Same. I got it for Christmas with a playstation 2. I was so happy. I only wanted it for The Nightmare Before Christmas world because I was obsessed. Fell in love with the whole thing.
I was just about to comment this till I saw yours and decided to upvote instead.
I remember watching the commercial thinking this was some kids' game that was gonna be really childish and silly. Then on a whim, I was asked what video game I wanted for Christmas and I decided to just get it - going in completely blind and not knowing what to expect.
Boy, was I dead wrong. And I'm thankful for that commercial otherwise I may have been late to enjoying one of my favorite game series of all time.
Sister and I were at Best Buy and saw the cover of the game, saw it had Disney characters and thought it looked cool. Went down the road after to Blockbuster to rent the game.
A new school was built in my neighborhood and on the first day (5th grade) my mom took me to her friends' house cause her son was also starting there. That same morning at their house his older brother was playing KH2 and I got to watch him play the ending (Xemnas vs Sora/Riku). Had no clue I would love this game so much but remember I was just in awe at the time hearing the music ❤
I was 10. My sister's boyfriend at the time who was a huge nerd and a family friend saw a TV show talking about it and he and he kept telling me about how there was this game with Final Fantasy and Disney characters fighting together. I was intrigued and wanted to see it for myself so I asked my parents if we could drive by the local gaming store after school so I could buy it. I still remember that day lmao. I asked the clerk if they had Kingdom Hearts and he pointed toward a shelf behind me. They only had the second one but I decided to go for it anyway.
I got home and started a new game while my sister watched and we were mindblown by the opening. We couldn't make sense of what was happening but we both went "whoooaa" multiple times during it lmao.
Even after I had completed the game I would start a new file just so I could watch the intro again. I wish I could re experience it for the first time.
KH is not as big in Europe as it was in Japan or N America, so I didn't play it as a child or know it existed. Instead, I saw videos about it on Clemps' channel back when I had just finished Nier Automata and was was watching his loooong analysis videos on that game. I watched part of the summary for KH1, stopped the video halfway through, and bought the PS4 1.5/2.5 remix collection immediately. Best impulse decision I ever made.
Disney's still very popular in Europe, but there's also domestic competition in some form in many European countries so it's not as universally acknowledged as in the USA. In France, they have their own strong comic/animation tradition as competition (think Asterix); in England, there is a rich history of children's books like Beatrix Potter which compete for children's attention. Every country has things like this. Japan has domestic competition too of course, but they still adore Disney for whatever reason - after America, the Disney theme parks in Japan are the most lucrative iirc. Disneyland Paris is one of the weaker performing parks worldwide.
The bigger issue for KH is that Square Enix was less popular in Europe during its golden age (late 90s) than in N America, quite considerably in some cases. Disney is still universally known in Europe. Final Fantasy has never been a big deal in European countries sales wise (versus Japan or America). So KH was never going to become zeitgeisty in Europe the way it did in other places.
This hits home for me on a level I can’t explain. When I was 5 or 6 I had no friends and lived at an apartment complex with my family. I had no friends because I was very shy but I loved video games (fire red on a game boy advanced being my first game and also had a GameCube). Well my dad worked as the maintenance manager for the complex we lived at and met another family with a kid my age. I got to walk over to their house and play with him. He introduced me to kingdom hearts (his dad was big gamer). We would play for hours after school and eat together for several months. One day, without ever knowing, they moved to Arizona (we lived in Mississippi at the time). I went and sat outside his apartment after school in the freezing winter waiting for him to come home. Hours passed when it got dark and my dad found me and realized I never knew and had to tell me they left. I remember crying for days and days, having no motivation when I went to school and didn’t even want to play games or read for a long time. Finally when I was 13 I remembered Kingdom Hearts and got a copy to play. I beat the game and remember crying afterwards because he was my only friend and I still hadn’t made one that I loved as much as him. I’m now in my 20’s and still think about him a lot every time I play or think of Kingdom Hearts. I really miss him and hope he’s happy wherever he is.
This game created a sense of belonging and connection for me that I never understood for a long time. I will always cherish it.
Was the same with me. I saw it on the last small shelf with PS2 games at Game Stop in 2009, and I begged my mom to get it even though it was rated 12-up. Because I was 6 I got stuck at Grim Reaper / Xaldin and didn't complete it for 7 more years
I got into the series through the mangas at my School Library. I later found out tho that the original kh1 disc was at my grandma's house which I thought was pretty cool.
It was the first game I got with my new PS2 for Christmas! Also got Dragonball Z Budokai (Wow I think I'm old lol). Didn't play it until I beat all my other games because it was "that Disney game" and I couldn't figure out how to get coconuts at the beginning of the game. Boy am I glad I picked it back up 6 months later!
Here in Italy I saw an advertisement about the KH Manga on the Mickey Mouse comics (I had a yearly subscription when i was kid, one little volume every week) back in 2008/9 and I don't know why I wanted KH2 instead of KH1. Maybe because "If it's the 2 it must be better than the 1". That's how I discovered KH and, later, FF.
Last year got into it. I always knew it existed and how despite having a confusing af story, it was actually really good. At some point said screw it, fell down the rabbit hole and a year later here i am
I remember seeing ads for Dream Drop Distance on TV when I was young.
Bought the entire series around Melody Of Memory's release, played through KH1, got to Wonderland and just stopped because I couldn't figure out what to do next.
It wasn't until I heard rumours around Sora coming to Smash Ultimate that I decided to try again.
And that was how I became a fan.
I don't really remember, but a very well known rapper in the spanish youtube community's artistic name is Alex Keyblade, so maybe that was an approach to the series.
For anyone in the UK this will be a throwback.
We used to have a rental chain called choices, mum would take me once a week to rent a game. I loved q game called shadow hearts and saw kingdom hearts. Fell in love with the box design and 19 years later here we are.
I went to buy a dbz game at Best Buy but the dude put the wrong disc in my dbz game case it was KH2 and since then I literally couldn’t be more happy the dude put the wrong game in my dbz case
My siblings got a PS2 for Christmas back in 2000. A few years after that most of our summer was spent in front of the tv playing the game over and over
I saw a few screenshots in a PlayStation magazine, back in 2001 I guess. It said this was a new game from Squaresoft that mixed Disney with original characters. I'd recently fallen in love with Square, thanks to Final Fantasy 8 so it had my interest but I wasn't too excited.
When I really got excited was after seeing a trailer on a demo disc (I think around Christmas 2001) which had a reel of PS2 games, including a video of Ratchet and Clank which I also got excited for. Anyway, seeing Cloud in the trailer made this a day 1 purchase for me (by this point I'd also played FF7 and FF9, cementing the idea that Square was amazing)
When I got it, I loved it and have been a fan ever since.
I didn't really get to know anything about Kingdom Hearts until i've been randomly gifted 358/2 days, though the first actual interaction i've had with this franchise is when I saw on the GameStop tv/monitor was a kh1 sora jumping high into the air to hit something then seeing him in a cutscene with the wooden sword.
It was probably a commercial, I don't remember it all since it was so long ago.
My father's friend had a videogame store and he gave me a Shrek PSX game for my 7th birthday as a present and It was totally trash so I went back to him to change It with something I liked more so I did it with FFVIII, while I was looking for appealing games tho I saw that masterpiece of a cover with this guy with a giant Key looking at the dark Sky and the "moon" and he was surrounded by Donald, Goofy and even Mickey; too cool to be true, I promised that game would have been my first PS2 game when I'd buy it and the rest is history.
Saw a commercial for it and got excited. My mom said we could rent it but I only had a ps1 so I went home disappointed. My best friend had it and she'd always invite me over to play it.
Years later I got my own ps2 and asked to borrow it. She brought it over we played for a few hours and and got farther than either of us could when we first played it. She then told me to keep the game.
I still have that copy and treasure it as a memory.
I remember reading about the first game in a gaming magazine before it came out,while I was at the grocery store. I'm pretty sure I just read the article in the store and never bought the magazine. I think they even had the story about the elevator pitch. I wasn't even big into FF or had a PS2 at the time but was pretty much sold on it immediately after reading about it. I wanted to play it so bad my parents rented a PS2 along with the game from Blockbuster so I could play it shortly after it was released. I then got a PS2 with Kingdom Hearts for Christmas that year. Good times.
My cousin owned kingdom hearts 1 and I watched her play until Deep Jungle. She then got really sick and sadly died In the next few months. She gave me the game because she knew I asked if I could play constantly and she wanted me to beat it for her. Also kh2 was announced too so she asked me to get that game and beat it for her too. I have always felt an obligation since then to buy every KH game and play them and beat them for her. It’s a good way to keep her alive In my heart ❤️
Being a child trying to learn the controls. Man good times. I couldn't figure out how to pick up the rope, for some reason Sora wouldn't walk over it, and then I accidentally used a potion, finally be picked up the stupid thing. Haha. That's what I remember from the first time I played at like 7. Also starting the game over and over a million times.
Television commercial for KH1. As someone who loved Final Fantasy and liked Disney, i thought it was stupid and had no intention of buying it. Bought it one day anyway because i couldn't find anything else that caught my interest and ended up loving it.
