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When was the last time you heard anything new about Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep? Unless you work at Square Enix, it's been over 10 months -- they haven't shown the project off much since the 2008 Tokyo Game Show. That all changes with this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, which reveals story details, shows off a couple of new worlds and gives you more of that natural Tetsuya Nomura sheen that you can't stop craving.
Here are some of the new details revealed:
- The PSP game is the first chronologically as far as the plot's concerned, depicting Aqua, Ventus and Terra on the chase after Master Xehanort. All three characters operate independently for the most part, and you choose which one to control at the start of the game. "There's plot for all three people in each world and the bosses are different for each one, so it's like having three games in one," director Nomura told Famitsu. "If you're playing with friends, the content of the game will change if you choose different characters, so you'll have to be careful not to spoil the story for each other."
- What does this mean for game length? "Right now we're imagining 15 hours for one character," Nomura says. "If you get into customizing your deck and so forth, you can get pretty involved timewise, so you might be looking at over 50 hours of gameplay if you play as all three."
- One new world in Birth by Sleep is Castle of Dreams, home to Cinderella (whom we last saw in the original Kingdom Hearts). Essentially this is a retelling of the old fairy tale, with each of the three heroes playing differing roles in it. Ventus, who's three inches tall in this world for some reason, has to help Jaq the mouse get material for Cinderella's royal gown. Terra, who believes that finding Xehanort involves tracking down a "heart of pure light," thinks Cinderella is the key to discovering that. Aqua, for her part, is chasing after the other two and somehow winds up being the one who puts on the glass slippers.
- Meanwhile, Deep Space is Lilo & Stitch land, although there's no Lilo -- it's the bit from the start of the film when "Experiment 626" is still making his escape from the alien spaceship. Terra has, by chance, infiltrated this spaceship and winds up helping 626 out; Aqua, for her part, winds up getting saved by 626 from some unspecified menace; and Ventus, who arrives after the other two, is the one that finally gets the blue thingie off the spaceship for good. All three will be chased after by Gantu and his Experiment 221.
- The battle system is an evolution of the usual KH action-RPG malarkey. Depending on how you fight, your Command Style will change, and so will the moves you can unleash. This Style can change whenever you fill up the Command Gauge; it all depends on whether you trigger a change based on the types of commands you've been using. If you don't trigger a change, you'll execute a powerful Finish Command instead.
- Birth by Sleep still has a tentative "winter" release date in Japan. Nomura commented that the exact date won't be finalized until Final Fantasy XIII's is. "Since FFXIII is further ahead in development, I imagine it will come first," he said, "but I think people will get to play this without waiting too much longer."
The game will be available in some sort of playable format at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show in late September.
source
Here are some of the new details revealed:
- The PSP game is the first chronologically as far as the plot's concerned, depicting Aqua, Ventus and Terra on the chase after Master Xehanort. All three characters operate independently for the most part, and you choose which one to control at the start of the game. "There's plot for all three people in each world and the bosses are different for each one, so it's like having three games in one," director Nomura told Famitsu. "If you're playing with friends, the content of the game will change if you choose different characters, so you'll have to be careful not to spoil the story for each other."
- What does this mean for game length? "Right now we're imagining 15 hours for one character," Nomura says. "If you get into customizing your deck and so forth, you can get pretty involved timewise, so you might be looking at over 50 hours of gameplay if you play as all three."
- One new world in Birth by Sleep is Castle of Dreams, home to Cinderella (whom we last saw in the original Kingdom Hearts). Essentially this is a retelling of the old fairy tale, with each of the three heroes playing differing roles in it. Ventus, who's three inches tall in this world for some reason, has to help Jaq the mouse get material for Cinderella's royal gown. Terra, who believes that finding Xehanort involves tracking down a "heart of pure light," thinks Cinderella is the key to discovering that. Aqua, for her part, is chasing after the other two and somehow winds up being the one who puts on the glass slippers.
- Meanwhile, Deep Space is Lilo & Stitch land, although there's no Lilo -- it's the bit from the start of the film when "Experiment 626" is still making his escape from the alien spaceship. Terra has, by chance, infiltrated this spaceship and winds up helping 626 out; Aqua, for her part, winds up getting saved by 626 from some unspecified menace; and Ventus, who arrives after the other two, is the one that finally gets the blue thingie off the spaceship for good. All three will be chased after by Gantu and his Experiment 221.
- The battle system is an evolution of the usual KH action-RPG malarkey. Depending on how you fight, your Command Style will change, and so will the moves you can unleash. This Style can change whenever you fill up the Command Gauge; it all depends on whether you trigger a change based on the types of commands you've been using. If you don't trigger a change, you'll execute a powerful Finish Command instead.
- Birth by Sleep still has a tentative "winter" release date in Japan. Nomura commented that the exact date won't be finalized until Final Fantasy XIII's is. "Since FFXIII is further ahead in development, I imagine it will come first," he said, "but I think people will get to play this without waiting too much longer."
The game will be available in some sort of playable format at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show in late September.
source
