If you’re a Kingdom Hearts fan as I am gamer in general then you’re used to being continually disappointed by Square Enix, and I thought this year would be different (Kingdom Hearts 10 year anniversary) no, I didn’t expect Kingdom Hearts 3, I anticipated a Kingdom Hearts HD bundle with the first two games, and optimistically Birth By Sleep as well, but we’re not so lucky, and instead Square Enix has announced: “Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix”
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix includes cutscenes from the DS title: Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days, along with HD trophy enabled remakes of:
- Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix
- Kingdom Hearts: RE:Chain of Memories
That’s two games, and additional cutscenes, which from an outsider perspective may seem like “enough” for an HD collection but a little context is necessary in regards to what exactly Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories is, and why Square is screwing us.
Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories started out as a GBA title, but when Kingdom Hearts 2 received its “Final Mix” re-release in Japan, a Ps2 rendition of Chain of Memories (RE:Chain of Memories) featuring Kingdom Hearts 1 graphics was included as a bonus, and that’s all the critically slammed waste of time ever was (in Japan anyway, N.A received a full Kingdom Hearts RE: CoM release) the gameplay uses a frustrating card system, there’s very little voice acting, yet tons of written dialogue, and it’s a generally stale lifeless game that’s difficult to push your way through unless you’re a very devout Kingdom Hearts fan.
So Square Enix is essentially re-releasing a similar amount of content found in Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, in an effort to sell multiple Kingdom Hearts HD “collections” to consumers, because Square hates you, but loves your money.