Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix:
The first game in the collection is Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. This Final Mix version is an enhancement of the original and was never released outside of Japan. It contains more optional bosses, a new difficulty mode, new minigames, additional cutscenes to flesh out the story better and new areas. There are a lot of subtle changes compared to the first release Kingdom Hearts II but overall, 90% of the game is still the same and plays the same. In the first 2-3 hours of the game, you will play as Roxas. This was one of the worse and most boring sections of any game ever. You're forced to live through six mundane days, with confusing story elements even if you have played through the events of Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days. You're constantly forced to fight mandatory enemies in slow repetitive battles. The fact that it also felt pointless in the overall scheme of things didn't help it one bit. The constant cutscenes and loading screens were torturous. It was enough to put you off for the whole game and it can seriously make you reconsider whether you can make it past this section to what has to be better parts of the game later on. On the bright side, this remaster brings a fantastic HD uplift to the graphics. Everything looks sharp and really pretty, it is a significant improvement to the first game. Character models are good and environments have just enough details to be impressive.
Despite the generally impressive graphics, during some cutscenes, some objects in the background are obviously low-res and looks horrible with pixelation. The music is another strong point, especially with the catchy battle theme. Kingdom Hearts II focuses heavily upon the story where you are put through cutscene after cutscene. The most annoying part is that the game has a habit of putting you into a battle (with the camera rotating around you and the numerous enemies, further breaking the pacing), then after two seconds of trying to bash the enemy with no success, a cutscene shows Sora and party surprised. Then you're put into the battle again but this time you can hit the enemy. The story can be convoluted and all over the place. Playing the first game and Chain of Memories is a must, with 358/2 Days helping you understand the beginning better and who this Roxas character is. The game follows a similar structure to the first in that in each world you go into, you play a shortened version of that Disney world's story. These include saving Turner and Swan in Pirates of the Caribbean or helping Simba defeat Scar. While you're visiting these worlds, the background story involves Sora seeking out Riku and Kairi. Mysterious hooded and cloaked characters appear with unknown intentions, speaks a lot and acts all menacing without actually explaining what their objectives are (yes, it is very frustrating that the writers tries to keep secrets in order to build suspense, but it can only go so far without becoming cumbersome).
In worlds in which Sora has already traveled to in the first game, the story involves a short extension similar to an epilogue. Each world takes on average one hour to complete the first time around but you will return to them later on as more content is unlocked. This does feel a cheap way of extending the game and an area where you would have preferred to visit new worlds instead of retreading through the same areas of each world. Areas are also much much smaller than the first game, with extremely limited options for exploration. This was disappointing as the secrets of each area were a highlight in Kingdom Hearts. Effectively, the combinations of all maps in each world of Kingdom Hearts II equal to one of the larger maps in a world of Kingdom Hearts. Probably the most annoying thing is that you go through one tiny map then it's a long cutscene, then through the next small map and another cutscene plays. It gets worse when a cutscene plays then puts you in the exit of the map, so you exit but surprise, it's yet another cutscene! The two seconds of gameplay between the cutscenes feels so pointless and obnoxious. While there are new worlds added to be explored such as Mulan, Tron and The Lion King, you also end up going to a lot of the same worlds as the first game. While the maps in these revisits are different (they are much smaller), it doesn't feel as unique and refreshing as it is STILL Agrabah, it is STILL Atlantica and it is STILL Halloween Town.
The other side effect is that the story feels repetitive in the second phase of returning to each world. You will reenter the world as you aim to hunt for the members of the Organisation and then defeat one or two or a few bosses. Maybe it'll involve some sort of gimmick like finding and fighting four Nobodies to retrieve the stolen medallions in Port Royal but this doesn't make it any more interesting or fun. The writing seems like fan fiction at times and it is very uninspiring and cheesy. There are just too many cutscenes so that it feels bloated and unnecessary. The final section of the game feels very different to what came before. The story finally makes sense with most of the confusing bits and pieces that happened previously being explained. While at last you understand what the hell was going on throughout the whole game, you feel that it's come a bit late and it would have been better if you weren't confused for 90% of the game. Kingdom Hearts II also feels like it has two separate storylines forced to mash together. On the one hand, you have the Disney replaying, while on the ohter, you have Organisation XIII, which takes center stage in the final portion of the game. By that point, it feels as if it is two distinct stories and you question why you played through all those Disney worlds when in the grand scheme of things, they did not add much to the story.
