Kingdom Hearts is a difficult franchise to follow. By this point, it's spread out across seven games, no two of which were on the same system. In several cases, the games were spread out across systems belonging to competing companies. If you wanted to follow Kingdom Heart's convoluted metaverse, you needed to have both Sony and Nintendo systems and a shocking amount of patience. Mercifully, the Kingdom Hearts ReMIX titles have solidified the franchise onto one system. With the exception of the Nintendo 3DS-exclusive Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix means that the entire franchise is now available on the PlayStation 3. In addition to giving the franchise a singular home, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix is also the first time that the Final Mix releases for Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep have been available in English. This might not sound like a big change, but for Kingdom Hearts fans, it's enough to breathe new life into some rapidly aging games.

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix may be the most significantly changed "final mix" version that Square-Enix has released. Square-Enix games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts frequently received new features for their North American releases, and the features were then backported to Japan, with even more additional features and English voice acting. While the original Kingdom Hearts II was a full RPG, Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix contains a boatload of new content. There are several new cut scenes, many of which either provide foreshadowing for future games or provide more detail on obscure plot points. There are also a ton of minor cosmetic changes ranging from upgraded graphics to new costumes for Sora and pals in the Christmas Town segment. There are new abilities and pieces of equipment. The most significant of these is a new Drive form based on Sora's Kingdom Hearts abilities and move sets. One doesn't require fusing with partners. There's also a new harder difficulty mode and the option to play through the game at Level 1.

The most significant of these changes is the bevy of new boss fights. There are fights against every single member of the Organization XIII, including those who previously only appeared in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. This includes both a plot-mandated boss fight against Roxas and optional fights against the remaining members of the team. There are even extra-hard versions of each boss that you can fight for an extra challenge. These boss fights are some of the most enjoyable in the series, and they add a lot of the franchise. Each boss has a style and gimmick that make the battles feel like fleshed-out fights. They might be optional, but they're fun. Beyond that, there is also a boss fight against Terra's Armor from Birth By Sleep, one of the hardest boss fights in the franchise.

After playing Final Mix, the original Kingdom Hearts II feels pretty incomplete. Fans of the franchise will find that it's worth playing through Kingdom Hearts II again to take on the bosses and see the new content. It's not a full-fledged remake, but the additional content is incredibly weighty. Even compared to games like Final Fantasy X, the changes are significant enough to give the game additional value. The core Kingdom Hearts II gameplay is mostly untouched. If you weren't a fan of the original game, it is unlikely the new boss fights will change that.

Visually, Kingdom Hearts II has aged incredibly well. The simplistic and cartoony graphics have done a lot to prevent it from looking dated. The HD remastering of the game is of a high quality and brings it up to more modern standards. The game has aged gracefully. The audio has also been remixed, although some of it is hard to notice. The music sounds great, and most of the remixed songs are as good or better than the originals. Kingdom Hearts II was always a charming-looking game, and ReMIX leaves it looking the best it ever has.

Birth By Sleep Final Mix is the less impressive of the two in terms of gameplay changes. The bulk of the major changes were from the Japanese release and later ported back to the Japanese release as Final Mix. Many of the changes will be familiar to North American players, including improved facial animals, new Keyblades, the Pete D-Link and the Mysterious Figure boss fight. Birth by Sleep Final Mix also has some new features. There are a handful of additional bonus boss fights and a new post-game bonus scene involving Aqua to shed light on her fate after the game. They're fun and almost universally positive additions, but it's hard to be as impressed with the more fully featured Kingdom Hearts II package.

The big change to Birth By Sleep: Final Mix is that the original game was a PSP release. The version in Kingdom Hearts 2.5 is a fully remastered version of the game with improved graphics and several gameplay changes for a console. The biggest of these is the inclusion of additional buttons and a right analog stick camera control. They do a lot to make the game more playable. It's easier to swap between various commands and to move the camera during fast-paced boss fights. The Mirage Arena in the original Birth By Sleep was a multiplayer experience. Due to lack of multiplayer options, the Arena has been retuned around single characters fighting. It's disappointing that no solution was found for multiplayer gameplay, but at least the content is accessible.

More disappointing are the upgraded visuals. While the game looked good on the PSP and the upscale does a good job of improving the character models, there's no mistaking the fact that Birth by Sleep began on the PSP. The character models have been improved, but some of the textures and cut scenes look a little rough. It doesn't make the game look bad, but it does look a little rougher than the significantly older Kingdom Hearts II. By a significant degree, it's still the best-looking version of the game, and the HD remastering has done an overall solid job. When you compare it to the PSP version, it's like night and day. There are fewer changes to the audio, which is disappointing considering the exceedingly stiff performances of some of the Birth By Sleep lead cast, but it's made up for by Leonard Nimoy's scenery-chewing Xehanort, who steals pretty much every scene.

Kingdom Hearts: Re: Coded is also included in the package, and it's easily the weakest. Like 358/2 Days from the previous Kingdom Hearts collection, it has been pruned down to cut scenes, so there's very little value here. Many of the cut scenes are new, and they're not terrible, but they're pretty empty and meaningless even to Kingdom Hearts fans. The original Re:Coded was a game with a paper-thin plot that served as an excuse to revisit previous Disney worlds, and it was buoyed by its varied combat and interesting challenges. Without the gameplay, it's instantly clear how boring and meaningless the plot is. If the developers wanted to summarize a game, it would have made far more sense to do so with Dream Drop Distance, which is only a name change away from being Kingdom Hearts III.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix is one of the most fully featured and worthwhile HD collections on the market. The two games included in the package are the highlights of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and in both cases, they're easily the best versions of the game available. The strengths and flaws of both games are still present, but since they're two of the better games in the franchise, that means they're still quite good games. The disappointment of the lackluster Re:Coded only slightly dulls the luster of the package. Fans looking for an excuse to replay the game — or those looking to experience it for the first time — won't find a better chance.

Score: 8.5/10