Now, I know I'm gonna catch a lot of heat with Sony fanboys, but I don't care for fanboys of anything, so screw it.
I am unironically telling Square Enix to bring these collections to Xbox One as well. Why? Well, other than 3 COMING TO THE SYSTEM, the series is heavily continuity-based. You NEED to play the previous games to understand what's going on in the series. Xbox owners won't get what's going on unless they look up the games' plots. Speaking as someone who played Dream Drop Distance first, don't go into the later games blind. Play the earlier entries, particularly the Final Mix versions of 3 of the games, first, which are in these collections. Since Square are releasing 3 for the Xbox One alongside the PS4, I've been given reason to believe they're using 3 to gauge how much Xbox owners would want the collections, which should NOT be how you do this business. Square aren't always big Xbox sellers, due to them not giving as much love to the console family as others, but there ARE fans of them on Xbox who'd love to own these games on there & an entirely untapped audience for Kingdom Hearts. I understand that Xbox has built a different audience than Playstation, but I'm betting even these people would love a great Action RPG series to play, especially in their remastered forms. Kingdom Hearts is a really fun series to play, especially KHII, which has the best gameplay of any of the games, even the ones that came after it, until 3 that is, which seems to be merging most of the gameplay styles of KHII, BBS, & DDD & making it work. On top of that, the Xbox One X has been released & is a great update to the base console that would be great for the series to be on.
Now, short individual reviews of each game in this & 2.8 to give my thoughts & recommendations.
KH1FM: Previously a Japan-exclusive version of the game, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is an updated version & the definitive version of the original Kingdom Hearts, packed with content to sink your teeth into starting the journey of Sora, Donald, & Goofy, with Sora looking for his friends Riku & Kairi & the other 2 looking for King Mickey, all of which went missing at the same time. They fight the villains of the Disney worlds chosen to be represented to be in this game, most of whom are plotting to control the Darkness. There's also Ansem, who's another mysterious force you fight.
This game is...ok. Story-wise, it's the most simple of the series. Most to all of your favorite Disney voice actors come back to reprise their roles, as well as new VAs for the new characters introduced, as well as favorites to fans of Final Fantasy from the same time. Gameplay-wise, this should've been given an overhaul in this release. It's stiff & bad at first, but you adjust & get abilities along the way to alleviate the madness. It's fine, but later entries are less dated-feeling. Also, the tone's kinda sad all the way through. A lighter tone would've been appreciated.
7/10 overall from me.
KH:Re:CoM: A 3D remake of the GBA game Chain of Memories, Re:Chain of Memories sets up Kingdom Hearts II by having Sora, Donald, & Goofy stumble upon Castle Oblivion, when they start losing their memories of the previous game & Sora has some of his remaining memories altered by Namine. Plotting against him are newcomers Axel, Larxene, Vexan, Zexion, & Marluxia, who're members of the newly-introduce Organization XIII, who're all focused on eliminating Sora because he wields the Keyblade & is a threat to them.
You defeat most of them except for Axel as you go by using the new card system. Yep, a new combat system, which is INCREDIBLY easy to break because of how it works. You'd think that'd make the game easy or interesting to play, but nope! This system, while interesting at first, gets really boring after a while. On top of that, the story is terribly written. Sora becomes a jerk because he's been flanderized into an idiot hero who can't think through things with logic, even when his friends make good points about what goes on. It gets REALLY bad as you go on. I don't recommend playing this game unless you RALLY want a different style of gameplay. This game is LONG. Almost as long as the original game, but is in no way as varied in terms of story, enemies, or gameplay. It gets boring rally fast. This story should've been 10 hours tops, but there's a LOT of padding in the game, on top of being boring already, since it rehashes almost EVERYTHING from the first game outside of the new plot, since it was originally made to be Kingdom Hearts on the go, which is a better way to play this game; in small increments rather than long stretches.
