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Stick a pin in your Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix pre-order
Customers who pre-order Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix will automatically be upgraded to the Limited Edition, Square Enix announced today via the PlayStation Blog. Along with updated versions of Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts: Re: Coded, those who score a copy of the Limited Edition will also receive a nifty pin featuring Sora and Mickey. Now, a pin may not seem like a big fuss, but this is an official, collectible Disney pin - and thus, it is part of the pin trading tradition that officially kicked off in 1999. Disney pin trading is serious business to those with a passion for it, as some pins have reached prices upward of $1,000 on the secondhand market. So you take care of that pin, young man/lady! It just might be worth something someday. [Image: Square Enix]
Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix unveiled, hits PS3 worldwide next year
Square Enix officially announced Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix today, an HD compilation that includes Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, Birth by Sleep Final Mix, and remastered cinematics from DS entry Re:coded. It follows the lead of 1.5 Remix by coming to PS3, and is due worldwide in 2014. There was no mention of a PS4 version in Square Enix's announcement. 2.5 Remix will mark western debuts for KH2 Final Mix and Birth by Sleep Final Mix, the respective PS2 and PSP games previously restricted to Japan. Both re-releases add many features to the original games, including new difficulty modes, mini-games, cut scenes, and a plethora of other tweaks.
Chrono Trigger, World Ends With You discounted on Amazon today
Do you have, like, a couple hundred hours to kill on flights, drives and other commutes in the coming weeks? You should pick up some of Amazon's temporarily discounted Square Enix DS RPGs, including Chrono Trigger and The World Ends With You. Those should fill your hours swimmingly.
Get Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded for $23 on Amazon right now
If your heart aches for gaming crossovers, but your wallet aches for cash money more, then you may be interested in a current deal over on Amazon: Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded for only $22.99. The game is Amazon's Deal of the Day, a promotion that sees one object discounted for the entirety of the day -- realistically, the sale lasts until that particular item is sold out. So if you're in the market for some Disney and Square Enix cross-promotional synergy, we'd suggest acting sooner rather than later.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded review: More than a Re:hash
While we've patiently waited for the inevitable Kingdom Hearts III, Square Enix has kept our appetites at bay with a steady stream of prequels, spin-offs and sort-of sequels. From 2009's 358/2 Days, to last year's Birth by Sleep, followers of the Final Fantasy/Disney mash-up have had ample opportunities to revisit its bizarre, but successful collision of emo-spouting pretty-boys and anthropomorphic theme park stars. Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, a DS remake of an episodic Japanese mobile phone entry, mostly succeeds in continuing to distract us while we wait for that full-on sequel to finally arrive. Given its phone-to-DS porting, I wasn't exactly dying to wield a Keyblade again in Re:Coded. However, despite some camera-crippled platforming and other minor annoyances, it managed to suck me back into the series' imaginative world. Sure, it revisits many of the locales from the 2002 original -- damn, has it been that long? -- but it also incorporates enough new tricks to put a fresh spin on the at-first familiar-feeling settings. Additionally, it reunites us with series star Sora, the spiky-haired hero who's sadly been absent from the last two titles. %Gallery-104474%
Buy Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded at GameStop or Amazon, get puffy stickers
If you pre-order Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded from GameStop or Amazon, you can kind of make your DS look like the Japan-exclusive Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days DSi. Kind of. Square Enix announced that pre-orders of the DS jaunt through Jiminy's memories will include the above sticker sheet, containing 32 2mm-thick stickers with various emblems from the series. The offer has yet to show up on either retailer's site, but if you wish upon a star (or wait a bit) we're confident it will appear.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded preview: re:ally familiar
Within the span of a year, Kingdom Hearts fans are experiencing three different games in the series: 358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep, and now, Re:Coded. While each game continues the franchise's penchant for high production values, we can't help but wonder if the series is overstaying its welcome. Re:Coded isn't a new game per se, but it's the first time American fans will be able to experience this side-story (minus the few of you that own a Japanese mobile phone). The revamped DS version bumps up the graphical quality considerably, matching the fidelity of 358/2 Days, while throwing in a number of new features, such as an leveling up system and Tag Mode. However, the side-story origins of Re:Coded are still very clear. This is not the Sora you've played as in Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. Instead, it is a digital copy of Sora that traverses through an infected "datascape." The demo felt entirely disconnected from the canon, and the lack of any voice acting makes its low-budget cell phone roots that much more obvious. (Cutscenes are instead shown as conversations between character portraits.) Gameplay is what you've come to expect from a Kingdom Hearts title: an accessible, RPG-inspired hack 'n slash. Those that have played 358/2 Days on DS will find themselves in familiar territory here, with the controls being nearly identical. However, the infected dungeon I played through wasn't particularly inspiring. There were only two enemy types to fight against, and the blue and green color palette of the stage wasn't very attractive. The dungeon design wasn't interesting, either, with Sora simply having to bash through various boxes to progress forward.
