The announcement of Final Fantasy XIII-2 gave me mixed feelings. Initially I was disappointed that they would be returning to one of my least favourite titles in the series, but then I realised it was an opportunity to fix the problems that XIII had – and could only improve upon the engine that had been put in place. Development time could now focus on the gameplay elements, and hopefully give me a more engaging experience. At Eurogamer, I at last got my hands on a demo of the title to see how it’s shaping up.

The demo began with little explanation of what was going on, although it did still seem to be early stages of the plot. New guy Noel was already teamed up with Lightning’s sister, Serah, as a they fought a titanic creature named Atlas that was tearing things up. The basics of combat were all too familiar – Noel sporting the regular commands of Attack, Ruin, Blitz etc, which was slightly disappointing but not unexpected. The Stagger bars have returned, and generally the combat flows in much the same way as it’s predecessor – no huge overhauls like that of Final Fantasy X-2′s combat engine.

Once some damage had been done, one of the game’s new features made itself apparent – an in-battle QTE input that prompted various button inputs as Noel ran onto Atlas’ body for a cinematic attack. The inputs were fairly easy (although I’ve got reasonably fast at reacting to them from other games), and I managed to get them all first time. This then staggered Atlas – seemingly instantly - which was a welcome thing to see considering how long many of XIII’s battles were. I quickly chained up a number of attacks, and before long emerged victorious.

The game then progressed to the next area – I believe it was New Bodhum, but I could be mistaken. Either way, it showcased another of XIII-2′s new features - towns and cities that can be explored. This was one of my (and many others’) biggest complaints with the first title, their admission leaving the game a linear experience and missing much of the magic of Final Fantasy. The town showcased was sadly a bit of a miserable one, dark and gloomy, but a town nonetheless – hopefully we’ll be seeing some nicer locations in the full game – visuals are one thing FFXIII generally did well last time. The game looked a bit fuzzy, which didn’t help - but I’ve a feeling that was more to do with the TV I was playing on than the game itself.Within this area I could explore and talk to people – one of which did ask me to retrieve an item as a side-quest, although I found myself a bit too lost to work out where to go at the time.

Now, the entire time throughout the demo, Noel and Serah were being followed. It didn’t matter what I did or where I went, the couple somehow managed to find themselves attached to a really annoying moogle. This moogle looks like it’s constantly puffing it’s cheeks, and talked through most of the cutscenes, in an incredibly irritating voice. Now, you know that really cute way that Moogles have always said “Kupo” in the older games - at least the way you imagined it in your head? Well, for the first time, a Moogle has been given a voice – and the way he says “Kupo” isn’t cute like I always imagined. It’s a cringe-worthy shriek that wound me up to no end. While I’m quite happy with Noel and Serah as new team members, the addition of Mog could easily spoil the game’s tone, it’s “darker and more mysterious” style spoiled by one horrible design choice. I only hope he takes a backseat as the story progresses.

I soon found myself wandering out of the town (albeit due to me having no idea where I was going), and the game’s next change became apparent. While enemies in XIII were visible at all times, XIII-2 returns to a more “random battle” style system. As you explore areas inhabited by monsters, they will appear in front of you, and the “Mog Clock” will appear. By pressing a button, you can strike the enemy to initiate a battle – but your timing affects how the battle begins. Hit the enemy when the clock is green, and you can gain a pre-emptive strike and extra bonuses, but if you fail you may suffer an ambush or negative status effects. While this change was worthy of note, I couldn’t say it really felt like an improvement, but perhaps it could make battles a little shorter if you get your timing right.

The battle commenced, and again it felt very familiar. Some new enemies have been added, such as the strange floating cat creature, Cait Sith, and many enemies return such as the Flandragora. Once defeated, there was a new scene, where Noel taught Serah a new ability – the ability to collect crystals formed by enemies at the end of battle, and then being able to summon them to fight alongside you during battles. This new feature was the one that perhaps interested me most, adding a new element to battle in order to spice things up a bit.

In the next battle, I was accompanied by a captured creature which acted like a third party member. By switching Paradigms, I could then swap between the usual 3-person combinations seen in the previous game (albeit with new names), although the monster that fights alongside the team varies depending on which setup you are using. While I couldn’t actually access the main menu, I would assume that monsters are equipped in the Paradigm menu, with more choices unlocked as you capture more creatures. While I played around with them, swapping between a Cait Sith and a Flandragora as teammates, my favourite was a team of three Commandos – purely because the creature associated with that setup was a chocobo, which felt far more familiar and friendly.

Sadly, I didn’t really feel that the creature system added much to the combat. The main difference is the addition of a “Feral Link” guage, which fills up as battle takes place. Once full, you can press a button to make your current creature do a special QTE attack for some extra hits. While it’s a nice little addition, it didn’t really make the battles much more interesting and I can’t help but feel that QTE’s have been thrown into the game rather than adding better controls and strategic commands for the team as a whole. I look forward to adding a Behemoth to my team, but I’ll need to see more before I can decide whether this new system is more than a gimmick.

