When the original Kingdom Hearts was released in North America, it was one of the top-three highest selling video games at the time. The critically-acclaimed franchise is well known for its crossover of famous Disney icons with original Square Enix characters and stories. With a successful following, it should be no surprise that Tetsuya Nomura would want to remix the game to be enjoyed once more in beautiful HD.
Nomura would begin the project with a simple thought. Why not look for the game’s original data and assets in order to begin the project?
Of course, that didn’t happen.
Talking about the game, Nomura stated in the Square Enix Presents E3 interview,
“The original data was missing already. It was lost so we had to research, to dig out the original game and recreate everything for HD. It was not that easy.”
Remember, Square Enix released Kingdom Hearts in 2002. Although this means the original game has been around for over ten years, it still would have been a better idea to archive the code to be able to come back to the title with ease. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the game’s data was lost forever.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX will be available September 10th in the United States. The game is available for pre-order and comes with a limited edition artbook. The game includes the titles Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories as well as HD remastered cinematic scenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
For future reference, let’s just hope game directors won’t have to scramble to put the pieces back together for any upcoming game remakes.
