Underrated Kingdom Hearts DS Game Gets Unofficial Remaster

Highlights

• Underrated Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days gets an impressive unofficial PC remaster.
• Melon Mix project led by vitor251093 turns 358/2 Days into playable PC game with improved controls, resembling mainline Kingdom Hearts.
• Original DS spin-offs are not playable in the HD collections and were instead replaced with movies.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, an underrated Nintendo DS entry in the long-running Square Enix RPG series, gets an impressive unofficial remaster on PC. The original Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days acted as an interquel that connected the first Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 2 together, with the game being told from the perspective of Organization 13 member Roxas. The game was first released in 2009 as an exclusive on the Nintendo DS. While 358/2 Days was received positively on launch, it was criticized for a number of reasons, with most of them focused on the gameplay and the DS’ limited controls.

Despite all the Kingdom Hearts games getting HD remasters and re-releases through the Remix collections, the DS spin-offs are notably not playable in the collections. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded were redone as three hour HD cinematic movies, cutting out the gameplay entirely. Some fans argue the emotional impact of 358/2 Days is lost when presented as a collection of cutscenes instead of a game. Now thanks to the efforts of dedicated fans, gamers can play an unofficial PC port of 358/2 Days.

This project is known as Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – Melon Mix, led by vitor251093. Melon Mix aims to turn the original 358/2 Days into a playable PC game, with a single screen and controls that are compatible with a more standard controller. It uses a modified version of the melonDS emulator, bringing almost every single UI element that was on the DS’ bottom screen into something more akin to Kingdom Hearts 2, such as the mini-map now in the top-right corner. Some of the gameplay of this ambitious project was shared by YouTuber TheGamersJoint.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Melon Mix – An Unofficial PC Remaster

The controls of 358/2 Days have been greatly improved thanks to the Melon Mix version. The camera can be controlled using the right analog stick instead of the Nintendo DS’ touch screen or shoulder buttons, and the command menu can be cycled through using the D-pad instead of the X-button. These changes make 358/2 Days play more like the mainline console Kingdom Hearts games.

The GitHub page for 358/2 Days Melon Mix details everything players need to know in order to install the emulator and run the game properly, even on Steam Deck. Some fans are hoping that Kingdom Hearts Re:coded could also get reworked for a single screen like Melon Mix. For now, many fans have declared this to be the definitive way to play the underrated Square Enix DS game, and praised vitor for their work in making 358/2 Days playable in this way.