Like most gamers, I have a list of personal gaming blind spots. Long-running franchises I’ve always wanted to dip into, but have never gotten around to actually playing.
Without question, at the very top of my "list of gaming shame" is Kingdom Hearts. For years, I’ve been curious about this action-RPG mash-up of Disney and Final Fantasy — which has now morphed into its own beast since its 2002 debut on PlayStation 2 — but at some point, I started to feel like the Disney-shaped ship had passed me by.
But when Square Enix announced the Kingdom Hearts Collection, it felt like a package designed for somebody like me, and I got hold of the collection on Nintendo Switch 2 a little early. I can now officially say that I have played a Kingdom Hearts game. Okay, so I’ve only played a handful of hours of the very first one, but it's a start!
Kingdom Hearts has spawned an extraordinarily passionate following, so I have little doubt that dedicated fans will flock to this new collection for an excuse to replay the series. But if you’re in a similar boat to me and have never played Kingdom Hearts before, let’s dive into why this collection is the perfect opportunity to give the series a shot.
![Kingdom Hearts Collection [I-III]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tzNU998BcvUXpg7uTzuK7V-200-80.jpg.webp "Kingdom Hearts Collection [I-III]")
So, I guess this is Kingdom Hearts…
![KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I ~ III] Announce Trailer - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ldMqRmTwy80/maxresdefault.jpg)
The opening to Kingdom Hearts is rough. Obviously, it looks and plays like a PS2 game. Even if the Final Mix version, which is what’s been ported to Nintendo Switch 2, bumps the resolution and framerate, it’s not a ground-up remake; Kingdom Hearts looks and feels its age.
But this didn’t bother me; I started playing games during the PS1 era, and still regularly replay some of my childhood favorites in 2026. No, Kingdom Hearts’ less-than-stellar introduction comes down to some questionable level design. You start the game by being introduced to young protagonist Sora, as he dreams of escaping his small island.
And from there, you are forced to complete a series of dull fetch quests to retrieve a host of items for your friends. It’s not exactly a thrilling introduction to the sprawling Kingdom Hearts universe. I wasn’t totally sure what to expect when playing Kingdom Hearts 1 in 2026, but collecting a stockpile of coconuts and looking for old rope wasn’t it.
Mercifully, after a little trouble locating a seagull's egg (another item on my checklist), things began to pick up. Soon darkness spread over the tropical island; Sora was entrusted with the series’ iconic Keyblade, and the spiked-haired character was quickly transported to a new setting.
It’s here, in the new location of Traverse Town (which serves as a sort of hub), that it feels like Kingdom Hearts truly begins. Sora meets a couple of iconic Disney characters, and a few familiar faces from Final Fantasy VII as well. At this point, the ponderous opening section faded from my memory, and I found its narrative hooks starting to latch onto me.
A couple more hours later, and these hooks are only embedding deeper the more I play. Even if the gameplay, which feels particularly clunky compared to modern action-RPGs, adds a degree of friction, the intriguing story and lovable characters, both familiar and original to the game, have me invested. Even if the game feels mechanically dated.
And from what fans tell me, the best is certainly yet to come. I hear the later games are a real step up in terms of gameplay. Particularly 2005's Kingdom Hearts 2, which many consider the best Kingdom Hearts title.
Kingdom Hearts Collection was made for players like me
I’m still a Kingdom Hearts newbie. There’s a long road ahead before I can consider myself well-versed in this franchise. But that’s what makes the Kingdom Hearts Collection so appealing. It includes basically everything released to date, from the three mainline games to the numerous spin-off titles, which I’m informed are all canonically key.
The collection covers 10 Kingdom Hearts titles. 7 are fully playable games, each remastered to varying degrees, while 3 have been reworked into HD movies. Considering Kingdom Hearts games aren’t exactly short either, with an average playtime of about 30 hours per title, for $74, that’s an awful lot of game crammed into a collection.
In fact, there’s so much to experience that, to start, it's more than a little overwhelming. I imagine this must be what it feels like to be somebody trying to catch up on the MCU before “Avengers: Doomsday.”
Kingdom Hearts also feels at home on the Nintendo Switch 2. As there’s so much content to experience here, being able to chip away at a title while playing in the console’s handheld mode is a huge selling point compared to picking up the collection on PS5, Xbox, or PC.
While I can speak to performance on later titles (I’ve heard the newest title, Kingdom Hearts 3, is a little spotty on Switch), the first game runs great on Nintendo’s system. But then again, it is a remastered PS2 title.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently set for a late 2027 release, which is helpful because it might take me the best part of a year to make my way through the collection. So, if you’re a newcomer to the series like me, this collection was basically designed for us. It offers the perfect opportunity to dive into Kingdom Hearts and get all caught up.
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