Here We Go Again Meme Kingdom Hearts 3

Source images: Square Enix | Graphic: James Bareham/Polygon

All the Kingdom Hearts backstory you demand to fully understand Kingdom Hearts 3

Buckle upwards for 10 games' worth of story

By Jan 28, 2019, five:38pm EST

Delving into Kingdom Hearts for a newcomer is, in a give-and-take, overwhelming. The backstory spans nearly 17 years, more than seven games, and as many equally six different video game systems. Adding complexity, the series' release guild doesn't mirror its in-universe chronology.

So: What the heck even happens in Kingdom Hearts? We've done our best to clarify that on the eve of Kingdom Hearts three, the game we've long waited for to complete this sprawling saga. If you lot're a newcomer, a dabbler, or a fan, nosotros're here to explain Kingdom Hearts in as much particular every bit you care to have.

Kingdom Hearts in 100 words

Need the autograph version? Here'due south our best attempt:

An ancient battle between low-cal and dark fractured the world. Now, an evil magician, Xehanort, aims to re-create that historic boxing — the Keyblade War — to forge the 10-blade and gain access to the ability of the Kingdom Hearts. Sora, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, and their allies ring together as the Guardians of Light and accept out Xehanort and his 12 allies before they tin can proceeds access to the noesis and power that lies within Kingdom Hearts. But commencement they need to find new allies and rescue some old Keyblade students: Terra, Aqua, and Ventus.

Struggling to understand even one-half of those made-up words? Proceed reading. You've got a lot to learn.

Commencement, the timeline

You may call up that this ancient battle begins in the original Kingdom Hearts. Only the story of Kingdom Hearts does not begin with the game Kingdom Hearts. And Kingdom Hearts 3 is non, in fact, the third Kingdom Hearts game — it's the 10th in the series.

It's non like Foursquare Enix and Disney rolled out the story in a chronological way, either. Behold, the Kingdom Hearts game timeline, compressed into one handy paradigm by YouTuber Everglow:

At that place are tons of games that don't have numbers attached but are very much important to the overarching story. We call them spinoffs, because they deviate from the cardinal plot of Sora'due south journey, as depicted in the core games. Just many of these games take bearing on the events of Kingdom Hearts 3.

The beginning

We'll start with Kingdom Hearts χ . Everything begins generations earlier Sora, the immature protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, existed. A sage known as the Primary of Masters foretells that a battle betwixt low-cal and nighttime will happen, and trusts their apprentices, known equally the Foretellers, to protect the light above all else. The Principal of Masters then disappears, seemingly forever.

The Foretellers continue on peacefully, but several members begin to doubtable that one among them intends to betray the society. The group splinters and a state of war between them boils to the surface — instigating the cataclysmic event they were supposed to protect the globe against. The war between the Foretellers will become known as the Keyblade War, named after the weapons they each wield.

The ultra-powerful 10-blade is to arraign for the Keyblade War.

Square Enix

Keyblades are weapons extracted from the centre of a warrior. The stronger the heart, the stronger the Keyblade. The strongest of them all is the X-blade, the only tool capable of accessing Kingdom Hearts — a repository of all the hearts (nosotros'd call them souls) of beings and worlds. Whoever controls Kingdom Hearts has unlimited power, cognition, and all the other stuff that proficient guys typically protect from bad guys in stories similar this.

During the Keyblade War, the X-bract is fractured into 20 pieces: 13 dark pieces, and seven light pieces. The Keyblade State of war ends the known universe, but the hopes of children (seriously), also every bit a hidden Foreteller and their followers — they call themselves Dandelions — alive on to rebuild the world.

Introducing Master Xehanort

Adjacent is Kingdom Hearts: Birth Past Sleep . At present it's fourth dimension to skip into the time to come — non quite to Sora, but we're getting there. Xehanort is a creepy dude living on the Destiny Islands. Existence a general creep and all-around villain, Xehanort decides that he wants to copy the Keyblade War in order to bring back the X-blade and claim the legendary Kingdom Hearts for himself.

