7 Long-Running Video Game Franchises (And Where To Start With Them)

Start with: Kingdom Hearts

With games titled “Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage”, you know Kingdom Hearts is a complicated series. With all the weird games that appear to be spin-offs but are just as important as the main trilogy it's hard to know where to start with this series. Like many things, it's best you start at the beginning.

It might be tempting to start with one of the later entries which have improved combat, better visuals, and more realised versions of the Disney worlds, but if you want to know what's going on you're going to have to start with the original Kingdom Hearts.

Luckily it still holds up surprisingly well, and is featured in collections like the “Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package”.

Another great thing about the original Kingdom Hearts is that the story is easy to understand. The Kingdom Hearts series is notoriously complicated, but the original entry is mostly just a fun adventure through various Disney worlds alongside Donald and Goofy.

Savour the simplicity whilst you can, because after you've beaten the original you're in for a story so complicated that trying to understand it will feel like studying for a degree.