Continuing, the demo then showed off some Live Action, which reminded me of something I saw in the Final Fantasy Versus XIII, where cinematic effects unfolded as I was running around – basically, Atlas was back and destroying things, as I was in the process of continuing my progression through the area, and soon enough I found myself standing before Atlas once more. Sadly, a poor choice (perhaps not clearly explained), led me to my death. Since I had defeated him once, I assumed I would be able to do so again – but it was not so; I was in too deep, and Atlas killed me quickly. I’m not sure exactly what I was meant to do, but I assume charging into the titan wasn’t the general idea.

Overall, I think the demo confirmed my general beliefs on FFXIII-2. It’s combat still feels repetitive and dull in my eyes, and while the addition of QTE’s and Feral Link seem to add a few new concepts to the combat, neither of them felt particularly solid enough to turn the combat into something deeper than what the original game had to offer. I’m glad to see that towns and sidequests are now included, but I’m simultaneously unsure whether XIII-2 will give an experience that feels like a “true” Final Fantasy title. The game’s due out early next year, so it won’t be too long till we know the truth of the matter. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m feeling it can’t be much worse than XIII.

Unless that moogle doesn’t stop talking.

-Leon

This past week or so I have decided to take a break from that norm and go down a different route, so I dug my PS2 out and started to re-play the classic Kingdom Hearts (KH). Ever since my partner in crime Leon did his KH DS review it got me remembering how great the previous PS2 games were. So I dove right in.

The first time I played this game I couldn’t stop, it is that addictive, I had to show my friends and pretty much everyone I knew about it. But what gets me is, some people on my gaming level back at home take one look at Kingdom Hearts and either laugh or run away. Why? well they assume that just because it features Disney character it is automatically dubbed a “kids game”.

Now I can fully understand this sudden ‘WTF’ moment. I mean gamers these days don’t think that a game that consists of characters from both Final Fantasy and Disney would make a good and successful game franchise such as this one. Well it has, This game is pretty damn far from a kids game for a fair few reasons which I will list now.

The Story Line

Lets face it – classic Disney story lines consist of either a man and a woman who find each other, notice they are in love, sing about it a bit then finally get married, or the usual Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse tale which is pretty slapstick and has five-year olds laughing at it for hours on end. The whole Kingdom Hearts series however, has such a deep story line which comprises of its own characters as well as Disney and Final Fantasy, I think kids would get lost just after the part where Hollow Bastion is mentioned; hell if they manage it through KH1, then KH2 would totally confuse them with the whole of Organisation XIII, because quite frankly I was still a bit confused with Roxas’ appearance at the start of KH2, even though I did read Chain of Memories inbetween the two games.

Gameplay

We all know, if you’re going to start any RPG you going to find things quite simple to start off with – I gave this game to a couple of my mates back home and they got totally bored after five seconds through the tutorial. (That, and I think they were totally bamboozled by the 14-year-old kid wielding a huge key around.) Anyway, as the story – and indeed the game – progresses, the controls inevitably get more complex, you have your spells which you have to assign, your equipment items you have to arrange, and your Potions and Ethers you have to give each character to use in battle. Hell, I am only talking about KH1 and 2 here on the PS2. If you happen to play KH: Chain of memories on the Game Boy Advance, then the gameplay takes another confusing turn. You have to attack using a card system which is damn complex in its own right, and takes the best of us gamers a while to grasp. To be frank kids will have more fun sticking Lego up their nose than playing this.

Nostalgia

I was talking with Leon about this whole KH issue, and he made a very valid point. True this game does use Disney characters, but you have to realise that these are Disney characters of our generation (2o’s-30′s). These are the characters we grew up with, Kids nowadays are growing up with CGI characters like Bolt and crazy singing dancing weirdos such as those guys from High School Musical. They are more likely to play this game and ask where the hell is Zack Effron more than say “Awesome, Hades from Hercules is here”.

It’s Not All About Disney

What a lot of people don’t realise when they play or hear about this game is that it’s not all about Disney. As I have mentioned a couple of times in this post, it also has Final Fantasy characters that the RPG fanatics will be raving over; you have all the fan favorites, like Cloud, Tifa and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, Squall from VIII and Tidus and Wakka from X amongst a load of others.

But the great thing here is, the game doesn’t just run on characters from Final Fantasy and Disney alone. It has its own characters which are pretty much as awesome as the others, like Sora, Riku and Roxas. They are the driving force of this game, whereas the Disney and FF lot are just there to back them up and put some big smiles on gamers faces.

So to sum up: To begin with, I was very confused that a game with Disney characters could appeal to a lot of gamers out there. But when you actually play it, this game is in a totally different league to kids games. Just because it is about kids, doesn’t mean it’s for them. So for those of you out there who are a little confused and put off by the concept, don’t be. This game is a must play and a joy to behold, I am sure when you do play it, you will get a good sence of nostalgia and a great gaming experience.

Garv!