This is Master Xehanort — clearly a very evil guy.

Square Enix

Xehanort befriends a fellow Keyblade wielder named Eraqus, and tells him of his plot to copy the X-blade. Eraqus thinks that Xehanort'due south ideas are dangerous, then the 2 role means. Eraqus opens up a school to teach students how to get Keyblade masters, while Xehanort attempts to observe a pupil of his own whom he intends to bandy bodies with. Being creepy, old, and villainous in both listen and body can only take you so far.

Xehanort recruits a nice immature human named Ventus, who turns out to be besides weak to serve as Xehanort's new host. So Xehanort changes his plans and unlocks the darkness in Ventus' eye, splitting him into the light-filled Ventus and the dark-filled Vanitas. But this exhausts Ventus, and he falls into a coma.

Aqua is one of the strongest Keyblade wielders effectually.

Square Enix

Xehanort takes Ventus to Destiny Islands, bold he's on his last legs. This is when something very important happens: the first advent of Sora. Xehanort and Ventus cantankerous paths with newborn Sora, and his pure, proficient heart finds an instant connection with Ventus'. As a issue of their newly forged center-bond, Ventus regains consciousness. This impresses Xehanort, who had been convinced he was leaving Ventus for dead. He decides that Ventus may able to learn the means of the Keyblade after all — only not under his tutelage.

Xehanort eventually drops off a half-hearted Ventus with his onetime buddy Eraqus to train him, allowing Xehanort to focus on Vanitas. Xehanort acts remorseful when he runs into Eraqus, leading Eraqus to remember that Xehanort is no longer later on Kingdom Hearts. Here, Ventus makes some new friends: Aqua and Terra, Eraqus' other students. Aqua is an incredible Keyblade wielder, but Terra is filled with too much darkness in his current state to ever become a truthful master. Before Xehanort leaves Ventus behind, he senses inside Terra an opportunity for a new host.

Xehanort recruits Terra, preparing him to become some other new vessel. Vanitas convinces Ventus to follow afterward his friend — luring him into a trap. Aqua leaves Eraqus to save her friends. Terra eventually figures out that Xehanort is a total weirdo, and leaves the wizard's service.

During this time, Terra and Aqua separately run into a immature male child from Destiny Islands, Riku, and a immature girl from Radiant Garden, Kairi. Terra bequeaths his Keyblade to Riku, sensing that the boy will grow upward to be a worthy Keyblade wielder. As a result, Riku will exist able to access a Keyblade of his ain when he's older. Aqua, yet, accidentally bequeaths her Keyblade to Kairi when Kairi touches it, significant she'll also receive a blade when she grows. (One yr after this, Kairi is sent to live on Destiny Island later her globe is all but destroyed by darkness, and she meets her fellow futurity Keyblade primary Riku, forth with his all-time friend, a boy named Sora.)

Terra (left) encourages baby Riku to check out the Keyblade that the immature boy will one day wield himself.

Foursquare Enix

All of that volition matter much later, but for at present, we have to get dorsum to Eraqus and Xehanort.

Eraqus figures out pretty speedily after this that Xehanort hasn't changed his ways at all. In an attempt to save everyone, Eraqus tries to kill Ventus to stop Xehanort's plan, since Ventus has now grown stiff plenty to pose a threat. But Terra rescues his friend Ventus. While he's distracted, Xehanort kills Eraqus.

It seems similar every time Ventus gets up, he's knocked back downwardly.

Square Enix

Terra, Aqua, and Ventus effort to avenge their master, just Xehanort takes over Terra, who becomes Terra-Xehanort. Ventus and Vanitas finally square off and are evenly matched. They forge the X-blade briefly and combine to become i being. But the 2 have another fight within their newly combined centre, and Ventus wins the boxing, splitting them again. He destroys the X-blade and loses his heart in the process, which puts him into a coma. Only even in his sleep, Ventus' heart remembers the connection it made with Sora's, and his spirit travels to live within Sora's heart. (This volition let Sora to use the Keyblade afterwards on, past the manner!)

