Assets for Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- have been uncovered through hacking; including Luxu, the black box, and more

[Leamax 746]

Assets from the game files of Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- have been uncovered by Twitter users @Keytotruth, 13th Vessel, and @Xeeynamo through hacking. Some of the untextured assets that have been found so far includes Luxu, the black box, Yen Sid, Aqua, Kairi, a Water Core Heartless, the Starseeker Keyblade, and the Castle of Dreams. You can view them in the gallery below:

 

 

When asked more about the assets, 13th Vessel gave some more insight on the structure of Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, which you can read below:

 

"Kingdom Hearts 0.2, it's basically a video with playable levels. Every cutscene that you see in-game is just a video."

When asked about which characters' assets they have found so far, they replied with:

 

"We have also found models for other characters (Yen Sid, Kairi, and Riku). Sora, Donald, and Goofy haven't been found as of yet."

UPDATE [Dec 18, 2017]: KeytoTruth has found unused commands in the assets of Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-. Some of the commands that weren't used for the final version of the game were Water, Aero, Holy, WaterFire, WaterBlizzard, and WaterAero. You can view the full list of commands here.

 

UPDATE [Dec 31, 2017]: @Xeeynamo has found untextured models of Sora and Goofy from Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-. Their pictures have been added to the album embed above.

 

UPDATE [Jan 1, 2018]: 13th Vessel has reported that they have uncovered "almost every model," including untextured character models for Riku in his Kingdom Hearts original outfit, Donald, Ansem the Wise and Terra; he has also found Riku's and Mickey's suitcases model. He has also found the files for Ventus and shirtless Mickey and many more, but there are no images available for those models yet. In the mean time, you can view all of the ones available in the gallery with the other images above.

 

UPDATE [Jan 2, 2018]: 13th Vessel has uncovered the untextured character model for Terra-Xehanort's Guardian, which you can view in the gallery above. He's also found Kingdom Key, Kingdom Key D, Donald's weapon, and effects for the previously reported on Water magic, which were not viewable. Some maps and textures of models are still there even after having been deleted. For example, in the NPC folder, 13th Vessel found some folders for Daybreak Town, but they only had textures of scrapped models in them. (Note that there he didn't find any maps for Daybreak Town.)

 

The next step would be to find a way of seeing these textures to identify them, but 13th Vessel says that that's a very complicated task. He states that because of this, there could be many things that are scrapped that we are not able to view.

 

UPDATE [Jan 2, 2018]: 13th Vessel has uploaded the soundtrack's file names from Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage- that he pulled from the game's assets. This list does not contain the game's opening song, "Simple and Clean (Ray of Hope Mix)."

 

You can see the list below:

 

 

The list comprises the following tracks, which can be heard throughout the game:

• Always on My Mind
• Dearly Beloved -Reprise-
• Destiny's Force
• Devil's Wave [1]
• Devil's Wave [2]
• Dive into the Heart -Destati-
• Illusion Aqua
• Hand in Hand
• Bond*
• Light and Dark**
• Miracle
• Missing You
• Magical Mystery
• Aqua
• Sora
• Terra
• Ven
• Dearly Beloved
• Title launch***
• Dark World battle theme
• Dark World boss theme
• Dark World field theme
• Dark World field theme (Sleeping Beauty)
• Dark World field theme (Snow White)

*This could be referring to the track "Destiny's Union" that plays when Terra is talking to Aqua.

**This could be referring to the track "The Key" that plays when King Mickey finds the Kingdom Key D and when he is ready to seal the door to Kingdom Hearts.

***This could be the brief music that plays when the player starts a new game.

 

Translations were provided by KH13 staff member Mio-chan.

 

13th Vessel commented that he was not able to view the soundtrack from Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover as it is a movie, not a game.

 

UPDATE [Jan 5, 2018]: We had another chance to speak to 13th Vessel about the NPC folders and the textures (with no models) found in them, and he explained to us, in detail, that some of the characters' models are found in folders whose names are identifiable with the code of the area those characters are seen during the game.

 

For instance, the untextured models for Yen Sid, Riku, Riku's and Mickey's suitcases, Kairi, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were found in folders with the code "yc" - for Yen Sid's Castle. Similarly, the models for Aqua and Terranort were found in Dark World ("dw") folders; and the models for Luxu and the box he carries, as seen in the Keyblade Graveyard, were appropriately found in a Daybreak Town ("db") folder.

 

UPDATE [Jan 6, 2018]: Keytotruth has uploaded an image of the model of the Gummi Ship found in the files of Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage-.

 

You can see the picture below. Note that the colors were added to the render.

 

 

Back in October, 13th Vessel uploaded a couple of videos on the Destiny Islands area in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- using hacks and mods. You can check out more about that in the article here. What do you guys think about these assets? What else do you think we will find? Let us know in the comments below.

 

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[Jingilator 922]

There you go everyone, nothing was in the box.

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

Well all the hype over what is in the box turns out to be for nothing. This blows...

