yeah pissed about this. I understand the difficulty, time needed, and their desire to develop KH3 but this is the biggest letdown to KH 2.5 HD and I am as angry at this as I was when I had to replay Gummi Ships in KH 1.5 HD

That was really disappointing, I think they could have asked a lot of better questions as well but whatever I guess

Lol, wooooow.

Really disappointed, Square. I get they have a lot of stuff to focus on, but multiplayer would have been so much fun. At least there's local...

I understand there is too much effort in maintaining a network infrastructurefor a title that you can consider as a "spin off".
However with 4 full runs to do (kh 2, bbs terra, ven, aqua) and FF Type0 HD i will not have time to play online!

I never used the Arena online mode, so I'm not too concerned about it. I'm kinda excited about multiplayer arena though, especially the command board (my favorite mini game out of all the KH games) so its not a bad tradeoff for me. Did they specify though if it was multiplayer through other sets of PS3's or if you could use four (or six? i know the ps3 can use up to 7 simultaneously) controllers on the same console

I'm quite disappointed, although, I can probably get over it if they tweak the AI so that's it's more oriented for single-player, and if the difficulty is pumped up a bit.

Also, it's worth noting that Yasue-san said there will be 'challenges' for all of the bosses/trials, which net extra medals upon completion, so there's that too.

And when it comes down to it, if it took that much work to implement (servers, upkeep, etc.) that it would've have interrupted or slowed the momentum for KH3's development, I'm happy with the decision they made. Mirage Arena isn't THAT extensive to begin with; it's maybe 3-4 of playtime per character.

Did anyone notice that they added a small DDD segment at the end of the 2.5 trailer? Hmmm, I wonder why they did that.

Good bye my friends, for we shall never battle each other~~~

Ι can live without this althoutghout it would have been awesome. What made me angry is that they gave 1 plus hours fot FFXIV and only 30' for 2.5 Remix. We didn't learn about trophies, or collector's edition etc. Also I'm very curious if they added the capes in arena now that they won't have frame rate issues.

Oh, I guess I never noticed that. Thanks for clarifying.

Not really that upset about this. More upset that it sounds like the BBS music was not remixed. He said since it was on the psp they were under constraints when it came to remixing the music....which in my head means they didn't do it :(

BBS music was already orchestrated and it already has a modern sound(Listen to CD/FLAC version of BBS music you will hear stuff that you couldn't on the PSP). Yoko probably didn't feel a need to redo the tracks. But you maybe surprised Yoko has her interview tomorrow.

But you have to remember she had to re-orchestrate 90 tracks from KH2 that's a lot of work

I'm really sad about the lack of multiplayer, but at least Mirage Arena is still there. At least they acknowledged that the time for that could be put into KH3, and not have another "BbS delayed because of Re:CoM" situation. I hope KH3 has it's own Mirage Arena to make up for it.

At least I'l finally get to beat up Monstro.

I'm going to amend my statement and say I'm not pissed but I am disappointed. To have an underwhelming multiplayer in the original and not enhance it for a ps3 port seems.....well like they just shouldn't have tried to add in the original because while it's not the be all and end all people expect it. I will still thoroughly enjoy MA and for me the best part of 2.5 is FM2 anyways but it is a letdown overall and it had lots of potential for some co-op/multiplayer fun

I'm just going to be honest, this is a really huge disappointment and I feel like they are missing a lot by excluding online play for Mirage Arena. This could have been an opportunity to test the waters for online play in KH3 as well as extending the "life" of the game, but... oh well...

I'm crossing my fingers that whatever tweaks they made to the single player mode makes up for the opportunity cost.

I was a little disappointed, but the more time that goes into KH3, the better! I completely understand why they left it off. But I am going to hope for some online multiplayer in KH3 or in a future game lulz.

I'm sad there won't be online for BBS, but hopefully we will see some sort of online play in KH3. At least they had a legitimate reason to exclude it though, we've been waiting for KH3 for a long time.

I only played Mirage Arena alone, but that's because I never knew anyone else with BbS. I'm really disappointed that I'll never get that chance, now. I Would have been okay with KH3 taking a little longer since It would have given me more to enjoy of 2.5.

I'm in the minority I suppose because I honestly don't care about the decision. Mirage Arena's multiplayer was never a big interest to me.

Let's be honest though. Speed up production of, and commit more time and resources to, KH3? Or create online multiplayer for an old game that, while probably would be loved by the hardcore fanbase, most likely wouldn't have received enough positive feedback nor consistent participation to warrant its development and would almost immediately be overshadowed by KH3's release in the future?

It would have been cool for sure, but I feel like the online wouldn't have been that special. I'm glad they instead decided to tweak the single player aspect of it, and focus on the development of KH3.

