Stores across North America have begun selling copies of the English version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days prematurely. As a result of this, KH13.com have purchased a copy of the game, and our coverage of it begins now. Please do not discuss any illegal methods of obtaining the game. If you wish to play 358/2 Days, then please purchase a copy here.
We have been doing a complete playthrough of the game. This involves recording each day, and uploading videos. Currently, at the time of writing, we are up to Day 300. This can be viewed below, in a playlist. Any videos you watch may contain spoilers, as they aim to serve as complete coverage of the game.
After the playthrough is complete, we will be uploading cutscenes and boss battles from the game in the highest possible quality. These videos will also be available to download from KH13.com, so please watch us over the next couple of days as we keep you updated.
Tokyo Game Show 2009 has come to an end in Japan. At this event, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep was featured. Videos of the Birth by Sleep feature have begun appearing, including footage of the game's demo. These recordings can be viewed below, thanks to IGN and Famitsu.com.
Stores across North America have begun selling copies of the English version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days prematurely. As a result of this, KH13.com have purchased a copy of the game, and our coverage of it begins now. Please do not discuss any illegal methods of obtaining the game. If you wish to play 358/2 Days, then please purchase a copy here.
First, we will be doing a complete playthrough of the game. This involves recording each day, and uploading videos. Currently, at the time of writing, we are up to Day 120. This can be viewed below, in a playlist. Any videos you watch may contain spoilers, as they aim to serve as complete coverage of the game.
After the playthrough is complete, we will be uploading cutscenes and boss battles from the game in the highest possible quality. These videos will also be available to download from KH13.com, so please watch us over the next couple of days as we keep you updated.
Tokyo Game Show 2009 is currently running in Japan, and at this event, a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep was shown, in addition to playable demos for the game. Two general video gaming sources, IGN and 1UP, have written up their impressions of the game. These impressions reveal many details about Birth by Sleep, and are certainly worth a read. They can be seen at our forum.
Lastly, HEARTSTATION.ORG have expanded on their previously written trailer impression. It now includes a full script, and even more details. This can be read at our forum.
Also written by HEARTSTATION.ORG are detailed summaries for the Birth by Sleep demos. These can also be read at our forum.
Famitsu.com have recently updated with an article concerning Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. HEARTSTATION.ORG have translated this article, and it can now be read below.
Multiplayer Information and the Springing Birth by Sleep ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Snow White’ worlds are also unveiled!
‘Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep’: an action RPG in which players can enjoy the story of three heroes, Terra, Ventus and Aqua. The original story that unfolds in Disney worlds, a characteristic of the series, is powered up even further. With old favourites such as ‘Peter Pan’, and first-time appearances such as ‘Snow White’, players can enjoy every bit of the charm of a Disney production to their hearts content. This time, we unveil information on these worlds, the battle system, and something that has been kept secret until now: multiplayer!
"You shouldn’t associate with a petty pirate like Hook"
"I think my friend dropped that. Could you please leave it with me?"
In Peter Pan’s world, Neverland, Captain Hook is plotting something again. It also seems like Peter Pan is looking for something. The blue crystal that Tinker Bell has in her hands seems to be a jewel; perhaps this is what he is searching for. In a new film clip, it was called a ‘star fragment’…
"You guys don’t want the pirate’s treasure!?"
"That will be your treasure."
The ones Terra is speaking to are the Lost Boys, appearing for the first time in the series. They are boys who have gone astray from their parents, and do not age. At present, they are buddies who take orders from Peter Pan, and pass the time having fun in Neverland. What kind of role will they play, we wonder?
"If they’re a friend of yours, Ven, then we wouldn’t expect them to do such a thing."
"We were changed by Snow White’s purity."
"If you can heed my wishes, I’ll let you use this mirror to find the whereabouts of Xehanort."
In Snow White’s world, Ven and Aqua co-operate with the seven dwarves for the sake of Snow White. On the other side, it looks like Terra is doing dealings with the Queen, who is after Snow White’s life. In the same world, in the regular storyline, the three quarrel: an unexpected development?
Aqua, who has been sucked into the Queen’s mirror. Here, a battle with this magic mirror which baffles by using many kinds of attacks, disappearing at will, and making clones, unfolds. Amongst the lined up masks, the real one must be there… Individuality Abounds in Shoot Lock technique
Shoot lock, a strong technique that fires a powerful attack at a locked-on enemy. Activate Shoot Lock mode by holding down the L+R buttons, and lock on to the enemies by working the analogue stick! In that state, hit the circle button, and a refreshing, special move that can wipe out many enemies is released. Let’s showcase each of the three’s different Shoot Lock techniques!
