‘Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix’ review
By Steven Cayer, Senior Columnist
5/5
It’s been 11 years since I was transported to the many different worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney combined. When Kingdom Hearts came out for the PS2 in 2002, I couldn’t stop playing it. Developed by Square Enix, Kingdom Hearts had revolutionary graphics that still hold up to this day. As of September 10, a compilation has finally come out. This includes Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, Re:Chain of Memories, and 358/2 Days, all in pristine HD.
To be perfectly clear, 358/2 Days is not an actual game, but a roughly three-hour movie of every cut-scene from the DS game (something I found the developers didn’t really make that clear). That said, I would’ve been happy enough with just the first Kingdom Hearts; back in the day, it was my favourite PS2 game. For the people like me who missed Re:Chain of Memories, the game reveals some key plot points that confused everybody who went straight to Kingdom Hearts 2.
The story of Kingdom Hearts involves a boy named Sora and his friends, Riku and Kairi. On “Destiny Island,” they decide to travel the world. Sora, as it turns out, is a “Keyblade Master,” one chosen to “lock” the keyholes in every world, including Wonderland and Halloween Town. He teams up with Donald and Goofy to defeat the Heartless, shadow creatures that steal people’s hearts.
No matter how many times I play Kingdom Hearts, I’ll always go back—only now I get to go back in HD.
