I’m going to preface this by saying that I know this is going to come off as condescending. If it sounds like I’m talking down to you, my apologies but I’m writing this in a hurry.

Alright, here we go.

SSDs (and SSHDs) should not be banned. To be clear, I’m not speaking purely for 0.2 but for every current and upcoming PS4 Kingdom Hearts game. Buying different (but accepted) hardware/software has been an accepted action for this community in the past. Want the fastest PS3 time? Super Slim. Fastest PSP time? 3000 series. Fastest 2FM HD time? Japanese version. Now yes, some of these are different categories but none of them were banned. The one major exception being a backwards compatible PS3 for KH2 because of its limited availability, and, last I checked, SSDs aren’t exactly hard to find. So based on past rulings alone, it sets a pretty clear precedent.

However, I understand precedent alone isn’t everything. So let’s look at the big picture – what action has the biggest pros and cons for the majority of the player base, whether it’s someone already running or planning to run a PS4 game, or someone who doesn’t even know about the series yet? If you limit the options, you limit the player base, simple as that. If we only allow HDD then what happens when someone, who has had an SSD in their PS4 since 2014, wants to join in on the fun? Time to go buy a new HDD for their PS4. But if HDD, SSHD, and SSDs alike are all allowed then absolutely anyone, no matter the console or drive, can participate in running these games. So as far as I can see, if the major focus is on the idea of just participating in the community and running these games, not banning is the better choice.

But what if you want to be competitive? Well, if you care about being competitive in a hobby then you better be ready to pay for it. Someone who is interested in advancing in photography buys a better camera. Someone who enjoys cooking buys better utensils. You want the best time in a video game? You buy the best hardware. Paying money for the best results is something you do in a hobby. If you don’t want to spend money, you stay at your current level. And let’s be honest here, an SSD is far from the most expensive hardware for this hobby. A majority of capture cards, let alone consoles themselves, have much higher costs than a simple SSD. And for those of you who don’t follow prices (and I’m going to assume it’s a decent number based off my personal experience with people), here’s a 250GB SATA 3 SSD on Newegg for $65. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA65C52H2175 This is roughly the same cost as importing the JP version of KH2.5 and easily accommodates someone wishing to use an SSD. But what if you want a drive more than 250GB? Well first, 250GB is more than enough space for a KH game so it’s for other reasons and shouldn’t be a factor. But, I’ll humor it. Here’s a 500GB SSHD http://a.co/jePptEi It’s the same size as the original stock PS4 hard drive and still costs under $50. And yes, an SSHD is slower than an SSD, albeit faster than the stock hard drive, but you get what you pay for.

This community hasn’t been afraid of allowing different hardware in the past, even when it was more expensive, there’s no reason for it to end now.

Edit: For clarity's sake, I've updated my post to reflect the size requirement for an SSD (120GB -> 250GB courtesy of Sly.)

TLDR: Banning SSDs has no positive impact for people who just want to participate for enjoyment. If you care about a hobby enough to be competitive, you should be ready to invest in it.