Kingdom Hearts Re: coded being re: leased January 11
Square Enix has announced the release date of Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded, for those of you who have devoured Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep already and are eagerly awaiting your next fix of spiky haired Disney fanfic. The publisher will release the prettied-up DS port of the mobile game on January 11, 2011. New Yorkers will be able to get their hands on Jiminy Cricket's journal (or, rather, inhabit it as Sora) this weekend. Re: Coded will be playable at Square Enix's New York Comic-Con booth, #1823.%Gallery-104474%
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded's extra modes explored in screenshots
Famitsu recently uploaded a whole gang of Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded screens showing off a few departures from the action-RPG roots of the franchise. Pictured here are the turn-based battle mode, which appears to only become available in the returning Olympus Coliseum world, and some sort of board game that seems to be the player's main method for improving attributes and learning new abilities. You can check out all the screens over on Famitsu while we have nightmare flashbacks to the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X.
Nomura offers updates on upcoming Square Enix projects
We're pretty sure you'd need one of those bulletin boards from TV crime dramas -- you know, the ones with pictures of mafioso higher-ups with multicolored strings and push pins connecting them -- in order to keep track of all of Square Enix's upcoming games. The studio's resident star designer, Tetsuya Nomura, recently gave an update on these projects -- a laundry list which includes Final Fantasy Versus and Agito XIII, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Re:Coded, The 3rd Birthday, and "a number of unannounced titles." According to Andriasang's translation, Nomura explained the dearth of news on Versus XIII was due to a number of hardships which have rendered the company's old developmental tricks "completely inapplicable," but that progress is being made. He couldn't be any more specific than that, due to Square Enix's policy of promoting games in the order they'll be released. In that case, we may not hear more on Versus or Agito for some time -- Nomura explained that some of the company's unannounced games would arrive before the next installment in the Fabula Nova Crystallis franchise. For more info on the fate of Square Enix's future projects, check out Andriasang's translation of the 3rd Birthday Twitter feed.
New Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded trailer is a genre-bender
The latest Japanese trailer for Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded features some startling freshness for the action-RPG series: gameplay segments featuring different genres. Footage of turn-based combat, platforming and even a Space Harrier-style shoot 'em up wait in the trailer below.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded video goes back to the roots
Though the gameplay video for Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded posted below is awfully lo-res (look how tiny the original version is!), it shows us what we need to know. There will be classic locations from the series first installment. There will be Heartless. There will be ... Cubes!
Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded getting graphics and combat upgrade, FF13 cameo
The latest Famitsu has an interview with Square Enix producer Tetsuya Nomura about Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, the game originally leaked by a voice actor and then officially announced at E3 last week. The title is indeed a remake of the mobile phone game from Japan -- Square Enix found that none of the phones required to play the game were sold in North America, so it decided to bring it to the Nintendo DS instead. The hardware will bring 3D models into some parts of the game, and the battle system will be different, incorporating some elements from 358/2 Days, though Nomura says it will be more casual than that game. And the extra development time will allow Square Enix to sneak some more characters in, too, including Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning. Which sounds great to us -- in fact, we'll take anyone but Hope. Man, Hope is really annoying.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded for DS revealed in Square Enix E3 lineup
Square Enix has announced its lineup of games to be shown at E3, and, while there may be surprises yet to be revealed, the company has already unveiled a rather big one. Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, a new DS game by 358/2 Days developer h.a.n.d., will be on display at the show. The game sounds like an action-RPG remake of the Japan-only mobile game Kingdom Hearts: Coded, in which a virtual Sora retraces his steps through the original Kingdom Hearts. "Jiminy Cricket is looking over the journal he used to document his first adventure with Sora when he discovers a mysterious message," according to the description of Re:Coded included in Square's E3 press release. "He didn't write it – so how on earth did it get there? King Mickey is determined to find out, so he and his friends decide to digitize the journal and delve into its deepest secrets. Inside this "datascape" dwells a second Sora who is about to embark on a grand adventure of his very own." The game currently has a "TBD" release date. Square Enix didn't specify how much of the game would be shown, but considering it's just been announced, we expect little more than a trailer.
Jiminy Cricket voice actor mentions Kingdom Hearts: Recoded
The official website for professional voice actor Phil Snyder mentions a heretofore unannounced project with a somewhat familiar title: Kingdom Hearts: Recoded. Apparently, Snyder is following in the footsteps of the late Eddie Carroll, and providing the voice for the series' pocket-sized accomplice, Jiminy Cricket. The project's title seems to suggest that Square-Enix is working on a remake of the formerly Japan-only episodic mobile game, Kingdom Hearts: Coded. We may end up getting concrete details about this project soon -- Siliconera reports the July issue of Game Informer features an interview with Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura, who explains that one of the two upcoming installments in the Keyblade-wielding franchise will be announced at E3. He didn't explain which language the game will actually be recoded in, but our money's on HTML5, since oh my God we can't believe we're making this joke what have we become.
