Square Enix has released an update for the Kingdom Hearts Cloud Versions currently available on Nintendo Switch. All three of the collections, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts III + Remind are now on version 1.0.3 following this update. Not much has been added to the games, aside from a few minor changes that are designed to improve the experience while streaming them on your Switch.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue will now display the server congestion status prior to launching the game. This isn’t anything to be excited about, as it will simply allow you to get an insight into the server population before you start streaming the game of choice. Kingdom Hearts III, on the other hand, has also received this congestion status update, in addition to “performance” and “graphics” modes.
It seems like presenting players with these options has become an expectation on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and certain cloud-based games on Nintendo Switch are following this practice. However, Square Enix received some level of backlash for the Kingdom Hearts series on Switch, as the majority of the games were originally released on less powerful hardware, such as the PlayStation 2.
In April, Square Enix officially announced Kingdom Hearts IV during the franchise’s 20th anniversary live-stream. The next installment is a direct follow-up to the 10th main-line entry in the series, Kingdom Hearts III, though technically it also follows on from the 11th game, Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory. If you’re familiar with the Kingdom Hearts franchise, then you are probably aware of the overly complex lore and abundance of canonical “spin-off” games.