Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix (2017)

After finishing Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and Chains of Memories, I cannot bring myself to finish the rest in the collection.

The writing was never great even by PS2 era standards, but I forgot how goofy it gets, no pun intended. For a game series so focused on plot, the constant banter about hearts & friendship, self-loathing monologues and awkward dialog is really grating. And while the Disney levels and encounters are reasonably well done (if maybe a bit silly at times), the dramatic story telling is not entertaining at all and only takes on greater emphasis as you progress through the series. This is especially noticeable in KH2, where you cannot go more than 2 rooms without a new cut-scene kicking in that features another sermon from the main cast 😔. Combine all that with some unnecessarily convoluted plot elements and very flat voice acting by some of the characters during pivotal moments (see the entire Final Fantasy voice cast), and it's almost impossible to not roll your eyes during some of the story sequences.

The rest of the gameplay is focused around traversing predominately Disney-themed worlds, on-rail "Gummi Ship" levels akin to Panzer Dragoon, leveling/crafting/collecting and button-mashing combat that can be completed almost entirely by pressing a single button repeatedly (except for Chains of Memories where it is replaced with a card mechanic). There is a blocking ability, but using it will test every aspect of your patience since the combat is usually too frantic, the timing is tricky, and it's almost impossible to start blocking once you are caught in an enemy combo. Since the game almost never penalizes you for approaching each encounter by spamming the attack button on Normal difficulty, I found little motivation to play it any other way. There are summons and magic, but use of them is strictly optional and you can be forgiven for forgetting that they are even there.

There is obviously a lot of fondness for the series by fans that have been playing through these games for the last 20 years, but the reality is that if you are in the market for a light-hearted action RPG and are considering this series for the first time, you can do so much better than this.

So I think this is now the Switch's tenth (and eleventh and twelfth depending on how you are counting) cloud streaming only game. If this is working for Nintendo I could see them putting off a processor refresh or upgrade for quite some time.

• AC: Odyssey
• Control
• Dying Light 2 (Pending)
• The Forgotten City
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Hitman 3
• Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts 3
• Phantasy Star Online 2
• A Plague Tale: Innocence
• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

I played the original two Kingdom Hearts games and got The Story So Far collection in preparation for Kingdom Hearts III. Needless to say I fell a little behind.

While I considered myself to be a fan of the first two games, I had no idea what I was getting into with the depth of the lore. I thought I didn't care and yet I found myself oddly compelled because of the way these games are packaged so neatly.

It would really be great if other developers compiled games in this way. Not just in terms putting the games on one disc but presenting them in an order that makes sense. I really appreciate the pains the developers went through in curating what games received playable remasters versus cinematic re-edits.

I reviewed Birth By Sleep, since that was the one I took a break on for a couple years, after plowing through replays of the first two in 2019. Here's a ranking

1. Birth By Sleep - Really original approach to bite-size storytelling
2. Kingdom Hearts II - More streamlined and fun on a revisit
3. 358/2 Days - I'm glad I didn't play this on DS. Moving story though, and provides emotional thrust to the series
4. Kingdom Hearts - It's actually sort of better than I remembered, but a fascinating early entry in the 3D action RPG.
5. Chain of Memories - I didn't play this, though I played the GBA original back in the day and absolutely hated the card combat. I watched a supercut of the cutscenes online, though, and it's crazy to me that they invested so much into remaking the GBA game and localizing the remake. All the KH1 retread stuff is pointless, it's all about the Organization.
6. Re: Coded - you'd think you could skip this but they do bring up these events repeatedly in Dream Drop Distance and KHIII. I'm very glad I didn't play this on DS.

Played physical copy on PS4.

I've written reviews of the games in this set which I've played completely through, so I figured I'd give a quick rundown of what I thought of each installment in this series:

• Kingdom Hearts Final Mix: As I said in my review, the worst thing about this game is that age has not been kind to it. Somehow, this game feels small and also confusing, as there isn't a real guidance as to where you're supposed to go, and enemies respawn constantly, a combination of which makes this game immensely frustrating at times. Yet strangely, when I just gave up and started using a strategy for this game, I ended up liking its essential elements far more. A decent beginning to the franchise, but the archaic feel of the game now isn't doing Kingdom Hearts any favors.

• Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories: Probably my least favorite game in this set, because of an idiotic move to card-based combat. In the original portable version, I'm sure this worked fine, but making cards a part of the game, while also maintaining the action-adventure style of the original game is a huge mistake. This also doesn't feel essential in the larger story, besides introducing the Castle Oblivion crew, and this game early on just lets you know that you're basically replaying everything you did in the first game. A waste of time, and I'm glad I didn't play through the whole thing.

• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days: An exhausting collection of cinematics, which makes you watch three characters eat ice cream over the course of a year. At least it makes me care somewhat about Roxas and Axel, but that's about it.

• Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix: A slight improvement in every way of Kingdom Hearts, making the combat better and the Disney worlds feel far more complete than before. There's also a nice amount of inventiveness in terms of worlds, be in the Steamboat Willie-themed world, Pirates of the Caribbean or Tron. But like most Final Fantasy games, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix ratchets up the difficulty to an insane degree in the final stretch, to the point that was even difficult to me now. The added elements I think are to blame for this, as there's no way I would've finished this game when it originally came out, as it frustrated me now beyond belief.

•	Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix: Insanely surprised that I walk away from this set believing this is the best game in the franchise up to this point. But Birth By Sleep explains the game's lore, introduces new characters, integrates the Disney worlds beautifully, and tells three intertwining stories in a way that isn't confusing in the least, and actually clarifies many of the story's past problems. This is sort of a crowning achievement in that this series' labyrinthian story is given more context, but only makes more sense because of this prequel. I actually care for these characters, and the ideas of Kingdom Hearts actually make sense to me now. Plus the combat is fun, fast and simplified in a way I really liked. If I wasn't trying so hard to push through all these games to get to Kingdom Hearts III when it came out, I would've loved to have soaked in this one a bit more.

