Kingdom Hearts Play Order: Chronological or Release Order?

so you've decided to start playing Kingdom Hearts and while looking up the games you've become increasingly more concerned by the sheer number of titles remasters and remixes what's going on I'm guessing you've also searched what order you should play them in right but does it actually matter what order you play through Kingdom Hearts yes it does but you might be asking why I'm here to tell you that the order does change the experience and if it's your first time I highly highly recommend playing Kingdom Hearts in release order and spoiler alert I will stick by that but I should stress that this recommendation is aimed at new players someone who's playing through Kingdom Hearts for the very first time maybe play the original as a kid and want to start over or maybe under different circumstances perhaps you start with a side game for whatever reason which by the way don't feel attacked or like you did things wrong because of that it happens right the fun fact my first Kingdom Heart Arts game was actually chain of Memories on the GBA this was like my Peak Nintendo Fanboy phase and I did not have a PS2 at the time and I was desperate to play Kingdom Hearts so I ended up renting chain of Memories from GameFly mainly just to see that uh that amazingly compressed CG intro however release order really is The Simple and Clean way to start things out and this applies to more than just Kingdom Hearts so why should you start with release Order release order makes sense for a few reasons first it allows you to experience the evolution of gameplay kind of obvious but still important this allows you to appreciate the progression of the combat systems as the series evolves there's also Creator intent but we're we're going to we're going to save that one for later okay second The Narrative structure The Narrative structure of Kingdom Hearts is nonlinear it utilizes parallel storytelling multiple viewpoints flashbacks and prequels to tell its story and more prequels and more prequels and more pre this can be confusing to new players but it also adds layers to the story and make it more compelling stop freaking me out like this huh when you play in release order you're experiencing the mystery and Intrigue that the story is naturally setting up it makes you think and ask questions you're not given all the answers right away and that's okay it can actually build suspense and make the reveals more impactful you're getting to figure things out as you go along which adds weight and meaning to certain events upon reflection which I would argue is part of the fun and makes the games exciting a lot of this mystery is explained away in chronological order it's not that you won't understand it's just that you might understand a little too much too soon third is assumed knowledge the stories in Kingdom Hearts rely heavily on each other Believe It or Not each entry adds something that drives the overarching story forward introducing some new thread that will be relevant in the future and those prequels are there to enhance the established story while also doing their part to push the narrative along for example 358 days of rout two assumes that you played Kingdom Hearts 2 already by literally spoiling scenes from that game even though it is a prequel Birth by Sleep also has elements that directly relate or are meant to expand upon prior established plot points in the series as well and now this actually leads on to my next point which is probably the most divid Ive question on this topic should I play days before or after Kingdom Hearts 2 if you followed along with the video so far you can probably guess my answer like we talked about earlier DA's intro literally spoils scenes from Kingdom Hearts 2 and expands further than just the intro it features characters that it expects you to already be familiar with from that game and more than just characters major story Reve feels for Kingdom Hearts 2 are given away in days I guess you think you can psych me out by saying really random stuff gee I just don't know arguments in favor of chronological order are mainly targeted at the game's prologue the comments that I see are like people will be confused by the prologue you won't understand what's going on yeah that's kind of the point the prologue is meant to be a mystery it's supposed to be weird and make you question what's really going on it's also not even that much of the games run time to just sum things up without going into spoilers Kingdom Hearts 2 purposefully gives you a story with gaps and a hidden narrative days helps to fill in those gaps it is that Peak behind the scenes it completely changes how you view Kingdom Hearts 2 especially when you replay it which you definitely should because Kingdom Hearts 2 is awesome [Music] the spoilers are not worth the context if you can help it if you actually play chain of Memories or plan to you deserve let me say that again you deserve to play Kingdom Hearts 2 afterwards that is like your treat days can wait even the back of the days box I feel like reinforces this as it says things like What mattered the most was remembered the least or Dive Into the Heart of the most sought after secrets of the Kingdom Hearts story line how I always read this was we supposed to be remembering a past event to get answers to questions that were set up from the last game that being Kingdom Hearts 2 when it's viewed ahead of it there are no questions I'm sorry I didn't tell you that's okay but now I really don't get it I don't understand it either I'm not saying that you can't do it the other way I just struggle with recommending it it has always felt like a significantly less interesting or more flat way to deliver the story so how how did we get here well remember that point of Creator intend from earlier like how the Creator intends or hopes for the players to experience their work you'd think that would be a slam donk honestly ironically this is what has set everything out of whack considering the stories released and the way that they did it's easy to infer that release order would be the intended way right but what if the Creator had a change of heart heart get it like Kingdom Hearts what really set this off was this comment I received suggesting that tatsuya namora one of the creators and director of Kingdom Hearts is in favor of chronological order when it comes to days which I admittedly didn't believe at first so imagine my surprise when I eventually found the quote this is from the October 11th 2012 deneki interview interview with noora this was like a little bit before the 1.5 collection came out approaching the 10year anniversary the series had become difficult for new players to enter there are players who look at all the titles and worry over which ones to play so I wanted to set them out in chronological order the three titles in this compilation have been lined up in an order that would make the plot easy to understand so I think even people without prior experience of this series can be at ease and okay you know I get where he's coming from but it also comes off as something to say for a decision that was probably made early on you'll notice this decision only applies to the 1.5 collection and from what I can tell three game collections were seemingly always the plan I don't think they could have gotten away with a two game collection followed by a 4 Game Collection or even a collection that had Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 followed by a collection of side games especially if two of those games aren't even playable no offense to Birth by Sleep but what makes this so frustrating is that we're so close we're so close to having the order that's present in the collection be in release order already like when you look at it it's it's literally it's just it's one game off all I'm asking is for one tile position to be moved in the selection screen that's it and I feel like this is literally the only reason why this is still being talked about I ain't asking for much okay otherwise I would just point you to the collection and simply say hey you don't even have to think about it they're already in order for you but sadly that's not the case and we're still going back and forth on this scenics themselves are also not helping on this topic when I see the defense for chronological order it seems to stem from not wanting to be confused like going in with the notion that Kingdom Hearts is like the most confusing or like the most convoluted most complicated it'll be too difficult to follow along and like okay I'll be honest Kingdom Hearts some of it can be confusing but it's not as bad as people make it out to be like yeah it's weird but I think most video games kind of are I feel like that part of it has kind of gotten blown out of proportion it's not impossible to understand some people argue that playing the games in chronological order eliminates some of that confusion and provides more context however I would argue that release order allows for the Intrigue of the series to really shine through it's more fun to be a little confused by the story and figure things out as you go along that's why I never personally suggest playing Kingdom Hearts in chronological order but what I realized is that my stance also stems from Nostalgia and how I played the games growing up also the fact that we're no longer in that before time where the Kingdom Hearts games were scattered all over the place you know like that's the past we are in a new era of Kingdom Hearts ultimately the best way to play Kingdom Hearts is the way that will make you enjoy it the most at the very least just just start with the first game if you're having fun you're probably doing it right but if this discussion helped you and you could you know make sense of my rambling consider leaving a like and subscribing for more videos and also don't ever think it just play the games and enjoy the story in release order okay bye

Channel: Smugaru

Views: 4,573

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Id: QAWBz6ldDvY

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024