On top of that, the dubbing for this game is just off. Now, credit to the dub team, they got anime VAs to play most of the new characters, shout out to Dereck Stephen Prince as Vexen, but some of the returning VAs don't do great jobs. Due to being made & dubbed in 2008, Sora has the same voice tone from KHII & it SO doesn't fit his younger character model, which is a problem that unfortunately continues as the story goes on & Haley Joel Osment ages in the real world while Sora doesn't. Why they couldn't get a sound-alike kid voice actor, I don't know. It doesn't make any sense, since in a later game, they got a younger kid to voice Sora, but not here for some reason. Wayne Allwine, the old VA for Mickey Mouse, also does poorly into this game not only because of the script giving him a hard time trying to parse everything because I don't even think HE got what was going on, but he's not an anime voice actor. Most of the other games in this series reanimate the lip movements to match the English dialogue from the Japanese, but not this one due to it being most likely lower-budget, so they dubbed over the cutscenes as is, leading to some awkward takes.
Riku's story, which you can play after Sora's, also isn't as varied as Sora's, which is saying something, but at least it has a better story & is a lot shorter. It's less than 5-6 hours at most, which is how short Sora's should've been.
Overall, not great. 4/10. The story is the only important part, since it introduces new things & sets up KHII.
KHIIFM: The first numbered sequel, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix is an AWESOME game. Hands-down my favorite of the series thus far. It improves upon everything from the last 2 games. There's more to do, new things to do, a great combat system that overhauls the first game's system, new abilities, a more intricate story, great dialogue & voice acting, with only Haley Joel Osment giving some bad deliveries due to bad direction most likely, & a great adventure.
Sora, Donald, & Goofy wake up after the events of Chain of Memories forced them to hibernate for over a year to restore their memories, though they dn't remember anything about that adventure because of that process. They then go to Twilight Town and meet up with master Yen Sid, who promptly gives Sora new clothes, which allow Sora access to new abilities called Drive Forms, which grant him new abilities. The gang then go in search of King Mickey again, as well as investigate Organization XIII. Also, Roxas. Just Roxas. The tone is also overall lighter, with jokes sprinkled in, cheerier music, & an overall sense of adventure that just gets you excited to play the game, unlike the first game.
Now, I've already said everything I love about this game, but there ARE some complaints I have. First, Atlantica. One of the few returning worlds from the first game & it's just a bad world. It's optional, but you need to do it for certain requirements. The first game already had a bad switch to the controls, but this time the world's been reduced to rhythm minigames. This concept is stupid & I hope it's not revisited in 3. Next, the story starts getting more convoluted than it either needs to be or has any right to be. Organization XIII muddy things up a bit & the world building they bring with them is too convoluted. Don't get me wrong, it's easy enough to understand if you play the games & have it explained to you as it happens, but it's absolutely maddening & only gets worse in later games when they try to expand upon it, only to convolute it even more in the process. Last, you can only defeat bosses by doing finishers when they're low on health. This looks cool on paper, but in execution, this style of defeating bosses is more trouble than it's worth. Please don't include this in 3, Nomura. Just keep it like it is in, literally, EVERY OTHER GAME in this series.
Overall 9.5/10. Highly recommended to play, but only if you play the first game & at least know the story of COM.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (pronounced "3-5-8 Days Over 2"), a prequel/midquel to KHII & COM respectively. It deals with the story of Roxas, how he joined Organization XIII, his adventures, & how he came to be where he is at the start of KHII (I left out the prologue in that one's recap where he appears). Here's it's only represented with remastered cutscenes & dialogue from the original DS game because the gameplay in that game would've required a significant overhaul rather than a simple HD remaster like most of these other games.
