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Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix |
Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories |
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Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix + is an expanded
re-release (also known as an International Version) of the game Kingdom
Hearts II for the Playstation 2. The game was often suspected the game's
existence after Square Enix released Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, a re-release
of the first game in the series. Sure enough, in September of 2006, Square
Enix announced that the game would be released in Japan in March of the
following year.
The game was set to contain two separate discs. The first disc contained Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, which a remake of Kingdom Hearts II featuring a slew of alterations and additions to the gameplay elements.
The second disc contained the game Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories, a full 3-D remake of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, which had been released three years prior on the Gameboy Advance, a 2-D handheld console. The game also received alterations and additions to its gameplay and content, although there were significantly less changes in Re:Chain of Memories, than there were in Final Mix.
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| Quite a few changes were made to Kingdom Hearts
II in order to enrich and improve the gameplay experience. One was that
a number of cutscenes were added to the game. The cutscenes did not feature
voice actors, since they did not have access to the cast members, and thus
couldn't record any new dialog. However, there were several new cutscenes
that were meant to expand the story. Most of them have little relevance
to the story of Kingdom Hearts II, and instead are simply present in order
to provide further backstory, expand on character's personalities, or
to provide cryptic hints towards future Kingdom Hearts games (as Square
Enix is known to do). In addition all cutscenes in Chain of Memories were
completely redone in order to accommodate the new 3-D game engine. However,
few changes were made to the script the cutscenes, simply the way they were
presented were changed. Unlike in Final Mix, the cutscenes in Re:Chain of
Memories do feature voice acting, with new actors being hired in order to
voice certain characters who had never been given voices before (due to
the lack of voice acting on the Gameboy Advance). |
Another common change was the addition of new
boss fights, which once again we see in both Final Mix and Re:Chain of Memories.
In Final Mix there were 20 new boss fights added to the game, almost all
of which are optional, with only one new boss being necessary to fight in
order to complete the game. Most of these new bosses were designed in order
to provide extra challenge to the game, and as such, are generally quite
difficult. Several of them also incorporate some sort of gimmick into the
fight in order to keep the gameplay fresh, and give people a reason to want
to fight the new opponents. In Re:Chain of Memories, only two new fights
were added, both being requisites for completing the game. Neither fight
is particularly difficult, and instead is simply included for story purposes.
Many other changes were made as well, especially in Final Mix. None of these changes significantly altered the way the game was played, and instead were just advertised as new content in order to convince people to, essentially, buy Kingdom Hearts II a second time. These changes included simple things such as new items, monsters, areas, abilities, and a new difficulty mode. In addition Re:Chain of Memories is fairly altered from its original version, introducing new cards, and attacks, as well as completely new gameplay mechanics, designed to take advantage of the new 3-D game engine.
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So where can you get it? Well, that depends.
If you live in Japan, you should just be able to find it in any major video
game retailer. However, if you live anywhere else in the world, you're
in a bit of trouble. The game, unfortunately, never saw an American of European
release, instead being released only in Japan. However, that doesn't
mean it is impossible to obtain it. You simply have to be open to the wonder
of importing. Importing is buying a game from another country and having
it shipped to you overseas. Several online retailers allow this, but my
personal recommendation would be play-asia.com, but you're free to use
any site that you can find, of course.
However, it's not as simple as just buying the game an popping it in your Playstation 2. The PS2, as most video game consoles, is region locked. What this means, is that the console will only play games from the same region it was made in (i.e. An American PS2 will only play games distributed in America). However, there are ways of getting around this. Several options exist, and I'd encourage you to search for more if you need to, but the option I use is called Swap Magic. Swap Magic is a special PS2 that allows you to bypass the region locking and play games from any region on your PS2. The way it works is that you insert the Swap Magic disc, and run it on the PS2. Then, when prompted, you simply remove the disc, and replace it with your fancy import game. Once you hit the Load Game option, it'll boot disc just as if it was from your region.
It can be a little more complicated than that depending on what version of the Playstation 2, but it's generally fairly simple. At worst it will only require extremely minor alterations to your console, and regardless will never void your warranty. Still, you may want to search out more information on Swap Magic specific to your Playstation 2 to make sure you are willing to use the software.
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| Sources |
kh2.co.uk
ign.com
gamespy.com
photobucket.com
supercheats.com
kh-vids.net
media.giantbomb.com
gamespot.com
wiki.wegame.com |
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