Update 1: Kotaku were able to attend Jump Festa 2013, and have posted their own impressions of the HD 1.5 ReMIX demo. Thanks to them, and to Terranort9406 for the tip, you can read these impressions below.
Announced back during this year's Tokyo Game Show, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX is a PS3 HD remaster of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and its sequel Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories—as well as a collection of CG cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Today at Jump Festa 2013 in Japan, Kotaku East was able to get some hands-on time with the first playable demos of the games in this highly anticipated HD collection.
Firstly, the big question: How did it look? The answer: As good as can be expected.
The graphics of both titles are generally excellent when compared with other HD collections. The details now present on the character models are crisp and clear (as many were taken from Dream Drop Distance), as are the background textures. The only graphical blemishes are the pixelated diagonal lines that sometimes appear where two textures meet.
As for gameplay, there were two different demo stations set up at the Square Enix booth for 1.5 HD ReMIX—one for the HD version of Final Mix and the other the HD version of Re:Chain of Memories. Each of these demos had three different playable areas from across each respective game's story.
For Final Mix HD, I spent time gathering items for a raft on the Destiny Islands, fighting my first boss with Donald and Goofy in Traverse Town, and facing off against Captain Hook alongside Peter Pan.
The most obvious change from the original version of the game—other than the graphics, of course—was the addition of the triangle "special action" button that didn't first appear in the series until Kingdom Hearts II. Originally, special actions were a cumbersome part of the battle menu, so this is a welcome change. Other than that, the controls in Final Mix HD were identical to those in the original version—which is to say, pretty bad by today's standards. Sora can only move in eight directions (instead of the full 360 degrees of later games) and the camera might as well be the final boss of the game for all the aggravation it causes you. There are also a ton of collision errors with Sora ignoring ledges he should grab on to and other similar issues.
Chain of Memories HD, on the other hand, looked as good as Final Mix HD but had none of the antiquated control issues. For Chain of Memories HD I spent my entire play time as Riku—though Sora was playable in the two other levels present in the demo. He controlled perfectly—most likely due to Re:Chain of Memories being built on the Kingdom Hearts II version of the engine unlike Final Mix. The loading times when creating each room were a bit worrisome, but none lasted more than ten seconds.
In the end, after my short time with Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX, I am quite excited to spend more time with this collection. It is a great port and any flaws present in it were there in the original. It's an impressive feat, especially when you consider it's all the work of two lone individuals.
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX will be released in Japan on March 13, 2013. There is no word yet on an international release.
Update 2:ArikaMiz has provided a complete transcript of the HD 1.5 ReMIX trailer appearing at the event. Thanks to goldpanner, we now have a complete translation of the trailer transcript. This can be seen below.
☆Destiny Islands Sora and Kairi looking at the ocean in the evening. The screen is small, but the frame shatters and gets bigger.
♪Hikari
☆Scenes of worlds flow past all at once Traverse Town, Sora Donald and Goofy putting their hands together. Wonderland, Sora and the others surprised by the talking doorknob. Olympus Coliseum, Cerberus attacking Sora. Atlantica, Ariel and Sora surrounded by Screwdivers. Neverland, Sora looking down at the pirate ship the first time he flew. Agrabah, genie Jafar appearing behind Sora and Aladdin. Halloween Town, Sora and Jack and the others looking at something (Boogie grown giant?). Sora looking at Castle Oblivion. Marluxia, sending Sora flying back with a blast of wind. Naminé's hands drawing a picture. Donald and Goofy standing in front of Sora to protect him. Axel with his chakrams in hand. Riku Replica swinging at Sora. Riku touching the King's face etc to see if he is real. Sora looking up at flying birds on his station of awakening.
☆Destiny Islands Riku looking pleased as he calls Sora from the darkness swallowing the island. Kairi disappearing into Sora. The Darkside standing before Sora. Riku holding his hand out to Sora. Riku: "The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"
☆Castle Oblivion hall Sora swings at Marluxia, who warps away just in time. Marluxia throws the Traverse Town card to Sora. Marluxia: "Go, Sora. To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose..."
☆Traverse Town Leon explains the Keyblade to Sora. Sent flying by a Heartless, Donald and Goofy notice the Keyblade as they pin Sora. Soldiers appear and surround the three. Leon: "The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade. That's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what."
☆Castle Oblivion An image of Kairi floats up, smiling at Sora. The figure changes into Naminé as Sora turns in a hurry. Axel disappearing into a corridor of darkness. Axel: "When your sleeping memories awaken, you may no longer be you."