The gameplay of the game is bad. How bad? Well, as Roxas, you do missions for the Organization. Ok. But, you do a LOT of them. 30 hours worth. You thought Re:COM was bad with its length. Oh no. From what else I've heard of this game, the gameplay is boring as well, since it's not as involved as KHII's, being a DS game. Not only that, but to level up & gain abilities, you need to use a deck system & build upon what you have, rather than how every other game does it & lets you gain experience passively & have items at the ready. From what I've seen of the original game, the story was the best part about it, so I'm not missing the gameplay at all.
Don't know if I can rate the game, since I've never played it & never want to, but the story gets an 8/10. The way it's told in this version is stilted & a little awkward, but it does the job fine to get you the most necessary information. My only complaint is that they didn't animate anything from what the text boxes have written in them, leaving out some cool battle sequences that could've been animated. Other than that, it's serviceable.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, a DS remake of a Japanese mobile game, KH Coded.
My god, this game is worthless. From what I've heard, the game's not any better from 358/2 in terms of gameplay, plus the story is barely justified, since it's answering the question of what was written on the note Sora, Riku, & Kairi got at the end of 2. That's it. Not even a prequel to answer questions. Just a game that didn't need to exist. It's also even more blatant than COM with its obvious reuse of worlds from KHI just to make the game. Nothing more, nothing less. This is also told in cutscene form, but they're a bit better than 358's were in terms of storytelling. You lose some context to things because of there not being the linking gameplay, but it's fine, but the game didn't need to exist, as I said.
2/10.
KHBBSFM: Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix, a prequel to every game thus far, set up in Re:Coded. It tells the story of 3 Keyblade wielders; Terra, Ventus, & Aqua & how they sort of fell from grace. Combine that with a plot ripped off from the prequel Star Wars movies, with Mark Hamill voicing Master Eriqis & Leonard Nimoy voicing Master Xehanort, in an obvious & intentional Star Wars VS Star Trek setup & you have Birth By Sleep.
I'll give my score after I play it, but it combines a card system started in 358/2, refined in Re:Coded, & brought here with finer tuning.
Now, 2.8:
KHDDD: Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD, a remaster/remake of a 3DS game that tells the story of Sora & Riku finally entering their Mark of Mastery exams to become full-fledged Keyblade wielders by going to sleep & waking up worlds that are sleeping in another plain of existence. Along the way, they find out about a new version of Organization XIII, who are all alternate versions of Xehanort from BBS who time travel to help their older self, who want to claim Sora as a vessel for him to occupy, similar to Terra from BBS.
The combat system is similar to BBS, with a card system having spells & powerful melee attacks & a Command Deck giving Sora & Riku upgrades, along with a new mechanic, flowmotion, which is easy to take advantage of. The story gets its most convoluted in an obvious setup to KHIII by answering questions absolutely no one was asking, introducing characters from The World Ends With You, a cult DS game that's soon getting a Switch remake, & unnecessarily involves time travel. Sora is also at his most flanderized here. Through most of the story, he takes NOTHING seriously & is at his most stupid. He's not a jerk like in Re:COM, thank god, but until the last world, Sora just doesn't act like he should. There's also the manner of the combat. I'm not a fan of it. Flowmotion is cool on paper, but also gets repetitive really fast. Not only that, but while in the dreams, Sora & Riku are connected, but exist in parallel versions of the worlds. Yeah, that makes 0 sense & they don't really try to explain it. They're also, for no reason, back in their younger bodies from the first game, except with a change of clothes & Haley Joel Osment's voice still being unfit for Sora. Now, for this game, I understand why they didn't get a voice double, even though the voice doesn't fit Sora's younger model. Since they're in their dreams, it makes sense why he still sound like he does when he's older. What DOESN'T make any sense is why he sounds OLDER than he did previously, even though not a lot of time has passed since KHII other than Osment being a lot older when the dub of this game was recorded. How is it that he couldn't still sound like he did when he was 16 voicing Sora? He tries to make himself sound younger & it just doesn't fit whatsoever.
Overall, 6.5/10.
