After fourteen long years, Kingdom Hearts III is here at last! And it's… pretty good. The latest adventures of Sora, Donald and Goofy won't exactly redefine the action/RPG, but the game is fun to play, and wraps up nearly two decades of crossover buildup.
Those who have been following Kingdom Hearts since the beginning already know just how twisted the story can get. But for those who have never played the series, here's the elevator pitch: A small (and then extremely large) cast of original characters navigate their way through a collection of Disney worlds, as well as original worlds inhabited by Final Fantasy characters.
I imagine that just about anyone picking up a Kingdom Hearts game has at least a passing interest in one of the two franchises. But if you dig a little deeper, there are an awful lot of Disney movies and Final Fantasy games referenced, and it's almost impossible that you've seen and/or played every single one.
MORE: Kingdom Hearts 3 Review: Same Disney Charm, Same Convoluted Story
With that in mind, I've set out to compile a comprehensive list of Disney shorts/films and Final Fantasy games that show up in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'll go through each game in the series and discuss what you'll need to watch in order to get the most out of each level. Watching and playing every single thing on this list would be a time-consuming endeavor — but then again, so is playing through the whole Kingdom Hearts series.
Kingdom Hearts (2002)
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Destiny Islands: Final Fantasy X (2001)
Traverse Town: Final Fantasy III (1990), Final Fantasy VII (1997), Final Fantasy VIII (1999), 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963)
Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Olympus Coliseum: Final Fantasy VII (1997), Hercules (1997)
Deep Jungle: Tarzan (1999)
Agrabah: Aladdin (1992)
Monstro: Pinocchio (1940)
Atlantica: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Halloween Town: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Neverland: Peter Pan (1953)
100 Acre Wood: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Hollow Bastion: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004)
Chain of Memories contains the same levels and characters as Kingdom Hearts. The new content in this game is endemic to the Kingdom Hearts setting.
Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
Twilight Town: Final Fantasy VI (1994), Final Fantasy VIII (1999), Final Fantasy IX (2000)
Radiant Garden: Final Fantasy VII (1997), Final Fantasy VIII (1999), Final Fantasy X-2 (2003), The Sword in the Stone (1963)
Olympus Coliseum: Hercules (1997), Final Fantasy X (2001)
The Land of Dragons: Mulan (1998)
Beast's Castle: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
100 Acre Wood: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Disney Castle: "The Chain Gang" (1930), "The Wise Little Hen" (1934), "Donald's Nephews" (1938), "Mr. Duck Steps Out" (1940), "Private Pluto" (1943), "Two Weeks Vacation" (1952)
Timeless River: "Steamboat Willie" (1928), "The Plow Boy" (1929), "Orphan's Benefit" (1934)
Atlantica: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Port Royal: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Agrabah: The Return of Jafar (1994)
Halloween Town: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Pride Lands: The Lion King (1993)
Space Paranoids: Tron (1982)
Kingdom Hearts: coded (2008)
Coded contains levels from the original Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (2009)
358/2 Days contains levels from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. The new characters in this game are endemic to Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010)
Castle of Dreams: Cinderella (1950)
Disney Town: "Steamboat Willie" (1928), "The Plow Boy" (1929), "Orphan's Benefit" (1934)
Deep Space: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Dwarf Woodlands: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Enchanted Dominion: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Neverland: Peter Pan (1953)
Olympus Coliseum: Final Fantasy VII (1997), Hercules (1997)
Radiant Garden: The Sword in the Stone (1953), "Scrooge McDuck and Money" (1957)
100 Acre Wood: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
La Cité des Cloches: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Prankster's Paradise: Pinocchio (1940)
Traverse Town: "Runaway Brain" (1995), The World Ends With You (2007)
Country of the Musketeers: Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004)
Symphony of Sorcery: Fantasia (1940)
The Grid: Tron: Legacy (2010)
Kingdom Hearts χ
Kingdom Hearts χ features levels from Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep. All new characters are endemic to Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-
A Fragmentary Passage deals with worlds, characters and plot details endemic to the Kingdom Hearts series.
Kingdom Hearts III
Twilight Town: Ratatouille (2007)
Arendelle: Frozen (2013)
The Caribbean: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
San Fransokyo: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Kingdom of Corona: Tangled (2010)
Monstropolis: Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Olympus: Hercules (1997)
Toy Box: Toy Story (1995)
100 Acre Wood: Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)
Altogether, that's 32 films, 10 shorts, and seven video games — and that's not even counting some of the summon spells, offhand references and Easter eggs. (For the purists out there: Yes, it's true that Scrooge McDuck as well as Huey, Dewey and Louie all originated in comic strips, not cartoons. But I've included their first cartoon appearances for consistency's sake.) I've also left out a few worlds and provided their characters' origins in other worlds where they appear, to avoid undue repetition.
MORE: What Is Kingdom Hearts? Gaming's Most Convoluted Crossover Explained
To fully grok the world of Kingdom Hearts, you'd have to invest a few hundred hours for the Kingdom Hearts games themselves, and another few hundred hours for all the material that inspired them.
However, the good news is that the movies, shorts and games represented here are generally worth your time. Some of them are genuine classics; others are simply entertaining. And, if you have kids, this is a fantastic excuse to expose them to some classic Disney films, rather than just watching Frozen over and over until the laser wears through the Blu-ray disc.
While Kingdom Hearts III wraps up the main story so far, it's a good bet that we'll see more Kingdom Hearts games in the future. Which worlds could Square Enix still explore? Robin Hood (1973) and The Emperor's New Groove (2000) seem like solid bets to me, and I think fans would just about lose their minds for The Great Mouse Detective (1986).
I wouldn't hold out much hope for Home on the Range (2004), Mars Needs Moms (2011) or The Good Dinosaur (2015), though.
Credit: Square-Enix/Disney
