My Kingdom Hearts experience started when I got my hands on 358/2 Days, but allow me to backtrack a bit...
When the game was first released, I would see these commercials for Kingdom Hearts. It didn't make any sense to my young mind, but I was captivated at the sight of Disney Characters joining forces (this was also the same feeling I had when I discovered Smash Bros). I never got to experience the game, since we had all Nintendo and no Playstation, and I was never able to explore more about it on the internet. However, I remember having late night conversations and laughs with my brothers and sisters about completely unrelated Disney characters duking it out (Cinderella Vs. Cruella De Vil, fighting with glass slippers, Ariel killing baddies with a hairbrush, etc.)
Fast forward several years; I went to one of my friend's houses for the first time to play Gamecube with him and he had Kingdom Hearts II posters in his room depicting Sora (I didn't know his name at the time), Donald, and Goofy in different-themed outfits and worlds. Upon seeing them in Tron-ish looking outfits, I asked him "Hey is that from Tron?" When he confirmed yes, I was baffled at how this game would have worlds from Disney movies as obscure as Tron. Seeing how it caught my interest, he showed me some of Kingdom Hearts II and Space Paranoids. I don't remember much, because the game, to me, was litterally a blur. But I also remember him going to the Underworld and summoning Stitch and all this craziness. Honestly, all this information registered in my head as one word... EPIC.
That day was actually just before Days was released, and I actually stumbled upon a trailer for Days in the Nintendo Channel on the Wii. Excited for this discovery (and of course, still not understanding a thing other than it had Disney people), I brought my friend over and showed him the trailer. Little did I know, but my mother was actually watching the trailer from the sidelines and gained an interest in it.
I learned that she was trying to get her hands on it, and when we happened to bump into the game at the store, my mom was dismayed when she learned that she didn't have enough money to buy it. Later on, me and my siblings managed to pitch in enough money to buy it for her without her knowing until we surprised her with it when we got home.
A couple days later, I learned that she became disillusioned with it, which kind of shocked me because we all got it to her as a gift. She told me to take it for a spin and see what I thought of it, and honestly, I could see right from the start why she gave up: 1) I had no clue what was going on. 2) The controls were confusing. and 3) THERE WERE NO DISNEY CHARACTERS (right from the start at least.)
I myself was about to give up, but determined to find out what Disney had to do with it, I pressed on, actually developing connections with this Roxas and his best friend Axel, and later Xion. Soon, the fact that there were Disney worlds didn't matter as much, because I actually fell in love with the story, discovering it had to do a lot with friendship, which is something that means a lot to me.
This was also probably the longest DS game I've ever experienced, and it felt like I'd never see the end of the story. Actually, when Re:Coded was released, I tried to finish the story as soon as possible so I'd be ready for the next game. I made it clear to the end, actually crying at Xion's death. The ending confused me, but it's just because I haven't played KH II to know. After one epic game was finished, it was time to get the next one and get to know this "Sora."
After spending $35 on the game, I started playing Re:Coded and was simply blown away at the title sequence. As the story progressed, I discovered I had much in common with this Sora character, and yet again the touching theme of friendship came up a lot. The system sectors definately got old, but the Avatar menu and the epic story (haha keep in mind I haven't played KH I before) were enough to satisfy.
Thirsty to get the whole story, I started looking up stuff all about Kingdom Hearts (which is how I encountered KH13). I got a hold of all the tracks from the Kingdom Hearts series (even KH3D before I even got it), since I absolutely loved Shimomura's work. Plus, it was interesting to hear amazing songs from games you haven't played firsthand before. When KH3D was announced, it became one of my main influencers to get a 3DS along with SF643D and SSB4.
The wait got more and more intense as I got a 3DS. The Mark of Mastery edition was announced, and when I got a hold of enough money to pre-order it, the wait became unbearable as I looked up reviews and eventually got to experience the awesome demo. Aug. 7-13 was the date on Amazon. I was hoping it would come earlier, but I expected it would come late. To my surprise, on Aug. 7 exactly, guess what showed up in the mailbox. I was dizzy and stunned at the arrival and the excitement thereof, because I was expecting it to come later. It also made it a lot harder to focus and finish my online history for the day. However, at 5pm that day, I got to put it in.
The opening movie gave me goosebumps, as well as everything about the game. Not sure exactly what was happening, I was overwhelmed and excited at the mass content the game offered compared to the DS versions. Although I was skeptical at first, after experiencing them, I fell in love with the dream eaters, and the huge worlds were so much fun to explore, especially with the all-powerful flowmotion at my fingertips. But alas, I forgot about the drop gauge until it showed up. Dismayed, I realized my explorations were now going to be stressed by a ticking timer that threatened to throw me off track. I realized collecting every treasure was not going to be an easy task. However, I've grown accustomed to the drop gauge and the handy drop-me-nots. I just need a lot of munny to keep my drop-me-not stock up. And I gotta say, Standard mode is hard.
Really though, this has got to be one of the coolest games I've ever played. (And to be honest, Traverse Town's theme in this game is much, much less annoying than in the others; I could listen to it all day.) My only wish is to be able to replay the stories in each world and to be able to explore without worrying about dropping. Oh, and I really wish my rare dream eater card would stop revealing Sudo Neku. I want a Meowjesty I promise I've saved before using it and am constantly exiting and coming back to it and it always, always has Sudo Neku. Oh well, maybe Meowjesty will show up eventually. But I'm pumped to see how the rest of the story goes... if I can only get past Rinzler...