The ending was good but not enough to lift the game. Good thing was that it managed to close off everything so all the sequels after this does not feel essential. All in all, it takes approximately 30 hours to finish the main story but a lot of extra time is needed to unlock and complete everything which ties to the Trophies. All that and it only covers the story element of the game. The battle system in Kingdom Hearts II adds in a lot of new features. Unfortunately, it just isn't that fun early on and you tend to find yourself mashing the attack button on Normal mode, interspersed through mashing the Triangle button for what are essentially quick time events. Bosses all resolve around this one gimmick and it is tedious, repetitive and not much fun. Bosses feel uninspired and all the bosses have long health bars dragging out the battle instead of making it epic like the intention was. There are several bosses who are annoying in that they attack really quickly, relentlessly and do a lot of damage. This is to the point where the boss is constantly attacking without giving you an opening to unleash your attack. The lack of the dodge roll for most of the game and unless you grind out the ability, means you're forced to just stomach these unforgiving attacks.
For those bosses who attacks so quickly, you end up being constantly hammered with the boss shifting around all the time making it a pain to track and bash. It makes the battles seem less structured, not to mention being less fun and less about careful timing and strategy. However, the game is much more annoying than it is hard, you'll easily be able to cruise through the game without many issues on Normal mode. During battle, you're able to use magic, summon a variety of characters including Chicken Little and change into different Drive Forms. These Drive Forms causes Sora to change outfits for a limited amount of time, boosting his stats and giving him special abilities such as jumping higher, wielding two keyblades or running faster. The other addition is Reaction Commands (i.e. pressing triangle), these are context sensitive and all boss fights uses this to activate quick time events to damage them. Gummi ship missions make a return and they are much more fun now. The graphics has been updated and it remains as an on rail shooter. It still seems out of place though but at least you only need to play them once and forget about them again. Overall, Kingdom Hearts II is okay. The story ad gameplay feels flat. It never feels as epic or fantastical as the original, most of the game is annoying, which, when combined together, can make the game a displeasure to play. You can tell that the game tries to put various elements together but it doesn't manage to do this coherently. It's hard to say this but, Kingdom Hearts II feels overrated and a shadow of what it could have been.
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix:
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is the sixth game in the Kingdom Hearts series, which by this time, the story was too convoluted for its own good and the game spread out across multiple systems. This game was originally released on the PSP and so Square Enix remastered it into HD, made some tweaks and it looks fantastic on the big screen. Of note is that this is the Final Mix version which includes some extras, although they don't make a huge deal of difference. Despite originating from the PSP, the graphics are decent. The aesthetics goes a long way in making it scale up well because you can tell the environments are empty of items, stretched out and textures are low res in various custcenes. Character models and environments are usually sharp though if not very detailed. The game brings back exploration, feeling less linear and cramped than Kingdom Hearts II. You don't feel as if the game is limited by its PSP roots (unlike Chain of Memories where you know it was the GBA's limitations at faults for the small rooms and repetitive gameplay. The controls map perfectly onto the PS3 controller; the camera can now be adjusted using the right stick and scrolling through magic commands are mapped more comfortably to the trigger buttons. Birth by Sleep is a prequel, taking place in the events after the Keyblade War. It follows three Keyblade Masters: Terra, Ventus and Aqua, as they take their Keyblade exam before things spiral out of control and take them each on an individual adventure.
