Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind Review

Anyone that knows my video game interests would be able to tell you that the Kingdom Hearts series is one of my favourite video game franchises of all time. Ever since the original game launched back in 2002, I’ve followed the series closely, playing every release in the now incredibly lengthy and complex franchise and thoroughly enjoying my time with just about every installment. Now, almost exactly 1 year after the launch of Kingdom Hearts 3, we have the chance to dive back in and enjoy even more with the Re:Mind DLC expansion. Providing some brand new stories to enjoy with Sora and co, as well as many, many challenging foes that will truly test your abilities.

Fans of the Kingdom Hearts series, especially those that enjoyed Kingdom Hearts 3 and want more of a good thing are going to enjoy a lot of what Re:Mind has to offer. I can’t see it appealing as much to those that haven’t followed much of the story thus far or that don’t enjoy grinding for the best gear in the game, and putting in the hours of repetitive effort to try and learn the attack patterns and best strategies required to take down some of the hardest boss fights though. Existing fans of the series may know about the effort required to take down Sephiroth in the boss battles from KH1 and 2. If you liked that kind of challenge, well you’ll be busy for hours trying to take down all of the new bosses included in Re:Mind’s Limit Cut episode.

The content of Re:Mind scenario takes place during in the final hours of the story of Kingdom Hearts 3. To jump into the new content, you will need to select a save game where you have completed the main story of Kingdom Hearts 3 first.

Without trying to spoil too much, even though at this point it’s hard to determine what parts of the Kingdom Hearts story can be considered a spoiler, the main scenario of Re:Mind allows you to play through the final events of Kingdom Hearts 3 (from the Keyblade Graveyard moments onwards) from the alternate perspectives of other characters, revealing some new insights into the final hours of the base game and further fleshing out some of the stories going on behind the scenes in Kingdom Hearts 3 that we didn’t get answers for in the base game. The whole scenario takes around 4-5 hours to complete and is full of some fantastic fan-service moments but doesn’t quite answer all of the questions you may have had when you originally rolled credits on Kingdom Hearts 3.

Once completed, you’ll gain access to the second component of the DLC, the Limit Cut episode. This mode features some new story cutscenes, reintroducing some fan favourite characters back into the series and allows you to face off in those incredibly tough boss battles against the ‘Real Organisation XIII’. They certainly put up a challenge, and will likely provide you with hours of trial and error game-play, that based on your ability may either be extremely rewarding of overwhelmingly frustrating.

If you do manage to complete the Limit Cut episode you’ll be treated to the final component of the Re:Mind DLC. It wouldn’t be a Kingdom Hearts game without featuring a new secret ending that provides a glimpse into where the series is heading would it? Fingers crossed it doesn’t take another 10+ years to finally get some of these answers, but the Secret Episode offers up a final secret boss challenge and new cutscenes that provide a few hints on where Nomura may take the series next. If you can get there and complete it, it’s well worth the watch.

If you were a fan of Taking photos using Kingdom Hearts 3’s Gummi Phone or you’ve enjoyed the rise of ‘Photo Modes’ in many recent AAA video games, you’re going to love the new Data Greeting feature introduced in Re:Mind. This mode allows you to create your own custom photographs by composing scenarios in which you’re able to select a world, characters and props and arrange them in various poses to create you own visual creations to take photos of. Allowing you to live out all of your Kingdom Hearts fan-fiction dreams. This mode has already become quite popular with the Kingdom Hearts community and has quickly lead to many fantastic set pieces and likely just as many inappropriate ones.

The copy of Re:Mind I was sent for review also included access to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra Concert Video. This is a separate full length musical concert accessible from the KH3 main menu and features many of the hit score pieces from Kingdom Hearts’ fantastic soundtrack performed by a full orchestra. If you haven’t already purchased the standalone version of Re:Mind and love the music of Kingdom Hearts as much as I do, I’d definitely recommend forking out the little bit extra to purchase the Re:Mind bundle pack that includes the Concert Video.

Final Thoughts

Kingdom Hearts 3’s Re:Mind DLC features everything I look for when looking to purchase an expansion pack. More story mode content, further fleshing out a story or world I already loved, more challenges to jump into and test my skills with now that I had already reached the endgame of the base game as well as various quality of life improvements that improve upon the game I already enjoyed so much. My main issue for the Re:Mind DLC is that I can truly only recommend it to existing fans of Kingdom Hearts 3 as it’s story retreads much of the closing hours of the base game without a lot of context for what is going on outside of that and it does require a completed base game save to even kick it off, which of course requires quite the investment of it’s own.

But if you are an existing fan of the Kingdom Hearts series and have followed the story thus far and enjoy some of the higher end challenges the earlier games offered, there really is a lot for you to like here.

A PS4 review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

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