yes, even if you've never played a kingdom hearts. actually, especially if you've never played a kingdom hearts. yes, it's important that you actually play it. preferably on a DS whenever you can slip a session into your day, the way you should really be playing any DS game, but if you want to play it on PC there is a very impressive hacked-up version of MelonDS that aims to make the KH DS games feel a lot more like the other titles in screen real estate and slight feel and general UI usage.

This game's just... very special to us. Near and dear. Probably one of the strongest narratives in the series. Play to find out why the blonde boy you see out of context is crying about ice cream. It's absolutely heart-rending, we promise. Shoutouts to transgender legend Xion, she's gotta be an all-time favorite character for real.

YES, PLAY IT. DON'T JUST WATCH THE HD 'MOVIE' FROM THE KH COLLECTIONS.

It guts the story of so many of the little moments, personal and inter-personal and even some more plot-y bits, that really elevate it - and also of the slow-burn pacing the game's format provides. It's effectively just the cliff-notes version of Days, in a bad way. It's... it really isn't the same.