The Shoot Lock technique that Terra uses is called ‘Star Burst’. Countless bullets of light are fired from the keyblade, and shoot the enemies down one by one! If the number of lock ons is maxed, extra input commands become possible. In Terra’s case, bash the circle button, and a finish move is unleashed!
The Shoot Lock that Ven fires is called ‘Photon Charge’, a move which slashes the locked-on enemies over and over. Max the number of lock ons after slashing, and a circle button icon is displayed. Successfully hit the button, and it flows into a finish move in which pillars of light rise up.
Aqua, who has many showy moves, has a Shoot Lock called ‘Rainbow Shower’, which involves shooting seven-coloured light. The seven-coloured light, fired from the keyblade at once, chases after the enemy. When piled up in the middle of a shrinking circle, hit circle button with good timing, and as a finish, even more light zooms around. Multiplayer Using Wireless LAN Function!
Using wireless LAN function, you can enjoy multiplayer! Enter ‘Mirage Arena’, a world for communication use, and your character becomes an armoured warrior, and you can enjoy various contents. And, it is still undecided whether we will be able to formed parties ad hoc for connected battles, through the PS3.
Choose which contents to play with on an exclusive computer terminal. And, multi- and single-play are completely compatible. The items gained, and the degree of character growth can be carried over.
In the Arena, one of the connected contents, co-operate to defeat enemies. By rescuing trapped comrades, and reviving those fallen by mashing the circle button, the co-op component is fully loaded.
A commercial for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has begun showing in North America, on YTV. choboco_king has recorded this trailer, and thanks to him, you can view it below, our download it from our trailers section for the game.
Famitsu.com have updated with an article concerning the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game for PSP, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. This article includes new and previously seen screenshots in high quality, featuring the worlds Neverland and Dwarf Woodlands. All included screenshots can be viewed below, in our gallery.
Famitsu.com (September 25, 2009)
All images are from Famitsu.com.
The latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation magazine has included an interview with the director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura, concerning the release of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. ReBirth Wings have typed up a script of this interview, and Kingdom Hearts Insider have translated it. You can read this translation below.
-- We’re at the part in development where we’ve just finished recording voices and are now getting to the best part. How we should present the credits at the end, what day we should release it, now we’re just starting to think about these things concretely.
At TGS you can play as each of our three characters, and even try out the multiplayer in “Mirage Arena.” There will be four different types of modes you can play in. Cooperative games in the Arena will be be short mission type games that will be found in the Arena only.
-- We aren’t planning for this game to be like Days, where the multiplayer and single player have equal importance. We feel that the main story for this game takes precedence.
-- [The armor they wear in the Arena] isn’t so important for battles, as it is for the story where they will wear it frequently.
-- The story will start out with the three of them together, which will continue until a certain point where you’ll have to choose a character. After that you’ll have to play until that scenario is finished. Once you’ve finished one you’ll have to choose another character again at the same time as you did before. There will be different endings for each character “Actually that part was a bit difficult, we considered making seperate credits for each of the three main characters (laugh)”
You can tell the love and effort that went into this game by how much there is of it. Even though it’s the same world, there will not only be differences in the scenario but different bosses to fight for each character. For example, in Cinderella’s world Aqua fights the pumpkin carriage as a boss, but Terra fights a boss that uses musical instruments.
-- The main characters actually meet several times during the story. Like when they get to a new world they’ll meet one of them, or it will be just after one of them had been there. So only after you’ve finished all three of the scenarios will you understand why a certain scene happened in a certain way. “That’s why if your friend is playing too, you probably shouldn’t talk about the story with each other. You’d probably spoil each other for the story. So it’s probably best to wait until after you’ve finished all three scenarios to talk about it (laugh)”
-- In what order you go to each world will vary by character, but you do have a little bit of choice in where to go.
-- You can’t fly in Neverland. “I won’t tell you why, I’ll just say that 'They are people who don’t need to fly.'" If you play all three scenarios until the end, will there be something? He says, “That’s a secret. (laugh)”
Tokyo Game Show 2009 is running in Japan, and at this event, both Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts coded are featured. Although photos and videos of trailers at the event have not yet surfaced online, many impressions have been written concerning them. This detailed impression comes from HEARTSTATION.ORG, and can be read below. Also, many illustrations were included in this impression, including one of a new character from Birth by Sleep, so be sure to check those out below, in our gallery.
