As you may or may not know, Birth by Sleep was originally concieved as a PS2 game starring Sora

So I've been thinking recently

How would that have worked? The way I see it, when the original secret ending in KH2 at least must have existed when BBS was still a PS2 game, and there are a lot of factors in that trailer that could potentially hint to what the original plan was. A lot of people figured things like the Kingdom Key and such appearing was meant to be symbolic, and nobody really could figure out why Xemnas' dragon was there.

So how did Sora originally factor into the plot of BBS anyways? I guess it's most likely the answer is time travel (all those years before DDD was even a glimmer in Nomura's eye) potentially it could be another portal, like the one that took Sora back in time to fight the Lingering Will in KH2FM. I jsut find it interesting how different this game could have been, and what it would mean for the future of KH's story

Like what if Sora actually met Terra Aqua and Ventus? That'd give a MUCH more concrete foundation for Sora going to ease their suffering, compared to "You met one for like two seconds, glanced at another one briefly when he talked to your friend, and the other one took shelter in your heart after committing metaphysical suicide... YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE BECAUSE OF THESE PEOPLE YOU OWE IT TO THEM THAT YOU SAVE THEM"

Potentially Sora could actually meet Xehanort, too.

I feel it's also possible a more distinct connection between Xehanort and Xemnas might have been planned, with Xehanort using the armour and dragon Xemnas would later use. I think it's entirely possible that originally the Gathering scene in the secret ending was meant to take place after a boss fight against said dragon.

Also, random side tangent, but you know what's a weird detail from the secret endings that they kept? Vanitas materializing out of Xehanort. That never gets explained.

But yeah, I feel like there's a lot of potential to be gleaned from this alternate telling of BBS, anybody else have anything to say on the subject?

 

I assume like any hypothetical BBSV2 would play out, and now what sounds to be at least part of the KH3 plot; with Sora, Riku, and possibly a third (King Mickey, I suppose?) going to find the wielders, and along the way learning what happened to them.

It'd probably have been more fun to play on the PS2. That's more or less guaranteed.

 

I dunno, it's hard to figure what the game might have been from a trailer that I would bet a million dollars on that Nomura just made up on the fly because it looked cool (same with the trailer at the end of KH1). When I was a kid and I saw the BBS stuff, I always figured that the three guys in the armor were people who found the remains of the final battle with Xemnas, hence his dragon and the three Keyblades they picked up- also, the word "Chaser" flashed on screen for a second so for a while I kept calling TAV Chasers even though that was really stupid (though to be fair, all three of them spend pretty much all of BBS chasing someone else, so i was kinda on the money). I also had a dumb theory that since Heartless are made of people's hearts, and Nobodies were bodies and souls with no hearts, the Chasers would be hearts and souls with no body, somehow. Again, stupid 14 year old thoughts, but I still think it sounds more promising than what we actually got.

It'd probably have been more fun to play on the PS2. That's more or less guaranteed.

 

I dunno, it's hard to figure what the game might have been from a trailer that I would bet a million dollars on that Nomura just made up on the fly because it looked cool (same with the trailer at the end of KH1). When I was a kid and I saw the BBS stuff, I always figured that the three guys in the armor were people who found the remains of the final battle with Xemnas, hence his dragon and the three Keyblades they picked up- also, the word "Chaser" flashed on screen for a second so for a while I kept calling TAV Chasers even though that was really stupid (though to be fair, all three of them spend pretty much all of BBS chasing someone else, so i was kinda on the money). I also had a dumb theory that since Heartless are made of people's hearts, and Nobodies were bodies and souls with no hearts, the Chasers would be hearts and souls with no body, somehow. Again, stupid 14 year old thoughts, but I still think it sounds more promising than what we actually got.

The second trailer was definitely a show piece, but the first one is a lot more subdued, can't really see a person thinking ut looks particularly cool. I find it interesting, looking back on old theories about those trailers though, NOBODY really thought ittook palce ten years in the past, it was pretty much always the distant past or future (distant future was my personal favourite) until someone came up with the Apprentice Xehanort theory

It's because the tone is so different that I really feel like at some point there were plans to take this in a different direction

The second trailer was definitely a show piece, but the first one is a lot more subdued, can't really see a person thinking ut looks particularly cool. I find it interesting, looking back on old theories about those trailers though, NOBODY really thought ittook palce ten years in the past, it was pretty much always the distant past or future (distant future was my personal favourite) until someone came up with the Apprentice Xehanort theory

It's because the tone is so different that I really feel like at some point there were plans to take this in a different direction

 

The first one was vague and mysterious, in a really good way. You don't know who these armored guys are, or why they're picking up Sora, Riku and Mickey's Keyblades, or why the Keyblades are there in the first place, or who the hell that shadowy figure is supposed to be walking to them in the distance. The lack of details leaves a lot of room for speculation, and that speculation breeds hype pretty damn well (just look at the KH3 content videos that 95% of us still haven't seen).

