Kingdom Hearts, casually, it's starting to date... The two main opuses were released on PS2, while the spin-offs of this sprawling series have found refuge on GameBoy Advance, DS / 3DS or even PSP. The PS3, for its part, was largely zapped, to benefit only in 2013 from a first HD compilation called Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix, bringing together Kingdom Hearts first of the name in its Final Mix version released only in Japan, Kingdom Hearts : Re-Chain of Memories and retouched cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. After this great success, Square Enix continues today with the 2.5 HD ReMix compilation based on the same model. We therefore find Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix and its shovelful of additional bonuses: exclusive cinematic scenes, side quests, new bosses (including members of Organization XIII), a Critical difficulty level, new outfits and a Theater mode among others. You can also rediscover, as in the 1.5 compilation, an episode on a portable console, and this time it's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, released on the PSP in 2010, and also available in Final Mix version. Again, a large dose of bonuses are to be expected, especially at the level of the arenas in which it is now possible to face Noheart, the Armor of Eraqus or even Monstro. A new Keyblade, new mutual aid commands, extra fighting styles and above all a secret final episode to unlock are also part of the bonuses of this version. Finally, the remastered cinematics of the Re-Coded episode, slightly WTF and of relative utility, complete this trio for the biggest fans of the series. On the content side, nothing to complain about, for only around forty euros, we have a good hundred hours of play.
SORA THE EXPLORER
But Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMix is not just a compilation for those who would like to discover or rediscover the series that has managed to mix the universe of Square and Disney. It's also an HD remake and on that side too, the title does its job perfectly. The episodes of Kingdom Hearts have never been really sumptuous visually but they have always drawn their strength from their colorful graphics and an original artistic direction managing to perfectly transcribe the different Disney universes they led us to visit. It is therefore not a surprise to see them take the step of HD without too many worries. Certainly, as you might expect, Kingdom Hearts II is doing a little better than Birth by Sleep, which still bears the marks of a PSP title, but the latter still offers a more than satisfactory result, especially since it is reinforced by a manual camera now attached to the right joystick, just to make it more playable. However, this does not correct the historical faults of the series, in particular in terms of the precision of movements and jumps, which always remains approximate... Still in the radius of grievances, we regret the absence of choice in the dubbing, with as only possibility English subtitled. A bit of a shame, even if it means remastering a game, why not do it all the way?