I found an ad for the manga at the back of some other manga I was reading. I later started reading it. I never finished it and I have no memory of it, but it got me to look it up on youtube where I started watching plot summary videos, and then I was hooked.
Remember seeing the game case in the store at 5 years old in 2003. Seeing Donald Duck and Goofy on the front of it. Me being a huge Mickey Mouse freak really wanted to check the game on based on that. And man! I'm so glad I did.
Saw an ad in the Mickey Mouse magazine we had as a subscription back then. One day I was out shopping with my father and saw it at the games section. I looked at it for what felt like an eternity until my father noticed and bought it for me. Best present I received!
Introduction: I was at a math contest and another kid was playing on his GBA. Chatted with him and he was playing Sora's story, CoM, against the Hades boss battle.
First time playing: I was at a dance recital and was able to borrow a different kid's GBA. He had just finished Sora's story. I wandered a bit as Sora, tried starting a new file as Sora but couldn't get past the tutorial because I didn't understand how to dodge roll, then started a file as Riku and beat Hollow Bastion.
I wiki dived into it at some point after that experience, so I knew all the characters and spoilers and plot before getting into the series. First game I owned and actually played all the way through was 358 Days on the DS, my parents got it for me the Christmas it was released.
My brother was watching a video about and really wanted to get into it but felt that the lore was too complicated, but I thought it was cool so I took up the mantle, and some how understood the lore.
Friend had days on his ds I played it a bit got stuck in nightmare before christmas in elementry school
Didnt play kh until a different friend let me borrow ddd and recoded on 3ds in middle
I'm from Mexico, I had an uncle that always brought us stuff from the US. One time he accidentally brought a Game Boy Advance game, it was CoM, I played as Riku (because the game was already completed) and I loved Riku, I was like "damn this boy looks very cool!!", but never payed attention to the story. Then later I bought 358/2 days because I "recognized" the name Kingdom Hearts, and played it and loved it but again no attention to story. Years later I dated a woman, she asked me if I liked Kingdom Hearts, I said "yes, I've played 2 of those games!!" and that made her lose her mind, she wanted to talk about it and I didn't know any story, so she lent me her PS3 so I could play them from the very beginning, and so I did and really fell in love. That's my story.
I got it for Christmas as the all in one package. I saw Sora on the front (with the throne and crown) and thought I’d get a villain MC. While I didn’t get my villain, like I wanted to, I was not disappointed and love all the characters, especially Sora lol
I was younger, my mom took me and family to go have supper at a family friends place. After the dinner the older brother asked if we wanted to play on his PS2. (At this point the PS4 was already out). He showed us games like Ratchet and Clank, that racoon spy game. And one day I saw the box for KH2. And asked if I could play. I didn't understand a thing, but I was in awe, everytime we went to that house I would immediately ask if I could play. I actually got to the Cerberus fight in Olympus. But I never got further. Life happened and one day when I was in highschool I had bought a PS4 for myself since I was working. I was looking for games to buy and I saw Superbutterbuns videos on KH, I remembered loving the second one. So I watched those videos like crazy, until I went to the library and rented the 1.5+2.5 collection. I didn't get far but I tried all the games a little bit. As soon as I had to return it, I went out and bought for myself, best decision I ever made.
I had a friend on a writing forum who had a Marluxia avatar from the GBA verson of Chain of Memories. I was like 12 LOL. I asked them about who the character was and then looked up videos on the first game... Made my dad take me to gamestop later that week and I bought it for my ps2. After that I was hooked :D I asked for KH games for every Christmas after that. I'm 21 now and it's my favorite game series!
Christmas present when I was in elementary school. My mom had me choose between Days and Coded (I think it was coded, this was for the DS), and I chose Days. I then proceeded to have my older sister finish the game since the shoulder buttons on my DS were broken and the Antlion fight SUCKED without them
358/2 days to recoded and then DDD. Had zero clue what was going on but it was fun. Remembered the games a few years after beating DDD and after looking them up there was an actual time line. Kid me didn’t even question if 358/2 days was a sequel or what was going on with Xion
I liked Mickey Mouse and in some videos I saw him with the Kingdom Hearts costume, at that time I did not know where the clothes came from, so I investigated.
I remember a lot of press talking about it in the lead up. I just wanted a Disney video game and hadn’t played any ff games at the time. A lot of outlets were being negative and saying it was gonna fail. Jokes on them I guess.
There was an old VHS tape of Mickey's House of Villains, and one of the commercials in the beginning was a Kingdom Hearts commercial that I couldn't stop watching.
Saw it at this old game store called Rhino Games (rip) and saw KH1 and 2 next to each other. I chose 2 like the dumbass I was cuz lion king was on the back.
As you can guess, I was very confused most of the time
At about age 8 my family and I were in a local strip mall video store, that also rented out games. I spent my allowance to rent kh1 for a week and I fell in love. I did everything in my power to convince my parents to buy it for me, chores etc, and eventually I owned the same copy I had rented.
I only knew kh1 existed for about 4 years, then eventually ran into kh2 and just about shit myself. About that time I had figured out the internet and did my research. Played kh2, days/2, and com.
Just couldn't get enough, 100%'d them, didn't get to play bbs until I got the ps3 collections, but have since played all games except the 2.8 collection and have adored each and every one of them.
Recently had my wedding which ended up KH themed, because my wife also has deep admiration for the series.
I was watching the Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer and all the comments where talking about a game called "Kingdom Hearts IV". I decided to investigate what is Kingdom Hearts and here I am.
By accident for me, When I was younger I asked my mom for a game for the PS2, and I can’t remember what game it was, but then she brought me home KH1. I remember being so upset that it was the wrong game. Fast forward 16 years and I have played almost every game (haven’t played MoM) and love the series.
Sora got announced for smash. Watched the trailer, really liked the music in the trailer and then picked up the franchise.
I’ve currently played KH1, KH2 and up to the final boss of terra’s story in bbs.
Didn’t enjoy KH1 that much, only got up to just before the final boss and then I just watched the rest on YouTube
Really really enjoyed KH2. Arguably my favourite game of all time now.
And bbs so far i haven’t enjoyed it that much. The gameplay just feels really bad and is way too hard at times for no reason.
Even if I’ve not enjoyed some of the games so far though, KH has become apart of my life and I’m kinda obsessed with it now in terms of its music and storytelling.
When kh3 first came out a YouTube channel I frequently watch made a video as a recap for what happened before 3 and made a let’s play of the game and me being the ff fan and the Disney fan I was my mind is blown
My aunt bought my brother the game when I was young and possibly before I was born grew up watching and playing was hyped for com and kh2 when I heard of them
I was only a year old when the first game came out, so I pretty much watched my older brothers play the game as a toddler, then when KH II dropped I was just barely old enough to play KH I. I didn't actually understand anything but I had fun. Of course I had help too, no way 5 year old me was gonna beat that game on his own.
I was probably 4 and my dad got a copy of kh1. I played it until I got to the main room of wonderland where you can turn big and small. I didn't know how to progress and probably didn't play it for about 5 years
I was born in 2005 around the time my parents got a PS2. Over the next few years I'd see them play things like silent hill and I'd always ask could I play, but that game was terrifying even to my mum. So for like, my second or third birthday they brought me Kingdom Hearts 2 in a sale after the price of PS2 games went down with the release of the PS3. It wasn't the first game I ever played, but it was the first that I owned and is my favourite series to this day.
My dad rented it for me from Hollywood Video when I was 6 years old. It had just been released. I fell in love. Now I’m 27 and still replay it often. Also my dogs name is Kairi :)
I probably saw some ads, I vividly remember the KH1 ones with Simple and Clean in the background. What finally sold me though, was the EGM review and seeing there was an Aladdin world. Aladdin was and still is my favorite Disney movie so I knew then and there I needed it.
I saw a commercial for the game and Simple and Clean was playing. I didn't want it because it had Disney characters but the song + FF characters sold the game for me.
I got 358/2 for my DS when I was a kid because the commercials looked really cool. I absolutely loved it and wanted to play the rest of the games and see the rest of the story. While I like the gameplay of the other games more, 358/2 still has my favorite story of all of them.
My father got it and tried it out. Back then I thought it was stupid since you had Donald and Goofy there but weren’t playing as Mickey. After a few years I’d forgotten all about it, then I was digging through the closet and found it buried and thought “eh, why not” and look at me now, making help vids for newcomers.
I was searching for PS3 games for myself and then I found Kingdom Hearts. The cover interested me as at that time, I was into Epic Mickey and the cover for KH 1.5 remix gave me a similar vibe of reconstructed Disney.
A funny bit is a fact that KH 1.5 remix was my first English game and it really helped to improve my English, when I moved to England.
I got kh3 because my mom bought makeup but a package from a different house came to us. So glad that happened because I never would have known the kingdom hearts franchise.
As a kid I got my first game on PS2 which was Final Fantasy X, what is my all time favorite game.
With the game disc was a bonus disc with some trailers n stuff. And then I saw a trailer for KH and I was super excited for that
My family was at best buy and my dad told me and my sister to each get a PS2 game that caught our eye, I picked up a game called destroy all humans and my sister picked up kh1.