Dissidia: Final Fantasy was an excellent PSP title for fans of the Final Fantasy series. For the first time, players could play as many of their favourite characters from the series – from the Warrior of Light from the very first title, through the Squalls, Clouds and Zidanes of Final Fantasy VII-X, even a pair of characters from Final Fantasies XI and XII. With an equal amount of villains from said games to fight them, Dissidia was an FF fan’s dream mash-up of the forces of good and evil stuck together in a handheld fighting game. The games battles revolved around one-on-one battles in open arenas, with characters able to pull off various combos, and signature special attacks such as Squall’s Renzokuken, and Cloud’s Omnislash. The story mode itself worked as a kind of chessboard, with characters moving around a grid defeating opponents to progress, with cutscenes to expand upon the game’s plot as it went along.

While Dissidia was a lot of fun, there was only so much I could play it before I’d eventually felt like I’d seen it all. After levelling many characters up to Lv99 and facing off against Chaos for the 100th time, it obviously got a little stale as most games do. However – I thought Dissidia was a very enjoyable experience, and have been looking forward to its sequel - Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy – for quite a while now. It’s only a couple of months until the March 25th release date now, so I think it’s about time I told you what we can look forward to.

New Characters

While Dissidia boasted a decent sized cast of 22 warriors, it’s sequel will expand upon that to more than 30 characters - all the originals returning - and pulling in even more from the Final Fantasy omniverse:

Kain Highwind - From Final Fantasy IV, Kain was Cecil’s friend and rival. Known for his trademark dragoon armour and spear, he is a skilled fighter – but often finds himself confused about where his loyalties lie. I’m sure we’ll be seeing some drama between the two over the course of the game – but trust me, Kain is as cool as they come.

Gilgamesh – First appearing in Final Fantasy V, Gilgamesh has since appeared throughout the series in many forms. While details of him in Dissidia 012 are fairly scarce so far, Gilgamesh is famous for being a lone warrior with a taste for treasure. You can be sure he’ll have a large assortment of weaponry, and perhaps his loyal companion Enkidu – a faithful attack dog. As opposed to the other announced characters, Gilgamesh is the only new villain announced so far.

Tifa Lockhart - Perhaps Final Fantasy’s most recognised female, Tifa is beautiful and deadly – always a good combination. The first fist-fighter to enter the Dissidia mix, I can’t wait to try her out – and it’s also the first time she’s been a playable character since Final Fantasy VII – unlike Zack, Vincent and Cait Sith who’ve since had their parts in spin-off titles. A love interest for Cloud, I’m sure their relationship will be tested amongst other things over the game’s course.

Laguna Loire - Another first for Dissidia, Laguna Loire is a gunfighter, and secondary protagonist from Final Fantasy VIII. I won’t spoil his exact role in the original title in case you haven’t played it, but just know that Laguna is an upbeat soldier, loves fighting alongside his buddies Kiros and Ward (no word if they’ll make a cameo), but he’s got a soft spot for the ladies. I for one am really looking forward to seeing Laguna back in action – it’s about time. He’ll even have the unique ability of having a rapid fire attack that can be performed by holding down the attack button.

Yuna - Appearing in her original style from Final Fantasy X (as opposed to X-2′s more adventurous version), Yuna is a summoner with the power to call forth huge beings called Aeons to fight by her side. This ability looks as though it’s going to give her some very impressive attacks, so she could be quite a formidable opponent. Again, her relationship with Tidus will no doubt have an impact on the game’s plotline.

Prishe – Another hand to hand fighter, with magical powers, Prishe is a trash-talking Elvaan from Final Fantasy XI. While Dissidia only had Shantotto as an FFXI hero, Prishe is another hero from the MMORPG title, with no villain currently announced as part of the roster.

Vaan - Although the original Dissidia had a single representative for Final Fantasy XII – Gabranth – Dissidia 012 introduces the game’s lead role as a new character in the story.

Lightning - The latest heroine in the Final Fantasy series, Lightning Farron is the lead role of FFXIII. Equipped with a gunblade and an iron will, Lightning is a cool character with the ability to switch between Paradigms – various classes that give her different abilities for different situations. So far there has been no rival villain character announced for FFXIII, but we’ll have to wait and see if FFXIII will have a representative for the Chaos side.

Updated Battle System

While new characters are always one of the biggest selling points of a sequel, of course it can’t end there. The old battle system will be returning, albeit with some updates. The main addition to the game is the new “Assist” function, which appears in the form of a new gauge next to the health bar. Using points built up in battle, players will be able to summon assist characters to aid them in battle – either to perform an attack, or to defend an incoming assault. It seems main characters will be able to be used as assist characters, but there may be extra assist-only characters as well – in Japan, players may download the demo for Dissidia 012 for a low price, and will subsequently unlock Aerith in the main game as an Assist character.

This was the only Aerith screen I could find. Seriously.

Along with the Assist characters, there are also new counterattacks being introduced – some of which use Assist characters in the process. Calling an Assist character to block an EX Burst (ultimate move) will perform an EX Break, forcing them out of EX Mode. On the flipside, attacking an opponents Assist character will result in an Assist Break, with them not being able to re-call that character again for a period of time. Lastly, an EX Revenge allows you to sacrifice your EX Burst to break an opponents attack and deal out a devastating combo.

