Favorite Era of Kingdom Hearts

[Scoobert_Doobert]

Replaying some of the older games in the series, I got a little nostalgic about how I used to view the series throughout its almost 2 decade long run.

It got me thinking about the different eras of the KH series and which era I'm most fond of (and which ones I'm not as crazy about). I'm also curious about what every one thinks about this.

The way I see it, the series has gone through 5 separate eras.

THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY ERA:
(KH1 - KH COM - KH2 - KH Re:COM)

THE HANDHELD ERA:
(DAYS - BBS - Re:CODED - DDD)

THE REMIX ERA:
(1.5 bundle - 2.5 bundle - 2.8 bundle)

THE PRE-KH3 ERA
(That year before KH3's release when they gave us non stop KH3 trailers)

THE POST KH3 ERA
(Basically every thing since KH3 was officially released worldwide)

So, what's your favorite era of the Kingdom Hearts series? what's your least favorite? Which era did you first start playing the series in? I'll always have a soft spot for the original trilogy era, because I've been playing these games since the beginning, but the Pre KH3 era was also a really special time in the series history.

 

[Absent]

My favorite one is the original era, I remember watching the commercials thinking it was the best thing in the universe.

My tier list

1. OT
2. Handheld era
3. .
4. ..
5. ...
6. Remix Era
7. ....
8. .....
9. ......

10. Spoiler Show

    V-Cast

 

[Zettaflare]

Probably the original trilogy era. The writing was at its strongest(even KH2 in a few parts) during that period

If you ended the series at KH2 I would have thought it was a great ending

 

[The_Echo]

I'm gonna go with ReMIX era.
They weren't new games but it was still a transformative period for the franchise and fanbase as the series became consolidated and readily available, with KHIII hype getting new and old fans alike running back the older games.
This was also when the χ series began, which I absolutely love as both a standalone narrative and as a foundational entry for the future of the series.

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

Probably the original trilogy era. The writing was at its strongest(even KH2 in a few parts) during that period

If you ended the series at KH2 I would have thought it was a great ending

I think the overall story would be great if it ended @ kh2, but I feel like Days adds a great sense of tragedy that series didnt have much of at that point.

Considering it filled in a lot of blank space in the chronology on top of that, I think Days could have worked as the last game as well

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

I'm gonna go with ReMIX era.
They weren't new games but it was still a transformative period for the franchise and fanbase as the series became consolidated and readily available, with KHIII hype getting new and old fans alike running back the older games.
This was also when the χ series began, which I absolutely love as both a standalone narrative and as a foundational entry for the future of the series.

Ahhhhhh I can't believe I forgot to mention the KhX mobile games. But yeah, I totally agree about the the remix era. It renewed my love and passion for all the older games by finally letting us play the final mix versions.

Definitely one of the best era's

 

[Chie]

Handheld era. Something people don't talk about enough is how we were getting a full game yearly for four years. The seven years between 3D and III put that into perspective even more. Of course, this goes into my own personal viewpoint of the tragedy of the gaming industry in general, and how we don't really live in a world where there even ARE handhelds to make yearly, mid-budget games on anymore.

Although in terms of the story taken in a vacuum, I kind of see CoM, 2 and Days as a trilogy instead, focusing on the Organization and Nobodies and such. That's my favorite part of the story because of the prevalence of smaller-scale, slice-of-life content, as well as almost psychological horror elements, in Roxas' parts of the story.

 

[NoWay]

For me the best KH era is between E3 2015 and January 2019. The whole era between the first big KH3 trailer, the endless waiting, the HYPE. This was a wild ride.

 

[Noivern]

Definitely BBS era. It was when my english finally got good enough to understand what I was playing and I started to follow KH religiously, even picking up a PSP to play BBS.

I played through these games multiple times and to this day I still think each of them did something very good (except 3d. That game is hot garbage and if I could I would delete it from existance without a second thought.)

It was when the theory side of the fandom really took off as well, only those who had lived through that remember the excitement when the new games were announced and the mystery of who the blonde fellow who looked exactly like Roxas was. Playing through Days to get to the Wonderland scene with Xigbar and Xion, and then finally playing through BBS for the first time and getting hit with a mountain of lore, characters and worldbuilding, and then later getting the port for Re:Coded with arguably one of the best gameplay on DS squeezing all the power the tiny console had and tying together the loose ends from CoM while also ending with the amazing boss fight against Data-Roxas? honestly, the best.

Nowadays I feel like we are finally entering a era like that again, with all the plotpoints from UX, Dark Road setting up lore and worldbuilding we have waited for years and new games being announced, but only those who lived through the early 2010's with KH know what that was like.

