Kingdom Hearts fans know the cross-platform series is expansive, making it challenging for newcomers to experience the complete story. In 2017, Square Enix smartly bundled the series into the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix for PlayStation 4 (and later, another collection called The Story So Far), which included all of the games from the first Kingdom Hearts up to Dream Drop Distance.
Excluding Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Re: Coded, all of the games were remastered, fully playable experiences featuring new cutscenes, boss fights, and much more. Instead of remaking the two DS game releases, however, Square Enix converted 358/2 Days and Re: Coded into three-hour long “movies” using the cutscenes from the games and creating new ones to fill in the gaps. While this worked to make the dreadful Re: Coded slightly more digestible, this hampered the impact of 358/2 Days.
358/2 Days focuses on Sora’s Nobody, Roxas, during his time in Organization XIII, and his friendships with Axel and Xion. The title of the game “358/2 Days” is a nod to the almost full year that he and his friend, Xion, spend together, forging friendships and discovering their identities.
Players spend that time playing as Roxas as he goes on missions to support the Organization’s goals. On some missions, he’s paired up with other members of the Organization, while he’s alone on others. Very early on, he and his friends decide to end their work days with trips to the Twilight Town clocktower for ice cream.
In between missions, players can equip Roxas with new equipment and abilities using a “Tetris-style” mechanic called the Panel System. Unique to 358/2 Days, players equip their Keyblade, new levels, magic, and other abilities such as Dodge Roll into the slots. The Panel System in this game is among one of my favorites because it enables the player to be creative with their equipment and items in a very open-ended way.
Many may argue the game’s mission structure is monotonous, but I would go so far as to say that it is intentional. Roxas’ “work-life” is structured tedium, so he gets joy out of his day by spending time with Axel and Xion. It establishes their strong bond very effectively, making it so that the latter half of the game’s twists and turns, and strained friendships, resonates with the player.
The 26 hours you spend with these characters throughout the game makes the final boss fights incredibly emotional. Fighting Xion in the epic, multi-phase fight is painful, not just for Roxas, but for the player, and it makes her subsequent “death” so powerful and heartbreaking. It also recontextualizes Roxas’ battle with Riku in The World That Never Was as well, making it one of my favorite moments in the franchise.
But because the “movie” version is only three hours long, many of the scenes of Roxas, Axel, and Xion becoming friends and spending time together is cut. It takes away the impact of the ending because you don’t get to see the start and end of their journey so closely as you do when you play the game.
When I talk to fans who didn’t play the game but watched the cutscenes, they don’t have the same level of investment in Roxas’ story or Xion’s sacrifice, and it’s such a shame. Their journey is important to the Kingdom Hearts series, adding yet another layer of tragedy to Kingdom Hearts II‘s prologue and making the payoff in Kingdom Hearts III so satisfying.
For all of these reasons, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days deserved a proper remake. Without it, the only way to experience the original game is on the Nintendo DS or Nintendo 3DS with backwards compatibility. Combine that with the fact that the game’s creative Panels System was tragically never incorporated into another Kingdom Hearts game, and you have an impactful and unique entry with incredibly fun gameplay mechanics that feels left behind when it shouldn’t be.
Featured Image: Square Enix
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