All the while, Aqua is fighting Terra-Xehanort. Before she loses, Male monarch Mickey — a Keyblade master who trained under the highly respected magician Yen Sid — jumps in to help her. (Rex Mickey, by the way, is Mickey Mouse. He's the outset Disney character to appear in this Disney grapheme-heavy franchise, and no, information technology'south never explained why he or any of the other Disney folks are involved. They merely ... are.)

Meanwhile, Aqua takes upwards Eraqus' keyblade and fights Terra-Xehanort some more than. The 10-bract is shattered again, and its destruction sends Terra-Xehanort and Aqua hurtling across worlds. Aqua ends upwards trapped in the world of darkness, while Xehanort gets transported to a world called Radiant Garden, where Kairi is from.

Nascence of the Nobodies

In Radiant Garden, Terra-Xehanort meets Ansem the Wise, a scientist who studies Hearts. Terra-Xehanort becomes Ansem's amateur, joining a large existing coiffure. Ansem is blissfully unaware of how evil his new trainee is. This ends badly for Ansem. Terra-Xehanort and the other apprentices atomic number 82 a coup against Ansem the Wise — who barely escapes, hiding his face up and renaming himself Diz.

Terra-Xehanort and his new cronies make up one's mind to use Ansem's enquiry to create what are the nigh prevalent monsters in the world of the Kingdom Hearts franchise: Heartless and Nobodies. A Heartless is created by cultivating the darkness within the hearts of living things, which leaves behind a husk. For virtually beings, this husk disappears, leaving the Heartless to shamble on. Simply when a center is removed entirely from a torso, that husk becomes a sentient existence of its own, called a Nobody.

A classic example of a Heartless.

Square Enix

Nobodies are fifty-fifty more powerful than Heartless, and then Terra-Xehanort wants to become one. When Terra-Xehanort splits his torso to become a Nobody, he creates an uncommonly powerful Heartless at the same time. This being steals the name of Xehanort's previous principal, referring to himself as Ansem. This Heartless will eventually be the final boss of Kingdom Hearts , while Xehanort'south Nobody, Xemnas, will be the final boss for Kingdom Hearts 2 .

And at present, the first Kingdom Hearts

Around this time, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty discovers the ability to command the Heartless. She uses this newfound power to destroy Radiant Garden. Its inhabitants, which include characters from Final Fantasy — for likewise unexplained reasons, there are Final Fantasy characters in these games — are transported to Traverse Town, a dwelling house for wayward souls. Maleficent takes over Radiant Garden as her own realm, which she calls Hollow Bastion.

The infestation of Heartless in the universe leads Male monarch Mickey to get out his palace in an effort to solve the problem. He fails to tell anyone that he's leaving, notwithstanding, and his mage, Donald, and captain of the baby-sit, Goofy, are shocked to discover that he has disappeared. Thankfully, Mickey wrote them a note before he took off, asking them to track downwardly someone who wields an unspecified "key to their survival." All they know is that they have to caput to a identify called Traverse Boondocks.

Sora, Kairi, and Riku are lifelong best friends, until their lives are torn asunder because of the Heartless.

Square Enix

Back on Destiny Island, Riku, Sora, and Kairi concur to explore the world together. Riku finds a manner to make their dream a reality: He accesses a door to some other world, which will permit them to leave their home for places unknown. But it turns out the door leads them directly into a realm of darkness — and then,not exactly the world-hopping journeying Sora and Kairi were looking for.

