Well yesterday I went to gamestop to preorder pokemon soul silver and for my brother to preorder pokemon heartgold. And I also bought a subscription to gameinformer. So I was looking at it this morning and I found an article of birth by sleep. I will post things in it, down there. Hope you enjoy!
The structure
Players can choose to begin with terra, ventus, or aqua. Each character's campaign is said to last over 10 hours, and all offer a different perspective on the main story. For example, when ventus visits cinderella's world, he helps her mouse friend to complete a dress for the upcoming ball. Terra steps in when fairy godmother hooks up cindy with the carriage and fancy getup. Aqua finishes off the plot thread when frumpy cindy tries on the glass slipper. Each character experiences the beginning, middle, or end of a world's story, so you'll have to play all three to get the big picture. So far we havn't seen any repeats of old worlds like agrabah that had previously been recycled to death in the kingdom hearts series.
The setup
As followers of the game may already know, birth by sleep takes place roughly a decade before the original kingdom hearts and stars new characters terra, ventus, and aqua. Now that we've played several hours, we have a better understanding of the narrative direction. These three serve as apprentices under keyblade masters eraqus and xehanort. The story begins with terra and aqua undergoing the final test to become masters (ventus is to young). During the exam, master xehanort sneakily coerces some dark tendencies from terra. Due to this, terra is denied master status, while aqua passes. Resentment ensues. To help terra deal with his demons, master eraqus sends him on a mission to stop a new threat called the unversed (a likely precursor to heartless) and track down master xehanort, who recently dissapeared. Ventus follows him without permission to the urging of master xehanort's agent vanitas. Once master eraqus realizes this, he dispatches aqua to keep an eye on terra's dark side and retrieve ventus.
The suits
Kingdom hearts fans may be wondering why the main characters are no longer wearing the bunny knight suits from the secret movie at the end of kingdom hearts 2. They still do, just not all the time. Terra, ventus, and aqua don these suits to travel betweeb worlds in outer space. Their keybades also transform into sweet vehicles to get them around as an alternative to gummi ships. These suits also come into play in multiplayer.
Multiplayer
Players can travel to a place called mirage arena for multiplayer just like any of the other disney worlds. Here you can select a username and a color for your armored character using three sliders. Three players can team up to take on waves of enemies in arena mode or fight each other in the six-player competitve arena. The command board game is also available to play against real people, as is the six-player racing mode. By completing these games, some of which include a single-player component, you'll receive medals to spend on rare equipment. It's unclear at this point if the U.S. Version will feature local, online, or both multiplayer options.
Command board
This mario party-esque board game is accessible at any time through the pause menu. Competing against two AI opponents, players roll dice to move around the board and buy spaces kind of like monopoly. Once opponents land on one of your spots, they have to pay you in board points, the game's currency. The first to earn a predertimened amount of bp wins.
Shoot lock
Once the orange focus is full, players can hold l and r triggers to enter a first-person targeting mode. Once you're in the mode, you'll have a matter of seconds to paint as many enemy tagets as possible until the so-called shoot lock maxes out or am enemy disrupts you. Early shoot locks include terra's flurry of melee attacks, ventus's spread of fireballs, and aqua's barrage of bubbles.
D-link
Short for dimension link, this replaces the traditional summoning system. When the blue gauge fills up, you can link to a teammate or certain disney characters you've met along the way. Instead of the character appearing in the world, however, you'll gain a custom deck of powerful magic and specialks. After enough combat in d-link mode, another guage fills up, allowing you to execute an extravagant finisher that features a minigame starring the linked character.
Command guage
As you string together standard attacks and deck commands, this guage quickly fills up. If you fill the guage using standards, a strong one-timer finisher will be available for use. If you use magic or special moves from the deck instead, you'll be temporarily powered up. Aqua gains magic wish, for example, which allows her to hover and blast energy from her keyblade.
Deck commands
Don't worry, birth by sleep does not have a card battle system similar to chain of memories despite the word "deck" being in the combat system name. Players easily trigger basic attacks by mashing the circle button without spending any kind of resources. The deck in question concerns a short list of magic, special attacks, or items that you can scroll through with the d-pad and execute with triangle button. Instead of spending a card or using magic points, all of these actions recharge over time. Though youl start with only three slots, these expand throughout the course of the game. All of these moves level up with use, so it's in your best interest to incorporate them into combat as much as possible.
Star wars connection
Birth by sleep seems to be heavily influenced by a certain space odyssey. Here's a handy chart to help claaify.
Keyblade weilders= jedi/ sith
Terra= anakin skywalker
Master eraqus= yoda
Master xehanort= senator palpatine
Aqua= obi-wan kenobi
Vanitas= darth maul
Ventus= uh, ashokah tano?
Data install
Those who've played square enix's recent psp title dissidia: final fantasy will be familiar with this option. In order to reduce load times, players can install the game to their memory sticks. Install sizes range from 200mb to 600mb, and the more you install the faster the loads. We went with the largest option, which took just over five minutes to finish. Kingdom hearts fans should eithier clear some space on their memory stick or think about upgrading to a larger size.
Here's the first part I forgot to write at the top.
The latest chapter of the kingdom hearts series is out in the wild. Unless you're fluent In japanese (or have two helpful co-workers who are), however you're out of luck until sometime this summer. Square enix told us that the north american release of birth by sleep will hit sometime between june and august. To help with the wait, we've prepared a comprehensive breakdown of the major new features.