New Story Mode

While the original game ran on the chess-board style story system, perhaps one of the biggest upgrades in Dissidia 012 is an all new 3D world map mode with a party system similar to that of Final Fantasy VI – with characters joining and leaving the party as the story progresses, no doubt affecting which character you can use, and which Assists. Battles will still take place within an arena – with characters entering fights when they interact with manikins (crystal clones of the game’s characters) on the map.

With a long story mode planned – it gets even better. Not only is there a new plot (which is in fact a prequel to Dissidia), but the original’s plot has also been rehauled and included into the game using the 3D world map system – leaving us with a story mode that will supposedly last us around 60 hours. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s really a bit less than that, but it should be a decent length by all accounts.

Overall, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy is shaping up to be one hell of a title. Taking the original formula and making it more involving and exciting, it’s looking to improve the title in all aspects and hopefully perfect an already brilliant idea.

Oh, one last note. While Aerith is unlocked in Japan by downloading the game’s demo, Square-Enix have yet to confirm how other territories will unlock her – but I’m sure there will be news on this to come.

- Leon

This looks exciting. It's not.

However, there has been one ray of hope for me – the long announced Final Fantasy Versus XIII. A completely seperate story to XIII, Versus XIII is a Final Fantasy game that utilises a combat system in the vein of Kingdom Hearts – albeit with a more mature style. Five years since the game’s initial announcement, there’s still no news of a release date – even word that it might not hit stores for yet another year. Supposedly featuring a world map, exciting combat, and a whole new story – Versus XIII could seemingly offer me everything I hope for in an RPG, but I’m starting to give up hope on seeing it any time soon.

With Final Fantasy XIV being an MMORPG in the vein of XI – not my kind of thing, really – and no word of a fifteenth title in the series, it does leave me wondering if I’ll ever be seeing the true current-gen successor to the series that I’ve longed for. Perhaps Final Fantasy has become something different now, it’s path gone in a different direction to my tastes.

So why has this all come up once again? Well, according to sources, the domain name “finalfantasy13-2game.com” has been registered. Now, this much is true – the domain has indeed been purchased. While it’s not concrete evidence of anything, the name of the domain’s owner is “Corporation Service Company” – the same name that has been used to register domains for other Square-Enix titles in the past. So, there’s a possibility that Square-Enix are actually considering a new game – “Final Fantasy XIII-2″, perhaps in the same vein as previous game, Final Fantasy X-2, which continued the plot from Final Fantasy X, reusing parts of it’s world and characters with a whole new plot and adventure.

There have been other hints of a sequel in the past, too. In March last year, Producer Yoshinori Kitase was asked about the idea – responding “If we could do a XIII-2, we could direct all our attention to the story and refine what we have already built.” Also, in December, Tetsuya Nomura – the game’s character designer  – released an image of Lightning, along with the words “She must not be forgotten”.

So, it looks as though the idea is at least planted within the minds of Square-Enix, and I wouldn’t personally be surprised if it came to be. But the question is, would it simply be a new plot with more of the same of what I came to hate last time around? Or will it perhaps refine the game and turn it into the game Final Fantasy XIII should have been? One way or the other, I think this move could decide whether or not the series really is for me any more. Unless, of course, Versus XIII ever does get released.

- Leon

Crystal Defenders is, along with Voice Fantasy, part of a wave of Square-Enix apps to recently arrive on the iPhone. This fun little game has previously been released on everything from the iPod Nano to the Xbox (as a Live Arcade title), and its easy to see how its simple tower defence gameplay could be easily adapted to so many formats. It is more overtly connected to the Final Fantasy series than Voice Fantasy, lifting many of its elements from the mighty Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which is no bad thing, atleast in my opinion.

The game is played in waves, which are basically turns. You start by choosing your units, which you decide by class, before sliding your choices into the battlefield using your finger (or stylus if you happen to have one). Available classes include soldiers, black mages, archers and fencers, and those available depend on the difficulty level you choose. Once you’ve decided on all your units, and levelled up those you choose to (if you have enough gil left over) you’re ready to start the wave. Waves consist of hordes of monsters sweeping into your land. The units you place act as your mini soldiers : they will automatically fight the mobs, with varying levels of effectiveness depending on their level, position etc.

The waves start off very simple, getting gradually harder as you progress through them. It is in these later waves that this game gets really frustrating (and, oddly, as a result ; really addictive). There’s nothing worse than working hard trying your best to place your units in the right places and levelling up at the right times over the course of 10 of so waves, only to have your efforts obliterated in the next. And it makes you determined to ensure the same thing won’t happen next time round.

The character and monster sprites look almost exactly like the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance counterparts they were based off, aside from the fact they are no longer aligned diagnally. They are simple but functional, and something I’m always glad to see, being a big FFTA fan. Environments are typical Final Fantasy fare ; woodlands, desert and snow, with battlefields being attractive, if dull (although thats probably a good thing, as otherwise they might be distracting). They have a kind of paint-on-canvas look to them, which work really well. The graphics are, it cannot be denied, really rather pleasant

Most of the music, again, is directly lifted from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. For those of you who haven’t played it, this means sweet, calm, somewhat medieval-sounding melodies composed of harp and xylophone sounds. The music is deliberately played at a lower volume than other games, leaving the player to concentrate on what’s important ; their strategy, and it really adds to the vibe of the game.

