The entire Kingdom Hearts series was released on the Epic Games Store on March 30, which means PC gamers can finally experience the wonderfully charming (albeit extremely confusing) saga of Sora and friends. Kingdom Hearts is a hugely popular series, so its release on PC is reason enough to celebrate, but the most exciting part of this news is the fact that Kingdom Hearts PC will likely start receiving mods soon.
Kingdom Hearts is an esteemed series, but there are aspects of the games that could definitely be improved with some help from the community. Beyond that, the series' wacky nature lends itself perfectly to some of the more outlandish mods the PC community will inevitably come up with.
Listed below are some potential mods Kingdom Hearts PC would benefit most from. Every game in the Kingdom Hearts series might now be on PC, but this list focuses solely on the three core games. While some of the spin-offs are solid experiences in their own right, the three numbered entries are widely considered to be the best the series has to offer and will probably be the games receiving the most mods. With all that out of the way, here are the mods the Kingdom Hearts PC community should get to work on immediately.
Potential Kingdom Hearts PC Mods - Make Riku/Kairi Playable
Sora is the face of Kingdom Hearts and is a beloved and iconic character, but that doesn't mean he should be the only playable character in the mainline games. As the tougher, older, and more brooding of the two, Riku has always had a certain coolness factor that Sora's earnest and goofy personality cant quite match. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was one of the odder spin-offs in the series, but one of its best features was giving Riku a fully playable campaign after beating the game with Sora. Now that modding is in the picture, players should be able to experience the best Kingdom Hearts games with Riku rather than Sora.
If Riku gets a playable mod, it only makes sense that Kairi would, too. As the third member of the Destiny Islands group, Kairi is a strong character that has always gotten the short end of the stick when compared to Sora and Riku. Early on, she was mostly just used to propel the plot forward, as Sora spent most of the first game searching for her. Even later, when she became a fully-fledged Keyblade Master herself, she still wasn't given much to do in terms of the story and was mostly regulated to the sidelines. A new mod could finally give Kairi the treatment she deserves and allow her to fight the Heartless on the front lines.
Potential Kingdom Hearts PC Mods - Costumes In All Worlds
Unlike many other RPGs, Kingdom Hearts has never featured customizable or appearance-altering clothing. What it does have, however, are unique appearances for Sora, Donald, and Goofy when visiting certain Disney worlds. Some of the best in the series include the groups' Halloween-themed Nightmare Before Christmas outfits, Monsters Inc. appearances, and toy-like looks from their time spent in Toy Story.
Once the player has seen Sora and the gang in these more visually-interesting outfits, their regular getups seem bland by comparison. The best KH experience would allow players to freely pick Sora and the group's appearances, regardless of which world they were in. With the power of mods at the community's disposal, there's no reason that Sora shouldn't be able to face off against Ansem while looking like something out of Andy's toy chest.
Potential Kingdom Hearts PC Mods - Keyblade Replacements
The Kingdom Hearts Keyblade is an iconic weapon, but why not utilize mods to give Sora some other classic weapons in his fight against the darkness? Sora laying into a group of Heartless with a lightsaber is an undeniably awesome image, but mods could go further, introducing video game weapons like Cloud's Buster Sword or Link's Master Sword. This would not only take the games' battles to a brand new level of cool but also create a lot more replay value.
Potential Kingdom Hearts PC Mods - Cut Some Weaker Areas
For as great as many of Kingdom Hearts' worlds are, there are a few throughout the series many fans consider absolute duds. A mod could cut out some of the weaker worlds from the Kingdom Hearts games. The most glaring example is The Little Mermaid's world of Atlantica. In the original Kingdom Hearts, the area is passable, but the experience is dragged down by frustrating swimming controls and confusing level design. The Atlantica of Kingdom Hearts 2, however, should be cut via modding right off the bat. For some reason, the player's entire time in Atlantica in KH2 consists of little more than a variety of rhythm minigames. This is easily skippable content.
There are a number of less egregious but similar examples sprinkled throughout the series. The Frozen world of Arendelle made its KH debut in Kingdom Hearts 3 and quickly became one of the most disappointing worlds in the series. Sora and the gang's time there is mostly spent running up and down the same mountain, searching for Olaf's missing body parts, and little else. Like many of KH3's worlds, the time spent there does little to progress the overarching story, so a mod omitting it would be a no-brainer.
The Roxas-based opening of Kingdom Hearts 2 has grown more popular over time, and even though it's crucial to the larger Kingdom Hearts lore, much of the gameplay in that section is still tedious and could benefit from some trimming, as well. Kingdom Hearts is known for being a little on the stuffed side, in terms of both story and gameplay, so a mod designed to trim it down just a little would go a long way. This would be an especially useful mod for someone looking to experience the KH saga for the first time but not wanting to spend hours on some of the filler the series is known for.
Potential Kingdom Hearts PC Mods - Feature Mickey Mouse More
As the face of Disney and one of the most iconic characters ever created, Kingdom Hearts' portrayal of Mickey Mouse is great, but he still doesn't get quite enough screen time. He was only given a brief cameo in the first game, and even though his usage ramped up considerably as the series went along, he has never been nearly as essential to the games as Donald and Goofy. As a Keyblade Master himself, Mickey demonstrated that he could slay Heartless with the best of them, and it's time for the modding community to unlock his full potential.
The best-case scenario would be a mod that allows Mickey to be fully playable, because leaping around the room and hacking at hordes of Heartless as Mickey is something all KH players would love to do. However, even a mod that simply allows him to replace Donald or Goofy in Sora's party would suffice. Kingdom Hearts could always use more Mickey, and thanks to the power of mods, that's finally possible.