If you thought patches were a thing of the past when it comes to cloud releases, think again. Square Enix has rolled out a "day 1" update for the Nintendo Switch versions of Kingdom Hearts, available via Cloud.
It seems some players have also been reporting issues with the individual games and series' launcher, but it's not clear just yet if this patch addresses any of these problems.
Today we've also launched a day 1 patch. This will fix various bugs which occur whilst playing either the full or demo versions of each Kingdom Hearts game on Nintendo Switch. #KH20th
Many Kingdom Hearts cloud players have also been sharing their own experiences online, and well - it's not working out for everyone:
Other players haven't had any issues playing or launching the game, but have noted how the cloud version could use some work. One stream, in particular, appears to highlight an old glitch that seems to have somehow made a return.
If we hear any developments, we'll let you know. For now, though, tell us if you've tried out the cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 91
So you need to update the game you don’t own?
A day 1 patch? what...?
Get the PS2 / PS3 / PS4 version, guys.
Save your money for actual physical retail than the BS Cloud version.
Let's punish SquareEnix for making this BS.
lol, they can't even get the cloud version of these games running on Switch right.
Happy anniversary, Kingdom Hearts! Square really knows how to make the fans feel appreciated after 20 years of support!
Square should be ashamed of these ports. This has to be the most pathetic Switch release any major studio's ever put out.
I'll be getting the Kingdom Hearts on other platforms (that isn't cloud version), because whatever the reason Square Enix thought it was a good idea to bring this game to Switch as a Cloud game, is beyond me.
Still not buying them! 🙄
Cloud version my ass. Either release the damn game on an actual cartridge or don't put it on switch at all. This is why I will never spend money on a cloud version of any game.
I hope the upkeep costs square more than properly porting the game would
About what I expected. Was bad enough they went with a cloud version, but I was pretty certain Square was gonna botch even that. Pity, I would’ve double dipped on this entire collection just for portability if it ran natively. Even with the crazy Switch tax.
Cloud games and ever online games, for me, are the worst for the gaming in general (and the game preservation), especially, if in any future, if someone wants play these games, very possibly, never will play them because the server doesn't exist anymore or the company...
Unfortunately, there are great games using this way..., sigh
Wut? How can you screw this up? You know literally every single aspect of every piece of hardware used for this. There is literally nothing outside of your control. Also just the idea of a cloud version in the first place is just bad.
Would have loved to finally be able to play these games.. especially on a handheld.. but not paying for:
1) a full retail price game that you do not actually own and will probably not be able to play (as it will have been removed) some time in the future
2) a game on the Switch that is not actually very portable (since you need a constant internet connection), especially if you leave the house
3) a game that some people (including myself) can not play because the internet service is rubbish (keeps dropping out etc.) or costs too much in their local area
4) a game that you will not be able to play if the server is down..
Too many reasons to never buy a “cloud version”.. As far as I am concerned, Kingdom Hearts has still not come to the Switch..
Hopefully Squeenix can work out the bugs and get users up and running.
No kidding, get these games on any other console, got a ps2 or three around, just get the games on there.
Again, three I understand three but there is no reason, whatsoever, that the every other game is cloud based, oh wait, I know why, because there lazy.
So I was honestly kinda interested in this, as I don't own a PlayStation but always wanted to play Kingdom Hearts. We recently upgraded our internet package sometime last year, so when I do a speed test on Google, it now reads as "very good" instead of "poor." Didn't think I would have a problem, and with COVID, I don't often leave the house with my Switch anyways. I downloaded the cloud demos day one, but I was sick with COVID at that time, so I didn't feel up to playing it.
I just tried both demos out for the first time a few minutes ago, and... hoo, boy.
This was my first experience streaming a cloud game, and I couldn't have been more naive about what I was getting myself into Now I understand--the hate is 100% warranted. The games looked like a 360p video at times, and while I didn't really notice any input lag, the frame rate was atrocious. Like, unplayably bad--especially when planning the camera. Unless the first game is infamous for a really slow and choppy camera, but I doubt that. I lost control of my character twice, so Sora just kind of wandered around aimlessly for maybe 6 seconds each time while displaying an obtrusive message in the middle of the screen that my internet wasn't good enough and the game would quit momentarily if it didn't sort itself out soon enough.
I'm assuming if the game has to close, you would just lose all unsaved progress, which would be horrible. And as I understand it, Kingdom Hearts can get incredibly tough, so I'm sure those moments of losing control would be life or death.
This is just inexcusable, and definitely not worth 90 bucks. The music was even better than I expected though, which was really stupid of me since Yoko Shimomura is my favorite game composer. The game definitely felt epic in scale, so I'd still really like to play them someday.
Natively.
Not through streaming.
Do better, Square Enix
@Not_Soos Thats another thing. Some bosses need fast reactions, and input lag is not something you can tolerate.
