Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #243 (July 2009)
358/2 Days takes place between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, focusing on Roxas. Roxas is kind of like Raiden if you consider usual series lead Sora to be the Solid Snake.
With the spotlight on Roxas, 358/2 Days is going to make for a different kind of Kingdom Hearts. Although Roxas will visit Disney-based worlds, he’ll do so without sidekick regulars Goofy and Donald Duck in tow. In their place, you can choose from various members of the doomed Organization XIII. I say “doomed” because if I recall KH2 and the GBA sidestory Chain of Memories, most of these guys were dispatched by Sora and company.
In fact, 358/2 Days seems to be primarily about filling in the gaps created by the typically Square Enixian storyline. Nintendo Power promises the game will reveal how Roxas met his friends in Twilight Town (the people and setting for the extended prologue section of Kingdom Hearts 2), introduce a new Organization cutie named Xion, and go into Roxas’s friendship with series thorn Axel.
But if screens like this one are anything to go by - and given that we already know that Roxas and Sora are the same person, sort of - it’s not too hard to guess that the Roxas / Xion / Axel relationship will be a mirror of the Sora / Kairi / Riku trio.
I know I just dropped a heap of Hearts trivia on you, but game creator Tetsuya Nomura (and character designer for Final Fantasy, as if you didn’t know that) promises that 358/2 Days is also a good jump-on point for gamers unfamiliar with the series. After all, Roxas himself is something of a cypher and has to learn about his role in the Kingdom Hearts mythology right alongside the player.
358/2 Days has an offline WiFi multiplayer mode, where up to four players can compete in Four Swords-esque missions. These missions are unlocked during the single player quest and in return, the rewards collected in multiplayer can earn special items back in single player.
Rumors can continue to percolate about Kingdom Hearts on Wii. Nomura, in a classically vague riposte to NP’s question, says he may consider it at some future date.