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Gaming Friday, January 25th 2013 at 4:30 pm

Jesse McCartney Accidentally Confirms Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix’s Being Localized

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Never since the Street Fighter franchise have we waited so long for the next proper installment in a video game series. Our patience for Kingdom Hearts III has been worn thin of late with each side story, rehash, and side story rehash that’s been released after Kingdom Hearts II, further delaying the long awaited closure we’ve been working toward for the past 11 years — man, history does repeat itself. It appears as though we may be waiting even longer. Jesse McCartney, the heavenly voice behind Sora’s doppelganger Roxas, posted a picture on Instagram showing the inside of the recording studio with the caption: “For all you ‘Kingdom Hearts‘ Fans. Recording the next chapter! #KingdomHearts #Roxas #Gamers.” Regrettably, judging by the game footage, this “next chapter” is likely Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix and not Kingdom Hearts III. You may now commence your disapproving shake of the head.

The powers that be have since pulled McCartney’s picture off Instagram — c’mon, it’s not like we haven’t already played the original Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and 358 Days/2 –  but that hasn’t prevented it from spreading elsewhere. This is the Internet, after all. A NeoGAF user screengrabbed and posted the very image while a video also surfaced showing McCartney recording some anguished guttural noises for Roxas:

Square Enix first announced Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix during last year’s Tokyo Game Show, slated for a release solely on the PlayStation 3 gaming console. But seeing as how it’s merely a retread of the same path we’ve walked before, is anyone — aside from the most adamant of Kingdom Hearts fans — going to even bother picking it up once it reaches North America? Not that it matters since Mickey Mouse will find a way to coerce us into buying in.

You can watch the TGS trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix below:

(NeoGaff via IGN, image via nagi)

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  • Anonymous

    No offense to you, but if you are big enough of a fan to really want the 3rd installment then you should realize the importance that the “side games” hold to the main story. Birth by Sleep is really what makes Kingdom Hearts 3 important in the first place because it introduces the villain and provides a backdrop for the characters listed in the letter Mickey sends Sora. Also, KH 1 is final mix so that means pretty good additions, not so much for KH1 (still a good amount) but the amount added to KH2 final mix practically makes it a new game. So I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, and I want KH3 badly as well. I don’t, however, see there being an issue with the side games, specifically BBS and DDD. They enrich the story so much even if it is a bit convoluted.

  • http://www.facebook.com/RihaanShim Demontre Wiley

    I have always wanted to play the Final Mix Versions of the game, and the trophies are going to be fun to get. The only thing I really hope for are the digital copies, because I’m going to be really tired of wearing out the disc.

  • Jasmine

    Europe didn’t even get Re:Chain Of Memories D:

  • BRChibi

    Reading this made me so happy. I am so sick of people getting mad that Square Enix keeps making ‘side-games’. If they were real fans they would enjoy them and cherish them as I do. Personally I don’t think KH3 will come out for at least another five years. I am extremely excited for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix and I hope and expect them to do a HD collection for the PS3 with the rest of the games BEFORE starting the adventure of Kingdom Hearts 3.

  • Anonymous

    Yah, I somewhat agree. Very much looking forward to 2.5 remake. But I suspect that 3 will come sooner than we think. I hope anyway. One thing people don’t really know about most of the time is that the team working on HD and all of the side games is not that same team that will be working on KH3. I’m sure both teams will be pulled together to work on the 3rd game at some point, but Nomura said he only wants the main team (currently occupied with FFvs13) to work on numbered installments. So in reality, all of the side games being made really had no bearing on the release date of the 3rd game to begin with.

  • http://twitter.com/watzisriley Riley Wilson

    This series just makes me sad, the fact that they spread every other installment to another mobile device or console is just depressing. I really hope that they make more than one of these remixes, or perhaps even 3 on the PlayStation 3.

  • anonymous

    the problem with side games is they arent console releases. they are strictly handheld and by restricting the realease to a handheld they are limiting their audience. i prefer console gaming and dont own handhelds. and im not going to go out and fork out $300 just to play one game and have a pointless piece of hardware sitting around collecting dust. they should have released the side games as console versions alongside their handheld counterparts in order to keep their fan base amped up…frankly those of us who dont own them are being left out if those titles are so crucial to the storyline

  • Wayne Martin

    i’ve played every KH game and i soooooooo badly want this for ps3. i swear to all that is holy if i can’t get my hands on this game (being an aussie sometimes game makers forget we exist) i will flip out and go postal!

  • Wayne Martin

    couldn’t agree more! i had to borrow a mates ds to play dream drop distance.

