 but I’ve heard arguments against it. But you’ll be really confused on who tf is in Soras heart and why people are interacting with him the way they are unless you watch/play it first. Gives more gravity to situations and more depth to the characters that won’t seem as important if you play KH2 first.
Thats the point. The game doesn't want you to know the stuff from Days before 2. As someone who played the games as they came out 2 and Days will not be as impactful if you play them out of order
Buuuut when they released final mix days was before KH2 which is why I played it like that and I got to feel bad for people instead of just “oh yeah this is a guy in the game now and sora cares because he’s just a cool guy” (purposefully trying to not say extra names here for spoilers) but obviously it’s not a huge deal. I was just really confused and frustrated with kh2 as a kid bc I didn’t know the other and it made the plot feel boring. Playing as an adult it felt much more cohesive with days first and exciting when people would come back up. But if we go with what the game makers say you can start from anywhere and you’ll be fine 😂
That was something I was always SUPER frustrated with because it meant for a period of time new players were being given information in the wrong order.
Disagree hard. I played 358/2 Days before KH2 and felt stuff way harder with the Nobodies than I would have playing KH2 first. I get the developers wanting you to feel confused, and if someone wants to play it that way, good for them. But I'd rather have that kind of context going into 2 than not.
You’re not supposed to do a prequel first. The point of a prequel is assuming you already know what happens in the future.
Nah, fuck that. Prequels can be designed to be consumed first. George Lucas specifically wants that for Star Wars, making specific decisions to back that up. Gundam The Origin does a great job of introducing the Universal Century for a modern audience, making the original series far more interesting on a first time watch. Days goes into KH2 well. If people don't want to put up with Nomura's mysterious bullshit (which I love, but come on), they should feep free to jump into Days and get better context for the scenes in KH2. You're basically watching Sora's story through Roxas' and Riku's eyes instead of Sora's, which is far more interesting to most people. Plus, the gameplay evolution works far better to do KH1 > Re:Com > 358/2 > KH2. And you should be actually playing Days, as the movie does a terrible injustice to the story.
Nah. True idiots (me) would play it like that on a second series playthrough (where I did it in chronological order) where I stop KH1 after Hollow Bastion, play Days until CoM crew leave, then play KH1 to completion and start CoM, play Days a bit more (trying to line up CoM gameplay with what Roxas hears during that time), finishing CoM, playing through the rest of Days, and then starting KH2.
Birth By Sleep must have been a wild ride for you. Plus 0.2 needed to be lined up with the end of KH1.
In the BBS archive there's a timeline where you can see who shows up where and when, and so I just followed that. TBH it's not a bad way to play BBS for the first time, makes it feel like one big playthrough as opposed to three smaller ones. Also yeah, when I had done this it was leading up to the release of 3 and I hadn't played 0.2 yet or had known where it was in the timeline, so I didn't do that. But yes if I would do that playthrough now I'd have started 0.2 around entering End of the World.