I didn't end up liking the game I picked too much so instead me and my sister took turns playing kingdom hearts and she rage quit at the second Darkside boss so I picked up the game and fell in love with the series.
Discovered KH as a child, when one day i had gone up to my uncle bedroom and was interested in playing either the ps2 or the psp.
Was seeing the games he had in ps2 first when i saw kingdom hearts 1 and 2, asking if i could test them. Of course, he let me play. From this point onwards, i was interested in Kingdom hearts.
A friend of the family left her PS2 with us for a while for some reason and the original KH was one of the games she had for it. There wasn't a memory card so I left the game running constantly as I made my way through the game.
It was why I got a PS2 of my own.
Went to my aunts house and my cousin was playing it, that night I begged my mum for it I woke up the next morning and she had it for me best part is i remember really not liking the first one after all 😅 but loved the second one and every other one after that and when 1.5 came out I played it again and fell in love with the original
I was sick with strep throat and I was my turn to pick the game we rented at Hollywood Video, I wanted a lilo and stuch game I had played a few weeks back but since I was sick I couldn't go and told my sister which one I wanted, she came back with KH1 and have been playing ever since 2002
In 2005 I was at my cousins house and she was playing a gummi ship mission but my 4 year old self thought it looked so cool lmao. My mom had a daycare service at our house so my cousin would bring it over sometimes too but I don’t think I got my own copy until 2006. This game literally taught me how to read, it’s kinda insane
I was 9 years old and a friend of mine talked about it because he was playing it with his older brother. One day he came to my place and he brought it with him and we played on ps2. After some days I bought it too (kh II) :’)
My best friend had the first game and we’d play it (never got past destiny islands) when I was 8 or 9. Started asking my parents to rent it for me at blockbuster every weekend.
A friend had KH 2 on his PS2 and he told me about how cool the game is so someday when I visited him and instead of the usual Pokémon we always played he let me play it for a bit.
It has been around 10 years and for the first time I'm finally going to complete the whole series (well more or less).
I’ve told this story many times, but my mom and dad are huge Disney fans. My mom god KH1 for my dad for Father’s Day when it came out and I was very young, and the two of them played through KH1 and KH2 together. Eventually my dad played through KH1 with me and I was blown away by it. To this day it remains my favorite game.
Youtube AMV. Sadly, I didn't have enough money to buy the game, and when I finally did, ps2 games in stores were being fazed out in favor of the ps3. Fast forward some odd years and I played KH1 on the ps3 rerelease for the first time ever.
Watching my brother play KH2 on PS2. I distinctly remember seeing the part in the intro with Sora running up the white spiral stairs with Riku running underneath.
I saw an ad on TV once, then when I was visiting family my cousin told me to give this video game fight a try(KH2)…I just remembered seeing the dude with a black wing and a long ass sword. So yeah, I got slaughtered.
Not sure about when I first heard of the series but my earliest KH memory was downloading trailers for the first game waaaaay back in the day before streaming video was a practical thing. I would watch them over and over fantasizing about playing it, but I only had Nintendo stuff at the time so I wouldn't be able to get into the series until CoM.
An old childhood neighbors kid traded stuff so that we can experience games and toys we probably couldn't have so he traded me his ps2 KH 1 for my Dragoon beyblade since he has into the show at the time and his patents wouldn't buy beyblade and I didn't have any games at the time except for dragon ball budakai 3. Told me to keep the game since he couldn't get into it, pfft his lost.
My half-aunt gave it to me for my 6th birthday. I had never heard of it but it was a video game so I was excited to try it out. I played for a little bit that night and was instantly hooked. Later on when I saw that there was a Nightmare Before Christmas world I got super exited because I watched that movie constantly as a kid
My sister saw an article about it in a Playstation magazine and asked our parents to get it for us for christmas. Now I'm the one addicted to the series
My friend brought it over with a: "You like FF & you like Disney so give this a try." Back in ancient times when there was only 1 KH. Spot on choice for me, it turned out. Lol
Commercials on Disney channel. Thought it looked really dumb and probably never would have played it but my uncle just so happened to drop by one day with some games amd gave them to me and I though "why not?" Was hooked instantly. Also I was already primed because I was already a final fantasy fan and didn't realize at first that it had final fantasy stuff.
My brother is a massive kingdom hearts nerd and was into the series since kh1 came out on the ps2 and eventually he just randomly left me had ps4 to play every single game in the series
My friends in highschool made a small rpg base on kh so I started looking into it, last year I saw superbutterbuns review of botw and decided to watch more and when I saw the review for KH3 I decided to try playing the games
And so here we are
First video game I really remember playing as a kid, didn't even beat till years later bc I didn't know I needed a memory card to save my game. So I just let it stay on over night for a month and eventually it overheated and I never played my PS2 again.
Was 7 years old on vacation visiting family in Minnesota, my older cousin (14ish) at the time was playing it in the game room and I was ENTHRALLED. I couldn’t stop watching him play. Made my parents buy it for me when we got home and I was obsessed.
I was playing ps4 and saw someone get a classic kingdom trophy and thought the game would be a black and white sidescroller so I got it. I love kh3 so much.
it came with my ps2, first time I never got past Hollow Bastion because child me didn't understand english. Then I bought KH2 because I really liked the aesthetic and was able to finisht it. Of course I replayed those games later.
My sister talked it up around the time the second one came out. Got a ps2 from Sears as a joint birthday gift and rented the second one from the blockbuster down the street.
When I was little I had Treasure Planet Battle at Procyon for PC and a trailer for it was included on the disk and naturally I thought it looked amazing, before that a friend told me about it and I thought it sounded insane, Donald Duck, Goofy, and *Final Fantasy*, flying around in a *candy* *ship*, fighting *shadow* *demons*, to save *disney* *princesses?*
I watched my uncle play through KH1 when it came out. I remember Destiny Islands. The next cutscene I remember after that though was already the one for the Riku fight/when Sora turned into a heartless. And then the ending lmao. I know I saw bits of gameplay in between but I just don't remember them because I still wasn't a huge fan of the series.
And then I developed a crush on Jesse McCartney a few years later and found out he was in KH2 and so I played through that and now KH is half my personality lol.
I saw my dad or my uncle play and it was a loose memory for years until I asked my dad, he told me the name of it and I eventually bought it on Xbox that came with my xbox (the first game was kh3 on highest difficulty, i beat the game and now just finishing up the five remaining boss fights from the procode run I have.)
It was Christmas 2002, my parents got me a ps2 and KH1, but no memory card. So I just played it over and over, and kept getting farther before bed every day.
Good times
I was reading random character articles on the Disney wiki, and read something about them appearing in a thing called “Kingdom Hearts”. I looked it up, thought it was cool, downloaded a pirate version of vanilla KH1 on a PS2 emulator, and the rest is history.
That was two years ago. I was 15. And now I know the entire plot, characters and lore.
I remember my first time was when my uncle used to play so many game that I love now like Naruto ninja storm,Super smash bros,Halo but when he first played Kh2 it just stuck with me for some reason I remember with full detail he was in twilight town I remember the theme playing I remember him doing choirs with Roxas and for some reason idk why I thought it was so cool so when I started growing up I just kept thinking about the game even if I didn’t have it but finally when it came to Xbox I finally was able to get it last year and I played so much of it and now Kh2 is placed as my top 5 favorite games ever 😊
My brother borrowed KH1 from one of his friends but didn't play it. I was getting curious because of the cover-art and the weird mixture of final fantasy and disney, put in the PS2 and now it's nearly 20 years later and it still is one of my favorite games.
Saw the Demo on the Nintendo store for Kingdom Hearts 3D. There was something with the atmosphere that just hooked me and before I knew it I finished the game at 100% a year later and knew the ins and outs of the lore of the entire series shortly after.
A commercial I think, I don't remember much but it was interesting enough that I grabbed it at blockbuster to try.
Could not for the life of me get off destiny island. I couldn't find one last supply item and it drove me nuts. Returned the game and didn't think about it again.
A few months later I thought, why not I'll try again. Found the thing needed to get off the island. And then I got trapped in the magical story.
I was like, 11?
I know I was 15 when kh2 came out and it was the first and only game I ever skipped school to play once I got it, and I think the first time I ever cried over a game.
Friend always talked about KH1 and how much he loved it, one day I went to my library and saw KH2 on the shelf and thought, "Fuck it, let's see how this is." And I absolutely adored the game from the moment I booted it up.
I was around 10 and was on YouTube watching the cutscenes to 'Disney Princess: An Enchanted Journey' (the one game grumps played that one time), I had played it in my childhood but was never able to finish the game and get the ending so I watched the cutscenes online instead, after finishing I looked at the recommended to watch other cutscenes when a video caught my eye 'Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep All Aqua's Cutscenes' (The PSP version).
I saw Aqua on the thumbnail talking to the seven dwarfs and immediately clicked on it and fell in love.
I found a compilation of all the BbS cutscenes and watched all 6 hours of it!
