Explaining Kingdom Hearts
So playing the mobile Kingdom Hearts game has made me want to refresh my memory of the KH story and be ready for the 3rd game. Now KH is quite known for having a complicated story and some of the explanation posts I've found are quite long. I want to try to make a simpler and shorter post of the story. Some areas I will link to a wiki page if you want to learn more about them, and if I make any mistakes please comment so I would know.
Obviously there will be spoilers so please do not continue reading this post if you do not want spoilers.
There is always two sides: Light and Darkness. So I will split this post into those two sides to makes things easier. I even put a tl;dr to those who want it even shorter but only for the light side since its the longest.
| LIGHT | DARKNESS |
|---|---|
 Kingdom Hearts grants power and wisdom, and is the main objective of the main villain in each game. It is made by collecting hearts. |
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 Birth By Sleep takes places about 10 years before KH1. This tells the story of 3 friends: Ventus, Terra, and Aqua. They are apprentice keyblade wielders who become victims of Xehanorts plans. Aqua gets trapped in the darkness in order to save Terra. Terra is targeted to be Xehanort's new vessel who was able to succeed to getting into his body. But because of Aqua, he wakes up with no memories. Ventus had the darkness in him removed and it became Vanitas, the source of the monsters and a key role in Xehanort's plans. Ventus defeates Vanitas but as a result his heart is damaged. That is when little Sora lets Ventus's heart reside in him. |
 Xehanort, a keyblade master, took his own heart to prolong his life in order to fulfill his desire to get the true Kingdom Hearts which only the χ-blade (pronounced exactly like keyblade) can do. He did this again when he's in Terra's body as Ansem the Wise's apprentice. This resulted in a Heartless of him called Ansem, the main villain in KH1. And a Nobody named Xemnas, the main villain in KH2. |
TL;DR Sora goes to find his disappeared best friends and ends up saving worlds from Ansem the heartless who are taking people's hearts. Sora does find his friends but got separated again. Sora is the main protagonist in these games. He lives on Destiny Islands with his best friend Riku. When Kairi moved there later they became close friends. When darkness overcame the islands Riku and Kairi disappeared. Sora gets the keyblade and gets swept up in a different world. There Sora meets Donald and Goofy who become his traveling companions. In KH1 they are searching for Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey. They traveled to many different worlds and made new friends. Sora is glad to see Riku is fine but he becomes antagonistic towards Sora later on over the keyblade. Sora finds Kairi in a comatose state. He learns that Kairi's heart has been residing inside him the whole time. Sora defeats possessed Riku and goes to free Kairi's heart by losing his own and becoming a heartless. This also released the captured princesses' hearts, and unlocks the final keyhole to the Door to Darkness. Kairi was somehow able to find heartless Sora and restore him. Sora defeats Ansem but Ansem ends up opening the Door to Darkness. With the help of Riku and Mickey, the door is closed and prevented the heartless behind the door from going through. As Destiny Islands gets restored, Sora and Kairi get separated with Kairi staying on Destiny Islands. Sora, Donald, and Goofy continue their journey to find Riku and King Mickey. |
 Xehanort's heartless, Ansem, has control over heartless and has them invade other worlds. He searches for Kingdom Hearts thats behind the Door to Darkness. In order to open it he needs 7 Princesses of Heart. He manipulates Maleficent to get the hearts who then manipulates Riku to turn against Sora and capture the princesses. Riku ends up being possessed by Ansem. Riku comes back when Ansem is destroyed. He and King Mickey stayed behind the Door to Darkness where countless heartless are behind them. |
| TL;DR Organization XIII is bad and messed up Sora's memories. Sora goes to defeat the Organization members who are messing with him, but now has to go to sleep for a year to fix his memories. In Chain of Memories, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are led to Castle Oblivion. As they go through the floors, their memories are being erased and manipulated by Namine. She is being controlled by Marluxia, a member of Organization XIII. Namine helps Sora by explaining what is happening to him. With the help of replica Riku that he's been confronting with in the castle, Sora was able to save Namine and defeat Marluxia. Namine has Sora, Donald, and Goofy go into memory pods so that she can restore their memories. This process ended up taking one year.  In the darkness, Riku finds himself in the lower levels of Castle Oblivion. Ansem the Heartless is still in his heart so Riku has to resist and fight him. He goes through the floors with the help of Mickey's voice. He learns to accept that the light and the dark are part of him. He meets Namine who offered to help him get rid of his darkness, but Riku decides to overcome it himself. He also sees Sora sleeping in his memory pod, and meet the other voice that has helped him, DiZ who Riku choose to help as Sora sleeps. Riku goes to capture Roxas. Diz puts Roxas in a virtual town to keep him safe from the Organization. |
  In 358/2 Days, the Organization recruited others nobodies with Roxas and Xion being the newest members. Since Roxas is Sora's nobody, he can wield the keyblade. Xion is a replica of Roxas so she too can wield one as well. They and Axel became good friends. However the restoration of Sora's memories starts to affect both Roxas and Xion since both are part of Sora. This makes them questioned themselves and they leave the Organization. The Organization's members were told their goal was to have hearts again by obtaining Kingdom Hearts, but Xemnas's true goal was to make them all into Xehanort's copies. Xion sacrifices herself since her existence prevents Sora from waking up. Roxas goes to find Sora but ends up being taken by Riku and DiZ |
