January 9, 2010
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September 7, 2010
September 10, 2010
September 9, 2010
"Destiny's never left to chance."
"Three friends, three destinies. Everything will link back to the beginning."
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is the sixth title in the Kingdom Hearts series. It follows the journeys of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, about ten years before Kingdom Hearts, as they fight the Unversed and search for the mysterious Master Xehanort.
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts coded at Tokyo Game Show 2007 on September 21, 2007. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep released in Japan on January 9, 2010, with international releases in September that year.
Story[edit | edit source]
Worlds and Characters[edit | edit source]
Gameplay[edit | edit source]
Development and Release[edit | edit source]
Near the end of June 2005, Square Enix's fifth internal Production Development Division, based in Osaka, approached series director Tetsuya Nomura and were tasked with making a Kingdom Hearts game. Originally, the project was intended to release as a side entry for the PlayStation 2, with Sora as the prototype for the protagonist. As Kingdom Hearts II finished production Nomura wrote story plans for Birth by Sleep, so the team in Osaka modeled the game after these plans. Genuine development for Birth by Sleep on the PlayStation Portable due to the multiplayer capabilities of the system. Production was temporarily halted about half a year in, as Nomura requested that the team develop a PlayStation 2 remake of Chain of Memories to bundle in with Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix in Japan. Birth by Sleep would resume production less than a year later[1] and be developed for a further three years.[2]
Nomura has referred to Birth by Sleep as 'Episode 0' (and later, 0.1)[3], being substantially on par with the numbered entries.[4] The team in Osaka were responsible for gameplay creation while the team in Tokyo previously responsible for cutscene creation for Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II were retained for this installment.[2] The Osaka-based development team would regularly teleconference the team in Tokyo as the development progressed.[1] The title was inspired by the choice to use the preposition 'by', which is atypical in most titles.[5]
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts coded at Tokyo Game Show 2007 on September 21, 2007.[6] A demo was first made available at a private party event in August 2008.[7] As of November 2010, Birth by Sleep sold 1.27 million units on PSP.[8]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 KHInsider: Famitsu Interview with Birth by Sleep Developers
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 KHInsider: BBS Ultimania: Co-director & Co-producer Interview
- ↑ KHInsider: Nomura on the title of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8, 0.1 in Kingdom Hearts 3
- ↑ KHInsider: Full Gangan Interview
- ↑ KHInsider: Full Nomura Interview + 20 KH Mysteries Solved!
- ↑ Gamespot: TGS '07: Three new Kingdom Hearts games coming
- ↑ IGN: Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Hands-on
- ↑ IGN: Square Enix's Biggest Games Were Dragon Quest and Kane & Lynch