Here’s the order you should play all the Kingdom Hearts games

Kingdom Hearts has a reputation for having one of the most convoluted stories in video games. Sora, our Keyblade-wielding hero, hops from world to world with his Disney companions on an epic adventure to save the Kingdom Hearts multiverse. You’ll face off against enemies from the likes of Maleficent to the Big Bad, Master Xehanort. Some of these adventures even involve time travel and different versions of the same person. These twists add to the drama, but they also add to the confusion newcomers may have from the outside looking in. 

Kingdom Hearts arrived on PC via the Epic Games Store back in 2021. You can find these five Kingdom Hearts products in our library:

• Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX
• Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
• Kingdom Hearts III & Re Mind DLC
• Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory

The numbers in the titles nudge newcomers in the right direction, but they don’t give a full explanation. Here’s the order you should play the Kingdom Hearts games to get the most out of the story.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX
If you don’t know where to start, go with Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX. There’s no such thing as a Kingdom Hearts 1.5 or Kingdom Hearts 2.5 game. Rather, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX is an HD-remastered collection of the original Kingdom Hearts and two games set in the interim between its conclusion and Kingdom Hearts II, while the 2.5 ReMIX is a similar collection for Kingdom Hearts II and two games tied to its events. 

The Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX is just a fancy name for the mega bundle of both those collections, including the original Kingdom Hearts and its sequel, Kingdom Hearts II. All six games were remastered and ported to PC for modern audiences. Some of them even include HD-remastered cinematics.

Here’s the order in which you should play the six games in the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX bundle:
 

• Kingdom Hearts Final Mix - How Kingdom Hearts started. Childhood friends Sora, Riku, and Kairi dream of leaving their home on the Destiny Islands to explore the world. However, a dark power spirits away Riku and Kairi before their journey can begin. Sora suddenly summons a weapon called the Keyblade, a sword shaped like a key, and finds himself in another world where he teams up with Disney characters Goofy and Donald to defeat the darkness. 
• Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - Chain of Memories continues where Kingdom Hearts Final Mix left off. Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter a place called Castle Oblivion, which starts messing with their memories. The only clues they have about what’s actually going on in the castle are a mysterious girl named Namine and the black-cloaked members of a group called Organization XIII.
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days originally released after Kingdom Hearts II, but it’s considered the prequel to the latter. Play it to learn about Roxas’s true identity and his relationships with the members of Organization XIII before Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. 
• Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix - The remastered version of Kingdom Hearts II. Roxas is enjoying his summer vacation in Twilight Town until he starts having strange dreams and being chased by even stranger creatures called Nobodies. He meets a mysterious girl named Namine, who might have the answer to Twilight Town’s latest happenings and why he can wield the mysterious weapon called a Keyblade.
• Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix - The events of Birth by Sleep technically happen before the first Kingdom Hearts game. However, it’s hard to recommend playing it before the others because of the emotional stakes that the first game offers. Birth by Sleep introduces Keyblade wielders Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, who were apprentices of series villain Master Xehanort.
• Kingdom Hearts Re:coded - Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, the remastered version of Kingdom Hearts Coded, takes place after Kingdom Hearts II. Jiminy Cricket seeks help from King Mickey and friends after he finds two mysterious lines in place of his journal entries. Decode the journals to uncover secrets behind Kingdom Hearts’ plot.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
Kingdom Hearts 2.8 was released after Kingdom Hearts II and shortly before Kingdom Hearts III. It was meant to serve as a bridge between the two, prepping fans for Kingdom Hearts III during the series’s long hiatus. After all, Kingdom Hearts II came out in 2005. Kingdom Hearts III didn’t come out until 2019.

The Kingdom Hearts II.8 Final Chapter Prologue comes in three parts, which you should ideally experience in this order:

• Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD: A full-HD remaster of Dream Drop Distance, a story that takes place after Kingdom Hearts II. Sora and Riku attempt the Mark of Mastery exam, which will supposedly give them the power to defeat their nemesis Master Xehanort.
• Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover: An HD movie that tells the story of the mobile game Kingdom Hearts χ from the Foretellers’ point of view, a group of elite Keyblade wielders that were in charge of protecting the worlds from the darkness. Their story predates the beginning of the main story, even before Birth by Sleep.
• Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage: A Kingdom Hearts side story about Aqua, one of the main characters from Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts III. It digs into her backstory in a way that there wasn’t room to do in Kingdom Hearts III. 

Kingdom Hearts III & Re Mind DLC
Kingdom Hearts III is the latest chapter of the Dark Seeker Saga, Kingdom Hearts’ mainline story. Fans waited years for this granddaddy of a sequel, which continues the story from Kingdom Hearts II and ties together the loose threads from Birth by Sleep and other entries. 

The Re Mind DLC, which was offered as optional paid content after Kingdom Hearts III’s initial release, tells a story set during and after Kingdom Hearts III’s climax. It’s split into three sections: Re Mind, the Limitcut Episode, and the Secret Episode. 

Re Mind dives into how Sora saves Kairi in Kingdom Hearts III’s ending scenes. The Limitcut Episode explains the aftermath of Kingdom Hearts III’s ending one year after it happened. The Secret Episode focuses on how the ending of Kingdom Hearts III affected Sora himself. However, it’d be difficult to dig into the details without spoiling the ending.

Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory is more of a side story to the core series. It retells the Dark Seeker Saga, which is the mainline story of Kingdom Hearts from the first game up until Kingdom Hearts III. Kairi tells the story from her point of view throughout Melody of Memory, and it tells fans what happened to her after the Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind DLC. According to series co-creator Tetsuya Nomura, it also was meant to lightly explore Kairi’s childhood, something that’s glazed over in the past games in favor of the overarching plot about heroes and Heartless. 

Unlike the other Kingdom Hearts titles, Melody of Memory is a rhythm game that features music from Kingdom Hearts and Disney. Instead of mashing through bosses with hack-and-slash action, you mash buttons through boss fights on the beat. You might not know where every track comes from, but it’s a refreshing spin-off that gives you a break from the RPG grind from the other Kingdom Hearts games. 

In what order should I play all the Kingdom Hearts games again?
Need the list spelled out with no fluff? No problem. Here are all the Kingdom Hearts games, listed in the order you should play them with their bundles bolded above them:

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX

• Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
• Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix
• Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix
• Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

• Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD
• Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover 
• Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage

• Kingdom Hearts III
• Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind DLC

Now, don’t go play all of Kingdom Hearts at once. According to How Long to Beat, the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX alone can take over 100 hours to complete. Pick off each bundle one by one and take your time learning about each of the characters and wrapping your head around the twisted lore.