Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix – Review
PS4
PG
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix has officially come to the PS4, four years after its release on the PS3. For fans of the series, the two titles are a trip back to nostalgia city, allowing you to relive your memories of previous years. Presented in a gorgeous 60fps (unlike the PS3 version) the game is a sleek 3D experience that RPG fans shouldn’t miss.
Decimal points in a game or movie title always throw me around a bit. 1.5, 2.5 – what the hell is this? What do these decimal points and fractions even mean? Is this game a bridge between 1 and 3? And what the heck does Remix mean?
This may be really obvious to some people, but to me it definitely wasn’t, so for the sake of clearing it up, here’s what Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix actually includes:
Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix
Birth By Sleep
Re: Chain of Memories
358/2 Days
Re: Coded
And just to flesh out the crib notes a little more: the Final Mixes are more “full” versions of the two original games, including new enemies, abilities, cutscenes, weapons and much more. Birth By Sleep was a PSP title that also got released on the PS3. Re: Chain of Memories was released on the Gameboy Advance (doesn’t that take you back), 358/2 Days was a Nintendo DS title and finally, Re: Coded was another Nintendo DS title that focused more on puzzles in an episodic structure. Are we all on the same page now?
TL:DR; this latest title gives you the six games from various consoles packed into one very nice looking PS4 game. The only games released in the series that aren’t included in this title is Dream Drop Distance (a Nintendo 3DS game) and mobile and browser games (which were mainly released as Japan exclusives).
Now that we know what the hell we’re playing, let’s talk about why it’s good!
This collection of video games is fantastic for both fans of the series and newcomers alike. Containing all six titles means it’s a great way for people to experience the majority of the Kingdom Hearts story and get up to date before the third iteration of the game is released. For fans, it’s a great way to relive the memories of years ago when the games were first released.
Anybody who knows me knows I don’t exactly keep it a secret how much I love Final Fantasy. I tried playing this game back on release (many moons ago) and just couldn’t get past the weird marriage of the Disney characters alongside the cameos from the Final Fantasy games. Whilst it’s still weird an odd combination, the game is rather fun if that doesn’t bother you (and let’s be honest, it’s not going to bother most people). The story (basically) involves a young boy called Sora teaming up with Disney characters Donald Duck and Goofy and destroying dark beings called the Heartless before they can destroy the world. Whilst I probably won’t ever understand why the creators picked two of the Disney characters with the most annoying voices ever to be the sidekicks alongside Sora, they do bring some comic relief to the story.
Just like the original version of the games, combat is action oriented, and swinging around your Keyblade to take out the bad guys is just as satisfying as it ever was. However, in a world of more complex battle systems, the simple ‘press square to attack and occasionally cast a spell or two’ combat sequence isn’t the most riveting- and it doesn’t change until Kingdom Hearts 2 and Birth By Sleep. There are quite a few secret bosses in the series that will destroy you, Dark Souls style, but they’re the exception rather than the norm.
Other than the humdrum combat, the other niggling issues I had with the title are glitches- glitches than even the day one 4GB patch didn’t fix. However, none of them broke my game, so other than serving to provide a slight annoyance they weren’t that big of a deal. And considering the immensity of the titles (six games within a game, guys. Six!) I was pretty impressed that there weren’t a whole lot more.
All of the games look fantastic and have been upgraded to support 4K on the PS4 Pro, and 1080 on the normal version of the console. If you thought the game looked impressive when you played it on the PS2, just wait til you see it on PS4!
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix (despite its clunky title) is an excellent collection of action RPG games. With sleek graphics, interesting characters and a storyline that spans the ages, it’s a great role-playing game for both fans of the series and newcomers alike.