☆KH1 worlds flash by at once Ariel turning around. Genie with his hand on Aladdin's shoulder. Hercules waving and Phil stroking his beard. Pinocchio and Jiminy reuniting happily. Tink spinning around in a huff and Peter Pan looking startled. Jack explaining his plan to Sally. Pooh and Tigger waving to Sora. Tarzan introducing Sora and the others to his adoptive parents. The Beast going forward, with a sad Sora behind him. Minnie looking at Donald and Goofy, and Daisy looking at Donald with shock. Halloween Town, Donald and Goofy are cheering Sora up. Destiny Islands, Riku carrying a log with a stunned expression. Destiny Islands, Kairi smiling at Sora. Sora: "I've become a part of their heart just as they've become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then...if they don't forget me...then our hearts will be one."
☆Characters from COM flash by at once Destiny Islands, Naminé addressing Sora. Castle Oblivion hall, Larxene attacking Sora. Destiny Islands, Zexion pointing in condemnation at Riku. Twilight Town, Sora and Vexen facing off. Twilight Town, Sora gripping his Keyblade. Twilight Town, DiZ appearing. Destiny Islands, Zexion disguised as Sora striking out at Riku. Riku summons his weapon and blocks. Castle Oblivion, Marluxia summoning his sickle. Castle Oblivion hall, Riku Replica hanging his head. Destiny Islands, Naminé's charm beaming with light. Naminé: "See that faint glimmer way in the back of your heart? That's a piece of your memory, Sora. Call out to it! No matter how far away the light gets, your heart's voice will always reach it."
☆Battle scenes KH1 Wonderland, vs Card Soldiers & lever. KH1 Neverland, vs Phantom. KH1 Agrabah, vs Kurt Zisa. KH1 Agrabah, general battle (summoning Dumbo). Axel battle. Larxene battle. COM Halloween Town, general battle. COM Wonderland, general battle.
☆KH1 final stage scene flash by The figure of the World of Chaos. Hollow Bastion, Maleficent wrapped in flame. Hollow Bastion, Donald and Goofy ready to cover Sora. Hollow Bastion, Kairi hugging Sora as he disappears. Hollow Bastion, Riku holding Ansem back. Sora closing the keyhole of Hollow Bastion. Ansem disappearing in the light. Sora gripping his Keyblade as he floats. Ansem: "Darkness conquers all worlds!" Sora: "I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts...is light!
☆Traverse Town Waterway Kairi smiling affectionately at Sora. "Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."
♪Xion
☆The rest is Days content Twilight Town clock tower, the three friends eating ice cream. Xion: "If only things stayed like this." Hearing this, Axel looks down.
☆Centre of the Round Room in The World That Never Was, Roxas listening worriedly to Xemnas talk Xemnas: "He is what makes you and Xion a part of each other's lives."
☆The World That Never Was Axel smiling at Roxas, who is stumped as usual. Axel: "We're best friends, got it memorised?"
☆Naminé drawing Roxas, Axel and Xion
☆Castle Oblivion Xion pushing through feeling unwell to persuade Axel. Xion: "I know this is where I come from! The answers are here."
☆The World That Never Was Saïx and Axel talking about Xion. Saïx: "Xion has no right to be among our number." Axel: "Why not?"
☆Twilight Town, the white room Riku and Naminé talking about Sora's memories. Naminé: "I risk Sora waking up to find out that nobody remembers him anymore."
☆The World That Never Was Axel moving closer to Roxas. Roxas: "Xemnas said me and Xion are connected to Sora. Who is that? Tell me!" Axel: "...!"
☆The World That Never Was, Xion's room Xion sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, looking up at Kingdom Hearts. Xion: "Riku, what should I do?"
☆Logo and release date appear
Update 3:FF-Reunion have posted their own impressions of the HD 1.5 ReMIX demo, and our translator goldpanner has translated these impressions. This can be read below.
KH HD 1.5 Re-mix at Jump Festa: Demo Report by ff-reunion
There were only ten KH HD 1.5 demo booths, and you were assigned either KHFM or Re:CoM depending, I couldn't choose which. I was surprised they had so few, haha. With the degree of attention it was getting I thought it would have been better if they had provided more, but maybe they can't have a lot of booths for an unfinished title? It was quite a shame. Anyway, now I will talk about the demo... well, the real time images were beautiful, very pretty! I honestly didn't think the level of HD would be this high, I was surprised. (Sora, Donald and Goofy etc) models have been changed to something very close to the ones in KH3D, with there being no flaws in the polygons, no blurring, no roughness from lagging... Just as it was said in an interview, cutscene models (Leon, Yuffie etc) are the same as the original game? I could see some blurring that made me think that was the case. Maybe it will be changed for the final product? ...I only had a short amount of time, but I was truly surprised over and over by the level of quality that is KH in HD. I can't wait for it to release in three months!
