I actually played this game out of order. My mother apparently played KH1 when I was a toddler, but my first memory of KH, in general, was my dad playing KH2 when I was around 9 or 10. I remember being fascinated by how the potions and items looked on the menu, which he would peruse quite a bit.

When I did play KH2, I was super confused. The Roxas prologue is one of the most nostalgic things I can recall in my childhood playing video games. Seeing all of those scenes of KH1 and then playing Sora and being "WHAT IS HAPPENING!? IS THAT DONALD!? THIS WEAPON IS COOL! WHAAAA-"

was pretty great. It was like being at an amusement park with characters you don't know, but also Disney characters and getting to do a bunch of weird even though you don't know the lore. I don't think I had a clear idea of what was going on in this series until I played CoM and 358 several years later.

In the meantime, I got KH1 a year or two after playing KH2 from one of my mom's friends along with some other games like Odin Sphere and Bakugan. So playing KH1 for the first time, I got to actually see what those scenes from Roxas' story were about and it was such a magical experience. It was just fun to see how Sora became the Drive-Forming, acrobatic, combat-monster he became in KH2 and all the friendships he made with characters like Aladdin, Jack, and Beast. I remember how cool it was to learn how Sora knew Simba and Mushu from summons from KH1.

So in a weird way, playing KH2 first actually made me love KH1 even more. Glad I played it.