TL;DR Roxas goes back to his original self who is Sora thus making Sora wake up. Sora goes to find Riku as well as save worlds and defeat the nobodies from Organization XIII who are trying to obtain Kingdom Hearts. Then he finally is able to go back to Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi. In KH2, Roxas lost his memories and lives in the virtual Twilight Town as a normal boy on summer vacation. As Sora's restorationg near its completion, Roxas starts to have weird dreams. Monsters also start appearing because an Organization member, Axel, has found him. This all confuses him till Namine, Kairi's nobody, eventually tells him the truth that he is Sora's nobody. When Roxas finds Sora, he returns to him thus completing Sora's restoration. Once Sora, Donald, and Goofy wakes up they resume their search for Riku and King Mickey. They go to save worlds from Organization XIII and other troubles. Sora gets confused when the members of the Organization calls him Roxas. Later Mickey informs Sora that the real Ansem, Ansem the Wise, is a good guy. He also tells him the true nature of Ansem the heartless and Xemnas the Nobody. Sora then learns that Kairi has been kidnapped by Axel. When he finds Axel, he said Kairi was taken by the Organization from him. Axel sacrifices himself to help Sora reach the Organization's headquarters. There Sora finds Kairi and Ansem the heartless which happen to be Riku. Riku explains he had to use the power of the darkness to capture Roxas, and as a result his body took the form of Ansem the heartless. DiZ reveals himself to be Ansem the Wise, and sacrifices himself to break the Kingdom Hearts that's forming in the sky. This also somehow frees Riku's from Ansem thus having his original body back. The gang go to fight Xemnas and afterwards leave the world, but Sora and Riku weren't able to leave. They go to truly defeat Xemnas and after a bit of wondering the light brought them back to Kairi on Destiny Islands. Later on they receive a message in a bottle from King Mickey.  |
Maleficent and Pete return and resume their goal to taking over the worlds. They follow Sora to the Organization's headquarters and they fight the monsters which helps Sora out. Like Ansem the heartless, Xemnas aims to obtain Kingdom Hearts. He sends monsters to Sora who unknowingly releases hearts that will become Kingdom Hearts. Sora ends Xemnas and the Organization. |
 Coded/Re:coded is simply a game that reveals the content of Mickey's letter. Namine finds memories of Roxas and Ventus when she was restoring Sora's memories. She left a vague message about them in Jiminy Cricket's journal who was sleeping along with Sora at the time. Apparently Sora is the only one who can save these people from their pain and he sets out to find Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. |
 A young Xehanort travels through time and finds that some of the Organization members back to their human forms. He takes two, Xigbar/Braig and Saix/Isa, and goes to form a new Organization XIII. |
| Dream Drop Distance has a pretty neat opening movie where it recaps the story up until now and I highly recommend watching it. TL;DR Yen Sid readies keyblade wielders to prepare for Xehanort's return. Sora and Riku goes to take the exam to become Keyblade Masters, but Sora gets taken away by the new Organization XIII to become the final vessel of Xehanort. Riku and friends rescue Sora. In the end Riku passes and becomes a Keyblade Master.  Yen Sid is predicting that Xehanort will return, and has Sora and Riku take the exam to become Keyblade Masters to prepare. They get put to sleep and dream where they go back in time. This whole dream and time thing doesn't make sense in this game so I won't bother figuring it out. Anyway, as they go through the worlds young Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas cause trouble for both Sora and Riku. When Sora and Riku unlock the required worlds in the exam, they both didn't return back to Yen Sid. Instead they are taken to Organization XIII's headquarters. There Sora is put into a deep sleep where he chases illusions and memories. Riku tries to wake him up but has to fight Ansem. Sora also fights Xemnas but the fight has weakened him enough for the Organization to put him in a comatose state. Riku finds Sora but young Xehanort stops him from taking Sora. Mickey, Axel/Lea, Donald, and Goofy come in to help stop original Xehanort from placing a part of his heart into Sora. The gang brings Sora back to Yen Sid. Riku takes the task to save the comatose Sora and wake him up. He goes into Sora's heart where he fights a possessed Ventus' armor which is holding Sora. Afterwards Roxas, Ventus, and Xion ask Riku questions and then Riku meets Ansem the Wise. Ansem tells him that Sora is awake and gives Riku the data he hide in Sora's heart. Riku wakes up and is told that he is a Keyblade Master. While Sora goes to do his own thing, Riku and the others are preparing the Seven Lights that Xehanort has talked about. Axel/Lea and Kairi are training to be keyblade wielders. |
 The new Organization XIII is nearly complete with its members different incarnations of Xehanort including the original Xehanort himself. All are brought by young Xehanort who traveled through time to gather them. They plan to use Sora as the final vessel of Xehanort's heart, and interfere with his Mark of Mastery exam. When the members plus Sora, Riku, and Mickey have gather, the original Master Xehanort arrives. The Organization has explained their plans in full in the game to our heroes. Time travel seems to have strange rules in this game. While the members are from different times, they can only be out of their original time for a short while. They failed to turn Sora into a vessel before time ran out. Xehanort promises to return again with all 13 Darkness |
I highly look forward to Kingdom Hearts 3 and will update this post when new games comes out. Remix 2.8 and the mobile game Unchained X take place before the keyblade war. Not sure whether to fit that in here or not.
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