How to Play the Kingdom Hearts Games in Order

How to play Kingdom Hearts Game chronologically

Kingdom Hearts X / Unchained X / Union X

We apologize for grouping all titles into one section, but Kingdom Heartsχ (Chi), originally a Japanese-only title for PCs, was rebranded to unchained χ and Unionχ (Cross) for mobile users around the world during the eight years running online. χ refers to the χ blade, a coveted weapon designed by two “X”-shaped key blades that can unlock Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts Union χ is set hundreds of years before the events of the series, in the period leading up to the Keyblade War. You join one of the five factions and control the newly-built Keyblade equipped players in the 2D world of Daybreak Town, working to ensure that hegemony over the other four fighting for the finite light available in the world. Union χ occurs immediately after the unsuccessful χ, but occurs in an alternative data world where players relive the past and forget about the Keyblade War. The game shut down in May 2021, but you can watch the cutscene online. If Gacha Games isn’t your style, you can watch the HD cutscenes of the events of the Kingdom Hearts χ back cover from the movie included in the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road

As the title suggests, Kingdom Hearts Dark Lord is the story of the origins of the villain Master Zehanaut Set 70 years before the events caused by sleep. Xehanort, as a young man, is taken from Destiny Islands to Scala Ad Caelum, trained alongside Master Eraqus to become a Keyblade equipmentr, and is tasked with searching for the Master Odin to find the lost Master, causing a series of events that lead him to become a hopeful of the darkness.

Dark Road adopted the same 2D graphics that existed in Kingdom Hearts χ and subsequent rebrand titles, which were less impressive, but the game included essential details throughout the series. You may not be able to play the game, but you can watch Cutcenes on YouTube to get the full scope.

Kingdom Hearts’ birth through sleep

The sleep-induced birth set ten years before the events of Kingdom Hearts is told from the advantages of Ventus, Terra and Aqua. Shortly after Aqua and Terra finished marking the mastery exam, the former won the Keyblade Master title, while the latter failed because they did not suppress the darkness.

The birth of sleep is divided into the origins of Sora and Master Zehanaut, as Ventus had a part of his heart patched into a part of Sora’s heart. Meanwhile, Xehanort creates Vanitas from the darkness he expels from Ventus’ heart. Xehanort considers him too frail to use as a container to fake the χ blade, and instead chases Terra. They also explore how Sora and Riku can swing the keyblade first, while Terra gives Riku the power of the keyblade.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Review: Birth by Sleep.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth through Sleep – A fragmentary passage

It is safe to place a fragmentary passageway (included in the prologue of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 final chapter) before the first Kingdom Hearts game, but it acts as a sleep-based epilogue and as a Kingdom Hearts prologue.

After sacrificing herself to save Terra from the darkness at the end of her birth due to sleep, Aqua is wandering through the darkness for ten years and trying to find a way to return to the light realm. She visits castles, dwarven forest areas, and dark versions of the seductive Dominion, and forms in the Devil’s Tower, fights the illusions of Ventus and Terra, and fights the Horde of Heartless to save Terra’s heart. Meanwhile, Mickey goes to the dark realm to save Riku. When he finds her using her lost wayfinder, he meets Aqua, and says that it has been ten years since she last met and has proceeded to the Destiny Islands after fighting another Demon Tower. There, a door to Kingdom Hearts is discovered, and Mickey helps Sora and Riku close it, and Aqua comes to live in the realm of darkness once more.

Kingdom Hearts

In the first entry in the series, Sora is reunited with Riku and Kairi after he sets out on a journey with Donald and Goofy, destroying the heartless, destructive islands and plunging the world into the darkness. Along the way, he travels to different worlds on a gummy ship, meets various Disney and Final Fantasy characters, and helps to protect the world from heartless by sealing the keyhole. Meanwhile, Maleficent leads a group of her fellow Disney villains to find seven heart princesses and hire Riku to unlock the final keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts.

