A look at Kingdom Hearts II (and Final Mix), and how it has aged since it was released.
"What were you doing when Kingdom Hearts II was released? I don’t mean things like “playing Kingdom Hearts II,” I mean your general life routine? What were your days like back then? What did you worry about? What did you look forward to? Whatever your answers, you are undoubtedly a different person in many ways, because that game was released almost nine years ago." -PSLS
Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"When it comes to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, fans have had a variety of ways to play it throughout its incredibly long length. They could have followed it from 2002’s original release and subsequent questionably canon releases on handheld devices only to return to the core game again with Kingdom Hearts II to find out that yes, they were canon. Then in that wait until the third game the mixture of titles along the way and other numerous platforms would make following Kingdom Hearts‘ story a challenge even for the most eager fan. Square Enix made up for this prior to Kingdom Hearts III’s release by bringing together an HD pack collecting the game’s together in an easier to digest package for fans and releasing them on consoles only for PC fans to be left in the dark. That is of course until all of the games arrived on PC, but not in a way that many had hoped. See, PC users can be a fickle bunch and when the Kingdom Hearts collection arrived on PC exclusively through Epic Games, it may as well not exist. Now, three years after the fact, these same PC players can now enjoy the exact same games on Steam with a bit of extra support including Steam Deck compatibility with Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece. The question is, do all of these games still hold up on their Steam PC ports?"
Far from a 9, Square have left these games a janky mess since their epic release. Even now they have not said anything about fixing some of the problems that many steam reviews mention. You gotta download the re:fined mod to fix what square refuses to do.
"SQUARE ENIX®’s beloved KINGDOM HEARTS series has launched on Steam®, bringing the iconic RPG series to a whole new world of players. All three collections released today—KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, KINGDOM HEARTS 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and KINGDOM HEARTS III + Re Mind DLC—can be played both on PC and on-the-go on Steam Deck devices, and available at a special discounted price for a limited time*." - Square Enix.
My main complaint about the series is that it mixes Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters, but they are actually not important at all to the plot. I read summaries and watched videos about the series, even played the music game which tries to summarize the plot of each game, and the Disney and FF stuff are barely mentioned at all.
All the series really is, is an amalgamation of convoluted plots that tries too hard to be mysterious and edgy, with some cameos to attract fans of Disney and FF, who wouldn't care at all about the franchise otherwise.
Heck, even in the trailer above, the Disney/FF characters are... just there.
As the decade ends, let’s look back at many of the biggest moments in the Kingdom Hearts series. From games to merchandise, there was something for every Kingdom Hearts fan to enjoy.
It's sure going to he one big trip down memory lane when 2.5 remix come into my possession.
Well, My friends and I were wondering what was for lunch since it was released back when I was in school.
I hadn't even realized it had released yet. I was just in a store when I saw it on the shelf... I swiped that game up as fast as I could, lol.
One of the only games I 100% completed. I was usually too impatient back then to do everything in a lot of games.
I remember seeing the adverts.. and thinking negatively about it.. the song was catchy I always remember thinking but would never admit it to anyone, but a game with Disney characters would not be my cup a tea... but one day a friend of mine found a KH2 disc on a wet street and this was at the time it came out and gave it to me.. I was playing something when he gave it to me so I stopped playing and decided to pop in KH2..
The game is now among my favourite of all time.
Beautiful game.
What was I doing when KH2 was initially released?
I was worried about college finals, college bureaucracy, college tuition, and what the hell I was going to do with a liberal arts degree. So ah...lotta college.
The HD remaster is going to make a lot of people happy with waves of feels.