Riku, however, is undeterred, and beckons his friends to go through the door with him. Sora and Kairi pass up, leaving Riku to laissez passer through the door alone. He's immediately captivated by the darkness lurking behind it; it's the same energy that produced the Heartless that are breeding across the entire universe. A brewing storm grows fiercer, and Kairi soon vanishes. Riku's bequeathed Keyblade remains hidden, however, and, realizing that Sora'south heart is stronger, it choses Sora to wield it instead of Riku. Sora is now alone on Destiny Island, but not for long: The darkness blows Sora clean out of his world and into Traverse Town.

The crux of Kingdom Hearts' gameplay involves traveling to Disney-themed worlds, which is as endearing as information technology is perplexing. This is Sora with Hercules, who becomes 1 of his closest allies.

Foursquare Enix

Here, Sora runs into Donald and Goofy — who claim that Sora is the one they're looking for. They form a trio, promising to assist each other on their missions. Sora is looking for Riku and Kairi, while Donald and Goofy are hunting downwards Mickey. They decide to travel through Disney worlds together — like Neverland, Halloween Town, and Wonderland — in search of their friends. This leads them to Maleficent's Hollow Bastion, where Riku and Kairi reunite with Sora.

But the darkness that captivated Riku as well inverse him, allowing Ansem the Heartless to possess his heart. Ansem reveals that he'southward been creating an artificial Kingdom Hearts using a grouping of women known as the seven Princesses of Heart (Kairi, Snowfall White, Belle, Jasmine, Aurora, Alice, and Cinderella). Each one carries one of the the seven light pieces of the X-blade that broke off years before, when the legendary weapon shattered.

This is Ansem the Heartless. Looks way dissimilar than ol' Ansem the Wise, whose proper noun he stole!

Square Enix

At Hollow Bastion, Sora finds out that a piece of Kairi's heart is buried within him. Realizing that he'south been the key to finding Kairi all forth, Sora stabs himself, releasing his heart, Ventus' heart, and Kairi'south heart into the earth. Sora becomes a Heartless, but Kairi uses her Princess of Center powers to revert him to normal.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy chase Ansem the Heartless to a level called End of the World. Here, they all confront off against the large-bad in a serial of boss fights, with assistance from Riku and Mickey. In a last-ditch effort, Ansem the Heartless opens upwardly his ain creation of Kingdom Hearts, expecting the nature of all things to be evil and grant him unlimited darkness powers. But information technology's actually filled with light, and Ansem the Heartless disintegrates.

Defeating Ansem relieves the world of darkness — with one big exception. In social club to assistance Sora defeat the powerful Heartless, Riku and Mickey shove him through the door of low-cal. Simply they go stuck on the incorrect side of the door, trapping them within the darkness that remains. They must find their mode out, while Sora, Donald, and Goofy go off on other adventures and go along to await for Kairi.

Sora loses his retentiveness, and Roxas is reborn

This takes us to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . When Sora opened his heart to free Kairi, something unexpected happened: Two Nobodies were created. Roxas is the combined Nobody of Sora and Ventus, while Naminé is the Nobody of Kairi. But as a Princess of Middle, Kairi isn't supposed to exist capable of producing a Nobody or a Heartless. Since Naminé was created out of a workaround with Sora, she has some retentiveness powers.

Unlike the other Nobodies, Naminé's name isn't an anagram!

Square Enix

Meanwhile, the Nobody apprentices of Ansem the Wise class a group of powerful Nobodies chosen Organization Xiii, named for the xiii dark fragments of the X-bract. The goal of the Arrangement is to return all these Nobodies to their human bodies, which involves collecting as many hearts as possible.

The Organization has two members who lead a separate team to stop Sora, Donald, and Goofy: Marluxia and Larxene. They lure the team to a location called Castle Oblivion. Here, they've captured Naminé in an try to utilize her powers to change Sora'due south memories. Naminé is able to warn Sora, Donald, and Goofy, helping them avoid Marluxia and Larxene's plot. But their memories are all the same all messed up, so Naminé puts all three of them in stasis in gild to ready their brains.

