Lets start with Kingdom hearts as it’s a staple of this site, and more familiar to the general public.

KINGDOM HEARTS
Kingdom hearts is an action adventure RPG that takes place in the various worlds found in the most memorable disney movies, and cartoons, as well as some original worlds thrown in to spice things up.

In the first game Sora takes the lead role with Donald and Goofy.

Supporting characters are Kairi and Riku, and less important supporting roles are various people from the FF franchise and Disney movies.

The story line while very deep and involving can be described simply as thus. Three inquisitive and curious friends(Sora, Rikku, Kairi) live on an island together and plot to see “The other worlds” using a boat they’ve constructed from rough supplies around the island. The night before the planned leave date fate intervenes and Sora’s world is drug into the darkness by the Heartless.

During the course of this Sora is given the keyblade, and defeats a major heartless, despite this his world is still drug into the darkness and Sora wakes up in a new town. (Traverse?), where he is found by Goofy and Donald.

Goofy and Donald inform Sora that he is the chosen keyblade wielder, and that they need his help to get their king back (Mickey).
Sora, being a nice guy and all, decides to help them out, while searching for his own friends, who were lost when his world was.
Sora traverses the various worlds, sealing them off from the heartless, and making new friends and memory’s all along the way. Eventually Sora does find his friend, but sadly one of them has seemingly been lost to the Darnkess, Rikku, who was tempted with its power.
I won’t go more into the story line as to avoid putting up blatant spoilers.
As for the gameplay of KH1 it can be some what repetitive.
You start off with a kingdom key, and in the beginning it is almost entirley hack and slash.
Though as time progresses Sora gains spells, and abilities which are activated through various play styles, and spells through a quick trigger or option menu.
The game play is entirley in real time, though an option menu is present making long option chains dangerous.
Thats why the quick trigger(Shortcut) is there, to avoid you getting killed because you can’t navigate to the Cure spell faster than that really big heartless over there with the over sized weapon can crush you into the ground with it.
Worlds are navigated freely, and split up into sections with short almost unnoticeable load times in between them.

KINGDOM HEARTS 2

The story for this game starts off in something of a… What? Unless you’ve played what I call KH1.5, or Chain of memories, which was released on the GBA.
You start of as a character named Roxas with three friends, two boys and a girl. You play as Roxas in what would seem to be a several hour long tutorial (1-2 hrs) wondering “Where’s Sora?” the entire time. Roxas starts having weird “Dreams” that don’t seem to belong to him, and then a strange cloaked person who could appear to have stopped time approaches you, and asks you if you know who you are, if your coming back.. This is when you get the Keyblade. You fight off the “Strange” enemies and look deeper into this mystery. At this point your thinking there will be no Sora, wondering why he was on the cover in the first place.
But fear not, after taking down several more strange enemies (Which your probably yelling at the T.V. screen going, “THEY’RE HEARTLESS!!” and being dead wrong every time the information screen pops up) and a boss you discover that Sora is in fact still alive.
Soon gameplay takes over with Sora and the story continues.
As far as combat and gameplay in this game is concerned it’s roughly the same as in the first, with a few fun additions.
The most noticeable, and quickly found is the reaction command, used with Triangle when certain conditions with enemies is met.
These conditions, and what actually happens when you hit triangle changes whit different enemies and bosses.
The second, and most drastic new addition is the Drive gauge, and form, though this element of gameplay doesn’t come in until later on, after becoming Sora.
This element of the game also evolves.
You get different forms as time progresses.
Also, this game has a lot more skills to use, leaving with a larger variety of gameplay, making it feel far less hack and slash.
This also makes it more useful for having skill, than in the prior game.

THE VERY BASIC JIST OF EVERY FINAL FANTASY GAME (EVER!)

Final Fantasy games, while in story and exact character is different in every game there is one big noticeable underlying plot for each game.
Something very dangerous is threatening the ENTIRE population of the world, and in one way or another, you, as the protagonist set out to stop it.
Along the way you will meet various like minded people who conveniently use a different kind of weapon from you, and oddly enough from everyone else you meet.
You will meet a theif, a Swordsman, A person with some kind of range, A white mage with summoning capabilities, and a Black mage.
You almost always play something of a powered up Red mage.
Kinda odd, how ironic huh?
In any case Early games had something of a Zelda like world, until the concept of the world map was introduced.
Then, we were presented with open areas, like in FFX. We no longer traversed the world map either, we flew on an Airship to where we wanted to go, and this method of transportation is still present even in the most recent FFXII.
(The world of FFXI is completely open, you can only access Airships from 4 areas total {not counting Kazham?})
The combat system was, young, until FFX-2.
You would enter a random battle from traveling in an area outside of towns or city’s(Peace zones). Such as a field, forest or dessert (Battle zones).
Once in an actual battle you would stand parallel from your enemy and take turns executing various commands all of which could be found in your menu.
This would continue until one of your Hp reached 0.
Your own, and you’d get a Game over and have to continue from you last save.
The enemies and you’d be presented with an award page, in which you would find yourself being utterly confused that the ridiculously over sized rabbit creature you just killed was carrying chain mail, a fire enchanted sword, and 82 gil.
Whats a rabbit doing with these things, honestly no one knows.
In FFX-2, we see the frst variation in the battle system. Though still turn based it’s now Real Time. Based on which weapon your using(The dress sphere let you change the job of any of your characters.)
You would have a gauge that would have to re-charge after each time you attack or use a spell. The time it took to re-charge changed depending on your weapon, and/or skill you used.
FFXI introduced the first entirely real Time battle system, and also got rid of random battles. Also allowing you to control your characters movement while in battle.
FXII Improved, but keeps the same essential battle system FFXI has.
FFX-2 is the very first “True sequel” in the franchise.
–comparing and contrasting the two games.–
Now, it’s obvious that FF, and KH are two very different games, but they do share a few very important things.
Number one being that the KH series is a joint effort between Square Enix and Disney, resulting in some of FF’s most memorable characters having and appearance, or own story line, and position in the game.
As far as actual Game play similarities go, there are none.
KH and FF are completely different games, and really shouldn’t be lumped in together in one pile.
KH, is very different from FF in one element.
This is very important so pay attention.
KH is several small stories, to tell one.
FF is several small stories, to each their own.
While it if true the FF gives you new characters to run with in each games that is because each story is not related to each other. They don’t share the same planet, the same worlds, characters, plotlines, themes.
The only thing they do share is a like universe, and the title Final fantasy.
Kingdom hearts on the other hand is a single, deep story with many side storys to be told, that all relate to one main story line. Every time you witness a different or new story you can take that, fit it somewhere chronologically with the main story, and see how it relates.

CONCLUSION…

This, is why (It’s racking our bodies with pain, and filling our hearts with doubt!)(Sorry, had to say it.. Bonus points if you know why I said it)
We are not done with Sora, but this is also why it’s safe for him to not be in a certain game.
This is all one story line, which guarantee’s Sora’s place within it, but at the same time a different part of the story needs to be told, so that we can understand new parts.
If something comes out, and we aren’t Sora, then thats fine, because we’re not done with him, we’re just learning something new.
Rest assured hat no matter what happens, and who’s shoes the game puts us in, we’re still playing the same story line as we were, and will not ever be at a loss for a familiar face.

Thanks to KingdomHearts3.net reader Kahou for this submission!