KHBBS~AFP: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep ~ A Fragmentary Passage. A sequel to Birth By Sleep explaining what happened to Aqua after the events of BBS. It's the first actual piece of content provided to consoles since KHII, not counting the handheld games' ports in the collections. It's only a few hours long, since it was made to justify 2.8 further than just DDD & the X (key) Back Cover movie.
First off, this game looks gorgeous. It's a sneak preview of what they're doing with Unreal Engine 4 for KHIII & it looks excellent. Second, it runs excellent too, the best any KH game has since II, with the combat being somewhere between II & BBS, which makes sense since this is Aqua's story. Overall, it's great. Unfortunately, though, it feels like it was sliced off of the start of KHIII. It's set up to be its own thing, but with it ending the way it does, KHIII will most likely begin with what Sora's setup to be doing at the end of this one. Don't think it's fair to give it a score. It's short, but it's a great slice of what's to come.
Now, PLEASE, Square. Bring these collections to Xbox One as well. Before, after, or at the same time as KHIII, I don't care, just bring them. KHIII will be VERY heavily dependent on you knowing the previous games to fully enjoy it & a LOT of Xbox players who pick the next game up are going to be VERY confused as to what's going on. No opening cinematic's gonna take care of THAT. This is a problem arguably every KH game has had since COM. BBS gets away with it a bit for being a prequel, but there are still things in there only people who've played the earlier games will enjoy.Don't let sales figures determine these getting ports to the system, they NEED to be on consoles that the future titles are going to be on for all of these reasons & more. I'd certainly buy & play them again for that console if they were released. Do the right thing, Square Enix. Submit to these requests.
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Essentially Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 Remix on PS3 on one disc but with faster loading times and slightly better polish on graphics (more on 1.5 than 2.5).This is the definitive version of 4 games plus 2 movies in one location, but the gameplay is also was transferred over. Nice to see the evolution of the series as you play through all the games, but if feels somewhat dated especially with Kingdom Hearts (1) Final Mix. Not sure if they don't have the resources, or kept it in for the purists (probably the former more than the later) but if you're used to playing modern RPG style 3D beat em' ups (like FFXV) then it takes a while to get adjusted.For those PSN trophy hunters; there are over 150 trophies to collect. Unlike the PS3 remixes; the 2 movies: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded does not have trophies attached to themIf you abandoned your PS3 or PS2, PSP, etc on the remixs or original releases, or never owned those systems/played the games then this is a great precursor to Kingdom Hearts 3. Just get Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and you'll have the complete Kingdom Hearts collection on the PS4 going into Kingdom Hearts 3.If you owned/played all games in this collection, there's no real added content except faster loading screens and a slight spit shine on graphics.Value of this collection is based on:-how much of a fan you are-if you want all Kingdom Hearts games on one console (PS4)-want to re-experience the story again before KH3- if you're a PSN trophy hunter- if you're like one of my friends never played Kingdom Hearts before and only had Xbox, Xbox 360 when the original games released or-Any combination of the above
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2018
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2018
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2017
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Ross
Best remastered collection of any series yet
Reviewed in Canada on August 17, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Oscar
Excelente compra en relacion calidad-precio
Reviewed in Mexico on August 26, 2018Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Oscar
Reviewed in Mexico on August 26, 2018
Con la llegada de Kingdom Hearts 3 esta es una colección que no debes dejar pasar, mas aun por el precio ofertado, 4 juegos y 2 películas (cinemáticas de dos juegos mas) en un solo disco por la mitad del precio de un solo juego.
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Chocobo
KH HD
Reviewed in Japan on October 14, 2018Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
josh pennell
Good
Reviewed in Canada on March 26, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Luis Enrique Garcia Maza
Excelente Precio y entrega
Reviewed in Mexico on May 8, 2018Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: 1.5 + 2.5 RemixVerified Purchase
Luis Enrique Garcia Maza
Reviewed in Mexico on May 8, 2018
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