Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix (2014)

I loved this game, I’ve been at it here and there for about 3 months, always playing a couple hours in the evenings after work. It’s such a nice feeling seeing that progress build and the size of this game, while still being linear and story-driven, kept me coming back for that warm gaming feeling.

The combat in these games is so satisfying and the music and characters sublime. It got me watching a load of Disney classics I’d never seen yet! And what a blast I’ve had.

I rarely sink 20+ hrs into a game, let alone in the over 40s (I can literally count on one hand the amount of times I can remember doing this) as I tend to favour precise story-based games that I can see myself getting through, rather than an open adventure where no end is in sight. I like the finalisation of it.

But the length of this game never daunted me, I enjoyed getting small plays in now and then when I got the chance, and now seeing the end I’m so grateful for the journey. Riku and Sora forever.

I was playing through this game on easy and doing a nice job not having to level up .. and then BAM I got into my solo battle with Roxas and man it was soooo hard. I had to level up quite a few levels, but to be fair I also kinda suck at blocking so that may have been a factor.

I played through a bunch of other bosses and I was fine, so clearly the difficulty is skewed heavily agains that one boss.

I did end up getting to the ending, which I will reflect on in a little bit. The next game is 358/2 days so I gotta decide if I’m going to play it on the DS or just give up and watch the cutscenes for the story.

I have much more to write but so far this game is SO MUCH BETTER than Kingdom Hearts 1 in almost every way.

Chip and Dale have voice acting and I can finally open treasure chests in the middle of a battle. What more do I need?

I started the game off on Easy and now it’s actually too easy. So I’m skipping as many battles as I can too keep my level low to add to the challenge since I can’t change it. My only gripes about the game so far is that the prologue was soooooo unnecessarily long and the game kinda went a little too all in on Pete.

I really want to replay all kingdom heart games before playing 3. I've never played any of the spin off games, so I'm looking forward to playing those.

What I can say is that the magic is still there in Kingdom Hearts 1, the interaction between Goofy, Donald and Sora is amazing. However I did forget about the fact that it's not always clear on what you need to do. For example when first visiting Traverse town, you need to go to the second district to find Goofy and Donald. I've looked for them for about half an hour, gave up and looked for a walkthrough. Apparently you need to go back to the first district and to the accessory shop to trigger a cutscene... Never was it indicated that you had to go back. Really annoying.

Having just played Kingdom Hearts I.5, jumping into Kingdom Hearts II.5 feels like gradual steps forward in terms of gameplay, but also like massive steps backwards in terms of story.

Kingdom Hearts II.5 makes the worlds of this game much larger in comparison, while also making them far more manageable. Compared to the Aladdin and Pinocchio-themed worlds of the last game, Kingdom Hearts II.5 figures out a way to simplify these worlds, and make the player feel more like they're exploring the worlds of these films, rather than throwing them into labyrinthian worlds that just follow the films note-by-note.

Kingdom Hearts II.5 takes advantage of this by allowing the game to tell its own stories, or explore what the actual worlds can be. For example, a computer in the game becomes a way to explore the world of Tron, Steamboat Willie-era Disney becomes a wonderful setting that feels like a breath of fresh air, and the then-success of Disney's live-action films allows for Pirates of the Caribbean to be thrown in with animated fare. Even when revisiting worlds from the first game, Kingdom Hearts II.5 finds a way to revitalize them or improve upon them in strong ways every time.

But with these great new worlds comes an even more convoluted story than the first time. The introduction of Organization XIII and Nobodies only confuses these ideas in a way that seems like a way to drag out this conceit into a second game. It's also never entirely clear what visiting all these Disney worlds has to do with the overarching story of Kingdom Hearts II.5 either, and especially when the game asks you to revisit each of these worlds, it does feel like busy work before continuing the actual story.

I said this in my review of Kingdom Hearts I.5 as well, but in hindsight, I almost think the collaboration with Square Enix might've been a bad thing. The Final Fantasy characters this type around are completely useless and don't seem to matter within the larger story anymore. Characters from Final Fantasy X-II come in for no other reason than to remind people that that game had just come out. And I just don't understand why this game didn't feature Mickey trying to go into these worlds and solve this story himself. This especially feels true in this game, considering how often the Kairi and Riku story in sidelined and how much more obnoxious Sora becomes in this game. But it's almost as if the Square side of things is where all the faults of this game come to light, and while it must've seemed like a promising idea back in the early 2000s, it's already starting to stretch thin a few years after the original. I'll be very curious to see just how much Final Fantasy material is included in Kingdom Hearts III, considering there haven't been many iconic characters added to that series since the mid-2000s.

