UPDATE: Shortly after announcing Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue at Sony’s Tokyo Game Show keynote, and showcasing a Japanese trailer to reveal the game, Square Enix released an English version of the same trailer online. The trailer lists the game as simply being in development for North America and PAL regions, unlike the ‘2016’ indication from the Japanese trailer, though Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance was shown to have English voiceovers at least mostly done, with Kingdom Hearts X: Back Catalogue having Japanese voiceovers with English subtitles for now. As with the Japanese trailer, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- was only teased with a pre-rendered shot, and no gameplay or voiceover.
The English trailer still lists the game as coming to PlayStation 4 only, which seems to be further evidence that the PlayStation 3 version claimed to be in development has likely been cancelled, or never existed anyway. Either way, Square Enix looks to be continuing the trend of not bothering localizing PlayStation 3 ports of their Japanese RPG’s in the West, so you’ll have to have upgraded your console if you want to play this compilation regardless.
Original report follows:
It appears that those mysterious leaked listings for a new Kingdom Hearts remaster, the latest offering from the Square Enix/Disney action-RPG mash-up franchise, were indeed accurate. The elusive listing originally showed up amongst the games planned for Square Enix’s E3 press conference and booth this year, before mysteriously vanishing, instead leading to our latest frustratingly tiny peek at the monstrously anticipated Kingdom Hearts III during Square Enix’s E3 keynote. Back then, the game was referred to as Kingdom Hearts 2.9.
Speaking at Sony’s Tokyo Game Show press briefing, Square Enix drew back the veil on the mysterious game, which is actually being titled ‘Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue‘ at this point. The publisher claims that the game’s story will lead directly into Kingdom Hearts III, namely because the bulk of it is an HD remaster of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, which originally launched exclusively for Nintendo 3DS in 2012.
The package will also indeed be a compilation, containing an all-new bonus offering called Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage-, which sheds more light on the whereabouts of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep protagonist, Aqua, following the events of that game. Finally, the package will include scenes from Japanese mobile/browser game, Kingdom Hearts X, under the label, Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover, with Kingdom Hearts X proper said to be coming to iOS and Android for North America soon, though it still has yet to arrive. The scenes will tell the tale of the Foretellers, and shed light on never-before-seen parts of the series’ history, which will no doubt actively come into play in Kingdom Hearts III.
Curiously, the compilation was also only announced for PlayStation 4, despite the leaked listing claiming that a PlayStation 3 version is also in the works. It’s possible that the PlayStation 3 version may have been quietly scrapped, or that the claim of a PlayStation 3 version was incorrect to begin with. Previously, the series’ other mainline titles were remastered in two other compilations that exclusively released for PlayStation 3.
Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue appears to be releasing worldwide in 2016. Square Enix is also teasing a ‘secret’ announcement taking place later during Tokyo Game Show, on the 19th, which may be related to the mysterious Kingdom Hearts 2.9 listing, which may actually be a separate game than this remaster in the end, or the event may be something else entirely. We’ll have to wait and see.
Keep unlocking Eggplante for all news and updates on Kingdom Hearts.