This will probably come across as petulant or entitled to some...and maybe it is. For that matter, I'm probably not the first person to say it. But I still feel the need to bring it up. Because exclusivity has pretty much ruined Kingdom Hearts for me.

I like Kingdom Hearts a great deal. I'll shortly be starting my second play-through of Kingdom Hearts 2, and I expect to have fun with it. But not as much fun as I could, because I've only played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. And that's a pain, because that means the story is nearly incomprehensible due to  the missing content from the other games.

Because games containing necessary story information are tied to multiple exclusive platforms, trying to understand the story of this series becomes either boring or expensive. I think it's ridiculous that I have to buy a PSP and a 3DS to understand what exactly is going on. Is it not enough that I bought the sequel to Kingdom Hearts? Why do I have to buy a game from 3 completely different systems, from 2 completely different companies, to understand the very first thing about Kingdom Hearts 2? Do I seriously have to resort to watching hours upon hours of condensed cutscenes to figure out what I'm missing?

I imagine this is what fans of Final Fantasy felt like when the series made the switch to Playstation exclusivity, or when Bayonetta became a Nintendo exclusive. In the case of Final Fantasy, at least, the lack of an overarching story meant that you didn't need to make the jump to understand the plot, and Bayonetta 2 at least had financial reasons for why it made the jump.

I'll still enjoy the game, but the fact is that the series will always be less, for me, by virtue of the way it was released. And that's really just sad.

That's why kingdom hearts 1.5 hd remix is about to be released, and we all know 2.5 is coming

You will know the full story before kingdom hearts 3 is out

This is why the HD collections are coming out, all you need is a PS3.

I could know the whole story now, just by reading wiki articles or watching cutscenes on Youtube. Is it so much to ask that I be able to play the story of those games though, instead of watch it?

If I'm not mistaken, KH 1.5 Remix includes content from the DS game, but only in the form of a 3-hour cutscene. That is really not an appropriate solution...

Yeah. I never quite understood why they scattergunned handheld versions all over the place, especially after the explosive sales of the first two games on the PS2.

That said; PS3 seems to be the place to play all of the saga so far up until this point. The first HD Collection contains Kingdom Hearts 1; Chain of Memories & cutscenes from 358/2 days. It's pretty obvious there's a second HD Collection coming, which should contain Kingdom Hearts 2; Birth by Sleep and... possibly Dream Drop Distance?

That's assuming the second HD Collection comes to PS3, of course. I can't imagine it being a next-gen title, but it's not out of the question. Then, once you're all caught up, it's on to XBone/PS4 to play Kingdom Hearts 3. Which yes, I realise is another console switch... but to be fair, it's been more than a decade since the series started, so at least this one can be slightly excused.

I experienced most of the story and let me tell you, it is convulted and innecesarily complicated. The characters are enjoyable but don't try to follow the plot it's too "complicated".

You never understood that Square-Enix has had the brain of a trout for about a decade now?

Don't over think the plot, you'll get lost. That said, I was pissed I couldn't play non-home console releases as I had no PSP or DS. I played BBS in the end on a borrowed PSP and rented game.


1.5 HD is out in 3 days... Should I buy it? It's cheap anyway, might wait until it's a little cheaper.

they're the only company who puts something like Deus Ex on a Nintendo Console and Kingdom Hearts on a Microsoft console :P

I usually pretend the handhelds versions don't exists. That's what I do for Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Uncharted, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Metroid, etc.