Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece PC review - The definitive Kingdom Hearts experience

Square Enix's iconic Kingdom Hearts franchise has always been synonymous with consoles until its arrival last year on the Epic Games Store. Featuring all major entries in the series' history, it is the best time to become a Kingdom Hearts fan. Now, more players can enjoy this behemoth of a collection thanks to its launch on Steam.

Is there anything new this time around? Find out with our full review of Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece below.

Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece is the complete Kingdom Hearts collection

Aqua exploring the Realm of Darkness in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 (Image via Square Enix)

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I got a chance to play through the games in the series, and this collection includes three key bundles, comprising 10 unique Kingdom Hearts experiences released over the past two decades.

Kingdom Hearts -1.5+2.5 HD ReMIX-
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts 358/Days (HD Remastered Cinematics)
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts ReCoded (HD Remastered Cinematics)
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD
Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage-
Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover (Movie)
Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind (DLC)

Of course, 358/Days, ReCoded, and X Back Cover aren't playable experiences as the former two are Nintendo DS titles whose cutscenes have been compiled into a movie format for players to grasp their stories. The latter, on the other hand, is a feature movie built in Unreal Engine 4 utilizing the Kingdom Hearts 3 shaders.

Players can play in any order they wish (Image via Square Enix)

Even counting those out—something I don't recommend as all entries are canon—you have over 200 hours of gameplay content. For the uninitiated, Kingdom Hearts is a collaboration between Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Disney's iconic IPs.

Those who haven't dipped their toes into the series may be surprised to see Final Fantasy 7's Aerith mingle with Disney's Donald Duck and Goofy. Although the two media giants have nothing in common, that is where the story comes in.

While the narrative is too complex and convoluted to summarize, the games put players in the shoes of Sora, who is part of the roster of unique heroes crafted for this universe. Alongside friends like Riku and Kairi and other protagonists like Ventus and Aqua, the games revolve around thwarting the Darkness, resulting in the creation of evil forces known as Heartless and the antagonist mastermind Xehanort.

Simple and clean gameplay

One of the earliest bosses in the original Kingdom Hearts (Image via Square Enix)

The fundamental gameplay of Kingdom Hearts is the same across all titles, featuring action-based hack-and-slash combat as players explore levels inspired by Disney IPs such as Wonderland, Neverland, Olympus, and Toy Box (Toy Story). Players will battle shadowy creatures called Heartless using a weapon known as the Keyblade.

With allies like Goofy and Donald often at their side, players met new Disney allies like Cinderella, Aladdin, and even Jack Sparrow. They will overcome various set-pieces, including puzzles and platforming, and battle fan-favorite enemies from Disney's repertoire of villains, like Maleficent, Hades, and Ursula.

Utilizing the Command Deck system, players can access a variety of magic originating from the Final Fantasy universe, like Curaga and Blizzaga. This is governed by a magic system, however, so players must keep their MP in check lest they get overwhelmed by Heartless forces, of which there are many types. Powerful bosses, including other humanoid foes, also await being challenged.

To top it off, each entry introduces something new into the mix. Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance (first released on the Nintendo 3DS) introduced the Flowmotion system that lets players perform high-octane parkour moves across levels. Kingdom Hearts 3 introduces Attractions, which are devastating AOE (area-of-effect) moves inspired by real-life Disney theme-park rides. Chain of Memories boasts overhauled gameplay entirely, utilizing a card deck system.

Each of these games will take at least 20-25 hours to beat for a first playthrough; I also suggest players play the titles in order of release rather than chronology. For example, Birth By Sleep originally launched on the PSP as a prequel to the PS2 original Kingdom Hearts, so it spoils the events of both PS2 entries to an extent.

Lastly, this Steam release of Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece includes the exclusive "Dead of Night" Keyblade for buyers to use in Kingdom Hearts 3 and its Re Mind DLC.

Graphics, performance, and sound

The Attractions in Kingdom Hearts 3 are spectacular to behold (Image via Square Enix)

Square Enix has seemingly improved texture work for this release of the game, so players enjoying Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece at 1440p or higher resolutions should benefit. All games run incredibly well across the board, and it's a joy to experience the marvelous soundtrack at the best possible performance.

The collection was tested on the following specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-12650H
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
Storage: 1 TB

Players can expect older titles to run well over 100-200 FPS, with Kingdom Hearts 1 as an example running at 650 FPS while running at an unlocked frame rate. This does bring us to some technical quirks with the collection. At a fundamental level, each playable game in the collection utilizes separate exe files.

Those picking up Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece on a laptop (or even a desktop with a dual GPU/iGPU setup) may find the collection running poorly due to it utilizing integrated graphics by default. This can be fixed by forcing the exe to utilize the discreet GPU. Another issue that popped up for me was the older titles freezing and crashing when pressing the pause button.

This has to do with Vsync fluctuations since the older games tend to operate at varying thresholds, like 30, 60, and above. Turning off the Refresh Rate option in the Config can fix this; however, it will render the games at an unlocked frame rate. Lastly, the 1.5+2.5 HD collection seems to have an oddly designed UI quip where players need to use a keyboard to enter game settings even when using a controller—a bizarre oversight to say the least.

In conclusion

Each world has something new to offer (Image via Square Enix)

Sans minor road bumps, Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece on PC is a smoothly flowing amalgamation of the series' history in one package. Whether players pick this up for the first time or are double dipping, they cannot go wrong here. For fans who have been anticipating the launch, now is your time.