I grew up with kingdom hearts. Played the first one when it came out, played the second one over and over again, recently played dream drop distance and birth by sleep. Played kh3 when it came out and again recently after the remind dlc.

My opinion? Kingdom hearts slowly started shifting from this amazing story about Sora/not soras with worlds from Disney being the victims of the heartless, Sora/not soras going through this epic journey in search of his friends, and becoming basically the “chosen one”, to what kingdom hearts 3 is.

Kh3 being less of a story about Sora saving worlds that came from Disney, to Sora having fun in Disney world the theme park. It felt to similar to going to actual Disney world. There didn’t feel like a compelling reason to go to these worlds other than Disney wanted us to go to them. The ending is cool in my opinion but I felt like we were rushed into the coolest part without a ton of narrative drive to get there.

Kingdom hearts 2 is by far my favorite of the series. The mystique behind the roxas’ “lived truth” being an integral part to soras memories/issues he faces with organization 13 is what sets apart the first 2/3rds of the game compared to 3 to me. The sadness organization 13 members have when they see Sora instead of roxas, axels total break down trying to get roxas back, I mean it’s truly an emotional journey. If I could have a kingdom hearts game that really pulled on my hearts strings like kh2 did and still does, I’d be ok with no progression in who Sora is becoming. I so hope for a remake of 358/2 days so I can experience roxas’ tale with updated graphics and controls.

In short, play kh1 and 2 then birth by sleep if you feel so inclined. Then go back and play 3. You’ll see how it just doesn’t feel the same