Could someone explain the series to me?

[Trumpet Thief]

I've played Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, and Chain of Memories, along with 'Days' on the 3DS (big mistake on that one).

I've tried to read some summaries to connect all of the games (including Birth by Sleep and everything else I've missed), but I'm just lost. I don't want to say that the game is a convoluted mess or anything, but I honestly can't decipher all that much. Things that seemed pretty simple have now been opened time and time again, so I guess I'll just bring up some general questions.

Mainly, I want to understand all of this so that I can enjoy Dream Drop Distance in peace. I would play Birth by Sleep, but I am way too lazy to invest in a PSP at this point in time.

So, without further ado:

Could someone summarize the events of the series? (Can be as brief as you want)
Who the hell is Ansem (since his story has been expanded like crazy)?
Why do Sora and Roxas and the dude from Birth by Sleep look identical?
Who is Xehanort, and why is he alive at many different ages throughout the various games?
What is the X-blade?

I understand that some of these can be answered by google, but I've tried and I've ended up even more confused than when I was clueless. I'm assuming that my asking these big questions in one post, it will make a little bit of sense.

Thanks!

[Mercen-X]

1. Could someone summarize the events of the series? (Can be as brief as you want)
2. Who the hell is Ansem (since his story has been expanded like crazy)?
3. Why do Sora and Roxas and the dude from Birth by Sleep look identical?
4. Who is Xehanort, and why is he alive at many different ages throughout the various games?
5. What is the X-blade?


1. Sora journeys to save Riku and Kairi, meets Donald and Goofy, battles Disney villains and Heartless, Riku is eventually possessed by Ansem, Sora becomes a Heartless, Sora defeats Ansem, and Riku and King Mickey are trapped on the other side of the Door to Darkness. Wow. That came out longer than I'd planned.
O13 is originally introduced in CoM/Re:CoM as five black cloaks in Castle Oblivion. Sora kills two while Riku and Axel kill the others. This installment introduces the clone project which leads to Xion's existence (originally named No. i).
Days basically informs why Roxas was absent for so long and why he comes to the decision to split from O13... it's pretty unnecessary.
Sora destroys the rest of O13 by the end of KHII. The Disney villains in this installment seem more like filler.

2. Ansem (DiZ Darkness in Zero) is a philosopher from Hollow Bastion (originally Radiant Garden) whose work (research into Heartlesss) and name were usurped by Ansem Seeker of Darkness (Xehanort).

3. Sora and Roxas don't actually look identical. Roxas looks like Ventus because Ventus's heart is in Sora and Sora looks like Vanitas which is just a coincidence.

4. Xehanort transcends time and bodies using "Heart" transplantation.

5. X-Blade is pronounced the same as keyblade due to the X representing Chi in the Greek Alphabet. It is composed of the combined Kingdom Keys from the Heart of Light (Ventus) and the Heart of Darkness (Vanitas).

[Trumpet Thief]

1. Could someone summarize the events of the series? (Can be as brief as you want)
2. Who the hell is Ansem (since his story has been expanded like crazy)?
3. Why do Sora and Roxas and the dude from Birth by Sleep look identical?
4. Who is Xehanort, and why is he alive at many different ages throughout the various games?
5. What is the X-blade?


1. Sora journeys to save Riku and Kairi, meets Donald and Goofy, battles Disney villains and Heartless, Riku is eventually possessed by Ansem, Sora becomes a Heartless, Sora defeats Ansem, and Riku and King Mickey are trapped on the other side of the Door to Darkness. Wow. That came out longer than I'd planned.
O13 is originally introduced in CoM/Re:CoM as five black cloaks in Castle Oblivion. Sora kills two while Riku and Axel kill the others. This installment introduces the clone project which leads to Xion's existence (originally named No. i).
Days basically informs why Roxas was absent for so long and why he comes to the decision to split from O13... it's pretty unnecessary.
Sora destroys the rest of O13 by the end of KHII. The Disney villains in this installment seem more like filler.

2. Ansem (DiZ Darkness in Zero) is a philosopher from Hollow Bastion (originally Radiant Garden) whose work (research into Heartlesss) and name were usurped by Ansem Seeker of Darkness (Xehanort).

3. Sora and Roxas don't actually look identical. Roxas looks like Ventus because Ventus's heart is in Sora and Sora looks like Vanitas which is just a coincidence.

