With Kingdom Hearts 3 coming out on January 25, 2019, a lot of fans are working to jog their memories of what actually has happened in the series up to this point.

If you’ve only played Kingdom Hearts one and two, then you must have lived in a world of confusion. Suddenly you play a kid named Roxas in a place called Twilight Town. Where was Sora? Apparently, Roxas was a part of Sora and Sora has been in a coma. That’s wild! Then you realized you missed not only one but two very necessary games to understand Kingdom Hearts’ plot and characters.

Those who only had the PS2 but no PSP or Nintendo DS had a wait a long time or watch a “Let’s Play” on YouTube to understand what was going on in Kingdom Hearts. Why? It’s because they missed two entire games, Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days.

These two games introduced essential characters, places, and produced a lot of development for major characters like Sora and Riku. The two games also taught its fans nearly everything about Nobodies, their goals, Organization XIII, and many new bad guys.

If you’ve played only Kingdom Hearts one and two and still have not played the other games, now is the time. If you don’t believe it, here is a list of twenty-five events that happened between the first and second games. We’ll try to go in order for your convenience.

25 Sora And Riku Go To Castle Oblivion

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All of Chain of Memories takes place in Castle Oblivion. The origin of Castle Oblivion is explained in the later game, Birth by Sleep, and we find out it was created by Aqua to keep Ventus safe during his coma.

The castle was eventually found by the Organization and was made into a second headquarters.

It is there where Sora travels to straight after the first Kingdom Hearts. Not far behind him, Riku enters Castle Oblivion and goes on his own journey inwards to defeat Ansem, who still lives inside him.

24 Naminé Is Introduced

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Naminé proved to be a very special and essential character to the Kingdom Hearts franchise. She is known as a witch who can manipulate memories. She’s Kairi’s Nobody, but a unique one since Kairi’s heart had no darkness and never made a heartless. She plays large roles in the games between one and two, being the force that manipulates Sora’s memories, and then tells Xion of her true nature in 358/2 Days.

Her powers are connected to drawing, as players can see in cutscenes or by exploring where Naminé resides that she draws people’s memories.

Art was done by Jiyke.

23 Riku Was Cloned

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A lot of nonconsensual experimentation happened in Castle Oblivion. One such experiment involved a Riku clone. He was created by Vexen and is one of the main antagonists of Chain of Memories.

The replica is rather tragic since Naminé gave him memories to think he is the real Riku.

He even fought against the idea, but was beaten and got the original Riku’s memories anyway. He was used to manipulate Sora until he realized he’s a replica and tried to defeat the original Riku. He was ultimately defeated by the real Riku.

Artist is Amano Shiro.

22 Some Organization Members Are Defeated

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The first appearance of the Organization happens in Chain of Memories. The game has Marluxia, Larxene, Zexion, Lexaeus, Axel, and Vexen. All of them though, save Axel, were defeated in various ways.

Marluxia and Larxene are defeated by Sora. Zexion and Vexen are eliminated by Axel. Lexaeus is done in by Riku. It was very much a party wipe on the Organization’s part. The fact that the Organization was having its own little civil war for control did not help either.

Art was done by Amano Shiro.

21 Sora Forgets About Kairi

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Due to Naminé’s memory manipulation, Sora’s memories get a little scrambled the further he travels into Castle Oblivion. One such scramble is that his memories of Kairi became memories about Naminé. She even changed the lucky charm Sora got from Kairi to reflect a false memory.

It’s these false memories that make Sora travel further into Castle Oblivion to save Naminé from the Organization since he thinks he knew her since childhood instead of Kairi.

This drove the Kairi and Sora shippers wild. It’s alright though since his memories were later repaired.

20 Fighting With Cards

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A huge complaint about Chain of Memories was the combat. The combat was a card-based system that many fans felt was unnecessary. This caused players to have to build and sort cards to create combos, which is probably not what they signed up for or expected in a Kingdom Hearts game. The combos and heals were also easily disrupted by enemies which players found very frustrating.

Every combat action was a card from items to spells to attacks. Some special gimmick cards appeared during boss battles. There were also friend cards that could summon characters like Bambi or Genie.

Artist is unknown.

19 Marluxia And Larxene Betray The Organization

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Marluxia working with Larxene, attempted to overthrow the Organization during the events of Chain of Memories. Using Naminé, they planned to manipulate Sora into defeating the senior Organization membors.

This whole plot comes from a rivalry between the more recent members and the original six members.

Vexen and Axel were part of Marluxia and Larxene’s team but turned out to have different agendas in the end. Their undoing however was less of their opposing Organization members and more of just Sora coming in and defeating them despite their attempts at manipulating him.

Artist is unknown.

18 Sora Gets Fake Memories

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As mentioned before, Naminé did not only erase memories, but could create new ones. She accomplished this by replacing memories of Kairi with memories of her instead. So this part of the list ties in with Sora forgetting Kairi.

It should be highlighted that Sora got fake memories to replace Kairi though. While this was part of Naminé’s plan, there are hints that it was also because Kairi was so important to Sora that he could not completely forget her. So Naminé used fake memories partly because Sora could not completely forget Kairi.

Artist is Eva Lara.

17 Axel Revealed As Double Agent

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Axel is a total trickster in terms of the Organization members, as he often switches sides and fans could not really read into him until playing 358/2 Days. In Chain of Memories, it’s revealed that he acts as a double agent. He pretends to work with Marluxia and Larxene while also pretending to work with Vexen, Zexion, and Lexaeus.

His main goal was to give himself and Saix more power in the Organization.

Through 358/2 Days, fans also learned that Axel was trying to protect Roxas through his actions in Castle Oblivion as well.

