Although Birth by Sleep is taking the franchise to a darker direction, a recent interview with Gemaga magazine reveals that the upcoming PSP Kingdom Hearts game will take place entirely in Disney worlds. IGN notes that "The game takes place in the past, years prior to the original Kingdom Hearts, and the worlds will be updated to reflect this. Nomura envisions having a young Hercules appear in the Hercules world, for instance. New Disney worlds will also appear, as will favorite characters like Disney and Goofy."

Development is being handled by the same studio that managed Re: Chain of Memories (unreleased in the States). The battle system employed will be largely similar to the card-based system featured in the PS2 remake. "You set up a card deck consisting of commands that are fed into your command menu," Nomura explained.

Details for Birth by Sleep are still hard to come by, but we're intrigued to see how this battle system will feel, especially for Kingdom Hearts regulars. Considering Square's incredible job with Crisis Core, we're confident they can pull off a PSP title that not only looks good, but plays well too.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Tokyo Game Show was the debut of three new Kingdom Hearts games from Square Enix. Of the three, the PSP title Birth by Sleep looks to most closely resemble the original PS2 games. In a recent issue of Famitsu, character designer and game director Testuya Nomura explained that although Birth by Sleep will play similarly to the original console games, fans should expect new gameplay in this PSP exclusive prequel.

The game has been in development for a long time, but Re: Chain of Memories took much more time than originally anticipated (this is the PS2 remake of the Game Boy Kingdom Hearts game). However, because the story was completed so long ago, the team has had plenty of time to work on the various scenarios in the game. IGN translates: "The game has three scenarios, each told from the perspective of one of the main characters. Yasue joked with the magazine that players may think the game was made by three different teams, as the play style is different for each character due to their varying personalities and abilities."

The character growth system will apparantly "shock" players and will encourage players to link up with others. However, don't expect multiplayer: that's reserved for the DS 358/2 Days. The game will feature brand new Disney worlds as well, such as Sleeping Beauty's Forest. Finally, although the game has been in development longer than either the DS or Mobile Kingdom Hearts games, it'll most likely be the last one to see release: it seems to be easily the most ambitious of the three new games.

Looks like Square Enix forgot to save a Final Fantasy VII limited edition PSP for famed designer Tetsuya Nomura. The man responsible for all things Final Fantasy (including Crisis Core) failed to secure a system from the Square Enix shop, and now he has to wait in line just like everyone else. Good thing there's going to be 77,777 systems available. It was originally planned to be far less -- 10,000 units for the entire world to try and grab!

Final Fantasy-related mania is going to strike Japan soon, and we can't wait. Stay tuned for more.

In an interview with Degenki, Final Fantasy Dissidia producer Tetsuya Nomura explained why Dissidia is heading to PSP instead of other more popular systems (such as the PS2). A translation from PSPHyper shows the reasoning: "PSP was chosen as the platform due to it's ad-hoc mode and the fact that people generally don't like split screen gaming. Nomura said that with its large install base, the PS2 maybe the natural choice but it also means that multiplayer modes has to be played on split screen, which reduce the fun factor by half."

While it's true that PSP has ad-hoc support, let's hope that the development team at Square Enix doesn't forget that it also has Infrastructure as well. Although Dissidia seems like a perfect candidate for online play, Capcom's Monster Hunter series shows that online play isn't a significant concern for Japanese developers and gamers.

Kingdom Hearts Network has translated a recent issue of Famitsu. This particular issue is of interest because there is an interview with Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura. In the interview, Nomura talks about the future of Kingdom Hearts: "The announcement time of a new KH project might be announced soon."

Of particular interest to PSP owners: "The multi-developing makes me want to put it on something else without thinking. If we follow this idea, it would be hard to choose if to make the game for the PSP, NDS or the cell phone."

Not the best translation, but I think we all get the idea. Kingdom Hearts on PSP could be the best team-up for PSP owners since Final Fantasy and Disney.

[Via DCEmu]