Kingdom Hearts Plot Explained + Everything To Know About Weapons

It’s been 14 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 came out, which means you’re going to need to do more than blow on a dusty cartridge to revive those memories of the video game franchise. Kingdom Hearts 3 drops you right in the middle of 10 years worth of story which, somewhat counterintuitively, has been going strong in other spin-off games in that long absence. In-between Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3, there were five (!) games that were released on the Playstation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, PC, and mobile phones, each of them essential to the increasingly convoluted Kingdom Hearts plot line.

Sound daunting? Don’t worry I’ve got you covered. I’m here to try to condense 10 years worth of story for you — 17 years if you’re totally new. Because everyone deserves to not be horribly confused about this inexplicable combination of Japanese RPG and Disney.

What is Kingdom Hearts?

Kingdom Hearts is a role-playing video game series about a boy named Sora who is sent on a quest to save the Seven Princesses of Heart after his world is destroyed by dark creatures called “Heartless.” An evil being named Ansem wants to use the princesses’ hearts of pure light to open the Door to Darkness and gain the power to reign over all worlds. Also, those seven princesses are all Disney princesses, and Sora is accompanied by Donald and Goofy on his world-hopping mission. And he fights Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 at one point.

There are Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters? Together? How does that work?

Envisioned as a crossover game between Disney Interactive and Square Enix, the first Kingdom Hearts game, released in 2002, followed main character Sora as he traveled through different worlds that each represented a different Disney (and later Pixar) property — there was Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland, Agrabah from Aladdin, the Olympus Coliseum from Hercules, and so on.

Along the way, Sora saved the worlds from collapsing into the darkness brought on by the invasion of Heartless creatures, a mission granted to him by the Final Fantasy characters whose own world had been destroyed. They appeared as guides of sorts, showing up every now and then to spout exposition and work out their angst. Sora is joined in his quest by Donald and Goofy, who were sent by their King Mickey to find the chosen wielder of the Keyblade, a mystical weapon that has the ability to open any lock.

It was! The first game was originally conceived to appeal to Disney’s target age range. Series director Tetsuya Nomura even intended Mickey Mouse to be the protagonist of the series, but Disney put a strict restriction on using Mickey in the game — hence Sora’s outfit resembling the iconic mouse’s white gloves, over-large red shorts and giant yellow shoes. But the series has made up for it with some Disney Legend talent coming in to voice their beloved characters, including James Wood as Hades in Hercules, Idina Menzel as Elsa from Frozen, Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider in Tangled, and more.

But since the first game, Kingdom Hearts has grown into its own beast. The Final Fantasy characters have all but stopped appearing, as the game’s original characters start to grow in number and in confusing (and weirdly tragic) backstories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8IKy6lCPcI

Kingdom Hearts Weapons

This is a list of weapons that appear in Kingdom Hearts and the Final Mix version. They are listed in the order of their earliest availability. Each party member uses their own type, Keyblades for Sora, rods and mallets for Donald, and shields for Goofy, with others simply using their personal equipped weapon items.

Mechanics

Weapons possess their own base attributes, and add them to the stats of the wielder. Keyblades are typically gained by locking a world’s Keyhole, but can also be found under other circumstances, such as completing certain objectives. The latter also occurs for Donald and Goofy’s weapons, but they are also the only ones that can be bought with Munny at Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s Item Shop. Three of the strongest weapons for each character can also only be made through item synthesis at the Item Workshop.

All weapons by default grant the wielder either Strength or MP, with most weapons either focusing on one or the other. Other factors are their ability to deal critical hits, critical hit damage, recoil, and size of the weapon. The Strength stat in Kingdom Hearts caps at 55 for almost all enemies, and though it can be raised up to 99, no additional damage will be dealt past 55. This means that eventually neither Strength nor critical hit bonus becomes relevant upon reaching that point. Note that MP should not be neglected either, as magic power is dependent on the character’s maximum level of MP.

Recoil is a hidden stat that affects how much recoil you take upon hitting something you cannot damage, such as the stomach of a Large Body. Weapons with higher recoil will recover a split second faster than those with low recoil, but this total difference is entirely negligible.

Sora’s weapons

Sora’s Keyblades are the sole weapons to possess a critical hit rate (other than two of Donald’s). Almost all of them have a default 20% critical hit chance, with some increasing that by half or doubling it up to 40%, with exceptions such as the Metal Chocobo with a mere 2% and the Wishing Star at 100%. Critical hits only occur upon finishers, and each critical hit imparts the crit bonus as an extra Strength damage bonus upon your current total. This means that at a certain level they add either nothing or a negligible amount. Not all weapons add a critical hit bonus, but a critical hit still adds extra knockback, and an increased chance to stun or stagger enemies.

The weapons gained in Dive to the Heart are unique in that they are only temporary, but greatly affect Sora’s starting attributes and the abilities gained while leveling. Equipping the Dream Rod will increase Sora’s total Ability Points and MP, at the cost of Strength and maximum item slots. Dream Sword affects Strength, at the cost of Defense, whereas the Dream Shield grants the most item slots and Defense, at the cost of little else. The Rod and Shield can also be gained later for use by Donald and Goofy.

Is Kingdom Hearts 3 the last one?

Kingdom Hearts III is not intended to be the final game in the series, and serves as the final chapter of the “Dark Seeker/Xehanort” saga.

Will Kingdom Hearts Go to switch?

Square Enix just announced that Kingdom Hearts is headed to the Nintendo Switch on February 10. The games will be cloud-based and can either be bought in one big bundle worth $90 or individually. … As for individual purchase prices, the two-pack that includes Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 ReMIX will cost $40.

How many characters are in Kingdom Hearts?

By my count, there are 92 in all, but Square Enix seems to have packed this game with surprises so the number could grow by the time fans play it to its conclusion.

Who is the main character in Kingdom Hearts?

Sora. Sora (ソラ) is the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, and the sole playable character of the original game. He is portrayed as a cheerful 14-year-old boy who lives on the Destiny Islands with his two childhood friends, Riku and Kair.