It's unfortunate, butI won't miss it. I never played MP in Mirage Arena.

I wonder if the Friendship Commands remain.

I'm actually in the same boat as Sign. Square's experience with online play is limited (unless they bring in a team from Eidos). If they have any plans to include online play in KH3 - though who can say - this would have been the ideal time to make mistakes and build a framework to expand on later. But if they have no such plans, I'm disappointed but okay with it.

EDIT: I imagine Friendship commands will return, because there's been no implication that LOCAL multiplayer will not make an appearance, in fact the OP seems to imply that it will.

The lack of multi-player really bums me out. I was hoping to be able to play in the Mirage Arena with everyone.

Talking about missed opportunities.

I confess I never really liked most of BBS's mini games, I think they are often tedious but with a real online multiplayer mode there would have been at least more meaning to it. Also we probably won't see KHIII released in the next two years (maybe even more) so a bit tweaking for the only KH title in the mean time would've been a great idea.

Can't say that I am really surprised they didn't expand on that.
KH was never that big on Multiplayer anyways and I personally do not think that there is actually something substantial lost by discarding the whole Multiplayer aspect as a whole.

I'm looking forward to these additional challenges.
Bonus points if they would actually include Laguna Loire as a warden of the Arena as was originally planned and have him hand you out the extra stuff, but that's of course more wishful thinking than anything.

At what Shard mentioned, I'm really just annoyed at how they mentioned, in E3 last year that KH3 was announced a bit too early, so why not increase the longevity of 2.5 HD ReMIX by adding multiplayer? Not only that, but I had the mindset burned into my brain that 2.5 HD ReMIX WILL have online, no matter what. It really upsets me, but nevertheless, I'll probably still enjoy it.

Would've been fun to do, but since I never had any friends to play it on the PSP with and my home connection isn't exactly great, I don't miss it.

After all, if you're creative you can just host an arena on your own right? Like set up the challenges and all and the one with the best time wins.

As for the boardgame... would've been better. But maybe they'd implement a part in the Boardgame that you can play vs yourself, so you can play local with friends, just through the same controller.

The problem with these comparisons is that Kingdom Hearts' multiplayer was actually fun, and the content, at least in Bbs, was intended to be done by numerous players, but I'm guessing they're tweaking that to make it easier to single-player all content.

The problem with this argumentation is that the Mirage Arena was all about multiplayer, it was the whole reason it existed in the first place and the whole reason why there are so many multiplayer modes available in BBS (Command Board, Rumble Racing, Arena Mode and let's not forget Versus Mode). There are even commands that were created soley for this purpose.

Sure you can play most of it alone and you can also say it's tacked on, but still it was a lot of fun. Seeing it go this way doesn't feel right, especially since it's in no way connected to the story.

Can't say I'm disappointed because I was expecting this to happen. It would've been a fun extra, but alas. It's good that they're adding something extra instead of that, though.

Maybe MA will be a fully functional multiplayer area in KHIII.

I am a little bummed. I wanted to play with you guys on the PS3, but there's always ad-hoc on the PSP, I guess.

It's not that we should have expected it, but we all see the potential for greatness KH could have being multiplayer, it's overarching theme being the power of friendship. Since 358/2 Days, each installment was fringed with minor multiplayer elements. If not with KHIII, then hopefully the next saga will implement grander multiplayer opportunities.

& this is why I said it'd be better to ask for splitscreen than online. Now we get neither.

Well tournaments on here would've been great, on another note I wouldn't have anyone to play against anyway.

But this begs the question, maybe they'll include something along the lines on the Mirage Arena in Kingdom Hearts III. If that's the case I'd be more than willing to wait. They know we want it, they'd be silly to not include something like that in

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of online mode in KH3, in fact, I expect to see one. I'm kind of disappointing that KH2.5 won't have it but at the same time I can understand them. I'm pretty sure they knew that people would be disappointed which is why you could tell he was nervous when he announced that. At least they tried to make it up with some tweaking and improvements to the single player side of MA.

I can live without online mode. I never have anyone around to play that way even in the PSP version of BBS. I do however, look forward to the multi-player factor. Now I just need a PS3 so I can finish 1.5, then I'll worry about 2.5.

I can live without it. If anything, I'm more interested in the new prizes and rewards they mentioned. I hope this translates into new Keyblades (too wishful?) or commands, seeing as the original multiplayer-oriented commands are now unneccessary

^ New keyblades would be cool~

If so, I hope there's another new Keyblade that looks cooler than Crown Unlimit. I find that that keyblade lookes a bit weird, and yet it's more powerful than the Ultima Weapon in BBSFM.

Can't say I'm upset. I was never really into playing with others online since I usually run into unpleasant individuals. I'm not saying it's everyone. But it's those few who ruin it for me.

