It’s been four years since the long awaited Kingdom Hearts III was announced and the game still hasn’t been released. To fill the time and to catch people up on what’s been happening in the story, Square Enix has given us PS3 collections of the games in the series. This year, PS4 players have yet again been given another collection in the form of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and although there is some fun stuff in here, there isn’t a lot of it.
The collection contains Dream Drop Distance HD, 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage, and χ Back Cover. Continuing on the tradition that the collections have had, the first two pieces are playable games, whereas the latter one is a movie.
Dream Drop Distance HD is a fully remastered HD version of the 3DS title that came out in 2012. The story takes place after Kingdom Hearts II and follows Sora and Riku as they take their Mark of Mastery exam to prepare themselves for the fight that’s coming in KHIII. While the gameplay was enjoyable back then, the game wasn’t the most fun to play because of the 3DS screen and controls. Being able to play with a controller on a TV makes the game much more enjoyable to play. It also helps that the game’s frame rate has been bumped up to 60fps, a first for any game in the series. Everything is silky smooth and it’s definitely the way that I would like to play any other game in the series.
0.2 Birth By Sleep is by far the most exciting part of the entire collection. Taking place after Birth By Sleep, the game follows Aqua as she journeys through the dark world. Along the way she reunites with Mickey and helps him with a quest that he is going on. What makes 0.2 Birth By Sleep so exciting is the fact that it takes the series into the next generation and gives us a taste of what to expect from KHIII. From a gameplay perspective, the game is great. Combat is a blend of old and new, as it brings back the classic command menu of the numbered games and the combat style changes of Birth By Sleep, but it also introduces some new things that we’ll be seeing in KHIII.
One such thing are Situation Commands, the spiritual successor to Reaction Commands from KHII. By fulfilling a specific criteria, you are given the option to press triangle for a limited amount of time and perform a powerful move. For example, do enough firaga spells and you’ll be given the option to perform the much stronger firaja spell. Do enough combos and you’ll be able to change your combat style, granting you different moves that will ultimately lead to a flashy finisher. Situation Commands give you more options when it comes to combat, allowing you to be more tactical and choose to use a move when you want, as opposed to being forced to do it right away.
Magic is also implemented into combat very well in this game, something that hasn’t been the case for years now. It blends into combos effortlessly and is able to be used while moving now, giving you more mobility when in combat. Being able to heal and keep your momentum at the same time is a blessing I can’t believe I’ve lived without for so long. The biggest shortcoming of 0.2 is the length. Playing on normal difficulty takes between 2-3 hours to complete the story, although a few extra hours can be added onto that if you choose to complete all of the side objectives that the game offers. These side objectives reward you with different customizable outfit options for Aqua, which is a neat little touch for the game. Once you’ve done all this though, there isn’t any reason to come back to the game, unless you want to play through the short story again.
The final, and most disappointing piece of this collection, is χ Back Cover. It takes place the farthest into the series past and tells the story of the Foretellers from the mobile game Unchained χ. Clocking in at about an hour, the movie follows the Foretellers as they try and find out which of them is a traitor. Unfortunately, the movie ends up feeling like a waste of time and leaves the viewer with more questions than answers.
When it comes to 2.8, the biggest question is whether or not it’s worth the $60 Square is asking for, since the collection consists of one full game, what is essentially a 2-hour demo, and an hour long movie. If you’re still trying to catch up on the series in preparation for KHIII, then it is completely worth the price. The story details that are packed in here are absolutely necessary in order to understand what’s going to be happening when the much anticipated game finally arrives, so you’ll be doing yourself a disservice to skip out on this package. If you’ve already played Dream Drop Distance, then things are a bit murkier. You could easily watch χ Back Cover on YouTube, and the same goes for the cutscenes of A Fragmentary Passage, although the latter offers a taste of what we’ll be playing once KHIII comes out, so at the end of the day, it comes down to how much of a Kingdom Hearts fan you are.
I personally recommend that anyone who’s interested in the series and the future of it get the game. While it may not have a lot of playable content, what is playable is pretty fun. The story info here is required for the future, so not having any of that in your back pocket will definitely harm you. The amount of content just can’t be ignored though, as there won’t be much bringing you back to the game once you’re done.
TheComfySpot 