Ahh, Kingdom Hearts.
If someone would have told me in 2000 that one of Squaresoft's most successful franchises of the new millennium would star Disney characters interacting with those from the Final Fantasy universe, I would immediately snicker and ask how much they've had to drink. But amazingly enough, the seemingly bizarre marriage of Mickey Mouse, Donald, and Goofy with Cloud, Aerith, and Squall has worked amazingly well - blending universally familiar characters with epic Japanese-style storytelling, and the series has sold millions of copies in its three-game run. It all started with KH1 on the PS2 and continued with KH: Chain of Memories on the GBA. Then the series moved back to the PS2 with Kingdom Hearts 2, known to be one of the best selling titles throughout the lifespan of the system.
Now a year after the Japanese release of Kingdom Hearts 2, director Tetsuya Nomura has put together a "Final Mix" for the Japanese market containing new scenes, items, areas, special features, and more.
American fans may not know this, but there was a cut of the original Kingdom Hearts released in Japan after the domestic release of the first game here in the United States. This cut of the game, called "Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix", contained the English voiceovers, the boss battles added to the US version that were absent from the original Japanese release, and a new, "special" boss fight with (who we find out later to be) Xemnas. This cut of the game was never released domestically in the US.
Just like the first game's re-release, KH2: Final Mix resurrects scenes alluded to by Nomura in interviews that were originally cut due to lack of development time. The game also includes new boss battles with members of Organization XIII thought to be destroyed in CoM. The special hidden "boss" fight this time around has to be seen to be believed (though if you've seen the secret movie at the end of the original KH2, you won't be too surprised by who you'll be fighting.)
But the real star here is not the remixed KH2. Also included in the package is a complete 3D remake of Chain of Memories for the PS2. Yes. You heard that right. A COMPLETE PS2 REMAKE OF CHAIN OF MEMORIES (here titled Re:Chain of Memories), this is the one reason why Square CANNOT ignore a US release for this collection. But before you get too excited, it's time to rain on your parade a bit....
Disappointingly, this remake keeps the format of the original. It's awkward to deal with the camera this time around (it tends to get in the way when fighting), and the fact that you're dealing with a card battle system in a "real" KH game doesn't make a lot of sense when they already have the programming resources to simply scratch the card crap altogether. The battle system plays out like a cross between KH and a card battle game, and enemies can parry your attacks by throwing cards of higher numeric values than the ones in your deck. This gets particularly nasty in boss battles when the game spikes in difficulty. Some of the reaction commands from KH2 have made their way over into this game, however, and their presence is welcomed.
Also, due to how KH:CoM is structured, many of the areas and rooms are bland and lack personality. Not to say that the game is ugly, but the random design of the areas hurts the graphic quality. Being able to find the doors to other rooms is more difficult compared to the GBA version - this is due to the game's transition to 3D and could have been avoided by using customized areas instead of a bunch of generic rooms linked together by doors. It just seems lazy.
The Japanese voice acting for the human characters is wonderful as always, though hearing Donald and Goofy speaking perfect Japanese is something I still can't get over. As someone who does know some Japanese, I can barely understand either of them - but I'm sure native speakers can.
It's also a bit unusual that Nomura chose to dub Re:CoM in Japanese but use the English vocal track for KH2: Final Mix itself. Due to this, some of the new scenes have "spliced together" dialogue from other lines in the script (and sound horrible..."a --- new --- yooooouuu----" ), and other new scenes that couldn't be spliced are missing dialogue entirely, which is a little awkward to say the least.
Importability? Well, it depends. The real reason for getting this collection, aside from getting the chance to fight ALL 13 members of Organization XIII, is Re:CoM. On its own, it can't compare to KH2...but included in the package, it's very much worth it. Two 20+ hour games for one price. However, remember that all the text in KH2:FM will be in Japanese, and CANNOT be changed to English, and the new scenes are of varying quality. Re:CoM is playable without knowing Japanese, but savvy fans aware of the GBA game's storyline aren't getting much new content here.
All I have to say about the possibility of this collection being localized is that Square's fall release calendar for the US appears a little barren at the moment, and there are still an AWFUL lot of people with PS2's who would pick this up for Re:Chain of Memories alone. The remixed KH2 is icing on the cake. And considering all the Disney levels in Re:CoM are not voiced (only the scenes in Castle Oblivion)...not localizing this game would be a crime. [Ed. They didn't localize it for the holidays, and therefore it will most likely remain in Japan forever. Bad Squeenix. No doughnut.]
