With your Keyblade in hand, it’s time to revisit the origins of the beloved Square Enix franchise, Kingdom Hearts.
Here are all Kingdom Hearts games you should know about by order of release.
Kingdom Hearts: All games in release order
Unlike Crash Bandicoot’s many developers, the Kingdom Hearts franchise is made exclusively by Square Enix. Created by Tetsuya Nomura, the world of Kingdom Hearts follows popular Disney and Square Enix characters. Sora, the main protagonist in nearly every mainline game, acts as the glue that keeps the franchise together and is the most consistent part of Kingdom Hearts.
Following the standard RPG format, Kingdom Hearts offers third-person fighting, because it’s clearly influenced by Square Enix’s Final Fantasy. The story is predominately told through cutscenes and follows a linear path, while also including side quests for those who are fully engrossed in the world and storytelling of Kingdom Hearts.
There are 14 mainline entries into the Kingdom Hearts franchise. The feature-length film, Kingdom Hearts x Back Cover is canonically part of the mainline series, but isn’t included in our list. While it has been announced, Kingdom Hearts 4 isn’t part of the table below since it’s release date remains unconfirmed, but we can guarantee this game will be mainline.
Here are all Kingdom Hearts games, ordered by their release dates. This list isn’t shown in the game’s chronological order, however. Entries on this list include prequels that were released after the first Kingdom Hearts (in 2002).
| Game | Does it have a remake/reissue? | Release Date | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom Hearts | Yes | 2002 | PlayStation 2 |
| Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories | Yes | 2004 | PlayStation 2 Game Boy Advance |
| Kingdom Hearts II | Yes | 2005 | PlayStation 2 |
| Kingdom Hearts coded | Yes | 2008 | Nintendo DS |
| Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days | No | 2009 | Nintendo DS |
| Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep | Yes | 2010 | PlayStation 3 PlayStation Portable |
| Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance | Yes | 2012 | Nintendo 3DS |
| Kingdom Hearts Union χ | Yes | 2013 | PC Android iOS Fire OS |
| Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- | No | 2017 | PlayStation 4 Xbox One |
| Kingdom Hearts III | No | 2017 | PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Xbox One PC |
| Kingdom Hearts Dark Road | No | 2019 | iOS Android Fire OS |
| Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory | No | 2020 | PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch PC |
| Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link | No | 2024 | iOS Android |
Alongside Kingdom Hearts‘ mainline installments, Japanese had their own exclusive reissues of the original games. Surprisingly, the main difference between the Western original and the Japanese release is language and subtitle options. But the Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts‘ Final Mixes (remakes of the mainline series) include new difficulty, camera, and gameplay settings. Due to the changes, these games were later imported to North America.
As remakes were released few years after the original, Kingdom Hearts has also had its fair share of HD collections. These included the Final Mix of the mainline games, alongside bringing multiple games from the franchise into one place.
