Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX Review Part 3–Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Overall

Disclaimer: There may be some minor spoilers included within this review. I apologize in advance. I would also like to note that I have never finished the original version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and as such part of this was new to me as well. I have spoken with some friends who have played this for a bit more insight for the later portions of this.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days: The Movie

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was originally released for the Nintendo DS. As such, it would not have been an easy game to port over to a PlayStation 3 HD collection. So Square Enix took another method of letting people see the story – movie format! You can choose to watch every cutscene in a row, or you can pick and choose the cutscenes you wish to watch.

Sounds great, right? Get the story you missed without having to (potentially) buy a whole other system! Well, unfortunately, it seems there are still some issues.

Lost, Never to be Seen in HD

Unfortunately, while they did an amazing job at porting over and pretty much redoing almost all the cutscenes in this game, some still got lost in the mix. One in particular that was pointed out to me is a late game cutscene that reveals some critical storyline information to this game. Of course, for some reason, it got completely nixed from the HD release, and anyone who had either not played or finished the original – like myself – would have never known that a late game cutscene was missing, were I not told by friends.

Boss Fights – Something is Missing

While obviously it wouldn’t really be possible to include actual boss fights within what is a movie, it would have been nice if they were there in some form. As it is, we never get to see really any sign of major storyline bosses, thus completely eliminating a look at amazing late-game designs. While as I said including them full out wouldn’t have really been possible, perhaps some sort of cutscene that showed them off could’ve been done. An example of this, though some may not like this example, is Other M – the theater mode in there did a good job of showing what some boss fights are like.

The HD Upscale

If you asked anyone to upscale a DS game onto a PS3 they’d likely tell you that you are crazy. Well, as I’ve pointed out, this isn’t quite what Square Enix did here. They have brought over the cutscenes, and what ones were brought over are simply stunning. Comparing them to the original game is pretty much night and day between them. Heck, they even went ahead and voiced some additional scenes that weren’t voiced in the original game!

Mission Overview

Something I actually found quite clever was how they gave a summary of the missions over the various days. While of course not every mission was included, all the ones important to the story were and that is what matters here.

Unfortunately though, the timing on the text in the overviews seems to be a tad bit fast, likely timed more towards the original Japanese text. While thankfully I am a speedreader, other people may not be.

Reports and Secret Diaries

After you finish watching the cutscenes, you will gain access to the various reports and secret diaries in the game. These will give you another view on the happenings within the game. Be prepared though – they are quite a bit of reading. Thankfully though, you can take them at your own pace.

The Verdict

While what they did is absolutely incredible and highly appreciated, I became a bit disappointed when I found out that there were some key storyline cutscenes missing from the game. It is understandable that every cutscene couldn’t be brought over, but to flat out exclude some key storyline cutscenes leaves a bit of a sour taste.

The missing key cutscenes combined with the complete lack of showing major boss fights in some way leads me to the following score.

Review Score for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days HD Cutscenes

4/5

Overall Thoughts on Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX

This has been some busy times for me planning out these three reviews and getting them ready. Overall though, I enjoyed reliving these games (especially since I hadn’t finished KH1 in so long!) It has been a great experience, and despite some issues with the emotionless faces, pixelizing, and missing Days cutscenes, I HIGHLY recommend this collection to anyone – either as a good way to get into the series or for returning fans.

Overall Review for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX

4.5/5

You can purchase Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX off Amazon for $39.99.

You can read my review for Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD here.

You can read the review for Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories here.

The review for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (The Movie) is above.

I would like to thank Square Enix for providing me with a copy of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX for use with this review.