If someone would have told me in 2000 that one of Squaresoft's most successful franchises of the new millennium would star Disney characters interacting with those from the Final Fantasy universe, I would immediately snicker and ask how much they've had to drink. But amazingly enough, the seemingly bizarre marriage of Mickey Mouse, Donald, and Goofy with Cloud, Aerith, and Squall has worked amazingly well - blending universally familiar characters with epic Japanese-style storytelling, and the series has sold millions of copies in its three-game run. It all started with KH1 on the PS2 and continued with KH: Chain of Memories on the GBA. Then the series moved back to the PS2 with Kingdom Hearts 2, known to be one of the best selling titles throughout the lifespan of the system.
Now a year after the Japanese release of Kingdom Hearts 2, director Tetsuya Nomura has put together a "Final Mix" for the Japanese market containing new scenes, items, areas, special features, and more.
American fans may not know this, but there was a cut of the original Kingdom Hearts released in Japan after the domestic release of the first game here in the United States. This cut of the game, called "Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix", contained the English voiceovers, the boss battles added to the US version that were absent from the original Japanese release, and a new, "special" boss fight with (who we find out later to be) Xemnas. This cut of the game was never released domestically in the US.
Just like the first game's re-release, KH2: Final Mix resurrects scenes alluded to by Nomura in interviews that were originally cut due to lack of development time. The game also includes new boss battles with members of Organization XIII thought to be destroyed in CoM. The special hidden "boss" fight this time around has to be seen to be believed (though if you've seen the secret movie at the end of the original KH2, you won't be too surprised by who you'll be fighting.)
But the real star here is not the remixed KH2. Also included in the package is a complete 3D remake of Chain of Memories for the PS2. Yes. You heard that right. A COMPLETE PS2 REMAKE OF CHAIN OF MEMORIES (here titled Re:Chain of Memories), this is the one reason why Square CANNOT ignore a US release for this collection. But before you get too excited, it's time to rain on your parade a bit....
Disappointingly, this remake keeps the format of the original. It's awkward to deal with the camera this time around (it tends to get in the way when fighting), and the fact that you're dealing with a card battle system in a "real" KH game doesn't make a lot of sense when they already have the programming resources to simply scratch the card crap altogether. The battle system plays out like a cross between KH and a card battle game, and enemies can parry your attacks by throwing cards of higher numeric values than the ones in your deck. This gets particularly nasty in boss battles when the game spikes in difficulty. Some of the reaction commands from KH2 have made their way over into this game, however, and their presence is welcomed.
Also, due to how KH:CoM is structured, many of the areas and rooms are bland and lack personality. Not to say that the game is ugly, but the random design of the areas hurts the graphic quality. Being able to find the doors to other rooms is more difficult compared to the GBA version - this is due to the game's transition to 3D and could have been avoided by using customized areas instead of a bunch of generic rooms linked together by doors. It just seems lazy.
The Japanese voice acting for the human characters is wonderful as always, though hearing Donald and Goofy speaking perfect Japanese is something I still can't get over. As someone who does know some Japanese, I can barely understand either of them - but I'm sure native speakers can.
It's also a bit unusual that Nomura chose to dub Re:CoM in Japanese but use the English vocal track for KH2: Final Mix itself. Due to this, some of the new scenes have "spliced together" dialogue from other lines in the script (and sound horrible..."a --- new --- yooooouuu----" ), and other new scenes that couldn't be spliced are missing dialogue entirely, which is a little awkward to say the least.
Importability? Well, it depends. The real reason for getting this collection, aside from getting the chance to fight ALL 13 members of Organization XIII, is Re:CoM. On its own, it can't compare to KH2...but included in the package, it's very much worth it. Two 20+ hour games for one price. However, remember that all the text in KH2:FM will be in Japanese, and CANNOT be changed to English, and the new scenes are of varying quality. Re:CoM is playable without knowing Japanese, but savvy fans aware of the GBA game's storyline aren't getting much new content here.
All I have to say about the possibility of this collection being localized is that Square's fall release calendar for the US appears a little barren at the moment, and there are still an AWFUL lot of people with PS2's who would pick this up for Re:Chain of Memories alone. The remixed KH2 is icing on the cake. And considering all the Disney levels in Re:CoM are not voiced (only the scenes in Castle Oblivion)...not localizing this game would be a crime. [Ed. They didn't localize it for the holidays, and therefore it will most likely remain in Japan forever. Bad Squeenix. No doughnut.]
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