See, the thing is that the combat isn't mindless, most people just don't truly learn the mechanics.(Usually due to the fact that normal mode is a breeze that mashing will carry you through) I will grant you that KH1 is outdated and tough. CoM is not great either. Kh2 is the pinnacle though. You are given a ton of options, and level doesn't matter more than skill. People complete These games at level 1. The things you mentioned such as dodging and blocking are the exact reason I love kingdom hearts.

I'm gonna guess you rarely if ever used reflect, dodge, block, magic in general...probably just mashed atrack huh? That's exactly what I did back in the day and felt the same way as you. When the remixes came out, I spent a whoooole lot of time playing these games and my opinion has changed completely.

The story is fine (though it has always been bad anime melodrama) and the disney stuff is cool, but I don't actually care that much in comparison to gameplay.

When the remixes come out, or if you play on ps3 do yourself a favor and play critical mode. I think that will open up a brand new game for you, and teach you to play in a new way. (Mashing will get you destroyed) I think it will completely change your opinion. It gives you a bunch of movement options in the beginning you don't get as early in the other modes and increases your damage along with the enemy's. It makes boss fights a lot more challenging and fun, and even basic enemy squads will wipe you if you aren't on top of your movement and strategy. The first few parts of the game will be rough, but you get better fast, and you get magic and more options as the game progresses. The boss fights are really the highlights of these games for me.

At this point, I just want to play it. I played 1 and 2 when I was much younger and it didn't matter that the narratives were kinda dumb. They had all the disney characters and anime you could handle, and that was fun for me. I went and played the first game (hd remake) a few years ago and to my surprise I still had a lot of fun with it. Kingdom hearts 3 represents nostalgia more than anything for me. And you know what? That's just fine. I don't give a damn about any of the (many) side entries that have come out since 2. I can read a wikipedia entry or an article or something to get the gist. But playing 3 would feel like the end of a long journey. Or maybe even a retrospective.

@mudkatt: Yep, and that's what I said to a friend earlier. It's because I am playing on the easier difficulties so I could get through the story, which means I don't need to learn those things and get it down. That said, I don't think the controls and movement are up to what I'd consider the best it could be regardless. Of course, if you put the difficulty up, you'll have to learn a new way to play and how to complete it since mashing won't do you any good, I know that. To me, since it is an RPG, leveling will still matter, and I'd want to get leveled up far enough so I could take them down with ease, which would happen eventually. It's not just about the lack of challenge if you will, but it's also about the style in which it plays (and even could play on hard) that I don't like as much.

Like I said, I don't think it's boring, but I think it could be a whole lot better. Playing on hard would alleviate some of that, but it wouldn't fix it entirely. Right now, I am not really concerned with the challenge of the game. As for the story, I don't think it's really remarkable in any way, and I agree about the melodrama anime stuff. I don't like that aspect of it, but I like to see where the story takes you in terms of location, and the characters you meet along the way. As for dodging and blocking, I do it mildly, though I do use magic. I think in this game that I'm now playing (Birth by Sleep) they do better with combat.

From what I remember, there's not really a good evade ability in the first two KH games that would get you out of the way immediately after or during your attack on an enemy, which leaves you open to attack. I don't like that you can't do anything while your somewhat lengthy attack animations are going. I'd love to attack an enemy, and as another is behind me about to attack, I could press a button to get out of the way from that hit even if I'm mid-way through hitting an enemy. If I was more invested in playing these games for the gameplay portion right now, I'd play on hard after I got through on the easier setting, but I probably won't do that. They're still lengthy even on easy.

There are some great evade abilities, several of them, and you can use them while attacking to get out of there. They are so, so useful, if you didn't use them I can totally see why you'd not like the combat as much. You have dodge roll, quick run, block, reflect and another I think I am forgetting.(Glide!) They are awesome. Block/ reflect are things a lot of people never touch, and they are practically your most useful skills id you learn to use them correctly. Thing is, some of the evade abilities are buried behind leveling up forms. I think if you get access to those and start using them, you'll kinda see what I mean.

But hey it is all good. If you're not really into it, I get it. I just think itnis unfair to the game that some people say the combat is simple and mashy when they haven't really tried all the options, but oh well. But maybe experiment a bit with some of the stuff I was talking about if you want to experience the combat in a way that is far more fun and rewarding.

BBS was actually really good I thought. Seems like the 'peace walker' of the Kingsom Hears series. At first it feels weird and clunky, but things get better as you get new commands. Thunder surge is ome of the best! Most people start with Terra who controls like a tank compared to Aqua. There is a lot of fun in the combat there, though the story and areas are pretty lacking.

(Forgive errors, I'm on a phone!)

I can't wait to hear 3's rendition of this.

