I liked Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, but I haven’t played them since PS2 was current. So I was thinking about grabbing them before the steam sale ends, but I’m wondering if I should just go ahead and get the whole “integrum masterpiece” collection.
I’ve heard 3 doesn’t really hold up to 2 at all, but is it worth it just for a conclusion to the story arc?
TLDR: I probably wouldn’t suggest playing 3 unless you’re willing to play/watch the side games. The conclusion will not hit hard at all if you didn’t play the side games.
I literally just played through all the games (besides Re:coded, watched it) and I have conflicting feelings about it. Storyline wise, I didn’t love or hate it, as some parts were really nice and heartwarming to see (I really loved the reunion of the other two trios) and certain worlds are nice to meet your fave characters (Toy Box my beloved). But the main plot feels both satisfying and meh. I watched the fandub of union x and got really excited to see the lore be teased more in 3, but because 3 tries to appease everyone (crowd who played all the games vs crowd who only played 1 & 2), they don’t get to dive as deep as I wanted. I am more willing to ignore some of the bs and laugh rather than cringe, but I do understand why many find the plot corny.
The combat… I’ve basically hated the combat in every KH game, BBS is the only one where scrolling through the skill menu didn’t feel like ass, meanwhile DDD executes flowmotion beautifully (while it feels useless in 3), and yet CoM had my favorite system overall (might be my favorite game honestly). 3 controls are far better than KH 1, but the actual difficulty is non-existent and makes blocking feel almost useless. The attraction attacks are there I guess (my mom liked them lol). KH 1 normal mode had me near tears (Even the fucking Traverse Town Armor), CoM was frustrating but satisfying, 2 was boring besides the impossible super bosses, all of 358/2 was just awful overall, BBS was very normal until final boss, and DDD was slightly frustrating but beating the final boss was satisfying. 3 was a snooze fest besides final bosses that just made me go, “oh, I guess I won. I kinda just mashed x.”
IDK, I’ve had a KH shaped hole in my heart over these past two days, wondering what I want to play now that I got through my 2 month marathon. I both miss the games but also acknowledge that they get very repetitive and tiring over time. My mom only played 1,2 & 3 and has basically said KH and Square are dead to her.
CoM, BBS, and DDD are a must to watch/play. 358/2 is only worth it if you like challenge missions (I skipped them, hated the gameplay), Fragmentary Passage is only on the 2.8 disc and is literally 4-5 hrs, and Re:coded is supposedly good gameplay but the plot is just “what if data simulation Riku and Sora went through KH 1 together?” And Union X is gonna be vital to watch for those preparing for KH 4.
Thanks for the replies, folks. Sounds like it’s mostly pretty garbage, but the large amount of postgame bosses might be kind of fun if I turn off attractions. I do kinda want to try DDD for playing Riku, so I went ahead and got the package as the cheapest option that includes that.
If I still feel like playing 3 when I get there, it sounds like drinking my way through the Disney worlds may not be a bad idea.
I’m currently doing a replay of the series and am in the middle of 3, and while 2 is definitely better in a lot of ways, I am still enjoying three, but it does have some issues. The difficulty is not to par, would be my biggest gripe, there really hasn’t been any level of challenge playing on proud mode, but the gameplay holds up in my opinion. The worlds are bigger and have a better layout than in 2, but the world stories are pretty lame for the most part and don’t really have anything to do with the plot, you’re just kind of there during the events of the movies for the most part, and a lot of times it’s just kind of “and Sora and the gang were there, too!”
If you haven’t played the side games to know the full story then things feel like a bit of a mess and they don’t really go over much from those games, which all have very important plot elements happening.
As a part of the whole story, I think it’s worth playing, but not really until near the end of the game. If you’re into the games for the combat mechanics then I’d say it’s worth it, I really like the gameplay. If you haven’t played the side games and are playing for the story then it’s going to be rough.