Tokyo Game Show 2009
Thanks to Joystiq and HEARTSTATION.ORG.
Aqua made three charms like the one Kairi gives Sora, she gives one to Ven and one to Terra. The area they’re at is completely new area. There’s a town/castle with a purplish glow in the background and they are on a beach looking area. Here’s my sad illustration of it.
The next scenes reveal the new character who appears to be Terra, Aqua, and Ven’s Master, though his name isn’t revealed. He has dark brown hair and very chiseled features, I can’t remember if he had facial hair. His hair was tied back and there was a zigzag swirl bang on the left side of his face. He wore a yukata like robe with his chest bare, and straps crossing over it in an X shape. Again, here’s my poor illustration of him.
In this scene the new character is talking to Terra, Ven and Aqua, who are lined up in front of Master Xehanort and the new guy. Behind those three is a stained glass window wand the area they are in has a palace feel to it. The bits about “Master Qualification Exam” is spoken about here. Master Xehanort is sitting upon a throne the whole time.
Then it switches up and new scenes with Mickey are shown! He is wearing the same outfit as seen in previous screenshots. He is riding atop a large book under a flood of water thats creating a whirlpool. It looks very much like something out of Fantasia. Again, poor drawing.
My memory starts getting fuzzier here. Especially since it was the first trailer shown, my mind is starting to misplace things. Terra speaking with the Queen from Snow White was shown, as well as Aqua approaching the Seven Dwarfs after she’s fallen asleep. Aqua on the floor of Cinderella’s home while the Step Mother and sisters approach her, the guy with the slipper wants to try it on Aqua. Lots of gameplay scenes. Mostly custscenes we’ve seen before.
The scene where Ven is wearing his armor and floats after Stitch in Deep Space is very reminiscent of the end of Kingdom Hearts II when fighting Xehanort where Riku is driving the device to chase after Xehanort and Sora does the fighting. Anyways, it looks alot like the thing he is floating on is made from his Keyblade, similar to the fight with the Lingering Sentiment in Final Mix how his Keyblade transforms.
Eventually we see Vexen dressed in a white lab coat in what I assume is Radiant Gardens. It looks just like vexen, no visual differences. Xaldin and Lexeaus are dressed in guard uniforms in front of a large door, and they block someone from entering. They’re wielding long stick weapon things, but I can’t remember what they looked like other than they were black.
The outfits Lexaeus and Xaldin wore were dark blue with a lighter color down the middle. Buttons down the sides, and a red and silver heart decal under the collar. Just like Xeven, they have no physical differences from their appearance as members of Organization XIII. More bad drawings.
The last scenes show the masked Keyblade wielder accosting Ven. It looks like it leads up to the scene where Ven is knocked over in front of this guy seen in other trailers. He speaks to Ven and summons a Keyblade. The Keyblade looks like the one Riku used in Kingdom Hearts, and his stance as he holds the Keyblade is the same as Riku’s. His voice is masculine, but not very deep, alluding to the notion he maybe quite young.
After that, the same scene shown in KH2 Final Mix where the Keyblade graveyard is reanimated in Birth by Sleep graphics, only Terra and company aren’t wearing their armor. Just like before, Master Xehanort is approaching the trio and the masked wielder appears out of him. This is where Master Xehanort explains about the Keyblade war.
Sorry for the lack of details, I’ll watch it again later today and try to remember more! I played Aqua in the Birth by Sleep demo, fought the Man in the Mirror as the boss. I foolishly ran through the level without checking things out in detail, but I’ll report more on that later.
The highlights of the Coded trailer involved Sora breaking into the library room Mickey and company monitor their computer from. Mickey pulls out his Keyblade in surprise. Lots of gameplay scenes. The last scene shows Riku first with his hood on appear digitally and then once he’s done appearing, he isn’t waring a hood. Sora shouts out to him, “Riku!”, but with his arms crossed and sounding quite sour, he says “I am not Riku.”
Tokyo Game Show 2009 has recently started in Japan. Recently, at this event, Square Enix have announced that they are working on the second album of Piano Collections Kingdom Hearts. The only known track of this album is Sinister Sundown, which was given out on a promotional CD at the event.
