Apologies for not continuing my “Summer of Kingdom Hearts” sooner; I was hit with a Nintendo review and then just didn’t have time to dive back into it. Thankfully, I had some free time to do this Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage review, and it’s certainly “something.
So, I’ll get right to the “big twist” right off the bat. This game (aside from having the longest and arguably dumbest name in the series’ history) takes place after Birth by Sleep and during the events of the original Kingdom Hearts. Yes, really. We see not only Aqua in her “journey” across the “Dark World,” but we also see Mickey right before he gets the Keyblade we see at the end of the first game. All of this is important because it ties into the journey that will be Kingdom Hearts III, where Sora, Riku, and Mickey must save Aqua, Ventus, and Terra from their various “prisons” to stop Xehanort’s master plan.
The game is short, which I knew going in, so I won’t judge it too harshly for that. Apparently, this was supposed to be just a tech demo for the PS3 before it became an actual piece of the Kingdom Hearts story. To that end, the game honestly does look good. Going from Dream Drop Distance to this was a bit jarring, but it showed the graphical improvements that helped make this and KH3 stand out.
Short story, uh, short, Aqua has been in the “Dark World” for ten years, and despite wandering alone with “no sense of time,” she suddenly finds “stirrings” in the darkness, which leads her across a set of worlds that were swallowed by darkness after the events of Birth by Sleep. Once you realize this is set during the original Kingdom Hearts, it all makes sense—to an extent.
Aqua is struggling with not only losing Ventus and Terra but also the “weakness in her own heart,” which is manifesting not just through the Heartless but also “Phantoms” that keep showing up to haunt her.
The gameplay is actually incredibly strong, blending the combat stylings of KH1 and KH2 while also adding in the Focus and Style techniques of Birth by Sleep. I actually really liked this because I hated doing the “Sleights” we had to deal with in multiple past titles, including BBS.
I also noted in the past that the games have had quite a difficulty spike. I decided to do Standard Mode, and I only died once—though I could’ve died more, as some of the enemies are a bit overpowered if you don’t dodge and hit them in just the right way. Even still, it was a fun time, and it made me excited about what would happen in Kingdom Hearts III.
Speaking of which, once you finish the story, you get a couple of key prologue scenes that directly tie into KH3, including finding out how Sora ends up right in Olympus Coliseum at the beginning of the game. I appreciated this, as it set the table without overloading us with these cutscenes right at the start.
That being said, this Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage review (I really don’t like this name) wouldn’t be complete without mentioning flaws, and there were a few outside of length. For example, there are times when the dialogue just doesn’t work, including one scene where Mickey is supposed to be giving a “pep talk,” and it’s just one line that made me go, “Really?” Aqua also seems to know more about the worlds she’s in than she should, especially in Cinderella’s world, where she only saw two parts of it yet claimed to know about the townspeople.
Furthermore, I didn’t like the “prequel twist” because it raised several questions about why Mickey didn’t mention Aqua before, only for it to basically be “swept under the rug” with a wave of a certain wizard’s hand.
Even still, I’ll be fair and say that this Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage review will end with a decent score. If it had been a bit more fleshed out in length, it could’ve gotten higher. But for what it was, I liked it.
Next up in my “Summer of Kingdom Hearts”? Kingdom Hearts X!
See below to check out the other parts of our The Summer of Kingdom Hearts” review series:
- Summer Of Kingdom Hearts – Part 1 – Kingdom Hearts Final Remix Review
- Summer Of Kingdom Hearts – Part 2 – Kingdom Hearts RE:Chain Of Memories Review
- Summer Of Kingdom Hearts – Part 3 – Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Review
- Summer Of Kingdom Hearts – Part 4 – Kingdom Hearts II Final Remix Review
- Summer Of Kingdom Hearts – Part 5 – Birth By Sleep Final Mix Review
- Summer of Kingdom Hearts – Part 6 – Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded Review
- Summer of Kingdom Hearts – Part 7 – Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD Review
Kingdom Hearts .2 Birth By Sleep A Fragmentary Passage Review
Summary
Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep A Fragmentary Passage is a nice prologue to KH3, while tying up certain loose ends… kind of. If you want to see more Aqua and have a nice quick journey, you’ll enjoy this before jumping into the next main game.
Pros
- Game’s Visuals
- Combat System
- Clever Use of BBS Worlds In New Ways
Cons
- The “Prequel Twist”
- Dialogue Doesn’t Always Hold Up
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Kingdom Hearts .2 Birth By Sleep A Fragmentary Passage Review