Absolutely, laughably pathetic.
Not to mention one of the most obscene (and insulting) rip-offs I’ve ever seen in this industry.
@Not_Soos The original Kingdom Hearts is one of my favorite games of all time, and I've played it many times on PS2 and once each for the PS3 and PS4 remasters. Having played this cloud demo, I can tell you the camera is nowhere near as sluggish in the native releases as it is via the cloud port. It completely threw me off while trying out the demo (which I went in knowing would be pretty bad, I was just curious as to exactly how bad it could be). As much as I love the game, I can't recommend playing it on Switch at all. I personally have problems with the PS3/PS4 remasters, but those are still much better experiences than this embarrassing release. For anyone who only sticks with Nintendo platforms, I really hope Square sees the criticisms and comes out with native ports either on the Switch or its successor so you all get a chance to play it as well.
@ReaperMelia Thank you for the much needed clarification. The moment-to-moment combat seemed pretty smooth, but just certain actions like moving the camera were extremely stuttery, which made it difficult to tell. It was definitely a concern for me. Funny how this demo does less to market the game and more so just potentially can put somebody off from the series altogether. Hoping to get a PS5 someday when I can find one in stock and have some money saved up, but even then, I'd vastly prefer to play it on Switch.
Yeah, I don't understand why they decided to be lazy with this. Maybe this was part of the deal to get Sora in Smash and they decided to just opt for cloud versions. Well regardless of reason, it'll be a cold day in hell when I support cloud versions of games. Native port or not at all. Hope Square Enix fixes this issue of it not being Switch native.
You can say what you want about the GTA Trilogy being piss poor.. but at least that's a native port.
@Not_Soos No problem! I will say I personally find the camera controls in the remaster to be kind of weird in general, but that's mostly just because I'm used to how it was handled in the original PS2 release. Most people who first played the remaster have no issue with it there, so playing it via the PS5 should be fine. I definitely understand preferring a Switch release though, I would have loved to have a portable release of the series. I'm just hoping the series will get ported over to Steam soon so I can play them on the Steam Deck once that's out.
Would have bought these games even if they came out Individually as physical copies for £30-£40 each. But since they did the whole cloud thing - not a chance for any of them.
I'm never going to buy a cloud version of any game. Anyone who supports this should really ask themselves if it's worth "renting" the game they won't be able to play once they pull the plug on the servers. Besides, keeping those servers running also means more carbon dioxide emissions. I really am against anything that wasteful and cloud versions are just that.
Well, that's an oof - you'd think devs would stoop to cloud streaming as an alternative to estimatedly imminent issues like this, so when the stream app crashes on top of connection challenges, I'm admittedly reminded of a Russian parody sketch about their national football team. "How the heck did you even lose to literal mannequins? Especially after we bolted them to the ground for you?!"
And while most people tend to cut the notion of KH3 some slack, it was also extra surreal to see all the prior games' cloud versions reprised in the same Direct that announced a full-fledged port of No Man's Sky.😅
Too stupid to program a launcher.
How good is the game behind it? And how long is it online?
Ridiculous. No reason they couldn't have ported it natively (outside of laziness/$$$). I'm sure if sWitcher 3 can run well and look great, a damn PS2 game can. Glad I was never interested in replaying any of these anyway at least.
This is such a shady scam...
There are already several big names in the gaming industry that I thought of as quality brands that have lost my trust for good, Square-Enix is damn close to be the next. I really don't like where the industry is going with in-game advertising, "micro"-transactions, NFT, cloud gaming and paid DLC. Corporate greed, I can think of no other explanation for what has been going on lately.
is it april the first. how can you ffffffffffffffff up a cloud version of an old game
Will wait for a sale. In no panic to play these games.
I'm surprised and disappointed there are players at all.
Originally I had a great difficulty trying to comprehend this; having to patch a game running on a server potentially 1000s of miles away. I am guessing its for the portal / program through which you stream the game that needs the updates.
Still, I’d sooner buy finger puppets and act out the game than pay an access fee for these releases.
@SakuraHaruka
Yeah the whole nature of cloud games is why im not a fan of them even if the tech improves, im fine with having them as an option but not the only option because i like the option to keep games and even digital (outside of certain situations) lets you play games as long as they are on your console, its not perfect but its better than having them vanish completely once they arent supported.
As mentioned in a previous topic its the main reason im not a fan of NSO too because the games are still reliant on an online service in order to access them, its also doubly frustrating since those games are running natively on the switch but you cant buy them.
I tried the demo and the input lag coupled with random stuttering was too much for me. Couldn't imagine paying for this. They should all theoretically run fine on Switch natively anyway.
I'm still baffled that they went so far as to have this series playable on Switch, but went the way of the cloud rather than physical or even digitally a la carte...