  • Paul

    I beleive the wait will be worth it, i know i have been waiting for better part of seven years, I can’t wait to see what Square Enix has to offer for the series

  • AnonymousKHfan

    If you were really a fan of KH you wouldnt be criticizing the “side games” AKA “not side games only called side games by poos like you” they are so important to the plot so you can should not call them rehashes and side games… each one of them had their own importance to the plot especially 358/2… would you like to just play kh3 and have all these plot questions such as “how is axel and all of them alive?” who the heck is ven terra and aqua? what is the x blade? why is there three different xehanorts? Yes i dont think you would like to be that confused… so they are clearly not side games…

  • JoePapi

    I grew up playing 1 and 2, and I have never played a side game. While I’m not going to knock the side games, as I have never played one, I will say I am just as eager as you despite this. I’m craving to be Sora once more.

  • Alex

    I partially agree. I too am very annoyed with the people who bitch about the spin-offs, especially since I grew up with the original CoM for the GBA, and I know that the spin-offs are just as important to the story as the numbered games are.

    *!!!SPOILERS!!!*

    I do however hate DDD. Previously Kingdom Hearts had its own unique recipe, part Disney villains, and part Organization XIII. But now the story is getting way outta hand: bullshit time travelling, bullshit that Axel/Lea can suddenly without any training at all summon a Keyblade, bullshit that Sora didn’t make Keyblade Master, and bullshit that we got so few worlds in the game where only Traverse Town is re-visited…. oh, and dropping during a boss fight is bullshit too.

    So DDD doesn’t enrich the story, it just takes a story that was already weird, but in a good and funny way, and makes it take a left turn to Bullshitville.

    *!!!SPOILER OVER!!!*

    I also look much forward to HD 1.5 ReMIX, but it tears me up inside that we were originally promised it to contain a remake of 358/2 Days, much like Re:Chain of Memories, but due to Square’s time scedule, we won’t get it anyway and instead have to settle with a 2½ hour cutscene.

    It especially tears me up because the original 358/2 Days had an amazing story, but the game itself had way too many flaws to make it onto my top 3 list, and that’s a shame cuz I REALLY wanna love the game T-T

    So every time I see the newly revealed front cover of HD 1.5 ReMIX, I die a little inside :-(

  • Nicholas Spezio

    Try the PS4 now. KH3 won’t start actual production until Final Fantasy XIII Versus is complete. And since that game is still relatively far from completion you can bet Nomura will want to take full advantage of the PS4′s tech now that’s its been announced.

  • Nicholas Spezio

    And Sora and Kairi suddenly getting Keyblades without “training” wasn’t “bullshit”? I believe Word of God roughly explains in order to wield a keyblade you have to have a pure heart. Now what defines pure is open. Also its implied that while Sora and Riku are dreaming Lea was practicing and training to possibly summon one. Odds are he was going against his nature and trying to seriously summon one. While at the end he became relaxed and laidback self and BAM his keyblade appears. Whether to not he’ll properly be able to use it is left to the next game.

    As for Sora not getting The mark of mastery? It fits who Sora is, somebody opposite the rules and books doesn’t make him any less powerful or skilled as Riku and the others.

    Personally I love the story of 3D is it strange? Yes, but that’s what makes it interesting. And I feel its proper build up for the next game. Why was Lea gathering Organization members? What happens when the 13 ones of Darkness and 7 of light finally meet?

    As for the worlds, they wanted to visit completely new worlds not repeat old ones. And I prefer that Kh steers towards its original story rather than being a commercial for Disney media.
    But these are my opinions and you have yours. But I do agree diving in the middle of a boss battle was kinda sloppy, especially that damn lobster >8[

  • Alex

    Yes Kairi suddenly getting a Keyblade was bullshit too, and it wasn’t even her who summoned it, it was Riku who gave it to her, which is the only plothole I hate with KH2. Sora getting a Keyblade? Come on he’s the main charachter and the Keyblade’s chosen one (well that was the story back in KH1 anyway).
    And no, it is implied no where that Axel/Lea was training hard at Yen Sid’s place, in fact everytime we see him he just leans at his bookshelf resting. And he says himself that he was planing to come waltzing in, Keyblade in hand.
    So in my opinion everyone but Sora, King Mickey, and Riku having a Keyblade is bullshit. Back in KH1 the Keyblade was special because only a select few could weild it, but now everyone can if they are pure of heart and just believe hard enough.

    Sora not passing the exam bugs me because he past the tests just like Riku, in fact Yed Sid says they both deserve the honer, but because Riku scores some bonus points by going to safe Sora, he alone passes.

