All Articles: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 compilations will come to Xbox One in 2020

The long-awaited Kingdom Hearts III launched earlier this year to rapturous applause on both the PS4 and Xbox One. But Xbox One owners wanting to try out the rest of the series have so far been out of luck. That all changes in 2020 as Microsoft and Square Enix will bring two massive Kingdom Hearts to the console sometime in the near future.

Announced today at Microsoft’s X019 event in London, both Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue are currently in development for the Xbox One. Here’s what players can expect from each compilation:

Kingdom Hearts: HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix

  • Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix
  • Kingdom Hearts: ReChain of Memories
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Cinematics Only)
  • Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep – Final Mix
  • Kingdom Hearts: ReCoded (Cinematics Only)

Kingdom Hearts: HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue

  • Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD
  • Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage
  • Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover (Cinematics Only)

To celebrate this new partnership, Square Enix has slashed the price of Kingdom Hearts III on both the Xbox Games Store and the PlayStation Store. Until November 22, the RPG will be available to purchase for just $19.79 (that’s a 67% discount off the regular price).

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New Retail Releases: Call of Cthulhu, Diablo III: Eternal Collection, Lego Harry Potter Collection, More

It’s All Hallows Eve Eve Eve, and while you might assume that that’s the perfect time to unleash a terrifying new survival horror game on the populace, you’d be (mostly) wrong. Instead, game publishers are following up last week’s launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 with a slew of re-releases and a smattering of smaller games.

But don’t worry fright fans, a monstrous entity from beyond our human comprehension will also make an appearance on store shelves this week…

H.P. Lovecraft’s greatest creation, the elder god Cthulhu, will return to video games this week with the release of Call of Cthulhu from Cynaide Studio. The PS4 and Xbox One game is based on the popular tabletop RPG, players must infiltrate an island of “unfriendly locals” and thread the needle between “sanity and psychosis” to uncover the truth. Call of Cthulhu will also be available to download for the PC.

Another fictional godlike being drives the story behind Blizzard’s Diablo III: Eternal Collection, which makes its way to the Switch for the first time this week. The Eternal Collection includes the original Action RPG, as well as the Reaper of Souls expansion, the Rise of the Necromancer Pack, and an exclusive Ganondorf Armor Set.

A very different set of magical spells will be cast in the Lego Harry Potter Collection, which will be released for the Switch and Xbox One this week. The compilation includes both Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7.

And speaking of compilations, Square Enix will package together the entire Kingdom Hearts saga this week for the PS4 with Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far.

Finally this week, we loop back around to a scary sight with Digital Dreams Entertainment’s Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition, a retail release of the supernatural sports sim for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

A complete look at all of this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break. (more…)

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Square Enix will bundle together the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise in Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far

After years of teasing, Kingdom Hearts III will finally make its way to the PS4 and Xbox One next year. But if you need a refresher on the franchise’s complicated storyline, you’ll want to be on the lookout for Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far, an upcoming compilation that bundles together all nine games from the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

As an all-encompassing record of the franchise, The Story So Far will include…

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMix

  • Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix
  • Kingdom Hearts: ReChain of Memories
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Cinematics Only)

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix

  • Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep – Final Mix
  • Kingdom Hearts: ReCoded (Cinematics Only)

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue

  • Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
  • Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage
  • Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover (Cinematics Only)

Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far will be released exclusively for the PS4 on October 30, and if you’re a Kingdom Hearts fan who has some catching up to do, it’s wallet-friendly price of $39.99 will surely be very enticing.

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Resident Evil 7: Biohazard shambles to the top of January 2017’s best-selling games report

It looks like there’s still some life left in the Resident Evil franchise. The latest game in the series, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, topped the NPD Group’s report on the best-selling games in January 2017. The only other new release to crack the top ten was Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, which camein at #6.

“With only five days in the market, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was the best-selling game in January. The last time Capcom had the best-selling game of the month (in dollar sales) was in March 2009 with Resident Evil 5,” NPD Analyst Sam Naji told GamesIndustry.biz.

Overall spending on game titles was up 14% last month over January 2016, thanks mostly to continued demand for 2016’s biggest releases including Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (#2), Battlfield 1 (#4), and NBA 2K17 (#5). And Grand Theft Auto V (#3) continues to burn up the charts more than four years after it was first released.

The complete list of best-selling games from January 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)

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Resident Evil 7, Yakuza 0, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8, more added to PS Store

It’s a big week for the PlayStation Store as developers and publishers plan to add more than a dozen new games to the digital storefront this week…

Let’s start things off with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, the latest game in Capcom’s long-running zombie saga. Resident Evil 7 promises to switch things up on the PS4 and many of the franchise’s most familiar characters won’t make an appearance in the game. However, there is a deranged family of cannibals to deal with, and full PlayStation VR support for the first-person horror title.

