Do a Google search for “games with convoluted plots,” and a few staple series will show up. Top of those lists often sits Kingdom Hearts, a series about friendships in a war between the light and dark. Simplified, the series sounds like your typical Disney affair, but when you start to peel away the Mouse’s influence, you start to see those layers expected of a deep and engaging Square Enix title. And as if the plot weren’t difficult enough to follow, the series features so many games released out of order, trying to navigate the Kingdom Hearts games in order feels like a daunting and impossible task.
Until today, that is. We know Kingdom Hearts IV is a ways away still, so we want to give you the opportunity to play through all ten canonical entries, whether that’s the numbered entries or confusingly named Birth by Sleep – A fragmentary passage.
Did we lose you yet? Before we do, let’s break down the order to play the series and on which collection each game can be found, starting with the original game way back on the PS2.
Kingdom Hearts Game Order
Here is the chronological order for each Kingdom Hearts game, meaning that you should start from Kingdom Hearts I and work your way up to Kingdom Hearts III while you wait for the next game:
– Kingdom Hearts (2002)
– Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories/Re:Chain of Memories (2004)
– Kingdom Hearts 2 (2005)
– Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded (2010)
– Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (2009)
– Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (2010)
– Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (2012)
– Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A fragmentary passage (2017)
– Kingdom Hearts X (2013)
– Kingdom Hearts III (2019)
– Kingdom Hearts IV (TBC)
Since the series has been released on a variety of different devices and consoles, it is possible to play Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, and Kingdom Hearts III without playing anything in the middle. It’s not entirely recommended, as you’ll be missing out on character arcs and enjoyable storylines. If anything, play Birth by Sleep, which is one of the best in the series.
Kingdom Hearts Compilations
There are ten Kingdom Hearts in total so far, but luckily you can grab six of them in the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX available on the Epic Games Store, PS4, the Switch, and Xbox One. With backward compatibility, you can also play them on PS5 and Xbox Series X & S.
Alternatively, the PS4 received Kingdom Hearts All-In-One Package, which includes all ten games minus the Kingdom Hearts III expansion, Re Mind. Other platforms will need to grab Kingdom Hearts 3 and its DLC separately and also buy Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, which is also available on the Switch.
When is Kingdom Hearts IV Coming Out?
The fourth main entry in the Kingdom Hearts series was very briefly shown at the April 2022 20th anniversary celebration for the series with no release date attached.
We know it follows an older Sora, trapped in the Tokyo-inspired city of Quadratum. Disney’s fingerprints will continue to be all over the title as some malevolent force is sure to drag him and his companions, Donald Duck and Goofy, all around realms pulled from Disney classics. Along with the original heroes, Kingdom Hearts IV will revisit Strelitzia, a Keyblade wielder originally introduced in Kingdom Hearts Union X.
Not too much is known about the fourth entry, but Square did confirm that we’ll see more of Sora’s day-to-day life in the life-like Quadratum, and the game will feature a “scrap and build” mechanic.
Considering it’s been a year since its reveal and we haven’t heard much else, we expect the game will have a 2024-2025 release window.
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