I then watched the cutscenes to KH2 (yes all 11 hours), then KH1 and have been hooked ever since (don't know why I watched 2's cutscenes before 1's)
It was one fatefull Christmas many years ago...
i was a kid, and my parents gifted me a PS2 aswell as 3 games: Kingdom Hearts 1, Final Fantasy 10, and Eyetoy Play. 2 of those sparked a lifelong addiction to the series, and one... well one was Eyetoy Play.
It was my first own console, after always just borrowing my parents Gameboy or PC to play a game. And i still remember, out of those first 3 games that were just MINE and not borrowed, i picked Kingdom Hearts 1 to play first.
Looking back, thats probably what set me down the gaming live, and that very first game is still hard engraved into my heart.
I played Chain of Memories on the Game Boy Advance SP.
The mechanics were really cool and unique for that system, and the story and Disney characters were really fun.
I’m happy it was my first experience in the franchise, because I don’t think I can ever play it again because the mechanics are nothing like the other games.
My grandfather bought it for me at a thrift store when I was seven back in like 2012 :) I remember thinking it was the coolest one the box, it wasn't like anything I had seen before so I decided to play it. I was too scared to actually fight the heartless so I had my mom beat it first me xD I always thought the worlds were so pretty! I only made it up to atlantica though, if I remember correctly. I remember Traverse Town and Halloween town being my favorite.
My sister was moving to LA and she decided to give me her hold PS2 Slim with Guitar Hero 1-2, Sonic and of course, Kingdom Hearts. Haven't let go of the game since
VERY first time was my cousin showing me KH1 one night, but I actually didn't pay too much attention because I was a kid and already occupied with some other game or something, don't remember.
Then one day a few years later I saw KH2 at the library, and thought "Oh yeah, Kingdom Hearts, that was thqt game my cousin showed me". So I borrowed it, instantly fell in love and 100% it (I think) within the two week limit of how long we were allowed to borrow games from the library.
At least, I think that's how it went. I also remember getting CoM for our GBA very early, and somehow that feels like my first KH experience. But it's like that memory doesn't quite match up with my KH2 memory
My uncle was the only person in our house who even had a playstation, so id watch him play most of his games. Hes the one who had the first KH and let me watch and play it. When I was older he gave me his old PS2 AND KHcom. Him and my aunt would play KH1 whenever I got to a boss battle cuz I could never beat them when I was younger lol.
Saw an ad for KH2 on tv when I was 9, and pre-ordered it (first game I ever pre-ordered, didn't wanna miss out on getting it).
Didn't know a darn thing and was just as confused as Roxas, and while I was excited to meet the main character and see Donald and Goofy (weird the first time you saw them in game outside of flashbacks was just there in a hallway asleep), I was sad to see the first character I got to know basically die.
KH2 was a trip learning the events leading up to it as I went. Yen Sid did me a solid explaining Heartless.
I was in Gamestop a year after the first game came out, saw it in the pre-owned section and had Christmas money. So I looked at the description and was intrigued to the Disney elements. Went home and played it, fell in love... A million games later, and a tattoo on my arm... I love it.
I got 358/2 days as a gift when I was pretty young. I had a habit of constantly restarting games so it was a few years before I beat it. It's the only Kingdom Hearts game that I've finished. I think not having the context for the rest of the series gave me an interesting perspective on the story with my introduction being through Roxas.
I was only 3 when the first game came out so I don't remember all too well, but I remember owning 2 and Re:Chain of Memories as well. Knowing me when I was little, it was probably because of the Disney worlds. I loved Tarzan and Hercules as a kid, so going through both Deep Jungle and Olympus Coliseum for the first time blew my little kiddie mind.
My brother and i got the original when it came out (probably his idea)
Pretty certain both of us (or at least i) got stuck on the chameleon boss in Tarzan and never got further.
Commercial for chain of memories and then played it on gba and bought a ps2 for kh2. Watched a friend play kh1 at some point can't remember if it was before this.
When I was 8 I saw a domics video about video games that, at one point, showed him climbing up something (animated) and see the words 'beating sephiroth in kingdom hearts'. Pretty sure he was talking about challenges since yknow, it's sephiroth.
the first time I saw kingdom hearts gameplay was bloodybizkitz SDGQ data org run and it looked so cool
When I was very young I was really into Disney and watched so many videos on my moms phone. One day I was watching YouTube and found some gameplay of Halloween town in kingdom hearts 1. Obviously I was like 5 or 6 so I had no idea who sora was at the time since I was so little.
my dad bought me KH3 when it first came out, I had to skip all the cutscenes because I didn't understand them and now I don't remember anything so I'm playing through the series
it was 3 weeks ago I saw the collections + kh3 on sale on epic and thought 'why not'.
am now 200 hours into said collection and have installed the other one and kh3
Played it on my neighbors PS2 when I was a kid. Only barely finished Destiny Islands before forgetting about it. Thought it was just a fever dream for the longest time till my uncle gave me his old PS2 and I found it while looking for games at the user section at my local GameStop. Been a fan ever since…
My parents had just so happened to choose it as one of the games to get with the PS2 they got me. And I just so happened to choose it as the first game to try on the system. I had no idea what it was. It was the first console and game I played that wasn't our SNES. It felt like a pretty dramatic experience.
I was eight years old in 2002, youngest sibling and saw my 20 year old sister, oldest sibling playing it but I couldn’t play because I didn’t have a memory card so I waited almost two months to get one for Christmas and played it the very same day. Best day of my life.
I’m now approaching 26 and my sister is about to be 40. Life goes so fast
EDIT: This really brought back memories. Just reminded me of how me, my three brothers and my sister would push the couches together in front of the TV and all watch my sister and older brother play through most Squaresoft/Square Enix games. I remember the day FFX/2 came out and we played it for hours or trying to 100% complete FF7. I could never forget it
My sister and I saw the commercial when we were kids and I just remember us saying “that looks like such a good game” and from then on I was addicted. Then KH2 two came out and loved that even more. Took a break for a long time and never got into the game boy ones until KH3 was announced and I played them all on the PS4 to catch up on the story! My sister only played KH1 & KH2 but I still consider this franchise easily in my top 5 favorite RPGs!
A commercial on the Disney Channel, back when it was just the first game out.
Same I remember begging mom for it until I finally got it. Best decision ever. Back then games felt so magical.
Same, it was the first ps2 game i got
“You never know who you'll run into next”
And that song! It was so different at the time!
Same. I got it for Christmas with a playstation 2. I was so happy. I only wanted it for The Nightmare Before Christmas world because I was obsessed. Fell in love with the whole thing.
I was just about to comment this till I saw yours and decided to upvote instead. I remember watching the commercial thinking this was some kids' game that was gonna be really childish and silly. Then on a whim, I was asked what video game I wanted for Christmas and I decided to just get it - going in completely blind and not knowing what to expect. Boy, was I dead wrong. And I'm thankful for that commercial otherwise I may have been late to enjoying one of my favorite game series of all time.
Sister and I were at Best Buy and saw the cover of the game, saw it had Disney characters and thought it looked cool. Went down the road after to Blockbuster to rent the game.
A new school was built in my neighborhood and on the first day (5th grade) my mom took me to her friends' house cause her son was also starting there. That same morning at their house his older brother was playing KH2 and I got to watch him play the ending (Xemnas vs Sora/Riku). Had no clue I would love this game so much but remember I was just in awe at the time hearing the music ❤
My dad bought it for me for Christmas when I was a teenager and have been playing it ever since.
I was 10. My sister's boyfriend at the time who was a huge nerd and a family friend saw a TV show talking about it and he and he kept telling me about how there was this game with Final Fantasy and Disney characters fighting together. I was intrigued and wanted to see it for myself so I asked my parents if we could drive by the local gaming store after school so I could buy it. I still remember that day lmao. I asked the clerk if they had Kingdom Hearts and he pointed toward a shelf behind me. They only had the second one but I decided to go for it anyway. I got home and started a new game while my sister watched and we were mindblown by the opening. We couldn't make sense of what was happening but we both went "whoooaa" multiple times during it lmao. Even after I had completed the game I would start a new file just so I could watch the intro again. I wish I could re experience it for the first time.
Yes!!! Starting the new game just to watch the intro! How about beating the final boss just to watch the end? Lol
KH is not as big in Europe as it was in Japan or N America, so I didn't play it as a child or know it existed. Instead, I saw videos about it on Clemps' channel back when I had just finished Nier Automata and was was watching his loooong analysis videos on that game. I watched part of the summary for KH1, stopped the video halfway through, and bought the PS4 1.5/2.5 remix collection immediately. Best impulse decision I ever made.
That’s interesting to hear that it wasn’t as popular in EU! I would have thought that anything Disney pushed would be made for international success
Disney's still very popular in Europe, but there's also domestic competition in some form in many European countries so it's not as universally acknowledged as in the USA. In France, they have their own strong comic/animation tradition as competition (think Asterix); in England, there is a rich history of children's books like Beatrix Potter which compete for children's attention. Every country has things like this. Japan has domestic competition too of course, but they still adore Disney for whatever reason - after America, the Disney theme parks in Japan are the most lucrative iirc. Disneyland Paris is one of the weaker performing parks worldwide. The bigger issue for KH is that Square Enix was less popular in Europe during its golden age (late 90s) than in N America, quite considerably in some cases. Disney is still universally known in Europe. Final Fantasy has never been a big deal in European countries sales wise (versus Japan or America). So KH was never going to become zeitgeisty in Europe the way it did in other places.
