Following the announcement of Sora joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo and Square Enix have also announced that all of the Kingdom Hearts games (minus Melody of Memory) are making their way to Nintendo Switch.

There’s no official release date for these cloud versions just yet, but when they do release, this will be the first time the mainline Kingdom Hearts series will be released on Nintendo Switch. Square Enix did previously release the rhythm game Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory on Switch, but the likes of Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and 3 have yet to make their way onto a Nintendo console.  

The #KingdomHearts games are coming to #NintendoSwitch as cloud versions!- KINGDOM HEARTS – HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX – Cloud Version- KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue Cloud Version- KINGDOM HEARTS III + Re Mind Cloud Version pic.twitter.com/ksKjd5jqhzOctober 5, 2021

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The Kingdom Hearts cloud collection is made up of: 

• Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMix – the first Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, and a cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days 
• Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix – The second Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix, and a cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
• Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue – Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD, Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage, and a cinematic retelling of the events of Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover
• Kingdom Hearts 3 – The third mainline installment of the Kingdom Hearts series and its DLC Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind  

If Sora and Kingdom Hearts is completely new to you, here’s a very condensed version of what the series is all about. The JRPG was originally released in 2002 on the PS2 and spawned several sequels and remasters over the following 17 years, with the last mainline release being Kingdom Hearts 3 in 2019. 

The series centers around Sora and his friends (primarily Disney’s Donald and Goofy) as they visit various Disney-themed worlds helping out pretty much every Disney, Pixar, and Final Fantasy character they encounter. The trio face off with some form of evil entity, dependent on the game, which is usually being orchestrated by the master of darkness himself, Xehanort.

Can’t wait to set sail from Destiny Islands? Take a look at our Kingdom Hearts 3 tips before playing.  

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Square Enix revealed the new release that will bundle together almost every part of the Kingdom Hearts saga today, from the first game all the way up through Kingdom Hearts 3 (opens in new tab). It’s coming exclusively to PS4 on March 17 and it’s only been announced for release in North America so far – pre-orders are already open at GameStop (opens in new tab) for $49.99 USD.

If you’re a devoted Kingdom Hearts fan, you know it’s quite an achievement to cram that much video game into one product. If you haven’t played yet, this is the perfect way to get caught up on the series.To be specific, the Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package includes everything that was part of the previously released Kingdom Hearts – The Story So Far bundle, and Kingdom Hearts 3. That’s nearly a dozen entries in the series, though not all of them are full games of their own.

Here’s the complete list of contents, broken down by each entry’s place in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX

• Kingdom Hearts FINAL MIX
• Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (HD Remastered cinematics)
• Kingdom Hearts 2 FINAL MIX
• Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final MIX
• Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (HD Remastered cinematics)

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 FINAL CHAPTER PROLOGUE

• Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD
• Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep –A fragmentary passage–
• Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (movie)

Kingdom Hearts 3

Square Enix recently expanded the story with the Kingdom Hearts 3: ReMind DLC on PS4 (it’s set to arrive on Xbox One on February 25). It doesn’t look like the All-in-One package will include ReMind, so its title is already not quite accurate… but it’s not like there can be any reasonable expectation for Kingdom Hearts titles to make sense at this point.

See what else you could be playing soon with our guide to upcoming PS4 games (opens in new tab). 

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Want to know what we thought about the game? Then check out our Kingdom Hearts 3 review (opens in new tab) or watch the video below:

Kingdom Hearts 3 tips

Before we get into the nitty gritty of the various collectibles in Kingdom Hearts 3, we thought you might want some more generic, beginner-friendly Kingdom Hearts 3 tips (opens in new tab) to get you started. They cover things like how best to use Donald and Goofy, what to buy from the Moogle shops and more, and hopefully you find them as helpful as we have.  