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

Well, it was pretty obvious that the cutscene were videos since Aqua's accessories weren't carried over to the cutscenes (meaning the cutscenes weren't in real time, although they were rendered within the engine or at least that's how I interpreted it). Also, OMG Luxu has a face!

[Keyblade101 526]

Well, it was pretty obvious that the cutscene were videos since Aqua's accessories weren't carried over to the cutscenes (meaning the cutscenes weren't in real time, although they were rendered within the engine or at least that's how I interpreted it). Also, OMG Luxu has a face!

Hahaha! Makes me wonder if they'll find a render of Master of Masters and if it would show him with a face too!

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Thanks for showing this to us, Leamax!

 

OMG, everyone, we can see Luxu's face! We've been spoiled!

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

So what does that mean exactly? Like all the scenes are pre-rendered rather than taking place using the in-game models or what? I thought that was usually the case, there's always been a clear difference between the gameplay model (blah blah face) and the cutscene model (actual mouth and actual fingers, plus cleaner textures). Why is it a weird thing here if it's basically the same thing?

[RikuFangirl2008 1,368]

There isn't anything inside the box in Back Cover.

But there will be something in there in KH3.  

[Connected 978]

I wonder if thats REALLY the face of Luxu or just an template to work with it.

[Rob 5,571]

If your plan was to ruin Rob's image of Aqua...it's working. Almost had a heart attack looking at it. Of course there isn't anything in the box. Brad Pitt sacrificed himself for our sins. Interesting Luxu face.

[Awesome Sauce 634]

HIS FAAAAAACE

[SnowPint7Fourths 432]

So Luxu is the main protagonist Cole MacGrath from the Infamous franchise and there's nothing in the box. But seriously, I wonder if Luxu will actually look like that once his face is revealed?

[Ultima Spark 753]

I wonder if thats REALLY the face of Luxu or just an template to work with it.

 

So Luxu is the main protagonist Cole MacGrath from the Infamous franchise and there's nothing in the box. But seriously, I wonder if Luxu will actually look like that once his face is revealed?

 

I think it's just a placeholder, since his face was never intended to be revealed at this point in time (if ever). Case in point: Young Xehanort in BBS used Saix's model as a placeholder and turned out to look completely different.

[Merilly 438]

So what does that mean exactly? Like all the scenes are pre-rendered rather than taking place using the in-game models or what? I thought that was usually the case, there's always been a clear difference between the gameplay model (blah blah face) and the cutscene model (actual mouth and actual fingers, plus cleaner textures). Why is it a weird thing here if it's basically the same thing?

 

I wondered about that too why that was mentioned on its own because it sounds like it's such a big deal. I don't care either way as long as the product is appealing, I guess.

 

Though in my opinion, in KH3, the gameplay models currently look quite a bit better than the cutscene ones... At least in Sora's case.

[Zerrick 43]

Shouldn’t we be concerned that luxu has an unversed symbol for his zipper?

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Shouldn’t we be concerned that luxu has an unversed symbol for his zipper?

 

 

Haha, I remember someone once commenting about that zipper! It definitely resembles that of the Unversed emblem. I wonder what purpose Nomura has for it, ya know?

Edited December 13, 2017 by The Transcendent Key

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

Shouldn’t we be concerned that luxu has an unversed symbol for his zipper?

The coat for the MoM has the same zipper too.

[GotMilk5101520 573]

Maybe the reason for the box being empty is because Nomura knew someone would try this. So he decided to make it empty so we never find out what's in it till Kingdom Hearts 3

[KH4Real 749]

Ofcourse the release date will be revealed in the box.

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

I wondered about that too why that was mentioned on its own because it sounds like it's such a big deal. I don't care either way as long as the product is appealing, I guess. Though in my opinion, in KH3, the gameplay models currently look quite a bit better than the cutscene ones... At least in Sora's case.

I don't think they're using different models for the cutscenes and the game in 2.8 or in KH3. In 2.8, the in-game model for Aqua pretty much looks the same as the cutscene model in 2.8. I just think that instead of applying animations to a model and programming cameras to make certain movements to create the cutscenes, etc. They decided to pre-render the cutscenes using the same models. Maybe it was easier that way, I don't know. But the in-game models for 2.8 and KH3 are already very HQ so I don't see why they would create 2 sets of character models.

[Merilly 438]

I don't think they're using different models for the cutscenes and the game in 2.8 or in KH3. In 2.8, the in-game model for Aqua pretty much looks the same as the cutscene model in 2.8. I just think that instead of applying animations to a model and programming cameras to make certain movements to create the cutscenes, etc. They decided to pre-render the cutscenes using the same models. Maybe it was easier that way, I don't know. But the in-game models for 2.8 and KH3 are already very HQ so I don't see why they would create 2 sets of character models.

No clue, maybe it's not the model but lighting and the fine details which bother me. It's rather... irritating when the gameplay quality surpasses cutscene quality, especially if they're pre-rendered videos which apparently use the same model. Shouldn't the quality be the same then? Instead, the quality fluctuates a lot and that's a bit worrying when they only use one model per character. Though that's only an opinion.

