On October 8, 2026, Square Enix released the Kingdom Hearts I~III Collection for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2. It offers a convenient starting point for a long-form journey through the Disney and Final Fantasy crossover series before Kingdom Hearts IV arrives in late 2027.
This retrospective will revisit every major game and relevant story chapter, while considering how the series changed over time. Readers who already know these worlds are welcome to follow along, compare interpretations and revisit their own memories of Sora, Riku and Kairi.
For more coverage of the wider gaming scene, explore RETROCADE’s arcade blog and browse the latest arcade videos.
A personal starting point
Kingdom Hearts was the first Square game I played. My brother and I rented it for PlayStation 2 before we owned a memory card, which meant repeatedly exploring Destiny Islands and Traverse Town rather than progressing through the entire adventure. Even with that limitation, the game felt unlike anything I had encountered before.
At the time, anime such as Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z were already familiar, but Kingdom Hearts introduced me to a more openly emotional style of storytelling. It also became my entry point to Final Fantasy and one of my first experiences with a reasonably intricate action RPG.
The ending made an especially lasting impression. In fifth grade, I had limited vocabulary for what I was feeling, but Utada Hikaru’s “Simple and Clean” playing during the final moments overwhelmed me. I cried in my sister’s bedroom, where the PlayStation 2 was set up, making it the first video game to affect me that deeply.
From early devotion to cautious curiosity
My connection with the series remained strong for years. I loved Chain of Memories, particularly as a devoted Riku fan, followed the lead-up to Kingdom Hearts II through some of my earliest social-media experiences, and regularly listened to Hikaru’s themes in minimised YouTube videos.
That level of investment faded as the saga continued. I still played the games and followed the long wait for each numbered release, but by the time Kingdom Hearts III arrived, my main question was whether Square Enix could resolve its famously tangled story about light, darkness and friendship.
Kingdom Hearts III did not fully win me over, and I could have accepted it as the end of the journey. Instead, Square Enix and Disney continued the series into a new arc. After 25 years, the franchise has developed an unexpectedly elaborate mythology—one Disney has not only approved but appears willing to expand as Kingdom Hearts IV approaches.
That scale makes the replay especially interesting. A dedicated setup can make a long gaming project more comfortable, whether that means comparing a full arcade machine collection or choosing a compact bartop arcade for a games room.
Looking past the shorthand
I also co-host Normandy FM, a book-club-style podcast where we often discuss how games become reduced to memes and repeated in-jokes. A work created with care can gradually be replaced in public conversation by a simplified caricature of itself.
That is why the common claim that Kingdom Hearts is merely “too complicated” deserves closer examination. Listing unfamiliar names and phrases out of context does not amount to analysing the series. Its lore is certainly dense, but understanding that complexity requires spending time with the actual games and considering how their stories are presented.
When did the story become so complicated?
Replaying the complete series offers a chance to separate what the games contain from what years of jokes and dismissive commentary have made them represent. I want to examine the writing on its own terms, including the sprawling network of characters, histories and rules that eventually carried the story well beyond a simple Disney crossover.
The central question is when that transformation began. Sora, Riku and Kairi originally appeared to be children who wanted to discover other worlds, only to learn that their lives on the beaches of Destiny Islands held much greater significance. Were the later developments planned from the beginning, or did the series accumulate new layers as it progressed? This replay should make that turning point easier to identify.
The project will also consider how the games’ presentation, combat and structure support—or sometimes complicate—their storytelling. Readers planning a long retrospective of their own may find RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide useful when choosing hardware for an extended gaming space.
The replay schedule
The planned sequence runs from the original game through the material leading into Kingdom Hearts IV:
- Kingdom Hearts: October–December 2026
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: January 2027
- Kingdom Hearts II: February–April 2027
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Re:Coded: May 2027
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: June 2027
- Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance and A Fragmentary Passage: July 2027
- A watch-through of the unplayable mobile games Kingdom Hearts Union χ Dark Road: August 2027
- Kingdom Hearts III and the Re:Mind DLC: August–October 2027
- Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory: November 2027
- Kingdom Hearts IV: late 2027
Each game will receive an occasional dedicated entry, supported by larger monthly check-ins. The aim is not simply to reach the next release, but to understand what this unusual, emotional and increasingly intricate series has been building toward.
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