Truth be told, Crystal Defenders does lacks Voice Fantasy’s originality and ingenuity, and, further, certainly doesn’t share its value for money ; at £4.99 its quite a push! But, while I would admit that if I had to choose between them I’d go with Voice Fantasy, it cannot be denied that Defenders trounces it in terms of life span. Gameplay is deep, and discovering the perfect combination of unit placements/character development will more than likely take most gamers a fair few weeks. In addition I certainly can’t fault it for bringing the visual and audio charms of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance to the iPhone generation, packaging them in a way that is just as cognitively stimulating, yet even easier to pick-up-and-play. The iPhone version, along with its iPad counterpart also deserve kudos among this game’s ports for having the most convenient controls, the touchscreen coming in really handy in a game that involves so much shifting things around in one screen.

If this app were to go on special offer at a more reasonable price I’d recommend all iPhone users to get it, as it is a great little app, but at its current price I think this is one perhaps best left to die-hard Square-Enix and strategy fans, or those with lots of money. Enjoyable, but not essential.

Voice Fantasy is an innovative new iphone (3G and newer) title from Square-Enix and Koto, where you generate Final Fantasy-style battlers using the power of your voice! Its not a game per se, as you don’t actually control your character during gameplay ; you merely watch as your creation battles it out, hilariously trilling whatever it was you said during their birth as their battlecry. But its feel and abundance of Final Fantasy influence makes it relevant enough to the gaming world to feature here. Along with the fact that it really makes your blood boil to see your level 54 Warrior beaten by the level 45 monster your friend just whipped up!

The graphics are deliberately inspired by the SNES era. The characters are cutesy and colourful, and likeable for the most part, if not forgetable. Backdrops consist of a forest clearing, a barren desert and regal chambers, and do well to set the mood. The menus have clearly had effort invested in them, all of which are optimised perfectly to the display (something you really can’t take for granted with iphone games) with the title and microphone screens looking particularly slick.

I cannot convey how fun it is watching your little soldiers duke it out while squeeing your voice! To keep things interesting the voice file is speeded up and slowed down intermittent, aswell as the pitch being altered. Somehow it always seems to fit the course the battle is taking.

The music concurs with the high standard fans have grown to expect from Square-Enix. The pre-game menus are accompanied by an adorable upbeat electronic pop number, the regular battle music is a triumphant and encouraging, with plenty of fast beats to really get the player’s heart pumping. Then you have the Demon King theme, also fast paced and electronic but with a darker operatic-inspired heart.

I’m not going to lie, this title’s longevity is seriously limited. There aren’t a great deal of objectives, aside from beating the Demon King (who is actually more challenging than you might expect), unlocking all the characters and taking on your friends. At a push lovers of this game may try and fill up all the available character spaces (you can save up to 50) aiming to get as many high levels as possible. Although even then, admittedly, the whole experience is unlikely to last more than a day. But this unfortunate aspect is tempered by the fact that Square are already planning updates which will feature famous characters from their repertoire, and hopefully new stages and challenges.

Overall I would absolutely recommend Voice Fantasy. It manages to take an exciting new concept; voice-responsive play, and implement it in a really enjoyable way. The music and graphics are spot on, making 16 bit graphics at home in my iphone in a way I never would have imagined. The only thing left for iphone users to decide is whether its worth the price tag ; at £1.79 its not the cheapest app out there , being undercut by the likes of Angry Birds which last longer and have arguably more involving gameplay. I do, however, believe it to be worth every penny ; your iphone’s never seen anything like this before! Also guaranteed to be a big hit down the pub/with your colleagues on the novelty aspect alone. If you can : get.

Kingdom Hearts is one of my favourite series, comprising so far of two main titles, and three handheld – Birth By Sleep being the latest of the latter. While KH1 and 2 were great games, the handheld titles (Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days) felt as though they lacked as individual games – they were playable, of course, and enjoyable in some aspects, but mainly they worked as components that fleshed out the Kingdom Hearts backstory and more than likely wouldn’t provide much entertainment – or make much sense – to a non-Kingdom Hearts fan. However, it was stated that Birth By Sleep on the PSP was to be the biggest handheld title yet, and a prequel big enough in scale and importance to be regarded as “Kingdom Hearts 0″.

While the previous hand-held titles hadn’t been able to properly capture the gameplay of a real console Kingdom Hearts – 358/2 Days restricting KH-style gameplay to small, mission based zones – Birth By Sleep definitely manages to come the closest. There are various worlds to explore (the majority being Disney based, of course), and the game’s progression structure is very much the same as the console titles. The main difference being – you play as three characters, rather than one. Be warned – while this game is a prequel, there are one or two minor spoilers coming as there are some connections with the previous titles.

