THE APPETIZER THAT OUTSHINES THE MAIN COURSE
Maybe this game isn’t substantial enough to really warrant a review of its own — but who the heck cares. Originally meant to be a prologue integrated into Kingdom Hearts III, this game instead ended up as a six-hour standalone entry in the Kingdom Hearts 2.8 prologue bundle. This package — which also includes Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD and an animated film — chronicles everything you need to know about the story leading up to Kingdom Hearts III.
Splitting it up this way was probably a sound financial strategy from Square Enix, although from an artistic standpoint I believe it would have served its purpose better as the opening chapter of Kingdom Hearts III itself. Production of the third main entry simply grew too big. It was long overdue, and fans were eager to see tangible progress.
Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage ultimately found its place as a technical showcase — a playable proof of concept hinting at what the upcoming action-JRPG might look and feel like. Fans duly got their juices flowing, something that’s easy to verify by revisiting the breathless Let’s Plays from the time. It served much the same function as Ground Zeroes did for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, albeit in a slightly less cynical package.
In this novella-sized experience, you control Aqua — one of the Keyblade Masters from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Following the events of that game, she wanders the Dark World alone, hoping to encounter one of her allies and find a path back into the light. Her journey plays out like a fever dream: disorienting, unpleasant, and seemingly endless.
Powered by the PS4 hardware, it is also intensely beautiful. Where earlier entries relied on relatively simple world layouts, this one embraces a more ambitious sense of space. You begin along a broken path leading into a city suspended in a dark void where time itself has frozen. Shattered fragments of streets and buildings hang motionless in mid-air. You launch upward, leap between platforms using enhanced movement controls, and fight familiar Heartless enemies. From there, the game only grows stranger.
A handful of visually inspired locations, simple puzzles, and largely unremarkable boss encounters stand between you and the finale. Through Aqua’s internal monologue you’re treated to brief, unintentionally amusing lo-res flashbacks of earlier events. And then there’s the infamous closing cinematic, which finally explains why Mickey Mouse appears shirtless at the end of the first Kingdom Hearts. Newcomers will be completely lost, but for longtime fans this serves as a concise refresher.
I might as well admit that I had already finished Kingdom Hearts III by the time I wrote this review — and, astonishingly, this appetizer outshines the main course. Almost entirely stripped of Disney detours (only Mickey Mouse and, to a lesser extent, Master Yen Sid appear), the game goes straight for melodrama. The cutscenes still interrupt the gameplay, but at least they don’t overstay their welcome. Frankly, the entire series would have benefitted from this kind of brisk pacing.
On her own, Aqua is a technically formidable fighter, but without allies she loses much of what normally defines her combat style. She begins at level 50 with her full kit intact, making this a swift and painless playthrough. Many Flowmotion techniques carry over from Dream Drop Distance, greatly improving traversal. You double-jump, wall-bounce, and glide through the air to reach hidden chests. And if Square Enix ever decides to steer the franchise toward open-world design, they’ve already devised a clever way to use the Blizzard spell for fast movement.
Combat mirrors Sora’s setup from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. The classic command menu returns, allowing real-time selection from a limited set of actions, while shortcuts let you streamline spellcasting and item use. From a gameplay standpoint, almost any mainline entry works as a decent introduction to the series — and A Fragmentary Passage joins that group. From a narrative perspective, however, they’re all equally disastrous.
This game represents Kingdom Hearts at its best-ish. It’s too short to leave a lasting mark, but also mercifully brief enough to avoid drowning in the series’ most indulgent angst. Anyone following the chronological path toward Kingdom Hearts III might come away genuinely hopeful. It is strange yet direct, like music for the soul — bypassing your logics and tapping straight into the dream realm beneath. Ignore the story, and you’ll get along just fine.
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