Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Site Update

The Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days official site was given its regular well-banaced update today. New content includes details on a character, a scenario, and a gameplay system.

Character: Xigbar

No.II in Organization XIII, Xigbar makes use of the Gun Arrow weapon and elemental "space." He takes a teasing attitude around people, but behind this, he has a sharp eye and watches over the movements of all members of the Organization.

Xigbar is the latest character introduced at the official site. They've got quite a bit of ground to cover before the game's May 30 release.

Event: #17: Agrabah

The city of Agrabah has been covered in sand due to a storm. Genie is out on travels at the time, and Aladdin decides to fix the city without the help of his wish-granting friend.

System: Panel System -- Link Panels

Previously, the site detailed the basics of the Panel system. Here's a recap. In 358/2 Days, items, magic, abilities and even levels are managed via panels. Prior to a mission, while in the lobby area, you place these panels into "panel slots." Once in a mission, you can't change the panel slots, so this can be considered pre-stage preparation.

Four types of standard panels are detailed at the site:

Ability Panels

Setting an ability panel into a slot makes the ability take effect during your following play session. For example, you can set a Dodge Roll ability into a slot, and your character will have access to this move.

Item Panels

Setting an item panel into a slot gives you access to that item for the upcoming play session. Each slot can only hold one sample of each item, so if you want, for instance, multiple potions, you'll have to use up the equivalent number of slots.

Magic Panels

Magic panels work the same as item panels -- they disappear after a single use, so you have to allocate the equivalent number of panels for the number of times you want to use a spell. Samples magic panels include your typical magic spells like Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Cure.

Level Up Panels

Level Up panels allow you to make adjustments to your character's status. Each level up panel raises your character's level by one, changing all stats appropriately.

There are over 200 panels waiting to be collected in the game.

The panel system is shown in the screenshot.

Today's update is about a different type of panel: Link Panels. When these are added to your panel chart, they take up a special formation of squares known as a "Link Area." By adding standard panels to the squares in the Link Area, you can achieve a variety of special effects.

As an example of Link Panels, you'll find a panel called "Magic Lv.2 Plus (4)." The "4" after the name means that the panel takes up four slots. Outside of the main slot for the panel, three blank slots can be equipped with magic to increase their level by 2. Another example is "Magic Use Count 2 Plus (4)," which increases by 2 the number of times you can use a spell.

Level-up Link Panels can be used to more economically raise a character's level. An example is "Lv2 Plus (5)." The four empty slots in this Link Panel can be equipped with level up panels to double the level up effect of each level-up panel. It's possible, for instance, to raise your character eight levels using just four level-up panels if you add the panels to a Lv2 Plus (5) Link Panel.

Ability Link Panels increase the effect of abilities. The Link Panel "Reflect Guard (2)," for instance, can be combined with the standard Guard Up panel to increase the level of the Reflect Guard. It can also be combined with standard Thunder Guard panel to add in an occasional thunder attack to your guards.

See the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days official site for a graphical look at this latest update along with the always inspiring Kingdom Hearts theme music.