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The  series features an extensive array of music, with over 600 unique music tracks, ten original soundtracks, numerous compilation and arrangement albums, and several live concert performances. The musical history of the Kingdom Hearts series contributes to the identity of the series as a whole.

is the primary composer for the series, with and  joining for later entries. created the theme songs, while a number of other artists have made arrangements and orchestrations for the series.

Terminology
Certain types of music tracks in the Kingdom Hearts series are divided into categories. "Field themes" are played when exploring a specific world outside of battle. "Battle themes" are songs played during combat – "boss themes" are a special type of battle theme used in boss battles, while "world battle themes" are used for standard enemies in a given world. Together, field themes and and world battle themes comprise "world themes".

Some specific characters have their own music theme used outside of battle, called "character themes", which almost always use the name of the character as the title of the track. Special tracks played during scripted events, such as cutscenes or mandatory encounters, may be referred to as "event themes". Additionally, some songs may fall into multiple categories under different contexts, while others may not belong to any of these groups.

Kingdom Hearts
The soundtrack for  was composed entirely by Yoko Shimomura. Nearly 100 original tracks were made for the game. The international release of Kingdom Hearts featured two additional tracks, and Kingdom Hearts Final Mix included a further two more. A small handful of tracks were arrangements of existing Disney, Final Fantasy, or classical pieces, but the majority of the soundtrack was wholly original. Hikaru Utada composed the theme song pair, "Simple and Clean" and "Hikari".

Shimomura composed the soundtrack with the idea of having short, contained musical phrases that would connect different pieces together. Several tracks near the game's climax incorporated the melody of the title theme, "Dearly Beloved"; songs relating to the Gummi Ship all share a two-measure melody; numerous songs relating to darkness are connected by a three-note motif: shared phrases such as these tie the soundtrack together.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
The Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories score consists of nearly 50 compositions, all by Yoko Shimomura. The soundtrack was remade in higher quality for Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, which also introduced three additional tracks. Just over half of the soundtrack is new arrangements of pieces from Kingdom Hearts, while the rest are new compositions. The original Game Boy Advance versions of these tracks have never been released on an album.

Due to the limitations of the Game Boy Advance, sound compression was a more important issue than it was for the first game on the PlayStation 2; as such, returning world themes were given new simplified arrangements. Very few tracks other than world themes are carried over from Kingdom Hearts, allowing the game to form a distinct musical identity. While short themed phrases are still implemented in the game – for instance, tracks relating to Organization XIII share a similar descending chromatic pattern, and tracks relating to Ansem, Seeker of Darkness invoke multiple motifs from Kingdom Hearts – the soundtrack does not solely rely on common phrases for cohesion. Namely, similarities in instrumentation also give the Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories soundtrack structure. Many major pieces incorporate harp and organ, giving the setting of Castle Oblivion a grand, yet ominous feeling.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories was not bound by the same hardware limitations as the original title, allowing the songs to be remade in far higher quality. Even though world themes returning from Kingdom Hearts already had arrangements designed for the PlayStation 2, the remake used updated recordings of the simplified arrangements from Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. The only new track that was not a world theme, "Lord of the Castle", continues the trend of using organ backing and prominent harp phrases, while also taking advantage of the new system to produce a longer and more intricate piece than was possible on the Game Boy Advance.

Kingdom Hearts II
Yoko Shimomura returned to compose the Kingdom Hearts II soundtrack, creating around 90 pieces, with an additional 8 being added in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. The soundtrack consists of primarily of original works, as well as several new arrangements of old tracks; the game also featured a limited number of tracks directly from the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack. Although still relatively few in number, a greater amount of pieces were given full orchestration, all orchestrated by Kaoru Wada. Hikaru Utada composed the theme song pair, "Sanctuary" and "Passion".

