Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 01/Jul 04:00

Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece – Review

It took twenty-two years for the Kingdom Hearts games to arrive on Steam. Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find a gamer who hasn’t at least heard of the Final Fantasy and Disney crossover series ever since it first debuted on PS2. Series protagonist Sora even made it into Super Smash Bros Ultimate as a playable character, although the likes of Donald and Goofy didn’t, likely for copyright reasons. It’s impossible to deny the impact that Kingdom Hearts has had on the modern-day gaming landscape, so it’s surprising to see how late Square Enix is to the Steam party. They put in slightly more effort than simply slapping a new subtitle on the collection of games and calling it a day, as this Final Mix supposedly improves on the previous versions. Does that mean you should pick up this version or can you stick to occasionally dusting off your PS5 or Switch? Join us as we take a look at Kingdom Hearts: Integrum Masterpiece. Full disclosure: before giving these Steam versions a shot, this reviewer had never played a Kingdom Hearts game. Sure, we were aware of its existence, but with so many (re)releases, extended editions, and spin-off titles, it always felt like trying to figure out where to even start was a chore in itself. That’s without even mentioning the sheer amount of different hardware needed just to access the games. In this regard, these Final Mix versions were necessary as an entry point for newer players, including yours truly, on platforms other than the PlayStation. Granted, this isn’t the first time that the mainline Kingdom Hearts games were made available on PC: they’ve been available on Epic Games for three years now, but the arrival on Valve’s platform is going to appeal to a much wider audience. Players can pick up all the games, with the notable exception of the spin-off rhythm game Melody of Memory, split across three different subcollections or all at once in the form of the Integrum Masterpiece collection. The overarching story is still both scattered and bloated, and if you really want to follow everything, you’re best off looking at fan-made timelines and YouTube compilations -and even then, you’ll likely run into fandom discourse. If you do want to puzzle it all together for yourself, then all the necessary pieces are right here in this collection. You may have the impression that you’re getting “just” three games here, so allow us to clarify: KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX, which should be your starting point into the series, contains a whopping four games; Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix, as well as two HD cutscene compilations; Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded. Meanwhile, KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue comprises two games, namely Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD and Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep, as well as the movie Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover. Finally, KINGDOM HEARTS III + Re Mind (DLC) delivers exactly what it says on the tin. We don’t have the room to provide a detailed review for each of these entries here, but we’ll happily refer you to their individual reviews, which we have linked for your convenience. Many of these titles have gone through several revisions over the years, and we’re not entirely sure whether the Final Mix moniker is going to stay true or whether we’ll be getting another “definitive” version of these games several years down the line. Either way, these new versions do benefit from enhanced visuals compared to previous releases. Even without having actually played the originals, the glow-up is clear to us by comparing the Steam versions to footage of prior releases. It’s an improvement but not a complete overhaul. The games benefit from higher resolution and improved textures, but this doesn’t hide their origins. Older titles in the collection felt notably clunkier in terms of interface and mechanics, with Dream Drop Distance, in particular, standing out as a game that clearly wasn’t developed with PC or home consoles in mind. Of course, the game was a 3DS exclusive when it launched, so it’s understandable that the transition isn’t seamless. Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts III feels right at home on our PC. It’s not just cosmetic bells and whistles that are meant to aid Kingdom Hearts’ transition to Steam. The games may not have seen a lot of change in terms of gameplay, but the optimization of the ports is top-notch. Performance-wise, these titles do exactly what they should, even on mid-range hardware. There were no notable bugs or frame rate issues that we ran into during our time with the games. As for mechanics, while we can’t outright compare the Integrum Masterpiece builds to previous iterations of these same games, we can say that the collection holds up surprisingly well. There is a noticeable evolution in the series’ gameplay. Older titles are noticeably dated in terms of UI and how certain mechanics work, with later entries feeling a lot more streamlined, especially when it comes to combat. The inherent clunkiness stems from how these games were originally designed and the limited capabilities of the original hardware, of course. Added boons are the inclusion of Japanese voice audio and Steam Achievements. There are of course two massive caveats to picking up the Integrum Masterpiece collection. The most obvious one is the price point. Yes, you’re getting a massive collection of games here, and yes, you’re able to sink hundreds of hours into them before you’ve seen everything but this is still a collection of older material that has been available elsewhere and much cheaper. Picking up the Integrum Masterpiece collection will set you back €99.99, but if you opt to purchase the three collections separately, you’re looking at €160 instead. That €99.99 is in line with the PlayStation Store’s RRP of €109.99 but over there the collection regularly goes on sale and can be picked up as low as €43.99. Even the Switch version of the Integrum Masterpiece collection has dropped to €39.99 three times in the last six months, although there you’d be getting cloud versions instead. Still, here’s hoping the Steam collection’s price is going to follow suit, although a 31% launch discount does provide a good start. Is the collection worth the RRP at this point in time? If all of these games are new to you, then sure. Even dismissing the cinematic content, you’re getting seven games, which equates to roughly €15 a pop. If you’re looking at picking up a single entry because you missed it, things get a bit more muddled, since you’re probably going to have to shell out for multiple titles, even as one of the three subcollections. The other hurdle you’ll need to keep in mind is the sheer size of these games. The collection will eat up a significant chunk of hard drive space, coming in at around 150 GB if you install everything. It will take some time to download it all, and while you can at least manage this somewhat by simply downloading the three collections separately, we would’ve preferred it if you were simply able to pick and choose individual titles to install instead. This is especially true since these games, like most Steam titles, support cloud saves. So, if you happen to play on more than one PC, having to redownload an entire (sub)collection to continue playing can be a bit of a hassle. Conclusion Apart from a layer of extra visual polish, there isn’t anything included in Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece that hasn’t been available elsewhere. There didn’t need to be though: over the last two decades, the series has established itself as one of the most beloved video game franchises of all time. Not all entries have aged equally well in terms of mechanics, but if you can overlook the clunkier shortcomings of these games, you’ll find that they have a timeless quality to them. We doubt the so-called Final Mix is actually the final release, but for now, this is the definitive way to play these games, even if the only real difference from the previous “definitive” release is an extra layer of polish. Whether that layer is worth the price tag depends on whether or not you already own these games. Now if you’ll excuse us, we still have a bunch of Dalmatian puppies to find and return to Traverse Town.