ok hear me out. this is one of my favorite series of all time. i would highly recommend it even if you don't care for most of the disney movie representation (though you might be suffering through the first game a lot). they haven't let those go yet, but it really has become its own thing as it went on.

kingdom hearts 2 is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ incredible. there is nothing else like it. Its combat is deep enough and satisfying as hell. the pacing and structure of it is seriously impressive (minus atlantica). this game will throw so many new mechanics at you throughout and all of them are actually fun to play with. it has a really long intro before the real start of the game but there's a good reason for it. this and birth by sleep are the only games in the series with something resembling cohesive plots and they are actually pretty good. so good that they really didn't need all the mobile game spinoffs that have been plaguing the series with increasingly complicated ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. if you're new, please ignore those for your own sanity.

honestly just buy this for kh2, though birth by sleep is fantastic too if you can handle the clunkier gameplay. just remember it was made for the psp. i'd definitely recommend playing at least part of kh1 first so you have some idea of what's going on, but you are supposed to be a little lost at the beginning of 2. it introduces a lot of new characters and places better than re:chain of memories does (which is between 1 & 2 btw). the cutscene movies are a weird addition and re:chain has such a god-awful combat system that i think it's fair to skip (though all of these are important to understand the story of future games).

it is actually a miracle that square enix put these on steam. please bring kh4 here on launch.