Mastered to perfection
KINGDOM HEARTS II holds a very special place in my heart. As a child, it was probably the game that captured me the most out of my entire Playstation 2 collection. I managed to pick it up one day through random luck when I saw it sitting in a gaming store and my mum had a generous heart. I took it home, sat down and didn’t put it down again until she told me to go to bed hours later. I couldn’t stop playing it. Even when I was sent to school the next day, my mind was constantly waiting for the day to be over so I could sit down and keep playing it. I don’t think any game had quite that effect on me up until then.
Sitting down with its brand new HD remaster, I’m not really surprised to find such a fantastic gem has held up so well. Not only that, but the other secondary game it includes – KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep – is just as enjoyable, well designed and extremely fun to play. Out of these two HD collections available, undoubtedly this is the stronger of the two.
KINGDOM HEARTS II puts you into the shoes as Roxas initially as you see him through to the end of his Summer vacation. Revisiting it was enjoyable after quite some time, however this long tutorial to the game’s mechanics can quickly prove exhausting on multiple playthroughs. After putting his story to rest, you’ll take control of Sora once more, the series’ true protagonist. Alongside Donald and Goofy, you’ll fight the Heartless once more to save the worlds from darkness – and put an end to the new enemy, Organisation XIII.
The gameplay on offer can offer depth to those who seek it, or be a comfortable, stylish button mashing exercise for others. At lower difficulties the game is pretty simple, allowing you to (mostly) breeze past bosses and enemy encounters using melee alone. However, with Proud and Critical, a new level of strategy is offered to players. How to best organise your abilities becomes key and memorising boss patterns is absolutely essential to victory. Even smaller encounters can prove challenging if you’re not on the ball. Mastering all the powers at your disposal is absolutely critical to survival, with magic and drive forms possibly providing the edge you need to overcome opponents.
The presentation is pretty remarkable too. Updated textures and character models lead to a truly pretty game despite its age. Lots of love went into KINGDOM HEARTS II’s remaster with new cutscenes being fully dubbed and lip synced and beautiful new arrangements of the game’s already fantastic OST being included. It can’t be understated how fantastic Yoko Shimomura’s score is here, and it truly shines brightest with the new mixes. A few ugly and blurry textures here and there will show up and remind you that this is a PS2 game, but overall its been brought to the next generation hardware with great success.
Sadly, the amount of love seen in this title doesn’t ultimately reflect in Birth by Sleep. Only three musical tracks receive a remaster here and it looks a lot more rough around the edges. You’ll see plenty more ugly textures around and the camera can be a real pain. This isn’t to say the game isn’t an absolute joy to play however; the musical pieces are still spot on and it arguably contains the strongest gameplay in the KINGDOM HEARTS series to date.
Birth by Sleep introduces the Command Menu which gives players the ability to use special attacks and magic using the triangle button. Building up hits with commands can lead to Command Styles, which are powerful advancements in your strength and combat ability. It’s extremely satisfying to master, empowers you greatly, and feels slick and stylish to boot.
The weak link for both these titles – and the franchise itself – is its story. Though well presented and filled with strong performances from the voice cast (outside of the rare few, such as Terra), the games usually suffer from painfully written dialogue and extremely confusing plot developments. The overall story quickly becomes a difficult to follow mystery unless you go online and do your research, but even then the more confusing elements can be lost on you. And this is before we even touch the series’ concept of time travel. The real joy to find in the games is seeing the characters visit each Disney world and watching the stories unfold there.
Because of this, it’s no surprise that the third title on the disc is the clear straggler of the bunch. KINGDOM HEARTS Re:Coded is presented purely as cinematic cutscenes with no real interaction outside of menus. The story isn’t very exciting and often is filled with cringeworthy dialogue. Overall the presentation has certainly been stepped up since the 358/2 Days movie, but this doesn’t excuse some issues – such as the glaring omission of adding in choreographed fight scenes for most battles, but leaving out the climatic Roxas vs Sora fight. Thankfully, it’s a completely optional extra to the game with the only real need to go through it being to obtain its trophies.
Despite the few issues, it’s undeniable that KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 2.5 ReMIX- is simply a must buy for anyone looking for a fantastic adventure. Boasting a lovely new coat of paint, a brilliant musical score and top notch presentation – whether you’re a fan of JRPGs, grew up with the series or love a great action game, this title offers an incredible value for money. I’d definitely recommend picking it up whenever you can.
THE BRAD BLOG 
