#im mostly joking here i know its just for ease of gameplay

[corvidexoskeleton]

Incredible how within the span of a few hours, houses in pathologic can go from filthy, torn up, covered in blood and grime as its inhabitants die on the floor, bereft of any household goods, to a perfectly clean and liveable home ready for someone to move into

[dlandofdreams]

hi im trying to enter into the KH story but im not sure which game to play first?? wonderin if u could throw me a title u started with or would start with!!

Hello! I’m so excited to hear that you want to start KH! I’ll do my best to help! 

I know that @kingdomheartsnyctophiliac​ has a starter pack post that is pretty thorough with the listings and is a great recommendation! And, if you’re looking to get the games, I would recommend The Story So Far as it has all the games stories represented on one disk (although some of them are just “cinematic movies”), which makes it easier than switching through multiple consoles just to get to the story!

If you also want to just watch the story in chronological order, I highly recommend Everglow’s Kingdom Hearts Timeline. Not only does he put all the cutscenes (not just the games, so there is some back and forth within the scenes) in chronological order, he adds a lot to the experience that makes viewing it much more unique than other let’s plays or cutscene compilations, including highlighting certain callbacks or references and even modding full battles for important acts of Days, where the technical limitations are a bit offputting. 

I’ll put some of my own thoughts below! ^-^ (this gets a bit long) 

The release order of the franchise goes like this: 

Kingdom Hearts

Chain of Memories

Kingdom Hearts II

Coded

358/2 Days

Birth By Sleep 

Dream Drop Distance

X / Unchained X / Union X 

BBS: 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage

KHUX: Back Cover

While the timeline goes like this: 

X / Unchained X / Union X 

KHUX: Back Cover (during X) 

Birth By Sleep 

BBS: 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage (flashback scenes) 

Kingdom Hearts

Chain of Memories (after KH during Days) 

358/2 Days (starts during KH and ends at KH2) 

Kingdom Hearts II

Coded

Dream Drop Distance

BBS: 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage

With a bunch of remakes and remasters along the way!

I personally started with Days but that was because I don’t have some of the other consoles for the other games and it was released around the time I got into the series. I would not recommend starting here though, until you know at least one of the core titles, I and II. I had watched gameplays of I, CoM, and II by the time Days had come out so even though I didn’t play them, I was mostly caught up. 

To be honest, there are really two “orders” that people usually recap the story in: by release date or chronologically by the timeline, and any way is completely fine! Most follow by release date just because that was all we had when we used to wait game to game. I do think that following the release date does not deter any understanding of the progression of the story because a lot of plot elements and call backs tend to be introduced in later titles that take place further back in the timeline. In my opinion, this makes it easier to ease into some of the more complex plots of the story, especially since later titles tend to require certain knowledge from the previous ones. 

You can also follow by chronological order and I do not think this would be worse, as you are following the progression of the story in relation to Xehanort’s plan, rather than Sora’s adventure. With the release order, a lot of the titles that happen afterward tend to focus on our protagonist and why that game relates back to him. Following chronologically starts before his time and you get to know the background behind the Keyblade and what the antagonist, Xehanort, is after as well as the steps he will take to reach his goal. The only warning I have about following chronologically is that because a lot of details and plot points are added later as the series gets its footing, there are a lot of retcons from the earlier titles, so going from say BBS to KH is a bit jarring, especially concerning the lore behind the Keyblade. 

If not doing either of these orders, I would suggest first and foremost, at least definitely start with Kingdom Hearts. While the controls and gameplay can be clunky at times, and a lot of it does get retconned anyways, it introduces the series with the intention of bringing you a Disney and Final Fantasy crossover. The game is the simplest and most contained as a stand alone game. CoM could and probably should be played next while I think Days would be most impactful if you play it before KH2. Days brings the focus towards Roxas, a character important to the beginning of KH2 and the rest of the plot, and gives an insight on his life. After KH2, I think BBS then coded, as the games start referring more and more to each other. BBS and DDD are almost full title games in themselves in terms of stakes and story progression, and DDD comes after coded in the timeline. However, I think you can also play KHUX and back cover before DDD without disrupting the story too much as they are the furthest back in the timeline. Note though that KHUX currently is a mobile game with a story that occasionally continues to update, probably through KH3′s release. It does seem to be fairly distant from the current plot but does still give more insight on a vital part of the story’s lore. The more relevant points to the modern plot are in back cover, but I do recommend at least looking through the important story updates so far of KHUX. Finally A fragmentary passage is meant to be played last, after DDD and back cover, even though it is mostly a flashback sequence, because it leads up to the very beginning of KH3. 

(so basically, just follow melanie’s recommended playing order, explained more concisely in the link above lol) 

For some reason, I also see a lot of back and forth on whether the “side games” are important to play or understand before jumping into KH3. While playing the games themselves is not necessary, I think taking the time to understand the plot and characters of each of the games would best enhance your experience going into KH3. Whether that be playing the games, watching them, or even just reading a synopsis of them. Overall, the games highly focuses on the relationships and connections between characters and it would be a disservice to not recognize these when playing KH3. 

Sorry if this was a bit much to unpack. >.a lot. But it also is definitely worth it. 

Hope you enjoy and good luck!