I'll probably be just bumbling through it while understanding very little of the story when I finally get a PS4. Good on them for at least giving everyone a chance to play basically the entire story on the one console though. I'll still have fun, Nomura makes good Action RPGs.

Highly anticipated. Its a unique franchise to me in that I have zero interest in ever playing the portable spin-offs or replaying I or II or HD remasters but will absolutely get III. Those games are really fun for the action rpg genre but I put so many hundreds of hours into both games that I kind of needed a ten year break before III.

@themanwithnoplan It is unfortunate that so much of the story is based on some of the "side games", and it's a crappy way to see it but there are some shortened and condencesed youtube videos that basically show all the cutscenes and important things in the KH games if you want to go that route. Hard to keep up with, without context though. Especially considering how off the rails the story gets by the time we get to where we are now.

In theory I'd be interested in this, but at this point the series is both impenetrable and scattered across too many systems to catch up with. I played some of the first game but got stuck or lost interest...I don't even remember at this point. I'm not going to watch Youtube videos of let's plays or condensed cut scenes because that's not my thing. If everything important ends up on the PS4 then I might go through it some day. Frankly this is one series I wish they'd just totally reboot. I get the feeling that even the hardcore fans are looking forward to the new game not so much for story continuation but because they love the atmosphere and game play. But maybe that impression is wrong.

@thebigsocrates Pretty much all of the games should be on ps4 by this summer. They are releasing 1.5,2.5, and 2.8 which sounds really confusing but isn't so bad. Essentially you get 1 and 2, plus CoM, BBS and DDD which are handheld games but are still important story wise and pretty good as well. There are summaries of a couple of the spin offs in game which I haven't even bothered with as a long time KH fan, so no worries there. *Forgot to mention they are adding some kind of small gameplay episode in 2.8 which supposedly leads into KH3

You aren't wrong when talking about the bigger KH fans. I mean, I can only speak for myself but personally I just want to see what happens and see how they tie everything up. I have kinda talked down on the story, and some of it is pretty badly written, but I still think it's pretty good. It remains interesting and pretty insane (in a good way for me) here lately. That said, I'm still mostly here for gameplay at this point.

As far as a reboot, my understanding is that this will be the last Kingdom Hearts game to have anything to do with Sora and the other original characters. So it sounds like a hard reset is coming once this last game comes out, which could be interesting.

I am looking forward to it (whenever it comes out) but I also am a-feared that it is going to completely miss the mark on what I loved so much about KH and KH2.

I tried playing the side games and I just couldn't get into them. I am trying to go back now that I have the HD release on PS3, but honestly I feel a bit overwhelmed thinking about playing both of the games I actually really like, followed by a bunch of stuff that just bloated the series outwards, confusing the already anime af story even more so than it already was.

I loved the gameplay and the exploration. Seeing the worlds, both FF and Disney, was what really got me hooked. I think still think that stuff like Space Paranoids and the 100 Acre Wood (both games) are some of my favorite game levels to explore. On the other hand, the story is just bonkers. I would suggest watching the old Gametrailers KH Timeline video, but even that only does what it can to explain the story. It's hard to care with all the characters and all the plots and history that were added in the main games and then in the side games.

I hope that the new game, which I don't expect to come out for a while still (I'm a pessimist about this) will kind of just refocus and distill the story down. I don't know if they can at this point, but I'd rather have one really good, coherent game than a big mess. :D

I used to be super hype about KH as a kid, but not as much now. I am still very very excited for the release and will be getting 2.8 and 3 day one. I'm anticipating that I'll be pulled right back into the excitement of the games. The series just kind of just started losing a grasp on me when they released the games scattered throughout so many platforms. I'm still working on them, though. Just need to finish up last bits of BBS and then it's on to 2.8.

I absolutely love the combat in KH and definitely don't find it mindless at all. People always say that it's a masher but on proud modes, I find it more strategic, though still not very tactical. You have to think of the overall flow of the fight but instead of specific tactics, you are allowed to be more expressive/creative. What I mean is, you'll have to know when to pull out and which enemies to take out first, but how you do it doesn't really matter as long as you're smart about it. Almost any method is just as efficient as the next when it comes to taking out enemies. This is what I appreciate from the game: it requires some thinking while still allowing you to be creative. It's what I'm most excited for with the new addition to the series, to see how this comes across on the newest of consoles.

They are collecting all the games on one platform actually. The 1.5, 2.5 and 2.8. 1.5 and 2.5 where have been released on ps3, but they are actually porting them to ps4 later this year and 2.8 will be released on ps4 next week. Since KH3 will also be released on ps4 that means you can actually get the whole Kingdom Hearts series on one system.