Kingdom Hearts 3 Lucky Emblems locations – Where to find all the Hidden Mickeys

Possibly the biggest, and probably most adorable, collectible in all of Kingdom Hearts 3 are the Hidden Mickeys. Introduced just after you get your mitts on the Gummiphone, the Kingdom Hearts 3 Lucky Emblems (opens in new tab) (as they’re officially called) are Mickey Mouse-shaped icons hidden seamlessly in the various environments you traverse in the game. And with over 90 to collect, you are definitely going to need to Google this one. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 Golden Herc figures locations – Where to find all the golden Hercules figures

As you play through the first world, Olympus, you’ll spot that there are little Hercules dolls everywhere. What is he, some kind of Avenger? But you’ll soon find a young lad who’s lost his collection of Kingdom Hearts 3 Golden Herc figures (opens in new tab), and it’s up to you to round up all five and return them to him. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 Flanmeister award guide – How to find the Flantastic Seven

This guide is proof that Kingdom Hearts 3 is just the right kind of bonkers, because it turns out to earn yourself the Flanmeister trophy on PS4 or achievement on Xbox One, you’ll need to defeat seven Flans – also known as the Flantastic Seven. Here is a guide to the Kingdom Hearts 3 Flanmeister award (opens in new tab) and all the Flan locations. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 photo missions guide – How to complete the Moogle pictures

Moogles are the adorable little shopkeepers of this Disney / Square Enix adventure, but they also love a good Instagram shot. Hence why they set you off on various Kingdom Hearts 3 photo missions (opens in new tab), asking you to snap a pic with your Gummiphone of their desired subjects. Demanding, eh? 

Where to find all the Kingdom Hearts 3 Olaf pieces, if you really want to build a snowman in Arendelle

Oh Olaf, just as you think he’s got his sh*t together, he rock up in Arendelle only to find Olaf’s got himself split into three separate pieces: head, body and… legs? You’ll need to gather up the various Kingdom Hearts 3 Olaf pieces (opens in new tab) to put him back together again. Now where did he leave that nose? 

How to find all the Kingdom Hearts 3 Secret Reports by taking a trip through each of the Battlegates

Inside each of the worlds, you will find a strange star icon, which turn out to be the Battlegates. It’s these that will present you with the Kingdom Hearts 3 Battlegates (opens in new tab), one of the longest running Kingdom Hearts collectibles of all time. 

How to find all the Kingdom Hearts 3 Constellations

The Gummi Ship is a huge part of your gameplay experience, and the fact that there are collectibles attached to it makes it even better. So start looking to the skies and seeing if you can find all the Kingdom Hearts 3 Constellations (opens in new tab).  

Kingdom Hearts 3 white crabs – How to find them, fully power up the Leviathan and earn that Dreadnought award

If you’re not familiar with the Leviathan yet, you soon will be, as it’s your ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean world of Kingdom Hearts 3. To get the Dreadnought award though, you’ll need to find 1700 (yes 1700) white crabs to fully power it up. Thankfully, we’ve got these handy tips to help you find all those Kingdom Hearts 3 white crabs (opens in new tab). 

Kingdom Hearts 3 True Captain award guide – how to sink 200 enemy ships in the Caribbean

Those Heartless, they get everywhere don’t they. Well, thankfully using the Leviathan you can sink 200 of their ships in the Pirates of the Caribbean to earn yourself the well-deserved Kingdom Hearts 3 True Captain award (opens in new tab) on PS4 and Xbox One.  

Kingdom Hearts 3 Centurion award guide – How to get 12 million score on Verum Rex: Beat of Lead

In order to nab yourself that Kingdom Hearts 3 Centurion award (opens in new tab) on PS4 and Xbox One, you’re going to need to rack up a whopping score of over 12 million in the Toy Box mini-game known as Verum Rex: Beat of Lead, so we’ve got some tips on how best to amplify your score. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 Festive Dancer award guide – how to score 70,000 points in the Festival Dance

Dancing isn’t just for fun, it’s also about scoring a tonne of points by twirling, leaping and generally prancing your way to victory. To earn the Kingdom Hearts 3 Festive Dancer award (opens in new tab) you need to score 70,000 points (or more) by dancing with Rapunzel and co in the Kingdom of Corona, but don’t worry we’ve got some tips to help you out. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 Shield Shredder award guide – how to get 600,000 score on Frozen Slider