All in all, I enjoy it for a lot of reasons, though it has some issues, but that’s sort of the deal with all of the games. If you play Dream Drop Distance first I feel it adds a lot to KH3, but had I not played that first I’m not sure I would have enjoyed KH3 as much as I have, since it is a huge part of the story setup for what is happening in the third game, and if you go from KH2 directly to KH3 you’ll be missing a shit ton of what is going on with the story, why the power of waking is so relevant, and what happened with Sora and Riku’s mark of mastery exam.
So, not the best of the series, but I think it’s worth the time to play if you’re invested in the story or gameplay.
Edit: They also completely reworked the gummi ship stuff, in my opinion, for the better. You actually get to fly it around in space in an interactive world map deal that you can explore as it’s own thing, and you actually have to navigate to new worlds. It’s polarizing, and I can see why some wouldn’t like it, but I think it’s a huge improvement to that part of the games.
3’s my least favorite numbered entry in the series, but the post-game of re:mind is pretty damn good.
I didn’t like how empty the world’s felt. Even though there’s barely any npc’s in 1, it felt the most alive. 2 was just corridors, but my god the combat feels good. 3 is an attempt to make the world’s bigger, ending up empty, and the combat is meh for the most part.
KH3 is bad. If I wanted to rank the main games, it’d be KH2, KH1 Remastered, KH1 with the original terrible camera and platforming, and then KH3. It’s not functionally broken, but it’s such a disappointment.
The story is a hot mess because you need to play Birth By Sleep to know who Aqua is, and KH 0.2 to figure out how she got to KH3, Dream Drop Distance to know how Sora and Riku got there (which also builds off KH:coded) and to understand why you’re fighting Organization XIII again after you defeated them entirely in 2 and why there’s multiple versions of the big bad, and KH X (the Greek letter pronounced “key”) to know what the hell a random thing that shows up toward the end of the game is. And I’m probably forgetting stuff. I hadn’t played everything, and by the end, I was just sitting back and saying “Yeah, that’s another thing that didn’t make any sense” for about every story point.
The attractions have no place in combat. They make it insanely easy, and I decided to turn them off entirely after I beat a boss just by juggling it on a pendulum ride. The Disney worlds kind of feel bare bones despite their size. It’s pretty, but it’s also empty.
I wanted to love this game so, so much, but they had to cover over a decade of lore because the creator couldn’t finish FFXV, and it’s not brought together in any really coherent or satisfying way. The combat managed to be a step down from KH2. I finished the game, and I was just frustrated because it just was not good.
All that said, for buying it, this game is supposed to tie up all the endings started in the other games. I’d just grab 1.5+2.5, and you’ll still have a good chunk of content if you’ve only played the main games. But if you also want to grab 2.8, buying the bundle is just cheaper.
its a ton of nomura minigames and disney attractions in combat which draw away from kingdom hearts imo.
i recommend disabling the disney attraction skills because they really detract from the combat
also given how you talked about the games, if you never played any of the other non numbered kingdom hearts games, you might not want to play 3.
EVERY GAME, including the rhythm and mobile games, are canon in Kingdom Hearts.
1 was the start and the only game before 2 was 1 and Chain of memories. 3 in the ideal situation, requires the user to have played like i dont remember, 10 different games.
I played maybe five hours of 3 and maybe it was because I was older than for the previous two, but the sunny “we’re friends and everything is so positive and love and sunshine” was really really grating. It felt like it was way more excessive than the first two, but, again, could be the ages I played them at.
Otherwise it played… Okay? The Disney things were stupid. It felt pretty blah otherwise. Nothing remarkable.
3 is my favorite personally. Heavily depends on if you are looking for fun gameplay or immersive story IMO. Don’t go in expecting the most complex story known to man. I never played them as a kid and picked them up about 3 years ago and really enjoyed the entire collection.