The game is unique in that you play three stories, each following one of the protagonists. They visit the same worlds however, but brings different perspectives to the events that happen in each world. The story is simple enough that you don't need to play the previous games to understand, and it is actually quite engaging, unlike Kingdom Hearts II which was mainly a borefest. Of course, cameos from previous games appear, as well as some new Final Fantasy and Disney characters. While the same worlds are visited from series such as Hercules, Peter Pan and Disney Town, they take place in a completely separate section and don't feel repetitive. New worlds are explored which is a surprise, you'll enter the castle in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, the woods of Snow White and the spaceship from Lilo & Stitch. It is fantastic and each world is big enough that it is fun to explore and seek out secrets, since each map has various exits to discover. It reminds you of the good times from the first Kingdom Hearts and what made it so great. The combat system is definitely one of the highlights and the best in the series so far. It takes all the good things of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, does away with the gimmicky reaction commands (i.e. quick time events) and adds some strategy. Attacking is still pressing X; blocking, dashing and dodging from Square; and jumping and gliding with O.
The twist in the battle system is that you execute special Command moves with Triangle. It appears on the bottom left corner and you can scroll through your list of up to eight commands. Once used, it takes a short time to recharge until you can use it again. That's right, there are no more pesky situations where you run out of MP like in Kingdom Hearts II. What makes this system better is that you can customize your loadout. Prefer to have a deck of all Thundagas? No problem. Or maybe you prioritize healing so you push in four slots of Curagas and some heavy physical hitters like Thunder Surge and Freeze Raid. It's possible and really gives you the freedom to fight how you want. Each command can also level up, which once maxed you can then combine two Commands together to make a new one, as well as add abilities to it. The number of combinations are staggering and it is so much fun mixing and matching to create a new Command. You earn abilities through melding Commands with special items, which you keep for good once you max out the level of the Command it is attached to. This means you are now no longer limited with Ability Points when equipping abilities such as fire resistance, immune from death of a string of combos and automatically attracting monster drops. There's a new technique called Shotlock which throws you in a first person viewpoint, lock onto enemies and then fire homing attacks. This move is quite overpowered when used against a boss however.
The other major addition are Command Styles, which are essentially powered up versions of the characters. Use a lot of fire spells and Terror will go into Firestorm Command Style who unleashes powerful fire elemental attacks. Or maybe you use thunder spells in which you'll go into Thunderbolt Command Style, electrocuting all that in your way. It adds another strategic element. Lastly, there are Dimension-Links. As you will be fighting alone for the whole game (Birth by Sleep doesn't use a party system), you can use another character's Commands instead of your own. For example, you can D-Link with Pete and use heavy hitting attacks or D-Link with Aqua in which case you can heal yourself in the early beginning of the game. Boss battles require strategy but it is over a cleverer design than the annoying Kingdom Hearts II ones. You cannot button mash your way through, you need to learn the boss's attack patterns, dodge it and then strike when you have a window of opportunity. It is really fun and bosses are not dragged out to oblivion to "add to the atmosphere". If you play on a tougher difficulty level than Standard, then boss fights are tough by fair. Each character's story will take around 9-12 hours to finish, depending on how much time you use being distracted. The voice acting is surprisingly good, with some big names like Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill.
Birth by Sleep has a lot of minigames, not all of which are good. There is a board game called the Command Board, which is a kind of hybrid between Monopoly and Mario Party. It is actually enjoyable and useful in that it helps level up your Command moves. Other minigames such as the racing minigame or the rhythm one are best left untouched... although it is more of a case of you like it or you don't. There is an area called the Mirage Arena which has some of the minigames mentioned above as well as monsters for you to fight. It is a great place to spend your time. You earn medals and by doing challenges, you can level up the arena to unlock more. As previously mentioned, there are three story modes which tells the overarching story from each character's perspective. They all go to the same worlds but what makes it more interesting is that they go to a different part of the world, so it's not retreading the same place three times. While there are more than its fair share of areas shared between the three story modes, there's enough difference to keep it interesting. The different perspectives also work out well and provides a lot more insight into the story. Since each story mode finishes so quickly, it gets to the point where you feel as if you need more time so you can build up your character's abilities and play around with melding more. The downside of playing three separate storylines is that you need to build a character from scratch each time and can feel very limiting when you're back to square one after getting used to such powerful moves.