Another Xbox One / PS4 award linked to a Toy Box mini-game is the Kingdom Hearts 3 Shield Shredder award (opens in new tab). You’ll need to get a 600,000 score or above in Arendelle’s mini-game Frozen Slider in order to unlock it, so we’re here with some tips on how to boost your points. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 Datascraper award guide – how to get an A rank on both Flash Tracer courses

If you’re visiting San Fransokyo at night then you’ll have the opportunity to earn the Kingdom Hearts 3 Datascraper award (opens in new tab), by flying around the city through rings to complete two tricky courses. We’ve got tips and advice to help you hit that A rank on both of them.

Best Kingdom Hearts 3 keyblades

Wielding a giant key is great, but are you sure you’ve got the best one of them all? Well, don’t fear, we’ve got an entire keychain full of the things and can definitively tell you that these are the best Kingdom Hearts 3 keyblades (opens in new tab) ranked worst to best.

How to get the Kingdom Hearts 3 Ultima Weapon

Of course, if you just want to skip to the Ultimate Weapon, then you need to know how to get the Kingdom Hearts 3 Ultima Weapon (opens in new tab) – follow our handy guide that’ll tell you exactly how to craft it. 

Where to find Orichalcum+ in Kingdom Hearts 3

Woah, woah, woah keen beans, before you can even craft that Ultima Weapon, you’ll need seven pieces of the ultra rare metal known as Orichalcum+. It’s a tricky little devil to get a hold of, but we’ve found all the Kingdom Hearts 3 Orichalcum+ (opens in new tab) locations in the game. 

How to find all 23 Kingdom Hearts 3 Classic Kingdom games

There are basically a plethora of mini-games to indulge in within Kingdom Hearts 3 itself, but if you want to dive headfirst into a pool of retro nostaglia, you’re going to want to find all 23 Kingdom Hearts 3 Classic Kingdom games (opens in new tab). Not only do you get to play them all, but finding all 23 gets you the Classic Tone keyblade and nets you the Classically Trained trophy / achievement too. 

Where to find all the Kingdom Hearts 3 ingredients

Adorable little chef, Remy, of Ratatouille fame is a greedy little so and so at times, and actually has a shopping list of 59 ingredients he wants you to find him. They are, of course, scattered across the various Kingdom Hearts 3 kingdoms, and it can be a struggle to find them all, especially if you want to cook all the meals and unlock the Cornucopia award on PS4 and Xbox One. So we’ve got a complete guide to where to find all the Kingdom Hearts 3 ingredients (opens in new tab). 

How to defeat the Kingdom Hearts 3 Schwarzgeist

If you want to get the Kingdom Hearts 3 Thermosphere award (opens in new tab) then you’re going to need to take down the menace of the Ocean Between, aka the Schwarzgeist, with your Gummi Ship. But we’ve got some tips to help you out, so don’t shake too hard with fear.

How to unlock all the Kingdom Hearts 3 secret endings

Once you’ve done aaaaall of the above, you might want to dive into the various unlockable endings available in the game. We’ve got the Kingdom Hearts 3 ending explained (opens in new tab), but then there’s also the epilogue and the secret movie to find. That’s where we come in, so here’s how to unlock the Kingdom Hearts 3 secret ending (opens in new tab).

If Kingdom Hearts 3 doesn’t float your boat, why not check out the other top notch new games of 2019 (opens in new tab) to look forward to? 

The post Kingdom Hearts 3 guide: Everything you need to become a keyblade master appeared first on Game News.