Would have been swell if that was actually the case!

I'm not too disappointed. I only played BBS with one other person once so I didn't get into it that much. Is there still local multiplayer though? I realized I could play with my cousin and nephew (especially the command board since they love games like that).

For me the only way SE can make up for this is by putting some good multiplayer in KH3 or after KH3 make a Kingdom Hearts action mmorpg taking place during the Keyblade War.

They said they didn't want to delay KH3 any further but at this point, I feel like we've been waiting so long for KH3 that it won't hurt to tack on another 3-6 months or however long it would have taken to include multiplayer in Mirage Arena. It would have been worth it to have a good online multiplayer game to keep us busy while waiting for the next game.

I somehow missed this last week, and first panicked because I didn't read the word "online" and thought it would've been nixed. Anywhoo: I understand why and if it's to speed up III I welcome it, but I'm still a bit dissapointed. I was never able to play Mirage Arena with somebody else, so I was looking forward to the possibility.

That'd be amazing but development would be, for lack of better words, a bitch.

A game of that stature would require a very large and dedicated global team to maintain the quality of the game and continue pumping out new content for long periods of time.

Well, there goes my only reason for replaying Birth by Sleep.

You're missing out :c

Nah, I really didn't like BbS. And I already beat FM on PSP. Maybe if they announce some other new additions like abilities or something like they did in 1.5, I might give it a play though. KH2FM is still more than enough of a reason to purchase this though, in my opinion.

It doesn't seem to be more difficult... it plainly is more difficult. I believe starting from level 40, the EXP required per level is just too much, and even the high-tier Unversed in the Keyblade Graveyard give out very little EXP proportion.

I remember that time leaving my PSP on overnight while having a rubber band strapped on the analog stick (to make the character run in circles) with the EXP Walker ability triggered. That might be the most time-efficient method to level up. :P

I don't know, I found it much more tedious more than hard. It was actually really easy, just repetitive. For Ventus and Aqua, it was a simple as going to the KG and utilizing Mickey's Double XP D-Link, and for Terra I had a command deck that made each fight over in seconds, so I never really found it that hard, just repetitive

i never bothered grinding in BBS,i prefer to retry the secret bosses a thousand times rather than grinding honestly.

Can we just not have any level-based trophies? Because, y'know, I never got TAV past lvl 60 (which was hell, let me tell you) because it was pointless to do so unless you REALLY wanted the stat boosts (which, again, were not worth it).

Honestly I hope they did some rebalancing for leveling because nobody is going to max stat TAV without a little rubberbanding their controllers.

Used to play mirage arena on BBS for PSP and now knowing it won't be in HD 2.5 Remix im a little disappointed but at least we'll have more challenging enemies to face both old and new.

Understandable, given the time constraints, tbh.

To be honest, I never knew you could play with people until I watched the interview! XD So I guess its not a complete loss for me. I was too wrapped up in the story to care. There won't be any multiplayer but there will still be plenty of heartless to fight. I can't wait to actually try it out...m-maybe I should now. (Runs to play BBS on PSP.) XD

Honestly I never lived in an area that had good wifi to play with others when I owned BBS so the mirage arena was kinda pointless... but I did love the Disney town races!

Yes Nomura has said at it is now single player and they tweaked it so that you can enjoy it better with I think new missions? Not totally sure but that is what I have heard.

I wish that it really wasn't single player. They could've thrown in local play with the split screens. I don't know how that would've worked but that would be a pretty cool idea.

Perhaps if many people want a kingdom hearts game to have multiplayer then they should make a KH game that is exclusively for that purpose. I could see a version of dissidia with a bunch of kingdom hearts characters working out well.

The existing Dissidia was originally planned as a KH game actually, but Disney didn't want their characters to simply beat each other up, so the idea was shelved and Dissidia became a Final Fantasy Title instead.

Unless Disney changes their mind I highly doubt there will ever be something like it.

Sooner than that we might get some Kingdom Karts, a Mario-Kart-esque racing game or a bigger Command-board style spin-off game if at all, lol.

Kingdom Karts? Actually that's not the first time I've heard of this idea. I couldn't imagine it! XD Although if it did happen, I would do into a daze for weeks! XD

I heard something like this was actually happening for final fantasy...

Fine by me. I never used that feature of the game.

I really enjoyed getting to unlock all those abilities with my medals and grind there.
It's a shame that it won't be multiplayer, though. I never even got to PLAY the multiplayer...

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It was obvious BBS wouldnt have Mirage Arena MP. They just need to focus on KH3. Those who played MP on BBS are the chosen ones.

Man, not having it available online is unfortunate... I understand speeding up development though, but it still sucks. I'm glad they're letting it be multiplayer at all though.