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Why Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is important and essential

This post is tagged as: PS4, Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, JRPG

Why Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is important and essential

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue (Square Enix love giving KH games long names) was announced at Tokyo Game Show last year. It got announced to huge fan fair however, it left wondering fans, if it was worth getting and if it is essential to the series. KH 2.8 isn't a HD collection like the previous two instalments, Kingdom Hearts - HD 1.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts - HD 2.5 ReMIX. KH 2.8 features only one HD game, Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. The rest of the collection is made up of two brand new chapters, Kingdom Hearts X (Chi) Back Cover and Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage (Told you Square Enix like giving long names).

Now whatever you do don't dismiss KH 2.8 as being a pointless cash in. In fact Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is the opposite, it is essential and important to any Kingdom Hearts fan. I would go as far to say that out of all the collections that they have done, that this is the most important one. Do you want to know why Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is important? Well here we go.

The biggest reason why KH 2.8 is essential of course are the 'new' chapters, emphasise the word new. These new chapters, KH X (Chi) Back Cover and KH 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage will add more to the story, answer a lot of questions and most importantly, it will connect to the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts III.

Let's start off with Kingdom Hearts X (Chi) Back Cover. This chapter and part of the collection will be told through cinematics, similar to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded in the HD collections. The difference is that this all new, new scenes and cinematics of a chapter in the story of Kingdom Hearts that we don't know. The story of Back Cover tells a new tale of the foretellers, from the prospective of who I think is the Master of masters. Also the cinematics will be created using the same technology, as Kingdom Hearts III.

Then there is the big one, Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage. This is effectively Birth by Sleep: Volume 2 which has been teased since the end of the original Birth By Sleep. This chapter is a short episode that will apparently 'last the length of one whole world', according to game director Tetsuya Nomura. This story is about Aqua and her time in the Realm of Darkness. It is set after the events, of Dream Drop Distance when King Mickey reveals he has some secrets about Aqua and the Realm of Darkness. The big question is though, if Mickey did come across her in the Realm of Darkness, why didn't he save her? She's a Keyblade weilder, a Keyblade Master in fact, so why have we not seen her? Aside from all the speculation about Aqua. Birth by Sleep 0.2 will run off similar technology to Kingdom Hearts III. This chapter will directly connect to Kingdom Hearts III.

Now some of you may be wondering, story wise they may connect but why is the collection called 2.8? Well believe it or not the answer is simpler than you think. Take 2.8 from the title of the collection and 0.2 from the title and then, add them together. Yep it is just as simple as that, don't worry though Kingdom Hearts is known for having hidden meanings in titles and other things and let's not forget, it is quite convoluted.

Of course though we can't forget Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD. Dream Drop Distance was a 3DS game and utilised the second screen. As a result the game has had to essentially be remade. It will be very interesting to see how Dream Drop Distance works on PS4.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue will be released sometime this year for PS4 in Japan and the West.