Critical reception of the Kingdom Hearts series

Generally, reception of the Kingdom Hearts franchise has been high and positive; the titles' success have given the series of games a cult following. Many gaming sites, shows, and magazines have praised the series for its innovation and great RPG style. Even X-Play had a Kingdom Hearts special right before Kingdom Hearts II was released.

Idea reception
When Square and Disney announced trying to hybrid a game between Final Fantasy and the Disney franchise of films and merchandise, many were confused and a lot of articles and fan responses believed this idea would horribly backfire. But to many's surprise, the series did in fact take off with highly grossing money, and it was one of the top three highest grossing games the month of its release.

Kingdom Hearts
Reception to  Kingdom Hearts was very positive. IGN named it the best game of 2002. It was also listed in an IGN poll to be the 22nd best PS2 game ever made. But, like most games, there were still issues with the game, such as many criticized the Gummi Ship aspect of the game to be pointless and boring, while the main issue focused on with complains was the camera angle making it hard for players to maneuver around. But overall, the game has earned very high reviews.

Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix
Surprisingly, in the areas which released the reselling of Kingdom Hearts with some new features did very well. In Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, the Unknown battle and other extra features became very high news, and were highly accepted.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories received mostly mixed reviews. While the story was highly regarded, and the playable Riku's story was adored by fans, the card based battle system was very highly criticized. Issues with the battle system included the card value and reloading system, also the fact that abilities could not be equipped and unequipped hurting strategies. Also, due to its initial release on the Game Boy Advance, many fans were distraught with having to buy a new gaming system for the sequel. Neverless, the game sold well with 1.5 million copies being sold worldwide.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
Although Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories was yet again criticized for the card battle system, it still received surprisingly high reviews. It sold a large amount of copies in North America and Europe, where it was sold as a stand-alone title.

Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II has received numerous awards and high ratings. It tied with Resident Evil 4 for best game of 2005. In the higly regarded Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, it received an almost perfect rating: 39/40. The game also received a 9.5/10 in the North American Game Informer magazine. G4 awarded it Best Soundtrack and Best Voice Work. But the gameplay aspect of the game was criticized, as many did not like the AI system or the fact that the game was so much easier than its predecessor; but still, many commented that the game was fun. As of yet, it remains the highest selling game in the franchise.

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix
The Japanese remake of the second game, Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix was highly regarded, and all the features were praised by fans. Many in other regions of the worlds hoped for the game to be released in North America and PALs regions, but sadly this did not come to be. The battles against the old Organization members and against Roxas was especially regarded, as well as the battle against the Enigmatic Soldier.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
When the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days demo was released, it was highly praised as being fun and way better than Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, its predecessor in the handheld platforms. In Japan, it has recieved very high reception; in North America, GameStop already is have having customers request many pre-ordered copies. In Japan, it has sold 397, 000 copies in the last week of May and June.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Kingdom Hearts coded has only released one playable episode, for Japanese mobile phones. As of yet, the game hasn't received any reviews.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
The demos for Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep have been highly received by fans. The game has not yet been released, yet it already has a high following of fans who look for any new info they can find.

Kingdom Hearts V CAST
Kingdom Hearts V CAST was not widely played but it only received moderate reviews by players of the game and was quickly removed from the Verison store. it is currently unavailable at this time.