I'm Going In - Dive, Dive, Dive!

[Forsaken Lover]

The "dive, dive, dive" is representative of how the series apparently took a dive in quality until it eventually cracked its skull on the bottom of the pool and bled to death.

Or so I've been told.

I currently have KH1 and I am going to play it for the first time evers. Lately my interest in this series has been sparked and I want to give my own opinion on this game and maybe the series as a whole.

I like to gather my own opinion on things ya know. Sometimes they match with the popular view, sometimes they don't. FFXIII was just ad disastrous as I was led to believe (although, oddly, I liked every character "the Majority" hated) but it wasn't completely un-fun.

So here I am, embarking on a long and convoluted quest.
For the time being, I'd appreciate any advice or tips.

[Pheesh]

The series never got bad, just extremely complicated and expensive to follow. Either way, you're going to be playing a few of the most amazing games ever, and my advice is to approach it with a completely open mind and just enjoy them.

[Fynn]

The story is actually not at all bizarre if you just beat all the games. But here's where it gets tricky - you really need all the games, and yet they're all on different systems. Do you at least have a GBA or a DS? Or At least a copy of Re:CoM? Because trust me, you won't get half of what is going on in KH2 if you just go straight to it instead of playing Chain of Memories between I and II. Then play 358/2 Days (the most heart-rending game in the series with one of the most beautiful scene in gaming hands down ), Birth By Sleep, coded (which is actually the only truly optional game story-wise, but it's still loads of fun) and 3D and you're all set. Really, if you play all of them in that exact order, the story does, in fact, make total sense. So don't listen to that bitching Though the point still stands - first you need to have all the platforms to play the games on. My tip - if you do not posses any of the handhelds, for now just play KHI > Chain of Memories (a remake for PS2 is available) > KHII, and just leave it there for a while. The other titles might get rereleases, or you could just get the respective systems when they're really cheap. If you have a DS or PSP, feel free to give Days (as well as coded, if possible) and BBS a go as well, since any of them can be played after II in any order and you'll still make sense of it. Just don't touch 3D until you've played all of the others. Really, trust me on this...

[Jinx]

My big issue with half of the series being on handhelds is that you might be good at console games with controllers, but suck at handhelds.

[Fynn]

I don't think KH is a game you can be "bad" at. You can always grind

[Jinx]

I don't think KH is a game you can be "bad" at. You can always grind

Uh...it has to do with the fact that handhelds are not the same as controllers.

[Fynn]

I don't think KH is a game you can be "bad" at. You can always grind

Uh...it has to do with the fact that handhelds are not the same as controllers.

I know what you meant. And what I mean is that, even if you suck at handheld gaming, because your hand can't adjust, you still shouldn't have too hard a time.

[Del Murder]

The handheld games are arguably better than the console versions. To understand the main story you probably only need to play KH1, KH2, and BBS. CoM and 358/2 help you understand the bridge between KH1 and KH2. Coded is not important for story. I don't know how important 3D is yet because I haven't beat it.

[Ouch!]

3D is (probably) just as if not more important than BBS story-wise. It sets up a lot for Kingdom Hearts 3, and if how Kingdom Hearts 2 handled everything revealed in CoM (i.e. didn't tell you a damned thing about it), you're going to be really confused come KH3 if you haven't played 3D.

[Fynn]

Basically, yeah. It is even more important than BbS. 3D is to KHII and KHIII what CoM was to KHI and KHII.

[Edge7]

I don't see what everyone's saying about CoM. I didn't play it, but I got most of it fine. Sure, there were one or two things that didn't make sense, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the game.

On the whole, I love the first KH game because it kept things light and fun, whimsical with only a touch of darkness, if you will. Visiting Chain of Memories years after it came out, I can tell you that it was pretty fun too, the tone was definitely different, but I liked it just fine. I've only played through KH2 once though, I'm not sure why, but I felt like it lost the magic the first game had. Combat felt a lot easier, and the story, while good for what it was, felt kinda like I was reading a fanfic. I don't know how to describe it, I just felt disenchanted. Every game since then (for me) has sorta continued that trend (not combat wise, the action itself has improved vastly).

It's like, I can't put my finger on it. I started replaying the first one a few months back, and I was instantly whisked back into Sora's universe; like the Organization and the Nobodies never existed, and the Keyblade was a special weapon that only a chosen few HUGE KH1 SPOILERand I mean like, Riku, Mickey, Xehanort exclusive, with Sora just getting lucky . These things weren't BAD for the plot, but it feels like the writers found these concepts and characters cool the first time, so now they're reusing them until they get stale. I kinda liked it when I was playing a chosen hero, trying to save the universe from Disney villains, while trying to save my kinda-girlfriend and patch my relationship with my best friend.

Sorry about that, kinda went into my own tangent. I guess what I'm saying is that, in my eyes, it's not the games that have gotten worse, if anything, they've been getting better after KH2. They just can't recapture the feelings I had playing this when I was a kid.

[Mercen-X]

Just watch all of the cutscenes on Youtube.

[Formalhaut]

If all else fails, I could just watch a full walkthrough with cutscenes of the games I haven't played, which is many of them.

[Crop]

Save yourself from the convoluted mess that the series has become and just play through the fantastic game that is KH1.