Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

I got the original game on PS2 twelve years ago (with a voucher from my late great grandad) and never got the hang of the game. All I knew was Disney, and that was pretty much it. The battles never made sense to me and I didn't know what an RPG meant or what you did in one. Eventually, I traded all my PS2 games and my PS2 in for an Xbox 360 in 2006 (something which I've regretted to an extent), however in recent years I've been rebuilding my PS2 collection by getting a pre-owned PS2 and the games I missed playing. I was considering shelling out $30 for a second-hand copy of the original game on PS2.Thankfully, I saw this existed and decided to shell out the lesser money to be able to play it on my PS3. Arrived today and I've spent almost two hours playing it, and it's felt much shorter. The music, the graphics, the battles, everything took me back those twelve years; even the menu! I pressed the Start button and sat there for about thirty seconds soaking the menu up and "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing, memories flooding back to me.I believe I've seen one aspect of the "Final Mix" aspect of the game, as there was a cutscene I didn't remember, but my memory is also not that great, so it might just be my faulty memory. I got this mainly to play the original for nostalgia's sake, which is what's going on, but now as an adult I'm also looking at it through different eyes as a pure game and experience, other than "Disney and pretty colours".As I mentioned, I really only got it for the first game, but a sequel and cutscenes of another game are included, which I look forward to playing, especially with Kingdom Hearts II.5 HD Remix coming this December.Great game, great franchise, great memories.

Bought it the first time around, and the game still holds up well today with a graphic refresh. It includes some older elements, such as not holding your hand, and telling you where to go.It's worth the money not to go digging out the old PS2 (or borrow your buddy's for the days/weeks you can sink into this game), find the memory cards, play with a wired controller, with really poor 480i resolution on a large screen.Minor annoyance seems to be the need for the trophy data to load every time you start the game. That plus going through two start up screens (one to get to game selection, then startup for the game itself), means from the time you turn the PS3 on til you start playing is about 3 minutes. But that's not enough to take away a star.And now, these 10 years later, I have kids who love to watch the game be played, with all the Disney characters. There's no excessive violence, gore, or language.

As someone who played the first game when it originally debuted back in 2002, I felt it only right to pick up the REMIX(s) (both out of nostalgia's sake and to prepare for the end of the "Dark Seeker Saga" aka Kingdom Hearts III). I do not right reviews often, in fact, it is very rare when I take the time to do so. So bear with me. Getting to replay the original whilst also getting to explore the features that Final Mix offered was both amazing and added new layers to my experience. For me it's like finding out after I finished my favorite book that there was a chapter I didn't know about.As I type this out, I'm in the midst of " Re: Chain of Memories ". I never liked the card system (hence my hesitation in giving this a five star rating) because the series was already a great rpg, but overall the Chain of Memories game is good, just takes time to adjust to the whole combat via cards thing.As for 358/2 Days? I'm aware it's nothing but cutscenes, but since I never got the chance to play the game in the first place, I figure it's a fair trade. I've trusted Tetsuya Nomura and his development team at Square Enix this long with the series, I'm not about to stop now.I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the series, just starting out, or simply looking to explore an rpg game.It's great to be playing these games again!