By the time Sora reaches the hollow fortress, Kairi’s body is revealed to be missing since he has been transferred to Sora’s body during the Destiny Islands Apocalypse. Riku is owned by Anthem, who was operating Maleficent to open Kingdom Hearts. And as Kairi is revealed to be the princess of the heart, the heart movement from her to Sora releases Kairi’s heart after stabbing herself with the key blade of Anthem, turning heartless in the process. Kairi realizes Sora is heartless and returns to human form by embracing him, from which Sora defeats Anthem and seals the door to Kingdom Hearts with the help of Riku and Mickey from the other side.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Review.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

After sealing the Kingdom Hearts door, while searching for Riku and Mickey, Sora, Donald and Goofy visit Castle Oblivion and lose their memory upon entry. They are said to be from Marluchia, the castle’s lord who is revealed to be a member of organization XIII, the more they enter the castle, the more they lose their memories, but they reveal something new in the process. This group is given a deck of cards called “World Cards” based on Sora’s memory, filling up the memory versions of characters you encounter in the previous game, and fighting against several members of organizations other than Marxia (Axel, Larxen, Bexen) as you progress through each floor of the castle. Meanwhile, Riku passes through the underground level of the castle, wrestling with the darkness inside him, attempting to fight two other members of XIII, Lexaeus and Zexion, with the Anthem trying to control him.

Apart from being criticized as an inefficient combat system, Chain’s Memories introduced new characters who have become important players in the Kingdom Hearts series, such as Namine. This was because Sora gradually remembered him as an older friend, and later manipulating Kairi’s memories by replacing Sora’s memories with a fake Marxia’s orders. After Sora fights Marluxia for his life and Namine’s freedom, Namine sleeps on him and his companions in a pod-like machine, helping them regain the memories they have lost.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Review: Memory Chain.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2nd

358/2 days are set during the event in the memory chain. When Sora becomes Heartless during Kingdom Hearts, he explores the birth of Roxas, his everyday life as the 13th member of organization XIII, and the friendship between Axel and Xion, who mysteriously arrives as the 14th member.

As time progresses, their bond grows deeper, if Sora and Roxas prove to be useless to achieve their goal of summoning the hearts of the kingdom and summoning the whole, XION is an artificial replica created after Kairi’s memory of Sora’s Sora. This discovery causes Roxas to lose his flaws from Organization XIII and fight to merge with him later, stopping Sora from waking up. In the end, Roxas defeats Xion. Roxas collapses into light with all the memories he absorbed back into Sora.

It’s a fun fact, but not exactly fun. 358/2 was dedicated to the memory of Mickey Mouse voice actor Wayne Allwine, who passed away in May 2009 12 days before the release of the match in Japan.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Reviews 358/2.

Kingdom Hearts 2

The game begins in the town of Twilight. There, Roxas enjoys summer vacation with Hayner, Pence and Orette, waking up the dream of Sora, who had been sleeping for a year at the time, but without the memories of time with XIII or Axel, who remembers him during the encounter. Sora wakes up with Donald and Goofy after Roxas merges with him, and they try to protect the world again, visit new people, and stop organization XIII from creating a mind of another kingdom that will bring its heart back to no body.

As Sora and the gang explore the concept of mind further, they learn that the anthem they fought is Zehanaut’s heartlessness. Xemnas, the leader of organization XIII, is not at Xehanort. And Xehanort was a real anthem apprentice, named Ansem the Wise, Radiant Garden (renamed sages of Hollow Bastion and Radiant Garden). In the same darkness, corrupting them and taking on a new identity (the darkness of zero). What’s even more shocking is that we know that Roxas and Namine are Sora and Kairi no-bodies respectively.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Review 2.