Being a prequel to the series, BBS has a brand new cast. Terra, Ventus and Aqua take the lead, pupils training to become Keyblade Masters – living a decade before the original Kingdom Hearts. The elder of the two, Terra and Aqua, are preparing for their tests to decide whether or not they become Masters. However, things get messy after their test when their Master Xehanort goes missing, strange monsters start appearing on various worlds, and their Master Eraqus warns them that the Princesses of Heart are in danger. The three split up and go their own ways – all with their own agendas – finding Xehanort, stopping the evil creatures, and looking after one another along the way. Although the characters are new (although Ventus looks like Roxas from KHII, for reasons that are unclear from the start), I still found myself getting attached to them as with previous characters in the series.

Once you have progressed through the introduction of the game, you can then choose which character you wish to play as. While all three characters share the same introduction, the game then branches off at this point, into three separate storylines. While each storyline is somewhat smaller than KHI/II, their combined length comes to that of that of a full console title.

A lot of the Disney worlds are new to the game – such as the worlds of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Lilo & Stitch – but there are a couple of recurring ones, too. They still retain the same quality as ever, and it’s quite nice to see some of the more classic films that haven’t already been covered. As the game is a prequel, some of the recurring characters are actually younger – although obviously characters such as Mickey never age a day! You’ll also be seeing a few of the older Kingdom Hearts specific worlds, although I won’t spoil which ones. Regardless to say, there’s a fair amount of worlds and environments to explore.

Although all three characters go to the same worlds, the game actually deals with it rather well. Instead of each character going to the same places and doing the same things, it’s more as if each character gets to either see the beginning, middle, or conclusion of that world’s story – and even go to different areas within those worlds at times. For instance, Ventus takes part in the beginning of Cinderella’s plot, encountering her within her home, and helping Jaq the mouse to fix her dress for the ball, whereas Terra meets her as she goes to the ball itself. It all works together quite well, and gives the feeling that each character has a part to play without feeling too repetitive.

As always, the enemies of the game comprise of a mix of unique opponents, and those based on Disney characters. While KHI and II had Heartless and Nobodies, KH:BBS introduces the Unversed, emotions manifesting themselves as monsters. They look somewhat between the two previous enemies – dark like heartless, but more spiked and rigid like the Nobodies. All in all, they’re equally well designed and fit in well with the game’s design. There are some tricky enemies in the mix, however – such as projectile based opponents, and bomb-like enemies that explode if you don’t attack them from the back – so don’t expect to just mash your way through! The game’s bosses are all quite impressive, living up to the standard of the main titles with a mix of Disney villains (such as Malificent) and giant Unversed, such as an evil Pumpkin Carriage in the Cinderella world. Generally, one of the three characters will fight the main villain of each world, while the other two will fight a lesser boss – but they’re all fairly good anyway.

The battle system itself feels like a classic KH title, but it does have it’s own twists. Each character has a deck, which comprises of slots for Battle Commands, Action Commands, and special ShotLock attacks. Battle Commands comprise of special attacks such as Blitz or Strike Raid, magic spells such as Fire or Cure, and Items such as Potions. Action Commands improve your jumping height, give abilities such as evasive manoeuvres, and blocking skills. ShotLock commands are powerful magic attacks that use a special meter to activate.

For each Battle Command ability you equip, it adds another option to a scrolling menu on the screen, which you can toggle through by pressing the D-pad. You can at first equip three at once, and unlock more slots as you go. By selecting one of your abilities that you have set, you may then use it by pressing triangle. However, once activated, each ability takes a certain amount of time to reload before it can be used again. You can equip multiple of the same ability, though.

As abilities are collected somewhat like items, it’s also possible to use synthesis to combine them – for instance combining a Sliding Dash with a Fire ability may create a Fire Slide move, and so on. There are quite a lot of abilities, so unless you really look hard you might not find them all. Also, the three characters all have their own innate strengths that make them better with certain abilities than others – Aqua is more of a skilled mage, while Terra is more physical-based.

In fact, the game has even more abilities than that. As you progress through the game, you unlock “D-Links” which are sort of transformations you can activate, based on characters you meet throughout the game. For the most part, these D-Links give you custom ability sets, although they mostly have unique finishing moves, such as the D-Link with Stitch which activates the Ukulele finishing move that is unique to that link. On top of regular abilities and D-Links, you can also enter other modes such as “Firestorm” or “Spellweaver” modes by using certain types of attacks in the same combo – which will temporarily improve your basic combo and element. To be honest there are almost too many abilities to see all of them as you go through the game, but it’s better than too few.

Of course, there are plenty of Keyblades to collect through the game. And unlike the fairly generic Keyblades seen in 358/2 Days, BBS is the first handheld title to have it’s own set of world-specific Keyblades, meaning you get a Keyblade based on the theme of each of the worlds you visit, which is a nice touch. Sadly, all three of the characters get the same set of world-keyblades, so they get a little stale on the third time round. However, they do all have a few keyblades that are unique to themselves, so there’s still a few to look forward to.