Kingdom Hearts -HD 1.5 ReMIX- appears at Jump Festa 2013 with a new trailer and playable demo. This post will remain updated with all translated impressions of everything. Enjoy! (The original impressions by aibo_ac7, and translated by Oishii can be found here.)
Update 1: Kotaku were able to attend Jump Festa 2013, and have posted their own impressions of the HD 1.5 ReMIX demo. Thanks to them, and to Terranort9406 for the tip, you can read these impressions below.
Firstly, the big question: How did it look? The answer: As good as can be expected.
The graphics of both titles are generally excellent when compared with other HD collections. The details now present on the character models are crisp and clear (as many were taken from Dream Drop Distance), as are the background textures. The only graphical blemishes are the pixelated diagonal lines that sometimes appear where two textures meet.
As for gameplay, there were two different demo stations set up at the Square Enix booth for 1.5 HD ReMIX—one for the HD version of Final Mix and the other the HD version of Re:Chain of Memories. Each of these demos had three different playable areas from across each respective game's story.
For Final Mix HD, I spent time gathering items for a raft on the Destiny Islands, fighting my first boss with Donald and Goofy in Traverse Town, and facing off against Captain Hook alongside Peter Pan.
The most obvious change from the original version of the game—other than the graphics, of course—was the addition of the triangle "special action" button that didn't first appear in the series until Kingdom Hearts II. Originally, special actions were a cumbersome part of the battle menu, so this is a welcome change. Other than that, the controls in Final Mix HD were identical to those in the original version—which is to say, pretty bad by today's standards. Sora can only move in eight directions (instead of the full 360 degrees of later games) and the camera might as well be the final boss of the game for all the aggravation it causes you. There are also a ton of collision errors with Sora ignoring ledges he should grab on to and other similar issues.
Chain of Memories HD, on the other hand, looked as good as Final Mix HD but had none of the antiquated control issues. For Chain of Memories HD I spent my entire play time as Riku—though Sora was playable in the two other levels present in the demo. He controlled perfectly—most likely due to Re:Chain of Memories being built on the Kingdom Hearts II version of the engine unlike Final Mix. The loading times when creating each room were a bit worrisome, but none lasted more than ten seconds.
In the end, after my short time with Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX, I am quite excited to spend more time with this collection. It is a great port and any flaws present in it were there in the original. It's an impressive feat, especially when you consider it's all the work of two lone individuals.
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX will be released in Japan on March 13, 2013. There is no word yet on an international release.
Update 2: ArikaMiz has provided a complete transcript of the HD 1.5 ReMIX trailer appearing at the event. Thanks to goldpanner, we now have a complete translation of the trailer transcript. This can be seen below.
Sora and Kairi looking at the ocean in the evening.
The screen is small, but the frame shatters and gets bigger.
♪Hikari
☆Scenes of worlds flow past all at once
Traverse Town, Sora Donald and Goofy putting their hands together.
Wonderland, Sora and the others surprised by the talking doorknob.
Olympus Coliseum, Cerberus attacking Sora.
Atlantica, Ariel and Sora surrounded by Screwdivers.
Neverland, Sora looking down at the pirate ship the first time he flew.
Agrabah, genie Jafar appearing behind Sora and Aladdin.
Halloween Town, Sora and Jack and the others looking at something (Boogie grown giant?).
Sora looking at Castle Oblivion.
Marluxia, sending Sora flying back with a blast of wind.
Naminé's hands drawing a picture.
Donald and Goofy standing in front of Sora to protect him.
Axel with his chakrams in hand.
Riku Replica swinging at Sora.
Riku touching the King's face etc to see if he is real.
Sora looking up at flying birds on his station of awakening.
☆Destiny Islands
Riku looking pleased as he calls Sora from the darkness swallowing the island.
Kairi disappearing into Sora.
The Darkside standing before Sora.
Riku holding his hand out to Sora.
Riku: "The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"
☆Castle Oblivion hall
Sora swings at Marluxia, who warps away just in time.
Marluxia throws the Traverse Town card to Sora.
Marluxia: "Go, Sora. To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose..."
☆Traverse Town
Leon explains the Keyblade to Sora.
Sent flying by a Heartless, Donald and Goofy notice the Keyblade as they pin Sora.
Soldiers appear and surround the three.
Leon: "The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade. That's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what."
☆Castle Oblivion
An image of Kairi floats up, smiling at Sora.
The figure changes into Naminé as Sora turns in a hurry.
Axel disappearing into a corridor of darkness.
Axel: "When your sleeping memories awaken, you may no longer be you."
☆KH1 worlds flash by at once
Ariel turning around.
Genie with his hand on Aladdin's shoulder.
Hercules waving and Phil stroking his beard.
Pinocchio and Jiminy reuniting happily.