Footage has surfaced from the current event occurring in Japan, Tokyo Game Show 2009, where the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game for PSP, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is featured. This footage comes from Natural Born Gamer, and includes small clips from Birth by Sleep. You can view it below.
Tokyo Game Show 2009 has recently started in Japan, and featured at this event is the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game for PSP, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. A new trailer for the game is showing at the event, and although this trailer has not surfaced online yet, summaries of the trailer are available. Famitsu.com have posted an article concerning the event, and included in this article are screenshots, and an extensive trailer summary. The screenshots can be view below, in our gallery, and a translated version of the article, supplied by HEARTSTATION.ORG, can be read below.
Famitsu.com (September 24, 2009)
All images are from Famitsu.com.
Latest trailer begins with Aqua, of the 3 main characters, giving goodluck charms made up of seashells to Ven and Terra. Continuing, a new character that looks like a samurai appears. Terra and Aqua are shown in a scene explaining the “Master Qualification Exam”, will the two of them take the test to become masters? Nearby Master Xehanort is there as a so called “guest”. In the scene Master Xehanort explains a lesson to Terra, at this point in time Master Xehanort is respected by everyone.
Master Xehanort has been revealed publically before, but gathering from this image, there seems to be a sense of madness exerted from him…
Many previously revealed scenes are shown consecutively, and then a scene that looks like a board game in every aspect is shown. Cinderella rolls some dice and the game advances exactly like a board game. In the past, this game’s director Tetsuya Nomura mentioned “A growth system that’s quite different from other systems, maybe you could call it a mini game…?” Could this be what he was talking about!? Moreover, Vexen in a white robe, as well as the two soldier like figures of Xaldin and Lexaeus are there as one might think their human forms appeared before they were in Organization XIII. Also, in the same booth guests could try out the multiplayer mode, as well as observe plenty of new worlds like Peter Pan and Cinderella.
The 3 person multiplayer scenes were publically revealed. It happens in Peter Pan’s world, though the scenes seem to be different than what has appeared in the past titles.
Additionally, the masked Keyblade user who appeared with Master Xehanort is given a voice for the first time. Ven is shown in his mysterious armor like what the “Lingering Sentiment” wore in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, he rides the Keyblade with Stitch, flying into space. Anyways, there were many astonishing scenes shown in rapid succession. The release date announced at the end is for January 2010 in Japan.
The mysterious person that appears wearing a body suit like that of motorcycle rider. Though their voice was masculine…
Kingdom Hearts Mobile & Coded
In Kingdom Hearts Mobile, images of the new mini game “Rhythm Parade” which has begun distribution recently appeared. It was a cute image of FF series characters moving alongside with the avatar characters. Kingdom Hearts coded is continuously being publically featured, this time mostly with a focus on Episode 3 and Episode 4 which are distributing now. A boss stage in side scroll style was shown, as well as scenes featuring command battle methods. The high spec images were something you wouldn’t expect from a mobile video game. Also, at the end a man in a black hood appears suddenly in the room of the King (Mickey) and his company. The hood is lifted… And the face that is shown looks like that of Riku from the original Kingdom Hearts! However, the man in the hood says “I am not Riku!” The ending images just call on mystery upon mystery and leave you anxious for more.
Tokyo Game Show 2009 has begun in Japan. Featured at this event are Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts coded. Information concerning Birth by Sleep from this event has begun to surface. FF-Reunion report that Birth by Sleep was announced to be released in January 2010 for Japan. Also, photos of the event are surfacing, and will be uploaded to our gallery, below.
Tokyo Game Show 2009
Thanks to Joystiq.
The latest issue of Famitsu magazine has included an article on Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. The article discusses the worlds Neverland and Dwarf Woodland, as well as includes information concerning multiplayer mode. Kingdom Hearts Insider have uploaded scans of this article, and it can now be viewed below, in our gallery. Also, Kingdom Hearts Insider have translated the article, and this can be viewed at our forum.
Famitsu (November 2009)
Thanks to Kingdom Hearts Insider.
Square Enix Members have created a website for the English version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. This website has a wallpaper section, as well as a Q&A section where fans can ask the development team their questions. All featured wallpapers, which focus on each member of Organization XIII, can be viewed below, in our gallery.
Square Enix Members
All images are from Square Enix Members.