Here’s a partial cast list full of recognizable names:

• Josh Gad (Frozen, Beauty and the Beast) as Olaf from Frozen
• Kristen Bell (Frozen, Veronica Mars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as Anna from Frozen
• Idina Menzel (Frozen, Enchanted, Rent) as Elsa from Frozen
• Jonathan Groff (Frozen, Mindhunter, American Sniper) as Kristoff from Frozen
• Zachary Levi (Tangled, Chuck, Thor: The Dark World) as Flynn Rider from Tangled
• Donna Murphy (Tangled, Center Stage) as Mother Gothel from Tangled 
• John Ratzenberger (Toy Story, Cheers, The Incredibles, Coco) as Hamm from Toy Story
• Wallace Shawn (Toy Story, The Princess Bride, The Good Wife) as Rex from Toy Story
• Tate Donovan (Hercules, The O.C., Argo) as Hercules from Hercules
• Kevin R. McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean, Downton Abbey) as Gibbs from the Pirates of the Caribbean series 

Kingdom Hearts 3 won’t be out until January 29, 2019, but my inner child is already at puking levels of excitement over the chance to explore the worlds of Toy Story and Frozen, especially if the powerful lungs that gave us ‘Let It Go’ are involved. As well as Frozen’s Arendelle and the Toy Story toy box, Sora, Goofy, and Donald Duck will visit such fantastical locales as Tangled’s Kingdom of Corona, Big Hero 6’s San Fransokyo, and Monstropolis from Monsters Inc.

Check out our preview of Kingdom Hearts 3 to find out why it plays, looks, and sounds just like you hoped it would.

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If you’re wanting tons of footage featuring remastered Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance story and gameplay, plus sneak peeks at two new Kingdom Hearts spin-offs (Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-, which is a new game featuring a new character, and Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover, a collection of cutscenes meant to expand on the series’ lore), that’s exactly what you’ll find here. If you’re hoping for a something that won’t take three hours of wiki-delving to understand (opens in new tab) or and explanation as to why Square Enix can’t seem to name these things something digestible … well, that I don’t have.

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is due in 2016 for PS4. I look forward to Kingdom Hearts 3/-III.03: ReANSEMation Project Boogaloo in 2017*.

*Not a real game. Yet.

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This isn’t a narrative. It’s an eight-year-old’s caffeine-addled fanfic given form. Calling it a mess is one hell of an understatement.

The worst part? This wasn’t the natural result of a slow unspooling of characters, locations, and scenarios set over the course of the franchise’s history, a la Metal Gear Solid. No, Kingdom Hearts was goddamn impenetrable by the series’ second main console outing. And if the franchise wants to have a chance at appealing to anyone other than the most obsessive of die-hard fans, Kingdom Hearts 3 needs to do what so many video game sequels have successfully done in the past – stand on its own as much as it possibly can and effectively reboot the series.

Developing a game in 2015 is far more expensive than it was when Kingdom Hearts first arrived on the scene, and even sequels or continuations of long-standing franchises need to recoup their costs somehow. The most successful ones are able to expand on these stories while still providing a self-contained narrative. One of my favorite games of 2014 was Wolfenstein: The New Order, and I’ve barely played the other games in the series. Even though I have a cursory knowledge of the franchise, I still felt invested in The New Order’s narrative. I didn’t need to know what happened in prior entries; all I need to know is conveyed within the first few minutes of gameplay – BJ Blazkowicz is a hardened Nazi killer, this isn’t his first rodeo, and the Allied effort is quickly disintegrating. The rest of the events that follow do refer back to prior moments in the series, but they’re revealed in such a way that I don’t feel like I’m missing out for not having played them – but I know that if I had, I’d appreciate those moments that much more.

Oh, if only Kingdom Hearts took the same approach.

You’d think that if you play Kingdom Hearts 2 right after the first game you’d be set for whatever nonsense it’s planning on dishing out. It’s only logical – two comes after one, ergo, the events of the second game follow the events of the first. So you’d be forgiven if, like me, you were completely lost for the first six hours (and mostly lost for the remaining 30). That’s because, while it’s called Kingdom Hearts 2, it’s actually the third game in the series, taking place about a year after the Game Boy Advance game Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Chain of Memories wasn’t some one-off side story – its events take place directly after the first game and lead into the second.

