Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX Review

Title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release: September 10, 2013
ESRB: E10+

Kingdom Hearts is a combination, that on paper, feels like it just should not work. The campy and over the top humor of classic Disney films and characters mixed with the serious undertones of Final Fantasy and Square Enix seem like such a stark contrast that it's hard to believe that anyone ever actually came up with the original concept in the first place. Yet, here we are eleven years later with the release of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, and despite an obnoxious name, the magic remains and the basic joy felt in the original PlayStation 2 game is not only still here, it is expanded upon.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX features three products and two and a half games, the first of which is Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. An HD port of the once Japanese exclusive, this game is best thought of as a director's cut for the original Kingdom Hearts. For the most part it is the same game. But, also included are new weapons, enemies, bosses, etc. This new content will keep you busy and engaged no matter how seasoned of a Kingdom Hearts veteran you are. Second up is Kingdom Re:Chain of Memories which is an HD port of the 2007 card-based battle game for the PlayStation 2 which was a re-release of the original Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. Third at bat is Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, pronounced three-five-eight days over two, which was released for the Nintendo DS in 2009. However, this port is not actually playable. Instead you are given a cinematic retelling of the game that runs just under three hours.

I'm weary of high-definition re-releases as many of you all may remember I noted in my article, "Virtual Impotence." It seems that even though these games of yesteryear indeed look amazing in the current-gen ports, the gameplay we seem to remember as so fun and inventive has aged horribly and has fallen far short of anything that resembles fun or inventive. In saying that, it is with great joy that I can say that Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX does not fall victim to these woes. In my twenty-plus hours with just Kingdom Hearts Final Mix it was always easy to jump in and the controls were much improved over the original. User interface has been vastly changed to handle much more smoothly during combat and traversal and feels a lot more like playing the original Kingdom Hearts 2 which had a more stylized approach to controls than its predecessor. While everything feels sleeker to control, the game's platforming sections can become very tedious, needing precision skill to jump across even the smallest of gaps. This can create immense frustration and it feels that in refining controls, somehow the platforming, which is one of the game's staples, was overlooked. The camera has also been assigned to the right thumb stick, as opposed to the original which used the L2 and R2 buttons to maneuver the camera. While this gives a more natural feel to operating the camera, it has a tendency to act irrationally in tight quarters. This was especially troublesome for me during a section of the last battle of the game where my adversary had a particular move thats speed caused the camera to wildly move back and forth trying to track him, leading to me dying over and over...and over.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX looks spectacular. Cut scenes still grab your attention and animations, especially of Disney characters, are still very charming and amusing. It's one of the best looking HD ports to come out and at times looks like it could have easily come out this generation. It seems a lot of care went into this title and that it is truly made for fans that want to relive the joy they got out of the original titles rather than just an old game with some new bells and whistles slapped in a new box. All three titles support a trophy system that is truly engaging and it is fun to try and get as many as possible.

In reading about this game before its release I was very curious as to how they were going to pull off this “Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Movie.” Could they really fit a twenty-plus hour game into just three? Personally, I enjoyed it, a lot more than I actually thought I would. While three hours seems like a long time, the cinematics are very engaging and flow together nicely to keep you interested in what is going on. It is also just as beautiful as the other two entries in the package. Characters look great and more voice acting has been added to flesh out this story. If you have not played the original Nintendo DS game, as I had not, it might be better just to watch the cinematics to get caught up on the winding story that is Kingdom Hearts.

As a huge fan of the series, I am completely satisfied with Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX. While there are some very annoying issues that lie within that are not that easy to overlook, the over-all experience is still magical and the inclusion of trophies and other bonuses is sure to keep the player putting the disc back in long after the credits roll.

4 out of 5

Blake Hester 

Parentsbasementgaming@gmail.com