Kingdom Hearts:Re:Coded

Initially, it was released in Japan as an episode mobile game called “Coding.” Re: Working to repair King Mickey’s coded center and Jiminy Cricket’s journal. It was digitized to analyse a secret message that Jiminy had not written: “When you go back to finish it, their wounds will be fixed” (it originally says, “We need to go back to free them from their suffering.”). In Dataspace, Data-Sora and Mickey take the form of red and black blocks and heartless, fighting bugs that work to decipher the meaning of messages.

Square Enix originally released eight coded parts and previews to Japanese mobile users from June 2009 to January 2010, running like the full season of the TV series. The entire game has been repackaged into Nintendo DS’s coded Re to make the game accessible to fans around the world.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Review: Re: Coded.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

In preparation for Master Zehanaut’s return, Master Yenshid oversees the mastery exam marks for Sora and Riku in the most unconventional way possible. Send them in time and unlock the keyholes of seven worlds left in sleep after being destroyed by Heartless, including the worlds of Notredam, Pinociao, Tanton, and Fantasia’s Huntback. They go through a series of different events in the same world, but they work to defeat those who eat “spirit” dreams and those who eat “nightmare” dreams, with the help of the power of flow motion.

Through the marks of the mastery exam, they come across a younger version of Xehanort. He reveals his apparently defeated Ansem and Xehanort, and lures Sora into a trap in the world that never happened, causing him to fall into a deep sleep (he was protected by Ventus’ armor). To save Sora from the darkness, Riku fights the young Xehanort, and the resurrected Zehanort arrives with the intention of transforming Sora into the 13th ship, mostly for the new organization XIII, composed of his past XIII. Thankfully, Xehanort’s plans are thwarted by King Mickey, Lea (the human version of Axel), and Riku, who ultimately passes the mark of the mastery exam.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance Review.

Kingdom Hearts 3

In the final chapter of Darkseeka Saga, Sora regains his Awakening Power and gathers the Seven Guardians of Light to prepare for the final showdown between Organization XIII and Master Xehanort. Meanwhile, Kairi trains him to be a Keyblade equipment with Lee, and Riku goes to search for the missing Keyblade Wheeler along with King Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts 3 took 13 years. Several trailers were released between 2013 and 2018, and were finally released in 2019. To this day, it remains the bestselling Kingdom Hearts game.

Please read us Kingdom Hearts Review 3.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory

Melody of Memory is a rhythm game in which Sora and the other Keyblade Wielders defeat people who are heartless, no-body, unfazed, and dreamless to the beats of every song in the series. It is set against the background of Kairi in the lab at Radiant Garden to present a summary of the events in the series as a narrator.

Kingdom Hearts Game plays games in order of release

1. Kingdom Hearts – September 17, 2002 (PS2)
2. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memory – December 7, 2004 (Game Boy Advance)
3. Kingdom Hearts 2- March 28, 2006 (PS2)
4. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 – September 29, 2009 (Nintendo DS)
5. Kingdom Hearts: Birth through Sleep – September 7, 2010 (PSP)
6. Kingdom Hearts: Re: Coded – January 11, 2011 (Nintendo DS)
7. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance – July 31, 2012 (Nintendo 3DS)
8. Kingdom Hearts Union χ (Cross) – April 7, 2016 (Android, iOS)
9. Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix – March 28, 2017 (PS4)
10. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue – January 24, 2017 (PS4)
11. Kingdom Hearts 3- January 29, 2019 (PS4, XBO, PC)
12. Kingdom Hearts Dark Road – June 22, 2020 (Android, iOS)
13. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory – November 13th, 2020 (PS4, XBO, Nintendo Switch, PC)

What’s next for Kingdom Hearts?

Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced in 2022, but Square Enix has been quiet about the KH4 since its release and has yet to reveal its release window. The latest development, a series of screenshots, came out almost everywhere, but hopefully show you’ll get Kingdom Hearts 4 sooner. You won’t be surprised if the game will be released on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.

Christina Alexander is a freelance writer for Passthecontroller. She has contributed her work to a variety of publications, including Digital Trends, Thegamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and Espapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears a big love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeves. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.