So, for the first six hours or so of Kingdom Hearts 2, you’re playing as a random kid named Roxas who has some kind of unexplained connection to Sora. When the switch finally happens near the end of the intro, it’s explained in such a way that assumes you’ve played the GBA game before touching this one. It’s confusing and off-putting, and if you don’t own a Game Boy Advance, you’re effectively screwed out of a potentially meaningful twist. If Kingdom Hearts 3 pulls the same trick, it’s going to be several orders of magnitude worse, due to the current state of the franchise. Since Kingdom Hearts 2, there have been four new Kingdom Hearts games, spread across three different platforms: re:Coded and 358/2 Days on the DS, Birth by Sleep on PSP, and Dream Drop Distance on 3DS. Each one expands on previously explored concepts and plot points or simply retcons them altogether.

“Just play them before the next game comes out,” you might say. “Most of the series is on PS3 now. Just revisit them there.” That’s all well and good for folks who have the time available to commit to over a half-dozen games, but it’s just not realistic for Square Enix to assume that players will have done this before playing Kingdom Hearts 3. A few years ago, MC Chris went on an impassioned rant about the differences between Kingdom Hearts 2 and Resident Evil 4. He (like many others) jumped into Kingdom Hearts 2 without having played the first one (and likely had never even heard of the GBA entry), and was confused for hours. He kept waiting for the good part to start, where he would finally get whisked away on the train to Disney adventureland, but getting to that moment takes forever. He then contrasts that with Resident Evil 4, which takes a few minutes to give you a quick run-down of everything you need to know (an evil corporation created a virus that turned people into zombies; the government shut them down; now the president’s daughter’s been kidnapped, and it’s up to us to save her), and then thrusts you into a room full of zombies with hand axes. Sure, there are moments where Resident Evil 4 expands on the series’ increasingly convoluted lore, but much of it is simply set dressing, and besides, there’s a dude with a chainsaw with a burlap sack over his face and HE’S COMING RIGHT FOR YOU.

Sure, there will always be fanatics who have played all of these games and know every bit of Kingdom Hearts minutia inside and out, but they represent a fraction of a fraction of the potential player base who would be interested in checking out a new Kingdom Hearts. Not to mention that, for many people, the PS4 or Xbox One is their first game console, and this will be the first chance they’ve had with the series. They just want to traipse around Disney worlds on a chocobo, not have their head set spinning by obliquely referenced past events and inter-organizational politics.

The strangest part about Kingdom Hearts is that Disney even allows it to exist in this form. This is a corporation specifically designed around getting as many eyeballs watching its products as humanly possible. Disney has been able to take sprawling properties like the Marvel Comics Universe and condense them into bite-sized, highly-watchable chunks. Even The Avengers, a film built on the backs of several other properties, is able to stand on its own, requiring little to no prior knowledge to be enjoyable. Disney has gone so far as to remove the entire Expanded Universe from Star Wars canon in an attempt to simplify and condense the experience to a handful of films and franchises. That Kingdom Hearts was ever allowed to get this sprawling is impressive, but if it ever wants to be as big as the rest of Disney’s portfolio, it needs to trim the fat, get players up to speed, and let them get into wacky dancing minigames with Jiminy Cricket as quickly as possible.

That doesn’t mean Kingdom Hearts needs needs to be a complete do-over – it would just need to create a clean slate for this new entry while still expanding on the overall lore. Keep characters like Ansem, leave in the enigmatic boy-band Organization XIII, and send Sora and friends on a quest to find whatever MacGuffin they need to protect Kingdom Hearts from evil once and for all (or at least this time). The countless other video game sequels that effortlessly get newbies up to speed prove that there’s no excuse for Kingdom Hearts 3 to revert to the “shoved in the deep end and hope you don’t drown” approach Square Enix tried with Kingdom Hearts 2.

Kingdom Hearts shouldn’t drop the convoluted storylines and melodrama entirely – honestly, that’s half of the fun. These games throw Final Fantasy heroes like Squall and Aerith in the mix with classic Disney characters like Donald Duck and Aladdin. They’re allowed to get real weird with the whole premise. But you shouldn’t have to read an encyclopedia-worth of wikis and plot summaries before you even play it. Kingdom Hearts 3 needs stand on its own or it’s going to lose newcomers and casual fans – and then we’ll never get to see Goofy in a Tron outfit ever again.

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