Best Game of January 2017 Honorable Mention: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
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Starting with a couple of honorable mentions, check out the Twinfinite’s Staff picks for our favorite games for January 2017 which includes of course, our Game of the Month!
Features Editor Ishmael Romero: Compilations of video games aren’t exactly new. Heck, Kingdom Hearts already has two of its own, which are slated to be re-released on the PS4 in March. However, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 manages to be more than just a collection of games. With Kingdom Hearts III looming somewhere on the horizon, fans are hungry for more information and insight into what Sora’s next adventure has in store, and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 manages to provide just that.
While previous compilations in the series were comprised of games that have existed for some time, 2.8 switches things up by introducing a brand-new experience in the form of Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage. This new chapter managed to take many loose threads and tie them together as it pushed the story right up to the beginning of Kingdom Hearts III, filling the gap and preparing fans for an exciting future. It also happens to be running on the same engine as the upcoming sequel, so it’s the closest fans can get to actually playing the long-awaited entry, and it proved to be quite impressive.
Smooth gameplay, stunning visuals, and dynamic combat replaced the sometimes stiff nature of previous entries. It was only a glimpse, but one that showed a whole lot of promise. When combined with a HD remaster of Dream Drop Distance (arguably one of the best entries in the series), and Kingdom Hearts x Back Cover, a cinematic that sheds light on the events that sparked the series, 2.8 feels like the most meaningful collection put forth by Square Enix thus far. It’s been years since the story has moved forward, and now that it’s taken its first few steps, we can’t wait to see what follows.