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

Handheld era. Something people don't talk about enough is how we were getting a full game yearly for four years. The seven years between 3D and III put that into perspective even more. Of course, this goes into my own personal viewpoint of the tragedy of the gaming industry in general, and how we don't really live in a world where there even ARE handhelds to make yearly, mid-budget games on anymore.

Although in terms of the story taken in a vacuum, I kind of see CoM, 2 and Days as a trilogy instead, focusing on the Organization and Nobodies and such. That's my favorite part of the story because of the prevalence of smaller-scale, slice-of-life content, as well as almost psychological horror elements, in Roxas' parts of the story.

Interesting you say the hand held era is your favorite, because I would say that was EASILY my least favorite era.

Regardless of how good the games were, the fact that they were spread out across 3 separate handheld consoles still annoys me to this day. It's also the reason a lot of people were turned off by KH as a series, because back then they had to buy all these other platforms to enjoy the full story. The remix era fixed this but for those 5 or so years, the handheld games kind almost ruined my enthusiasm for the series.

I'm glad you enjoyed tho

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

For me the best KH era is between E3 2015 and January 2019. The whole era between the first big KH3 trailer, the endless waiting, the HYPE. This was a wild ride.

I was CRAZY hype when they first showed us kh3, but looking back, I kinda hate that they revealed it so far from when it actually released.

In 2018 when they really ramped up the hype with all the trailers was great but all those years before, when we were getting nothing but screenshots and random bread crumbs was literally torture lol

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

Definitely BBS era. It was when my english finally got good enough to understand what I was playing and I started to follow KH religiously, even picking up a PSP to play BBS.

I played through these games multiple times and to this day I still think each of them did something very good (except 3d. That game is hot garbage and if I could I would delete it from existance without a second thought.)

It was when the theory side of the fandom really took off as well, only those who had lived through that remember the excitement when the new games were announced and the mystery of who the blonde fellow who looked exactly like Roxas was. Playing through Days to get to the Wonderland scene with Xigbar and Xion, and then finally playing through BBS for the first time and getting hit with a mountain of lore, characters and worldbuilding, and then later getting the port for Re:Coded with arguably one of the best gameplay on DS squeezing all the power the tiny console had and tying together the loose ends from CoM while also ending with the amazing boss fight against Data-Roxas? honestly, the best.

Nowadays I feel like we are finally entering a era like that again, with all the plotpoints from UX, Dark Road setting up lore and worldbuilding we have waited for years and new games being announced, but only those who lived through the early 2010's with KH know what that was like.

I have my issues with the handheld era, but I definitely agree with you that it started the crazy fan theories and speculation that's so natural for KH today.

Those games really expanded the lore and mythos of the KH universe and I appreciate them for that, (on top of being solid games for the most part.) I just wish they would have stuck to one console and put all of the games on that. Instead of spreading them across every possible handheld console around at the time.

And DDD has its flaws, but it did introduce flowmotion... I guess that's something

 

[Foxycian]

My favorite kingdom hearts Era was From 2005 till 2015

But honestly in the end I enjoyed The Whole Adventure from all the way to 2002 till 2020.

 

[Deleted member 252753]

When I still was but a boy, the Keyblade War began. As a young teenager I really enjoyed KH1, KH2 and CoM in the first era but I didn't think I could ask my parents for a DS or PSP to keep up with the series. I remember looking up plot summaries for Days and BBS and bring so confused so I despaired of keeping up for a long time.

But I continued gazing upon each passing era, one unto the next. I vaguely knew of a 3DS game, and a strange mobile phone game with cute versions of Ventus and Marluxia and people in animal masks for some reason, which seemed pretty daunting.

But in late 2017 when I was feeling a bit down saw the ReMixes in a shop and heard KH3 was actually coming soon so I decided that perhaps the time had come to intervene. Over a year I played through 1.5, 2.5, and 2.8, and enjoyed pretty much everything (including DDD), and got really amped for KH3.

I thought KH3 was amazing and it was in between that and Re Mind that I got into theorising, which led me to this site and allowed me to talk to other fans and also finally follow the story of Chi/UX, which I now love too. After Re Mind I was a little disappointed for a bit but am now enjoying Dark Road and I am excited that I will survive to see what awaits beyond the Keyblade War.

Basically, my favourite Era is the Post KH3 one, least favourite is the Handheld Era, and I started playing in the Original Trilogy Era.

 

[Cumguardian69]

KH1/COM/KH2 were the best games in the series gameplay and writing wise, so I'll run with them. I'll never forget the BBS hype then disappointment when its gameplay was weak, though. Absolute greatest secret ending coming on through:

 

[SweetYetSalty]

Although in terms of the story taken in a vacuum, I kind of see CoM, 2 and Days as a trilogy instead, focusing on the Organization and Nobodies and such.

