There might be only three numbered Kingdom Hearts entries, but the franchise has seen more than a handful of non-numbered entries on various different platforms over the years that have turned out to be bafflingly crucial to the series’ overarching series, often to shocking degrees. Getting into Kingdom Hearts as a newcomer can, as such, be a bit daunting, though Square Enix has released a new video to help you with that very process.
In the newly released video, Square Enix goes over the idea order to play Kingdom Hearts games in. After mentioning that starting with the most recent release (in this case, Kingdom Hearts 3) is perfectly fine (we wouldn’t recommend it though), the video starts with going over the release order of the Dark Seeker saga.
Specifically, the video sticks with Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, starting with then moving into Re:Chain of Memories, and then Kingdom Hearts 2. From there, it moves to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days’ cutscene compilation (or you could just play the actual game, if you have a DS), then Birth by Sleep Final Mix, before moving to the second collection, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Chapter Prologue.
The order across three entries here is Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (which, for those who don’t know, is an HD cutscene collection of what was originally a web browser game- no, seriously), and Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage. And after that, finally, there’s Kingdom Hearts 3.
Of course, many will want to play the series in its chronological order, which is something that the video goes over as well. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of detail to go over, so make sure to check out the video below.
Square Enix is currently also working on Kingdom Hearts 4, which we could allegedly see at Disney’s D23 in August, ahead of a potential release in 2025.