Well yesterday I went to gamestop to preorder pokemon soul silver and for my brother to preorder pokemon heartgold. And I also bought a subscription to gameinformer. So I was looking at it this morning and I found an article of birth by sleep. I will post things in it, down there. Hope you enjoy!
The structure
Players can choose to begin with terra, ventus, or aqua. Each character's campaign is said to last over 10 hours, and all offer a different perspective on the main story. For example, when ventus visits cinderella's world, he helps her mouse friend to complete a dress for the upcoming ball. Terra steps in when fairy godmother hooks up cindy with the carriage and fancy getup. Aqua finishes off the plot thread when frumpy cindy tries on the glass slipper. Each character experiences the beginning, middle, or end of a world's story, so you'll have to play all three to get the big picture. So far we havn't seen any repeats of old worlds like agrabah that had previously been recycled to death in the kingdom hearts series.
The setup
As followers of the game may already know, birth by sleep takes place roughly a decade before the original kingdom hearts and stars new characters terra, ventus, and aqua. Now that we've played several hours, we have a better understanding of the narrative direction. These three serve as apprentices under keyblade masters eraqus and xehanort. The story begins with terra and aqua undergoing the final test to become masters (ventus is to young). During the exam, master xehanort sneakily coerces some dark tendencies from terra. Due to this, terra is denied master status, while aqua passes. Resentment ensues. To help terra deal with his demons, master eraqus sends him on a mission to stop a new threat called the unversed (a likely precursor to heartless) and track down master xehanort, who recently dissapeared. Ventus follows him without permission to the urging of master xehanort's agent vanitas. Once master eraqus realizes this, he dispatches aqua to keep an eye on terra's dark side and retrieve ventus.
The suits
Kingdom hearts fans may be wondering why the main characters are no longer wearing the bunny knight suits from the secret movie at the end of kingdom hearts 2. They still do, just not all the time. Terra, ventus, and aqua don these suits to travel betweeb worlds in outer space. Their keybades also transform into sweet vehicles to get them around as an alternative to gummi ships. These suits also come into play in multiplayer.
Multiplayer
Players can travel to a place called mirage arena for multiplayer just like any of the other disney worlds. Here you can select a username and a color for your armored character using three sliders. Three players can team up to take on waves of enemies in arena mode or fight each other in the six-player competitve arena. The command board game is also available to play against real people, as is the six-player racing mode. By completing these games, some of which include a single-player component, you'll receive medals to spend on rare equipment. It's unclear at this point if the U.S. Version will feature local, online, or both multiplayer options.
Command board
This mario party-esque board game is accessible at any time through the pause menu. Competing against two AI opponents, players roll dice to move around the board and buy spaces kind of like monopoly. Once opponents land on one of your spots, they have to pay you in board points, the game's currency. The first to earn a predertimened amount of bp wins.
Shoot lock
Once the orange focus is full, players can hold l and r triggers to enter a first-person targeting mode. Once you're in the mode, you'll have a matter of seconds to paint as many enemy tagets as possible until the so-called shoot lock maxes out or am enemy disrupts you. Early shoot locks include terra's flurry of melee attacks, ventus's spread of fireballs, and aqua's barrage of bubbles.
D-link
Short for dimension link, this replaces the traditional summoning system. When the blue gauge fills up, you can link to a teammate or certain disney characters you've met along the way. Instead of the character appearing in the world, however, you'll gain a custom deck of powerful magic and specialks. After enough combat in d-link mode, another guage fills up, allowing you to execute an extravagant finisher that features a minigame starring the linked character.
Command guage
As you string together standard attacks and deck commands, this guage quickly fills up. If you fill the guage using standards, a strong one-timer finisher will be available for use. If you use magic or special moves from the deck instead, you'll be temporarily powered up. Aqua gains magic wish, for example, which allows her to hover and blast energy from her keyblade.
Deck commands
Don't worry, birth by sleep does not have a card battle system similar to chain of memories despite the word "deck" being in the combat system name. Players easily trigger basic attacks by mashing the circle button without spending any kind of resources. The deck in question concerns a short list of magic, special attacks, or items that you can scroll through with the d-pad and execute with triangle button. Instead of spending a card or using magic points, all of these actions recharge over time. Though youl start with only three slots, these expand throughout the course of the game. All of these moves level up with use, so it's in your best interest to incorporate them into combat as much as possible.
Star wars connection
Birth by sleep seems to be heavily influenced by a certain space odyssey. Here's a handy chart to help claaify.
Keyblade weilders= jedi/ sith
Terra= anakin skywalker
Master eraqus= yoda
Master xehanort= senator palpatine
Aqua= obi-wan kenobi
Vanitas= darth maul
Ventus= uh, ashokah tano?
Data install
Those who've played square enix's recent psp title dissidia: final fantasy will be familiar with this option. In order to reduce load times, players can install the game to their memory sticks. Install sizes range from 200mb to 600mb, and the more you install the faster the loads. We went with the largest option, which took just over five minutes to finish. Kingdom hearts fans should eithier clear some space on their memory stick or think about upgrading to a larger size.
Here's the first part I forgot to write at the top.
The latest chapter of the kingdom hearts series is out in the wild. Unless you're fluent In japanese (or have two helpful co-workers who are), however you're out of luck until sometime this summer. Square enix told us that the north american release of birth by sleep will hit sometime between june and august. To help with the wait, we've prepared a comprehensive breakdown of the major new features.
Platform-psp
Stule-1player action/rpg(multiplayerTBA)
Publisher- square enix
Developer- square enix
Release- summer