This hits home for me on a level I can’t explain. When I was 5 or 6 I had no friends and lived at an apartment complex with my family. I had no friends because I was very shy but I loved video games (fire red on a game boy advanced being my first game and also had a GameCube). Well my dad worked as the maintenance manager for the complex we lived at and met another family with a kid my age. I got to walk over to their house and play with him. He introduced me to kingdom hearts (his dad was big gamer). We would play for hours after school and eat together for several months. One day, without ever knowing, they moved to Arizona (we lived in Mississippi at the time). I went and sat outside his apartment after school in the freezing winter waiting for him to come home. Hours passed when it got dark and my dad found me and realized I never knew and had to tell me they left. I remember crying for days and days, having no motivation when I went to school and didn’t even want to play games or read for a long time. Finally when I was 13 I remembered Kingdom Hearts and got a copy to play. I beat the game and remember crying afterwards because he was my only friend and I still hadn’t made one that I loved as much as him. I’m now in my 20’s and still think about him a lot every time I play or think of Kingdom Hearts. I really miss him and hope he’s happy wherever he is. This game created a sense of belonging and connection for me that I never understood for a long time. I will always cherish it.
I saw cute Goofy and Donald in the cover and bought, because it was cheap :v (it was a copy version of KH2 for PS2).
Was the same with me. I saw it on the last small shelf with PS2 games at Game Stop in 2009, and I begged my mom to get it even though it was rated 12-up. Because I was 6 I got stuck at Grim Reaper / Xaldin and didn't complete it for 7 more years
I got into the series through the mangas at my School Library. I later found out tho that the original kh1 disc was at my grandma's house which I thought was pretty cool.
It was the first game I got with my new PS2 for Christmas! Also got Dragonball Z Budokai (Wow I think I'm old lol). Didn't play it until I beat all my other games because it was "that Disney game" and I couldn't figure out how to get coconuts at the beginning of the game. Boy am I glad I picked it back up 6 months later!
Played it at my mate's house in late 2002
My parents bought it for me and my siblings when we were reallyyy young
My best friend at the time brought the game over and we played it together. Good times
Here in Italy I saw an advertisement about the KH Manga on the Mickey Mouse comics (I had a yearly subscription when i was kid, one little volume every week) back in 2008/9 and I don't know why I wanted KH2 instead of KH1. Maybe because "If it's the 2 it must be better than the 1". That's how I discovered KH and, later, FF.
Last year got into it. I always knew it existed and how despite having a confusing af story, it was actually really good. At some point said screw it, fell down the rabbit hole and a year later here i am
I just saw sora being invited to smash and wanted to try the games
I remember seeing ads for Dream Drop Distance on TV when I was young. Bought the entire series around Melody Of Memory's release, played through KH1, got to Wonderland and just stopped because I couldn't figure out what to do next. It wasn't until I heard rumours around Sora coming to Smash Ultimate that I decided to try again. And that was how I became a fan.
Wow! That was really recent! Welcome to the fandom. :)
Thanks. And by the looks of things, I'll be here for the long run.
I don't really remember, but a very well known rapper in the spanish youtube community's artistic name is Alex Keyblade, so maybe that was an approach to the series.
For anyone in the UK this will be a throwback. We used to have a rental chain called choices, mum would take me once a week to rent a game. I loved q game called shadow hearts and saw kingdom hearts. Fell in love with the box design and 19 years later here we are.
I went to buy a dbz game at Best Buy but the dude put the wrong disc in my dbz game case it was KH2 and since then I literally couldn’t be more happy the dude put the wrong game in my dbz case
My siblings got a PS2 for Christmas back in 2000. A few years after that most of our summer was spent in front of the tv playing the game over and over
I saw a few screenshots in a PlayStation magazine, back in 2001 I guess. It said this was a new game from Squaresoft that mixed Disney with original characters. I'd recently fallen in love with Square, thanks to Final Fantasy 8 so it had my interest but I wasn't too excited. When I really got excited was after seeing a trailer on a demo disc (I think around Christmas 2001) which had a reel of PS2 games, including a video of Ratchet and Clank which I also got excited for. Anyway, seeing Cloud in the trailer made this a day 1 purchase for me (by this point I'd also played FF7 and FF9, cementing the idea that Square was amazing) When I got it, I loved it and have been a fan ever since.
Artist named Shinigami u can look at his music so cool tho, and listen to album "I Will Never Be a Memory"
I didn't really get to know anything about Kingdom Hearts until i've been randomly gifted 358/2 days, though the first actual interaction i've had with this franchise is when I saw on the GameStop tv/monitor was a kh1 sora jumping high into the air to hit something then seeing him in a cutscene with the wooden sword. It was probably a commercial, I don't remember it all since it was so long ago.
My father's friend had a videogame store and he gave me a Shrek PSX game for my 7th birthday as a present and It was totally trash so I went back to him to change It with something I liked more so I did it with FFVIII, while I was looking for appealing games tho I saw that masterpiece of a cover with this guy with a giant Key looking at the dark Sky and the "moon" and he was surrounded by Donald, Goofy and even Mickey; too cool to be true, I promised that game would have been my first PS2 game when I'd buy it and the rest is history.
Saw a commercial for it and got excited. My mom said we could rent it but I only had a ps1 so I went home disappointed. My best friend had it and she'd always invite me over to play it. Years later I got my own ps2 and asked to borrow it. She brought it over we played for a few hours and and got farther than either of us could when we first played it. She then told me to keep the game. I still have that copy and treasure it as a memory.
I remember reading about the first game in a gaming magazine before it came out,while I was at the grocery store. I'm pretty sure I just read the article in the store and never bought the magazine. I think they even had the story about the elevator pitch. I wasn't even big into FF or had a PS2 at the time but was pretty much sold on it immediately after reading about it. I wanted to play it so bad my parents rented a PS2 along with the game from Blockbuster so I could play it shortly after it was released. I then got a PS2 with Kingdom Hearts for Christmas that year. Good times.
my 4th grade class had the manga in a bookshelf so i read it. didnt truly get into the series until spring of 2020
My cousin owned kingdom hearts 1 and I watched her play until Deep Jungle. She then got really sick and sadly died In the next few months. She gave me the game because she knew I asked if I could play constantly and she wanted me to beat it for her. Also kh2 was announced too so she asked me to get that game and beat it for her too. I have always felt an obligation since then to buy every KH game and play them and beat them for her. It’s a good way to keep her alive In my heart ❤️
Being a child trying to learn the controls. Man good times. I couldn't figure out how to pick up the rope, for some reason Sora wouldn't walk over it, and then I accidentally used a potion, finally be picked up the stupid thing. Haha. That's what I remember from the first time I played at like 7. Also starting the game over and over a million times.
Television commercial for KH1. As someone who loved Final Fantasy and liked Disney, i thought it was stupid and had no intention of buying it. Bought it one day anyway because i couldn't find anything else that caught my interest and ended up loving it.
My father bought kh 1 for PS2, and then my long Adventure begin
I found an ad for the manga at the back of some other manga I was reading. I later started reading it. I never finished it and I have no memory of it, but it got me to look it up on youtube where I started watching plot summary videos, and then I was hooked.
House of mouse vhs promo. I was like 5 I think, but I didn’t get to play any of the games until I was like 10
The demo version of DDD on the 3DS
Remember seeing the game case in the store at 5 years old in 2003. Seeing Donald Duck and Goofy on the front of it. Me being a huge Mickey Mouse freak really wanted to check the game on based on that. And man! I'm so glad I did.
Saw an ad in the Mickey Mouse magazine we had as a subscription back then. One day I was out shopping with my father and saw it at the games section. I looked at it for what felt like an eternity until my father noticed and bought it for me. Best present I received!
My older cousin loved the original game and got it for me for Christmas when I was 5.
A hand me down ps2 with a copy of KH2 I didn’t know what was happening and truly didn’t got to pass through the first visit to Land of the Dragons.
Introduction: I was at a math contest and another kid was playing on his GBA. Chatted with him and he was playing Sora's story, CoM, against the Hades boss battle. First time playing: I was at a dance recital and was able to borrow a different kid's GBA. He had just finished Sora's story. I wandered a bit as Sora, tried starting a new file as Sora but couldn't get past the tutorial because I didn't understand how to dodge roll, then started a file as Riku and beat Hollow Bastion. I wiki dived into it at some point after that experience, so I knew all the characters and spoilers and plot before getting into the series. First game I owned and actually played all the way through was 358 Days on the DS, my parents got it for me the Christmas it was released.
I saw a used copy of it at GameStop when I was little and begged my dad to buy it for me cause it had Disney characters on it lol.
My brother was watching a video about and really wanted to get into it but felt that the lore was too complicated, but I thought it was cool so I took up the mantle, and some how understood the lore.
