New Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Trailer Features Keys, Blades, and Stitch

If you’re Disney, what’s the best way to make a trailer featuring Cinderella, Snow White, and Stitch feel impossibly epic?  You call up Tetsuya Nomura.  After all, that’s exactly what Square Enix’s veteran character designer-turned-director did in this recently released trailer for his PSP project, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

Originally announced via a teaser trailer at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, Birth By Sleep is a prequel to Square’s immensely popular crossover franchise.  Set ten years before the original Kingdom Hearts, it follows three young Keyblade wielders; Terra, the oldest member of the group and its de facto leader, Ven, the youngest member of the team (who just so happens to bear an impossible resemblance to KH2‘s Roxas), and Aqua, the token female and “big sister” of the group.  The three heroes embark on their journey when their trainer, a suspicious-looking old man by the name of Master Xehanort, goes rogue.  The events that follow serve as the origin point for the entire Kingdom Hearts series.

Featuring a three-scenario storyline, Birth By Sleep allows players to control all three of the heroes and play through their storylines at their own leisure, even switching stories between chapters if they so desire.  It also features a number of improvements to the combat system, new worlds and characters, and music by KH series composer Yoko Shimomura.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is scheduled to be released on the PSP before the end of this year in Japan.  No Western release date has been announced, but a worldwide release has already been confirmed by Square.