Keyblade wielders rejoice as the epic Kingdom Hearts saga arrives on Steam next month following years of Epic Games Store exclusivity.
Square-Enix delivered the news via a blog post this morning which confirmed that the much beloved Disney and Square-Enix crossover series will debut on Steam on the 13th of June 2024. This is big news for Kingdom Hearts fans as the series has remained an Epic Games Store exclusive since its first PC release back in March 2021.
Square-Enix is bringing the entire ‘Dark Seeker Saga’ to Valve’s PC game platform with hundreds of hours of content spread across the following titles; Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts III + ReMind DLC. While each title will release as a standard product, the fantastically named ‘Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece’ collection bundles all of these titles together into one convenient package.
Square-Enix has promised “textural updates” to the Steam version of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and teased a new platform-exclusive weapon for protagonist Sora to wield in Kingdom Hearts III in the form of the “Dead of Night” keyblade.
The announcement of Kingdom Hearts’ Steam release comes less than a week after Square-Enix revealed it will “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy”, following several PlayStation exclusive launches including Final Fantasy XVI, Foamstars, and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth failing to live up to the company’s project sales targets.
Simple And Clean
While surprisingly omitted in the blog post, the official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account revealed that a new Kingdom Hearts Steam announcement trailer is on the way later today and will feature a newly re-recorded version of the series’ original theme song ‘Simple and Clean’, sung by original singer and Japanese musical sensation Hikaru Utada. The post was accompanied by the image above, taken from a climactic moment from Kingdom Hearts III.
While Kingdom Hearts III and its ReMind DLC are self-explanatory, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue are compilations in and of themselves. I’ve listed a handy breakdown below of which games are included in each release.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX includes:
- Kingdom Hearts Final Mix – The debut adventure for Sora, Donald and Goofy.
- Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain Of Memories – The remastered PS2 remake of the original Game Boy Advance title that saw Sora and chums battling with the newly implemented card system.
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (HD Remastered Cinematics) – A streamlined cinematic experience focusing on Roxas, a mysterious boy with a special connection to Sora.
- Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix – This remastered PS2 follow-up sees Sora, Donald, and Goofy visiting an array of new Disney worlds as they face off against the shadowy Organization XIII.
- Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix – An epic prequel adventure that originally launched as a PSP exclusive and introduced players to keyblade wielders Aqua, Ven, and Terra.
- Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded (HD Remastered Cinematics) – A condensed retelling of the mobile ‘Coded’ game that saw Sora enter the digital world.
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue includes:
- Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD – Set after the events of Kingdom Hearts II, Dream Drop Distance originally launched on the Nintendo 3DS and saw Sora and Riku undertake the Mark Of Mastery exams.
- Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage – This Unreal Engine 4 title serves as a prologue to Kingdom Hearts III and gives players a glimpse of what happened to Aqua following the ending of Birth By Sleep.
- Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (movie) – The earliest entry in the Kingdom Hearts timeline sheds light on the history that precedes the entire franchise.
