This is the first Kingdom Hearts game released on a Nintendo platform since Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (2012).
While the version of Sora used during gameplay uses his outfit from the original Kingdom Hearts outfit, however as this game reproduces cutscenes from the series, the other outfits from Kingdom Hearts II, Dream Drop Distance, and III also appear in this game.
Similar to Dream Drop Distance, this game also recaps storyline material from previous games. Several differences are that instead of using text like DDD did with the Chronicles section of the Mementos, it uses actual cutscenes from those games with Kairi serving as the narrator, and the other difference is adding more material that was not part of the DDD's Chronicles which not only includes DDD itself, but also 0.2 and KHIII as well.
As numerous levels were used in more than once in previous games, instead of having one respective world for each, multiple versions of those worlds are used to separate the music to that are limited to that version, which also includes any differing level design for that respective version. One example is Neverland due to using different music and level designs between Kingdom Hearts (2002), Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (2009), and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010). Other examples are Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden.
For the world based on Re: Coded, it only uses System Sector grid material from the original game as the background, as it is the only aspect of the game that was new and not based off a previous title.