PS4 owners interested in a different sort of wild ride might want to look into Yakuza 0, which will travel back to the beginnings of Sega’s gangland tale. Players will learn all about how Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima got their start in the Yakuza, and they’ll experience the “unbridled decadence” of Tokyo in the 1980s.

Also available this week is a trio of RPGs that will most likely offer more uplifting stories. Square Enix has remade Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (previously a 3DS exclusive) for the PS4 as Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue. Bandai Namco will expand the Tales series with the pirate-themed PS4 adventure Tales of Berseria. And Snowcastle Games will bring their retro-inspired RPG, Earthlock: Festival of Magic, to the PS4 later this week.

More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)

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New Retail Releases: Resident Evil 7, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8, Yakuza Zero, More

We’re finally kicking off 2017 in style with a big batch of new releases that’ll be available to purchase this week…

Capcom will resurrect the Resident Evil franchise once again with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Utilizing a brand new first-person perspective (and PlayStation VR support on the PS4), the latest Resident Evil game will mark a fresh start for the series.

Also available this week is Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, a high definition remake of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, which was originally released for the 3DS in 2012. The PS4-exclusive package will also include a movie-length retelling of mobile title Kingdom Hearts Unchained X and a brand new epilogue to Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

Speaking of prologues, Sega will go back to the beginning of the Yakuza series and reveal the story of how Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima originally climbed the ranks of the crime syndicate in Yakuza Zero for the PS4. Players will be able to battle it out with rival gangs, or indulge in “all the vices 1988’s Japan had to offer.”

You won’t find any gangsters in Bandai Namco’s Tales of Berseria, but you will find plenty of pirates in the PS4 RPG. The latest game in the Tales franchise will star Velvet, a young woman who has to defeat her own inner demons while sailing the seven seas of Midgand in search of adventure.

Finally this week, Milestone will release Moto Racer 4, another motorcycle racer, for the PS4 and Xbox One.

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Voice actor strike reveals unannounced games like Lego Marvel 2, Brothers in Arms, more

legomarvelsuperheroes-header

SAG-AFTRA, a union representing voice actors and stunt performers, authorized a strike against game developers that began this morning. As part of the process, the union has published a list of projects that members are no longer allowed to work on, and it includes several unannounced games.

It wasn’t much of a shock to learn that EA Sports is already hard at work on Madden NFL 18 and NHL 18, but listings for Lego Marvel 2 and Brothers in Arms were a bit more surprising (though not unexpected). While WB Games has yet to make any noise about a new Lego Marvel game, Gearbox confirmed the existence of a fourth Brothers in Arms game last year.

A large number of mobile games also make up a large part of the list, as well as a few games that are denoted only by codenames. For example, Take-Two is working on something called “Alligator,” while EA is developing games under monikers as diverse as “Odin,” “Fearless,” “Scorpion,” and “Timbits.” We may never know what these codenames refer to (they may even belong to games that have already been released), but one of the union’s major demands is for developers to be more transparent during the hiring process and to use a game’s actual title when contracting with vocal/stunt performers.

Finally, several highly-anticipated 2017 titles will be affected by the strike including Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, Injustice 2, and Crash Bandicoot Remastered. So hopefully the two sides can reach an equitable agreement soon.

UPDATE: A representative from WB Games has informed us that the inclusion of “Lego Marvel 2” in the SAG-AFTRA strike list is actually a reference to Lego Avengers, which was released earlier this year. However, Lego Avengers was announced in January 2015, several weeks before the union’s deadline for projects that must be part of the picket line.

I’m not sure why it was included on the list (it’s possible the union goofed), but the official line from WB Games is that “Lego Marvel 2” is definitely not a reference to “Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2” or any other unannounced game. That said, I’d be very surprised if WB Games isn’t working on another Lego Marvel game, and we’ll likely hear more about “Lego Marvel 2” in the future.

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Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue delayed to January 24, 2017

Square Enix has announced that Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue won’t be released in 2016 as originally planned. Today, the publisher confirmed that the PS4 game, which is a remake of 2012’s Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, on January 24, 2017.

While this two-month delay is disappointing, Square Enix also released a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 today. The Tokyo Game Show 2016 trailer also features footage from the included companion chapters, Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover and Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage

[The trailer] includes never-before-seen scenes depicting a mysterious meeting of the “Foretellers,” the five Keyblade Masters from the Kingdom Hearts origins movie included in the compilation as Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover. The trailer also features HD remastered gameplay of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD and new battles scenes from Aqua’s adventures in Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage.

Through the trailer, fans can listen to the newly remixed version of “Simple and Clean” by popular singer Utada Hikaru.

Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts III remains as mysterious as ever. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about it during this week’s Tokyo Game Show.

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