Kingdom Hearts Storyline Written By: Brian (Zyndae) Backus of 89 Bit Productions on 1/21/19 and published on 1/23/19 Over the many years that this franchise has been out, SquareEnix has released multiple games to bridge the gaps between games. This synopsis is a quick reference guide to the story up to the release of Kingdom Hearts III, which is last in the given timeline. NOTE: This will contain events of each game that are considered to be spoilers in every regard. If you do not want those events ruined, you need to turn back now. You have been warned. The proper order of the games goes as follows… Kingdom Hearts… Birth By Sleep Kingdom Hearts (1) Chain of Memories 358/2 Days (Said Like: Three-Hundred Fifty-Eight Days Over Two) Kingdom Hearts II Re:Coded Dream Drop Distance A Fragmented Passage (Birth By Sleep 0.2) Kingdom Hearts III Birth By Sleep… The story starts out on Destiny Islands where many years ago, Ventus was left there by the series main antagonist Master Xehanort. Ventus, Terra, and Aqua are training to become Keyblade Masters and that requires the passing of a test. This test is administered from two different Masters known as Eraqus and Xehanort. Xehanort rigs the exam and that causes Terra to fail it while Aqua still passes. Terra gets angry and leaves the world with Ventus following and Aqua following him. During the bulk of the game the player visits multiple Disney-Themes worlds and go through different puzzles and such in those worlds. Eventually, all three of them end up in Radiant Garden. This place is known as Hollow Bastion in later games. Terra is still angry and mostly jealous of Aqua and believes that she is letting the idea of becoming a master get to her head. He leaves again and Ventus follows. Continuing forward, Terra lands at Destiny Island and meets a boy named Sora and his friend Riku. He does the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony to give Riku his own Keyblade in the future. The same thing happens to Aqua back in Radiant Garden where she gives a Keyblade to a girl named Kairi. While at Destiny Islands, Ventus returns to Master Eraqus. He soon finds out that Master Xehanort is planning to use Ventus to recreate the X-Blade which is the only thing that has the ability to open up a door to Kingdom Hearts unleashing unimaginable power. Eraqus decides at this time to try to kill Ventus when Terra interrupts this concept. They both fight for some time and Terry wounds Eraqus. Xehanort arrives and delivers the final deathblow after Terra couldn’t finish the job being lost and confused his own actions against Eraqus. Aqua returns at this time and witnesses this. Eraqus relinquishes his Keyblade to Aqua and tells her to protect Terra and Ventus. This is where we find out that Xehanort is trying to steal Terra’s body in an attempt to remain young. Xehanort leads Terra to the darkness. Eventually, the three meet up at the Keyblade Graveyard where Xehanort reveals he plans to open Kingdom Hearts using Ventus to create the X-Blade and that he wants Terra’s body to remain young. The three of them fight Xehanort and lose against him. Xehanort takes Terra’s body over but his armor becomes a sentient being and fights off the incursion. In Ventus’ mind, he has to fight off his alter ego, a creature of darkness named Vanitus. He is forced to create the X-Blade to do this. He gets injured in the battle and hides his soul in order to recover. Aqua fights against Vanitus in reality and wins, however is injured in the process as well. She takes Ventus’ body and hides it in a place called Castle Oblivion and then locates Terra in Radiant Garden who is now fully controlled by Xehanort. They fight against each other and Terra regains control of his body temporarily and strikes himself with his keyblade which in turn locks his memories and grants him with amnesia. Terra begins to fall into the Realm of Darkness where Aqua saves him by sacrificing her armor and being trapped there instead herself. A character named Ansem is known as the Wise. He finds the Xehanort (still inside Terra’s body) outside Radiant Garden and asks him to identify himself. He just says that he is Xehanort. Ventus’ soul (heart) finds refuge in the boy named Sora. And this sets up the events for… Kingdom Hearts (1) … Kingdom Hearts picks up a decade later and you play as Sora, who is now 14 years old. He has two other friends, Riku and Kairi. They are all on Destiny Island when one night they come under attack by the Heartless. The