The complete Kingdom Hearts saga is finally out on PC! No, that’s not true, the triple collection that includes (almost) all the knowledge on the historic crossover between action-JRPG, Disney heroes and Final Fantasy protagonists arrived on Windows three years ago. The problem is that almost no one noticed… Square Enix took care of giving a wake-up call to the less attentive, by releasing the three compilations: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind DLC on Steam. Mission accomplished, one might say: in just a few hours the first collection jumped to the top of the rankings of best-selling games
This is the longest time exclusive on the Epic Game Store, which now hopes to relaunch itself on the most popular and loved digital platform. Now you have no more excuses to recover some of the titles that have been part of PlayStation’s fortune… or maybe you do? Well, it’s a little early to say, but there are several issues that cannot be overlooked. Among all, the terrible support for the latest generation AMD video cards. In particular, in the first compilation it is almost impossible to enjoy the experience due to constant freezes. There are some tricks (reducing the resolution, deactivating V-Sync, avoiding pausing the game) that allow crashes to spread over time, but they cannot resolve them completely.
Unacceptable defects that had little resonance on EGS, but which are destined to make noise on Steam, even if the developers have already promised a fix patch. And then there is the price variable which goes between 50 (for the first collection) and 60 euros (for the remaining two). These are games that, at best, are five years old and at worst even twenty-two, and for this reason the entry ticket could appear very expensive in the eyes of many. The Integrum Masterpiece Collection, which contains them all, has a better quality/price ratio, but still requires an outlay worthy of a newly released AAA title.
Minimal differences with the EGS version
Let’s start right away by dotting the i’s: the most advertised feature on the Steam page concerns the greater definition of environmental textures. This would seem to be a plus point for Valve’s platform, but it has been confirmed that, on the release date, the Epic version will also be updated with the same improvements. However, there are a couple of differences that distinguish this version: cloud saves and official Steam Deck support, albeit with playable (and not verified) status.
The detail is not of little importance, considering the nature of the portable PC which is particularly suited, both in terms of controls and screen size, to hosting the collection. It should also be underlined that Epic’s store requires a permanent connection, unlike Valve’s.
Let’s now go into detail to analyze the titles included in each compilation; a summary that is more useful to PC users than to console users, given that the collections had already been published for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One several years ago.
In Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Remix we find the Final Mixes (i.e. the revised and corrected versions) of the first and second episodes. Then there are two titles coming from the portable world: Re:Chain Of Memories is the vitaminized release of the title originally conceived for Game Boy Advance, while Birth By Sleep: Final Mix debuted with great success on PlayStation Portable. Last but not least, there are only the high resolution cinematics of 358/2 Days and Re:Coded, both of Nintendo DS origin (the second of these was in turn a remake of a mobile title released only in Japan), useful for recovering all the pieces of the plot.
The menu of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter + Prologue is poorer in content, being composed of the only game Dream Drop Distance HD, initially released for Nintendo 3DS. Then there is X Back Cover, a short film based on the free-to-play title Unchained
The last protagonist of the triptych is actually a single game, namely Kingdom Hearts 3 including the Re Mind DLC. To be picky, for some obscure reason, the chapter of the most recent saga is missing, namely Melody Of Memory, which currently remains an Epic exclusive.
HD, but not too much.
Support for modern systems is guaranteed both by the presence of high resolution textures and by the possibility of using, in addition to the most popular joypads, also the combined keyboard and mouse. Never as in this case, however, do we advise against its adoption because it is clear that it is an addition made at random.
Just to give an example, there is no pointer to navigate between the initial menus, and therefore only the left mouse button is used to confirm selections. Furthermore, the key that would normally be used to skip cutscenes, ESC, is here replaced by the 4 key and at the time of writing this article there is no possibility to customize the controls. These are just two of the most striking examples on how the collection was transported to the PC in a superficial way (true considerations also for the last title of the saga).
From a technical point of view we are faced with titles that even medium-low range PCs will have no difficulty managing, with the exception of Kingdom Hearts 3. The adoption of high resolution textures and support for 4K monitors does what it can, but it cannot disguise significant graphic backwardness, where the number of polygons is limited and the animations are on average wooden. We are naturally talking about the first episodes, because approaching the present day, and in this case Kingdom Hearts 3, things improve from all points of view, as is normal in the natural technological evolution of the series.
In conclusion…
So, is the purchase recommended? The strong point of the collection, the presence of all the chapters allows you to build a complete narrative arc that is decidedly interesting, which is one of the main reasons (along with the undisputed charm of Disney’s heroes) that should push players to rediscover these classics. With regard to the specific release on Steam adds little or nothing to that already published on Epic, with the exception of Steam Deck support, which is very interesting for portable PC users. Unless there is any prejudice regarding the Fortinte store, we therefore recommend going where the price is most advantageous.
