Kingdom Hearts All Games Breakdown Review – 1 2 3
Remember those games that start out with a small following and eventually explode in popularity? It’s scientifically proven that once something popular is adopted by the mainstream populations that it begins to transition into lame and uncool. Personally I feel this is because popular people can only feel popular when opposing popularity itself in the same way clickbait works.
Here at Kaidus we don’t care if Kingdom Hearts was once one of these games, we will simply embrace the good or bad in everything, and Kingdom Hearts has much to offer.
Lets get a quick breakdown of what you can expect playing Kingdom Hearts.
- Free to explore third person open world. (on par with Zelda)
- Challenging and creative boss fights. (quite challenging on hard mode)
- Rehash along side popular Disney stories and characters
- NPCs will always have something to say that will add to the story.
- Level up your character and equip items to become stronger.
- More to explore and accomplish after the main story is finished. (as well as a secret ending)
- Very challenging optional final boss
- A sense of getting stronger and more powerful as you play.
- Third person real time battle system with magical attacks and summoning
- Customize and create your own Gummy ship and use it to fly to different worlds.(much like legos)
Battle System
The battle system uses a 3rd person beat-em-up style where you move freely about the game. Battles happen real time and do not portal you to a separate battle arena during fights. The system is similar to the Zelda games. There are regular keyblade attacks, magic attacks, summoning spells, usable items and somewhat traditional Drive/Limit mode that powers up during fights and allows you to unleash powerful combos.
The game forces you to make your attacks count and can be very unforgiving of mistakes on hard mode. By having a limited amount of moves set to quick key commands, you may develop a unique battle style that differs from player to player. There really is a vast amount of attacks and spells to customize your character with, yet not so many where you are flooded with too many commands.
You can equip items in the game to help adjust to your fighting style. (For instance you can sacrifice your HP to deal more damage)
Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and 2.8 use the more traditional style battle system as described above, however the others introduce a command deck style. While essentially they are all very similar, the command deck system allows attacks to level up by gaining command points from defeating enemies in battle.
Recommended Order to play
I also recommend playing these games in this order, however I feel you can mostly get away with plaing only Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and birth by sleep. There are two HD Remixes that will allow you to get the first 6 of these games. (358/2 and recoded are movie only games)
(If you buy the two remix version you can get away with only buying 4 of these games) (links at the bottom of page for more information on each game)
- Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 ReMIX (PS3)
- Kingdom Hearts (ps2)
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories(GBA)
- Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days(DS) (play this game after you play Kingdom hearts II)
- Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX (PS3)
- Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP)
- Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (DS)
- Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
- Kingdom Hearts 2.8 (PS4)
Storyline.
I prefer doing so without giving away many spoilers, so I’ll keep this vague.
The root storyline of Kingdom hearts is a constant struggle between good and evil. What makes the story more fun is all the bonds and friendship the main character Sora makes on his Journey and perhaps type of story where we have to ask ourselves to what end would we go for the ones we love.
Each game also covers different Disney worlds and usually drops your character in the middle of their classic tales. (Aladdin, little mermaid, mulan..ect)
Vague yes?
Graphics
The graphics for Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 would be considered some of the best graphics for the time when they were originally released back in 2002. Since the release of the HD remix versions, the quality of these core games have increased drastically in resolution. The side by side comparison below really shows the age of the original Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 vs HD Remix screenshot
Kingdom Hearts Chain of memories 2D GBA version and 3D PS2 or PS3 versions
Chain of memories was released for the Gameboy Advance that utilizes depth of field for a convincing 3D effect. (At least it used to be convincing) This game probably has the worst graphics out of the series. Later this game was re-released in full 3D for the ps2 and is title “Re: chain of memories”
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
In the latest kingdom hearts release we can see some major improvements to the visual quality of this game, however by no means perfect. I feel most will be more than satisfied with the improvements as we near the release of Kingdom hearts 3