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TLDR: I probably wouldn’t suggest playing 3 unless you’re willing to play/watch the side games. The conclusion will not hit hard at all if you didn’t play the side games.
I literally just played through all the games (besides Re:coded, watched it) and I have conflicting feelings about it. Storyline wise, I didn’t love or hate it, as some parts were really nice and heartwarming to see (I really loved the reunion of the other two trios) and certain worlds are nice to meet your fave characters (Toy Box my beloved). But the main plot feels both satisfying and meh. I watched the fandub of union x and got really excited to see the lore be teased more in 3, but because 3 tries to appease everyone (crowd who played all the games vs crowd who only played 1 & 2), they don’t get to dive as deep as I wanted. I am more willing to ignore some of the bs and laugh rather than cringe, but I do understand why many find the plot corny.
The combat… I’ve basically hated the combat in every KH game, BBS is the only one where scrolling through the skill menu didn’t feel like ass, meanwhile DDD executes flowmotion beautifully (while it feels useless in 3), and yet CoM had my favorite system overall (might be my favorite game honestly). 3 controls are far better than KH 1, but the actual difficulty is non-existent and makes blocking feel almost useless. The attraction attacks are there I guess (my mom liked them lol). KH 1 normal mode had me near tears (Even the fucking Traverse Town Armor), CoM was frustrating but satisfying, 2 was boring besides the impossible super bosses, all of 358/2 was just awful overall, BBS was very normal until final boss, and DDD was slightly frustrating but beating the final boss was satisfying. 3 was a snooze fest besides final bosses that just made me go, “oh, I guess I won. I kinda just mashed x.”
IDK, I’ve had a KH shaped hole in my heart over these past two days, wondering what I want to play now that I got through my 2 month marathon. I both miss the games but also acknowledge that they get very repetitive and tiring over time. My mom only played 1,2 & 3 and has basically said KH and Square are dead to her.
CoM, BBS, and DDD are a must to watch/play. 358/2 is only worth it if you like challenge missions (I skipped them, hated the gameplay), Fragmentary Passage is only on the 2.8 disc and is literally 4-5 hrs, and Re:coded is supposedly good gameplay but the plot is just “what if data simulation Riku and Sora went through KH 1 together?” And Union X is gonna be vital to watch for those preparing for KH 4.
Thanks for the replies, folks. Sounds like it’s mostly pretty garbage, but the large amount of postgame bosses might be kind of fun if I turn off attractions. I do kinda want to try DDD for playing Riku, so I went ahead and got the package as the cheapest option that includes that.
If I still feel like playing 3 when I get there, it sounds like drinking my way through the Disney worlds may not be a bad idea.
The best solution, right there 👍
I’m currently doing a replay of the series and am in the middle of 3, and while 2 is definitely better in a lot of ways, I am still enjoying three, but it does have some issues. The difficulty is not to par, would be my biggest gripe, there really hasn’t been any level of challenge playing on proud mode, but the gameplay holds up in my opinion. The worlds are bigger and have a better layout than in 2, but the world stories are pretty lame for the most part and don’t really have anything to do with the plot, you’re just kind of there during the events of the movies for the most part, and a lot of times it’s just kind of “and Sora and the gang were there, too!”
If you haven’t played the side games to know the full story then things feel like a bit of a mess and they don’t really go over much from those games, which all have very important plot elements happening.
As a part of the whole story, I think it’s worth playing, but not really until near the end of the game. If you’re into the games for the combat mechanics then I’d say it’s worth it, I really like the gameplay. If you haven’t played the side games and are playing for the story then it’s going to be rough.
All in all, I enjoy it for a lot of reasons, though it has some issues, but that’s sort of the deal with all of the games. If you play Dream Drop Distance first I feel it adds a lot to KH3, but had I not played that first I’m not sure I would have enjoyed KH3 as much as I have, since it is a huge part of the story setup for what is happening in the third game, and if you go from KH2 directly to KH3 you’ll be missing a shit ton of what is going on with the story, why the power of waking is so relevant, and what happened with Sora and Riku’s mark of mastery exam.
