The Silent Protagonist- Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD

Hello and welcome to the first Silent Protagonist of 2013! It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing about upcoming RPGs for the last year. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. To kick start the new year I thought I’d go for something big. Like, Disney meets Square Enix… again!

Unfortunately it’s not that big… like Kingdom Hearts 3, there’s surprisingly not much out there on it yet, yet there’s a worldwide May 2013 release date, according to some parts of the internet anyway. But where they got this information from, I don’t actually know. I’m not sure there is a confirmed answer. Yet.

But, instead, I am going to talk about Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD.

If you have read any of my other Silent Protagonist blogs, you may have noticed I like Square Enix, a lot. And the only two things I like more than Square Enix are Namco Bandai and Disney. So for those of you who don’t know, or somehow haven’t seen anything Kingdom Hearts related, imagine putting Final Fantasy in a blender with Disney, whizz them around and the resulting concoction would be, for lack of a better word, magical.

Anyway, the story centres around a young boy called Sora (with comically large feet) as he journeys to find his friends Kairi and Riku when they mysteriously disappeared from the Islands where they live – the Destiny Islands. After the first boss battle after the prologue, Sora is engulfed by darkness and is taken to a world far, far away.

However, when Sora comes to, he discovers that he is in Traverse Town, a town plagued by creatures known as Heartless. This is where he discovers that he has been chosen to fight the Heartless with the aid of a giant key… called a Keyblade. Here he partners up with Donald, a magician, and Goofy, the captain of the knights, both hailing from Disney Castle, where Mickey Mouse rules as king.

After a gentle push in the right direction by some friendly faces, Leon (Squall), Yuffie, Aerith and Cid, Sora then goes in search of his friends, fighting the hordes of enemies that bar his path and aiding the various Disney characters he meets on his way. After overcoming many trials, he finally discovers what the Heartless is after, the mysterious Kingdom Hearts.

The original Kingdom hearts was released in 2002… and god do I feel old now! So for the 10th anniversary, Square has decided to do a PS3 reboot of the game. However, there is much more to this series than originally meets the eye. To date, there have been nine titles in the series, although two of these nine have been rereleased on other platforms and been given a makeover, such as “Chain of Memories”, originally released on the Gameboy Advance, was remade and rereleased as “Re: Chain of Memories” for the Playstation 2, three years later.

This brings me full circle to the 1.5 HD version. What exactly is it?

Not only does it contain “Kingdom Hearts Final Mix” a version of the game which was only released in Japan which contains additional content, but it also comes with “Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories.”

I’m actually really excited about this, despite having played these games already, and it’s not often I get excited about games anymore… ok that’s a lie. But I am super excited about it!

It is going to be released in March 2013 for Japan, although as of yet, it is unknown whether the rest of the world is going to get to get a look in. Fingers crossed!

In slightly other news, if you remember I wrote a few months ago about FFXIII Versus? On the 14th Janurary, Square Enix Europe confirmed that the game is still in development, with no official release date.

On the next Silent Protagonist, I’ll be taking a look at Dragon Quest VII

To Be Continued…

 


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