4. Xehanort transcends time and bodies using "Heart" transplantation.

5. X-Blade is pronounced the same as keyblade due to the X representing Chi in the Greek Alphabet. It is composed of the combined Kingdom Keys from the Heart of Light (Ventus) and the Heart of Darkness (Vanitas).

Thank you very much! I'm getting much more closer to understanding it now :p

[Fynn]

Hey, why the hate on Days! :mad2: It's honestly one of my favorites...

Also, Vanitas looking like Sora is definitely NOT a coincidence. Nomura says that before Ventus made contact with Sora's heart, Vanitas had no face at all - kinda like Xion. And since Vanitas' heart is connected to Ventus', it only makes sense for him to take on the shape of Sora. Also, the relationships between the hearts of Sora, Ventus (and possibly Vanitas) may just as well influence their looks, which would explain why Sora still looks like Roxas/Ventus, with a different haircut and slightly darker hair color.

[Sylvie]

Kingdom Hearts is a perfect financial creation that is used to draw in younger and more simplistic people (young girls who like Disney) into the Final Fantasy universe by using Disney as the ultimate bitch magnet. That might be why the story is scattered and lazy.

[Jinx]

Wtf this story is so confusing.

[Del Murder]

Kingdom Hearts is a perfect financial creation that is used to draw in younger and more simplistic people (young girls who like Disney) into the Final Fantasy universe by using Disney as the ultimate bitch magnet. That might be why the story is scattered and lazy.
Disney is great for all sexes and ages.

[Fynn]

And the story's awesome. I also don't see how it's supposed to attract people to FF - the story structure and gameplay are something totally different from FF and I can imagine people loving one battle style and hating the other. I don't think the cameos are enough, since they're becoming more and more sparce. So I guess you can say it all started as a crossover of sorts and łatwe evolved into a different beast altogether. And it is glorious.

[Del Murder]

If anything, the FF cameos are there to attract FF fans to KH, not the other way around.

[Mercen-X]

Kingdom Hearts is a perfect financial creation that is used to draw in younger and more simplistic people (young girls who like Disney) into the Final Fantasy universe by using Disney as the ultimate bitch magnet. That might be why the story is scattered and lazy.

While it's true my ex-girlfriend played KH due to its Disney side, she promised me personally she'd never be interested in FF on its own. She doesn't like Squall/Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cloud, or Tifa. She doesn't like Sephiroth. She plays KH for the Disney because KH is originally a Disney game. It features FF characters which is why I play it.

[Sylvie]

But she still played it which exposed her to Square-Enix's universe, which is more or less my point. It's not a clever meshing of universes, it's a really shameless, sloppy mash-up that is sure to make money. I understand that's what companies do when they make games. But you know.

If you can't tell, I fucking hate Kingdom Hearts.

[Fynn]

If you can't tell, I smurfing hate Kingdom Hearts.

Well that's not very nice :(

[Sword]

You need it explained? Best just read the KH wiki.

[Sylvie]

If you can't tell, I smurfing hate Kingdom Hearts.

Well that's not very nice :(
I hope I hurt Kingdom Hearts' feelings.

[Fynn]

If you can't tell, I smurfing hate Kingdom Hearts.

Well that's not very nice :(
I hope I hurt Kingdom Hearts' feelings.

Well, whatever makes you feel good ;)

[JKTrix]

Wonder if anyone has seen this fantastic, simple, easy-to-follow summary

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cPyvE2GTjOMzE4MTVlZTctMjE5Yi00YzAzLWJjZTAtZTllODY2OTc2MTMx/edit?hl=en_US

[Arizona Lively]

Wonder if anyone has seen this fantastic, simple, easy-to-follow summary

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cPyvE2GTjOMzE4MTVlZTctMjE5Yi00YzAzLWJjZTAtZTllODY2OTc2MTMx/edit?hl=en_US

"But this guy, who is half of this guy, who was claiming to be this guy, (and this guy still thinks he IS that guy), possesses this guy and fights this guy and then becomes an airship"

"This guy cheats to win but then looks like this guy so he works with this guy to keep this guy who was this guy but not quite that guy..."

It's great. It's all so great!

[Mercen-X]

That summary contains far too many words.

[Christmas]

Yes. Someone plz do. I stopped at KH II. :(

[Quindiana Jones]

7 years too late, but Brian David Gilbert did a robust yet easy-to-consume overview of the KH canon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwEwxKkCGJE).