Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMix Preview

It’s been over a year since Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMix released, and with the upcoming release of Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMix it will soon be possible to play (or watch) the majority of the Kingdom Hearts franchise on your PS3. 2.5 will contain Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix, and the cutscenes of Kingdom Hearts RE: Coded, rendered in HD.

Being a re-release of multiple games, there’s not a huge amount of new content to expect from 2.5 – that is, if you’ve played the Final Mix editions in Japanese. This will be the first time for the Final Mix editions of KH2 and BBS to grace the rest of the world. We gaijin will be seeing a lot of new content, as well as a graphical overhaul. All you can hope for from a definitive edition, really.

I got a chance to demo the Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts 2 and Birth By sleep. I first played them both when they were initially released, so I expected the experience to be much the same, and for the port of Birth By sleep to feel out of place on a home console. I was pleasantly surprised on both counts. There’s enough new details, both in gameplay and in graphics, for the games to transition easily from one console to another, without becoming clunky or dated.

If you aren’t familiar with the series, then it’s likely that the titles Birth By Sleep and Coded mean nothing to you, and neither will the games as a whole. There’s a lot of worthwhile new content in KH2.5, but nothing that could replace the initial game, and discourage the player from going back and playing KH1.5. No catch-up, no summary, just another instalment in the timeline. KH2 and BBS are excellent games, but they remain as unwelcoming to newcomers as ever.

That being said, the games feel improved with the remake. Kingdom Hearts is notorious for its convoluted story, but KH2.5 includes new cutscenes to fill some gaps in its narrative, and these aren’t limited to the new sections added post-game. These new scenes are interspersed throughout KH2, deepening our understanding of the central characters and Organization XIII.

Another major plus with KH2.5 is that it’s improved not only on the games it’s remaking, but also on the line of KH remakes. In KH1.5, the character models didn’t transition well into HD; Sora had low resolution facial features that looked like stick-on-tattoos. Now he and his teammates will remain constantly detailed, whether in a fully-rendered cutscene or in the middle of gameplay. You’ll find yourself staring into Sora’s dazzling eyes in no time.

It seems that most of the new content is late-game material, like secret bosses, weapons, items, and synthesis recipes. Some of this content is available earlier, such as the ‘missions’ (usually timed challenges, or secret bosses), which will be highlighted in your journal when they’re available. However, I found that some of this content, despite being accessible early, either needs a lot of skill or for your party to be at late-game level.

The most notable of these new additions are the additional chapters at the end of each game. In KH2, this takes the form of the Cavern of Remembrance and the Garden of Assemblage, where members of Organization XIII can be re-battled. In Birth By Sleep, there is an additional area, ‘Realm of Darkness’ in the Final Episode. This is only available once completing the story with all three main characters and fulfilling certain criteria. Obviously this section contains major spoilers, so I’ll leave that for you to discover for yourselves.

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMix is released December 5th in the UK and, like the ReMix before it, will only cost around £25. There’s still five weeks until then, so if you’re interested and haven’t been introduced to the world of Kingdom Hearts before, I’d advise diving into KH 1.5 while there’s still time. Kingdom Hearts 2 and Birth By Sleep are my two favourite games of the series, and I’m happy to say that, from what I’ve seen, they’re going to be better than ever.