About a week ago I decided to dive into one of my favorite series growing-up, Kingdom Hearts. Square released, the HD remaster version on PS4 and the new 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue also on PS4, this focuses on continuing the story and will lead into the third game. If you didn’t know, the HD remaster provides you with six Kingdom Hearts games.
- Kingdom Hearts I
- Chain of Memories
- 358/2 Days
- Kingdom Hearts II
- Birth by Sleep
- Re:coded
This collection of games is essential to the overall narrative
of the game, even though it’s a convoluted mess. I’m using a guide
that shows me which games are in chronological order to get the full
understanding of the Kingdom Hearts
world and who Sora is as a character. Thanks for RPG
Grind Time – a column at Gameinformer
Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue (These
names are ridiculous) from what I understand isn’t about Sora and his
adventures, but with a new character, Aqua. You meet Aqua in Birth by Sleep – which is a prequel to
the first game. This collection continues the story of Aqua and the overall
story into the third game. This collection has three games:
- Dream Drop Distance
- Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage
- Kingdom Hearts χ Back Over
I haven’t touch this collection yet, but can’t wait to
understand the story of Aqua and her companions.
Now that we have an idea of the journey, let start with the
obvious – Kingdom Hearts I. I remember playing this game as a kid, though I didn’t
get very far – I did watch a lot. Watching it was enough to make me curious and
that curiosity never left my mind. Then, three years ago Square Enix released
the HD collection on PS3 (the same collection on PS4) that I tried and never got
past the island. I wanted to go back to it, but lending it to a friend led to its
disappearance.
It’s now 2017, the same collection has been re-released on
PS4, there’s also a new episode leading to the next game, and more recently, a 2018
release window on Kingdom Hearts III.
Playing through the first game was rough! At first it was
enjoyable. Seeing Sora, Donald, and Goofy brought back memories and not to
mention all the Disney worlds and characters we all loved – some I even forgot
about. But the tedious questing and back tracking made playing the game a frustrating
boring chore.
One thing I did enjoy, gameplay-wise, was the combat and the
customization of combos and abilities. This is a part of the game I didn’t
realize could be so vital to a personal playthrough. I say flexible and
customizable because you can change how many finishers you can add, not only
finishers but simple abilities like rolling, and sliding – these skills are
restricted to a certain amount making me change-up fighting styles during certain
situations.
As the game progressed more of the chores and back tracking
persist. I don’t really like using a guide as it isn’t the way I like to experience
a game, but in this case, it made my experience more enjoyable. The remaster
version looks sharp just as I remembered it, the faithful adaptation of the Disney
world’s felt exactly like I was in a Disney story.
The overall narrative is also a big mess, it does well introducing
the characters but the narrative around the characters are so convoluted making
the tedious questing unrewarding in both gameplay and storytelling. Traveling
through Disney worlds and meeting the characters in those worlds was rewarding
but still doesn’t feel satisfactory because of the frustrating moments I had to
get through.
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Kingdom Hearts will always have a soft spot in my heart.
Playing through it in 2017 after understanding what games can be, I can say
that Kingdom Hearts is not a great game that I like.
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