Almost a year after the release of Kingdom Hearts III, Square Enix has finally released the much discussed DLC, Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind. Discussed because some answers were expected on numerous doubts left open also because of the secret ending.
Available right now on PlayStation 4 and from February also on Xbox One, we talk about Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind in this review.
Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind focuses on enlightening the player on what precisely Sora had to do to save Kairi, even at the cost of sacrificing himself. As you will remember from Kingdom Hearts III, Kairi is pierced by the Innominata of Master Xehanort in order to instigate Sora properly, giving life to the last key needed by the Master to awaken the true Kingdom Hearts. After the final battle, Sora decides to find a way to bring Kairi back, no matter what the cost, and he will do it himself.
Once again as Sora, we will visit Chirity. A visit that will enlighten the mind of Sora, who is now determined to cross time, despite the warnings of the Dream Eater. Sora will obviously accomplish his goal, as you will remember from the ending of the original title. All very exciting, except that we will find ourselves playing a piece of 2 abundant hours literally recycled from Kingdom Hearts III. In this case, we will re-feed ourselves throughout the final battle phase, with some very subtle differences, both in terms of jokes and gameplay. Since there are two Sora - namely the original and the Sora who came from the future following the disappearance of Kairi - we will see some scenes observed in more detail. Furthermore, in the incredible heart-pounding battles of the final phase, we will be able to choose in turn whether to control Roxas, Riku and Aqua in battle.
What's really perplexing is the lack of new content and the almost total absence of answers to the many questions that remained pending following Kingdom Hearts III - except for a few clues that Nomura continues to leave almost everywhere. In fact, once Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind is completed, approximately 3 hours long, one can only be dissatisfied. However, once the DLC is complete we will unlock Limit Cut, a short episode where a total of 14 incredibly tough bosses are available and a very interesting secret boss fight after them.
By completing Limit Cut, we will have access to the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind, or perhaps we should say "the secret endings", as there are two of them. Nomura does not deny himself, and once again we find ourselves in sequences that always leave that sense of curiosity and expectation to the fans of the saga.
If from the writing side there is very little to collect, from that of the battle system there is a good job. If as a forgetful fan you remember the incredible sense of adrenaline when you first came across bosses like Sephiroth in the first Kingdom Hearts or Residual Will in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, you will already have guessed where we are headed. The Limit Cut of Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind, with its optional bosses, allows the most skilled players and never satiated with incredible and arduous challenges to reach the pinnacle of their skill. The bosses present are all of our old acquaintances, but their pattern has changed drastically, putting a strain on the reflexes of the most experienced.
With surprisingly less predictable and more merciless AI, Limit Cut could probably take longer than Re: Mind itself to complete. Furthermore, the fifteenth secret boss - the only "new" knowledge whose name we do not reveal, at least for the moment - fully embodies the sense of challenge coveted by the bravest.
Returning to the sense of Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind, nothing is ever written by chance with Nomura. Although, taking up what was said previously, there are no real answers, the scattered clues are numerous. Clues that could lead to a different direction of the brand in the future, especially now that the saga dedicated to Xehanort, creator of what happened in the main chapters - except for Kingdom Hearts Union X - is completely over. We will certainly discuss the aforementioned clues and secret endings in the future, waiting to find out what Nomura has in store for us.
Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind falls short of the expectations of hardcore fans in terms of story, writing, and - what the aforementioned wanted most, answers. He makes amends with numerous and extraordinary boss fights, unfortunately optional. The almost total recycling of an entire portion of the game, especially for the current price of the content, could make even those who love this saga turn up their noses. The idea is basically good and proposed to offer a DLC that could have offered more, but the ways in which the aforementioned was made made it suffer on the potential.