Tink spinning around in a huff and Peter Pan looking startled.
Jack explaining his plan to Sally.
Pooh and Tigger waving to Sora.
Tarzan introducing Sora and the others to his adoptive parents.
The Beast going forward, with a sad Sora behind him.
Minnie looking at Donald and Goofy, and Daisy looking at Donald with shock.
Halloween Town, Donald and Goofy are cheering Sora up.
Destiny Islands, Riku carrying a log with a stunned expression.
Destiny Islands, Kairi smiling at Sora.
Sora: "I've become a part of their heart just as they've become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then...if they don't forget me...then our hearts will be one."
☆Characters from COM flash by at once
Destiny Islands, Naminé addressing Sora.
Castle Oblivion hall, Larxene attacking Sora.
Destiny Islands, Zexion pointing in condemnation at Riku.
Twilight Town, Sora and Vexen facing off.
Twilight Town, Sora gripping his Keyblade.
Twilight Town, DiZ appearing.
Destiny Islands, Zexion disguised as Sora striking out at Riku. Riku summons his weapon and blocks.
Castle Oblivion, Marluxia summoning his sickle.
Castle Oblivion hall, Riku Replica hanging his head.
Destiny Islands, Naminé's charm beaming with light.
Naminé: "See that faint glimmer way in the back of your heart? That's a piece of your memory, Sora. Call out to it! No matter how far away the light gets, your heart's voice will always reach it."
☆Battle scenes
KH1 Wonderland, vs Card Soldiers & lever.
KH1 Neverland, vs Phantom.
KH1 Agrabah, vs Kurt Zisa.
KH1 Agrabah, general battle (summoning Dumbo).
Axel battle.
Larxene battle.
COM Halloween Town, general battle.
COM Wonderland, general battle.
☆KH1 final stage scene flash by
The figure of the World of Chaos.
Hollow Bastion, Maleficent wrapped in flame.
Hollow Bastion, Donald and Goofy ready to cover Sora.
Hollow Bastion, Kairi hugging Sora as he disappears.
Hollow Bastion, Riku holding Ansem back.
Sora closing the keyhole of Hollow Bastion.
Ansem disappearing in the light.
Sora gripping his Keyblade as he floats.
Ansem: "Darkness conquers all worlds!"
Sora: "I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts...is light!
☆Traverse Town Waterway
Kairi smiling affectionately at Sora.
"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."
♪Xion
☆The rest is Days content
Twilight Town clock tower, the three friends eating ice cream.
Xion: "If only things stayed like this."
Hearing this, Axel looks down.
☆Centre of the Round Room in The World That Never Was, Roxas listening worriedly to Xemnas talk
Xemnas: "He is what makes you and Xion a part of each other's lives."
☆The World That Never Was
Axel smiling at Roxas, who is stumped as usual.
Axel: "We're best friends, got it memorised?"
☆Naminé drawing Roxas, Axel and Xion
☆Castle Oblivion
Xion pushing through feeling unwell to persuade Axel.
Xion: "I know this is where I come from! The answers are here."
☆The World That Never Was
Saïx and Axel talking about Xion.
Saïx: "Xion has no right to be among our number."
Axel: "Why not?"
☆Twilight Town, the white room
Riku and Naminé talking about Sora's memories.
Naminé: "I risk Sora waking up to find out that nobody remembers him anymore."
☆The World That Never Was
Axel moving closer to Roxas.
Roxas: "Xemnas said me and Xion are connected to Sora. Who is that? Tell me!"
Axel: "...!"
☆The World That Never Was, Xion's room
Xion sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, looking up at Kingdom Hearts.
Xion: "Riku, what should I do?"
☆Logo and release date appear
Update 3: FF-Reunion have posted their own impressions of the HD 1.5 ReMIX demo, and our translator goldpanner has translated these impressions. This can be read below.
There were only ten KH HD 1.5 demo booths, and you were assigned either KHFM or Re:CoM depending, I couldn't choose which. I was surprised they had so few, haha. With the degree of attention it was getting I thought it would have been better if they had provided more, but maybe they can't have a lot of booths for an unfinished title? It was quite a shame. Anyway, now I will talk about the demo... well, the real time images were beautiful, very pretty! I honestly didn't think the level of HD would be this high, I was surprised. (Sora, Donald and Goofy etc) models have been changed to something very close to the ones in KH3D, with there being no flaws in the polygons, no blurring, no roughness from lagging... Just as it was said in an interview, cutscene models (Leon, Yuffie etc) are the same as the original game? I could see some blurring that made me think that was the case. Maybe it will be changed for the final product? ...I only had a short amount of time, but I was truly surprised over and over by the level of quality that is KH in HD. I can't wait for it to release in three months!