When comparing Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue for most people. In the question“What are the best JRPGs for PS4?” Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is ranked 17th while Dark Souls III is ranked 28th. The most important reason people chose Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is:
The combat in the games is a lot of fun with the unique keyblade weapons: swords that are shaped like keys. Attacking enemies with your keyblade feels swift and smooth, with plenty of abilities to help you dash quicker, jump higher, and more. Elemental magic spells are snappy and pretty to look at; leveling up unlocks cooler and more powerful spells, with giant flare explosions, thunderstorms, and blizzards with detailed particle effects. You also get rewarded for using certain magic spells, letting you chain faster, flashier keyblade attacks where you're practically invincible until the effect wears off. Combat is really enjoyable, especially as you unlock new skills over time.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fun real-time action combat with keyblade swords
The combat in the games is a lot of fun with the unique keyblade weapons: swords that are shaped like keys. Attacking enemies with your keyblade feels swift and smooth, with plenty of abilities to help you dash quicker, jump higher, and more. Elemental magic spells are snappy and pretty to look at; leveling up unlocks cooler and more powerful spells, with giant flare explosions, thunderstorms, and blizzards with detailed particle effects. You also get rewarded for using certain magic spells, letting you chain faster, flashier keyblade attacks where you're practically invincible until the effect wears off. Combat is really enjoyable, especially as you unlock new skills over time.
Pro Wonderful soundtracks
The soundtracks are incredible. In both Kingdom Hearts 2.8 and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, the music goes above and beyond to convey any given tone or theme wherever they play.
Battle and boss themes are catchy even in their classical influences, with epic final boss songs that tell a story about the main villain through music. Songs for Disney worlds stay true to their original material and are sure to make longtime fans nostalgic for their favorite movies and characters. Even the song that plays on the title screen, "Dearly Beloved", is a quiet but emotional song that stays in your heart. The composer Yoko Shimomura does a fantastic job with the music across the series, putting her background in classical music to use here in the best ways possible.
Pro Includes two games and a short movie in one package
You get a selection of things in a single disc here. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is more of an umbrella name for everything included. There's Kingdom Hearts 2.8: A Fragmentary Passage that features series character Aqua as the protagonist, an HD port of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, and Kingdom Hearts: Back Cover, a short film that covers additional lore and story information that leads into Kingdom Hearts III.
Pro Gets you prepared for story events leading into Kingdom Hearts III
This is perfect for players looking to get ready for Kingdom Hearts III. The games and short movie included in this Kingdom Hearts 2.8 package all show crucial story events, acting as a prologue to the next installment in the series. Playing the games in the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMIX Collection first, and then the ones in Kingdom Hearts 2.8 will get you all caught up to speed on everything you need to know. Since this is such a story-heavy franchise, it's really convenient to be able to pick this up as a companion piece to the ReMIX Collection.
Pro Extensive lore that's presented in unconventional ways
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story.
Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you.
Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Pro Stunning environments
The world of Dark Souls 3 looks amazing, so you may often feel the need to stop and take in the beautiful sights. This can be the sheer size of structures, mountains, or caves. It can also be the decorations, inscriptions, or details in a room. There's always so much to look at, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in its world.
Pro Can give a great feeling of accomplishment
The Dark Souls series is known for its difficulty and Dark Souls 3 is no exception. It's filled with difficult enemies and tough boss battles, able to cause you grief on more than one occasion. However, every time you progress to the next safe spot or defeat a boss you'll often be filled with a mix of joy and relief. Beating this game will almost certainly feel like an achievement.
Pro Unpredictable boss battles
The boss battles in Dark Souls 3 consist of several phases, changing up how the bosses fight over the course of the battle. They will gain new abilities, become more aggressive, or reveal various nasty surprises. This creates an enjoyable experience that is different from most modern games where bosses are just glorified pincushions.
Pro A great variety of equipment for almost any playstyle
You'll be finding new pieces of equipment quite often, giving you many options to choose from. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to pick the equipment that best suits your playstyle.
For example, heavy armor will make you move slower, but you'll be better protected. Greatswords have a wide reach, but you swing them really slow. Conversely a dagger is very fast but it has a horrible reach.
Pro Solid controls
This game feels and plays really well. Your character responds to button inputs immediately and it almost never feels like you're losing control over it. The control scheme can also be customized, giving you the option of a more personalized experience.
Pro Great combat system
Dark Souls 3 is a very fast-paced game but it's not just about having quick reflexes. A lot of the combat comes down to exploiting your enemies. To do that, you have to learn their patterns and attack the moment they pause or perform a telegraphed attack. This creates a combat system, which rewards awareness and patience, and is satisfying to master, even if you don't have extraordinary reflexes.
Cons
Con The playable section with Aqua is only two hours long
Aqua's section, A Fragmentary Passage, is way too short. As the main selling point of Kingdom Hearts 2.8, it's the only new playable content, showing off the latest engine that Kingdom Hearts III uses. But there are only a few areas to explore, and the story is a footnote compared to the length of the rest of the games in the series. This is sadly more like a demo of what Kingdom Hearts III is capable of instead of a full standalone title.
Con Not accessible for newcomers to the Kingdom Hearts series
If you've never played a Kingdom Hearts game before, this isn't the best place to start. The content included here assumes that you're caught up to speed with the series, filling in additional information and expanding on existing plotlines. There are also major spoilers for previous Kingdom Hearts games. New players will have a better time starting with the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMIX Collection first before picking this one up.
Con The gameplay in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance isn't for everyone
Dream Drop Distance drastically changes up the gameplay formula. Combat is a mix of the usual keyblade fights, along with jumping, dashing, and swinging from various surfaces in the environment. Journeying to different worlds is also different, where you "drop down" from an overhead view into the planet's orbit, with rewards to collect and obstacles to avoid along the way. While different doesn't equal bad, this change is pretty out-there compared to the rest of the games in the series, and some players might not like it that much.
Con Poor support for mouse+keyboard control
The default DS3 key/button bindings actually prevent full use of certain weapons by requiring the shift key to be pressed and not-pressed simultaneously. Rebinding is possible, but limited by issues like the left mouse button overriding all others and certain bindings not actually working in game (e.g. Shift+MiddleClick).
Con It's hard
You should try avoiding the trap of great review scores since most of them fail to mention the difficulty. It's simply put - hard. A lot of the combat requires quick reflexes, good mechanics, and the mental fortitude to carry on after failing for hours. If you're new to the Souls-like genre or simply want to enjoy a relaxing evening playing a video game, you most likely won't enjoy Dark Souls III.
Con Poorly tuned dynamic visiblity
You may notice some texture pop in while sharply turning the camera. It can be somewhat distracting if you notice it, but most of the time you won't because it happens in the distance.
Con Occasional performance issues
There are portions of the game that will have noticeable framerate drops, which can negatively affect the gameplay. Most of the fault lies with the game engine, so getting better hardware won't help that much.