In total, the game can take anywhere from 25 hours to 50 hours to finish. As expected, Birth by Sleep has a bunch of optional bosses, most of which are very challenging, even on Normal difficulty. Each character's story endings can be abrupt, when the final scenes is played before it suddenly cuts to the credits. This is because there is a Final Episode where the real ending lies, as well as a Secret Episode (that takes some effort to unlock), which is an epilogue. Final Episode is really short and in reality, all it contains are some cutscenes and a boss battle. While you can go through the other worlds if you wish, the only difference is that they have high leveled enemies. The ending of Final Episode doesn't provide closure either, you will need to unlock the "Blank Points" cinematic to get the true ending. As if that wasn't enough or confusing enough, the Final Mix version has the unlockable Secret Episode, where you continue to play as Aqua. There are a few additional new dungeon maps, which are pretty large areas, plus a final boss. It helps with understanding the time skip seen within the Blank Points cinematic. Overall, Birth by Sleep is a fantastic game and very fun to play. The story is decent and easy to understand, although the weakest aspect is the ending in which it tries really hard to tie back to previous Kingdom Hearts games. Nevertheless, the combat system is easily the best in the series and the game is very much worth your while to play.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded:
The third piece in this collection known as Kingdom Hearts Re:coded has an interesting history. Initially known as Kingdom Hearts Coded, released exclusively in Japan for mobile phones, it was then remade for the Nintendo DS and released worldwide as Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. This remake featured a revamped battle system, better graphics and new cutscenes. Now, just like 358/2 Days in the first collection, it was deemed excessively expensive to adapt the DS game into PS3 and thus they upscaled the cutscenes to HD so players did not have to miss out on the story. The result is that you have a series of remastered cinematics that runs just show of 3 hours. One of the things that Square Enix has improved upon is that there are no longer the abrupt time skips between the start of a boss battle and the end of one. They have bridged that gap with some brand new short battle scenes, which really improves upon the flow of the story. That said, Re:coded has easily the worst story in all of the Kingdom Hearts games across the two HD collections. It takes place after Kingdom Hearts II, where Micky, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy Cricket investigate why one of Jiminy's journals are blank except for the phrase "Thank Namine". They proceed to then digitalize the journal, create a "Data Sora" and seek to repair the gaps due to bugs created in the digitalization process.
The story is just an excuse for Sora to traverse through all the exact same worlds as the first game. This takes up half of the cinematics, the other half takes place in Castle Oblivion where Sora traverses the levels and talks to characters from worlds he had just visited. The story is a massive borefest. It is confusing, repetitive and not very fun to watch. Slogging through the three hours was painful. The ending only slightly redeemed these flaws by quickly linking 358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep, Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II together. The biggest flaw in the story is how the second part completely makes the first half pointless. The plot runs around in circles in order to extend it to the length required, without having enough meaningful content to fill that length. It is easy to tell that this was not originally a PS3 or PS2 game as while it upscales quite well, most of the time, there are jagged edges and low-res character models. After the cutscenes, there is a short section that describes the characters. All cutscenes are voice-acted but there is definitely less content than 358/2 Days. The trophies are a bit ridiculous, considering that you get it through watching the videos, it's a bit rich that they give you three Gold trophies for it when getting a Gold trophy in either II or Birth by Sleep takes so much more effort. Overall, Re:coded is okay as a bonus to the package. It is not something that would be the key reason to buy this collection since the story is pointless in the overall scheme of things.
Overall:
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix is a great collection that provides hours upon hours of entertainment (at least 80 hours in total). Kingdom Hearts II is okay, and Re:coded is nice as a bonus. Birth by Sleep is the real winner here, it looks fantastic and plays even better. You also get to unlock three PS3 themes too upon finishing each game's story. You can tell that a lot more effort than your standard HD collection went into these games. Therefore, if you have never played any of these games or you want a definitely version, then HD 2.5 Remix is a no brainer.
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