Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Trailer Impressions

The trailer for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep featured a lot of new scenes that were not shown in last year's trailer. To recap what's known so far, the PSP game is somewhat of a prequel, which takes place before Sora and Riku's adventures in Kingdom Hearts. The story revolves around three keyblade apprentices named Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, as well as a keyblade master known as Master Xehanort. Terra is a brown-haired youngster who looks a bit like Zack from FFVII. Ventus (who's abbreviated as Ven) is a blond boy who strongly resembles Roxas from Kingdom Hearts II. Aqua is a girl with short blue hair, and in this new trailer, she was wearing a relatively sporty outfit with what seemed to be short black tights plus knee socks.

It didn't seem like the cutscenes in Birth by Sleep's trailer were in chronological order, but there were a lot of hints given about the game's basic storyline. The trailer started off with Master Xehanort talking to Ven in a rocky desert (the same desert as the secret ending in KHII). There, he reveals that Terra's soul has turned to the dark side and he no longer has the qualifications to hold a keyblade. Master Xehanort shouts, "Use your powers to defeat the darkness and fix my wrongdoings!" The trailer then changes to another scene with Ven, talking to someone off the camera. "I need to ask you to do so because you're my friend. Erase me."

Malificent is making a return in Birth by Sleep. After the scene with Ven, the screen changes to a bedroom where she and Terra are looking down on a princess who is peacefully sleeping (we're assuming it's the Sleeping Beauty). Here, we learned that the basis of the game's storyline is a bit similar to that of the first installment of Kingdom Hearts. Malificent explains to Terra that whoever collects the seven hearts of those who are pure will be able to rule all of the worlds.

In the next scene, Aqua and Terra are looking for Master Xehanort, who has suddenly disappeared. Terra reveals to Aqua that Master Xehanort has become interested in those who have a pure heart (the princesses), so that searching for them should eventually lead to their master. The following scene shows Terra finding Snow White in a grassy field, and he realizes that she too is one of the seven holders of the pure heart.

The scene then changes to a dark-looking location, possibly the exteriors of Malificent's castle. When Ven and Aqua face Malificent, Aqua looks as through she's ready to strike at any moment. "What you told to Ven, is it true?" Shouts Aqua. Without showing any emotion of happiness or sadness, Malificent replies, "It's all true. Terra has fallen to the dark side."

Birth by Sleep's trailer ends in the same desert scene where it began, except this time, it's Terra that's facing Master Xehanort. "What did you do to my friend's heart!" He shouts at his master as the screen goes black and the trailer ends.