1UP Previews Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP

Despite the entire Internet collectively wagering that Square Enix would be announcing the long-rumored remake of Final Fantasy VII, no such thing has happened. But the Kingdom Hearts rumors? Totally on the mark. In fact, no less than three new KH titles are in the works and were revealed today at Tokyo Game Show, for PSP, DS and...mobile phones. OK, so the "Kingdom Hearts on PS3" rumors were a little off.

The PSP title, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, seems most likely to resonate with fans of the series -- and not just because they tend to be PlayStation fans. Of the three games shown today, Birth seems to be most in keeping with the series standards. It's a single-player action RPG with plenty of combo-driven melee action... and the hero is a dead ringer for Zack, the leading man of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core whose life Cloud Strife decided to imitate (in every category from clothing to girlfriends). It's hard to say if it really is Zack -- the name is never given, and characters by designer Tetsuya Nomura tend to look alike -- but he absolutely looks like a Kingdom Hearts-style rendition of the FFVII character. The spiky black hair, the bright blue eyes, the dark clothing with dark red suspenders, the armor over his left shoulder -- it's all Zack. [Monkey Note: 1UP is very, very wrong. They are talking about Terra here, not Zack.]

There is one difference, though: The lead character in Birth is a Keyblade warrior, an honor never afforded to previous Final Fantasy-to-Kingdom Hearts transplants like Cloud and "Leon" (aka Squall). So who knows what it means?

Very little gameplay was demonstrated, but plenty of in-game story was shown, with the unnamed hero speaking to a boy who appeared to be Kingdom Hearts II's Roxas. Much of the video presentation was dominated by an old man with eerie yellow eyes and a formal military jacket, who spoke in what appeared to be a somewhat stern (if not quite threatening) manner to maybe-Zack and maybe-Roxas in a dusty, windswept valley.

At one point, a wicked-looking warrior in black and red armor and an opaque black helmet confronted the hero, only to be thwarted by the timely arrival of King Mickey. Equally tantalizing were flashes of what appeared to be young Tidus and Rikku playing on the beach.

The little gameplay revealed appears to fall very much in the Kingdom Hearts mold. Is-it-Zack lays into foes with his Keyblade, leaping over obstacles like tree trunks as he battles through a dark forest setting and collecting various orbs as he fights his way up the steps of a pristine palace.

Though the trailer says the game is set in "the distant past," Birth By Sleep probably won't be showing up at retail until the distant future -- no date was given for this prequel.

1UP Previews Kingdom Hearts: 258/2 Days for the DS

OK, let's get this right out of the way: The title of the new DS-based Kingdom Hearts game, revealed today in Square Enix's TGS 2007 "closed mega theatre," doesn't make a damn lick of sense. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days? Does that mean it's 358 days divided by two? Why not just call it "174 Days"? Or does it mean 358 of something or another in the space of two days? That would almost fit, given the way Kingdom Hearts II's prologue was divided into days....

And like the opening hours of KHII, 358/2 Days focuses not on Sora and friends but instead on Sora's Heartless, Roxas. Or more specifically, it focuses on Roxas' comrades, the mysterious Organization XIII. Unlike previous KH titles, the DS iteration adds four-player coop to the mix -- so while one player will likely want to control Roxas while others take command of Axel or other Organization XIII members.

Much of the trailer seems to be set in Twilight Town, and its setting in the KH chronology is billed as "the time of the other side." Where that falls in relation to the other games' timeline is unknown, though presumably before KHII.

The gameplay was only briefly shown, but it appears to be fairly standard KH fare -- fully 3D, lots of melee- and combo-driven combat -- but the difference is that your brainless A.I. companions are now controlled by other players who, hopefully, will be somewhat less stupid. The camera seems fairly tight, low to the ground and close to the player's character, though it's tough to form definite opinions based on the split-second flashes of action we saw.

Despite the focus on the "bad guys," such as they are, 358/2 Days still seems to have its share of Disney elements -- King Mickey puts in an appearance in a gloomy forest, where he's confronted by someone in dark robes. Although the robed man's face is never shown, he lowers his hood, which causes Mickey to draw his Keyblade. Much of Organization XIII's stark white headquarters is shown as well, including a scene of tension where a new character -- apparently a young girl, though her face is never revealed -- is introduced, to Sora's dismay.

No release date was given for the DS version of Kingdom Hearts, but hopefully Square Enix will take its time and polish up the multiplayer. Assuming the co-op play works out, it could easily add a new and welcome dimension to the series.