Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX Review

In 2002, at a critical juncture in the company’s history, Square took a novel and somewhat daring direction with Kingdom Hearts. Released after the commercial disappointment of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but before Square’s merger with Enix, the company needed a successful game to ensure its financial future and maintain its position in the gaming industry. Luckily for Square—and RPG fans—the peculiar crossover of Disney properties with elements from Square’s flagship franchise, Final Fantasy, was a resounding commercial and critical success and spawned one of gaming’s most prominent series.

Kingdom Hearts went on to receive a more definitive Final Mix edition later that year in Japan, which was eventually released on a wider basis in the West in 2013 as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX collection for PlayStation 3. Over 20 years later, it is worth taking a second look at what made the game so successful.

While the series is now infamous for its convoluted narrative elements, the first game’s plot is significantly more straightforward: the Heartless are attacking and corrupting the various Disney worlds. To counter this, Sora must seal each world’s “Keyhole” to prevent darkness from engulfing and corrupting it. Kingdom Hearts establishes the conflict, stakes, and goals firmly and immediately at the game’s outset, which allows for purposeful and balanced pacing across the game’s largely independent worlds.

Though some of the game’s dialogue comes across as overly saccharine and cliché, I only find it slightly eye-rolling at its worst. The story never takes itself too seriously, and overall, it is cute and engaging. As a bonus, the Final Mix edition adds interesting scenes that help flesh out characters’ motivations and add important context.

The plot may not be particularly groundbreaking, but Kingdom Hearts captivates with its world design, visuals, and sound—especially the voice acting. Each Disney world, from Agrabah of Aladdin to the Wonderland of Alice in Wonderland, displays remarkable detail. When I explore any level, it is obvious that a great amount of care and attention went into making it feel and play right. Additionally, the sheer level of faithfulness to and improvement upon the original PlayStation 2 graphics is astonishing, especially considering that the original game’s assets were lost and rebuilt from scratch.

All the worlds, including the game’s original ones, are colorful and distinct. Chests and items are abundant and satisfyingly hidden, enemies naturally integrate into each world, and characters speak and behave in a manner authentic to the source material. Notably, the non-combat and minigame-based Hundred Acre Woods (Winnie the Pooh) is truly endearing. Sliding through the vines of Deep Jungle (Tarzan) and platforming across the treetops is exciting, and navigating Wonderland’s bizarro, maze-like fantasy world leaves me positively bemused.

Although some less impressive worlds like Monstro (Pinocchio) and Atlantica (The Little Mermaid) are occasionally difficult to navigate and would benefit from a mini-map, they are still visually charming, and their weaknesses primarily originate from gameplay mechanics or controls.

While each world exists independently from one another (sorry, Aladdin cannot come with you to Deep Jungle), the game avoids disjointedness due to its stellar A-list voice cast. Many of the Disney characters’ original voice actors reprise their roles for Kingdom Hearts, and their performances are stellar across the board; for example, you can tell that Pat Carroll and Jonathan Freeman relish reliving their roles as Ursula and Jafar, respectively. Even if you are not familiar with the source material, the voice work is engaging, irrespective of nostalgic appreciation. The one unfortunate outlier in the voice department is Riku, who suffers from an uneven performance that severely detracts from his characterization.

Noticeably, the soundtrack also drastically improves game cohesion and immersion. Composer Yoko Shimomura brings a superb score to the table: the battle tracks are punchy and exciting, and environmental themes are appropriately evocative. Most notably, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX features a fully orchestrated score, a sweeping upgrade from the original, which, while impressive in its own right, utilized the PlayStation 2’s imperfect audio hardware. The only real blemish on the game’s soundtrack is the short instrumental loop of “Under the Sea” from Atlantica, which quickly becomes grating.

Pivoting to gameplay, Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG with action beating in its heart of hearts, but with heavy emphasis on the RPG flourishes. Both elements are executed fantastically, with a near-perfect mix of liveliness and strategy. Physically, Sora attacks with the Keyblade using strings of combos augmented by additional abilities gained through leveling up. From the outset, Sora has or quickly receives foundational abilities—a dodge roll, guard, and parry—that serve as the anchor for the game’s combat.