In the meantime, Diz (formerly Ansem the Wise) helps Mickey and Riku escape. Aqua sacrifices herself in the process to save Riku, which locks her in the realm of darkness. Only a still-recovering Riku wears a blindfold and barely speaks, considering he's still trying rid himself of the remaining darkness within him.

Before Kingdom Hearts 2 ...

We're now at Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days . While all this is going on with Mickey, Sora, and the gang, Roxas gets recruited into Organization XIII. Roxas and a member of the Organization named Xion become good buddies with some other fellow member, Axel.

Best buds (and Organization Xiii members) Axel, Roxas, and Xion do what they usually do: Eat sea salt ice cream.

Square Enix

Xion is eventually revealed to be a program, created from the memories and information of Sora. With Roxas' help, Xion tin help bring Sora back to life and help him remember his job. But she must sacrifice herself to do so. While apprehensive at first, she eventually agrees and makes Roxas kill her, returning her memories to Sora. Bummed about the whole situation, Roxas leaves the System to seek revenge against information technology for Xion's death, which happened because of the group'due south plot.

When Roxas goes to attack Xemnas, who concocted the plan, Riku of a sudden appears and stops him, saying Roxas isn't powerful plenty nonetheless. Roxas and Riku fight, with Roxas wielding the Keyblades of both Ventus and Sora. In club to win, Riku unleashes the darkness inside of himself — transforming himself to look like Ansem the Heartless, although he however maintains control.

The Digital Twilight Town

Riku takes Roxas to Diz. In lodge to stop Roxas from messing with the Organization'south plans to have Naminé fix Sora, Diz traps him inside a digital earth chosen Twilight Town. Roxas hangs out with friends here, and is somewhen attacked by Axel, whom the Organization has sent to find Sora. But Roxas gets out alive, and eventually finds his mode to Sora. On the way, Naminé tells him that he's really a Nobody, and the only fashion that Sora can become whole is if they fuse together. Roxas allows this to happen — essentially likewise sacrificing himself — and Sora wakes up.

Roxas has a foreign feeling that there's something non quite right about his life in Twilight Town.

Square Enix

And thus, Kingdom Hearts two really begins. Our heroes go along doing what they did in the first game: immigration worlds of Heartless. Axel realizes he misses his practiced friend Roxas, and so he hatches a plan to recollect him from his new form every bit the other one-half of Sora, whom he has now declared war on. He eventually kidnaps Kairi in order to lure Sora to him, but ends upward sacrificing himself for Sora and coiffure, realizing that Sora and Roxas aren't that different subsequently all.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy get in to a place consumed by darkness chosen the World that Never Was, where the Arrangement maintains its headquarters. There, they finally meet up with Diz, Kairi, Naminé, and Riku, who all the same looks like Ansem the Heartless. Diz reveals himself to exist Ansem the Wise and uses a machine to excerpt hearts from the second artificial Kingdom Hearts run by the Arrangement. The machine is overwhelmed past the power of the Kingdom Hearts, causing it to explode. But this explosion cleanses Riku — returning him to normal — while seemingly killing Diz.

Riku and Sora work together to defeat the Organization and Xehanort'due south Nobody, Xemnas. But at that place's a problem. Turns out, when someone'southward Nobody and Heartless are destroyed, there is a chance that the original being is created anew. Many of the Arrangement XIII members re-form as the apprentices of Ansem the Wise, including Xehanort and Axel.

Here they are: every member of Organization 13. You lot get used to seeing their faces a lot, fifty-fifty if you lot never remember their names.

Square Enix

Fourth dimension for time travel

And guess what, y'all? To make matters worse, Xehanort can time-travel. That's right: As long as a version of Xehanort exists in the timeline he travels to, he can go all over the place. Xehanort then starts rebuilding Organization 13 with different versions of himself, all with the intention of fighting Sora & co. to copy the Keyblade War.

