Join Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection.

ItвЂ™s a bit of a monkeyвЂ™s paw wish being granted вЂ“ IвЂ™m glad thereвЂ™s something truly challenging in this game now, but IвЂ™d rather it felt like a more natural part of the story. Every Kingdom Hearts has included a tough optional boss or two, and thatвЂ™s totally fine, but including over a dozen new battles that are orders of magnitude more difficult than anything else in the relatively easy Kingdom Hearts 3 makes them a disorienting challenge to tackle. While IвЂ™ve enjoyed the fights now that grinding levels has made them somewhat achievable, they also feel very out of place. But they are not for the faint of heart вЂ“ short of having the Ultima Weapon and/or maxing out SoraвЂ™s level, itвЂ™s not even worth entertaining the idea of these battles, which is never properly communicated in the lead up to them. They are, quite simply, abnormally tough, and itвЂ™s felt pretty rewarding to knock out the ones I have. I did (at level 75), and found the battles so unrelentingly oppressive that I leveled Sora up to the max of 99 in order to feel like I had a fighting chance.Д®ven still, IвЂ™ve only managed to best four of those bosses so far and gotten my butt kicked by each of the others multiple times over. These are some of if not the hardest boss battles in the entire franchise, very clearly intentionally so, and I didnвЂ™t even have a hope of fighting them on normal difficulty below level 90. DonвЂ™t even try these battles if youвЂ™re not at or near the upper limit of SoraвЂ™s strength. Unfortunately, theyвЂ™re relegated to a single cutscene and some additional dialogue options that set up the true meat of this DLC: 13 boss battles based on digitized information of characters Sora has already fought in his quest to acquire information I wonвЂ™t spoil here. Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith have been important parts of past Kingdom Hearts adventures but were absent in 3, so seeing them felt like a sign of great things to come. Hoping the second portion, the вЂњLimit CutвЂќ episode as itвЂ™s labeled, would offer some concrete and fresh character and story moments to satisfy a hunger the year-long wait for this DLC had caused, I was initially thrilled by the inclusion of forgotten Final Fantasy characters.

I kept waiting for something big to happen that would deepen my understanding of them, but it ultimately lead nowhere revelatory вЂ“ even worse, sometimes actually raising more questions than it answers.Д«y the time Re MindвЂ™s more story focused endeavors ended, I was left questioning why I needed to see that retread at all.

While I liked that originally, these new portions add very little to my enjoyment of sequences IвЂ™d essentially seen before. Without spoiling any of the original story (which I quite enjoyed as I mentioned in my original Kingdom Hearts 3 review) or how this new version shifts it, a few new fan service-y moments are introduced into a stretch that already felt like fan service personified. While the DLC starts on a far more interesting note, seemingly set to investigate the tantalizing and lingering mystery of the black box several characters are searching for all throughout KH3вЂ™s main story, it instead pivots to offering essentially a directorвЂ™s cut of Kingdom Hearts 3вЂ™s final hours.ДЄnd it feelsвЂ¦ superfluous. Lasting about four to five hours, most of it cutscenes, Re Mind revisits the end of Kingdom Hearts 3вЂ™s campaign, offering some further insight into character moments and motivations as it fills in the blanks of some of SoraвЂ™s journey.

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