Huh, that's a really interesting way to see the Organization trilogy. Never thought of it that way.

My favorite era is probably the handheld era, despite having to get several handhelds. I started playing KH in 2007 so the OG era was already getting prepared for the new wave of games. I loved KH1, (favorite game) enjoyed KH2, and had to watch cutscenes for ReCom, but the KH series wasn't my favorite gaming series of all time...until I played 358/2 Days in the handheld era. After that I was set for life and Kingdom Hearts overtook Pokemon as my fave gaming series. I remember buying Birth By Sleep day one and refused to put it down, despite hurting my fingers with button mashing. I didn't have a 3DS but I was drooling when I learned of Dream Drop Distance. I was so hyped watching all the trailers leading up to it, and when the videos started popping up on Youtube I nearly skipped one of my classes to watch it. So for me the handheld era was my favorite Kingdom Hearts era.

A close second would be this KH3, and post KH3 era we're in now. The KH3 trailers and insane theories were utter madness. Aqua's norted, Terranort's back, Is it Repliku or Xion, Roxas is in Jungle Book, no Agrabah, Jiminy's journal is a Xehanort vessel, Every single Disney world has been confirmed. Such good times leading up to KH3. The post KH3 stuff and mobile games era I just started getting into. So much Kingdom Hearts goodies. I can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[Noivern]

Those games really expanded the lore and mythos of the KH universe and I appreciate them for that, (on top of being solid games for the most part.) I just wish they would have stuck to one console and put all of the games on that. Instead of spreading them across every possible handheld console around at the time.

And DDD has its flaws, but it did introduce flowmotion... I guess that's something

Flowmotion is the single worst thing to have been added to Kingdom Hearts and not only did it completely run 3D breaking the game to skyrim levels, it still annoyed me deeply in 3 even after it was toned down.

Regarding the games being on multiple handhelds, it helped as much as it hurt, honestly. It helped increase the popularity of the franchise by having it on so many places.

 

[Henryp]

Favorite era in regards of hype was the handled Era. When I got into the series Kh2 was already confirmed to be a thing in the future, so the handles were the first time I went from not knowing what would come from next to be waiting for 3 games (actually two because who cared about coded). Sadly, I don't know what I was expecting, but the marketing and the Disney worlds chosen for DDD didn't make me go insane about that Era. The last part before the release of KH3 and the months prior to remind were also some of my favorites.

In regards of the games themself, I gotta say I have one game I'm very fond of in all of them except for the DDD/remixes, so all of them count.

I don't know why people keep putting together KH1 with com and 2 except for maybe nostalgia . Yes, they are the direct sequels to KH1, but production, storyline, pacing, mechanics and combat... Everything changed after KH1. Kh1 was clearly made to be self contained in case it didn't work. Kh2 was already made with the sense of a series in mind. I see more similarities with KH1 en other games that I see in Kh2, tbh.

 

[Lulcy]

I vastly prefer the "Original Trillogy" era, both the best writen game (KH1) and best gameplay (KH2) come from that era. I have a soft spot for the handheld era because I when I was done with the first three game I had nothing but look forward to the next games coming in the horizon with pure excitment and hype.

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

When I still was but a boy, the Keyblade War began. As a young teenager I really enjoyed KH1, KH2 and CoM in the first era but I didn't think I could ask my parents for a DS or PSP to keep up with the series. I remember looking up plot summaries for Days and BBS and bring so confused so I despaired of keeping up for a long time.

But I continued gazing upon each passing era, one unto the next. I vaguely knew of a 3DS game, and a strange mobile phone game with cute versions of Ventus and Marluxia and people in animal masks for some reason, which seemed pretty daunting.

But in late 2017 when I was feeling a bit down saw the ReMixes in a shop and heard KH3 was actually coming soon so I decided that perhaps the time had come to intervene. Over a year I played through 1.5, 2.5, and 2.8, and enjoyed pretty much everything (including DDD), and got really amped for KH3.

I thought KH3 was amazing and it was in between that and Re Mind that I got into theorising, which led me to this site and allowed me to talk to other fans and also finally follow the story of Chi/UX, which I now love too. After Re Mind I was a little disappointed for a bit but am now enjoying Dark Road and I am excited that I will survive to see what awaits beyond the Keyblade War.

Basically, my favourite Era is the Post KH3 one, least favourite is the Handheld Era, and I started playing in the Original Trilogy Era.

Wow, I always love hearing about people really getting into KH later in life. That's awesome that you got to play through the entire series in just one year. As someone who had to wait years and years for certain games to come out I am extremely jealous lol.

But I agree about this post KH3 era being great so far. There's so many different directions they can take the series from where Re:mind left it. Hopefully Melody of Memory (whatever it ends up being) keeps us all on the hook