Impressions of the Kingdom Hearts 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- E3 demo

[Toominator 916]

Hey everyone! As you may or may not know, I have been at E3 2016 representing KH13.com to cover anything and everything Kingdom Hearts-related at the event. I had the opportunity to play the Kingdom Hearts 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- and I would like to fill you in on everything I learned while playing the demo. Enjoy!

• The first thing to mention is the look - the frame rate wasn't precisely 60fps but it was somewhat close, so expect something close to or exactly 60 fps in the final product.

The HUD:

• There is no command deck, so we are back to the command menu from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.
• The Focus meter is confirmed to fuel Shotlock commands (which have obviously made a return).
• The shortcut menu has multiple pages, and they can be used for spells and items. You seamlessly switch between shortcut pages with the D-Pad.
• MP Charge is back (if you run out of MP, it automatically charges back to full).

Gameplay:

• Combat is very fluid and fast-paced. The combat is not floaty or clunky like it was in Birth by Sleep.
• Magic Spell Combos are back. If you perform the same magic spell multiple times in a row, there will be a "finisher" magic spell that is stronger than the base spell.
• Flowmotion is in 0.2 and as far as I can tell, the only way to trigger it is to cast Blizzaga near the ground, which leaves a stream of ice on the ground, and jumping on it triggers Flowmotion.
• The "parkour" movement is triggered without pressing any buttons. There will be a group of sparkles on surfaces where this parkour action can be performed (such as the rock wall Sora runs up in the Kingdom Hearts III gameplay trailer).
•  Spellweaver has returned and triggers randomly, much like it did in Birth by Sleep. However, once it has been triggered, there is a 30 second timer that starts, and you can activate Spellweaver at any time in that 30 second time frame. Also, when Spellweaver activates, Aqua's Keyblade will glow.

Miscellaneous: 

• The Shadow heartless turn into actual shadows when they crawl into the ground and avoid attacks, as opposed to becoming flattened, 2D versions of themselves crawling around the floor.
• In the trailer, you could see that Aqua can target/lock onto lamp posts. They can be attacked to get HP/MP/Focus orbs, but they cannot be destroyed.
• The section of 0.2 that the demo consisted of was very vertical. There were a lot of spaces you could jump up to/climb up to.
• Aqua will grab ledges when she doesn't quite make the jump.

Cons:

• The camera worked brilliantly for the most part, but there were times where locking onto an enemy completely destroyed the camera angle and I couldn't see anything.
• There are too many lamp posts, so when trying to lock onto an enemy, I locked onto lamp posts instead very often.
• The frame rate not being 60fps is a negative thing since we learned that Dream Drop Distance will be in 60fps.

Overall, the demo was great. It was a good length (about 15 minutes) and I was very happy with the combat. There are obviously things to fix and fine-tune, but I am very happy with it. It looked absolutely gorgeous, and I'm very excited for you all to play it.

 

If you have any questions about things I did not mention here, leave them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them!

This post has been promoted to an article

[Yuya Sakaki 5,212]

 

 

• Aqua will grab ledges when she doesn't quite make the jump.

 

^^^ This gives me hope that they've improved the platforming in KH3.

 

But wow, so many interesting things! It's nice that the shortcuts have multiple pages so you can fit all spells and items that you would like. And Shadows actually BECOME shadows in the ground? That attention to detail is pretty awesome.

 

So far, so good. Seems to be coming along well as an improved, expanded-upon version of KH2.

 

Peace!

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Sounds fair to me, all the footage I've seen looks very awesome. I haven't seen those camera issues you keep mentioning in any of those videos and the frame rate is still pretty decent for what we've seen in previous games (you only made it an issue because you're comparing it to another title that it's easier to reach 60 on). Like seriously, with those visuals I'll be fine if this game hits 30-50 most of the time...especially since I'm not to used to seeing a consistent 60 at this point yet. But everything else sounds cool. I hope this means that we'll have multiple different kinds of special spells and attacks that can be assigned to the extra shortcuts. I can't wait to play this section and the others that that will be available in 0.2

[Lnds500 2]

60fps on 0.2 is wrong, it's 30fps

[Limen123 28]

Do you know what track plays during the boss battle? I know the World and Battle theme from Secret Episode are back for traversing CoD, but is there any other song that plays during the boss?

[kingofnowhere 70]

I dunno the graphics still bothers me. It's not something that really care about but they look to plastic. Does anybody agree?

[Toominator 916]

60fps on 0.2 is wrong, it's 30fps

Some of the cutscenes got close to 60, not so much gameplay

[roxas_meatloaf 4]

I dunno the graphics still bothers me. It's not something that really care about but they look to plastic. Does anybody agree?

I kind of agree. Aqua looks fine to me but Terra looked a lot like plastic, I hope they fix it..

[Kevin_Keyblade 203]

Mmm.. But How exactly the game feels when you are in combat? Like BBS or KHII?

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Another thing I don't agree with in this is the whole "floaty and clunky" comment about BBS. I keep hearing people say this about BBS and I never got that with the game. It feels just fine to me as any other KH game does, the series has always had a real consistent feel of physics no matter which team was working on what. The only game that really felt different in any way was Re:CoM, and that was mostly just due to the focus on card-based gameplay. Physics wise any little differences in how characters fall or not are just minor and real nit-picky to focus on. I've never had a problem with BBS's physics or those of games that came after and I look forward to how 0.2 and 3 feel furthering that legacy.

[Guest]

Aside Shadows, what other recognisable Heartless were in the game?

[Dagesh Lene 366]

What did you think of how the characters looked, especially Terra?

[Toominator 916]

Aside Shadows, what other recognisable Heartless were in the game?

There were only Shadows and two other brand new heartless.

 

Another thing I don't agree with in this is the whole "floaty and clunky" comment about BBS. I keep hearing people say this about BBS and I never got that with the game. It feels just fine to me as any other KH game does, the series has always had a real consistent feel of physics no matter which team was working on what. The only game that really felt different in any way was Re:CoM, and that was mostly just due to the focus on card-based gameplay. Physics wise any little differences in how characters fall or not are just minor and real nit-picky to focus on. I've never had a problem with BBS's physics or those of games that came after and I look forward to how 0.2 and 3 feel furthering that legacy.

BbS is extremely clunky and floaty. Doing a combo takes SO LONG.

[sam15782008 11]

i got a question...is 15 mins the whole length of 0.2 or is 15 mins just for E3?

[sneakie1 36]

how does jumping feel? i saw a kind of aerial dodge and aerial recovery. can you transition from jumping to comboing seemlessly? is there time you have to wait after touching the ground before you can walk? do you dash onto far enemies?

Edited June 15, 2016 by sneakie1

[Toominator 916]

i got a question...is 15 mins the whole length of 0.2 or is 15 mins just for E3?

That is just for the demo, 0.2 will be longer than that for sure

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

There were only Shadows and two other brand new heartless.

 

BbS is extremely clunky and floaty. Doing a combo takes SO LONG.

 

Matter of opinion. I think it works just fine. Not everything has to be lightning-instant all the time. And just saying it is isn't going to convince me, that's just saying the same thing over and over again.

[Shanks0407 34]

Do you know if the 0.2 demo would be released in the ps4?

[FlipMode 141]

Interesting and also cool if you can trigger flow motion from casting spells. I was wandering how flow motion works in this, thanks. I am assuming that proper DDD style flow motion will be in KH3, I know it made the game a bit easy but it was so fun to use to get around.

[lehahiah81 60]

I'm happy flow motion seems to be taken down a notch, because it really made the worlds feel tiny to me because of how fast we could get around, but that's just my opinion.