Yep, just after posting these previous articles, new scans have surfaced. Rather than go through all the previous information again, we’ve decided to just post all the pages here and provide some small observations – we’ll let you guys do the theorizing here!

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Nothing hugely new here that wasn’t shown in the previous Birth by Sleep images. Note though that on the last page (showing the main development team minus Daisuke Watanabe), the image we saw prior to this with the beach on Destiny Islands actually features the young, four-year-old Sora playing sword-fighting games with the five-year-old Riku! Also note that the battle system is described as different than anything seen in the series before, and that the story is ‘complex and serious’. Lastly, the Keyblade wielder with the helmet is someone totally new to the series.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

The second page shows off a lot more of the Organization’s involvement within the story, and the third page a lot more gameplay. Note that it is confirmed that all thirteen Organization members can be used in multiplayer.

Kingdom Hearts: Coded

Nothing much here – just some more on the cutscenes. Also notice the note in Jiminy’s journal – “We must return to free them from their torment.” Nomura states that the game will clear up where Riku and the King were during KH1.

Lastly though, we’d like to talk release dates: in the recent interview, Nomura commented that Coded would be coming out well before three or four years from now – expect it to be releasing around this time next year. This confirms that we won’t be seeing Birth by Sleep in English-speaking territories until 2009, but as to whether 358/2 Days will be releasing before Coded or not, we’re still uncertain.

More on this as we have it!!

Also, if anyone knows which magazine this is, please leave a comment!

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New scans have appeared online from the latest Famitsu, and they feature the game in action! Let me be the first to say, the PSP and DS iterations look fantastic! This third article will quickly deal with new info regarding Coded.

Nothing particularly new in the scans – the game is as expected, an action/puzzle game that takes place literally after KH2, but inside Jiminy’s Journal, revealing unknown secrets. The interview is what should get the majority of you interested – surprise, surprise, Nomura is designing the game so that it can go overseas! He also reinforces that all three of these titles will be leading to a new, major Kingdom Hearts title “sooner or later”.

Rather than explain myself, I’ll let FF7AC Reunion’s great translation of the recent interview do the talking. Click ‘Read the article’ to read the new interview!

Prepare for more info on all these three titles very soon!

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New scans have appeared online from the latest Famitsu, and they feature the game in action! Let me be the first to say, the PSP and DS iterations look fantastic! This second article will deal with the myriad of scans released featuring Birth by Sleep!

Before we delve into the individual games, we’d like to announce that Daisuke Watanabe, the main writer of KH1, as well as the co-writer of FF12, and an addition writer on KH2, will be writing all three projects with story help from Nomura. In other words, Kazushige Nojima, writer of FF7, 8 and 10, as well as KH1, CoM, KH2, FF7AC, Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core, has officially jumped ship.

A much larger update here with Birth by Sleep, but we’re here to debunk all myths. Firstly, not all of these images are related to Birth by Sleep – we’ll go through these scan by scan.

The first scan is all Birth by Sleep in the blue section only, the bottom stuff is from KH2 on the left, and KH1 on the right. Nothing major featured in terms of Birth by Sleep, mostly gameplay, but Sleeping Beauty’s Forest/Castle at night-time looks breath-taking.

The second scan is all Birth by Sleep’s cut-scenes, and these are looking great. Terra’s really come into his own here, no more of this ‘Zack-look-alike’ business we’ve been hearing about. Ven definitely seems important (see: the second shot at Hollow Bastion), and Master Xehanort is featured.

The third scan is a Birth by Sleep character-rundown. Terra, Ven and Aqua we all know, as well as King Mickey (obviously) and now Master Xehanort, but the masked apprentice to Xehanort is obviously the new mystery character, just as with the Unknowns in KH1 Final Mix and Chain of Memories.

The fourth scan is, once again, excellent-looking cutscenes. Terra and Ven seem to have some kind of Zack-Cloud relationship going on here, as seen in Crisis Core. The second shot is the scene from Destiny Islands, with Ven looking quite troubled by something – also note that another character can be seen in the form of a shadow… The third shot is Xehanort, and the fifth is an ideallic look at Destiny Islands again.

The last scan is just looking at the battle scenes, and mentions ‘speedy action battle’ and gaining points from doing combos. Pretty much a combo-based version of the usual battle style!

As for the interview, it is now confirmed: the team behind Chain of Memories is developing Birth by Sleep, not the Crisis Core team! Nomura then states that this game was actually began before Re:Chain of Memories, and was paused for Re:CoM to be done. He also states that it will be the last to hit the market out of the three. The KH2FM secret ending, called ‘Birth by Sleep’ as well, is actually a scene from the PSP game of the same name.