Timely parries and guards result in extra experience—a compelling incentive that motivates player engagement with combat and draws attention to enemy attack patterns. The game frequently rewards you for timing swings and effective use of special abilities: the better you play, the stronger you get. Every enemy feels carefully and specifically designed around using the proper action, and when larger enemy groups become common later in the game, executing the core mechanics in conjunction with earned abilities—almost all of which have use—is incredibly gratifying.

Final Mix also adds unique, powerful Heartless that will drop special items. However, defeating them requires absolute mastery of your full arsenal of abilities. Working out the puzzles and defeating these enemies were some of my favorite moments in the game.

You can also use magic, summons, items, and special attacks, which are mostly selectable from an action menu using the D-pad. Beyond their visual flair, magic and summon attacks are dangerously potent and useful. However, despite their overwhelming power, the MP system successfully restrains the overuse of offensive magic in combat. This helps maintain balance, which is one of the game’s best traits. No matter which leveling scheme and ability order you use, Kingdom Hearts almost always feels fair, and every challenge is surmountable.

Your choices of which abilities to utilize matter a lot, as do your levels, stats, and choice of Keyblade. The wide variety of Keyblades (each one matching the theme of its originating level) is one of Kingdom Hearts’ most expressive and soulful elements, and irrespective of their incredible designs, their usefulness in combat varies enough to warrant frequent, strategic switching.

In the original PlayStation 2 game, fighting large hordes of Heartless occasionally became tedious. To remedy this, Final Mix adds new abilities and control schemes that make managing larger enemy groups with unscripted formations (e.g., outside Olympus Coliseum) more enjoyable. Moving special abilities like Ars Arcanum and Sonic Blade from the command menu to the triangle button greatly improves combat fluidity and is a welcome, smart addition borrowed from the sequel, Kingdom Hearts II.

The original Kingdom Hearts’ camera was rotatable via the shoulder buttons, and while Final Mix moves the camera control to the right control stick, it still suffers from some rust. Sometimes, the camera sticks to a wall, or I cannot swivel the camera around fast enough to see a spell coming my way. This becomes less of an issue later in the game since you obtain abilities that help counteract poor camera responsiveness, but it definitely detracts from the experience early on.

Other issues stem from some unfortunate design choices in movement and level navigation, which ultimately highlights the game’s biggest flaw—the controls, especially when the gameplay shifts away from its core combat system. Several levels allow Sora to fly around freely, and one, Altantica, has Sora swimming underwater. Both movements necessitate an extra dimension of up-and-down movement, and without being grounded, Sora loses most of his best abilities. Combat in these sections then becomes a tedious affair of locking on to enemies, button-mashing, and occasional spell spamming.

Specifically, the flying sections completely suck the joy and strategy out of several bosses that otherwise have fantastic visual presentations and concepts. This is even more egregious with the swimming in Atlantica—a slow, boring level that constantly drowns you for hours with frustrating, substandard controls and a maddening loop of “Under the Sea.” Atlantica is the game’s lowest point, which, for me, came just after several disappointing story bosses, and I found myself considerably less motivated to continue playing because of it.

Nevertheless, the game delivers extraordinarily well on its optional content and bosses, several of which are nail-biting thrillers. The occasional stumbles in the flying and swimming sections are only momentary indictments of an otherwise brilliant combat system and experience. That said, it’s disappointing that subpar controls keep the game from blossoming to its full potential 100% of the time.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning the mandatory Gummi Ship segments between levels. The Gummi Ship is a customizable ship you can build out of components, and, in between worlds, progressing the game requires playing a rail shooter mini-game. While these levels are sometimes engaging, they feel wholly divorced from the rest of the game, and building a workable Gummi Ship requires navigating a truly horrendous user interface. Considering the sheer level of customization available, it is sad that the obtuseness of constructing a ship makes it unapproachable and, ultimately, a waste of time. Luckily, the game eventually gives you the option to skip these segments.

All in all, Kingdom Hearts is a spectacular action RPG that sets extremely high standards for the genre. It sports an effective, well-designed, and balanced combat system that, on occasion, poor boss design drags down and, despite the remaster’s best effort, suffers from rough controls. Its various worlds are gorgeously rendered, superbly composed, and filled with delightful details and voice acting. Although the story is not anything to write home about, the measured pacing and narrative levity make the journey to find Kingdom Hearts engaging, meaningful, and just plain fun.