But I think the overall problem with Kingdom Hearts II.5 - and probably Kingdom Hearts in general - is just a lack of clarity. The story is just awful and even the characters involved don't seem to understand or care too much about what's happening. I also feel like these games need to be clearer in the actual training of the player in this game. This could very well be my own ignorance, but I always struggled with blocking, and wished for more of the reversal tactic from the first game. But throughout this game, I felt like my plan of attack was almost always to just hack, slash and run away. This left action feeling completely boring and uneventful. I also felt like there were integral parts of fighting that I just wasn't getting because the game didn't seem to do a good job making sure I could get it. I'd rather have obnoxious tutorials that I could skip than go into the game without any real idea of how I'm supposed to fight. Especially for an RPG aimed primarily at kids, the action should've been much easier to grasp.

Overall, revisiting the worlds of Kingdom Hearts II over a decade and a half after its original release is a much less frustrating journey than trying to replay the first game. The Disney material plays extremely well in this sequel and those Disney worlds truly do feel like the player is getting to experience these worlds firsthand. But the Square side, with muddled action, a downright idiotic story and ridiculous choices still makes this a hard game to get through.

The fact that you can play this game for a solid hour (assuming you do a bit of grinding) and encounter pretty much no Disney (other than the flashbacks to the first game) speaks volumes about how much better this game is. And it's not just that there's less Disney; it's that what Disney there is is incorporated much more smoothly into the larger narrative, and is just less obnoxious overall (with the exceptions of The Little Mermaid and Pirates of the Caribbean, by far the worst parts of the game), and the original content is given much more weight than in KH1.

Mechanically, the regenerative mana bar and drive forms make for more dynamic gameplay, and while I don't think I even bought healing or mana items after the prologue, having the moogle shops everywhere was a lot more convenient (compared to having to go back to Traverse Town ALL THE GODDAMN TIME to buy potions and ethers). The Gummi missions are less tedious and you don't have to play through half the game before being able to skip them when revisiting worlds. All in all just a much more enjoyable experience.

I would definitely recommend playing (or reading a plot summary of) Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days before playing KH2, as I found I was a lot less confused and more invested in the story after doing so, especially in regards to Roxas and Organization XIII.

Recommend for fans of: Disney Animation, Final Fantasy Series, & Once Upon a Time (TV Series).

This long awaited compilation includes Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, and Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded in a film format. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix features improved gameplay and is a worthy continuation to the first game, easily worth ★★★★★. Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded is presented in the style of a film and can easily be watched in one sitting. I all honesty I can’t say I’m disappointed this game isn’t playable because from what I’ve read it’s mostly a retread that contributes very little to the narrative of the series.

But the game I wanted to write about the most was Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix. This entry in the Kingdom Hearts Franchise showcases a fantastic Star Wars inspired story that can only be seen fully by playing all the way through as all three protagonists campaigns. But to me what is especially noteworthy about this prequel are two aspects of the gameplay:

*The Final Boss(es) Aren't Endlessly Frustrating-I've played Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix & Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix and at least one section of the final boss fight was ridiculously frustrating in each game; Xehanort 3rd Stage KH1 FM & Xemnas Last Stage KH2 FM. A proper Boss fight in any situation should be the right mixture of challenging and fun and for the most part the final bosses make good on this in KH Birth by Sleep Final Mix. I have no complaints about Terra's Final Boss Fight and although the 2nd Stage of Ventus's Final Boss Fight and the 1st Stage of Aqua's Final Boss Fight were kind of frustrating, they didn't make me want to pull my hair out like KH1 FM & KH2 FM. However, this point only applies to the three character based campaigns and not the unlockable "Final Episode" which I haven't played.

*Improved Battle System-I love KH1 FM & KH2 FM but even I have to admit that those games can often become button mashers. What this game does different is that the player acquires skills and levels them up by using them and putting them in a deck that can be cycled through and that is linked to the triangle button. Once a skill if fully leveled up it can be melded with another skill be made into a new more powerful skill. I was wary of this at first because it gave me flashbacks of KH Chain of Memories card system, but the two are in no way related and this system can be mastered quickly. I realize it's unlikely this system will be adopted by future entries, but I wouldn't mind a bit if it was.

This is fantastic compilation that is must own for Kingdom Hearts fan. This entry gets a hard ★★★★★ and my "Must Play" recommendation!