Tired of waiting for Kingdom Hearts 4? Instead introduce the series to your family

I am not ignorant of the fact that Kingdom Hearts is a load of crap. What began as a charming crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy on the PS2 in 2002 has slowly grown into a massive franchise with intricate lore and complex themes. As someone who's been there since the beginning — my weirdo dad refused to buy me a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and gave me Kingdom Hearts instead — I'm in too deep now, and there's no turning away. So why not involve my loved ones?

When my sister recently popped in and started trawling through my physical video game collection to play, she was drawn to Kingdom Hearts 3's box art. It has lots of lovably detailed spiky-haired characters, for some reason, he recognized Disney characters like Donald Duck, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse. While they are innocently looking at the starry sky above them. It's a fascinating picture that raises many questions, including whether this long-running series is for you.

How do you get into the heart of the kingdom?

It may seem like a daunting series to get into, and in many ways it certainly is, but actually getting your hands on the games has never been easier. Every major game in the series is now available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC as various remaster collections and individual entries. Aside from the funny titles for each collection, it's easy to figure out which games belong to each and the best place to start. Or you can opt for an all-in-one bundle instead.

And if you start with the original Kingdom Hearts, it's a fairly harmless on-ramp that does a wonderful job of establishing its main characters and story beats before throwing you in at the deep end. It's easy to root for Sora, Kairi, and Riku's desire to leave their sleepy tropical island with the ambitious hopes of seeing other worlds and leading a life of adventure, while the revelation that the worlds disappear as soon as they're connected makes us team up with Donald and Goofy as fate's newly revealed heroes. Combine all of that with familiar Disney classics, and you have a fun recipe for success.

It's not until Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 2 that the series begins to introduce all of its original concepts, such as Organization XIII, the Nobodies, and loads of other things that will soon be defined by their own convolutions. But once you've already hit the credits in the original game, you're on board and never look back. I've played every major title in the series, and I'm happy to admit that its main story goes over my head.

Despite this lack of granular understanding, the journey of heroes who fight the good fight and believe in the true power of love, friendship, and sacrifice is always so wonderful that its flaws are trivial to ignore. If anything, all the crap only makes it better.

For one thing I can't forgive Kingdom Hearts for introducing much needed story beats and information in its mobile games. Birth by Sleep was a tough pill to swallow when I didn't have PSP as a baby.

Does he have time to meet before Kingdom Hearts 4?

My sister has never played a Final Fantasy game in her life, so on the surface, Kingdom Hearts seems like an incredibly big ask. But as I mentioned before, its core story of people overcoming using the power of friendship and the endless amount of variety it can offer in terms of setting and gameplay appeals enough to appreciate even the most vanilla of newcomers. It's not the hardest series on the planet, just ease up on the difficulty and enjoy the story if you're so inclined.

Time will tell if my sister actually stays with the series, but she's already half a dozen hours into the first game and I want to guide her along the way. I'm currently racking my brain over which entries should be play-throughs and which ones are best served by watching plot summaries on YouTube, or enjoying the cutscenes provided by the various collections. If you set out to play every single Kingdom Hearts experience from start to finish, it would take you months or more.

(Left to right) Donald Duck, Sora and Goofy prepare for battle in Kingdom Hearts.

What I've loved most about this journey so far, though, is watching someone I love fall so deeply into a series that has meant so much to me for so long. Kingdom Hearts was an incredibly formative piece of media for me as a kid, and goes a long way toward explaining to people why I'm a loser in my thirties. As someone who has to stay up to date on the biggest releases of all time, it's comforting to sit back and watch someone else enjoy video games for once. I'll report back once she hits the credits.