History VideoGame / KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: ''0.2'' also doubles as an explanation as to what exactly Mickey was up to in the original ''Kingdom Hearts''. Specifically, how he got the Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness, and how he appeared at the end of the original game.

** This game follows a more modern saving paradigm (granted, the last main game was on [=PS2=] before this kind of thing was common)--the game autosaves, and the main menu features a "Continue" option that will load the most recent save instead of forcing you to select a particular file on the "Load" menu.

** As with their first meeting in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', Sora, Donald, and Goofy adopt a comically stiff, upright posture when addressed by Yen Sid. Additionally, Yen Sid tells Sora that he should [[spoiler:visit WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} to finish his training, as Herc, much like Sora, [[HeroicBSOD lost his strength]] [[HesBack but found it again]] during his Olympus Coliseum subplot in ''Kingdom hearts II''.]]

** On a smaller note: The information boxes in ''Birth By Sleep's'' Secret Episode only ever refers to the Heartless as "mysterious enemies." While ''0.2'' does away with this for simplicity, Aqua herself only learns the creatures' proper name from Mickey when the two meet.

* MirrorBoss: Literally ''and'' figuratively! [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Once again]], Aqua has to battle inside [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Magic Mirror]]--but this time, it's against [[EvilKnockoff an evil copy of herself]]. The copy in question can perform variations of Aqua's own attacks and spells (including [[LimitBreak Spellweaver]]), with some TeleportSpam, DoppelgangerSpin, and DoppelgangerAttack thrown in for extra challenge. The copy's theme music is even a darker and more psychotic remix of Aqua's own {{Leitmotif}}.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The swarm of Shadow Heartless that forms a tornado is called "Demon Tide". It certainly earns its moniker due to [[spoiler:being the final boss in the game and certainly being a force to be reckoned with, especially when it TurnsRed. It's also the very reason why Aqua couldn't escape to the Realm of Light at the end of first game.]]

* PaintingTheMedium: Averted. The Heartless were only referred to in info-boxes as "mysterious enemies" in the Secret Episode of ''Birth By Sleep''. In ''0.2,'' info-boxes call them what they are from the start. [[InternalReveal Aqua herself however only learns about "The Heartless" from Mickey later]].

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The game sets up where all the main characters will be for ''Kingdom Hearts III'': Riku and Mickey set out to rescue Aqua, Kairi prepares to train as a proper Keyblade wielder alongside Lea, and Sora embarks on a journey to Olympus Coliseum with Donald and Goofy to complete his training with Hercules.]]

* SpellLevels: ''0.2'' marks the introduction of proper, usable 4th-tier Magic (Zero Graviza aside) via Situation Commands, although this time, yet ''another'' suffix for 4th-tier magic is introduced; namely, [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_tier_system the "-ja" suffix]] from the mainline ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games is finally borrowed.[[note]]English dub only; in Japan, the "-agun" suffix from ''Kingdom Hearts II'' is recycled.[[/note]]

* ThemeMusicPowerUp: [[spoiler:"Terra" plays during its namesake's (meta)physical struggle with Xehanort, though it's initially subverted in that Xehanort has a slight advantage until Terra musters up enough willpower out of his concern for Aqua and Ven (as well as his pre-established hatred of Xehanort) to temporarily immobilize his captor.]]

* VideoGameVista: To get trophy no. 24, the player has to reach the uppermost spot of Castle Town (a part of Cinderella's world). Upon reaching it, the camera pans out to show an aerial view of the town, then pans in to focus on the castle.

* YankTheDogsChain: Aqua gets hit with this a number of times, just to ensure she never has lasting solace in the Realm of Darkness. The first happens when she sees Terra and Ven in the Castle of Dreams and Dwarf Woodlands, respectively, only to discover they're just illusions. Then she finally manages to reunite with Terra at Enchanted Dominion, but complications surrounding his [[FightingFromTheInside possession by Xehanort]] force them to split up, while Ven is present but not even conscious. [[spoiler:Finally, it turns out that Aqua was present on the other side of the Door to Darkness with Mickey and Riku during the first game's events, meaning she could've had a chance to reach the Realm of Light together with them had they not been separated by a Heartless ambush (by a swarm of Shadows, no less).]]