The music of Kingdom Hearts II expands on the connecting musical phrases introduced in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, linking sections of the soundtrack with the world and characters. The soundtrack is equally concerned with reinforcing existing motifs (for instance, numerous tracks build upon "Dearly Beloved", "Destati", and "Another Side", which have been established as important and recurring musical selections) and creating new connections (for instance, many tracks concerning Nobodies share an original echoed pattern, and several parts of "The 13th Struggle" are repurposed and expanded to create a new tree of connections). In addition, the soundtrack of Kingdom Hearts II is shaped by its rearrangements of existing songs. Returning world themes are given new arrangements distinct from the Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories versions; while some of these changes are more subtle, others are made more obvious to reflect the changes in the worlds themselves.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
At the time of the game's release, the original soundtrack of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was the shortest in the series, with 13 new compositions and arrangements by Yoko Shimomura. The game also included 25 returning tracks which had to be compressed to fit on the Nintendo DS; such hardware restrictions proved difficult and limiting for both adapting old pieces and creating new ones. Indeed, when the 13 new tracks were given an album release, the album used higher quality samples than were available with the in-game music.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
Out of the 23 tracks included in the original Kingdom Hearts coded, only one of them is an entirely new composition, written by Yoko Shimomura. Every returning song is a compressed arrangement of the original piece, owing to the hardware limitations of the P-01A. Five additional tracks were added in Kingdom Hearts Re:coded – three new compositions by Yoko Shimomura, and two arrangements of Shimomura's works by synthesizer operator Hirosato Noda. Even though the Nintendo DS is vastly more capable than the P-01A, it was still a challenge to compress existing pieces to play in the game; the versions from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days were used when possible, and additional returning tracks were similarly compressed to fit on the DS. As with Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, only the original tracks were released on the album, and the official soundtrack used higher quality samples than available in-game.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Unlike other HD releases, the soundtrack of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD is unchanged from the original (with the exception of borrowing new arrangements of "A Very Small Wish" and "Monstrous Monstro" from Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX).

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road
The music of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is unique in that it is the only installment to introduce zero new tracks. Almost the entire soundtrack draws from the Kingdom Hearts Union χ soundtrack – which in turn is primarily taken from other entries in the series – while a handful of additional tracks are pulled from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and Kingdom Hearts III.

GAME TITLE
First paragraph: Information Second paragraph: The music itself
 * Main composers, arrangers, orchestrators
 * Development notes (e.g. differing releases)
 * Theme song (where applicable)
 * Released in an album?
 * Musical analysis (where applicable)
 * Hardware limitations?
 * Common instruments/techniques?
 * Reusing tracks, or original arrangements?

Kingdom Hearts V CAST
Because Kingdom Hearts V CAST was produced independently of Square Enix's development process, Yoko Shimomura did not return to compose the score. Instead, the soundtrack was created by, his only contribution to the Kingdom Hearts series. The soundtrack is only ten songs long, with four of those being five-second jingles. According to Livingstone, the entire score was likely created in the span of one month. None of the tracks have ever been released on an official album.

The hardware limitations of Verizon phones severely restricted the scope of the soundtrack. Each world has only a single theme, and each theme loops in under 30 seconds – the Wonderland theme, for instance, is only 14 measures long. Although the soundtrack is devoid of any explicit motivic material from Kingdom Hearts, Livingstone took style and instrumentation cues from that game's soundtrack: the use of a descending piano pattern in several tracks was inspired by "Dearly Beloved", and Livingstone made stylistic decisions in the themes of returning worlds Wonderland and Agrabah that evoke similar tones to Shimomura's existing field themes.

Other games
The spin-offs Kingdom Hearts Mobile, Kingdom Hearts Magical Puzzle Clash, Kingdom Hearts Digital Painter, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Gummiship Studio, Kingdom Hearts Collaboration: Gummi Ship Campaign, and Kingdom Hearts VR Experience do not feature any original music. These promotional and companion releases may borrow tracks from full Kingdom Hearts titles – for instance, Kingdom Hearts Mobile offered ringtones from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, while Kingdom Hearts Magical Puzzle Clash used two songs from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – but they do not contribute to the discography of the Kingdom Hearts series.

Arrangements and orchestrations

 * Short blurb about piano collections, orchestral concerts, etc.