@mudkatt: I should make it clear that I am not saying I have no fun in the combat. I think it's adequate, just not exceptional. I came back on to say and reiterate what I said before, that I am really liking Birth by Sleep's combat, and the game in general. The combat is still not amazing, but it's better I think. I also wanted to say that I kind of wish the gummi ship stuff was vacant in three, or at least much better than it was in the first two. I'm glad it's not in Birth by Sleep. I started with Terra simply because he's on the top of the character select, so I felt there might be a reason behind that. He's the character I know least about, so I was either going to choose Roxas (or Ventus, which is news to me), or Aqua first, but didn't. I'm going to go in order of how it's set on the character select.

I just beat the coliseum, and am now going to Disney Town. Hades was pretty funny, and I didn't even notice that that was Zack until I beat him. I was just thinking about Crisis Core a couple of hours ago as I played this. To touch upon the stuff you pointed out, yes, I've used all those moves. It was a bit disappointing to me that in two those abilities are locked behind the drive forms. You also cannot use those in the way I'd like. There's a certain stiffness to the combat movement that I am not a fan of. Kind of funny you're telling me how the game works as if I had never played them (as I played them at or around launch, and am currently doing so right now), haha. I know you need to make use of a bunch of different abilities if you want to succeed on the harder difficulties, but they are there for use on the easier settings, and I've done so many times.

I just beat the coliseum, and am now going to Disney Town. Hades was pretty funny, and I didn't even notice that that was Zack until I beat him. I was just thinking about Crisis Core a couple of hours ago as I played this. To touch upon the stuff you pointed out, yes, I've used all those moves. It was a bit disappointing to me that in two those abilities are locked behind the drive forms. You also cannot use those in the way I'd like. There's a certain stiffness to the combat movement that I am not a fan of. Kind of funny you're telling me how the game works as if I had never played them (as I played them at or around launch, and am currently doing so right now), haha. I know you need to make use of a bunch of different abilities if you want to succeed on the harder difficulties, but they are there for use on the easier settings, and I've done so many times.

I just beat the coliseum, and am now going to Disney Town. Hades was pretty funny, and I didn't even notice that that was Zack until I beat him. I was just thinking about Crisis Core a couple of hours ago as I played this, and wondered why that wasn't put on the PS3 in HD form. To touch upon the stuff you pointed out, yes, I've used all those moves. It was a bit disappointing to me that in two those abilities are locked behind the drive forms. You also cannot use those in the way I'd like. There's a certain stiffness to the combat movement that I am not a fan of. Kind of funny that you're telling me how the game works as if I had never played them (as I played them at or around launch, and am currently doing so right now as mentioned), haha. I know you need to make use of a bunch of different abilities if you want to succeed on the harder difficulties, but they are there for use on the easier settings as well, and I've done so many times even when unnecessary. I used them more in the first since they were more readily available. In two, I rarely used the drive forms since it wasn't necessary.

@flashflood_29: I did use the word mindless, but mindless is perhaps a bit strong. Still, on the easier difficulties, you more or less hack and slash your way through. It being like that isn't the only issue, though. The style in which the combat flows isn't my favorite. It's not bad, but not my favorite kind of style of gameplay is all. I don't disagree with you or mudkatt on how it plays, I just don't personally think it's as good as it could be, be it on the easier setting, or on the harder setting.

@ntm: My initial reaction is you can't blame it for being mashy if on easy difficulty, but I actually understand the point you're trying to make. At face value, it is simple combat and doesn't require you to do much past the simple mechanics. Almost as if you don't feel incentivized to vary your tactics. That's the thing I enjoy, though. On proud modes, I feel I need to find the most efficient tactics for certain moments but am still given the freedom of going about it however I want. Sure I can slash my way through most of it as long as I'm smart strategically, but I'd rather be more stylish with it and add flourish, for spectacles sake. That's what makes it fun for me.

At face value, it's simple, but offers you tools to be creative with flourish. I can dig that and I can see why it turns people off, for sure.

@jadegl: Which side games have you tried so far; unless it has been all of them? I agree with you about what makes them good games, at least to me as well. I want to say, though, many people say the story gets convoluted, and that's true to an extent. The game isn't so much hard to understand as it is to explain it, though. When I play them, I get the ins and outs of it, but if someone asked me to go into the details of how things connect, I would have a hard time. The complex aspects of the story aren't my favorite parts either, and that's sometimes where the cringeworthy moments come in. I'm just not that big a fan of the anime aspects honestly, but basically, everything else is alright. Oh, and Tron is probably my favorite thing from Disney, and yet Space Paranoids in two was perhaps the dullest area in the game to me now that I've just gone back through it. I'm interested to know how it is in Dream Drop Distance.

