Topic: Kingdom Hearts info

I'm a guy who has never played a Kingdom hearts game before. I read a review on 368/2 Days (or whatever it's called) and it seems amazing. Problem is, I want to start at the beginning of the series so I can understand the characters and the vocabulary (what are "Heartless?") without having to re-read anything or to interrupt my game to find out.
However, I can find no copies of the original KH anywhere, and I don't want to go on eBay. Can someone please fill me in on

1) Kingdom Hearts in general
2) The protagonists
3) main enemies
4) Overall storyline of all the games
5) Is this similar to Dragon Quest IX? I have that one.

I want to pick up this game ASAP, and I'd also like to start this game with a bunch of knowledge under my belt. Thanks!

-Fishman100

1) Luckily the game explains The Kingdom Hearts for you.
2) Sora is the main protagonist. He is also Roxas, and you'll find out what I mean when you play it.
3) The main enemies are "Heartless", Malformed monsters that were once people who have lost their hearts. You must kill them to release their hearts so they may Join together to form Kingdom Hearts.
4) Relating to you the story would be like trying to make sense of the Kennedy conspiracy.
5) NO IT IS NOT LIKE DRAGON QUEST IX. It's a story-driven action-RPG. You have no control over your allies, but full control over your player character, and it's all in real time. The only similarity to DQ is how the Multiplayer works, which is actually pretty good.

Roxas knows about as much as you do, so you really don't need to know anything about the previous games to actually play and enjoy it. Sure, it might be easier to follow if you had some prior references, but really, the whole game is more of a recap, so I suggest not stressing over the details until you start playing it.

Go to GameStop, they are packed full of all the Kingdom Hearts games...And if for some reason they aren't in the stores near you, order them off their site. Or Amazon.

Okay I'll fill you in. In kingdom hearts you play as Sora who lives on an island with his two friend Riku and Kairi. They want to know about other worlds outside of the island. Meanwhile Donald Duck and Goofy find a letter from Mickey Mouse who is the king that says the worlds where the other disney characters live are being swallowed by darkness and they need to fing a boy with a key to stop the darkness. Sora is the boy with the key (hence the Keyblade) and his home becomes swallowed by darkness and he is separated from his friends and ends up in traverse town where he finds donald and goofy. He learns about the darkness and the creature called heartless which are things that are born from the darkness in peoples hearts. Heartless don't have hearts and are drawn to people with strong hearts which sora has. Malefacent from sleeping beauty is the one trying to use the heartless. She has kidnapped Kairi (who's heart was "Taken") and is manipulating Riku to turn to the Darkness with Riku thinking he can save Kairi. Also Riku is not only being munipulated by Malefacent but also an evil man who calls himself Ansem but is actually named Xemnes. Sora battles many heartless and by releasing the hearts that the heartless took the hearts gather and form Kingdom Hearts which is what Xemnas is after. Sora goes up against the darkness and it turns out that his friend Kairi's heart was inside him. He returns her heart but he becomes a heartless. The weird part is that heartless are not supposed to have feelings but Sora's heartless does. Kairi hugs his heartless and Sora comes back and defeat Xemas with the help of Riku and King Mickey mouse.

Kingdom Hearts 2.... Roxas is Sora's Nobody which is the empty "shell" left over from a person becoming a heartless. Sora is "sleeping" while Roxas is relaxing in a twilight town. He discovers he can use the Keyblade and after dicovering Namine (Kairi's nobody) and where Sora is, the game switched to Sora waking up and learning of his new enemies, Organazation 13 led by xemnas's nobody. Basically its about Sora not only fighting Heartless, he has to fight nobodies too. Plus Malefacent is back with Mickey Mouse's enemy Pete (who is feature on the old cartoon Steam boat willie that has a level on this game in black and white, Goof Troop, and Mickey Mouse Club House). Sora finds his friends, goes to Kingdom Hearts again, finds the real Ansem who later dies saving them, and fights Xemnas. After Sora and Riku beat Xemnas, they end up in the world of darkness. The the door to light opens and Sora and Riku are reunited with Kairi Donald Goofy and King Mickey.

Thus concludes what I know so far abouth the series.

I bought Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days about a month ago, and it's one of my favorite DS games. It's also my first Kingdom Hearts game, and I had no trouble understanding it at all. It did have references to other KH games that I didn't quite understand, but it didn't make me enjoy the game any less. I would say definitely get it.

lool all the characters have X in their name

Well I believe you, Jaw51, but I watched an IGN review of Kingdom hearts 358/2 Days a few days ago and the person said it would be tough to understand what's going on if you didn't play any previous games, so IDK...

Well Fishman100, I never played the first Kingdom Hearts game. However, I've only played a little of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories on the GameBoy Advance and then I read the Kingdom Hearts manga to fill me in on what I didn't know. I suggest reading Kingdom Hearts Volume 1 and 2 and then playing Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded as that game according to the latest issue of Nintendo Power will take you back in a way to earlier events in franchise. I've also been reading about Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and it seems to me that Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep takes place before the events of the very first Kingdom Hearts game on the PlayStation. Therefore if you'd like to know how it all began I'd highly suggest buying Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep if you have a PSP.

BTW here is a video from Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded for the Nintendo DS.
[youtube:odPXGnaOctc]

In case you didn't know, that's because the nobodies human names are taken, rearranged, and a X is added some where, creating a new name (Example: Sora=Roxas).

Thanks Poppyman. I'd never noticed that before.

if you buy the game read the instruction manuel it tels your the whole story

so should i start with 358/2?

@fishman I did and It wasnt so bad to understand

If you want to play the game from the beginning of the storyline than you should try out Birth By Sleep. It's a good game but has a longer load time than most games (takes about 10 seconds to load a boss battle).

@Gmls719

i should but unfortunately i only have a DS and a Wii

I wonder if there will ever be a Kingdom Hearts game on the iPod Touch and iPad?

^I wouldn't be too surprised if it happened.

i never played the series either and i got all current and last generation consoles and portables, perhaps someone could list the order in which we should play from and thier platform they are on pretty please ?

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts 1 (PS2)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (PS2 or GBA)
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)
Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)

At least, I think that's the order...

thanks.