Kingdom Hearts, an hunger for JRPGs and the future of SSX

Into the world of Kingdom Hearts.

Well dear reader, I have ventured forth into the world of Kingdom Hearts. It's not my first time, having first attempted to play this charming Disney/Square Enix RPG back on the PS2. But unfortunately due to my Playstation 2 console crapping out and the invasion of both the Xbox 360 and PS3, Kingdom Hearts took to the backburner and I've forever felt bad about that. A sequel and many many spin-offs later, I'm finally getting a chance to experience it fully with Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix on the PS3. Now I'll most probably write my thoughts on the game in greater detail at a later date and I'm only about sixteen or so hours in, but I'm happy to say my experience has been a mostly positive one, despite some clear indications that 'Hey, this came out two generations ago and it shows' slapping you in the face.

For the most part the HD upgrade is a solid one, though considering the original Kingdom Hearts at to be rebuilt entirely from the grown up for this HD release, one as to give credit to Square Enix (the original data was lost entirely). With that in mind I'm most certainly having fun now that I've gotten past the almost painfully slow start. There is a real charm and joy in seeing Sora and other Final Fantasy figureheads mix it with many of Disney's most famous characters, call be easily charmed but as a kid I was a sucker for Disney movies, the likes of The Lion King, Aladdin and the Aristocats were on constant view in my household. I don't quite have the fondness for all things Final Fantasy, except for maybe Final Fantasy 9 and 10. That said, even I can appreciate a brooding evil looking Cloud now and again.

We mustn't forget that the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix package includes Re:chain of Memories and the bizarrely named 358/2 Days. Yes one of those is a nearly three hour long movie but I'm intrigued to see how Re:chain of Memories turns out with it's card battle system. But however you look at it, with Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix hitting sometime this year and Kingdom Hearts 3 coming to PS4/Xbox One, there is no better time then now to jump aboard the Kingdom Hearts train to see what all the fuss is about. I'm eager to find out myself.

A sudden hunger for JRPG's/RPG's.

On the subject of role playing games, I have of late had a sudden urge to play some other less well known RPG's. Why? I'm honestly not sure but there's a hunger to discover other titles that might surprise me. When I think back to these past few years, I've played it pretty safe when choosing the games I've wanted to play. But then I think back to the likes of Eternal Sonata and remember how that was simply a rushed purchase, with no knowledge of what the heck the game was about… well except that it was awfully pretty. Thankfully I had a blast with Eternal Sonata, even putting it as one of my games of the year, in fact I'm eager to check out the more recently released PS3 version. I'm forever thankful to Eternal Sonata for introducing me to the music of Chopin to, not bad for a game I bought on the whim.

I've been searching into the back catalogs of Xbox 360 and PS3 games to see if there were any other gems I might have missed. There were a fair share of RPG's released on both systems and I'm eager to learn more about a few. I will admit that I've decided to jump back into Final Fantasy 13 and Final Fantasy 13-2 with Lightning Returns hitting store shelves soon, I don't know but while I can appreciate how flawed FF13 was, I certainly didn't hate my time with it either and I think it deserves a second chance. With that in mind, I'd really appreciate if any of you dear readers have any recommendations for me worthy of checking out. I've looked at a few that might scratch my itch including Star Ocean: The Last Hope International and Tales of Xillia, to name just two.

The future of SSX, if it even as one?

To wraps things up I want to talk SSX or more specifically the future of the franchise. Now I loved the most recent SSX release, despite it's new direction which I felt didn't always serve the game in the right areas. But I worry we won't see another SSX game anytime soon, I hope I'm wrong of course but EA are in such a strange place right now and other than being the number one most hated game publisher/developer in existence right now, their future is one clouded in confusion and a lack of direction. So what of SSX? Well sadly I found it difficult to find any concrete evidences that SSX is part of EA's future, but maybe I've been looking in the wrong places. It's a shame to because SSX is one of the those franchises I'd describe in three simple words, bloody good fun!

I think I might have spoken about my wish for a return to the more SSX Tricky like SSX game in the future. The likes of the Mount Eddie DLC showed just how much fun that theme park like setting can be and in my personal opinion there were one to many dull courses scattered throughout SSX that weren't much fun to play. Hell, I'd even love to see some sort of SSX Tricky remix for newer consoles, I think that would be pretty damn awesome. What will be get? Only the future knows but I hope with all my heart we haven't seen the last of SSX. Deep down though, I worry the franchise isn't at the forefront of EA's plans. They have bigger issues to worry about to maybe, like all those angry Battlefield 4 players. Whatever they decide to do, we can only hope we haven't see the last of the SSX crew.

Thanks for reading folks, oh and don't forget to forward any JRPG/RPG recommendations that might be worth me checking out in the comments below. I'd greatly appreciate it.