The complete Kingdom Hearts series—if such a thing actually exists—hit Nintendo Switch on February 10, though not in an official capacity. The version that’s available on the console-handheld hybrid is a cloud port, meaning you stream Square Enix’s RPG over the internet. Such ports are becoming increasingly common for the Switch thanks to its hardware limitations, but as you might’ve guessed, this one isn’t good. It’s so not good, in fact, that fans all over the internet are begging—no, imploring that you do not buy Kingdom Hearts on Switch.
Nintendo initially announced that Kingdom Hearts would be making its way to Switch last October. Square Enix followed this news up with the series’ release date this past January, saying all three games—Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind—would be playable via the cloud. It was exciting news for any fan of Sora and the gang’s adventures, and the ability to take these stories with you on the go should be a definite plus. But cloud ports are awful on the platform, generally speaking.
That’s been the sentiment ever since previews dropped in January. And now that the Kingdom Hearts series is out, fans across the internet agree that the cloud versions aren’t the way you should experience this iconic series.
Twitter is lit ablaze with various complaints about the cloud versions of the Kingdom Hearts series. Some folks are blunt, straight-up telling you to not buy the games on Switch. Others are sharing hilarious videos of the game, which makes it look more like a stop-motion AMV than a playable game. Even loyal Kingdom Hearts fan HMK, who spoke to Kotaku in October about Sora joining Smash Bros. Ultimate, said in a YouTube video last week that Kingdom Hearts shouldn’t have been ported to Switch via the cloud.
As HMK demonstrates in the above video, the game runs like garbage. It appears choppy and laggy, and players have reported tons of latency issues. But what’s worse than a barely playable game? One that isn’t playable at all. Some users have shared stories of start-up problems, with all three Kingdom Hearts games apparently crashing after the title screen.
It might be tempting to pick up the Kingdom Hearts series on Nintendo Switch, particularly if you want to travel with Sora in your pocket. But it appears that these cloud ports ain’t it. And for some $90 for what amounts to inferior versions of all three games, you’re probably better off just buying the $100 All-In-One Package from the PlayStation store. At least that way, you’ll know you’re getting an actual download that should run smoother.
Kotaku has reached out to Square Enix for comment.