!''A Fragmentary Passage'' includes the following tropes:

* AfterTheEnd: Aqua discovers the remains of the Castle of Dreams, Dwarf Woodlands, and Enchanted Dominion after those worlds fell to darkness. Eventually, she ends up on [[spoiler:the remains of Destiny Islands in the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI End of the World]]]].

* DarkReprise: Aqua's theme gets a more demented-sounding reprise during the battle with her mirror copy.

** Real minor, but the Dark World, the "world" the game is set in, is really just the realm of darkness (''yami no sekai'') and is referred to as such in the Japanese version. The world logos are in English in the Japanese version, however, which went with the literal translation of "dark world." The English version opted for calling the level "Dark World" instead of editing the logo. Note however that this is simply what this level is called in menus--all the actual story content still uses the term "realm of darkness".

* TheHedgeOfThorns: Maleficent's hedge of thorns is nearly all that's left of Enchanted Dominion now that it's been pulled into the Realm of Darkness. Its paths are blocked be vines that Aqua has to strike with her Keyblade to remove and red thorns that need to be cleared out with magic. There are also a few dozen Darksides of varying degrees of strength among the thorns, about half of which are actively trying to destroy the place. The only other part of Enchanted Dominion that remains intact is Maleficent's castle.

* WordSaladTitle: In the series' grand tradition. Especially if you include the title of the collection this appears in: ''[[LongTitle Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue: Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-]]''.

* LowLevelRun: Beating the game once unlocks the EXP Zero option in the Options menu, so you can attempt playing the game at Level 50.

* SelfImposedChallenge: After beating the game once, the EXP Gain option is unlocked in Options. Setting it to "Off" is functionally identical to the EXP Zero Ability from previous games, but is now a toggled setting instead of an Ability.

** On a smaller note: The information boxes in ''Birth By Sleep's'' Secret Episode only ever refers to the Heartless as "mysterious enemies." Aqua finally learns their proper name from Mickey when the two meet.

* InternalReveal: Aqua learns from Terra directly that he was subjected to GrandTheftMe at the hands of Master Xehanort. While she knew Terra was taken over by a dark entity during her battle with Terra-Xehanort in the Final Episode of ''Birth by Sleep'', it was never concretely established that she knew the identity of Terra's possessor, hence why she asks Terra-Xehanort who he is. [[note]]The information boxes used in both phases of the Terra-Xehanort battle do mention Xehanort by name, but this is likely relaying information the player would already know from having played all three individual stories in ''BBS'', not Aqua's own knowledge of the situation.[[/note]] Additionally, she discovers that [[spoiler:Xehanort is trying to use his connection to her through Terra to find out Ven's whereabouts]], which was first implicated as far back as ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix]]''.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, and the first original home console release in the series since ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and serves as not only a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as both an {{Interquel}} set during the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

* SequelDifficultySpike: After ''II'', the last game to use this particular combat system, was derided for being "Mash ▲ to Win: The Video Game," ''0.2'' took a huge leap forward in terms of difficulty; enemy aggressiveness has been greatly tuned up, the enemies in general are far more annoying and will often break out of stunlock, and on higher difficulties, ''regular'' Heartless can quickly chew through all your HP in just three or four attacks.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, and the first original home console release in the series since ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and serves as not only a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as both an {{Interquel}} set during the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

** Luxu is seen in the Keyblade Graveyard watching [[ApocalypseHow the end of the world]] with the towering pillars of rock that were formed during ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' still present.

* BossRush: [[spoiler:In a NewGamePlus, chests containing Zodiac Relics appear in the game's four areas. If you collect all 12 Relics, a new mirror in The World Within will spawn, leading you to a gauntlet that includes a Darkside, multiple Heartless waves, a Demon Tower, and [[BonusBoss a super-buffed Phantom Aqua]].]]

