..get this? I have needed some games for 3DS for a while now and I have always been really interested in the Kingdom Hearts series, but I've never really gotten into it. Should I maybe play the first couple Kingdom Hearts before getting this so I'll know a little bit about the story or is this O.K. for someone who really doesn't know a whole lot about the series?

Play the first one first. It really is a good game, way back when the series was still about Disney and the power of friendship.

EDIT: Well, I guess it's still about the power of friendship, but it's far less about anything Disney and more about evil dudes in black coats.

I'd say play 1 & 2 before this if you want to actually understand the story. Or read a lot about them.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say: No, considering how dumb the fiction has gotten over the last handful of games you probably won't understand a thing.

I can't imagine going into KH3D cold would lead to a very good experience. At the same time, as someone with more KH knowledge than I'd like to admit, I don't think the story is worthwhile enough to justify tracking down all the other games. If you're really that interested in KH, seek out 1, 2 and BBS, because those are the only essential chapters.

NEVER.

Play the others first. The story will make no sense without playing them.

@believer258 said:

Play the first one first. It really is a good game, way back when the series was still about Disney and the power of friendship.

EDIT: Well, I guess it's still about the power of friendship, but it's far less about anything Disney and more about evil dudes in black coats.

This, play the first one, then play no other Kingdom Hearts game. No mater how much you want to.

The story goes off the rails after the first. The only thing KH2 had over Kingdom Hearts was the fact that it had Mickey in it. And he was only in it for one or two quick cut scenes. Also it had Quicktime events, which made combat much easier.

@NoobSauceG7 said:

Play the others first. The story will make no sense without playing them.

Shit, the story will make no sense even AFTER playing them.

The only difference is you'll know names and who refuses to shut up about "darkness".

Play 1, 2 and BBS at least first. You don't really need to pay attention to CoM although it does have one important character in it, Days was shit, and I don't know about Re:Coded since I haven't played it, but nothing important happens in it anyway.

@Terramagi said:

@NoobSauceG7 said:

Play the others first. The story will make no sense without playing them.

Shit, the story will make no sense even AFTER playing them.

The only difference is you'll know names and who refuses to shut up about "darkness".

This is true.

Play at least 1 and 2 first. Birth by Sleep and Chain of Memories are also pretty good if you want to play those as well.

Without reading the OP, my response no.

@believer258 said:

Play the first one first. It really is a good game, way back when the series was still about Disney and the power of friendship.

EDIT: Well, I guess it's still about the power of friendship, but it's far less about anything Disney and more about evil dudes in black coats.

And whats wrong with evil dudes in black coats? o.O they made a kh game about being a evil dude in a black coat.

anywho yea you do want to play the first(and the 2nd, birth by sleep, and 358/2) one but the story is so fucked up now you might not know whats going on in 3

Well my advice is just think about what would happen if the got it for 3DS and like it. Will you then want to go back and play the franchise from the start? Becuase the series has vastly changed mechanically from the first game (so much so, that I don't think I could possibly play KH1 now after playing ones like 2 and Birth By Sleep if I didn't have the nostalgia for it). So know that if you feel like you will ever go back and play older ones then it might be a good idea to do that first.

But I don't see why you can't simply catch up and jump into the 3D one (you will probably have to read a bunch of previous games synopsis's, and I think the 3DS title also has a background guid thing that goes through all the important info from the previous games - but it is long and quite dense). I would say that you should still go for one of them (either starting with KH1 or Dream Drop Distance) and don't be afraid by the franchises size. :)

@GunslingerPanda said:

Play 1, 2 and BBS at least first. You don't really need to pay attention to CoM although it does have one important character in it, Days was shit, and I don't know about Re:Coded since I haven't played it, but nothing important happens in it anyway.

Screw you, mang! Days had BALLS. /Montana

If you want to read up on or play just the important stuff, you really just need to check out 1, 2 and Birth By Sleep. Other games are just periphery. Honestly, just play the demo and if you like it, go for it. If not, wait for 3 and check up again. That one should provided the most important gameplay changes if they're ever going to do them.

Don't be crazy. Play the first two first.

Get the demo and try and see if you like it. I haven't played a Kingdom Hearts game but I've always been curious so I'm downloading the demo right now.

Also: WTF why did they set a 15-use limit for playing the demo? That's half of the usual limit. WHY DO THEY NEED TO LIMIT THE PLAY FOR A DEMO THIS IS SO INSANE.