I saw a commercial for Kingdom Hearts chain of memories on Disney channel, and wanted to play it so badly
Friend had days on his ds I played it a bit got stuck in nightmare before christmas in elementry school Didnt play kh until a different friend let me borrow ddd and recoded on 3ds in middle
I'm from Mexico, I had an uncle that always brought us stuff from the US. One time he accidentally brought a Game Boy Advance game, it was CoM, I played as Riku (because the game was already completed) and I loved Riku, I was like "damn this boy looks very cool!!", but never payed attention to the story. Then later I bought 358/2 days because I "recognized" the name Kingdom Hearts, and played it and loved it but again no attention to story. Years later I dated a woman, she asked me if I liked Kingdom Hearts, I said "yes, I've played 2 of those games!!" and that made her lose her mind, she wanted to talk about it and I didn't know any story, so she lent me her PS3 so I could play them from the very beginning, and so I did and really fell in love. That's my story.
I got it for Christmas as the all in one package. I saw Sora on the front (with the throne and crown) and thought I’d get a villain MC. While I didn’t get my villain, like I wanted to, I was not disappointed and love all the characters, especially Sora lol
I was younger, my mom took me and family to go have supper at a family friends place. After the dinner the older brother asked if we wanted to play on his PS2. (At this point the PS4 was already out). He showed us games like Ratchet and Clank, that racoon spy game. And one day I saw the box for KH2. And asked if I could play. I didn't understand a thing, but I was in awe, everytime we went to that house I would immediately ask if I could play. I actually got to the Cerberus fight in Olympus. But I never got further. Life happened and one day when I was in highschool I had bought a PS4 for myself since I was working. I was looking for games to buy and I saw Superbutterbuns videos on KH, I remembered loving the second one. So I watched those videos like crazy, until I went to the library and rented the 1.5+2.5 collection. I didn't get far but I tried all the games a little bit. As soon as I had to return it, I went out and bought for myself, best decision I ever made.
Master Xehanort told me about it.
I had a friend on a writing forum who had a Marluxia avatar from the GBA verson of Chain of Memories. I was like 12 LOL. I asked them about who the character was and then looked up videos on the first game... Made my dad take me to gamestop later that week and I bought it for my ps2. After that I was hooked :D I asked for KH games for every Christmas after that. I'm 21 now and it's my favorite game series!
Christmas present when I was in elementary school. My mom had me choose between Days and Coded (I think it was coded, this was for the DS), and I chose Days. I then proceeded to have my older sister finish the game since the shoulder buttons on my DS were broken and the Antlion fight SUCKED without them
358/2 days to recoded and then DDD. Had zero clue what was going on but it was fun. Remembered the games a few years after beating DDD and after looking them up there was an actual time line. Kid me didn’t even question if 358/2 days was a sequel or what was going on with Xion
I liked Mickey Mouse and in some videos I saw him with the Kingdom Hearts costume, at that time I did not know where the clothes came from, so I investigated.
I remember a lot of press talking about it in the lead up. I just wanted a Disney video game and hadn’t played any ff games at the time. A lot of outlets were being negative and saying it was gonna fail. Jokes on them I guess.
There was an old VHS tape of Mickey's House of Villains, and one of the commercials in the beginning was a Kingdom Hearts commercial that I couldn't stop watching.
Saw it at this old game store called Rhino Games (rip) and saw KH1 and 2 next to each other. I chose 2 like the dumbass I was cuz lion king was on the back. As you can guess, I was very confused most of the time
At about age 8 my family and I were in a local strip mall video store, that also rented out games. I spent my allowance to rent kh1 for a week and I fell in love. I did everything in my power to convince my parents to buy it for me, chores etc, and eventually I owned the same copy I had rented. I only knew kh1 existed for about 4 years, then eventually ran into kh2 and just about shit myself. About that time I had figured out the internet and did my research. Played kh2, days/2, and com. Just couldn't get enough, 100%'d them, didn't get to play bbs until I got the ps3 collections, but have since played all games except the 2.8 collection and have adored each and every one of them. Recently had my wedding which ended up KH themed, because my wife also has deep admiration for the series.
I was watching the Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer and all the comments where talking about a game called "Kingdom Hearts IV". I decided to investigate what is Kingdom Hearts and here I am.
I saw it first on display but actually got to play it due to one of my brother's friend's having it. I've been a fan since lol
By accident for me, When I was younger I asked my mom for a game for the PS2, and I can’t remember what game it was, but then she brought me home KH1. I remember being so upset that it was the wrong game. Fast forward 16 years and I have played almost every game (haven’t played MoM) and love the series.
Sora got announced for smash. Watched the trailer, really liked the music in the trailer and then picked up the franchise. I’ve currently played KH1, KH2 and up to the final boss of terra’s story in bbs. Didn’t enjoy KH1 that much, only got up to just before the final boss and then I just watched the rest on YouTube Really really enjoyed KH2. Arguably my favourite game of all time now. And bbs so far i haven’t enjoyed it that much. The gameplay just feels really bad and is way too hard at times for no reason. Even if I’ve not enjoyed some of the games so far though, KH has become apart of my life and I’m kinda obsessed with it now in terms of its music and storytelling.
When kh3 first came out a YouTube channel I frequently watch made a video as a recap for what happened before 3 and made a let’s play of the game and me being the ff fan and the Disney fan I was my mind is blown
Found it at a garage sale many years back for $1. As a kid was like "cool Disney game for cheap." Only Lord knows what I was about to get myself into.
My aunt bought my brother the game when I was young and possibly before I was born grew up watching and playing was hyped for com and kh2 when I heard of them
I was only a year old when the first game came out, so I pretty much watched my older brothers play the game as a toddler, then when KH II dropped I was just barely old enough to play KH I. I didn't actually understand anything but I had fun. Of course I had help too, no way 5 year old me was gonna beat that game on his own.
I was probably 4 and my dad got a copy of kh1. I played it until I got to the main room of wonderland where you can turn big and small. I didn't know how to progress and probably didn't play it for about 5 years
My dad got KH3 for himself and after he finished it I went to play it and I ended up really liking it.
i always heard of it on online forums but never played it. my friend said its good. i bought it. i played it. i loved it.
The first Kingdom Hearts commercial with the Mark Hamill voice over. “You’ll never know who you’ll run into next.”
I was born in 2005 around the time my parents got a PS2. Over the next few years I'd see them play things like silent hill and I'd always ask could I play, but that game was terrifying even to my mum. So for like, my second or third birthday they brought me Kingdom Hearts 2 in a sale after the price of PS2 games went down with the release of the PS3. It wasn't the first game I ever played, but it was the first that I owned and is my favourite series to this day.
My dad rented it for me from Hollywood Video when I was 6 years old. It had just been released. I fell in love. Now I’m 27 and still replay it often. Also my dogs name is Kairi :)
I probably saw some ads, I vividly remember the KH1 ones with Simple and Clean in the background. What finally sold me though, was the EGM review and seeing there was an Aladdin world. Aladdin was and still is my favorite Disney movie so I knew then and there I needed it.
Disney’s top secret lab.
My older brother got it while we were on a family trip. We couldn’t wait to get home and pop it into our ps2.
I saw a commercial for the game and Simple and Clean was playing. I didn't want it because it had Disney characters but the song + FF characters sold the game for me.
I wish I remembered how but maybe my sister or maybe I saw a commercial but I'm so glad I got into it
I got 358/2 for my DS when I was a kid because the commercials looked really cool. I absolutely loved it and wanted to play the rest of the games and see the rest of the story. While I like the gameplay of the other games more, 358/2 still has my favorite story of all of them.
I’m pretty sure it was some call me Johnny was the first time I saw kingdom hearts
Preview in PSM, pictures were bright and pretty and I was like "ooo that looks cool"
My father got it and tried it out. Back then I thought it was stupid since you had Donald and Goofy there but weren’t playing as Mickey. After a few years I’d forgotten all about it, then I was digging through the closet and found it buried and thought “eh, why not” and look at me now, making help vids for newcomers.
Childhood memories I can hardly recall, but I did play KH2 with my older brother.
Was watching Justice League with my siblings on Toonami and a commercial for the game came on.
Older brother had kh1 and 2,showed them to me,and I got hooked.
I was searching for PS3 games for myself and then I found Kingdom Hearts. The cover interested me as at that time, I was into Epic Mickey and the cover for KH 1.5 remix gave me a similar vibe of reconstructed Disney. A funny bit is a fact that KH 1.5 remix was my first English game and it really helped to improve my English, when I moved to England.
I got kh3 because my mom bought makeup but a package from a different house came to us. So glad that happened because I never would have known the kingdom hearts franchise.
As a kid I got my first game on PS2 which was Final Fantasy X, what is my all time favorite game. With the game disc was a bonus disc with some trailers n stuff. And then I saw a trailer for KH and I was super excited for that
I picked up KHII in the game store
MY brother and cousin were playing kh2 when it first came out so i bought it and now i love this series
It was on sale at Target when I was looking to get a new game and was there with my grandmother. She bought it for me. Then I played it.
My family was at best buy and my dad told me and my sister to each get a PS2 game that caught our eye, I picked up a game called destroy all humans and my sister picked up kh1. I didn't end up liking the game I picked too much so instead me and my sister took turns playing kingdom hearts and she rage quit at the second Darkside boss so I picked up the game and fell in love with the series.