    What defined Kingdom Hearts was the mix of Disney, Final Fantasy, and original characters to begin with, that’s the idea upon which the franchise came to life to begin with. Sora travelling with to different worlds, fighting Heartless alongside Disney characters, that was what gave KH it’s identity, whether you wanna call it a cheap Disney commercial or not. So now that they are pretty much beginning to surpress the Disney part, and make the story about Xehanort way too full of itself, they are, in my opinion, slowly killing the series from the inside.

  • http://twitter.com/TrickSwerve IG; manabovehate

    What if they had KHIII ready right after 2 was done…LOL

  • sup

    I also agree that Kairi getting a keyblade all of a sudden in KHII was disappointing, and the fact that there were so few worlds in 3D. The scarceness of the worlds make me feel like the game overall was really short, even for a slow gamer like me. I do disagree, however, with your last opinion (but I won’t argue with it. I don’t want to be too disrespectful if I already am).
    Also, isn’t saying that everyone but Sora, Mickey, and Riku having a keyblade bullshit over the top? I mean, if you take a look at BBS it explains exactly why Sora, Riku, and Kairi are all able to wield a keyblade (yeah I know BBS came later, but still.)

  • Rikuisbetterthansora

    I hope you all realize the reason the stories of older games like KH and KH2 don’t match up with the newer ones is because they can’t look into the future and automatically know where they’re going with the story. In KH they even set it up so there could only be one keyblade wielder (which is what made Riku/Ansem powerful, having made his own with dark powers), and if you didn’t notice there have been a lot more than one since then. So quit complaining. If you want the next installment so badly I’d like to see you try and make a game that fits the needs of all of you whiny little babies.

  • Savanna K.M. Raymond

    ANONYMOUS…LOVE UR COMMENT…a true KH fan would want to understand every possible concept of the game. shoot i own every american game and still cant understand the full concept. i’ve been wanting final mix since my cousin brought it up like 5 years ago. now i finally can have final mix on the first and middle games. But, 10 years of stretching this story line, i though 3d was the end. there was no going back, for japan at least. america still doesnt know everything. KH FANS, LETS JUST WAIT TILL THEY GIVE US FINAL MIX, THEY TRY TO GO BACK ANY MORE, THEN WE ATTACK!

  • Fcdarkness

    Lea was trainig with Merlin and the Three fiaries. Replay the game…

  • Alex

    Ah so all of a sudden Merlin and the three fairies became authorized Keyblade Teachers? Axel/Lea says himself to Sora and co. that he came to Yen Sid’s place to LEARN how to wield a Keyblade, but at no point do we see him actually train, and at no point is it implemented that he ever met Merlin and the three fairies. So YOU go and replay the game, cuz I’m not gonna touch this game and it’s bullsh!t story again.

  • Dan.B

    Im sorry I couldn’t disagree more with people saying these side games are necessary to the franchise, When we were introduced to Kingdom Hearts the plot centred around a boy named Sora and his quest to reunite with his friends, simple… But you get these games that are scattered across handheld consoles(irritating) that just completely branch off in every direction making the story so hard to understand and complex that the series loses its original appeal. I recently learned of a new Kingdom Hearts on the PC only to find out its another spin off yet again! Aarrggh! What the hell you doing Nomura! I mean all the time they have WASTED producing these games could of been well spent on developing KH3 for christs sake! All these subplots could of been explained / summarised in KH3. I’m sorry I know a lot of people are gonna tell me why they are key to this series but believe me they are not. So please Mr.Nomura as a Fan of Sora and his quest just get on with KH3…

  • Kgirl

    I completely agree. Luckily I have a DS lite so I can play 358/2 but as for BBS and DDD I have a feeling I’m not going to Know about those stories till 1.5 or 2.5 come out.

  • annoyedfan

    You sir I agree with. The handheld games are not only confusing but I find I’m getting more and more annoyed each time I hear kingdom hearts whatever. KH1 is my all time favorite game. I keep going back to replay it. And many say all these games are important cause the explain the story but guess what they only explain the story because the creator made them that way. If they didn’t make them there wouldn’t be an overkill on the story. I mean wth is the whole Ventus Sora thing at the end of BBS. That makes no sense. None of it does in my opinion. Just stop it all and give us what we’ve been asking for all along

  • anonymous

    Yeah, but see, here is the tricky part: KH3 wouldn’t exist without all the “side story” games. KH2 wrapped up everything storywise. BBS and Dream Drop Distance give us a purpose for a sequel. What you people fail to understand is that if we would have been given KH3 it wouldn’t have had a purpose and would have muddled the story just as much as this stuff, except it would have been rushed and crammed into one game. And like it was stated before, they weren’t the same teams, they were wrapped up with other things.