Kingdom Hearts Collection 1-3: Switch 2 Impressions

Published Oct 5, 2026, 7:01 AM EDT

Austin King is the Senior Editor of Gaming at ScreenRant and has been with the site since 2020 with a focus on RPGs and tabletop games. He previously managed content for Geek to Geek Media, and has served as a writer for sites like Nintendad, Geek Fitness, and more.

In addition to his work at ScreenRant, he also hosts the Dragon Quest FM podcast and is the author of several books, including co-writing Nimbus (a #1 bestseller in 2013). His latest is the nonfiction The Dragon Quest Book, available now.

He's written about pop culture, video games, and genre studies over the course of his career. You can find him on BlueSky, X, and at Dragonquestaustin.com

Square Enix is releasing a new Kingdom Hearts collection in October. Officially styled as Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III], it contains all mainline entries so far alongside spin-offs that spanned original releases on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation 4. Basically, it's everything you'll need to understand the first phase of the series as Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight off the darkness and the villainous mastermind Xehanort.

The collection features Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind DLC. If you're counting, that means 10 different Kingdom Hearts experiences await you across three separate downloads. As in past releases, most of what's included here is playable, although a few games from the past simply offer cutscenes. All of these work together to complete the overall first phase, known as the Dark Seeker Saga, of Kingdom Hearts.

Ahead of the new collection's release, ScreenRant played Kingdom Hearts Collection 1-3 on the Nintendo Switch 2. Overall, the games run well on the new system, and for anyone looking to experience the series as a whole (at least, until Kingdom Hearts 4 comes out), then this is an ideal way to do it.

A Comprehensive Guide To Kingdom Hearts

Anyone who's played the Kingdom Hearts games before knows that the story can sometimes be convoluted. If you don't get confused at least a few times along the way, then I'd argue you aren't playing the games right. After decades of jokes about just how complicated and confounding the plot can be, that's honestly just part of the charm now.

Playing through this latest collection won't fix those narrative problems, but the Switch 2 offers what's arguably the easiest and best way to experience what these games have to offer. You can go through the entire first phase of the series (which is all that exists right now), offering up the most comprehensive way to understand the larger plot of Kingdom Hearts.

Yes, similar collections have been offered before, but the Switch 2 has the added advantage of being a newer console AND it has handheld mode, which means you can watch the story bits in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days or Kingdom Hearts Re:coded while on the go. And because these aren't those annoying Cloud versions from the original Switch, everything runs a lot more smoothly.

Personally, I found it much more manageable this way. Being tied to a television while trying to get through Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover when it originally released is one of my least fond memories of the series. The cutscenes were interesting, but wow, it's much better being able to watch and listen on a console you can carry around with you.

Even if the story isn't for you, the action RPG combat is pretty excellent. You'll be able to see the ways the series evolved over the years, and perhaps nothing better illustrates that than the combat. There's plenty of variety, from the standard action battles of the first game to the monster-catching(ish) mechanics in Dream Drop Distance or the introduction of Limit Breaks and new Forms in later games.

If you aren't a fan of RPGs, then maybe the Disney route will entice you. All these years later, I'm still in awe that a video game crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney even exists. And all these years later, it's still immensely fun running around various Disney worlds and interacting with characters like Jack Skellington, Simba, and Mulan.

Kingdom Hearts Collection 1-3 On Switch 2 Performance

Honestly, most folks are likely just wondering how the performance is on Switch 2. Like I mentioned before, these aren't the Cloud versions from the Switch that suffered from lag and the weird occasional glitch. Everything here runs much more smoothly. The Switch 2 is more than powerful enough to handle these games, and I had no issues with any of the sections I played through.

Even Kingdom Hearts 3 and its Re Mind DLC, the newest entries that require the most power to run, are absolutely fine. If you're playing in handheld mode, you may notice a dip in the Gummi Ship sections when it starts to get a bit crowded in Kingdom Hearts 3, but that was the only noticeable dip I personally experienced. With the Switch 2 docked, I didn't notice any issues at all.

The only downside I'd mention here is that between these three downloads, you'll take up a lot of storage space on your Switch 2, assuming you're only using what came with the hardware. The good news there is that you can download them one at a time if you need to. So, have a game plan in mind for how you'll tackle this collection.

Kingdom Hearts Feels Right At Home On Switch 2

In terms of the games themselves, there's nothing really new here. I'd argue the first Kingdom Hearts is still the best one. Birth By Sleep is still fantastic, and Kingdom Hearts 3 still feels a bit messy and overly busy. If you've played these games before, like I have, your opinions on them aren't going to change simply because you played them on the Switch 2 now.

More than anything, this serves as a nice prelude before Kingdom Hearts 4 arrives. We already know the fourth entry will arrive on Switch 2, where it'll test the limits of the hardware much more than anything in this collection. If you'd like to get caught up on the first phase before the second arrives with Kingdom Hearts 4, then playing on the Switch 2 is an excellent way to do that.

If you already own these games, or even this collection in some iteration or another, then it may not be worth getting them again on Switch 2. At the end of the day, these are really just the same games. Playing in handheld mode is a nice bonus, though, and if you need a refresher ahead of Kingdom Heart 4's arrival, then this is an ideal way to do that. Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] runs great on Switch 2, so if you've never experienced the series at all, this might just be the best way to start playing.

Systems