Making sense of Kingdom Hearts – Here are all the games in order

“Correct orders” in any long-running piece of media (Kingdom Hearts included, which has been running for two decades plus!) are always going to be hotly debated. Everyone has their own take on how people should experience a story, especially when there are discrepancies between “release order” and “the order that the story makes sense.”

Thankfully, with a little help from compilations, things are a lot less murky. Here’s a surefire way to experience the core Kingdom Hearts story, otherwise known as the Dark Seeker Saga, or the Xehanort Saga.

Here’s the best order to play the Kingdom Hearts games:

• Kingdom Hearts
• Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
• KH2
• KH: 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
• Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded
• Dream Drop Distance
• KH: Birth By Sleep 0.2 – A Fragmentary Passage
• KH X: Back Cover
• Kingdom Hearts 3
• KH3: Remind
• Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (the beginning of a new era)

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

You have two options here: start with Kingdom Hearts 1 (makes total sense right?), or go with the first game chronologically, Birth by Sleep. Having played this series inside out, I’d recommend going with Kingdom Hearts 1 first. It’s best to go with release order as you’re given context clues throughout the series, and there are essential plot elements given to you in KH1 that aren’t explained in Birth By Sleep.

It kicks off your adventure with Sora (one of the many lead protagonists in the series), who sets the “everyman tone” quite well. You’ll become acquainted with multiple key members of the core narrative, and learn about them from the ground up, as Sora gets acclimated to the Kingdom Hearts universe alongside you. The Final Mix version that’s included with HD 1.5 ReMIX comes with a secret boss that’s a future antagonist from KH2. 

You have the option here to play Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, which is a side story that continues the arc of Kingdom Hearts 1, and leads into the second core game. It’s one of the worst entries in the series as it repeats the same worlds from the first game, and the card-based battle system can be annoying for some. However, its story is highly rated and it introduces certain Organization XIII members that appear in later entries. If you’re not up for it, you can certainly skip it, and watch a recap.

I’d recommend playing (or watching, if your version of it is the video-only edition) 358/2 Days (a confusingly named game that’s also included in 1.5 Remix) after you experience Kingdom Hearts 2. It is a previously DS-released title that tells the story of Roxas in between the events of KH1 and KH2. You should play this game after Kingdom Hearts 2, despite the story taking place before the events of that PS2 sequel. You’ll have more background on the characters therein if you wait and understand the story better. 358/2 Days also introduces an important hero, who appears later in the story.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix

Don’t worry about the confusing 2.5 moniker! The meat of this compilation is Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, which is actually just Kingdom Hearts 2 with some extra content and tweaks baked in. The extra content includes the secret boss Enigmatic Soldier, which acts as a tease for Birth By Sleep, and new cutscenes that tease the future of the series. There’s also an awesome boss battle added to the last world. 

From there, you have the option to hop to Kingdom Hearts Re: coded, or skip it entirely like Chain of Memories. It’s not an essential part of the Kingdom Hearts lore, but it does introduce an important item that Maleficent and Pete search for in KH3 called the Tome of Prophecies. It’s one of the worst games in the series as it rehashes old plot points and worlds from the first game once again. If you get the DS game, however, you can experience some weird gameplay takes on the formula like a turn-based section in Olympus Coliseum.

With 2.5 Remix, you’ll also be able to experience Birth by Sleep, which is one of the most important games from a foundational/bedrock perspective. It’s a prequel to most of the core events and will provide a background on why everything is happening. It introduces the main antagonist of the series so far, Master Xehanort, and tells the narrative of three essential characters Ventus, Aqua, and Terra. Make sure to unlock the True Ending by clearing all of the heroes’ stories in Critical Mode or Proud Mode with all of Xehanort’s Reports found. You can get it with Standard Mode and Beginner Mode too but it’s far harder. 

With Standard mode, you’ll need to get 100% of the trinity report to get the True Ending. For Beginner mode, you’ll have to get three trophies/achievements: Trinity Archive: “Power Walker” (walk 99,999 steps), “Keyslinger” (kill 9,999 Unversed), and “In the Munny” (collect 33,333 munny), according to Neo Chozo’s video.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

The next part of the story is Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. It acts as a prologue to Kingdom Hearts 3, which sets up Xehanort’s plans going into the main storyline. There is also some character growth between Sora and Riku in this 3DS title that’s now been remastered for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It also introduces Young Xehanort as a major antagonist and explains some of the plot holes the series has with an admittedly terrible plot device.

A game that isn’t that essential but should be played anyway is Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep A Fragmentary Passage. I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan, but man, Square Enix and Disney don’t help themselves with the naming conventions of each entry. This is a prequel to Kingdom Hearts 1 but leads into the events of the third game. It has Aqua exploring the realm of darkness after the events of Birth By Sleep in a brief story that lasts around 4-5 hours.

Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover is a movie that briefly explains the events of the mobile game Unchained X. It gives some context on the history of the Keyblade and what happened to the wielders many years before Sora and Riku. Without spoiling anything, it will be very important for the future of the series.

Kingdom Hearts 3

Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the latest entries in the Kingdom Hearts series and concludes the Dark Seeker Saga. It’s the culmination of a lot of plot elements of the franchise, including myriad character arcs. While prior games do have a bit of leeway in terms of order, you’ll want to come into this extremely lengthy entry with as much knowledge as possible. It wraps up the narrative of Xehanort as a main antagonist.

Kingdom Hearts 3: ReMIND is the DLC that gives more context to the somewhat rushed ending of Kingdom Hearts 3 and provides a lot of challenge with its boss battles. It lets us explore Scala Ad Caelum before we fight Xehanort at the end and gives us more context about Sora’s fate at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. It also teases us about an upcoming character from Kingdom Hearts 4, Yozora.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a music-rhythm game that many may think is a skippable experience and has no story. However, it does dive into some context clues about where Sora went after the events of KH3. It does work as a great wrap-up of the series’ storyline via Kairi’s narration.

Now that you know how to play the Kingdom Hearts games in order, you should be ready for Kingdom Hearts 4, whenever that arrives.

Should you play the spinoffs?

Many Kingdom Hearts content creators and I say you shouldn’t consider the other titles from the numbered entries as spin-offs. Each installment of the game is important for the narrative, even the music-rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.