Yes, Kyo is dead.

I apologize for all the recent [un]activity and I promise to start updating soon! And, to show you just how sorry I am, here are some Birth By Sleep scans that, although old news, are new:

Here

And Here

Famitsu has teamed up with Youtube to post up trailers and gameplay videos from the Tokyo Game Show! With Birth by Sleep and Coded are being featured in the Open Mega Theatre this year, and we might just see the new trailers on Youtube in just a few days. You can check it out below:

Go There Now!

I just got an email from Square-Enix Members.

Save $5 when you pre-order Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days from Amazon.com

Here’s the instructions

One promotional code per customer. To redeem your $5 off promotional code, simply:

1. Go to the Amazon.com Web site
2. Select the items you want and add them to your Shopping Cart.
3. Click the “Proceed to checkout” button. At the Pay section of the progress bar, you’ll see a box on the lower part of the page that says, “Do you have a gift certificate or promotional claim code?”
4. Enter your claim code in the space provided to redeem your promotional code. Then click the Continue button and complete the order form.
5. You’ll know you have placed your order when you reach a screen that says, “Thank you for your order. We will send you an e-mail confirmation shortly.” If you want to review the details of your order, click the appropriate links in the “Managing your order” box, or the Your Account link in the upper right corner of the page.

Here’s the code:

KINGDOM5

The Code expires September 29, 2009 so don’t delay!

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In an interview with Famitsu, Square Enix character designer and Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura revealed some secrets about the early history of the franchise.

The ensemble-cast design of the games, for example, stemmed from a disagreement between Square and Disney over the protagonist: “Square wanted to make a game starring Mickey Mouse,” Nomura said, as translated by 1UP, “and Disney wanted a Donald Duck title. Meanwhile, I wanted neither.” The resulting compromise was “a game featuring lots of characters without focusing on any particular one.”

The Keyblade weapon, despite being an early component of the game, was not Nomura’s first idea for a signature weapon. “Actually,” he said, “the first weapon I showed Disney was a chainsaw. It was this chainsaw-like weapon that I had a rough sketch of when I first showed my concepts to Disney.”

Disney reacted pretty much like you would expect Disney executives to react to the heavy use of a chainsaw in a game about Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck: “Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room. Dead silence. And I thought ‘No, I guess this wouldn’t work, huh?’”

It occurred to us that the chainsaw was the perfect Nomura weapon, because the teeth on the chain are reminiscent of those on a zipper.

Thanks to Joystiq for the news.

Update: We believe some of the information contained in this post to be unconfirmed at this time. We have removed it until we have deemed otherwise.