Now, with Kingdom Hearts 3 still in development until at least 2017, the publisher has returned to its archive for one last collection of KH games to hold fans over. Today, Square Enix released a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and confirmed the game will release in December for PlayStation 4.

The trailer, which is available below, shows gameplay from Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance as well as new scenes from Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover and Birth by Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage.

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Dream Drop Distance was originally a Nintendo 3DS game but it will be fully upgraded with PlayStation 4-quality graphics in order to serve as the “main course” of this collection. Back Cover is an hour long cinematic retelling of the browser game Kingdom Hearts X/Unchained. A Fragmentary Passage features a short but new episode that will continue the story of PlayStation Portable game, Birth by Sleep.

Kingdom Hearts has always been known for its confusing game titles but fans were especially thrown for a loop when Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue was announced last September. Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura later explained that he arrived at “2.8” using some creative accounting.

Apparently, the 2.8 designation comes from Dream Drop Distance, Unchained, and Birth by Sleep’s place in the Kingdom Hearts timeline. Nomura believes DDD to be 2.6 within the timeline and he said Birth By Sleep is sitting at 0.2. Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ is 0.0 or at the very beginning of the timeline because of the absence of Sora. So, 2.6, plus .2, plus 0 is 2.8.

Makes perfect sense, right? Maybe not, but fans of the series should at least be happy that the final spinoff package has its release date. Gamers may also be excited to know that A Fragmentary Passage has been designed as a demo of sorts for KH 3. 

Players will take control of a character named Aqua and the experience is designed to last about as long as a visit to one Disney world in the main games. Players will have an opportunity to see what Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay might feel like on the PlayStation 4, and the title will also apparently plant a few seeds for KH 3’s story.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue will release in December on PlayStation 4.

Source: Gamespot