With Xehanort back in the picture, Yen Sid and Mickey work together to find Keyblade-wielding champions to be the Guardians of Light. They determine to find Aqua, Ventus, and Terra. They know Aqua is in the darkness world, and Ventus is assumed comatose somewhere, and then locating Terra is their big focus. After Naminé instructs Sora to participate in finding the legendary trio (in Kingdom Hearts: Coded ), he brings Riku and Kairi along for the adjacent footstep on their quest.

The mark of mastery

This takes us to Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance . Before they tin can truly stand a adventure confronting the ultra-powerful Xehanort, Sora and Riku have some serious training to practice. They both wish to get truthful Keyblade masters earlier the fight, so Yen Sid sends them on a mission to swoop into what are known as dream versions of worlds they've traveled to before.

Subsequently Sora emerges in the real globe from what is substantially preparation while he'southward asleep, he runs into an old member of the Arrangement: Xigbar, also known as Braig, who has been partially possessed by Xehanort. Xigbar is one of the members Xehanort has already managed to recruit as he rebuilds the crew, along with Ansem the Heartless and Xemnas. A young, time-traveled version of Xehanort puts Sora dorsum to sleep, and then he and what remains of the Organization thus far attempt to make Sora another host for Xehanort.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Altitude shows a starkly unlike side of Sora, who is driven to get a Keyblade master correct alongside his BFF, Riku.

Square Enix

Thankfully, Axel, Donald, and Goofy arrive to save Sora, who falls into a coma from his struggle against Xehanort. Ventus' heart, which you hopefully call up had found a dwelling house inside Sora'southward body, finally emerges to also aid protect Sora. Riku is engaged in his own fight at the same time, and is able to conquer his inner darkness one time and for all by fighting Ansem. Riku is and then granted the honor of being a Keyblade main, after he manages to be the only person who tin can wake Sora up. Because Sora didn't consummate his mission — he fell asleep! — he doesn't get the same title.

Xehanort's rebirth

And now we are here, at Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage- . (Yes, that'due south its name. Aye, it's impaired.) Sora has lost a corking deal of power considering of his battle to prevent Xehanort from taking over his body, but he remains committed to helping in the search for Aqua, Ventus, and Terra. Riku and Mickey are sent into the darkness to discover Aqua on their own, and Sora is given a new chore: to essentially find himself and activate his latent abilities to reawaken lost hearts. Kairi, who is too effectually and looking for something to practise, is given a Keyblade alongside Axel, and the 2 enter preparation separately.

Sora also has some training to do. So he does what he'southward e'er done: He travels to a Disney world to get some fighting practise in. He makes the near appropriate choice, heading to Olympus, where his old friend Hercules will certainly help him detect his force again.

Wrap-up

And that'southward information technology. That's the whole thing. Kingdom Hearts iii picks up with Sora, Donald, and Goofy headed to encounter Herc and Hades for the tertiary fourth dimension.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy: the real heroes of Kingdom Hearts. Clearly.

Square Enix

For lovers of the deepest kinds of lore, Kingdom Hearts may be i of the nearly satisfying stories in games. But later going through this unabridged synopsis of everything leading upward to the saga's decision, nosotros experience comfortable saying that Kingdom Hearts. Is. A. Lot. And maybe likewise much sometimes.

Loving Kingdom Hearts goes hand in hand with loving its complexities and the confusion inherent within them. If yous're yet confused, we'll leave you with this concluding summary for what is, in essence, the story of Kingdom Hearts:

Disney heroes team up confronting evil wizard Xehanort equally he attempts to re-create an ancient battle and gain access to Kingdom Hearts' ability and knowledge combined.

For an even deeper, more visual swoop, we recommend a shorter, funnier video from Frustrated Jacob and a longer, more than serious video from Suggestive Gaming. Along with the Kingdom Hearts Wiki, they were instrumental in helping usa remember the events of the Kingdom Hearts story then far.

As well, most chiefly, Polygon video producer Brian David Gilbert went ahead and unraveled the series with a lore analysis of his ain. Please check that out below.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/28/18197797/kingdom-hearts-3-explained-lore-characters

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