Square Enix has put Kingdom Hearts anthology collections on sale as digital downloads for both PlayStation and Xbox consoles. For a limited time, anyone interested in the series can purchase ten games for as little as $30, including the most recent major installment in the series, Kingdom Hearts 3.
As a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy properties, the Kingdom Hearts series has something to intrigue most gamers. For a long time, however, fans struggled to get into the series because of its release strategy. In the first decade of the series' existence, Kingdom Hearts spin-off games appeared on many different handheld consoles. These games could not truly be called "spin-offs," however, as they were extremely important to understanding the overall story. To rectify this, anthology collections have remastered many of the games and condensed others into feature-length cutscenes, allowing everyone to catch up on the full story.
PlayStation owners can get the Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $29.99 until November 30th. While this package is not available on Xbox, gamers can purchase its components for a total of just under $60 until November 30th. Together, this collection includes everything needed to experience the series' famously bizarre storytelling. This includes Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and 3, as well as full remastered versions of spin-offs Re:Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep (plus its short follow-up 0.2 Birth by Sleep), and Dream Drop Distance. It also includes cutscene collections from the games 358/2 Days and Re:Coded, as well as an original film covering events from the Kingdom Hearts mobile games.
It's important to note that these collections don't include the latest parts of the series story. Gamers will still need to purchase Re Mind, the DLC epilogue to Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as Melody of Memory, the latest series installment that released earlier this month. At the very least, Re Mind is on sale for 25% off its normal $29.99 price tag until November 30th on both PlayStation and Xbox. Re Mind and Melody of Memory together set up the next phase of the Kingdom Hearts story, meaning fans will definitely want to play them.
Additionally, if fans really want to fully understand the series lore, they will need to immerse themselves in the Kingdom Hearts mobile games, Union X and Dark Road. Although they are free-to-play, they are a significant time investment, because both contain a substantial amount of Kingdom Hearts filler content in addition to plot-critical cutscenes. Union X ended up being very important for understanding the story of Kingdom Hearts 3, and its relevance will likely only increase for any future games.
Even though Xbox fans seem to have the worse deal, this isn't strictly true. Anyone with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate can access everything in the PlayStation-exclusive All-in-One Package for free. Given that some are concerned about a lack of major Xbox Series exclusives at launch, this would be a great time for new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S owners to jump into the Kingdom Hearts series on their new consoles.
Source: Twitter