TGS07: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep impressions

Posted Sep 20th 2007 3:45PM by Andrew Yoon
Filed under: Kingdom Hearts

Remember this? This is the original Birth by Sleep trailer that was hidden at the end of the Japanese release of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. But this is not Kingdom Hearts III for PS3. No, it's not what you were expecting at all.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, revealed at Tokyo Game Show today, is a brand new PSP game that expands the story of the franchise not by looking forward, but by looking back. This prequel stars a character that strongly resembles (but is not) Zack from Final Fantasy VII (and most recently, Crisis Core). In addition, we see a character that appears to be a clone of Roxas -- but that's impossible, considering the massive time difference between Birth by Sleep and the original console games. Certainly, there's a lot of mysteries surrounding this upcoming title.

As this preview video shows, the game features a much darker and sinister feel than the console predecessors. The character designs feature a rougher look, especially the main villains, featured above. The new hero, being of a much older age than the previous heroes, also adds a much more mature feel to the overall presentation. The new keyblade also feels much more menacing, being able to shoot projectiles rather quickly. From the little we got to see at Tokyo Game Show, it seems as though the gameplay of Birth by Sleep will most closely follow the PS2 originals of the new Kingdom Hearts games announced today.

This is easily the most technologically impressive Kingdom Hearts game announced today, and although it's not a next-gen sequel, this PSP iteration looks to satiate the needs of the Kingdom Hearts gamers everywhere.

Tags: birth-by-sleep, kingdom-hearts, tgs07

Related Headlines

PSP Fanboy hands-on: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (3 days ago - 35 Comments)
What's playable, and what's not, at Square Enix's TGS booth (35 days ago - 10 Comments)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

9-20-2007 @ 3:57PM

GoBob said...

Moar liek Kingdom Farts, amirite?

This is something I am hardly looking forward to. However, I do recognize that this will DEFINITELY help the PSP gain popularity, so I welcome it. But I will counting down the days until the NA release of Crisis Core.

9-20-2007 @ 4:00PM

Liqwid said...

Holy shit, this looks epic! I'm much happier that I bought a PSP last year.

9-20-2007 @ 4:02PM

woroxon said...

the psp games for the following year are great in general.

9-20-2007 @ 4:44PM

Sora57 said...

Looking forward to this!

9-20-2007 @ 4:45PM

Tim Parsons said...

Damn Crisis Core now Kingdom Hearts PSP is getting some awesome RPG's

And it looks like thi was the game the Secret Ending in KH2 was pointing to considering that's the keyblade field and the same 3 warriors shown in it,. awesome cna't wait to see this,. I guess they didnt mention a date havent seen one yet

9-20-2007 @ 5:41PM

1337stra said...

Finally! KH on the go!

9-20-2007 @ 9:12PM

Hashbrown_Hunter said...

The cell phone game looks...weird. The DS game looks OK at best. Let's hope we're the winners because this one sounds the most promising of all three.

9-20-2007 @ 9:21PM

cafecito said...

Pretty misterious, and promising as well. I wonder who that enemy is? Seems pretty powerful, huh. And who are the three knights? Looks like the youngest gets killed... or almost killed at least.

9-20-2007 @ 10:58PM

LoyalistRevolt said...

Well first I would like to thank gameinformer for telling us about this 2 years ago. Second no gameplay all we know right now is that is has nice cutscenes.

9-21-2007 @ 2:24AM

2245 said...

Finally a good game for the PSP and the DS, to bad i can't complete my collection with the mobile because it only releasing in Japan

9-21-2007 @ 6:15AM

txa1265 said...

Too bad the PSP is a doomed failure with no games or I'd be looking forward to this one quite a bit :D

(yes I'm joking)

9-21-2007 @ 8:05AM

Alien said...

My god that was amazing :o Thanks a lot Andrew for that CG :D

9-21-2007 @ 11:29AM

Bryan said...

holy crap. thank goodness my girlfriend bought me a psp and not a ps3.

9-21-2007 @ 3:37PM

Edge said...

Anyone else think that Disney should be concerned that they are getting increasingly less and less out of this deal?

And it STILL makes me wonder what the hell the gameplay will be like. Just like always, a bunch of drooling fanboys whipped into a frenzy by a pre-rendered trailer. I'm not impressed.

9-21-2007 @ 4:04PM

cafecito said...

Edge: STFU

9-21-2007 @ 5:44PM

amir said...

looking forward to it but i hope all the disney characters dies.They ruin a very great game for me >:(

9-21-2007 @ 7:06PM

Yoy said...

This game looked awesome until Mickey Mouse showed up (WTF?!)... than it just got confusing...

9-21-2007 @ 7:43PM

Daniel said...

Great!

But now I fear the pattern has been disrupted and Kingdom Hearts is now becoming nothing but a multi-console rushed franchise. I love it too bits but I can't bear playing a game where 3 different teams are rushing to make 3 different version, it downgrades quality and dedication

Pattern

KH1: PS2
KH:COM: GBA
KH2: PS2
KH:BBS, KH:358/2 and KH:CODED: PSP, DS and Mobile
KH3: (I fear this won't be a PS3 Exclusive)

I just hope it won't become like a over-used FF

9-22-2007 @ 1:29AM

fakiu said...

the kid that is almost killed(frozen) is Sora (look at his hair) or Sora is his reincarnation
i think so

9-22-2007 @ 9:52AM

flukeone said...

i think i'm the only one who actually think that mickey and donald duck in a badass heroic-fantasy game is linda cool ;)

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