Ok, so I love Final Fantasy, Square Enix games and RPGs in general. Regardless of this, I've never really played any Square Enix games on the Playstation systems except for on the PSP(Crisis Core, Dissidia, FF Tactics: War of the Lions.)
Now, I've been really wanting to play Kingdom Hearts(Disney and Final Fantasy are two of my favorite things XD). But I don't have a PS2, so since the US release of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is coming up, I was thinking of maybe getting it. But, I'm worried I wouldn't really get the story. I noticed it was a prequel, and I felt like it wouldn't be too bad to play a prequel set 10 years before the original(I played Crisis Core without playing FFVII and I still got the story pretty well.)
So, I'm wondering if anyone knew the story(like, played the Japanese version or something or you just know XD) and could tell me if it's necessary to play any other games to understand the game's story. If not then I guess I'll wait for Square Enix to announce a US release for Agito FFXIII lol

OOOOOOooorrrrrrr... someone can give me a free PS2 XD.

I would assume that if it is a prequel,then no knowledge of the sequels were needed. I would advise getting a PS2, just for the fact it is one of the best game systems EVER.I like the Kingdom Hearts games. It combines a good story with good graphics and gameplay. Also just for the fact that you get to play in some classic Disney cartoons, most I watched whilst a kid. Second is better than the first, but that is just my opinion.

Bobbynibbles : Yeah that's basically the thing that interested me is that you got to play in the Disney movies that were so popular and I watched those SO MANY TIMES XD. I want to get a PS2, but it's not really a top priority.

mdynasty926 : I'm sure you could get one relatively cheap nowadays. Think of it as an investment for just the huge library of excellent games that have been released throughout the years. The PS2 was the top selling system until just recently. It was replaced by the DSi, I think, and only YEARS after the PS2 came out. Makes you think, huh?

You seem like a relatively nice person. you also seem to be a KH fan. So, i shall help you. The Answer is; YES, YOU NEED TO PLAY THE OTHER GAMES!!!! i'd loan you my PS2 but
it went missing almost a month ago! (I bet someone stole it, knowing my luck.)

Bobbynibbles : Yeah I'm trying to see if I could just take one off one of my friend's hands XD
I know what you mean. There was a time where I would only like Nintendo games, and well, it's not really a bad thing as long as you choose the right ones. Nintendo was the best back in the day. Now, they're still ok in my opinion, but they need to really kick it up a notch to compete with the others. And after playing Chrono Trigger and FFVI, I switched over to playing Sony and Nintendo games because I was interested in FF and other JRPGs. I bought a PSP instead of a DS. At first it didn't seem like there were a lot of good games on PS2, but then now I wanna play the KH series, the FF games on PS2, Okami(I could just play it on Wii, but which is better?), Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, and lots of others. I really need to catch up with all these great games

You probably wouldn't NEED to play the PS2 games, but it's a good idea. If you want a summary of the story, just go to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org. I get all sorts of info there... anyway, from what I understand, Birth By Sleep follows the original Keyblade (super powerful blade) masters.

Rasenganfan2 : Ahh I see. Thanks . I wouldn't really want to read the plot summaries though cause I don't want to spoil the other games, in case I do play them. But I do have a pretty good idea of the general story of Kingdom Hearts.

OH! That's what you mean.

Plot basis of KH1:

Sora and his 2 friends Riku and Kairi get tired of their little island, so they decide to make a raft. Once their raft is finished, a storm comes. Sora sneaks out to hide the raft somewhere safe, but there are tiny little black creatures everywhere. A gigantic one pops out and attacks Sora. Sora's wooden sword disappears and gets replaced with the Keyblade. After defeating the gigantic thing, Sora gets seperated from his friends.

Meanwhile at Disney Castle, King Mickey is gone and Donald and Goofy go to find him. Sora meets Donald and Goofy, and they go questing together.

mdynasty926 : I have never played Okami outside of the demo, but the WII's graphics are sub-par for a next-gen console. It might have additional content, like i wrote never played it, but I would go for the PS2 version as the controller is almost perfect. I am not a big fan of the WII controller as you need the regular one to play many of the games well. I would suggest you look into Persona Portable, since you have a PSP all ready and think about getting Persona 3 Portable when it comes out later this month. (Maybe at the beginning of next month, not sure on the date.) I have just found that for the most part, the PS2 is just the home of more mature games.

1. "(Disney and Final Fantasy are my two of my favorite things XD)"

would you still love Disney if I told you Walt Disney was a Nazi?
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1623/was-walt-disney-a-fascist

2. DO you really need to ask a goshdarn forum to buy a game? next you have to ask if you want to breathe or not.

uzay2000 : Excuse me? What's your problem? All I was doing was asking whether or not I needed to play the other games in the series to even understand the plot of Birth by Sleep. It's asking for opinion.

Are you even trying to help? No. So why don't you just take your negative comments somewhere else.

Well dude I'll give you a hand here. I check a Kingdom Hearts fan-site everyday for the latest news. Anyway reading through many interviews that have been done with the series creator I can assure you that you don't need to buy all the games to understand one by itself. The creators make sure that it will appeal to all players veteran and newbie to the series. You will simply lack complete insight into the story. By all means buy the others if you get hooked by Birth By Sleep.

The fact that you gave Squenix money for Birth by Sleep is funny. Play 1 and 2 only. And then hope they don't add any more dumbass plot twist that do nothing to really further the story.

chugchu : umm... I haven't bought it yet... it's not even in stores where I am. And I said I didn't have a PS2, so I can't get the others yet. The point of me considering to get Birth by Sleep is to get me into playing Kingdom Hearts.
You really don't like Square Enix don't you? lol. What about Mistwalker? I haven't played any of their games, but I'm waiting for them to announce an American release date for their upcoming Wii game The Last Story. If you're paying attention to that game you'd know that my profile pic is concept art from that game.

motherfreak : Thank you very much for telling me that haha. I probably will get the others if I like Birth by Sleep. Actually, I'd probably get them even if I didn't like it, but I need to have PS2 first.

mdynasty926 : I love Square-Enix, I just don't like what they're doing lately. From my standpoint, if you haven't played 1 and 2, then play them. You could easily get the story even if you play only Birth by sleep though. But a PS2 should sell for as low as $50. I do like Mistwalker more though mainly because of Sakaguchi. He said Last Story might be his last game. I just really dislike Nomura.

chugchu : Yeah I did hear about the Sakaguchi thing, but I think that was confirmed that it was a mistranslated error, and in fact he was saying that he feels he puts so much effort into the it, as if it was his last game. I'm really looking forward to play that game ^^
As for Square Enix, I guess I can honestly say that I don't have much of a problem with the games I've played. I do like it when it was Square though.
I'd buy a PS2, but my parents aren't really very enthusiastic about me getting lots of video games :/.

You should relax, Kingdom Hearts is a great game to play no matter what version you happen to play first. The first Kingdom Hearts I played was Kingdom Hearts 2 and I really liked it a lot since then so you don't have to worry much about the story at all. Just have fun playing the game I'm sure you'll understand most of what their talking about.






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