[Kingdom Hearts] You should really read the handheld spinoff threads first

So like 4 different threads today had lengthy discussions about the Kingdom Hearts series, so let's quarantine that shit in one centralized location so we can burn and clear it


KINGDOM HEARTS was released in 2002 for the PS2. It's the first game in the series, the one that kicked off the whole nightmare.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: Very much so, it's the basis for everything that comes after.


KINGDOM HEARTS: CHAIN OF MEMORIES was released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance, and it's a sprite-based 2D action game with heavy card game elements. It was later remade as a 3D game in 2008.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: Absolutely, it's the next step in the mainline story and introduces approximately 1 billion concepts that would be explored in the next game and all the ones after.


KINGDOM HEARTS II was released in 2006 for the PS2, and it steps up everything from the original game to a significant degree, including the amount of JRPG Bullshit in the story, for better and for worse. There were a lot of enemies on screen at once and you went into Tron.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: Just as much as the previous two, Kingdom Hearts 2 advances the main plot significantly and adds a lot of important characters to the story.


KINGDOM HEARTS CODED was released episodically for mobile phones from 2008 to 2010. I don't really know anything about this one, but it was remade as KINGDOM HEARTS RE:CODED for DS in 2011, and is included on the collections.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: A little bit, I think? It includes a little bit of extra story advancement towards setting the stage for the final game, but is mostly set during the original game.


KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 DAYS was released for the DS in 2009. It's set between the first and second games, following the story of Roxas leading up to Kingdom Hearts II.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: If you're strictly interested in what you need to know for the final game, probably not, but it has a lot of good backstory stuff which may or may not end up relevant.


KINGDOM HEARTS BIRTH BY SLEEP was released for the PSP in 2010. It's a prequel set 10 years before the events of the series.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: If you only play one post-KH2 game in the leadup to 3, it should be this one. It kinda turns out this game introduces sorta the core premise of the entire series, like, say, the main villain, who is introduced in this game, and several other major characters who will likely be crucial in KH3.


KINGDOM HEARTS 3D: DREAM DROP DISTANCE was released in 2012 for the 3DS, hence the three D title, like it's a 2004 Castlevania game. This one adds a weird sorta Pokemon system to the series' usual hack-n-slash combat.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: This is one of the only spinoffs to actually take place after Kingdom Hearts II and move forward, directly setting the stage for KH3, but it's more or less a game-long training sequence.


KINGDOM HEARTS χ was released in 2013 for mobile devices. Y'all, I'm gonna level with you here. I haven't played all these games, but I know the deal with most of them. I don't know ANYTHING about this one.
DOES THIS ONE MATTER?: It cannot possibly matter. They can't be that crazy.


KINGDOM HEARTS III will allegedly be released in 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One. This is the one we've been waiting for for eleven goddamned years. Supposedly the final entry in this series' plotline, Kingdom Hearts 3 will also include worlds based on Big Hero Six and Toy Story. Kingdom Hearts is so old that both of these things were fairly new when the series started.
WILL THIS ONE MATTER?: It goddamn well better.

That was a very poor overlook of the series. Let's talk about what really matters.

What's the best song? Your answers will be graded and judged harshly: