REVIEW: ‘Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind’ Is Great But Not Worth The Price (PS4)

Kingdom Hearts 3 returned to the forefront of fans’ minds with the release of the Re:Mind DLC. The $30 DLC includes the additional story, titled Re:Mind, a Limitcut episode, 13 new bosses to defeat, and a Premium menu which can create diverse difficulty settings and gameplay challenges. To be honest, no matter what I wrote in this review die-hard Kingdom Hearts fans, including myself, are going to buy this DLC. However, the price tag is fairly steep considering what you are getting.

The main attraction of the DLC itself is the additional story. Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind is a look at the final battle from another view. It follows a different time’s Sora as he works through the other guardians of light in order to save Kairi and restore her heart. The theme of time travel, which was introduced in Kingdom Hearts in Dream Drop Distance, became a major plot point in the final game as Xehanort calls upon versions of himself across space and time. With that idea in mind, Sora does something similar with the help of Chirithy. The behind the curtain look at how Sora ended up saving everyone also clarifies a lot within Kingdom Hearts 3’s overly convoluted story.P

Re:Mind is like a director’s cut of the final battles you experience in the main game. But despite most of the time fighting the same Organization members, there is a key difference, now you can fight as Keyblade wielders other than Sora. From Riku, to Aqua, to Roxas, and later the entire cast of Keybladers fighting for the light, Re:Mind mixes up the classic Kingdom Hearts formula putting you in the shoes of a completely new but beloved character. While there is a small segment in Kingdom Hearts 3 where you fight as Riku, it is not nearly as intense of a boss fight as here. I always made the choice to fight as someone other than Sora and while it was a harder boss fight because of it, it was still incredibly cool and brought back a sense of nostalgia. Fighting with Roxas once again was an amazing feeling and seeing his team-up attack with Axel and Xion was equally as notable. The best part about the Re:Mind story is seeing all of these characters interact again. Some of the small dialogue between Roxas and Ventus during a battle featuring all the guardians of light, minus Sora and Kairi, was very clever.

But as great of an ending as Re:Mind is, it is only about four hours in total. Additionally, playing on standard mode I had no problems with the boss battles. When playing as Sora, the battles were laughably easy. To clarify, my Sora is level 99 and while I do have the Ultima Weapon, I was using the Oathkeeper which is given to you at the start of the DLC. I also upgraded my Oathkeeper at the Keyblade forge so it was the strongest it could be. Still, I wanted the story mode to pose more of a challenge. The only time the story did pose a challenge was during the battle featuring all the guardians of light, minus Sora and Kairi. However, this is not due to the boss itself but because the gameplay became reliant on quick-time events. Nearly the entirety of the boss fight is made up of quick-time events. The epic moment is definitely hindered by the choice to utilize quick-time events or only offer players the chance to dodge or attack at key moments over Kingdom Hearts beloved combat.

Following Re:Mind, the Limitcut episode focuses on Riku after Sora’s disappearance from Destiny Island at the end of the game. After learning there are still no clues about Sora’s disappearance even a year after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, Riku travels to Radiant Garden to speak with Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and Cyd in hopes that the data they have collected has more answers. After a few cut scenes and a short period where you can speak to the Final Fantasy characters as Riku, you enter Cyd’s computer and play as a reconstructed Sora. Plot-wise, this is explained to be data Cyd compiled and is working through in order to gain access to the Organization’s file and the other Twilight Town.

However, this is where you can fight the 13 new bosses. As Sora, you can take on some of the Organization members as well as a few newer faces. The boss battles are incredibly tough and bring back memories of trying to defeat Sephiroth over and over again in the original Kingdom Hearts. That being said, these are all boss fights we have seen before either in Kingdom Hearts 3 or in other Kingdom Hearts games. Additionally, these boss fights don’t provide much additional story. The most of you see of Riku or the Final Fantasy characters is about as much as what we saw in the Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind trailer. The plot of the Limitcut episode is more or less built into explaining why the arena of boss fights exists.

Also featured in the Limitcut episode is Data Greeting. Data Greeting is an updated photo mode that allows players to make customized pictures featuring multiple characters, items, poses, and more. Players can create these photos on various backgrounds and then create slideshows. Each photo can have up to a total of 50 characters and items on each image. This feature, while fun is not exactly a selling point for the DLC.

I liked Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind. The retelling of the final battle made the ending of the game that much more emotional for me but the issue I have with the DLC is that is not worth the $30 price point. Completing the story and four of the 13 boss fights granted me a total of five hours of content. This compared to the 80 hours I put into Kingdom Hearts 3, a $60 game, just doesn’t seem to add up. If this DLC was $15 or $20 I would recommend it wholeheartedly but because it is such a steep price for so little story, I can’t. However, if you are a die-hard Kingdom Hearts fan, like me, this may still be worth the investment but if you are short on funds the DLC is mostly cut scenes so a YouTube playthrough might grant you just as rewarding of an experience.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind is available now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One now.