Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue

With Kingdom Hearts 3 all but a flickering star on the horizon, Square Enix has worked to ensure that anticipation remains high for the impending third chapter by releasing two back-to-back compilations bursting with content. The first of the two releases, Final Chapter Prologue, contains an exclusive new mini-adventure that offers a tantalising first look of things to come, as well as a HD remaster of previous 3DS title Dream Drop Distance.

Final Chapter Prologue bundles together three pivotal adventures from the series, which include Dream Drop Distance, 0.2 Birth By Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage, and Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover. However, with Kingdom Hearts Remix 1.5 and 2.5 set to fall in the spring, it's curious that the compilation was scheduled for an earlier release, especially as the preceding titles would have likely provided a more logical introduction to newcomers.

The first title featured is a HD remaster of Dream Drop Distance which debuted on the 3DS in early 2012. The game follows twin protagonist's Sora and Riku as they have their skills put to the test in a ploy to become keyblade masters. Arriving for the first time on home console, the title has made a smooth transition, sporting a sleek 60 FPS and an enhanced visual polish. Besides a handful of mechanics that were clearly implemented with touchscreen controls in mind, Dream Drop Distance handles fluently, at times offering the illusion that it was crafted for the platform.

Cuddly monster companions and parkour-like motions are two of the many features separating Dream Drop Distance from previous entries. Along your journey you can collect a shopping list of ingredients from chests and at stores to create allied spirits. In combat you can use the individual abilities of your spirits as well as linking them together for more powerful attacks. You can also care for your new friends by petting them or feeding them snacks, which feels like an earlier version of Pokémon Sun and Moon's refresh system. This segment, as well as the diving stages before new worlds, do feel like they were designed for use with the 3DS' stylus and make quite an awkward transition, however.

Grinding on rails and swinging on lampposts allows you to rack up intense bouts of speed, allowing you to perform blistering attacks and combos. The newfound of ability of flowmotion also allows you to race a purple streak up the side of buildings to uncover hidden areas and collectables. Flow motion can be easily exploited during battle, as it lets you bolt across the environment and lash out at enemies, giving them little chance to respond. A flawed new mechanic is the drop system, however, which forces you to switch between characters after roughly an hour of play. Not only does this diminish the flow of gameplay, but it makes for many frustrating moments after you're forced to return to a section that you have little recollection of.

Similar to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros, A Fragmentary Passage serves to gives us a taste of the upcoming chapter in the series, but remains a solid standalone adventure in its own right. Proceeding after the events of 2010's Birth by Sleep, Aqua's tale is a solitary journey of despair transpiring through the fallen regions of the Realm of Darkness. Unfolding over four to six hours, Aqua's helpless drift across the realm's desolate landscape sees her journey through jagged thorny woodlands and psychedelic mirror mazes that persist to alter the world around her.

Crafted using Epic's Unreal 4 engine, A Fragmentary Passages' glossy visuals help to catapult the series into the present generation and its bleak colour pallet reinforces the sense of dread and misery that is felt during Aqua's internal conflict with the darkness. A notable step forward for the series is through the design of its environments, which appear to be broader in scope and offer an added dimension of verticality. A slight emphasis on platforming also sees you bounding gracefully through the air and performing double dashes to reach dizzying heights in pursuit of your objectives.

Combat meshes together many of the series' signature mechanics and sees the return of flowmotion and lockshot abilities. Aqua's fluid movements help to somewhat combat the aching difficulty, allowing you to cartwheel out of the path of projectiles and bolt towards the sky to safety. The previously mentioned lock shot ability allows you to relax the flow of time and target enemies with a near perfect hit rate. Alongside melee attacks and magical abilities, situational commands are also present, which are tailored to your playstyle and can potentially deal significant damage. Possibly Fragmentary Passages' most offending flaw is through its recycled boss encounters which soon result in tedium. To the game's credit, their attack patterns do vary and later encounters become progressively more challenging, but with the experience being awful short, the lack of any real change here is especially disappointing.

Finally, the HD cinematic Back Cover works to add narrative depth to the mobile and browser exclusive title Kingdom Hearts X, uncovering the motives of the five masked foretellers. Supported by excellent performances from Ray Chase and Travis Willingham, the short film is humorous and engaging, whilst it may appear convoluted for those unfamiliar with its context. We don't want to reveal too much, but we can say that the narrative succeeds in filling some gaps within the story and does an excellent job of presenting events from multiple perspectives.

While it may not be a definitive collection or a recommended entry point for newcomers to the series, A Final Chapter Prologue still succeeds in bringing three thoroughly enjoyable adventures to home consoles for the first time. A Fragmentary Passage showcases massive potential for the series forthcoming chapter and is a must have due its refined combat system and alluring gloomy visuals. A stellar port of Dream Drop Distance also works to sweeten the deal, transporting the series finest handheld adventure into stunning HD, and cinematic short Back Cover, whilst it may be difficult to follow, still stands as an entertaining distraction. Ultimately, Final Chapter Prologue is a fine example of the series excellence and level of quality that stretches even beyond its major instalments.