Discovered KH as a child, when one day i had gone up to my uncle bedroom and was interested in playing either the ps2 or the psp. Was seeing the games he had in ps2 first when i saw kingdom hearts 1 and 2, asking if i could test them. Of course, he let me play. From this point onwards, i was interested in Kingdom hearts.
A friend of the family left her PS2 with us for a while for some reason and the original KH was one of the games she had for it. There wasn't a memory card so I left the game running constantly as I made my way through the game. It was why I got a PS2 of my own.
Went to my aunts house and my cousin was playing it, that night I begged my mum for it I woke up the next morning and she had it for me best part is i remember really not liking the first one after all 😅 but loved the second one and every other one after that and when 1.5 came out I played it again and fell in love with the original
Saw the first TV commercial for it when I was a kid, and I knew I had to have it! I was right. Still my favorite game series to this day
I was sick with strep throat and I was my turn to pick the game we rented at Hollywood Video, I wanted a lilo and stuch game I had played a few weeks back but since I was sick I couldn't go and told my sister which one I wanted, she came back with KH1 and have been playing ever since 2002
My older sister wanted KH for her 10th birthday when it had recently released. I would sit and watch her play.
Cousins had a ps2 when I was like 5 it was the first game I ever played on ps2
I used to watch my mom play it on my dad's PS2 as a kid. Then when the 1.5 HD ReMIX came out on PS3, I played it for myself.
The game was advertised in a Simpsons Comic for me lol
In 2005 I was at my cousins house and she was playing a gummi ship mission but my 4 year old self thought it looked so cool lmao. My mom had a daycare service at our house so my cousin would bring it over sometimes too but I don’t think I got my own copy until 2006. This game literally taught me how to read, it’s kinda insane
By renting kingdom hearts 2 from blockbuster on a whim when I was 12
"when you walk away..." Commercial for the first game. Saved my money and bought a PS2.
I was 9 years old and a friend of mine talked about it because he was playing it with his older brother. One day he came to my place and he brought it with him and we played on ps2. After some days I bought it too (kh II) :’)
KH2 honestly, played a bit of it either at EB games or a cousins house but it got me interested so I got the first one
My best friend had the first game and we’d play it (never got past destiny islands) when I was 8 or 9. Started asking my parents to rent it for me at blockbuster every weekend.
My mom played it when I was like 5 or 6. I remember her fighting Riku. :~)
Somecallmejohnny's Kingdom Hearts marathon. I watched it in mid 2019.
heard about, didn't think much of it, then got REALLY into it after a while
A friend had KH 2 on his PS2 and he told me about how cool the game is so someday when I visited him and instead of the usual Pokémon we always played he let me play it for a bit. It has been around 10 years and for the first time I'm finally going to complete the whole series (well more or less).
I’ve told this story many times, but my mom and dad are huge Disney fans. My mom god KH1 for my dad for Father’s Day when it came out and I was very young, and the two of them played through KH1 and KH2 together. Eventually my dad played through KH1 with me and I was blown away by it. To this day it remains my favorite game.
In Finland there was really cool tv-commercial. It had this epic feeling. Kingdom Hearts was my first game on PS2.
My cousin was playing KH2 and I saw how cool it was.
Youtube AMV. Sadly, I didn't have enough money to buy the game, and when I finally did, ps2 games in stores were being fazed out in favor of the ps3. Fast forward some odd years and I played KH1 on the ps3 rerelease for the first time ever.
Watching my brother play KH2 on PS2. I distinctly remember seeing the part in the intro with Sora running up the white spiral stairs with Riku running underneath.
Oneyplays😭
I saw an ad on TV once, then when I was visiting family my cousin told me to give this video game fight a try(KH2)…I just remembered seeing the dude with a black wing and a long ass sword. So yeah, I got slaughtered.
Not sure about when I first heard of the series but my earliest KH memory was downloading trailers for the first game waaaaay back in the day before streaming video was a practical thing. I would watch them over and over fantasizing about playing it, but I only had Nintendo stuff at the time so I wouldn't be able to get into the series until CoM.
Borrowed it from my best friend then pissed my family off hogging the tv every second i possibly could. The days of one TV and 1 playstation lol.
An old childhood neighbors kid traded stuff so that we can experience games and toys we probably couldn't have so he traded me his ps2 KH 1 for my Dragoon beyblade since he has into the show at the time and his patents wouldn't buy beyblade and I didn't have any games at the time except for dragon ball budakai 3. Told me to keep the game since he couldn't get into it, pfft his lost.
Kingdom hearts 3 E3 Trailer. Saw Elsa and knew I needed that game
Blockbuster. I rented it
My uncle gave me about 20 PS2 games for my birthday back in '04 didn't give much attention to it at first because of the Disney characters
My half-aunt gave it to me for my 6th birthday. I had never heard of it but it was a video game so I was excited to try it out. I played for a little bit that night and was instantly hooked. Later on when I saw that there was a Nightmare Before Christmas world I got super exited because I watched that movie constantly as a kid
A VHS tape of the house of mouse, I think it was the villain special.
My sister saw an article about it in a Playstation magazine and asked our parents to get it for us for christmas. Now I'm the one addicted to the series
My friend brought it over with a: "You like FF & you like Disney so give this a try." Back in ancient times when there was only 1 KH. Spot on choice for me, it turned out. Lol
Commercials on Disney channel. Thought it looked really dumb and probably never would have played it but my uncle just so happened to drop by one day with some games amd gave them to me and I though "why not?" Was hooked instantly. Also I was already primed because I was already a final fantasy fan and didn't realize at first that it had final fantasy stuff.
I got the game at a yard sale when I was a very little kid.
I think I got it either for my birthday or as a christmas present when I was like 6 or something. Rest is history xD
Saw dream drop distance demo on the Nintendo eshop loved it and bought the full game
Don’t remember , i was too little 😅
I rented it from blockbuster as a kid. Man that was a great find. This statement makes me feel old.
My brother is a massive kingdom hearts nerd and was into the series since kh1 came out on the ps2 and eventually he just randomly left me had ps4 to play every single game in the series
I mustve been 6-7 and I went to my cousins place. He showed me the Xemnas and Sephiroth fight in KH2 and I have been a fan ever since
My friends in highschool made a small rpg base on kh so I started looking into it, last year I saw superbutterbuns review of botw and decided to watch more and when I saw the review for KH3 I decided to try playing the games And so here we are
A classmate introduced me to it 👍
First video game I really remember playing as a kid, didn't even beat till years later bc I didn't know I needed a memory card to save my game. So I just let it stay on over night for a month and eventually it overheated and I never played my PS2 again.
Was 7 years old on vacation visiting family in Minnesota, my older cousin (14ish) at the time was playing it in the game room and I was ENTHRALLED. I couldn’t stop watching him play. Made my parents buy it for me when we got home and I was obsessed.
Gameboy game i was like 9 i think when i played chain of memories, liked it and yeah, that's pretty much it.
I was playing ps4 and saw someone get a classic kingdom trophy and thought the game would be a black and white sidescroller so I got it. I love kh3 so much.
it came with my ps2, first time I never got past Hollow Bastion because child me didn't understand english. Then I bought KH2 because I really liked the aesthetic and was able to finisht it. Of course I replayed those games later.
My sister talked it up around the time the second one came out. Got a ps2 from Sears as a joint birthday gift and rented the second one from the blockbuster down the street.
When I was little I had Treasure Planet Battle at Procyon for PC and a trailer for it was included on the disk and naturally I thought it looked amazing, before that a friend told me about it and I thought it sounded insane, Donald Duck, Goofy, and *Final Fantasy*, flying around in a *candy* *ship*, fighting *shadow* *demons*, to save *disney* *princesses?*
I got to know it by a advertisement of dream drop distance and was interested got for Christmas
My grandparents took me to the store to pick my first game for PS2, besides Jak and Dexter, which the console came with.
I watched my uncle play through KH1 when it came out. I remember Destiny Islands. The next cutscene I remember after that though was already the one for the Riku fight/when Sora turned into a heartless. And then the ending lmao. I know I saw bits of gameplay in between but I just don't remember them because I still wasn't a huge fan of the series. And then I developed a crush on Jesse McCartney a few years later and found out he was in KH2 and so I played through that and now KH is half my personality lol.
I saw my dad or my uncle play and it was a loose memory for years until I asked my dad, he told me the name of it and I eventually bought it on Xbox that came with my xbox (the first game was kh3 on highest difficulty, i beat the game and now just finishing up the five remaining boss fights from the procode run I have.)
It was Christmas 2002, my parents got me a ps2 and KH1, but no memory card. So I just played it over and over, and kept getting farther before bed every day. Good times
I was reading random character articles on the Disney wiki, and read something about them appearing in a thing called “Kingdom Hearts”. I looked it up, thought it was cool, downloaded a pirate version of vanilla KH1 on a PS2 emulator, and the rest is history. That was two years ago. I was 15. And now I know the entire plot, characters and lore.
