Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 ReMIX

KH 1 — screen shot comparing Riku with in-game graphics, as he appeared in the original PS2 version of Kingdom Hearts, to that of the HD ReMIX version

“It all starts here.”

―Tagline

Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 ReMIX (pronounced & read as 1.5 Remix) is an HD remaster compilation of the Kingdom Hearts series, made in celebration of the series's tenth anniversary. It includes full HD remasters of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories with added PlayStation 3 Trophy support. It also includes a collection of cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days up-scaled in full HD within the compilation's Theater Mode. It marks the first time Kingdom Hearts Final Mix will be made available outside of Japan, and the first time Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories will be available in Europe and Australia.

The credit roll viewable from the title screen contains cutscene footage from Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts coded, and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep which served to hint towards the games included in the second remix Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX, which was later followed by a third HD compilation Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

The game was later re-adapted for the Playstation 4 alongside Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX and was released as a single game Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 + II.5 ReMix.

New Features[]

Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 ReMIX not only renders the first Kingdom Hearts games in HD, but also updates them to better fit in with the more later installments in the series. For example, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ansem, and various other character's models have been updated with those from Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. The scripts of the early games have also been revised to be more consistent with the overall plot of the later games.

In terms of mechanics, the controls in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix are more similar to those of Kingdom Hearts II and the "?" command is replaced with a Reaction Command feature. In its place, the fourth command slot will be used for Summons. Cutscenes in the Japanese release has been restored to Japanese audio unlike the PS2 Kingdom Hearts Final Mix release and the cutscenes exclusive to Kingdom Hearts Final Mix are still left silent, but the spliced audio for Sora and Goofy from the Unknown cutscene now uses Japanese audio for the Japanese version. Additionally every cutscene from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, whether it was originally a prerendered scene or used in-game graphics, was remade for Theater Mode as a 2 hour long film.

Development[]

KH Days Film[]

Originally they had planned to make Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days playable, like the other two games, but that would have caused the production to take much longer than the developers would have liked. They would have had to re-make the game from scratch, both graphically as well as come up with new programming needed for actual game-play due to its transition from the Nintendo DS hardware to the Sony PlayStation 3 hardware. Doing so would have delayed the game greatly, having its release date possibly skip over its intended Ten Year Anniversary release date.

Unofficial Western Announcement[]

On January 24 Jesse McCartney would upload images onto his Instagram, showing that he was recording for his lines as Roxas in the Days segment of HD I.5 ReMIX. Later he would also post a video onto his Keek, so fans could watch and listen in on some of his recordings. Though later that same day his videos and pictures were taken down, possibly to avoid causing trouble with Disney and Square Enix.

Overall changes[]

Video output supported in 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p.
Audio output supported in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and DTS Digital Surround 5.1.
PlayStation 3 trophy support.
Unlockable PlayStation 3 theme for each title.
Updated character models.
Remastered background music, namely for Kingdom Hearts Final Mix.

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix[]

Remastered in high definition.
Zero EXP and Combo Master abilities have been added to the game.
The right analog stick now controls the camera.
Summons now occupy the fourth Command Menu slot.
Talk and other special commands are now bound to .
Cutscenes can now be skipped.
The Final Fantasy X-2 trailer on the game's menu is replaced with a Back button to return to the main menu.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories[]

Remastered in high definition.
Maverick Flare, Midnight Roar, Total Eclipse, and Two Become One from 358/2 Days added as new attack cards. They replace four of the six attack cards from Kingdom Hearts II, Monochrome, Follow the Wind, Photon Debugger, and Hidden Dragon.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days[]

Remastered cutscenes in high definition.
2 hours and 50 minutes of fully-voiced, high definition cutscenes across 109 "chapters".
More voice actors are present, where their character did not have any audio dialogue in the original.
- Due to Christopher Lee being in poor health and a previous silent scene with DIZ becoming a cutscene, Corey Burton had to dub that scene, along with redubbing all the original dialogue that Lee provided.
Reuses all the cutscenes from the original Nintendo DS release combined with modifying scenes that were originally silent into new cutscenes for the remake.
Includes most of the Roxas's Diary and Secret Reports entries from the original game, and the all-new Character Database entries.
Completing all of the above will unlock the special attack and enemy cards for Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories that was previously accomplished by connecting with Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix's save file or completing both Sora and Riku's games.

Pre-Order Bonus[]

Kingdom Hearts HD 1 — The Pre-Order Bonus

Pre-Ordering the game will come with a Limited Edition Artbook at launch. The Artbook contains early sketches, character renders, and final pieces of artwork from Tetsuya Nomura.^[2]

Other Releases[]

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX[]

In March 2017, Square Enix released Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX on the Playstation 4 which combines this and game Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX into a single game. Aside from just being a port to the PS4, a few additions not part of the PS3 release is that the games now run at 60fps (frames per second), reducing the size of the subtitles, as well as modifying how several PSN trophies are collected to make the easier to collect (such as being able to stack difficultly level trophies by completing both Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories at higher difficulty levels).

Additionally following the 1.03 patch update in June 2017, two new DLC are included in the PS4 version for both Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days where the downloads contain a new Theater Mode for KH Final Mix, and extending the cutscene in Day 357 for 358/2 Days to show new material of Roxas fighting against Xion's Final Form.

It was later released again four times. The first re-release was in a combo pack for North America only as part of Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far alongside Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue.^[3] Then the game was released for the Xbox One on February 18, 2020.^[4] worldwide, which also included the DLC from the PS4 releases. Was later put in another physical boxset alongside 2.8 and Kingdom Hearts III as part of Kingdom Hearts All-In-One Package for North America on the PS4 which was released on March 17, 2020^[5] which previously was a digital-exclusive PlayStation Store product. Lastly it was released on the PC alongside 2.8, III, and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory worldwide on March 30, 2021 via Epic Games.^[6] A Nintendo Switch digital-exclusive port was released on February 10, 2022 which is also part of the KINGDOM HEARTS INTEGRUM MASTERPIECE bundle pack for Cloud.^[7]

Trivia[]

In the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix portion of the game, there's an error. If one tries to leave Evil Grounds (the area Chenobog is fought at) to reach the World Terminus, the screen will go black and only the sound of Sora yelling when the attack button is pressed will be heard.
A few errors with the end credits of 358/2 Days occur since the cast list is based around the original DS version. The first error is though Bret Iwan, Mickey's new voice actor is seen, his previous voice actor the late Wayne Allwine is still listed. A second error is that other original cast members are listed even though their characters do not appear at all in the HD Version. This is because in the original game their role was just archived sound effects, which were used either for boss battles, or for the games' Mission Mode.