Press Start: Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue review

If you haven’t played Kingdom Hearts yet, now is absolutely not the time to start. This collection is for dedicated fans only. But for fans, this collection might not be worth $60, assuming you’re not absolutely frothing at the mouth to see what Square Enix can do with Unreal Engine 4. For everyone else, if you want to get in on this crazy series, go get the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix collection coming exclusively to PS4 on March 28th. *pockets Square Enix check* And before anyone reads any further, SPOILERS lie ahead for anyone who hasn't played Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, in particular.

The first thing people should play out of the box, assuming they hadn’t already done so, is Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD, a remaster of probably the best-looking game on the Nintendo 3DS to date, looking even sharper than ever and in the 60fps to boot. Here, you play as Riku and Sora as they undergo trials in order to gain the power needed to emerge victorious in Kingdom Hearts III, which is starting to look more and more like the game version of The Avengers in terms of franchise payoff. That is literally the extent to which you’ll understand what’s going on if you’re not a fan, and by the end, even fans are going to be lost. It’s a good thing the story does have a great emotional payoff and the gameplay is rock-solid.

On that note, the gameplay is carried over more-or-less verbatim from Birth By Sleep, except with two new gimmicks replacing the fusion and Shotlocks from that game. You get to create and level up your own versions of the basic enemies fought in this game, the Dream Eaters, and it’s through them that you gain attacks and abilities. “Flowmotion” has also been added, which lets you bounce off walls and use the environment to fight. It’s all fast, fun and flows as well as a 3DS game can be expected to.

The next thing in the collection and the first thing returning fans should watch is Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover; a one-hour movie about the origins of the apocalyptic Keyblade War and a spinoff of the mobile game Kingdom Hearts χ Unchained. You’re expected to know a little bit about the mobile game’s basic premise, but it’s much easier to follow than Dream Drop Distance at any rate. Essentially, you watch five apprentices to a very quirky, future-sighted, Master have a slow-motion falling out as they try to avert the Keyblade War and find a traitor within their ranks. It’s pretty, well-acted, and a decent display of what a movie based on this series might look like. Not much action happens here, and it does not end with a bang like one would have hoped. In fact, it barely ends at all.

The most attractive part of this collection is Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage. Both a demo/prologue for Kingdom Hearts III and a miniature sequel to Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, this four-hour experience is quite something. So, you play as the Keyblade Master Aqua from BBS, who is trapped in the Realm of Darkness, and try to find a way out before the darkness can overwhelm her. What’s unique about this game relative to the others is that its levels, screwed up versions of Disney locales, are all excellent and memorable from both a visual and design standpoint. One highlight involves a world contained inside the Magic Mirror, solving some incredibly creative puzzles and facing off against Aqua’s Phantom.

All of this is fun, but not worth the universally inexplicable $60 price tag, especially if you’re new to the franchise. If you get the limited edition at the same price, you can nab a very nice, if exclusive, Disney Parks pin. Otherwise, wait for a price drop.

Logan Graham is a junior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Are you a Kingdom Hearts fan? Let him know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.