Kingdom hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP) and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)

[Meggido]

Ok these 2 being KH games will get a join topic even though they are vastly different. So firstly I will start at the beginning with Birth by Sleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsNEwm0Vp8w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IgDxprn8bk (poor quality)

Anyone who has played KH 2 will probably remember the extra ending where there were 3 keyblade weilders in a deserted terrain full of keyblades. Well original speculation was this would be a lead in for KH3 where as in truth this was a lead in for Birth by Sleep. To explain the difference I said I was starting from the beginning(mwahahaha), well Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is set 10 years before the original Kingdom hearts. Basically the story tells of a keyblade master, Xehanort who has disappeared along with his apprentice. It was seen that this may lead to trouble so another Keyblade master instructed his three apprentices, Ven, Terra and Aqua to search out Xehanort and stop whatever he is planning. It appears that Xehanort has a striking resemblance to the character by the same name in the original KH games, and Ven looks a lot like Roxas. Apparantly this will all be explained as you play through the 3 different storylines. (yes a storyline for each of the 3 apprentices) Everything will only be explained once all 3 character's stories have been finished and the gamer has a full understanding. Also the battle system has been said to resemble something alike to Chain of memories but to what extent we don't know yet.

Now lets move onto Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days. This will actually be the first of the 2 games to be released looking at a December 2008 release in japan. This game is also likely to have all the Roxas x Axel fans completely ecstatic. Before giving the trailer link it has been suggested that since there is 365 days in a year and KH 2 gives the last 7 days before Roxas returns to being Sora, the 358 refers to the rest of the year that Sora was asleep and Roxas was around.

(no official trailer available)

Another game where it has been said that the meaning of the title will actually be revealed with the games ending and that the days is only just tact on to make speculation about the title. 358/2 days will basically tell the story of Roxas joining Organization XIII right up until the point where Roxas leaves (end of chain of memories to start of KH2). It can be assumed now that players will take on the roll of Roxas. In single player you will occasionally be accomapanied by other members of the organization while in multiplayer missions you can team up with a friend and pick one of 4 (i think at the moment) members of the organization to play as. Controls will be similar to the PS2 games but altered to fit the DS.

[Meggido]

Looks like 358/2 days has been pushed back to a February 09' release in japan and later for Aus/US. Birth by Sleep still has no tentative date.

[Allegreto]

Grr.......(Biting somebody's head).....
oh well, my DS kinda screwed up anyway, if I played a game that requires lots of button punching (A &B), it will just die suddenly....
Anybody has the same problem b4?

[Meggido]

here's some scans which I found on KHInsider regarding the 14th member of Organization XII. These are all related to 358/2 days. The 14th member is named Xion and from the screens she seems to know both Sora and Kairi in some way.

http://www.khinsider.com/images/TGSWrap/Days/scans/daysscan03.jpg
http://www.khinsider.com/images/!!!/trans/days07t.jpg
http://www.khinsider.com/images/!!!/trans/days11t.jpg
http://www.khinsider.com/images/!!!/trans/days01t.jpg

One thing that came up after KH2 was the fact that if you removed the X and rearranged the letters from Organization XIII's member you'd get their real names i.e. Roxas becomes Sora...but I can't think of what it would be for Xion...closest I can think of is Ion but only because I've been playing Tales of the Abyss. XD We'll just have to wait for the games release and maybe we'll be shown then. Oh and expect the ending of this game to be somewhat of a trainwreck ending (sad and unstoppable) similar to Crisis Core since aspects are already set in stone.

Edit: you'll have to copy the last 3 links into your address bar as the 3 !'s in each of the links breaks the link even though they're a part of it.

[Akulatraxas]

hoooo... sad ending game? Seriously why KH which i think such a cute game, deserves such a sad ending in the first place. I reckon from KH 1 to 2 and now to KH DS and PSP, the story is getting darker by the time Ala Final Fantasy. Is this their strategy to grab more adult market for KH? Or is it just simply a plot variation?

[Meggido]

The story's always been kinda dark...the thing is it's permanently back grounded by the cutesy bright coloured, Disney aspects. What I want to see is an FF based world, not just the inclusion of FF characters.