OK, reading through, this next part is MAJOR! The game takes place TEN years before KH1 – Sora is 4 and Riku is 5, hence why young versions of them can be seen on the beach in the trailer! The gameplay style is actually more similar to Chain of Memories, just without cards, Mickey probably isn’t a King at this point, Ven’s relation to Roxas (and Sora) will be revealed, the new enemies (not Heartless or Nobodies) will be featured, and there will be voice acting and cutscenes in the same way the PS2 titles used them.

That was A LOT of info, sorry I couldn’t cut it down into better installments. Anyways, click “Read the article” to check out the full interview (the translator being FF7AC Reunion, who believes Nomura is hinting that the KH2FM secret ending is the end to Birth by Sleep), and I’ll update next on Coded – you’re in for a surprise.

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New scans have appeared online from the latest Famitsu, and they feature the game in action! Let me be the first to say, the PSP and DS iterations look fantastic! This first article will deal with the couple of scans featuring 358/2 Days (Three Five Eight Days Over Two).

The first scan features the game in action – gameplay’s looking good, and the graphics are looking like the best the DS has ever seen! Notice the shot in the bottom right feautres the player controlling Axel, with Saix by his side! There are also some further shots from cut-scenes, and Twilight Town is heavily featured.

The second scan is what we’ve all been talking about – the 14th member. The caption simply says “The 14th”, which many are now speculating is Namine – Nomura officially confirms that she isn’t Namine in the new interview!

The third scan is just a small picture I’ve cropped that features all the four characters mentioned in the trailer in battle – Roxas, Axel, Saix and Xigbar. The graphics in the scan are more properly revealed though – not as good as they looked when smaller, hey?

As for the interview itself, besides confirming that this isn’t Namine, there isn’t anything huge. Click “Read the article” to view the full interview regarding 358/2 Days, translated by FF7AC Reunion!

Stick with us for the next article, centering around Birth by Sleep!

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Only a day after the end of TGS, Square-Enix’s US branch has updated their website to include a new page on the upcoming trio of Kingdom Hearts titles! And you know what that means? US releases are most likely a go!

(Article Updated!)

You can check out the dedicated page right here!

It’s a good read that confirms a lot of things, but I’ll drift over some of the more important things here, besides the obvious fact that America’s already covering the games.

In KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days, you will explore a variety of Disney worlds in not only single-player mode, but also in multiplayer missions made possible by the unique networking features of the Nintendo DS.

KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep is the tale of a new trio of heroes, told across three scenarios utilizing the groundbreaking technology of the PSP. Exciting new features will be introduced on top of the traditional controls, game system, and visual style of its predecessors.

These two are just small excerpts of the information revealed after the jump, so please, for all the info we currently have on the titles, make sure you check the above link – it will clear a lot up for you! :)

Oh and by the way, something new Square recently talked about: They are now trying with as many major releases as possible to develop and localize both the Japanese and North American versions of the game at the same time! With the fact that the US Square site was updated so quickly with newly announced Japanese games, I’d say it would be safe to bet that Japan and America will get these at very similar times!

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And at last, we come to the PSP title. Strangely enough, it seems two of my theories came true – ‘Birth by Sleep’ became the actual title of a game, and yes – the old man is Xehanort. You read right!

(Article Updated!)

The game centres around the period of the Keyblade War. During this time, Keyblade Masters are commonplace, and our story centres around onesuch apprentice, named… Terra. The game will also eventually split off and explore two other, smaller scenarios, most likely featuring Ven and Aqua. On the topic of Terra’s story though, we follow him and his eventual meeting with both Ven and Aqua, how their friendship develops, and the growth of Terra’s hatred of Xehanort. After another Keyblade master goes missing, and Xehanort disappears alongside him as the main suspect, Terra tracks down his master to understand the truth of his past… and his future.

The trailer in the Mega Theater begins by saying “Far in the past… a hidden destiny is born by sleep…” and then showed off a clip with Terra (who is explicitly named this time) talking to Ven at Hollow Bastion, intertwining this footage with a training session between Terra and ‘Master Xehanort’. Terra summons the Keyblade, as seen in the shot released yesterday. A montage of worlds quickly flashes, featuring previous worlds such as Olympus Coliseum, and a new world that could very well be centred around Sleeping Beauty. We’re then shown an epic battle between Terra and the ‘slave’ Unknown from the ‘Fate of the Unknown’ secret movie. The two battle until Terra gains the upperhand, and as the mysterious figure takes his helmet off, the scene cuts to Mickey summoning his Starseeker Keyblade, and another scene in which Terra watches two boys play on a beach reminiscent of Destiny Islands. Terra then says “Please… don’t depend on me… just erase me, friend…”

The video comes to an end by showing the words “Hidden… days are… born from sleep. The story leads… to an approaching time.” The first sentence relates to the three titles and how they connect, and the second informs us that these all lead into the approaching third major game!

