II.5 Remix

Hey gang, got something special for you today! Definitely a game-changer for video editors.

We've updated the Cutscene Archive with new versions of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded scenes. They're direct rips from 1.5/2.5, which means no subtitles. But cooler than that, these scenes have multiple audio tracks: one normal, and one that has sound effects and voices, but no background music! This is a first for us, and I'm sure editors will love it. It's definitely extra work muting the sound in-game then re-adding it manually in Premiere. But I really like the end result.

If you just plan on watching them, I recommend VLC Player since it always defaults to the standard track, whereas other players will sometimes default to the music-less version (though if that happens you can always go to the Audio section of your video player and manually switch it). Unfortunately YouTube doesn't appear to have multi-track audio support (at least for normal users), so these will probably stay download-only for the time being. Here they are, by the way:

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (No Subtitles)(Music Toggle)
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (No Subtitles)(Music Toggle)

Quick note, Re:Coded still has quite a few scenes with baked-in music that I couldn't remove (all ones from the old DS game, and a handful that are new to 2.5). 358/2 Days thankfully only has one scene with this issue (the Xion fight that was absent from the original PS3 release).

In the future I'd like to give this BGM treatment to all the games (perhaps in 4k *hmm*), but that'll take a little while.

Out of nowhere, the Epic Games Store announced that the entire Kingdom Hearts series will be coming to PC on March 30, 2021. This appears to be, at least for now, an exclusive deal to EGS. All games are at their original, full retail price, although Kingdom Hearts III comes with ReMind included at no additional cost. KH3 on PC is also getting its own exclusive Keyblade (re-skin), Elemental Encoder. It's unclear if this is a monochrome Keyblade, or they just haven't revealed the color scheme yet.

In addition to introducing the KH series to a whole new market, this will also open up a lot of possibilities for the modding community.

Do you plan on picking any of these up on PC when they arrive next month?

It's been announced today that Dark Horse Books will publish the first ever Ultimania Kingdom Hearts book in the west, titled 'Kingdom Hearts Ultimania: The Story Before Kingdom Hearts III'. This Ultimania book is based on the 'Kingdom Hearts Series Memorial Ultimania' book released in Japan back in 2014 around the time of the release of 'Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix'. The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon for $44.99.

Hey everyone,
I've been experimenting with some image upscalers, and was able to convert the KH2 opening sequence into 4k! Aside from doubling the resolution, it also adds clarity by smartly sharpening the image and decreasing video artifacts. It took a solid 15 hours for my computer to process all those frames, so I'm not sure if/when I'll do another of these. Software used was Gigapixel AI from Topaz Labs.

Click the image below to see a close-up before/after comparison.


You can view the full opening here:


Or download it here.

Today is a great day for Xbox Kingdom Hearts fans, because for the first time, all non-Mobile KH entries can be experienced on the Xbox One, as all HD collections (1.5, 2.5, and 2.8) are now available to be purchased digitally on the Xbox One! In addition to that, it has been confirmed that 'Kingdom Hearts III' will be available on the Xbox Gamepass starting February 25th.