Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 (2016)

Posted on June 9, 2016 by sparxteam in Home, video games, Videos // 0 Comments

Credit: Square Enix

Written by Sean Wall

Despite the fans discouraged and yearning for Kingdom Hearts 3, Square Enix has a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 which will be released for Playstation 4 in December. This “Final Chapter Prologue” will serve as a lead-in for the finale of the Xehanort saga, Kingdom Hearts 3.

The publisher has spent the last decade to appease fans of the collaborated franchise with numerous spinoff titles across multiple platforms. Over the last few years, Square Enix has even repackaged together HD remasters those same spinoffs like HD 1.5 Remix on the PlayStation 3. Now with Kingdom Hearts 3 still in development until at least 2017, the publisher has returned to its archive for one last collection of KH games to keep the die-hard fans at bay.

Kingdom Hearts has always been known for its confusing game titles leaving fans to wonder its significance. This time around that confusion continues as you look back to what Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura explained that he arrived at “2.8” using some creative accounting when Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue was announced back in September.

It’s rather interesting as Gamerant.com surely came up with some mind-blowing calculations for why 2.8 came about.

“Apparently, the 2.8 designation comes from Dream Drop Distance, Unchained, and Birth by Sleep’s place in the Kingdom Hearts timeline. Nomura believes DDD to be 2.6 within the timeline and he said Birth By Sleepis sitting at 0.2. Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ is 0.0 or at the very beginning of the timeline because of the absence of Sora. So, 2.6, plus .2, plus 0 is 2.8.”

—Jason Gallagher (writer for GameRant.com)

Credit: Square Enix

Unlike the previous HD compilations, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 has a special meaning as it does give an HD remaster of the 3DS title Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, we also get two parts that are brand new. In some ways it connects the stories together, filling in blank points for the Kingdom Hearts story entirely.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage, a playable section that followed up on Birth By Sleep within the engine for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3 have been included in the game. It essentially gives us a demo of what we can expect in KH3. If that isn’t enough we get a cinematic Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover providing a narrative for the browser and mobile based Kingdom Hearts χ.