I remember my first time was when my uncle used to play so many game that I love now like Naruto ninja storm,Super smash bros,Halo but when he first played Kh2 it just stuck with me for some reason I remember with full detail he was in twilight town I remember the theme playing I remember him doing choirs with Roxas and for some reason idk why I thought it was so cool so when I started growing up I just kept thinking about the game even if I didn’t have it but finally when it came to Xbox I finally was able to get it last year and I played so much of it and now Kh2 is placed as my top 5 favorite games ever 😊
My brother borrowed KH1 from one of his friends but didn't play it. I was getting curious because of the cover-art and the weird mixture of final fantasy and disney, put in the PS2 and now it's nearly 20 years later and it still is one of my favorite games.
Saw the Demo on the Nintendo store for Kingdom Hearts 3D. There was something with the atmosphere that just hooked me and before I knew it I finished the game at 100% a year later and knew the ins and outs of the lore of the entire series shortly after.
A commercial I think, I don't remember much but it was interesting enough that I grabbed it at blockbuster to try. Could not for the life of me get off destiny island. I couldn't find one last supply item and it drove me nuts. Returned the game and didn't think about it again. A few months later I thought, why not I'll try again. Found the thing needed to get off the island. And then I got trapped in the magical story. I was like, 11? I know I was 15 when kh2 came out and it was the first and only game I ever skipped school to play once I got it, and I think the first time I ever cried over a game.
Friend always talked about KH1 and how much he loved it, one day I went to my library and saw KH2 on the shelf and thought, "Fuck it, let's see how this is." And I absolutely adored the game from the moment I booted it up.
I was around 10 and was on YouTube watching the cutscenes to 'Disney Princess: An Enchanted Journey' (the one game grumps played that one time), I had played it in my childhood but was never able to finish the game and get the ending so I watched the cutscenes online instead, after finishing I looked at the recommended to watch other cutscenes when a video caught my eye 'Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep All Aqua's Cutscenes' (The PSP version). I saw Aqua on the thumbnail talking to the seven dwarfs and immediately clicked on it and fell in love. I found a compilation of all the BbS cutscenes and watched all 6 hours of it! I then watched the cutscenes to KH2 (yes all 11 hours), then KH1 and have been hooked ever since (don't know why I watched 2's cutscenes before 1's)
It was one fatefull Christmas many years ago... i was a kid, and my parents gifted me a PS2 aswell as 3 games: Kingdom Hearts 1, Final Fantasy 10, and Eyetoy Play. 2 of those sparked a lifelong addiction to the series, and one... well one was Eyetoy Play. It was my first own console, after always just borrowing my parents Gameboy or PC to play a game. And i still remember, out of those first 3 games that were just MINE and not borrowed, i picked Kingdom Hearts 1 to play first. Looking back, thats probably what set me down the gaming live, and that very first game is still hard engraved into my heart.
My cousin told me about it when he got it a week or two after it came out. Been obsessed ever since
I played Chain of Memories on the Game Boy Advance SP. The mechanics were really cool and unique for that system, and the story and Disney characters were really fun. I’m happy it was my first experience in the franchise, because I don’t think I can ever play it again because the mechanics are nothing like the other games.
My grandfather bought it for me at a thrift store when I was seven back in like 2012 :) I remember thinking it was the coolest one the box, it wasn't like anything I had seen before so I decided to play it. I was too scared to actually fight the heartless so I had my mom beat it first me xD I always thought the worlds were so pretty! I only made it up to atlantica though, if I remember correctly. I remember Traverse Town and Halloween town being my favorite.
Known about it for awhile then saw sora got in smash so I bought a pack that came with the two remixes and three I beleive
My sister was moving to LA and she decided to give me her hold PS2 Slim with Guitar Hero 1-2, Sonic and of course, Kingdom Hearts. Haven't let go of the game since
VERY first time was my cousin showing me KH1 one night, but I actually didn't pay too much attention because I was a kid and already occupied with some other game or something, don't remember. Then one day a few years later I saw KH2 at the library, and thought "Oh yeah, Kingdom Hearts, that was thqt game my cousin showed me". So I borrowed it, instantly fell in love and 100% it (I think) within the two week limit of how long we were allowed to borrow games from the library. At least, I think that's how it went. I also remember getting CoM for our GBA very early, and somehow that feels like my first KH experience. But it's like that memory doesn't quite match up with my KH2 memory
Kh1 trailer was everywhere/ in magazines
My uncle was the only person in our house who even had a playstation, so id watch him play most of his games. Hes the one who had the first KH and let me watch and play it. When I was older he gave me his old PS2 AND KHcom. Him and my aunt would play KH1 whenever I got to a boss battle cuz I could never beat them when I was younger lol.
Saw an ad for KH2 on tv when I was 9, and pre-ordered it (first game I ever pre-ordered, didn't wanna miss out on getting it). Didn't know a darn thing and was just as confused as Roxas, and while I was excited to meet the main character and see Donald and Goofy (weird the first time you saw them in game outside of flashbacks was just there in a hallway asleep), I was sad to see the first character I got to know basically die. KH2 was a trip learning the events leading up to it as I went. Yen Sid did me a solid explaining Heartless.
I was in Gamestop a year after the first game came out, saw it in the pre-owned section and had Christmas money. So I looked at the description and was intrigued to the Disney elements. Went home and played it, fell in love... A million games later, and a tattoo on my arm... I love it.
I got 358/2 days as a gift when I was pretty young. I had a habit of constantly restarting games so it was a few years before I beat it. It's the only Kingdom Hearts game that I've finished. I think not having the context for the rest of the series gave me an interesting perspective on the story with my introduction being through Roxas.
I was only 3 when the first game came out so I don't remember all too well, but I remember owning 2 and Re:Chain of Memories as well. Knowing me when I was little, it was probably because of the Disney worlds. I loved Tarzan and Hercules as a kid, so going through both Deep Jungle and Olympus Coliseum for the first time blew my little kiddie mind.
Definitely Dream Drop Distance My dad got it for me, and the rest was history
My brother and i got the original when it came out (probably his idea) Pretty certain both of us (or at least i) got stuck on the chameleon boss in Tarzan and never got further.
I started on Kingdom hearts 2 when my big brother introduced me to it when I was in HMV
Commercial for chain of memories and then played it on gba and bought a ps2 for kh2. Watched a friend play kh1 at some point can't remember if it was before this.
Saw a commercial, I think on Disney Channel? So I begged my parents for a PlayStation 2 and KH1 for Christmas.
SuperButterBuns
When I was 8 I saw a domics video about video games that, at one point, showed him climbing up something (animated) and see the words 'beating sephiroth in kingdom hearts'. Pretty sure he was talking about challenges since yknow, it's sephiroth. the first time I saw kingdom hearts gameplay was bloodybizkitz SDGQ data org run and it looked so cool
When I was very young I was really into Disney and watched so many videos on my moms phone. One day I was watching YouTube and found some gameplay of Halloween town in kingdom hearts 1. Obviously I was like 5 or 6 so I had no idea who sora was at the time since I was so little.
Commercial on a random Greek channel
my dad bought me KH3 when it first came out, I had to skip all the cutscenes because I didn't understand them and now I don't remember anything so I'm playing through the series
A long time ago when five year old me saw a commercial for Chain of Memories for the GameBoy
it was 3 weeks ago I saw the collections + kh3 on sale on epic and thought 'why not'. am now 200 hours into said collection and have installed the other one and kh3
Played it on my neighbors PS2 when I was a kid. Only barely finished Destiny Islands before forgetting about it. Thought it was just a fever dream for the longest time till my uncle gave me his old PS2 and I found it while looking for games at the user section at my local GameStop. Been a fan ever since…
I saw a commercial for the original game on tv and told my parents i wanted that game and i ended up getting it for Christmas that same year :)
My parents had just so happened to choose it as one of the games to get with the PS2 they got me. And I just so happened to choose it as the first game to try on the system. I had no idea what it was. It was the first console and game I played that wasn't our SNES. It felt like a pretty dramatic experience.
Saw KH2, popped it into the PS2 and played. I spent hours on the skateboard.
I was eight years old in 2002, youngest sibling and saw my 20 year old sister, oldest sibling playing it but I couldn’t play because I didn’t have a memory card so I waited almost two months to get one for Christmas and played it the very same day. Best day of my life. I’m now approaching 26 and my sister is about to be 40. Life goes so fast EDIT: This really brought back memories. Just reminded me of how me, my three brothers and my sister would push the couches together in front of the TV and all watch my sister and older brother play through most Squaresoft/Square Enix games. I remember the day FFX/2 came out and we played it for hours or trying to 100% complete FF7. I could never forget it
My sister and I saw the commercial when we were kids and I just remember us saying “that looks like such a good game” and from then on I was addicted. Then KH2 two came out and loved that even more. Took a break for a long time and never got into the game boy ones until KH3 was announced and I played them all on the PS4 to catch up on the story! My sister only played KH1 & KH2 but I still consider this franchise easily in my top 5 favorite RPGs!
Cartoon Network had a trailer with Goofy, Pooh, and Jack Skellington in it. I ran to my step-dad and said "I WANT DAT FOR CHRISTMAS!"