To help in those efforts, mod production has gone into overdrive. There have been mods swapping models on emulated PS2 copies for years, and native PC ports have opened the doors for so much more to be done. Kingdom Hearts 3, being the last mainline entry with the most stable port, has tons of small patches that add new attacks or smooth out aspects of the game like Improved Movement and Re:Style. While those are worth celebrating, they don’t completely alter the playthroughs in the way some other mods do. The Kingdom Hearts fanbase is as active as ever on all fronts, and the mods they’ve come up with are nothing short of game changing.
RELATED: Kingdom Hearts 4 Should Do Right by Kairi
Kingdom Hearts 3 Multiplayer Mod
One of the best reasons for a casual fan to get KH3’s ReMind DLC is the chance to play as the extended allied cast. Riku, Aqua, Roxas, and Kairi are all playable alongside Sora, but only in certain story segments. Mods can fix this, and they can bring Sora’s other friends along for the ride. However, this doesn’t become remarkable until one sees several players bringing different characters into battle together. The upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3 Multiplayer Mod by Jackmoonward and Luseu comes with a custom character selection menu, multiple new PvP modes, and the expected co-op play with splitscreen and potentially more than two players. As multiplayer is rare in Kingdom Hearts, this is a welcome addition.
KH2FM Vanitas Mod and KH2FM: Project Aqua Mod
Even with large-scale custom characters in development like Xion and Yozora, playing as characters beyond Sora in Kingdom Hearts is nothing new. Mods for that are plentiful thanks to the old PS2 modding scene. It is from that very source that two of the most impressive Kingdom Hearts mods emerged, those being the Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix Vanitas Mod and the KH2FM: Project Aqua Mod. These are both made by Xaddgx Absol Brasse, and offer entirely unique characters with custom allies, Drive Forms, and postgame content to challenge. Project Aqua has not been released yet, and it’s unlikely that either mod will be brought to the PC Kingdom Hearts 2, but they will remain freely available for those with the hardware to run them.
KH2 Garden of Assemblage Randomizer
Next comes one of the most well-known of Kingdom Hearts mods, that being the Garden of Assemblage Randomizer mod. This project was formed by the union of two PS2 KH2FM projects, a randomizer from Valaxor and a fast travel hub made by sonicshadowsilver2 using the room where the Data Organization 13 battles were accessed. The resulting mod became a speedrunning sensation and was successfully ported over to PC KH2. Now, equivalents are being worked on by various modders for Kingdom Hearts 1 and 3. As there are countless run options are available after several years of communal development, Garden of Assemblage will continue to stand as one of the more influential randomizer mods.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Fixed
New ways to play are great, but it’s important that the base experience is the best it can be. TopazTK’s Kingdom Hearts Re:Fixed endeavors to not only bring the PC ports up to par, but enhance them in several ways. Right now, the mod only applies to KH1 Final Mix, KH2 Final Mix, and Birth by Sleep Final Mix, though Re:Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance could receive support in the future. Re:Fixed does not alter the content of the games, but instead ensures that every game will run at a smooth 60 FPS or beyond. Frequent auto-saves with extra slots, dual voice track options, Discord Rich Presence integration and Open Broadcaster Software optimization have all been added. This, combined with a number of other tweaks for each game and a general increase in stability, makes Re:Fixed a must-have mod for anyone doing a PC playthrough of the older Kingdom Hearts titles.
MORE: Kingdom Hearts 4 Should Expand the Franchise’s Party System