As a Final Fantasy fan, I was a little disappointed at the lack of FF cast in the game. While 358/2 Days left them out partly for storyline purposes (since Roxas wasn’t meant to meet anyone Sora had/would meet), it was the only element I felt disappointed by in BBS. It’s true that the game is stable with just the KH and Disney characters, but for a lot of fans who loved the (frequent) cameos, it does feel as if something is missing. Aside from moogles, and a single Final Fantasy character, the game has none at all – with no references such as Keyblades, either. As good as the game is, there was something awesome about fighting Cloud, Squall, Yuffie and Sephiroth in KH1, and also getting to fight alongside them in KH2. Sora’s forged a bit of a friendship with some of them, so I do hope KH3 doesn’t omit them in the future.

KH:BBS also incorporates a number of mini-games. To be honest, most of them aren’t that great. There’s a racing game where the characters ride their own “Keyblade Ships” that they use to get between worlds, although it feels a little like a shoddy attempt at a kart racer, as well as a few small rhythm games, and a few other little challenges. Some people may enjoy them, but I found them rather boring.

However, there is one shining gem amongst these – the Command Board. This game, for the easiest example, is a lot like Monopoly. There are several boards you unlock throughout the game based on various worlds, and your opponents also depend on which board you are playing. The game involves rolling a dice to move around the board, laying “Ability Cards” from your hand as tiles on the board, the cards depending on which abilities you own in-game. Doing so allows you to capture tiles for yourself, and your opponents must pay you money if they land on them. There are four coloured squares dotted around the map, and passing all four and returning to the start gets you a lot of money. The first player to reach a certain value (money on hand, and total tile value) wins the game. Some squares allow you to “Level up” your tiles to improve their value, while other squares activate special abilities depending on the map – for instance, the Keyblade Glider tile on the first map allows you to travel to any square you wish on the board. There’s a lot of other rules to the game, but I can’t explain them all as it’s practically a game in itself! Still, it’s very good fun, and you can also pick up a few new abilities and improve your own along the way.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is an excellent addition to the series. It has a solid plot, uncovering even more important plot points to the series, gives us a bit of extra backstory, and does of course have it’s own links to the overall KH timeline. While it does feel as though you essentially play three smaller stories than one large one, the overall experience feels complete enough to match up to it’s console peers. While I’d mainly recommend Chain of Memories for the plot aspects, and would only recommend 358/2 Days to big fans of the series, Birth By Sleep is a great game in itself, and works as more than just filler. It’s a solid Kingdom Hearts game all by itself.

-Leon

After playing the Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days demo though, I have an inkling to try my hand at the first game again, because the demo for the second installment in the Kane and Lynch series was, how should I put it?…Awesome!

You start off in a restaurant in Shanghai, you play as Lynch and your sitting down to a nice meal with Kane when all of a sudden the police come in and raid the place, your job now is to shoot your way through the restaurant, around back alleys and onto the streets of Shanghai to escape the fuzz. Sounds simple enough, but, with like most 3rd person shooters these days, it’s about duck, cover shoot and move on.

What I really do love about this game already is that it is all done from the point of view of a handy cam. All the graphics and game play focus on you following Kane and Lynch through the back streets and rooftops of Shanghai. Of corse you are still plating the game as Kane or Lynch and controlling them, its just the fact that it is all captured as if it was a rubbishy quality film on YouTube and I love it. It astounds me how much attention to detail lo-interactive have put into the visuals to make them look like low quality handy cam film. This also adds to the atmosphere a lot as it really does feel nitty, gritty and some what seedy. Kane and Lynch dead men feels like Viva Pinata compared to Dog Days, there was one bit in the demo where I shot a police man point-blank in the face with a shot-gun and a pixel blur came up over his head, as if they did censor the movie for you tube. The atmosphere of the game for me is fantastic.

In some ways this game reminds of  what the first Max Payne game would look like if it was originally released on the 360, and the game play is simple but oh so effective, run and gun has always been effective in FPS games and now developers have really nailed down this aspect and a lot more in the 3rd person shooter genre, and I think I am going to be paying a lot more attention to 3rd person shooters more from now on.

For me Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is a great game to be looking out for, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the full game when it goes out on August 20th for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Garv

After the initial release and success of Kingdom Hearts, it has been a rapidly growing franchise – initially followed by the fairly quiet GBA title Chain of Memories, it wasn’t quite so apparent how successful the series was until it was followed up by the equally amazing sequel, Kingdom Hearts II. A master at annoyingly tantalising cliffhangers, Tetsuya Nomura and his band of miscreants have never failed to want me aching for more – each game feeling so complete before ending with some enigmatic video that opens up a whole set of new questions. As such, KHII ended with a special ending that opened up a ton of possibilities, and four years later I still don’t know the meaning of some of the events that unfolded. We have since had 358/2 Days, which helped to develop things further and fill in some blank spots between games, but yet there are still unanswered questions just waiting to be resolved. Although we still have no official news of Kingdom Hearts 3 (the production team mainly focusing on Final Fantasy Versus XIII), there are not one, not two, but three new hand held titles on the horizon to keep us hooked until then.

