The lock shot came in particularly useful here, and nothing beats hearing the satisfying consecutive dings while targeting the swarm of enemies. It was essentially a large hive being made up of hundreds of the basic shadow enemies, but it had the ability to disperse and converge to swarm you. After locating all five gears, the path to the Castle of Dreams was repaired, and I was able to proceed before a boss showed up. If you’re locked on to an enemy, you can quickly cast Firaga and keep moving, and the spell will still home in on the target rather reliably.Īqua also has a good variety of abilities at her disposal: she can double jump, glide, and even use her lock shot from Birth By Sleep. You still have to scroll down your command menu and select your magic, but at least you’re able to retain your mobility when you’re casting a spell. If you ever thought the magic usage in past Kingdom Hearts games was slow and often left you vulnerable, here’s some good news: Aqua can now perform magic while on the move, even with a cure spell. The action combat feels as smooth as ever, though you still have to be smart about chaining your attacks and know when to end a combo early. As usual, you lock on to your enemies with R1, and you hit the X button to execute whatever you have highlighted in your command menu. It’s pretty amazing to see such a large explorable area in Kingdom Hearts, especially when you consider that past games have always had to cordon off places with loading screens due to technical constraints. The gears were hidden in reclusive spots, and I was forced to rely on Aqua’s jumping and gliding abilities to get through a few platforming sections. It was easy to get lost and, much to my surprise, there’s a lot of verticality in this one area too. The town itself was large and sprawling, and it’s worth noting that the areas weren’t segmented off by any loading screens.
Aqua herself looks great in HD, and you can most certainly see the difference between this new character model and the HD-fied one we saw in Birth By Sleep’s Kingdom Hearts 2.5 version. Starting with the graphics and the overall look of the game, a lot of attention has gone into the minuscule details and design of the area, and everything has a smooth shine to it. In order to repair the broken path that led to the Castle of Dreams, I had to find five clock gears and destroy them. The demo started me off in a derelict, broken down town. Fragmentary Passage offers us a glimpse of what a new Kingdom Hearts game feels like on the PS4, and it most certainly is very impressive.
Right off the bat, it was easy to tell the difference between a last-gen Kingdom Hearts game and a current gen one. I had a choice between Kingdom Hearts 3D and Fragmentary Passage, so naturally, I picked the latter to get a first look at all of the new content.īirth By Sleep: Fragmentary Passage continues Aqua’s story as she seeks a way out of the Realm of Darkness. Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue comes in three parts: a port of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, Birth By Sleep: Fragmentary Passage, and a brand new short movie.