Topic: Kingdom Hearts for a newcomer to the franchise?

I've never played any of the Kingdom Hearts games. I think this looks interesting, but I'm concerned by the comments by IGN that this game is not for newcomers to the series because it won't make any sense unless you are familiar with the story. Will I get any enjoyment out of this game if I've never played the others? Or should I pass?

Pass. This game is not for newcomers. If you really want to play it that badly, then I recommend that you play KH1 and KH2.

As much as I'd like to play it, I can't justify purchasing a PS2 and a couple of games just to get enough background info to play KH 385/2. I guess I'll have to pass if it's true that you NEED the background in order to play this one.

Same. It's a fun game, but you will be so confused if you haven't played the first two. Heck, I haven't played Chain of Memories, so there's a part or two that doesn't fully click. Definitely check out the first two, though. Then get this one if you've enjoyed the others.

Why? Then you will have THREE awesome games and a system that has even more amazing ones that you probably missed out on (Psychonauts, Gitaroo Man, ICO etc.).

I suggest you play the first 2 first.

I got this game as a new-comer. It is good, but REALLY hard if you don't know whats going on. The story makes very little sense, and it just didn't seem to live up to the hype. It is a pretty decent game though, after the first 5 hours it gets intense, and is also very long. So if you have 35 bucks to blow, and nothing else you are interested in, you may want to pick it up

The storyline is going to be VERY CONFUSING if you have not played KHI and KHII. Play those games before you buy this one.

That may be true...but to answer the "why?": I don't have a whole lot of time to devote to gaming and have a hard enough time keeping up with my backlog of Nintendo games without adding to the mix another system's worth of games that I'd want to play (like all the Final Fantasies that I've missed since VI.)

I'm still working on TWEWY on DS and after that I've got to play Starfy, Scribblenauts, Professor Layton II, and Mario & Luigi 3. I just finally caught up on my Wii backlog, but Boy and His Blob just came out, New Super Mario Bros soon, and I haven't yet put nearly as much time into Wii Sports Resort and Boom Blox Bash Party as I'd like.

So in short, I've got enough on my gaming plate without going back and catching up on the backstory of KH. I guess I'll just have to pass on this one and hope that at some point a main storyline KH comes out on Wii that I can jump into.

EDIT - and I just remembered that I've had Kirby Super Star Ultra since Christmas and still haven't played it.

... Or you could just read a plot summary of the Playstation games, and, armed with that knowledge, get into the new game.

I got it only with knowledge from CoM, a lot of which has been forgotten. It's been great, and I'm around halfway I believe, the story has been interesting to me, there are some elements where I don't know exactly what is happening, but that's fine.

I personally think you should just check out some gameplay videos to see if it's your thing, don't let the story be the deal breaker.

Good deal...thanks for the advice WaltzElf and Digiki. I'll take a closer look.

BTW, what's CoM?

Chain of Memories.

Well, what everyone says here is correct. However, you could always find a copy of Chain of Memories for GBA. That would at least help a little bit...

You should buy a PS2 anyway. There are so many damn good games for that system it's not even funny. KH1 and 2 are just one of probably 30 I could name off the very top of my head without even thinking about it.

I agree. The PS2 is an amazing console - one of the best I've ever owned.