 

I doubt there was any particular direction Nomura was planning on having BBS go when he was still working on KH2- the first trailer from KH2 is lacking in a lot of details, and most of the details there were got changed in the second trailer for Final Mix. It seems likely that the change in tone came by the time KH2FM came out, what with the Chamber of Repose and Lingering Will, and then the stuff in 358/2. My guess is Nomura had a lot of ideas floating around by the time KH2 was released (like Xion, for example) and only really solidified a lot of them when KH2FM was being developed, deciding to drop a few hints in the new content.

 

Basically, I'm saying I don't think there ever was a different direction BBS was gonna take, it just seemed to evolve into the direction it took as it was developed. The PS2 version probably would have been very similar in terms of story, if not identical.

The first one was vague and mysterious, in a really good way. You don't know who these armored guys are, or why they're picking up Sora, Riku and Mickey's Keyblades, or why the Keyblades are there in the first place, or who the hell that shadowy figure is supposed to be walking to them in the distance. The lack of details leaves a lot of room for speculation, and that speculation breeds hype pretty damn well (just look at the KH3 content videos that 95% of us still haven't seen).

 

I doubt there was any particular direction Nomura was planning on having BBS go when he was still working on KH2- the first trailer from KH2 is lacking in a lot of details, and most of the details there were got changed in the second trailer for Final Mix. It seems likely that the change in tone came by the time KH2FM came out, what with the Chamber of Repose and Lingering Will, and then the stuff in 358/2. My guess is Nomura had a lot of ideas floating around by the time KH2 was released (like Xion, for example) and only really solidified a lot of them when KH2FM was being developed, deciding to drop a few hints in the new content.

 

Basically, I'm saying I don't think there ever was a different direction BBS was gonna take, it just seemed to evolve into the direction it took as it was developed. The PS2 version probably would have been very similar in terms of story, if not identical.

There's no way there WASN'T a different direction, originally the game was going to star Sora.

There's no way that doesn't fundamentally alter both BBS and all the game that came after

There's no way there WASN'T a different direction, originally the game was going to star Sora.

There's no way that doesn't fundamentally alter both BBS and all the game that came after

 

I don't remember ever hearing that BBS was going to star Sora, but even it that was the plan, so what? Mickey was supposed to be the main character of KH1 at first. Sora was originally going to be a lion boy with a chainsaw sword. Ideas being tossed around in mid-development don't really matter all that much because the end product is all but guaranteed to be different. You might as well be speculating that BBS was going to take place in dreams, or a computer simulation (yuk yuk).

I don't remember ever hearing that BBS was going to star Sora, but even it that was the plan, so what? Mickey was supposed to be the main character of KH1 at first. Sora was originally going to be a lion boy with a chainsaw sword. Ideas being tossed around in mid-development don't really matter all that much because the end product is all but guaranteed to be different. You might as well be speculating that BBS was going to take place in dreams, or a computer simulation (yuk yuk).

http://www.khinsider.com/news/Famitsu-interview-with-Birth-by-Sleep-Developers-1333

"Yasue: We were making something very different to 'Birth by Sleep', with Sora as the prototype for the lead role. "

 

See, unlike changes to the first KH game, changing a sequel has ramifications for the rest of the series. There's already and established plot thread, so the direction it might go is a lot more interesting. We're not talking about a completely different game, but a slight deviation from what we ended up getting. The game still would have had a lot of common DNA with the BBS we got, but it would have been pretty different, too.

Beyond that it's entirely possible to glean details about future stories this way, since often concepts that go unused in KH have a way of worming back into a future game

When I had first watched the secret ending for Birth by Sleep, I assumed it was for Kingdom Hearts 3. And that this game took place many years after Kingdom Hearts 2, that's why Sora's Keyblade look so rusted. But who knows how it would have turned out, I think your explanation is very good though.  

If anything, they might've combined the plot for coded with BBS. Like Sora goes back in time in order to prepare himself and understand the burdens put on him by Terra, Aqua and Ven. Just speculation though, if the Sora thing was actually a first plan.

Sora would have been a badass 4 year old, who fights Heartless with a wooden sword. Simple.