 

If you look at some of the gameplay and compare it to the cutscenes, it just looks rather different. But it doesn t have to be the model itself I guess? You're right that it doesn't make much sense to have two, especially when the difference isn't really that noticable anymore.

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

No clue, maybe it's not the model but lighting and the fine details which bother me. It's rather... irritating when the gameplay quality surpasses cutscene quality, especially if they're pre-rendered videos which apparently use the same model. Shouldn't the quality be the same then? Instead, the quality fluctuates a lot and that's a bit worrying when they only use one model per character. Though that's only an opinion.

 

If you look at some of the gameplay and compare it to the cutscenes, it just looks rather different. But it doesn t have to be the model itself I guess? You're right that it doesn't make much sense to have two, especially when the difference isn't really that noticable anymore.

I agree. I've noticed that the models seem to look a little better in the gameplay segments of certain KH3 trailers. Especially in the orchestra trailer. Perhaps the cutscenes and the gameplay were "recorded" at different stages of development or maybe the cutscenes aren't finished yet and they still need to touch upon certain elements.

Edited December 13, 2017 by PrinceNoctis

[Merilly 438]

I agree. I've noticed that the models seem to look a little better in the gameplay segments of certain KH3 trailers. Especially in the orchestra trailer. Perhaps the cutscenes and the gameplay were "recorded" at different stages of development or maybe the cutscenes aren't finished yet and they still need to touch upon certain elements.

 

 

Like those I attached? It's not as if Sora's look is terrible in the cutscene but if you can have the better quality one, it would be a shame to settle for something mediocre, not even mentioning that awkward model of Young Xehanort.

 

I really, really hope you're right and those are different stages. Looking back at 0.2, there was this weird fluctuation throughout the game, even from one camera angle to the next, which bothered me quite a bit, especially because they sometimes overdid the lighting compared to the TGS demo for example. It's weird how a development stage prior to the release can look better than the final product.

I fear that the same could happen to KH3 where they improve something and in the next step make it worse again.

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

Like those I attached? It's not as if Sora's look is terrible in the cutscene but if you can have the better quality one, it would be a shame to settle for something mediocre, not even mentioning that awkward model of Young Xehanort.

 

I really, really hope you're right and those are different stages. Looking back at 0.2, there was this weird fluctuation throughout the game, even from one camera angle to the next, which bothered me quite a bit, especially because they sometimes overdid the lighting compared to the TGS demo for example. It's weird how a development stage prior to the release can look better than the final product.

I fear that the same could happen to KH3 where they improve something and in the next step make it worse again.

Yes, the pictures you attached are exactly what I'm referring to. Sora doesn't look bad in the cutscene at all, but...that in-game model from the D23 looks much better. I understand what you're saying about 0.2 as well, but I'm pretty sure this was developped in a short period of time (and the cutscenes still looked amazing) while KH3 has been in development for 4-5 years. Plus, I believe the cutscene quality for KH3 is gonna aim towards that of Back Cover which looked better than 0.2 in my opinion. 

[Merilly 438]

Yes, the pictures you attached are exactly what I'm referring to. Sora doesn't look bad in the cutscene at all, but...that in-game model from the D23 looks much better. I understand what you're saying about 0.2 as well, but I'm pretty sure this was developped in a short period of time (and the cutscenes still looked amazing) while KH3 has been in development for 4-5 years. Plus, I believe the cutscene quality for KH3 is gonna aim towards that of Back Cover which looked better than 0.2 in my opinion.

 

Right? It's not bad at all, but if you've already seen a better version in the game, you'd of course prefer to see that kind of Sora with that level of detail.

 

That's also true. I also always thought about 0.2 as a project they had to rush out to keep fans engrossed and to have something to include in the collection. Basically a small test run, which is actually a good thing because feedback is really valuable for companies. Once people complained about the characters looking off, they were immensely dedicated to fix that even for the demo, which is not that common.

 

The cutscenes actually improved. I did not like how they changed the Castle of Dreams scene because Aqua looked way too overlighted in comparison to the TGS demo, though still a lot better than the initial one, but from then onward, it became better and better.

 

Despite some setbacks like Young Xehanort's model, I believe there's a foundation to believe it can work out in the end, especially looking at that gameplay model. If they can make that a standard for everyone else, it would be amazing. I guess a lot of people are a bit concerned due to the fact that the game comes out next year and it's rather rare that the models are still not finalized judging by those interviews. I see that as the hope that it'll improve if they specifically mention it.

 

I always have a hard time comparing it to Back Cover because, despite looking really good, most of the characters did not have their faces exposed. Which is the main issue for a lot of people when looking at the characters in KH3. Still, your comment is reassuring because there's still time left and there are some promising aspects to be seen. They just should not try to improve more than necessary because as seen in 0.2, it can also turn out to be worse. I'll be happy as long as it looks appealing and the quality is kept mostly stable.

 

I've heard people say Toy Story looks good because they're familiar with the plastic look.