The Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days official site saw its latest update yesterday. Since I love listening to the theme song that plays at the site, I'm going to recap what's new.

The "character" section offers up a look at one additional character:

Xaldin

Rank III in Organization XIII, Xaldin uses the power of the wind to wield six lances at once. He can speak, a skill he uses in order to confuse people.

[end_p text="More on Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days after the jump" /]

The "system" section offers up a look at "missions." This is a central area of the game, and not just in multiplayer mode. In solo mode, you progress through the story by clearing missions that are given to you by Organization XIII.

You take on a mission by speaking to Saix in the Lobby, which serves as the base for XIII. Mission types include standard optional types and those that are required for the story. Story missions are properly referred to as "Key Missions," and are flagged in your mission select screen with a key icon.

Taking on a mission from Saix.

Each mission as its own Mission Gauge. Clear certain conditions, and the mission gauge builds up. Once this gauge reaches a "norm line," you've cleared the mission. Screenshots at the site show, as a mission objective, "collect all hearts."

It's up to you to decide how to play the game. You can work towards clearing all the 90+ missions that are included in the game. Or, for those who just want to advance through the story, you can also focus exclusively on key missions.

The mission gauge, shown in the bottom of the right screenshot.

In the game's multiplayer mission mode, you and up to three other players work together to clear missions. Each player takes control of Roxus or one of the other members of XIII. Those who have story mode data can load up their characters in order to gain access to their panels (see last week's update for more on panels). Those without save data can select "Guest Play."

Multiplayer mission mode.

Gameplay is cooperative, but there's a competitive aspect too as you attempt to collect "Multi Points" which are used to determine a winner of sorts at the end of the mission.

The missions in mission mode are the same as those that are available in the story mode. To gain access to the multiplayer version of a mission, you'll have to find an item called "Kyoutou no Shou" (literally "Proof of Group Combat") from the Story Mode mission.

You'll have to find these in the story mode missions in order to gain access to multiplayer versions of the missions.

Not all players have access to all missions, though. Missions are flagged with a rank, and only those who are at or above the displayed rank can play.

Outside of the details on the mission mode, the official site also has lengthy gameplay videos showing off mission mode combat for five characters.

Looks like just enough slots for all thirteen members of XIII! But will Square Enix have enough time to fill them all in before the KH 358/2 Days' May 28 release?