[Akulatraxas]

I reckon its because they want to create a separate but integrated franchise, so both FF and KH can sell as their own brand without having to depend on the other. The inclusion of FF characters there are pretty much to make sure that serious FF player will be interested to get KH as well, its just marketing that they are doing, but they wont make KH with FF sort of background, its just different positioning product that they are doing.

[Meggido]

10 days until 358/2 gets a Japanese release. At the moment a US release is assumed to be late August and a Aus release next may but these are just tentative release dates. Info from KHinsider suggests that all 14 members of organization 13 will be playable in the multiplayer aspect of the game.

New birth by sleep info is that apart from some picks there's absolutely none. Birth by Sleep was supposed to be out at a similar time to 358/2 but the very little info surrounding it suggests it's still early-mid production. But looking at some of the very limited screenshots and damn ven doesn't just look like Roxas, he pretty much is Roxas. Also out of the other two keyblade wielders one kinda looks like Squall with a makeover to make him appear different.

[Meggido]

ok first impression of 358/2 days on the DS.

1) I have no idea of the actual story since I don't read Japanese and I know only limited words. For one I want an explanation for why the members of Organization XIII who were supposed to have been killed in Chain of memories are still alive. Anywho the game starts at day 255 with a cut scene between Axel and Roxas however it seems that despite scenes of Roxas, Axel and Xion (the 14th member) on the clocktowershe's not around at this stage. we then revert back to day 7 where Xion is introduced by we don't see her face. from this I assume that she's completely out of the picture by day 255 but that's my assumption. So now it might seem like the game plays through all the days between 7 and 255 (and possibly further) but once you do the mission for day 15-day 17 it then skips to day 22 so there is some time jumping.

2) Gameplay. No different from previous KH games. A is attack, B is jump, y is dodge roll, x rotates through the menu on the lower left. The game is mission based. You've got a hub which is the organization's HQ where you can access menu's and customization screens. After talking to Xemnas you then go to the mission screen (not available till day 14) and jump into the mission. There are a variety of missions from wipe out all heartless to survive for the time limit and kill a certain amount of one type of heartless. The game is not overly easy, on standard the first boss (in mission 9) had 8 and a quarter health bars. In missions you can't access your menu but you'll have 1 or 2 members from the organization joining you.

3) there are 2 game modes. Story mode and mission mode. Story mode is self explanatory. Mission mode is where you can get together with up to 4 friends to go head to head while cooperatively finishing missions. In mission mode you can pick one of the characters from organization XIII to play as and while the controls are all the same they do play differently. I've only used Roxas in story mode (who's just like KH 1 and 2) and Xemnas in mission mode who while not so great on the ground can chain together some large air combos. For mission mode you transfer your story mode data across for missions, so you can't quite jump straight into mission mode though it gives xp, items, and munnies that can transfer to your story mode file.

I'm only on day 22 and so far the only places I've got access to are the Organization's HQ and twilight Town (starting area KH2). There are no shops yet and the new collectable (hearts) doesn't seem to hold a purpose quite yet. At the moment though it's pretty addictive and i can't wait for a english localization.

Edit: ok I found a brief story explanation and it seems that after day 22-23 is when the Chain of memories story takes place though I have no idea how long it goes for. So now we have Sora's Nobody coming into existence before it was originally suggested so there may be more interesting developments.

Also I forgot to mention the camera. At times it feel's awkward. While you can use the stylus on the bottom screen to move the camera (on the top screen) and use the R bottom to reposition the camera behind yourself there are times where it will get into really awkward positions. The camera actually killed me twice on the first boss.

[Akulatraxas]

Hoooo.... this one seems to be an interesting one!! ohhh , i must get it soon for my DS!!! Anyone knows anything about Birth By Sleep?

[Meggido]

Only that at e3 they announced that it's been held up a lot.

[Meggido]

358/2 days is getting a Pal release next month (october).

[Chrono]

omg... you know how long i've been waiting for this game -.- like for years!!! and its still not out lol... >.<