Further information: Characters of Kingdom Hearts, Sora (Kingdom Hearts), and Organization XIII
The game revolves around Roxas, who was first featured at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. Roxas is the Nobody of Sora, the series' main protagonist, born when Sora's body vanished as he briefly lost his heart and became a Heartless, and joining Organization XIII, a group of powerful Nobodies who served as the main antagonists of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. Like Sora, Roxas has the power to wield the Keyblade, a weapon normally used for battling darkness. The other members of Organization XIII play a prominent role as well, particularly Axel, Roxas's best friend who debuted in Chain of Memories. The game also introduces a new member: Xion, a girl who resembles Sora's friend Kairi and can also wield the Keyblade.
Other characters who are featured include Naminé, a girl with the power to manipulate memories; DiZ, an enigmatic man wrapped in bandages; Riku, Sora's best friend; and King Mickey, Riku's ally and ruler of Disney Castle. Sora, the main character of the previous games, is featured prominently in the plot, along with his allies Donald Duck and Goofy, though they appear quite infrequently in the form of several flashbacks and memory-induced scenarios. Also appearing are Pete, a persistent villain who first appears in Kingdom Hearts II, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette, a trio of friends living in Twilight Town who also debuted in Kingdom Hearts II. As with the other games in the series, each Disney world features several characters who appear in the films their worlds are based on; on the other hand, no Final Fantasy characters are featured apart from Moogles, who manage shops for the Organization.This game features 19 playable characters, which is the most playable characters ever featured in a Kingdom Hearts title to date.
Story
When Sora loses his heart and becomes a Heartless in Kingdom Hearts, his Nobody, Roxas, is created. Unlike most Nobodies, however, Roxas lacks knowledge of his past life as Sora since the real Sora had been restored to his original form; in exchange for that, however, he gains a capacity for emotions.Roxas is discovered in Twilight Town by Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, and recruited as its thirteenth member. Each day, Roxas is sent on missions to other worlds, alone or accompanied by a fellow member, to destroy vast quantities of Heartless with his Keyblade and release stolen hearts, learning that his actions will further the Organization's ultimate goal to summon Kingdom Hearts and allow them to become complete beings.
Over his first few days in the Organization, Roxas is placed under the mentorship of Axel, the Organization's eighth member. The two end up becoming close friends and meet up with each other at the Twilight Town clock tower each day after missions to eat sea-salt ice cream together and talk about what's on their minds. One day, Axel is stationed at Castle Oblivion along with a group of other members, leaving Roxas to be partnered with a girl named Xion, the Organization's mysterious fourteenth member who was inducted shortly after Roxas and, like Roxas, has no memory of her past and has the power to wield the Keyblade. Xion is initially quiet and emotionless, but begins to open up to Roxas, who suggests that she becomes friends with him and Axel once he returns. However, Roxas soon falls into a coma and does not revive until several weeks later.
As DiZ and Naminé watch over Sora while he sleeps to restore his altered memory after the events of Chain of Memories, Roxas begins to experience the process for himself, growing increasingly curious about why he can wield the Keyblade. In addition, he learns that all of the Organization members stationed at Castle Oblivion have been annihilated, and that Xion has vanished. Roxas is saddened by his friends' disappearance, but Axel soon returns and helps Roxas find Xion. However, Xion has mysteriously lost her ability to use the Keyblade. Roxas and Axel cover for Xion until she finally remembers how to summon the Keyblade via retraining, and the three become close friends.
Later, Xion is thrown into disarray over the nature of her existence after battling and losing to Riku, who is working behind the scenes dressed as an Organization member, and distances herself from her friends to learn more about herself. She eventually discovers that she is not a Nobody, but an imperfect replica of Sora created by Xemnas from his scattered memories, planning to use her and Roxas as alternatives, in case Sora proves useless to their cause. Furthermore, Naminé's attempts to restore Sora's memories affect not only Roxas, but Xion as well, preventing Sora from regaining his memories.Torn between staying with her friends and merging with Sora as per Riku's advice,Xion eventually decides to make the decision best for everyone and attempts to escape from the Organization, particularly when her powers begin to increase dramatically while Roxas inversely grows weaker. However, she is forced to fight off her friends, who are ordered to track her down whenever she escapes. Understanding the situation, Axel eventually allows Xion to escape, but loses Roxas's trust. Upon learning the truth about Xion from Xemnas, Roxas begins to doubt the Organization's motives and his own identity. Finally frustrated with his unanswered questions, Roxas leaves Organization XIII, leaving Axel dejected.
At Twilight Town, Roxas is attacked by Xion, who reveals that she had been created by Xemnas to absorb Roxas and become the "real" Sora.However, after a grueling battle, Xion allows Roxas to defeat her and requests that he release Kingdom Hearts and put an end to Xemnas's plan before her body dissipates and return to Sora, causing everyone's memories of her to slowly vanish. While heading back to do so, hoping to revive Xion and renew his friendship with her and Axel, Roxas encounters and battles Riku, who was dispatched by DiZ to capture him.When Riku is defeated, he taps into the suppressed darkness in his heart, granting him the power necessary to subdue Roxas, but also giving him the body of Ansem, who resides in his heart.Riku subsequently brings Roxas to DiZ, who inserts Roxas into a virtual simulation of Twilight Town without any of his Organization memories so that Roxas may eventually merge with Sora and complete the restoration of his memories, setting the stage for Kingdom Hearts II.
Development
358/2 Days was developed by h.a.n.d. with Square Enix employees overseeing the process. The game was directed by Tetsuya Nomura and co-directed by Tomohiro Hasegawa.In 2007, Nomura mentioned he wanted to do a spin-off Kingdom Hearts game on a mobile platform and wanted the game to play slightly different than the other titles already in the series.358/2 Days was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts coded at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 2007, where a trailer was shown in a photo-prohibited theater.New trailers were shown and a playable demo was available at the 2008 Jump Festa in December 2007 and the DKΣ3713 Private party in August 2008. Both single player and multiplayer demos were featured. Xion was also shown in the new trailer and in the multiplayer demo.
The Nintendo DS was chosen as the system before plans were decided. The development team wanted to have gameplay similar to previous Kingdom Hearts titles, but stated the number of buttons on the Nintendo DS was a problem. Some of the DS's functions, like the stylus, are not used in order to retain the similar gameplay from previous titles.Roxas seeing Sora's memories is incorporated throughout the game and has different types of gameplay for each world.The game's logo uses warm colors as a reference to the sunset in Twilight Town. The title, "358/2 Days", is a code that Nomura has stated the player will understand the meaning of at the very end of the game, though hinted in a recent trailer, and the word "day" is attached to the title as a reference to the daily life of Organization XIII.Though Birth by Sleep was the first of the three new games to begin development, 358/2 Days was released before it.The game was slated for a release at the end of 2008, but Square Enix pushed the date to February 2009. Once again the game was delayed for Japanese release until May 30, 2009. A release in North American territories was announced on December 2, 2008.The official English trailer for the title was shown at Nintendo's press conference at E3 2009, confirming a release date of September 29, 2009 for North America and October 9, 2009 for Europe.
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