Make Ice Cream in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Plus, Tetsuya Nomura shares details on loading, secret movies, scenarios and more.
I'm pretty sure I have quite a bit left unwritten on this blog about Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, but I think you'll agree -- this is the most important part!
As one of the many sweet (hee-hee-hee) features for the highly anticipated PSP entry in the series, players will be able to make digital ice cream. If you've collected the proper materials, you can head to the ice cream shop in Disney Town to have Huey, Dewey and Louie make ice cream for you.
The in-game ice cream isn't just a collection item. In battle, you can set the ice cream item in your command deck. Select the ice cream command, and you'll be able to change your Command Style.
Command what now? In Birth by Sleep's battle system, your command palette -- the thing you select your moves from on the lower left side of the screen -- changes throughout the course of battle. There's a yellow "Command Gauge" above the palette. This fills as you strike enemies but depletes with time. When it maxes out, depending on the types of commands that you've used during battle you may under go a Command Style change, with the design of the command palette and its base commands changing.
The ice cream item allows you to jump right to a Command Style change without actually building up that gauge. Expectedly, there are a variety of ice cream items corresponding to different Command Style changes. You'll be able to create different types of ice cream by selecting different recipes at the ice cream shop.
Okay, okay... this isn't really much of an update, and I don't have any screens to go with it, so here's just a bit more about Birth by Sleep. This information (including the stuff about the ice cream) comes from the latest Dengeki PlayStation, which has a sweet summary on the game along with an interview with director Tetsuya Nomura.
The interview begins with a discussion of the three characters, Tera, Ventus and Aqua. The scenarios for the three characters are truly separate, Nomura told the magazine. Explained Nomura, if three players were to play the game simultaneously, each with a different character, they'd run out of things to talk about after 10 minutes.
He also warned about spoilers when discussing the game with friends who have been using a different character. Please be sure and adjust your message board official threads accordingly.
It's possible to play through all three characters simultaneously. That is, you can switch to a different character without finishing one character, if you like. Nomura suggested against this, however, as he said parallel play becomes a bit complex (I don't know exactly what he means either).
Like in Famitsu's interview from last week, Nomura shared a few details on the game's Secret Movie with Dengeki. Past numbered Kingdom Hearts games have included a hidden movie which provided a preview of sorts for the next game in the series. The BbS secret movie will differ from past movies in that rather than being a pre rendered movie, it will take the form of a 10 minute event scene, complete with dialogue. Rather than a forecast for the future of the series, it's closer to the true ending. It will even feature some exclusive characters.
Finally, Dengeki got a few details on the game's loading system. As with other Square Enix PSP titles, players will be able to select to install the Birth by Sleep to Memory Stick. There will be three install options: 200MB, 400MB, and 600MB. Nomura suggests the highest install option, stating that it brings about great changes to the gameplay environment. Degenki's article (they appear to have played the final game) notes that the game's tempo changes considerably when selecting the highest install.
