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Deja Review: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix
This is a Deja Review: A quick, unscored look at the new features and relative agelessness of a remade, revived or re-released game. More than a decade before Disney Infinity hatched its brilliant scheme to squeeze all of the House of Mouse's properties under one roof, Square Enix took a try in its own inimitable fashion. The result was Kingdom Hearts – a bizarre marriage of Disney magic and Square's Final Fantasy characters, with a liberal dose of director Tetsuya Nomura's new designs thrown in for good measure. The series has gained fans at the intersections of both properties, and a healthy base of players who truly care about the trials of protagonist Sora and his associated Keyblade wielders. I enjoyed the first Kingdom Hearts, which had an elegant simplicity that felt like a fairy tale who's-who as reinterpreted by Japanese fantasy tropes. While the fusion of third-person action and RPG mechanics was hit-or-miss, it worked well enough to carry me through the game and several of its sequels. I'll confess, though, that as the series has worn on, my interest has waned. If any criticism has dogged Kingdom Hearts most justifiably, it's that its internal myth-building has grown too complex and impenetrable for the casual fan. As the long wait for Kingdom Hearts 3 continues, Square Enix must have decided it's a good time for us all to take a step back and get our (Donald) ducks in a row. Hence, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix: a compilation of the three early stories in the KH chronology, detailing just about everything you need to know before the seemingly inevitable Kingdom Hearts 2 compilation paves the way for a proper sequel.
