Despite the fact that not a single Kingdom Hearts title had released on an Xbox platform, the Xbox One version of Kingdom Hearts 3 released day and date with the PS4 one last year. It was a bit odd, but the power of Disney was probably presumed to be more powerful than the need to follow the long-winding and convoluted storyline of Kingdom Hearts. Well, for Xbox players who want to take that leap, they now can.

With no real announcement, the two Kingdom Hearts HD Collections, HD ReMix 1.5 + 2.5. and HD 2.8 Final Prologue appeared for purchase on the Microsoft Store, which you can check out here and here.

Together, the games encompass the entire Kingdom Hearts saga. Combined with Kingdom Hearts 3, that means the whole thing is now playable on Xbox One. Of course, we also know more Kingdom Hearts games are in development- two teams, in fact, are dedicated to pumping out new entries, so one can never really be done with this franchise. But you can at least get lost in the weeds of the series if you so desire.

Kingdom Hearts has been a saga of… well, it’s been a saga. It all began way back in 2002 with its bizarre mix of Disney, Final Fantasy, and original content. The series quickly got a reputation for being convoluted. Well, you can experience it all at once, if you can stand it anyway, with a new super collection coming soon.

As announced by Square Enix, the Kingdom Hearts All-In-One Package will come to the PS4 in March. It includes 10 different “experiences” from the franchise, beginning with all the HD Remix Collections, up until the latest entry, Kingdom Hearts 3. Some of the titles are represented as cutscenes instead of the original games. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t include the Re:Mind DLC recently released for Kingdom Hearts 3.

The All-In-One Package will be a physical release and will seemingly only release on the PlayStation 4 on March 17th. Kingdom Hearts will also continue  with a new mobile title, Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road, sometime after mid-February.

For a time, everything was sunshine and rainbows in the Kingdom Hearts world. Then, the series began to lose sight of what it was. The story, which had started out as a pretty simple affair, became impossible to follow for all but the most dedicated of fans. To make matters worse, games in the franchise released on every possible system: the PlayStation 2, the GameBoy Advance, the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo 3DS, and even mobile phones. Following Kingdom Hearts suddenly required an awful lot of work and even more money, and many people gradually began to lose interest in all of the spin-offs and sequels. All we really wanted, after all, was Kingdom Hearts III.

"The core of this package is Kingdom Hearts II. Like most of Square Enix’s HD collections, HD 2.5 ReMIX isn’t just a resolution upgrade. Square has made a number of graphical enhancements, updating character models and in-game textures, and ensuring that every game in the package runs in glorious 1080p.

It took a long time, but Square Enix finally caught on. In 2013, a little more than 10 years after the release of the original Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix released Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, a compilation that bundled remastered versions of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories Final Mix, and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. I won’t delve too much into how good HD 1.5 ReMIX is; Pramath has already done that very well. After HD 1.5 ReMIX’s success, however, a sequel collecting the second half of the series was inevitable, which brings us to HD 2.5 ReMIX.

If HD 1.5 ReMIX was the story of the time when Kingdom Hearts was a simple, charming series, revisited, then HD 2.5 ReMIX is the story of how Kingdom Hearts went off the rails. This collection includes the Final Mixes of Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (which were never previously released outside of Japan), and a semi-interactive version of Kingdom Hearts Re: coded cut together as one long cinematic.

The core of this package is Kingdom Hearts II. Like most of Square Enix’s HD collections, HD 2.5 ReMIX isn’t just a resolution upgrade. Square has made a number of graphical enhancements, updating character models and in-game textures, and ensuring that every game in the package runs in glorious 1080p. The biggest and best additions, however, are those that come from Kingdom Hearts II’s Final Mix.

"There are a number of fairly substantial additions as well, including around 20 new boss fights, new abilities, a new Drive form, new areas, including a new dungeon, new weapons, and a new difficulty mode, and these changes make the Final Mix version a substantially better game.

Most of the changes are fairly minor, and many, such as the placement of various chests, the items that they contain, and the addition of a few minor scenes, won’t be noticed by anyone outside of the franchise’s diehard fans. But there are a number of fairly substantial additions as well, including around 20 new boss fights, new abilities, a new Drive form, new areas, including a new dungeon, new weapons, and a new difficulty mode, and these changes make the Final Mix version a substantially better game.

What’s most important, however, is that Kingdom Hearts II more or less holds up. Sure, the story takes itself way too seriously and is nigh incomprehensible if you haven’t played the other games (and if you haven’t, you really should get on that), but the core gameplay remains engaging, and the game’s art design still impresses more than ten years later. The vast majority of the soundtrack has also been re-recorded by The Video Game Orchestra, and the results are nothing short of stunning. Kingdom Hearts has always boasted a fantastic soundtrack, but the work that has been done here ensures that every piece sounds better than it ever has.

