Kingdom Hearts

What started as a cute little crossover between two huge entertainment hallmarks quickly morphed into its own entity in the video game world. Kingdom Hearts has had its share of weird twists and turns over the years, but now they will all be available in one nicely packaged PlayStation 3 HD port. Well, most of them will be at any rate.

Bear with me for a moment here because the titles in this Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX are going to make this a little complicated. Starting off, the package will include Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, a Japan-exclusive director's cut of the original game. As for the American release, I remember walking away satisfied when I played it ten years ago, but I don't know how well it has aged or how it fits in the black-cloaked turn the series took afterwards.

Following that, the disc will also include its semi-sequels, Kingdom Hearts RE: Chains of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Chains of Memories began life as a little Game Boy Advance RPG that reused many of the PS2 game's settings and characters, but it invented a clever card battle system to set it apart from its big brother. This was remade into a PlayStation 2 game, and that is the version which will be compiled into this collection. I wonder what an HD port of a GBA game would actually look like, though.

The other game brings a lot more questions into play. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a DS game with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer. How Square Enix plans to port this to the PlayStation 3, I have no idea. I doubt they will remake it from the ground up. Famitsu suggests that it will only be porting he cutscenes, so the entire story will be available.

Noticeably absent from the disc is Kingdom Hearts 2, but then again this is Square Enix we're talking about here. This is the company that charges $30 for iOS games and creates mega boxes of outdated ports and sells them for twice their value. No doubt Kingdom Hearts 2 will see its own release down the road separately, and Square Enix will fly in the face of every other video game company who puts their entire series on a single CD. I mean, even Nintendo does that.

Personally, I'm only interested in the original game, especially if we finally get all the director's cut content. It would be a nice stroll down memory lane if the price is right, and if it actually comes to America.

[via Joystiq]