• Kingdom Hearts Re:coded: I can't really understand the logic of this one though. Let's confuse the story even more by introducing data versions of all the characters. I get this was somewhat introduced in Chain of Memories/KH 2, but it gets to such a stupid level that even Goofy and Donald are like "uhhhh how does this make sense?" There's got to be a way to set up Kingdom Hearts 3 without adding yet another level that doesn't really add up to much useful material.

I don't know if playing Kingdom Hearts I.5 + II.5 hurt or helped my anticipation of Kingdom Hearts III. This is clearly a frustratingly convoluted story, but this at least gave me some glimmers of understanding to grasp onto. If Kingdom Hearts III is about bringing all these disparate characters together for one final battle, I'm glad I have the ground floor of understanding to help this matter to me.

Yet I also now realize that Kingdom Hearts isn't as great as I once believed it was. This series is severely flawed in ways I didn't even remember, and honestly, Square Enix and Disney's sensibilities don't go together all that well. I still don't understand why they didn't just alter the story to make this about Mickey fighting the darkness, instead of adding Sora and the 18,000 people he meets along the way/people that live inside his heart/virtual people he's encountered through virtual simulations. It's insane. What works for me about Kingdom Hearts are the Disney aspects, whereas the more I think about it, what I don't like about Kingdom Hearts are the same problems I have with the Final Fantasy games. There's far too much story and explanation, the dialogue is awkward, the character design is ridiculous and the game ratchets up the difficulty in the final stretch to an insane level. I almost think that if Disney had primarily made this game, Kingdom Hearts would be far more understandable and fun.

Kingdom Hearts is an interesting idea that more often than not fails in the execution of that idea, and this set reinforces that. I hope that Kingdom Hearts 3 makes all these disparate ideas and story points come together into a cohesive conclusion, but from what I've seen in this set, Kingdom Hearts is more about convolution than clarity.

No creo que sea posible expresar la enorme curiosidad que me ha causado la saga de Kingdom Hearts desde que conocí su existencia gracias a una revista y pensé que ese cross-over de Disney y Final Fantasy era una elaborada broma.

En la era del PS2 observé a mi hermana jugarlo hasta que lo dejó más o menos en Agrabah. Desde entonces mi experiencia con esta franquicia se ha limitado a leer sobre lo compleja que es su trama y hacer chistes sobre los nombres de sus spin-offs... hasta que por fin me decidí a probarlo en su versión 1.5 Final Mix en PS4.

Y la verdad es que quedé un poco decepcionado. Kingdom Hearts no ha envejecido bien.

Esto se debe principalmente a su sistema de combate. A pesar de todos los elementos de RPG que tiene, KH es, en su más pura esencia, un “Hack n’ Slash”, y en un mundo post-Bayonetta y Devil May Cry no hay espacio para un sistema tan simple en que todo se resuelve presionando “X” y haciendo hechizos para curar o atacar a distancia eventualmente. Si, hay un poco más que eso gracias a los diferentes finales para los combos, pero todo esto tiene un uso tan circunstancial que a duras penas es algo a tener en cuenta. Los aliados no son tan útiles como uno esperaría y hay que hacer demasiada “micro-administración” a sus armas, ítems y movimientos para que resulten medianamente competentes, y aún así su I.A. resulta penosa.

Esto tiene como resultado que los combates resulten pesados y aburridos. Solo algunos enfrentamientos contra jefes logran destacar mientras que todo lo demás se siente como obstáculos entre los momentos de emoción y diversión.

Aunque tampoco es que haya mucho de esos. Los escenarios no son especialmente agradables de navegar, con niveles laberínticos y llenos de combates que pueden hacer desesperar a cualquiera (especialmente los mundos de Tarzán y La Sirenita) mientras que el viaje entre ellos se hace a través de un mini-juego de naves de controles imprecisos y tediosos. Se supone que nosotros mismos mejoramos la nave, pero el sistema para hacerlo es igualmente trabajoso y mal explicado.

Creo que es claro que no estaba disfrutando de este juego, y parar a mitad del camino para jugar God of War (que aunque no es un hack 'n slash, también tiene una similar mezcla de acción y RPG) fue una bendición pues me ayudó a determinar que es lo que yo "sentía mal" con este juego. Volví a KH sintiéndome renovado y consciente de sus fallas para enfrentar una segunda mitad que resultó mucho mejor que la anterior gracias a algunos jefes, Lo disfruté más, aunque seguía sin cuajar del todo.

¿Y aguantamos todo esto para qué? ¿Por la historia? Pues a pesar de lo intrigante que parece en un comienzo, poco se resuelve o sorprende. Tiene algunos momentos buenos, pero no es más que una típica lucha de “la luz contra la oscuridad” para salvar al mundo. No, la razón por la que vale la pena forzarse a través de este juegos es (aparte de por las buenas peleas contra jefes) por amor a Disney. Ver a estos personajes, luchar a su lado, disfrutar de la estética de sus mundos o dejar que la música nos llene de nostalgia. Porque si algo tiene este juego son buenos diseños, y es que el contraste de los estilos de la casa del ratón Mickey con la de los chocobos de verdad se presta para crear imágenes únicas.

No pretendo desestimar el valor que tiene Kingdom Hearts ni lo que significa para muchos (pues se bien el amor que existe por esta saga), pero como un observador por fuera el fandom, sin estar influenciado por la nostalgia hacia él, debo decir que es una experiencia que me dejó mucho que desear.