Birth by Sleep

Although the Japanese have annoyingly had this game for five months already (…sigh…), the next title to be released is the first PSP title to date, Birth by Sleep. A prequel referred to as “Episode 0″ by Nomura, it is supposedly as important to the overall plot as the two main titles of the series so far released. Starring Terra, Aqua and Ventus, (mystery characters introduced in the secret ending of KHII) the game focuses on the search for “Master Xehanort”, an evil ‘Keyblade Master’ whom they wish to defeat in their struggle to become Masters themselves. Featuring a totally rehauled battle system, more Disney worlds and characters, and even a cameo appearance by FFVII: Crisis Core’s Zack Fair, the game is split into three scenarios, with the player controlling each of the characters individually for their own side of the plot. Ventus bears an uncanny resemblence to Roxas – so it will be interesting to see what unfolds. Birth by Sleep will be released this September – and I cannot wait.

Re:coded

As far as I can tell, no official word has been given on exactly what Re:coded is, but general consensus is that it will be a DS version of Japanese-only mobile phone release Kingdom Hearts: Coded. Coded was set after the events of KHII, following Sora as he enters a virtual world based on Jiminy’s journal in order to understand a mysterious message discovered within it – “We must return to free them from their torment.” It seems to be a less important aspect to the main story than BBS, but it’s nice to see that the international market is being considered – mobile phones aren’t as technologically advanced as in the East, but that doesn’t mean we really wanted to miss out on games such as Final Fantasy: Before Crisis, and God of War: Betrayal. No real information or idea of a release on this one, but hopefully it’ll show itself sooner or later.

Kingdom Hearts 3D

Nintendo had a pretty impressive line-up at E3 this year, but the thing that (suprisingly) caught my attention most of all is the newly announced Nintendo 3DS. It wasn’t actually the console itself that interested me, more the line up of exclusive game titles that have been announced. It’s a pretty strong line up – with the likes of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Metal Gear Solid 3, but nothing sounds quite as exciting as the currently dubbed ‘Kingdom Hearts 3D’. Not a lot is known about the plot – and it’s hard to see where it’s going to fit in – it seems Sora and Riku are in their younger KHI forms, and Traverse Town is back – yet introductions have shown the likes of Nobodies in the game. I’m not sure there’s really a place that these scenes make sense – but I’m sure we’ll find out in time. My guess is some kind of “virtual” version of worlds in the style of Chain of Memories, but there’s no way to know for now. Anyway – what we do know is that it’s Kingdom Hearts, it’s a completely new story, it’s looking fantastic – and it seems both Sora and Riku will be playable. The game is looking up to the same standard as the original PS2 in graphics, so as long as they keep up the gameplay and plot I think we’re in for something good.

Kingdom Hearts 3…?

So where does that leave us? With a prequel, a sequel and something unknown – but it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of expansion on the KH world over the next couple of years. However, Nomura has stated that Kingdom Hearts III is in the conceptual stages – and it seems it’s more or less confirmed to be in the pipeline. He has confirmed a couple of things that are good to know – Sora will always be the lead protagonist, and III won’t necessarily be the end of the series – only the “Xehanort saga”.

So – we’ve got at least four more KH games to come, and possibly more. And that’s a whole lot of Kingdom Hearts…

-Leon

Comic Taken From penny-arcade.com

…cause its awesome and relevant. AND I almost counted it as a vote, but it wouldn’t of made a difference as you’ll soon notice.

HERE IT IS!

EBAY/KEEP/(EBAY LATERS)

Gamespot: 1/2/1

IGN:2/4/2

GiantBomb:8/13/5

1UP:2/1/0

Twitter/FB:1/1/0

PlusXP:0/2/3

TOTAL:14/23/11

KEEP WINS!

-These votes were shared across my Gamespot, IGN, Giantbomb and 1UP blogs along with votes from social networks and the site I contribute to PlusXP.-

Now there were ALOT of people whom didnt give a straight answer; something along the lines of- if you like it, keep it, if not sell it. Therefore I couldn’t count it as a vote, despite how much sense it makes. But thanks anyhoot.

Now onto the results themeselves. I am pretty damn surprised! Considering the general online consensus, I thought it was gonna be a landslide for ‘EBAY’. BUT of course theres the fact that it is signed by important dudes, which has become the main factor behind peoples votes.

As you can see theres also another category here ‘Ebay Laters’, which was recognised under the popular suggestion of waiting for it to gain value over time. And a damn good point too. I can’t help but wander that if I had that as an original category along side the others, would it have gotten more votes…

So yup thats that. I’m keeping FF13.

I have to say thanks for your votes guys, I was REALLY indecisive about it. Like literally today there were moments where I was hoping that the votes would be ‘KEEP’ and then an hour later I was wishing it would be ‘EBAY’. So yeah, I is indecided on stuffs. In terms of whether or not am I going to play it still? well I guess seeing as I’m keeping it, thats a no brainer. Here’s looking forward to that 30 hr cross over point into awesomes ville =D

-MarkBOSS