16 Riku Defeats Ansem

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Riku’s final boss during his section of Chain of Memories is Ansem. At the beginning of the fight, he tells Mickey to destroy him if Ansem wins, since Ansem would have taken control of him. Mickey, of course, refuses.

During their fight, Ansem challenges Riku that without darkness, he is weak. Riku then points out that Sora defeated Ansem while he controlled Riku in Kingdom Hearts one, so Ansem is actually weak. (Let’s admit it though, that was a difficult boss fight).

Luckily Riku does win, but Ansem tells him that his shadow will always linger and he will one day return.

Artist is Amano Shiro.

15 Sora Enters Memory Pod

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By the end of Sora’s story in Castle Oblivion, it’s revealed to him that his memories have been lost and some have been replaced. The only solution is to get into a memory pod while Naminé repaired the memories he has lost.

This puts him into a coma that lasts so long that he wakes up in Kingdom Hearts II to see he has outgrown his clothes.

Goofy and Donald also use the pods and wake up with him. A catch to the memory pod’s power is that Sora forgets everything that happened in Castle Oblivion.

14 Riku Travels With King Mickey

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While Sora has Goofy and Donald Duck, Riku has King Mickey as someone to count on. It’s King Mickey that uses some of his light to protect Riku from Ansem’s darkness in the beginning of Chain of Memories. Throughout the game, Mickey sends Riku messages to keep traveling through the castle for them to meet-up.

After Riku defeats Ansem, the two travel together wearing black cloaks like the Organization that DiZ gave them. They would later split up when Riku has concerns about controlling the darkness in his heart.

Artist is Amano Shiro.

13 Roxas Works For The Organization

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Now we go into 358/2 Days territory. Roxas, Sora’s Nobody, spends most of the game working for Organization XIII to create Kingdom Hearts. Since being Sora’s Nobody makes him able to wield the Keyblade, he is found to be very useful for the Organization’s goal to make Kingdom Hearts.

This is all for the purpose of them gaining hearts, since Nobody’s do not have hearts. (Spoiler: we eventually find out they do in future games).

Also we find out this innocent goal to have hearts has become more about destroying other worlds to create their own.

Art was done by hanashiroi.

12 Saix And Axel Seek To Overthrow Xemnas

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Saix is the one who gave Axel the orders to get rid of the Organization members in Castle Oblivion. Not only that, but Saix got to pick who would go to Castle Oblivion, so he specifically picked those he wanted Axel to get rid of. This plot included people betraying the Organization like Marluxia and Larxene and those who “were getting in the way” like Vexen and Zexion.

Saix was also aware that their leader, Xemnas, had different goals than his own so he planned to eventually have Axel and himself overthrow Xemnas.

Artist is unknown.

11 Roxas Is Used To Make An Artificial Kingdom Hearts

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Roxas does not really know what he’s doing for Organization XIII until near the end of the game. The whole ordeal is rather confusing since the Nobodies are told they don’t have hearts and yet they appear to have feelings and goals just like any other real person.

Through this lie, Xemnas controls them to create his Kingdom Hearts that will destroy other worlds and make his own.

Roxas is a key item for Xemnas’s goal, since it’s his Keyblade powers that he adopted from Sora that can help create the world Xemnas desires.

Art was done by Exceel.

10 Saix Calls Axel “Lea”

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Probably the first hint to the fact that the Nobodies were once regular people is when Saix calls Axel “Lea” in 358/2 Days. Fans probably figured it out already, but that did not stop the excitement of hearing Axel’s real-boy name.

Saix called out “Lea” to Axel as a reminder of their friendship. This is while Saix is questioning Axel’s loyalty to him due to his friendships with Roxas and Xion. Saix used to be called Isa and Isa and Lea were both best friends before losing their hearts, hence why they work together.

Artist is unknown.

9 Xion Turns Into Ventus Once

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Xion is a puppet created by the Organization to absorb Sora and Roxas’s memories and powers just in case they become useless to the Organization’s plans. She mostly resembles Kairi since she’s one of Sora’s strongest memories.

However, Xion’s appearance can change depending on the person who sees her and their connection with Sora.

She turns into Ventus from the game, Birth by Sleep, in front of Xigbar. This was because when Xigbar was a regular guy named Braig, he knew Ventus and Ventus is someone who sort of lives in Sora’s heart.

Artist is unknown.

8 Roxas And Xion fight

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Xion and Roxas, though they are best friends, end up fighting a couple times in 358/2 Days. The first time is due to a trick made by the Organization for her and Roxas to fight until they destroy each other or she completely absorbs his powers. This happens in Halloween Town from an illusion where Xion and Roxas but saw each other as powerful heartless.

She is also the final boss of the game. In a ruse, she fights Roxas but ultimately plans for him to destroy her. Her plan to be destroyed by him succeeds.

Art was done by Amano Shiro.

7 Xion’s Real Identity

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Many fans wondered why Organization XIII suddenly had fourteen members in 358/2 Days, but then they learned that Xion does not count. Many characters, such as Saix, called her an “it” and saw Xion as a doll rather than the girl Axel and Roxas eventually could see.

It was not even until she asked Axel to be her friend that Axel saw Xion has a black-haired girl rather than a hooded doll.

Xion’s real identity is not known to her until she meets Naminé and Naminé explains to her that Xion is an imperfect Roxas replica.

6 Xion Returns To Sora

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The reason Xion wanted to be defeated by Roxas was so that she could return to Sora. Learning about Sora through Riku and Naminé made her decide that she should cease to exist so Sora could wake up.

Even Sora fans were sad that Xion needed to stop existing in order for Sora to wake up, especially since they saw her develop as a person and friendships throughout the game. To add salt to the wound, the same thing happens to Roxas in Kingdom Hearts II.

Artist is unknown.