** [[spoiler:The BonusBoss Phantom Aqua has bright orange attacks that can't be blocked.]]

* InterfaceScrew: One room involves numerous pillars and a mirror floor. Attacking specific pillars will cause Aqua to appear on the other side of the floor, with the screen inverting accordingly.

** Phantom Aqua has two smaller battles where she only has one HP bar. She returns for a third time as a full-on boss battle with 3 HP bars, then again as a BonusBoss. The reason she's this and not a SequentialBoss is the mirror portals can be accessed in any order -- a few are just rooms where Heartless show up -- and each mirror portal itself has a puzzle to figure out and some Heartless to fight before reaching her, even though the first and last fight can be within twenty minutes of each other.

* ATasteOfPower: On a meta scale, ''Kingdom Hearts 0.2'' serves as this to ''Kingdom Hearts III''. Aqua starts the game at Level 50 with the Master's Defender and already knows several mid-game skills, including all 3rd-tier Magic, Air Slide, Aerial Recovery, Doubleflight, and Prism Rain.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, and the first original console release in the series since ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and serves as not only a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as both an {{Interquel}} set during the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and serves as not only a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as both an {{Interquel}} set during the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and not only serves as a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as both an {{Interquel}} set during the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

The game is about the length of one ''Kingdom Hearts III'' world, and focuses on Aqua, one of the three viewpoint characters of of ''Birth by Sleep'', who is trapped in the Realm of Darkness after her adventures in that game. Aqua investigates worlds trapped alongside her in the dark realm, and struggles to keep going, her hope and faith in jeopardy.

The game elaborates on some lingering plot threads and teases new ones while demoing ''III''[='s=] graphics and gameplay. Several mechanics were saved for a proper debut in ''III'', but this game gives an early introduction to Situation Commands, contextual techniques that appear at the end of certain combos. These can allow Aqua to enter a Style Change, which alters her normal attack combo, or trigger [[LimitBreak powerful finishing moves]]. Aqua also retains her Shotlock ability from ''Birth by Sleep'', which will also return in ''III''.

* StandardStatusEffects: Some of the statuses introduced in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' are added to this game's Magic, such as being able to Freeze enemies with Blizzaga or afflict Jolt with Thundaga.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and not only serves as a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as both an {{Interquel}} set during ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI I'' and a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and not only serves as a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]''), an {{Interquel}} set during ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI I'', and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

''Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-'' is the ninth game (not counting remakes) in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. It is a playable episode included in the 2017 {{compilation|Rerelease}} ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', and not only serves as a direct sequel to the Secret Episode of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' (''also'' called ''[[RecycledTitle A Fragmentary Passage]]'') and the secret ending of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but as a lead-in to the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

* FrickinLaserBeams: The Darkside in this game possess the ability to fire [[DeathFromAbove sky lasers]] at Aqua.

** As with their first meeting in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', Sora, Donald, and Goofy adopt a comically stiff, upright posture when addressed by Yen Sid. Additionally, Yen Sid tells Sora that he should [[spoiler:visit Disney/{{Hercules}} to finish his training, as Herc, much like Sora, [[HeroicBSOD lost his strength]] [[HesBack but found it again]] during his Olympus Coliseum subplot in ''Kingdom hearts II''.]]

* MirrorBoss: Literally ''and'' figuratively! [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Once again]], Aqua has to battle inside [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Magic Mirror]]--but this time, it's against [[EvilKnockoff an evil copy of herself]]. The copy in question can perform variations of Aqua's own attacks and spells (including [[LimitBreak Spellweaver]]), with some TeleportSpam, DoppelgangerSpin, and DoppelgangerAttack thrown in for extra challenge. The copy's theme music is even a darker and more psychotic remix of Aqua's own {{Leitmotif}}.

* MythologyGag: In order to restore the bridge leading to the Castle of Dreams, Aqua must turn back the clock on the clock tower until it reads midnight, the same time when Cinderella's magic would wear off [[Disney/{{Cinderella}} in the original Disney film]].