Review: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

The Kingdom Hearts series is unfortunately plagued by weird naming configurations. It started off well enough, but as soon as we first saw 358/2 Days, that was the first sign of things to come. The PS3 HD re-releases were oddly numbered as well with titles like Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5. However, the most recent release takes the cake when it comes to market confusion. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is a mouthful for someone like me who's well versed in the series, but for the casual crowd, this title is a marketing nightmare.

Strange title aside, this latest compilation which for some reason released before the 1.5 and 2.5 PS4 ports lets players experience Dream Drop Distance on a big screen TV for the first time, as it previously was exclusive to Nintendo's 3DS. It also has about an hour long cinematic called Kingdom Hearts X, which for the most part recounts the story that takes place during the time of the mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X. However, the main attraction which is also the sadly the shortest, is Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep: Fragmentary Passage, which in some clever ways, ties the events of the original KH game as well as the secret ending of Birth By Sleep.

As far as Dream Drop Distance goes, it's for the most part the same game you remember on the 3DS, if you've played it, albeit with much better controls this time around. It obviously looks better than its portable counterpart and plays in silky smooth 60fps. Crazy and somewhat unnecessary story aside, it's a great port and plays great, Flowmotion and all.

Check out the original Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance Review

The true attraction lies with 0.2 Fragmentary Passage, a short, two hour experience that focuses on Aqua and her story that literally picks up immediately after the secret ending of Birth By Sleep, when she's overlooking Cinderella's Castle.

It's a neat little side story that explains where she is, and why she's there, and why a certain someone else can be found there as well. I'll keep things completely spoiler free, but just know that there are some great story connections you don't see coming, and they happen in a way that connects the series in a pretty cool way.

The game looks absolutely great, but with better PS4 visuals, come the strangeness of seeing characters like Sora and Riku, who are Final Fantasy-esque, next to characters like Yen Sid, Donald or Goofy, who are all clearly cartoon characters. The original games worked because their aesthetic lent itself well to incorporate the two different art styles. Donald and Goofy in general looked alright but Yen Sid specifically stuck out like a sore thumb. It was weird. I'm certainly hoping that some tweaks are done to the art style before the third game comes out to better incorporate those two wildly different art styles together.

The combat is certainly more fluid, but for the most part still very familiar. You do gain access to moves like double jump and air dash, as well as the Shotlock feature which allows you to aim and lock-on to a myriad of enemies and then unleash a wave of shots on them. Probably the coolest part of combat was the various style switching. For example, as you perform combos, you'll eventually be able to shift into a Spellweaver form, which completely alters your moveset and then allows you to perform a finisher. Performing magic spells and pulling off combos will then also allow you to cast bigger, more powerful versions of those spells as finishers.

Dodging and blocking isn't as intuitive as I'd like since enemies are somewhat hard to read. Their tells are always so short that by the time you realize they're attacking, it's too late to block. And since blocking only lasts a short while, pressing it too early could mean that you could stop blocking by the time the enemy actually lands the hit on you. With that said, when you do pull them off successfully, you get to perform a sweet counterattack.

Even though the experience can be beaten in about two hours, the various "missions" do extend that game time, since they're all tied down to various costume unlocks, that are usually fun to acquire. These items allow you to change Aqua's appearance by putting cat ears on her head, or wings on her back.

I did experience some issues with the cutscenes for 0.2, and after doing some searching online, I found that a few others have also experienced this as well. Every single cutscene would stutter, to the point where they would be completely unwatchable and eventually would desync the voices. From what I understood, this seems to only happen on the digital versions and not if you have the physical version. Hopefully this gets patched, because it did take me out of the experience every single time. Thankfully the gameplay itself was fine at a steady 30fps, at least on my standard PS4. From what I've read, the PS4 Pro version can run the game at 60fps, but since I don't own one, I can't say for sure. If that is the case though, it would certainly make the PS4 Pro a much more tempting purchase for me.

Update: I have confirmed with a PR representative and Square that the game runs at 4K and 60fps on the PS4 Pro. That certainly bodes very well for Kingdom Hearts 3. Whether it was native 4K or upscaled wasn't specified, but 60fps is certainly a nice touch.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is a fine entry in this crazy saga of games, even though it contains one of the least interesting games story wise with Dream Drop Distance. The taste of what we might be getting in Kingdom Hearts 3 certainly made it worth it. With the PS4 re-releases of 1.5 and 2.5, fans or even newcomers will finally have one place to experience the entirety of the story before the final chapter comes out, and that's also something worth celebrating.