By comparison, the Final Mix for Birth by Sleep is a little more humble, but there are a number of new optional bosses and a new chapter that serves as an epilogue, and all are welcome additions. Visually, the game is less of a looker, which isn’t too surprising given its handheld origins. No, what Birth by Sleep benefits most from is the jump to a controller (specifically, a second analog stick for controlling the camera), and an increased field of view. These upgrades, in addition to the obvious graphical enhancements, the resolution bump, the rock solid framerate, and the musical enhancements (which are not quite as extensive as the ones in Kingdom Hearts II but still noticeable), make this the definitive version of one of the franchise’s finest titles.

"Unlike 358/2 Days, however, there is no redeeming quality to be found in Re: coded’s storyline. It is perhaps thirty minutes of plot dragged out over a three hour (or more, at some point I began blocking it out to avoid further pain) period, and most of what happens is either nonsensical or has no bearing on the overall plot of the series.

In short, Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep look, sound, and play the way you remember them looking, sounding, and playing, and that’s a heck of a lot better than being forced to remove your nostalgia goggles and actually play a PlayStation 2 or PSP game. The downside is that the remasters feature some technical issues not found in the original releases. Both Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep suffer from some serious load times. There are moments in both titles where the game will freeze or cut to a black screen for a significant period of time while the game loads a new area or transitions from gameplay to a cutscene, or vice versa. There is also occasionally a delay when opening the menu. By far the most problematic load times, however, are the ones that come with form changes.

Whether you’re changing Drive forms as Sora in Kingdom Hearts II, or D-linking with another character in Birth by Sleep, you’ll almost always be treated to a several seconds of your character floating motionlessly in mid-air while the game loads. Thankfully, you’re invincible while this happens, so it doesn’t break the game by any means, but the delay can make certain battles more difficult than they would be otherwise, and it is rather annoying in 2014 to be waiting on something that worked almost instantly in 2004 and 2010. It’s a very noticeable blemish on what is otherwise a near-flawless remaster, and it’s a shame Square Enix couldn’t iron out these issues before release.

Much like HD 1.5 ReMIX did with 358/2 Days, HD 2.5 ReMIX also includes a semi-interactive version of Kingdom Hearts Re: coded, polished up and cut together into long one cinematic. Unlike 358/2 Days, however, there is no redeeming quality to be found in Re: coded’s storyline. It is perhaps thirty minutes of plot dragged out over a three hour (or more, at some point I began blocking it out to avoid further pain) period, and most of what happens is either nonsensical or has no bearing on the overall plot of the series. The game’s cell phone routes are glaringly obvious, and no amount of production wizardry can cover up the fact that this is a game that didn’t need to be made and this story has next to no bearing on the franchise at large. A couple nods to the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III keep this from being a total wash, but all save the most diehard fans (and self-identified masochists) will find very little of value here.

"HD 2.5 ReMIX is a loving tribute that contains two of the best games in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Still, the fact that Re: coded is kind of worthless to anyone who isn’t a completionist does little to alter the fact that HD 2.5 ReMIX is a loving tribute that contains two of the best games in the Kingdom Hearts series. After so many years of spin-offs and remakes with no sign of Kingdom Hearts III, you’d be forgiven for wondering if Kingdom Hearts was still relevant, if the series still had anything left to offer in a console generation that was startlingly different than the one that spawned it.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX doesn’t answer that question. It can’t, and perhaps that’s unfair to ask of it. What is does do, however, is remind us why Kingdom Hearts was great in the first place, even when it was weighed down by too many platforms, spin-offs, and a nonsensical plot. It also reminds us of just how much the series has grown, and of how much it grew up, often alongside us. Kingdom Hearts III has to force the series to do that again, to grow up. It has, for many, to bridge a ten year gap and make lapsed fans fall in love again. Those are big shoes to fill. It might succeed. It might not. But for the first time in a long, long time, I’m excited about Kingdom Hearts, and Kingdom Hearts III, again. And just like the series’ best games, that is something worth celebrating.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation  3.

The second Kingdom Hearts remaster/compilation title, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX (I wish I knew who came up with that name though, it’s positively a crime against humanity) is here, and Square Enix is trying to tickle people’s nostalgia bone by releasing more and more new trailers and media on the game.

Thus, for example, take this. This is a new batch of trailers; the first trailer, ‘Worlds Connect,’ shows off the most treasured Square Enix and Disney properties crossing over through multiple Disney worlds. The second trailer- ‘Original Characters and Cameos Worlds Connect-‘ shows off Square Enix characters from across Final Fantasy games interacting as they make their way through Kingdom Hearts’ (increasingly convoluted) story.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX is available on the PlayStation 3; it includes Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep fully playable, with other Kingdom Hearts games from the second act of the series’ story available as cutscenes. The first compilation collection, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, was also released on the PlayStation 3.

Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix, a high definition version of of Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix along with cutscenes from Re:coded, could potentially arrive on the Xbox One and PS4 at some point. The collection is currently available for the PlayStation 3.