I'll concede that 2.8 and 3 would've been a big ask, but there's little reason 1.5+2.5 (and DDD) couldn't have had an option for ownership. I wish we could find out what went through SE's mind with this.
A patch for a link to a website? What the hell? (yes i'm simplifying cloud gaming, but thats all they are)
I hate to see wasted leisure money on a treasured pack. But I hope this fails spectacularly. The 'cloud versions' are insulting. Some port work would have sold millions on Switch, but cloud on the cheap will sell many dozens.
Shouldn't the point of playing a cloud game means you don't have to worry about downloading and updating? Sounds to me like Square is even lazier with the way they stream things.
@Thoughts But what about Cloud games? (FFVII)
If i were standing in a room full of naysayers like myself.... we'd all be laughing and saying "who didn't see this coming?" But wait, there's more! Order by midnight tonight and you too can experience great latency as you cuss your way through the game!
I’m absolutely loving this. I hope this fails so hard the idiot that suggested cloud versions over native ports will be fired or else demoted to entry level. Hopefully Square gets the message everyone has been commenting since this was announced.
How do you crash a game that is not even there? xD Cloud versions (and specially at that price) should stop being a thing.
Said it before but bears repeating, on my 100Mbps connection:
1) Stadia looks and plays great, but really hard to justify the cost of subscription compared to xbox gamepass.
2) xcloud doesn't always look that good (especially when compared to native XSX) but makes a good option to try games before downloading them.
3) Never seen a Switch cloud game that excited me at all. Loses the whole point of portability, and none of the games have the kind of infrastructure behind them that Microsoft of Google can offer.
There will be a bigger future for Cloud, no doubt, and I don't think Stadia will fold anytime soon, but it's not a portable option.
I had the same problem and yesterday night I was able to play it
@blockfight it's on sale right now
@inenai IKR!?! Too funny!
What a disaster.
What a joke... No wait, a joke is funny.
Ok, enough is said here already 😁
I was hopeful to try my first cloud game. I want to play these games because I’ve only played the game boy advance and DS versions. Maybe it’ll get severely discounted in a year.
Ughh..very badly do I want to play these games, but to hell with the cloud.
I really wanted these games on Switch but after this disaster I just refuse to support cloud gaming. I was interested at first but decided to hold off to see how they perform and I'm glad I did. I ended up buying them on PC instead and they run great.
With any luck they'll shut the whole thing down and refund everyone's money by the end of next week.
The only Cloud I should have to worry about is to fight Cloud on Kingdom Hearts 1.
And remember, this is the justification for Sora in Smash, folks.
It must have been so hard to patch a game they didn't even port over lol
I wouldn't say squeenix has lost their talent, but this cloud version is a real insult and I wonder if they just aren't capable of porting this to the switch and I still hope they lose a lot of money on this crap to serve as a lesson.
Honestly, if you paid for this, you deserve all the errors. Inexcusable that these games are cloud exclusive.
@blindsquarel pretty much yeah
I was wondering how games that aren't even running on the system can still crash.
@HammerGalladeBro well Melody of Memory is on Switch, remember that? Before the Kingdom Hearts Trash Editions
Guys don’t buy this. Vote with your wallet. If this had come to google stadia or Xcloud or Amazon Luna then I might consider trying it out but on Switch? Heck no.
I would want them to at least make it a native digital release
I try to give the devs and, to an extent, publishers the benefit of the doubt... but this is inexcusable. How do you screw this up? I could understand KH3+Remind being cloud, but KH1, 2, DDD and BBS have close to zero excuses not to run natively. Two of the games are a PSP and a 3DS game with some updated models and textures. This really should not have been that complicated to port. If Ubisoft can squeeze the Assassin's Creed Ezio Collection (with the Embers short movie) onto the Switch natively, why can't Square Enix with Kingdom Hearts? And yet they still somehow screwed up a cloud release that needed to be patched? Just sad.
Seriously they beed to get rid of the moron running Square right now, he is running it into the ground with all these stupid decisions
KH on Switch Cloud version only
No FF Pixel Remasters on console even though Square themselves said that's where the biggest portion of the FF fanbase is
NFT's
Seriously get this prat out of there before you end up like Konami Square
I'll never understand why KH1 and KH2 needed to be cloud versions.
Removed - inappropriate language
@Bret Because it has Nintendo on the system publishers refuse to spend any money and instead squat and ***** on us.
@SwitchplayerJohn That's not true and you know it. Square Enix has given Switch fans a lot to love this generation. We've gotten Final Fantasys VII-XII with the Switch version of XII being the definitive way to play. They've given us the fantastic Mana and SaGa collections. We've gotten legacy titles with Live A Live, Crono Cross + Radical Dreamers, Legends of Mana and so much more. They even gave us Dragon Quest 11s which had to be completely redone for Switch plus so much extra content and a commitment to bring us Dragon Quest 12. They've given us Tokyo Factory RPGs, plus Bravely Default 2, Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveler. Square Enix has given the Switch the best support they've given a Nintendo console since the SNES.