As for staff, the title is, once again, directed by Nomura himself (unlike both versions of Chain of Memories). Is it just me, or is Nomura taking on far too much work at the moment? Three KH titles, Versus XIII, Advent Children Complete and if the rumoured new KH PS3 title is real, that makes a total of six titles! Hopefully this won’t affect quality…

It seems the title will be all we’ve been waiting for and more, finally showing us the truth about Xehanort’s past, and how the Keyblade Wars played out. Keep checking in for more updates on what could become one of the PSP’s biggest titles!!

Source: Once again, many many thanks to KH Vids for all their tireless work on translations and information compilation! Also, please note these crops were all done by me, so give credit where credit is due!

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What we were calling ‘Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories II’ last night has been officially revealed as Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days! Strange title aside, this DS-exclusive will be releasing before the new PSP game, which we’ll touch on later.

OK, I’ll try to summarise this as best as possible so that you can all make sense of it. 358/2 Days will indeed focus on Roxas – this is his story with Axel, beginning around the time Roxas joins the Organization. Gameplay will centre around the Organization and the missions they undertake, gathering souls of defeated Heartless. At the end of the missions, cutscenes with Roxas and Axel contemplating recent events and their own lives on top of the Twilight Town clock tower will be shown.

The trailer begins at a similar time, showing us scenes with Roxas joining the Organization (see: yesterday’s picture) and some shots of him with Saix. Mickey then briefly mentions Axel, and gameplay is then shown. The game is said to appear as a multiplayer affair, with a party of Organization members fighting together and being able to be switched amongst each other. Roxas, Axel, Xigbar and Saix were confirmed as playable characters, and a multiplayer mode with your friends was also mentioned. The trailer ends with a major spoiler – a fourteenth member has joined the Organization, and its a female… who could this be!? Organiaztion XIV!

Also note that the game’s title, “358/2 Days”, refers to a comment made in the trailer: Roxas mentions “I will live upon this world for 151 days.” This doesn’t entirely make sense, seeing as 358/2 is actually 179, so we presume therefore that this means that Roxas will live for 151 days while Sora will sleep for the remaining days that make up 358. We’ll update this when we understand better. Oh, and for the record, reports suggest that the title is pronounced as ‘Three-Five-Eight-Days-Over-Two’.

Tetsuya Nomura will also be directing the game, and just like with FF13, V13 and the other newly announced KH titles, we’re still unaware as to whether master-writer Kazushige Nojima is actually back to script the title. Fingers crossed!

Source: A very special thanks to KH Vids!

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As many of you already know, Square has indeed revealed not one, not two, but THREE new hand-held Kingdom Hearts titles, all of which surmount to the new project we have heard so much about.

Rather than trying to describe all of these at once, we’ve descided to tackle each title one-by-one and explain it to you in pieces. We’ll start with the insignificant title – Kingdom Hearts: Coded is for Japanese mobile phones (Western phones aren’t anywhere near powerful enough to handle it). The game centres around a digitial Sora in Destiny Islands and the Disney Worlds beyond, awakening for the first time and going on a new journey that supposedly never happened.

Timeline-wise, the story actually begins after KH2, with Jiminy making his way back to Disney Castle. Upon arrival, he looks through his diary and notices a quote he himself never wrote there: “We have to go back, to heal their pain.” After showing this to the King, he transforms Jiminy into digital data and sends him on a mysterious journey through the eyes of Sora, explaining mysterious events of the past that link into KH1′s storyline, and also the King’s past.

A trailer was shown in the Closed Mega Theater (pictured below), which basically showed the game’s intro (comprised of what I mentioned above) and some scenes with Sora on Destiny Islands. Battle scenes are shown, which suggest the game revolves around a puzzle theme, but with new combos and the like for Sora to use. The trailer ends by showing us the scene from one of the recent images with Sora and Mickey in Traverse Town. Mickey says “On that day, I was here… Let us speak truthfully.” and the video ends.

No word on when Japan would see the title, but like Before Crisis and the upcoming FF Agito 13, don’t expect to ever see it leave the country. As for the development team, Nomura is officially directing, and Hajime Tabata (director of Before Crisis and the critically acclaimed Crisis Core) is co-directing.

Please note that I have cropped all images myself from the logo one-sheet and the recent Famitsu issue. I have made sure that all media is related to the correct title.

Source: A very special thanks to KH Vids!

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