But don't worry! Because Square Enix just recently made it up to us by re-releasing all of those Final Mixes in HD collections for the PS3 and PS4. And for non-Japanese countries this time, to boot! Which means everybody can now enjoy the full story of Kingdom Hearts without any language barriers.
What do these HD collections contain, you ask?1) Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 ReMIX
~Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
~Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
~Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (
theater)
2) Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX
~Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix
~Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix
~Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (
theater)
3) Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue
~Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
~Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep (
playable mini-episode)
~Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover (
movie)
So as you can see, 5 of the 8 games are now fully playable in HD on these sets. However, 3 of the games in these sets aren't -- the ones labeled with "theater" above means that they're basically collections of cutscenes, taking the shape of 3-hour long movie. Now, these movies definitely have enough content to give you the full story of the original games they're being adapted from, but nobody would fault you if you just want to play the original games instead. Also the one labeled "movie" -- called [X Back Cover] -- is an hour-long cinematic showing the story of "Unchained X." It differs from the original game, however, since [Unchained X] is a light-hearted mission-based game where you can make an avatar character and fight Heartless, while [X Back Cover] is from the perspective of other characters and acts as a behind-the-scenes look at what's really happening in the plot that your avatar doesn't know about. So you can still play [Unchained X] if you want, but the actual plot-related information you will need to know will be held in [X Back Cover].
Meanwhile, [0.2 Birth by Sleep] isn't a full game -- it's only the length of a single world and acts as a prologue for [Kingdom Hearts III].
And as an aside, you may notice that [358/2 Days] is on the first set while [Kingdom Hearts II] is on the second. This may seem contradictory to the "play in release order" advice, but honestly, when it comes to these two games, their plots almost go hand-in-hand. And since this is the way Square released the HD sets, it's safe to say that this is their way of saying that it's alright to play [Days] before [KH II]. Though, of course, the choice is yours -- you can play either in whatever order. Though, naturally, playing [KH II] first is the most preferable, but again, it's up to you.
So with that all out of the way,
what is the recommended way to play the Kingdom Hearts franchise?1) Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD (
PS3)
2) Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories HD (
PS3)
3) Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix HD (
PS3)
4) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (
DS) / Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (
HD theater) (
PS3)
5) Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD (
PS3)
6) Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (
DS) / Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (
HD theater) (
PS3) *
7) Kingdom Hearts HD [Dream Drop Distance] (
PS4)
8) Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep (
PS4)
9) Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover (
HD movie) (
PS4)
And there you, you're all caught up with the series!
* =
the PS3 version of [Re:coded] has additional scenes that are plot-important. If you opt to play the DS game, keep in mind there's more to watch in the HD theater. However, it is best to view this after playing [Dream Drop Distance] to avoid spoilers.http://imageshack.us/a/img62/6467/b53l.png
Kari Wahlgren: "Guys, I just can't wrap my mouth around it."