This series is one of my favorite series of all time. It can be enjoyed by people of all ages as it is a kid friendly game mixed with final fantasy and Disney characters. The gameplay combines elements of hack and slash, action, platforming and RPG. Some of the entries in the series deviate slightly with turn based action like Chain of Memories but most are real time action games. Kingdom Hearts I and II are on the PlayStation 2 with remixes and remasters of them coming out on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox one.
The story is a classic battle between good and evil, Xenahort, heartless, nobodies, and evil Disney characters being the villains and Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Sora and other Disney characters as the heroes. While most of the games focus on Sora, Donald and Goofy, some games focus on side stories or adventures with characters such as Roxas, Aqua, and even a digital copy of Sora.
The first entry in the series and is a prequel to the rest of the series is Birth By Sleep. Next in the story is Kingdom Hearts which focuses on the adventures of Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald, Goofy and Mickey. Two games fill in the gap between the first and second Kingdom Hearts games. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days and Chain of Memories take place between the first and second kingdom hearts game. 358/2 Days follows the story of Roxas, the nobody of Sora when he is turned into a heartless (one of the many enemies of the series).
Chain of Memories follows Sora, Donald and Goofy between the first and second games in the series. Then the story is continued in Kingdom Hearts II with Kingdom Hearts: Coded game taking place around the end of the second entry in the series. The most recent game to come out in the series is Dream Drop Distance. Dream Drop Distance focuses on the continued training of Sora to become a keyblade master to prepare for the upcoming battle against Xenahort. The third title in the series is set to come out on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and is the last of the Xenahort saga.
The gameplay is a mixture of hack and slash with keyblade fighting with magic added in as well. In each of the games you can customize your characters abilities as you level up, as well as your companions. Over time features and abilities have been added such as summoning Disney characters to assist in fights, or Drive forms which enhance combat or magic abilities.
The upcoming title in the series “X” is massive multiplayer online game being developed right now. Currently it’s not certain if it will come to North America but there has been beta testing done in Japan. Future titles will come out, but not much has been said so far, right now the game development team is focusing on the current Xenahort saga and wrapping that up.