Play whatever earlier games you have the systems for. I dont doubt that 3d is fun and its gameplay probably stands up on its own but its better to know as much story as possible. Also its interesting to see how the gameplay has evolved from game to game.

@NoobSauceG7 said:

@Terramagi said:

@NoobSauceG7 said:

Play the others first. The story will make no sense without playing them.

Shit, the story will make no sense even AFTER playing them.

The only difference is you'll know names and who refuses to shut up about "darkness".

This is true.

Sadly.

@Dagbiker said:

@believer258 said:

Play the first one first. It really is a good game, way back when the series was still about Disney and the power of friendship.

EDIT: Well, I guess it's still about the power of friendship, but it's far less about anything Disney and more about evil dudes in black coats.

This, play the first one, then play no other Kingdom Hearts game. No mater how much you want to.

The story goes off the rails after the first. The only thing KH2 had over Kingdom Hearts was the fact that it had Mickey in it. And he was only in it for one or two quick cut scenes. Also it had Quicktime events, which made combat much easier.

That was one of the rare cases where quick time events made the game better, they were done in such a way that they flowed into the gameplay instead of taking it over, atleast most of the time. As for the combat being easier, that was more because of how little damage enemies did than any fault of the quick time events. The actual amount of its I took was unchanged between kingdom hearts one and two, the damage was severely reduced.

@Cloudenvy said:

@NoobSauceG7 said:

@Terramagi said:

@NoobSauceG7 said:

Play the others first. The story will make no sense without playing them.

Shit, the story will make no sense even AFTER playing them.

The only difference is you'll know names and who refuses to shut up about "darkness".

This is true.

Sadly.

Guys, it's not that hard to figure out. Really.

@Hailinel said:

@Cloudenvy said:

@NoobSauceG7 said:

@Terramagi said:

@NoobSauceG7 said:

Play the others first. The story will make no sense without playing them.

Shit, the story will make no sense even AFTER playing them.

The only difference is you'll know names and who refuses to shut up about "darkness".

This is true.

Sadly.

Guys, it's not that hard to figure out. Really.

I'll give you that it's not hard to figure out, just incredibly stupid.

There's this weird backlash against KH2 that I've never understood. Its story is no more stupid than the first. I don't get why the mechanically awkward one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story is somehow way better than the mechanically sound one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story.

Also I wish they'd put BBS on something that isn't a PSP. I'm not buying a PSP.

@Zippedbinders said:

There's this weird backlash against KH2 that I've never understood. Its story is no more stupid than the first. I don't get why the mechanically awkward one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story is somehow way better than the mechanically sound one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story.

Also I wish they'd put BBS on something that isn't a PSP. I'm not buying a PSP.

I never really got it either. Some of the complaints I've heard is that KH2 went in a darker direction or something to that effect, but those people seemed to forget just how dark the original game was.

@Zippedbinders said:

There's this weird backlash against KH2 that I've never understood. Its story is no more stupid than the first. I don't get why the mechanically awkward one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story is somehow way better than the mechanically sound one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story.

Also I wish they'd put BBS on something that isn't a PSP. I'm not buying a PSP.

I didn't like KH2 as much as the first. I didn't like Roxas, and saying "no, that wasn't this guys name really, it's this guys name" was dumb in a bad way and didn't seem to serve any purpose, why not just give DiZ a different name? Also, I read a bunch of spoilers before the game came out which probably impacted my opinion; I played through 3D and was loving the crazy shit going on in the plot that would have been dampened by spoilers.

@probablytuna: Yeah, I was playing a bit of the demo and I actually really enjoyed it but, and this was pretty much expected, I had NO clue as to what was going on story wise. It was pretty fun though.

Also, yeah, that even more limited use thing was kind of bugging me. Kind of weird, but whatever. I'm going to use the balls out of those uses!

I highly doubt jumping into this one would be a good idea. I highly doubt you could play any of them without the one before it and have much of an idea what's going on.

1, 2, and BBS (and now 3D) are the main story important games, the others are side stories to help fill out the universe and arn't nearly as important., nor as polished.
The events of Chain of Memories is summed up in the opening to 2, but you may want to read up on that one if the FMV doesn't make sense. 

@ThatIndianGuy7116 said:

@probablytuna: Yeah, I was playing a bit of the demo and I actually really enjoyed it but, and this was pretty much expected, I had NO clue as to what was going on story wise. It was pretty fun though.

Also, yeah, that even more limited use thing was kind of bugging me. Kind of weird, but whatever. I'm going to use the balls out of those uses!

