Culture

Rating: 6/10

The jump from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD) has created a chasm between gaming generations. It has created a culture in which SD games belong to a past age while HD games belong solidly to the future.

But it is also about more than how we perceive games. Rockstar has gone so far as to split GTA into two entirely separate universes: GTA San Andreas and all games preceding it inhabit the SD realm, whereas GTA IV, GTA V and any future iterations in the series inhabit the new world of HD. Recent years have seen a concerted push by developers to pull older games into this new age of gaming by performing HD overhauls. The latest series to receive such a makeover is Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts, now Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix.

Kingdom Hearts is a wonderful amalgamation of Western and Eastern influences. The first Kingdom Hearts game, developed by veteran Japanese RPG developers Square Enix, was released in 2002. Despite these Eastern origins, the game occupies the world of popular Disney franchises such as Tarzan, The Lion King and Alice in Wonderland.

Using classic JRPG storytelling conventions, including ridiculously long cut scenes, overly sexualised youths and outrageous dialogue, Kingdom Hearts sees our protagonist Sora explore these various worlds with his faithful sidekicks Goody and Daffy Duck in an attempt to vanquish the Heartless threat.

Kingdom Heart 1.5 Remix includes three games from the series: Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. The first is a simple HD remake, but the others are a little more complicated. For instance, this is actually the second time that Chain of Memories has been remade – the game was first released on Gameboy Advance in an effort to bridge the gap been Kingdom Hearts 1 and Kingdom Hearts 2, but was remade later for PS2. The version included in this compilation is the HD remake of the PS2 remake. Equally confusingly, the version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (originally released on DS in 2009) you get here is not actually the game, but rather three hours of cinematics that have been re-mastered in HD.

While these re-mastered games retain their inherent charm, they do poorly as HD remakes. I am not normally a stickler for graphical fidelity, but the whole point of re-releasing these games was to improve their graphical potential, and the graphics of the remakes are disappointing. Certain aspects have been greatly improved – such as world textures and the special effects on things like hair – but such improvements are entirely overshadowed by the characters’ square faces, which are horrifically out of time with the dialogue. Considering the cinematic cut scenes have been re-mastered and look incredible, these graphics stand out like a sore thumb. This makes jumping into the game somewhat jarring.

In my opinion, the only way to justify the flood of HD remakes is to demand not only that the graphics be brought up to modern standards, but that the underlying systems be revamped also. In this respect, Kingdom Heart 1.5 Remix once again falls well short of the mark. All of the systems that drive the game are essentially the same as they were on the PS2.

But before I start receiving hate mail from JRPG fans, let me be clear: this is not a mark against the Kingdom Hearts games themselves, but rather against the attempt to re-master them as an HD collection. The Kingdom Hearts games are absolutely magical, and the opportunity to play these three on your PS3 may well be reason enough to purchase the compilation – especially with Kingdom Hearts 3 on the horizon. However, I do believe that we need to make it clear to the industry that if they are going to take advantage of our nostalgia to sell these re-mastered games, we expect more for our money than a new coat of paint.