Heartless is a common enemy in the entire series. Sora has a Keyblade but the destruction is far too great for his home. Darkness pulls them away and they get tossed into the winds. Sora ends up at Traverse Town and this is where he meets Donald Duck and Goofy (of Disney fame). They were sent by King Mickey after he disappeared to find the “key.” Sora is carrying a Keyblade so they agree two work together to find all of their missing friends. They also travel through Disney-themed worlds in this game as well and the premise is to lock Keyholes to prevent the Heartless from taking over at these locations as well. During this time, Maleficent is kidnapping Disney Princesses in an attempt to harness the power of Kingdom Hearts. Riku is along with her and has embraced the dark side mostly because Maleficent promised to assist in finding Kairi. She also lied to him in saying that Sora has abandoned him. Eventually everyone meets up at Hollow Bastion (Radiant Garden in the previous title). Sora, Donald, and Goofy all destroy Maleficent and locate Riku. However, it is then found out that Riku is being possessed by Ansem. Sora fights and defeats Riku who then reveals that Kairi’s hearts has been trapped inside Sora. Hallow Bastion can never be saved without her heart so Sora strikes himself with the Keyblade, freeing both of their hearts and turns himself into a Heartless. Sora makes his way back to his body with the help of Kairi and they head off to the End of the World to finally face Ansem. He succeeds on opening the door to Kingdom Hearts and the power of the light in the world ends up killing Ansem. Behind the door, however, is Riku and King Mickey. They all assist each other to close the door reconstructing the destroyed worlds in the process. However, Riku and King Mickey are left on the other side. Chain of Memories… This game takes place immediately after the events of Kingdom Hearts (1). Sora, Donald, and Goofy begin the search for King Mickey and Riku so they find themselves at Castle Oblivion. Here they find a few members of an all new evil group called Organization XIII. This group is full of Nobodies which are people with no hearts. The three journey up the castle one floor at a time but soon realize they are losing their memories. A young girl named Namine is disrupting them. Namine is a Nobody, a clone copy of Kairi. Namine was created when Sora stabbed himself with the Keyblade from the first game. (This is where it gets tough to follow along) During this small quest they all begin to lose sight of what their quest is even about in the first place. They fight Organization XIII members constantly including a copy of Riku. Axel betrays Organization XIII and kills another member named Vexan. This frees Namine temporarily allowing her to tell Sora that she is being forced to replace their memories because of another member of Organization XIII, Marluxia. Namine tells them that if they defeat Marluxia she will restore their memories. They reach floor 13 and not only confront her but also confront the ever side-flopping Axel. They defeat both and Namine keeps her promise by placing all three of them in memory pods where they sleep until their memories are restored. 358/2 Days… This game starts before the events of Chain of Memories but the vast majority of it takes place afterwards. This story begins with a character named Roxas. Roxas is a Nobody that happened to be created at the same time Namine was. Roxas joined Organization XIII being lead by Xemnas. Roxas has no memories of his human half and therefore he has his own personality. Axel is his commander in the Organization. Roxas and Axel become good friends and meet up every night on top of the Clocktower in Twilight Town. However, Axel is soon dispatched to Castle Oblivion for the events of Chain of Memories. After this happens, Roxas joins up with Xion. She is a 14th unofficial member of Organization XIII. They become friends quickly also conversing at the top of the Clocktower often. They both have no memories of the human halves and they are the only Nobodies that are able to use Keyblades. Soon, Roxas falls into a coman because of the events of Chain of Memories and what Sora is going through from that game. He doesn’t wake up until Axel returns from Castle Oblivion and is the only remaining survivor of Organization XIII. Together, Axel, Roxas, and Xion all become friends. Later in the game, Xion also falls into a coma and then questions her existence after she wakes up.