1 is an extremely formative game for me, it had just enough FF melancholy BS and Disney charm to really shine for me. There were things in 2 that I didn't like b/c it dumbed down the gameplay for me, but I still love it.

I enjoyed Birth By Sleep, but Jesus Christ are those characters, and voice actors terrible, WAAAAY to moody.

I never played D3, but I'm really looking forward to 3.

@ntm: I played the KH and KH2 to almost 100% completion. I liked KH the most, but KH2 was still a great game. Then when Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories came out, I was so hyped I went out the same day and bought it. I played that almost to completion but I got to a point where I was having issues with boss battles and the gameplay. I admit I probably could have spent time with it fine-tuning my deck, but I just lost interest. Then I bought the PS2 version of that game when it came out and tried to get into it and complete it again. No dice. I didn't even get halfway that time, from what I can recall. That kind of torpedoed my desire to keep playing the games, so I skipped out on the next two, although I tried to read up and keep abreast of the storyline, since I figured 3 would be coming out at some point.

Then when Dream Drop Distance came out I waited a bit and then purchased the game when it was on sale. I played quite a bit of it, but again lost interest at some point. During this, they announced that they were doing remasters and I said to myself "Self, it's not worth it to try and play these right now. Wait for the remaster and play everything then." So I bought 1.5 and then got mad that 2.5 included 1.5 in their collector's edition, so I ended up buying 1.5 twice, once on it's own and once with 2.5. But, I got a heartless plush and other fun stuff, so it's all good.

During this whole endeavor, I tried to keep myself up to what was happening in the story with what I already knew from playing the games I had played and watching videos on everything I hadn't. Looking back, I honestly forgot that there were a handful of mobile games too, which I never had the opportunity to play, but was happy that they were including them somehow in the remasters.

Oh, and I also bought and read the entire KH and KH Chain of Memories manga and two volumes of KH2 manga (which I think Tokyo Pop put out then lost the rights to publish? I lost track at some point and didn't catch back up).

Anyway, long story short, I tried to keep invested but I honestly didn't really like the changes they did in gameplay for some of the other games, and while I played them quite a bit, I didn't finish them. Then, when they announced remasters, I put my attempts on hold to wait for those to drop. I have them now, and just haven't gotten around the trying again. :)

I have no issues with a basic understanding of where the story went, I just don't really like where it decided to go. And I think bonkers is an appropriate term. :D

I never had nostalgia for Disney stuff and the final fantasy hooks just always felt tacked on. It's crazy that people have grown up on this franchise and i was an adult when the first came out lol

I'm glad people like KH.

But after KH1 it was crystal clear to me that the series was going to go in a radically different direction than what I enjoyed about Kh1. I've tried but I just can't get into those games.

This is me all the way.

@mudkatt: I didn't even think of that. Might just do that whenever we get close to a release of 3.

When's the release date 2030? How many more rereleases of the first two and side games do we have until Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out?

I liked the first two Kingdom Hearts games but that was well over 10 years ago.

I wish I had gotten the original game at the right time. I've wanted to and have tried to get into the series many times but just haven't been able to. Like Danny and Jeff said in the most recent Bombcast, I just didn't meet the series at the right time and I'm afraid it was never meant to be. Still though, I like what the series has to offer and interested in seeing KH3. Simple and Clean still rocks!

I'm okay with my headcanon of the series just being KH1 and 2, and sometimes Birth by Sleep on a good day.

Am I alone in loving both the gameplay and story?

I know the gameplay in the games has always been a bit mashy, but I have always thought the gameplay was enjoyable, especially boss fights. I've thought that the exploration and environments have always been a bit drab though.

I know the story is pretty infamous for being convoluted at this point, but it has always been the most interesting part of the series for me. For example, the whole last part of DDD was some of the craziest bits of story I've experienced in recent years. Granted, the ending is basically a bunch of long cutscenes and boss fights, but i guess those have always been my favorite parts of the series.

Suffice to say, I am insanely excited for KHIII (hence my avatar).

Anticipating is probably the wrong word. I really do want to play it, but also, the game probably isn't even going to be out this decade, so I'm not even remotely excited for it right now.

I want them to get back to the Disney stuff more in 3, but I know the story is so far up its own ass at this point that there's no way it'll ever be at the heart of the narrative again like it was in 1, so that doesn't help either. If nothing else, I'm sure it'll be fun to play, since DDD and BBS both had some good improvements to magic/special attacks that made them actually fun to use.

I'm a little worried with the setup that we'll be switching between protagonists again, but at least it couldn't possibly be as badly implemented as the Drop mechanic in DDD.

The very first post I ever made on this site when the forums first went up was a forum topic on "So when is KH III coming out?"

That was nearly a decade ago.

So I'm still interested, but understandably time has taken a lot of the wind out of my sails.