They even looked into how to bring FFXV to Switch and decided that the Luminus Engine just could not run on it and porting the game to UE4 was just too expensive for just one console. As for FFVII Remake that is a different can of worms same with FFXVI.
The Kingdom Hearts fiasco is probably the worst thing Square Enix has done for Switch fans and the most head-scratching, but don't be disingenuous about them not tossing us a bone at all.
Please stop with the “KH 3 and 2.8 9.5 squared whatever can’t run on the Switch”. We’ve seen time and again “impossible ports” run natively on it (Doom, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein, New Blood, Witcher 3 etc).
Capcom made the ugly choice of making Resident Evil VII Cloud only for Switch, but saved us the hassle of firsthand hating it by keeping it from our shores.
It’s funny how I can retroactively respect Capcom for that decision…
Overall, this news pleases me.
@Wexter I must have missed when S-E made a commitment to bring DQXII to Switch? From my understanding, no platforms have been announced yet.
@Nameless_Shame I may have misread the article. But, either way, my point stands. Anyone who says Square Enix is purposefully trying to spite Nintendo fans really needs a reality check. This is just a really bad misfire on their part and just shows more a company out of touch with the gaming audiences than just Nintendo fans.
@Wexter Very well said.
@Wexter My only real complaint with S-E and their Switch support is the same complaint I have with several other developers: too few western physical releases. Fortunately, there are some options available, and I absolutely love my english Dragon Quest Trilogy, FFVII/VIII, FFIX, and Legend of Mana cases.
Other than that, and the huge misstep with Kingdom Hearts, this is the best support Nintendo’s seen from S-E since the days of the DS.
@Nameless_Shame Indeed I have very similar critiques. Though, can we please get some Deus Ex on Switch? Square Enix? Please!!!!!!
Cloud Patch are you kidding me why needed one when the game is Cloud game only. Wasn't Cloud suppose to eliminate such update. This tells me Cloud is pathetic and worthless to use.
They are putting a band-aide on a sinking ship. The fact that they bothered putting in work to patch in a crappy Cloud port shows those time/resources could have went to an actual port that might have got way more people interested on a 100m+ install base.
Their loss in the end since apparently I get a better KH experience these days from even Xbox.
I'm laughing so hard right now.
@Silly_G Sad but true.
@Arawn93 Not really, the Cloud version still only required a tiny fraction of the budget a real version would need. It's possible that from a business perspective it was still the more profitable decision. Except we are players, not executives, and I wouldn't play the Cloud version even if it was free.
@Troll_Decimator Not really, the Cloud version still only required a tiny fraction of the budget a real version would need. It's possible that from a business perspective it was still the more profitable decision.
Cloud still requires the same amount of programmers to create and support the game. It's the retail side that doesn't require the footprint to sale/market the game. All they need is a online store like eShop to list and sell for MSRP regardless how many years it's been out or old.
@Troll_Decimator what good is a tiny fraction of the budget if you are gonna get a tiny fraction of the revenue compared to normal…? You are ditching a LOT of people to promote a $90 online only crap quality Cloud rental port because they wanted to cut all the corners. The fact that SE is silent on sales for a high profile release on Switch shows it’s not remotely anything to boast about. It probably sold more on Xbox and the Epic store in comparison.
The point was if they bothered to try to “fix” the Cloud port post release [it’s gonna take more then that patch based on impressions] they are gonna quickly realize the time it would take to “fix” it would approach how much it would take to port normally the KH PS2 games anyway.
The only games I want from Square is the Tomb Raider Series ported over to Switch. Don't care about the cloud version's of Kingdom Hearts would rather actually own them instead of just rent them.
@SwitchForce No it doesn't, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about lmao. The Cloud version can probably be setup by a couple of people, no need to have an actual development team.
@Arawn93 Look, I am not defending these, I am not going to buy a single cloud version of anything. I am just saying, compared to the time and effort required for a regular port, this is possibly more profitable pound for pound. It's just a cynical release and nobody should support it.
I feel Square Enix has been making a lot good moves. Kingdom Hearts Cloud is not one of them.
@mowerdude That's how I feel on the Nintendo online overall. I'd rather own Super Mario World again and be portable on the Switch rather than rent it for a year. Especially if I am going to unlock all the levels.
@Troll_Decimator another clueless Troll but what can do when they don't have a clue about software development and support.
@SwitchForce I'm a troll decimator, not a troll, as should be obvious from my user name. Your credentials on game development please.
Its sad that they didnt just port over The Story So Far to the Switch, it shouldn't have been an issue to put it on a cartridge or two. I dont care about KH3 but some of the titles before that would be welcomed
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