Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is an upcoming action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS with assistance from h.a.n.d. It will be a new installment in the best-selling Kingdom Hearts series. The story is a midquel centering on the daily life of the main character Roxas, exploring the time from Roxas' creation during the first game, Kingdom Hearts, to his confrontation with Riku during the interval after Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and leading directly into Kingdom Hearts II. It is planned to feature 3D graphics, and single and multiplayer modes of play. The game was announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. The title was initialy confirmed for a Japanese-only release, but on December 2, it was confirmed for a North American release as well.
Gameplay
358/2 Days will feature gameplay similar to the action role-playing game style of the previous games in the series. To accomplish this, the game will make minimal use of the system's touch screen functionality. The game will include single player and multiplayer modes of play. The single player mode will be story based, focused on Disney worlds from past games, and will progress in days. In single player mode, the player will control Roxas, the game's main protagonist, who is accompanied by otherOrganization XIII members. The two modes will be linked in that character growth will be shared between them.
Multiplayer
Cooperative multiplayer was one feature on display at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show demonstrating that players can work together, in addition to the traditional use of AIcontrolled partners.This is the second Kingdom Hearts game to feature multiplayer—the first was Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The multiplayer gameplay is separate from the single player story and will be mission-based, which include cooperative and competitive player battles. It will allow up to four players to play as one of the thirteen members of Organization XIII, with each member having different weapons and skills. 358/2 Days' multiplayer will also feature a chat system for communication between players, but will differ from PictoChat in that everyone will draw on the same screen.
Plot
358/2 Days revolves around the untold events of Roxas during his time with Organization XIII and will take place during the year Sora was asleep between the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories andKingdom Hearts II. The game's prologue will cover the "birth" of Roxas, but the gameplay will start from when he enters the Organization. Roxas' daily duties with the Organization, his doubts, and his defection will also be included in the story.The initial trailer showed most of the events in Twilight Town. Other worlds, like Wonderland, have also been featured.
Characters
Like previous Kingdom Hearts titles, 358/2 Days will feature numerous Disney characters. Confirmed characters include Roxas, King Mickey, Riku, Jack Skellington, Lock, Shock, Barrel, Oogie Boogie, Pete, Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie, Namine, DiZ,including a new female member, named Xion . Xion is considered a key character to the game. The reason why the Organization's name remained "Organization XIII" after a fourteenth member joined will be explained in the game.
Development
358/2 Days is being developed by h.a.n.d. with Square Enix employees overseeing the process. The game is directed by Tetsuya Nomura and co-directed by Tomohiro Hasegawa. In 2007, Nomura mentioned he wanted to do a spin-off Kingdom Heartsgame on a mobile platform and wanted the game to play slightly different than the other titles already in the series. 358/2 Days was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts coded at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 2007, where a trailer was shown in a photo-prohibited theater. New trailers were shown and a playable demo was available at the 2008 Jump Festa in December 2007 and the DKΣ3713 Private party in August 2008. Both single player and multiplayer demos were featured. Xion was also shown in the new trailer and in the multiplayer demo.
The Nintendo DS was chosen as the system before plans were decided. The development team wants to have gameplay similar to previous Kingdom Hearts titles, but have stated the number of buttons on the Nintendo DS is a problem. Some of the DS's functions, like the stylus, are not being used in order to retain the similar gameplay from previous titles. The team is also looking to incorporate Roxas seeing Sora's memories throughout the game and having different types of gameplay for each world. The game's logo uses warm colors as a reference to the sunset in Twilight Town. The title, "358/2 Days", is a code that Nomura has stated the player will understand the meaning of at the very end of the game, and the word "day" is attached to the title as a reference to the daily life of Organization XIII.Though Birth by Sleep was the first of the three new games to begin development, 358/2 Days is expected to be released before it. The game was slated for a release at the end of 2008, but Square Enix has pushed the date to February 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment