I don't have a PS4. The last home console I have is a PS2 Slim, and the last portable console I had is a PSP Street. However, that does not mean I can't draw a solid conclusion just because I don't have the necessary console. Here's my review of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage-.

 

Since I have no prior experience of playing the next-gen Kingdom Hearts game, I used the following YouTube videos and Twitch Streams to draw my conclusion:

 

KHBBS0.2AFP Proud Mode playthrough by Shirrako

KHBBS0.2AFP PS4 vs PS4Pro comparison by Shirrako

KHBBS0.2AFP Critical Mode Final Devil's Wave Boss fight by Everglow

KHBBS0.2AFP Beginner Mode "speedrun"* by tealgamemaster

KHBBS0.2AFP Beginner Mode "Secret Boss Rush" playthrough by tealgamemaster

KHBBS0.2AFP Load Screen Crash by Bizkit047

chyadosensei, Bizkit047, Faye (SilverGU001) and IrregularJinny for Twitch Streams.

Discovery of a "constant" softlock point at v1.0.1 by speedrunner mieDaxx

 

* tealgamemaster has not submitted his run into the official KH speedrun leaderboards. Until then, I'm not considering it as a full-fledged speedrun.

 

STORY

Without spoiling any further, the game managed to fill us in on Aqua's story after what happened on the Secret Episode of Birth by Sleep, while at the same time, starting the actual plotline of Kingdom Hearts 3, even for just a small moment. 

 

GAMEPLAY

OH BOY, GAMEPLAY! A lot of people are worried that 0.2 will adopt the abominable gameplay of Birth by Sleep. Fortunately, Square Enix has learned from it... a little. Some enemies still don't stagger, Aqua's combos still has that thing of "floatiness", albeit in a small scale. Cartwheel seems to be fixed (thank goodness, I thought we're gonna be invincible the entire game due to that), among others.

 

However, I have complaints. Magic-based Situation commands (pfft, they killed Reaction Commands to Situational Commands, which does practically the same thing lol) tend to whiff A LOT, particularly Thundagun, since its a ground-based attack. Shotlocks seems to be nerfed way too much. Magic Wish/Spellweaver's finishing command does NOTHING except the actual final attack, unlike its BbS counterpart where Aqua's drill-like move still does damage. On 0.2, it does damage to some extent, but not in consecutive succession.

 

ENEMY AI

This is where some people say that it excels, but for me, I'd give it a C-. As I said earlier, some enemies don't stagger, the boss AI seems crappy (especially on the final Devil's Wave boss, that thing doesn't give a firetruck if you have a strat or not, its basically just yolo Imma go ham sux to be you), and don't get me started on Aqua Replica on the Mirror Boss Rush, that thing looked like hell right at the beginning.

 

GRAPHICS

I don't see a reason why there is a certain group of people who hates the graphics in this mini-game. The graphics is definitely B-E-A-UTIFUL. Sure, This is Square Enix's first take on Unreal Engine 4, and they still have a lot to learn, but the fact that they got that far for just a small period of time since switching from Luminous to Unreal Engine 4, its a sight to behold. And the constant upgrades that we saw from the E3 demo to the Paris Games Week Demo, to the final product, it really just makes it evident that Square is hard at work for this. If this is just the tip of what SE has to offer graphics-wise, I'm really excited how'll they'll fare out once KH3 is out and about.

 

MUSIC

While there was only a few new music that was added in this, Yoko Shimomura, fresh off her stint on Final Fantasy XV, worked her magic once again on 0.2's music. Words cannot describe how godly this music is... SERIOUSLY. Although... people have complained that some of the music are just reused from various KH games... bitchy complaint, IMHO. Try making music for a scene that you already made music with years ago.

 

THE TECHNICALITY

Sad to say, this aspect of this game, is flawed to a certain extent. version 1.0.0 randomly crashes on load screens, it barely keeps up to the (I really don't know this was a goddamn thing until recently, since there was no press material that covered this) unlocked 60fps target of the PS4 Pro, and it sure as hell can't keep up even with the Launch/Base and Slim PS4's 30fps cap. Fortunately, this was fixed in the 1.0.1 patch... along with Aqua's chin and Venitas' eyes, and "various bug fixes and improved system functionality". As I mentioned in the last forum post I made, we haven't caught any wind of any crashes post 1.0.0 BUT KH/Sonic speedrunner mieDaxx has found out that the game can softlock at a certain specific point in the game.

 

Oh Square... how come you cannot release a proper game?

 

THE FINAL VERDICT

To sum it up...

 

Plot - ****

Gameplay - ***

Graphics - ****

Music - *****

Technicality - ***

 

Overall - **** / *****. The development team still has a lot to learn, still has lots of work to do, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. I'm hoping a better Osaka team to develop KH3,

Regardless of whether it sounds bitchy or not, I highly believe that when the majority of the OST is reintroduced music, it doesn't deserve as good a rating. That's literally like hearing all of KH's soundtrack in KH2 and saying "Wow, what splendid shit I'm hearing... again. From the first game. That was awesome." Shimomura of course does a great job at composing it, but the songs that were introduced needed work. The only exception to this is HD ports/remasters, which in some cases don't need extra music.

 

That being said, it deserves a rating for how well it's used to capture the mood of the scene. 0.2 used A LOT of the same tracks, but those tracks conveyed the mood of each scene (almost) perfectly. That is what I can appreciate.

 

The game shined in particle effects and the more realistic movement of Aqua outside of the battling environment (although it arguably doesn't do as great a job than Back Cover). The cutscenes are more fluid, paper face is (firetruckING FINALLY) gone for good, and there are clearly no overused recurring "hit-play-to-animate" movements, except for the one where Aqua and Mickey dissolve their keyblades. Although in my opinion, lighting wasn't as well done as FFXV's was, the shader is absolutely gorgeous. The glistening material for Aqua's eyes, the light refracting of the material in her skin, the boots' shiny lustre - all of that was a huge graphical plus. And although the gameplay is never meant to be complex or strategic or even hard, it always excels in flashiness.

Pretty good review. Although I still say that it tend to feel like BBS gameplay attempting to be KH2. Alot of the enemies had ridiculous HP, though it's hard to say if that's because it's trying to do a games worth of HP scaling in about 2 hours and 10 levels worth of gameplay. No abilities or equipment either. Aqua still has some of her BBS 'perks'. Her barrier can leave her open after you guard from something, as there's a second where she can't move withe the barrier gone, and her counter is still it's own thing that doesn't lead into combos. Hard to say if it's because You're Aqua or the team isn't fully aware of what made KH1 and 2 them. My biggest complaint is cutting MP on higher difficulties, which is out BS.

 

Focusing on Style changes and the gameplay make me somewhat worried for KH3. I'm worried they'll end up relying on style changes rather then abilities that change your combos normally. I'm praying the developers can understand what made KH1 and 2 the games that they were.