So, not the best of the series, but I think it’s worth the time to play if you’re invested in the story or gameplay.
Edit: They also completely reworked the gummi ship stuff, in my opinion, for the better. You actually get to fly it around in space in an interactive world map deal that you can explore as it’s own thing, and you actually have to navigate to new worlds. It’s polarizing, and I can see why some wouldn’t like it, but I think it’s a huge improvement to that part of the games.
3 is unbelievably horrible.
3’s my least favorite numbered entry in the series, but the post-game of re:mind is pretty damn good.
I didn’t like how empty the world’s felt. Even though there’s barely any npc’s in 1, it felt the most alive. 2 was just corridors, but my god the combat feels good. 3 is an attempt to make the world’s bigger, ending up empty, and the combat is meh for the most part.
KH3 is bad. If I wanted to rank the main games, it’d be KH2, KH1 Remastered, KH1 with the original terrible camera and platforming, and then KH3. It’s not functionally broken, but it’s such a disappointment.
The story is a hot mess because you need to play Birth By Sleep to know who Aqua is, and KH 0.2 to figure out how she got to KH3, Dream Drop Distance to know how Sora and Riku got there (which also builds off KH:coded) and to understand why you’re fighting Organization XIII again after you defeated them entirely in 2 and why there’s multiple versions of the big bad, and KH X (the Greek letter pronounced “key”) to know what the hell a random thing that shows up toward the end of the game is. And I’m probably forgetting stuff. I hadn’t played everything, and by the end, I was just sitting back and saying “Yeah, that’s another thing that didn’t make any sense” for about every story point.
The attractions have no place in combat. They make it insanely easy, and I decided to turn them off entirely after I beat a boss just by juggling it on a pendulum ride. The Disney worlds kind of feel bare bones despite their size. It’s pretty, but it’s also empty.
I wanted to love this game so, so much, but they had to cover over a decade of lore because the creator couldn’t finish FFXV, and it’s not brought together in any really coherent or satisfying way. The combat managed to be a step down from KH2. I finished the game, and I was just frustrated because it just was not good.
All that said, for buying it, this game is supposed to tie up all the endings started in the other games. I’d just grab 1.5+2.5, and you’ll still have a good chunk of content if you’ve only played the main games. But if you also want to grab 2.8, buying the bundle is just cheaper.
got norted!
its a ton of nomura minigames and disney attractions in combat which draw away from kingdom hearts imo.
i recommend disabling the disney attraction skills because they really detract from the combat
also given how you talked about the games, if you never played any of the other non numbered kingdom hearts games, you might not want to play 3.
EVERY GAME, including the rhythm and mobile games, are canon in Kingdom Hearts.
1 was the start and the only game before 2 was 1 and Chain of memories. 3 in the ideal situation, requires the user to have played like i dont remember, 10 different games.
Or watch a 30-minute recap.
I havent played 3 personally, but I’ve heard the story is kinda botched because its so inconsistent, and the pacing is fucked.
With 1 and 2 you had the anime-bullshit layered between the disney-bullshit.
Apparently with 3, it goes:
anime-bullshit > (disney-bullshit * worlds) > heavy anime-bullshit with loads of exposition.
I played maybe five hours of 3 and maybe it was because I was older than for the previous two, but the sunny “we’re friends and everything is so positive and love and sunshine” was really really grating. It felt like it was way more excessive than the first two, but, again, could be the ages I played them at.
Otherwise it played… Okay? The Disney things were stupid. It felt pretty blah otherwise. Nothing remarkable.
3 is my favorite personally. Heavily depends on if you are looking for fun gameplay or immersive story IMO. Don’t go in expecting the most complex story known to man. I never played them as a kid and picked them up about 3 years ago and really enjoyed the entire collection.
3 is trash