KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I~III] Switch 2 review

There are plenty of video game series I hold dear because I’ve been playing them for decades, but few make my heart happier than Kingdom Hearts. The first two games were already out when I decided to give them a try, because as an awkward teenager I thought buying a Disney game would damage my already woefully low social standings. I then proceeded to cry at the ending of the first Kingdom Hearts, breaking the scales of coolness entirely (and not in a good way). Kingdom Hearts is just a magical series, bringing together Disney and Final Fantasy to create an impossible to understand epic with action packed RPG gameplay. With the fourth one actually coming next year it’s time to refresh your knowledge and prepare for the next piece of the heart shaped puzzle, and KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I~III] is the perfect way to do so (especially on the Switch 2).

To try to explain the story of Kingdom Hearts in a paragraph or two would be a fool’s errand, so call me a fool I guess. It follows Sora, a young boy who lives on an island with his buddies and wants to stay friends forever. Their universe gets gobbled up by a multidimensional threat though, and loads of Disney universes are having the same issue. He’s chosen to fight the monsters causing this called The Heartless with a big key, and Donald and Goofy are ordered to join him. Things only escalate from there, and dramatic moments with familiar Disney characters you never thought you’d be attached to follow.

After the first game the story only continues to get more incomprehensible, with new enemies called Nobodies, and hooded folks called Organization XIII who are doing bad guy stuff in the background. After playing all the games I can’t even begin to pretend I understand the motives or origins of most of the important characters in the series, but it somehow doesn’t matter. It’s always dramatic, and has a nice helping of Disney to make you feel right at home.

The structure of Kingdom Hearts games is second to none, because you just go from Disney world to Disney world experiencing slightly twisted versions of their stories. One moment you’ll be helping Tarzan deal with pesky hunters, the next you’ll be in the Colosseum with Hercules. Worlds generally feature a bonus party member you can choose to bring with you too, shaking up combat as well as theming. Getting to see which classic movie from my childhood was coming next just never got old, and with such a huge well of nostalgia to dig down into the series gets to go to some seriously exciting places.

Whichever childhood classic you’re jumping into, you’ll be kept busy by all the Heartless roaming around. Combat in Kingdom Hearts is seriously action packed, and only gets better as you get deeper into the series. With a variety of moves and combos to unleash and magic straight out of Final Fantasy to compliment it, swinging your keyblade around just doesn’t get old. Kingdom Hearts pretty much laid the groundwork for the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy decades later, and although the earlier titles are somewhat showing their age they’re still just a heck of a lot of fun.

It’s a little tricky to review KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I~III] as a whole, because it contains so many games that it’s hard to mention them all. Obviously the three main series games are there in their best and most remastered forms, but alongside this there are so many spinoffs. There’s the card combat game set between the first two, but the 3D PS2 version of it, not the original GBA one. There’s also Birth By Sleep, the PSP game that introduces three different characters whose stories you can play in any order. There’s everyone’s favourite 3DS game Dream Drop Distance, and who could forget Kingdom Hearts 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage? You can experience so many weird and wonderful games in this collection, and by the end of it all you can pretend it prepared you for Kingdom Hearts IV.

As well as featuring a shed load of past Kingdom Hearts games, this collection also features videos recapping the games that aren’t in the collection. Only the most hardcore of Kingdom Hearts fans want to replay the obscure DS games and Japan exclusive mobile games, and instead you can just grab some popcorn and get a lovely recap.

The most exciting thing for me about getting to replay lots of Kingdom Hearts this time around was the portability, because I got to play KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I~III] on the Switch 2. After previously only having options to cloud play these games, now Nintendo console owners can play them without a steady internet connection. The entire collection runs flawlessly and smoothly on the Switch 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3 especially looks spectacular on that gorgeous handheld screen. I wouldn’t want to replay Kingdom Hearts any other way now, and I likely won’t.

There are plenty of things you could easily complain about across the many games in this collection, and they’d all be fair complaints. For example flying Gummi ships between worlds has been ropey in many games in this series, and you’ll get to experience them all. When you’re getting so many games in a bundle though it’s almost silly to focus on the small issues in each of them, and none of them are enough to ruin the fun. Not every one of the games is created equal either, but this is almost the entirety of a decades old series we’re talking about.

KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I~III] is the perfect way to catch up on everything Kingdom Hearts, and on the Switch 2 it’s absolutely magical. This is a series I’ve loved my entire adult life and then some, and having all of it available on a handheld console is a dream come true. If you’ve ever been interested in trying the games that combine Disney and Final Fantasy then this is a wonderful way to start your journey, and by next year you’ll be as desperate for the new installment as the rest of us.