Speaking to IGN, co-producer Tai Yasue stated that an Xbox One and PS4 release “is something we’ll explore. We understand what our players want, so we will explore the possibility. I’m not making any announcements though, we can’t make any announcements yet.”

It wouldn’t be the worst decision since Kingdom Hearts 3 will be arriving on the PS4 and Xbox One in the future – a current gen release of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix could properly prep players for the same. Some extra content wouldn’t hurt either.

Would you look forward to seeing HD 2.5 Remix on the PS4 and Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below.

Okay, first of all, I am taking a stand against that name. Like, what the hell, Square Enix? I seriously thought that, after Infinite Undiscovery and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, your names couldn’t get any worse, but this really takes the cake. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why is it so long and unwieldy? Why is ReMIX randomly capitalized? 

Okay, with that rant out of the way, if you are a Kingdom Hearts fan (I am not), and are looking forward to the second collection of remastered Kingdom Hearts games that should catch you up before the release of Kingdom Hearts III next year (I am not), then I guess this trailer for 2.5 HD ReMIX, which launches next month only on Playstation 3, should be right up your alley.

It shows us how ‘worlds connect’ and it delivers on a healthy dose of nostalgia for those of you who played the game ten years ago and actually liked it (I didn’t).

Stay tuned for more coverage.

Look, I’m one of those people who checked out of Square Enix’s increasingly contrived crossover series of roleplaying games right around when Kingdom Hearts II came out. I mean, I’ve kept up with the games, and Birth By Sleep is my favorite in the series, but I just don’t care enough for this franchise. Right?

But there are those of you who do. Who are passionate and nostalgic about these games,  and who are eagerly looking forward to Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, even in spite of its absolutely nonsensical title, because of how much fanservice there is. And now, Square Enix is sweetening the deal for you even more with this great looking collector’s edition for the ReMIX Collection (seriously, why is ReMIX capitalized so arbitrarily?).

The collector’s edition will be available in both, North America and Europe, and will ship with a whole ton of goodies, including:

• Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Game Discs
• Collector’s Steelbook Case – The steelbook case contains both  Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX and  Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX discs and features premium artwork from the series Director, Tetsuya Nomura.
• Collector’s Edition Box
• Shadow Heartless Plush Toy – 9.4 inch tall plush of the classic KINGDOM HEARTS foe
• Exclusive Official Disney Collectible Pin- Features Sora and Mickey Mouse back to back, with the iconic keyblade with Mickey dangler. Made out of a soft enamel coating on metal, this pin’s height stretches out to 1.68 inches.
• 30-Page Art Book and Dust Jacket – This art book includes an exclusive foreword and a sketch from Nomura, along with art from the series.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 launches in North America on December 2, Australia on December 3, and in Europe on December 5.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX launches in Japan on October 2, 2014, with a western release following shortly thereafter, in November. With just a little under a month left to go before the collection of remastered games and animated shorts to bring fans up to speed is released in Japan, Square Enix has released one final trailer- the last one we will get before the game finally launches in Japan.

If you’re a Kingdom Hearts fan, this trailer will probably end up hitting a fair few nostalgic notes for you, especially as it shows off some of the iconic moments from the series’ history, all while the fan favorite tune ‘My Sanctuary’ plays in the background. if you are a Kingdom Hearts fan who has somehow managed to persevere and stay with the series through the bullshit cliffhangers, constant spin offs, and sidequels, remakes, prequels, and stuff, this letter is pretty much a love letter to you.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX launches exclusively on the PlayStation 3 later this year. Stay tuned to GamingBolt.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX is inching ever closer for Japanese PS3 gamers (the Western world will need to wait till December though). Like its predecessor, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX is a collection of HD remakes but for Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded is also available but in Theatre mode where you can watch 3 hours of remastered cinematics to explain the story.

A new video from Square Enix showcases the improved worlds of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix including from franchises like Cinderella, Lilo & Stitch, Snow White, Hercules and much more. It’s a very comprehensive look at the HD visuals so check it out above.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX releases on the PlayStation 3 on October 2nd in Japan. North America receives it on December 2nd while Europe plays it on December 5th. Will you be picking the game up? Let us know below.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX is the second ‘HD-ified’ Kingdom Hearts title that Square Enix is releasing for the playStation 3. The first one was pretty good, and this second one sees the second Kingdom Hearts games, the excellent Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and all the in game cutscene movies spanning the story of Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded in the form of a theater mode.

Amusingly enough, the intent of releasing these collections at all was to update and modernize the series and gather its widespread story (it has been on five different platforms) in one place so fans could catch up ahead of Kingdom Hearts III… but Kingdom Hearts III won’t be releasing on PS3 at all, which defeats the purpose entirely. So, how will they make sure PS4 (and Xbox One) owners have access to these games? Will they release even more unwieldy titled remastered HD collections? Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX: Remastered?

Anyway, check out the trailers for yourself and tell us what you think.