I have been waiting a long time, as I’m sure many of you have as well, for a proper continuation to the Kingdom Hearts series. Square Enix knows how badly we want Birth by Sleep, and proved it by recently releasing a seven minute long trailer at gamescom full of new gameplay sequences and cutscenes. Don’t let the first few minutes scare you away, there is some great stuff in this trailer.
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to garner up enough excitement to actually buy this game at launch, but after seeing this footage, I can’t help but want to know what Nomura and his team have come up with for this prequel. The voice acting is so-so, even grating from what the trailer showed, but I think I’ll be able to get past that to enjoy the story. It really comes down to how enjoyable the combat is and how interesting the story can be, which shouldn’t be a problem if the footage is any indication.
Without further ado, here’s the really long official launch trailer:
A stand out in the seven minutes is the amount of mini-games and variety they have packed into this game. There was racing, a board game, Ven playing a guitar; basically more than any other Kingdom Hearts game has managed to include up to this point. Hopefully these aren’t gimmicks, but genuine additions to keep the game fresh.
Personally, I found the most exciting bits strewn throughout the trailer were those with King Mickey, Sora and Kairi. The story of Kingdom Hearts 2 was far too convoluted for me to become reattached to my favorite characters from the first game, but perhaps the team has learned their lesson in creating their past few games. I can’t wait to see how Nomura handles all his upcoming releases in this franchise.