I mean, sure most people probably won't be playing the demo 30 times or even 15 times but why the need for a limit? Another one of Nintendo's crazy decisions. Also I should probably try out that demo sometime soon.

Considering how crucial the first two games apparently are to even beginning to understand what's going on in any new Kingdom Hearts game, it seems that this series is one of the most justified when it comes to needing an HD Collection. If they can do what Konami did with the Metal Gear Collection and put Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 and Birth By Sleep on one disc, that would probably go a long way to making that series at least slightly less impenetrable to people who are new to the fiction.

@Zippedbinders said:

There's this weird backlash against KH2 that I've never understood. Its story is no more stupid than the first. I don't get why the mechanically awkward one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story is somehow way better than the mechanically sound one with a cheesy, incomprehensible story.

Also I wish they'd put BBS on something that isn't a PSP. I'm not buying a PSP.

I think some people didn't like the switch in focus from Disney character crossover stories with a small narrative at the side, to a much bigger focus an original characters. Especially so when those characters were anime guys and girls in black cloaks with weird exotic weapons and hairstyles. Me personally, I was all into that shit at the time and my investment in the events is what keeps me following the series, it's also pretty fun and easy to play, with enough mechanical variety (for leveling & skills and such at least) between the games to keep it fresh from one installment to the next.

I still prefer 2 to 1, the jumping in 1 was so damn awful, and the looping music and super short, yet confusing, levels were just aggravating.

@kashif1 said:

@Dagbiker said:

@believer258 said:

Play the first one first. It really is a good game, way back when the series was still about Disney and the power of friendship.

EDIT: Well, I guess it's still about the power of friendship, but it's far less about anything Disney and more about evil dudes in black coats.

This, play the first one, then play no other Kingdom Hearts game. No mater how much you want to.

The story goes off the rails after the first. The only thing KH2 had over Kingdom Hearts was the fact that it had Mickey in it. And he was only in it for one or two quick cut scenes. Also it had Quicktime events, which made combat much easier.

That was one of the rare cases where quick time events made the game better, they were done in such a way that they flowed into the gameplay instead of taking it over, atleast most of the time. As for the combat being easier, that was more because of how little damage enemies did than any fault of the quick time events. The actual amount of its I took was unchanged between kingdom hearts one and two, the damage was severely reduced.

I agree, the quicktime events did make the combat better. Also I think that was before quicktime events became so common.

@ThatIndianGuy7116: The new one actually does a fairly good job of giving ou all the back story, and it's one of the best games on the 3DS so I say go for it.

In my opinion you should play the earlier games..

If you're too lazy to do that.. see if you understand this : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cPyvE2GTjOMzE4MTVlZTctMjE5Yi00YzAzLWJjZTAtZTllODY2OTc2MTMx/edit?hl=en_US

If you don't.. you could have a problem understandeing the story in this game.

Do as you want. But this game and all of the other in the Kingdom hearts series are awesome.

Why do people say the story is confusing. It really isn't. As long as you play all the games and know the proper order It's fine. I mean, of course there's plot holes so that there can be more games but it really isn't confusing.

I say go ahead and just get this one if you are look for something new in the game. While you play the game, you get "Mementos" that recap the older games. If you are still confused about the story, you can just look it up online or just play the older games if you would like.

2 has Christopher Lee so that one is essential to play. As for 1 it can be skipped, especially if you are playing it to play future installments as the plot for 1 is explained enough to understand what is going on while still being enjoyable, plus things such as the level design and the gummi ship segments are just plain bad.

I started with kingdom hearts 2 no problem. Honestly it's probably not gonna matter much. The story isn't that hard to understand but it's mostly philosophy 101 bullshit anyway. Just start with the 3ds one and if you care at all about the story go back and play the other ones. I personally always tend to jump into series out of order with out a second thought. Every video game, book and movie has a basic structure of a beginning, middle and end. While one story may be part of an over arching plot it will still set up it's own goal, conflict and resolution for that section of the story. The only thing you'll be missing are the broader strokes of the whole plot between each game. just don't think about it too much and remember that there's more for you to explore after you're done this game.

I've never played another KH game before and just finished DDD yesterday. I definitely didn't know what the fuck was going on in the story but I honestly can't imagine comprehending it even if I did, what with all the talk about being in dream worlds and being a "true" copy of one guy and then another guy being the "nothing" version of you or some shit. Gameplay was still fun and addictive though so I still recommend it even if you haven't played the other ones.