I’ll admit I have a hard time following Square Enix’s newest game conglomerations–mainly the Final Fantasy XIII series and the string of new Kingdom Hearts titles.  Every once and a while, when I have some time, I try and get the facts straight.

I was especially bored at work today, and stumbled across a few new screens of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days which is scheduled to be released this winter in Japan for the Nintendo DS.  Here are the screens as well as my findings.

As many people may already know, the events of 358/2 focus on Roxas’ life in the mysterious Organization 13.  The game will span the time between Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II in which Sora was “asleep.”  This means the game will explain what led Roxas to leave the organization and do his own thing.

Xion	One important new element of the story is a 14th member of Organization 13–named thus because they have only 13 members. The 14th member is named Xion (Shion).  Little is known about Xion other than the fact that she wields a keyblade–an ability granted to few.

Also, in a recent preview movie of the game, Namine says to Xion, “I wanted to see you.”  This would suggest that the two know each other well, possibly also suggesting a connection to Kairi.  Can she wield a Keyblade because Kairi can?

Many elements of the game’s story remain shrouded, but some of the game’s features have been announced:

• The game will feature both a Single Play story mode, and a multiplayer mission mode dubbed March Play .  During the story mode the player will be limited to controlling Roxas.  In multiplayer mode, up to 4 players can choose from 6 different members of Organization 13:

Roxas, Axel, Saïx, Xigbar, Xaldin and Larxene

• There will be limited use of the touchscreen due to the fact that the game’s creators wanted the game to have the same feeling as the previous titles.  Mashing attack and jump while tapping the touch screen could get a bit awkward.

As I mentioned before, the story is still being closely guarded.  Not that it would probably make a whole lot of sense to me anyway…

I am glad that a North American release of 358/2 and Birth By Sleep is planned, but due to laughable cell phone technology, we can be pretty sure we won’t be seeing Coded stateside.  Hopefully we aren’t missing much.

I am pretty interested in the prospect of multiplayer Kingdom Hearts.  At times the A.I. of allies in the Kingdom Hearts series is less than desirable.  Good job using up all your MP and running in circles, Donald.

Still no word on when we can expect 385/2 in America, but it will definitely be next year.

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