This year's Jump Festa wasn't packed with a ton of new info -- unless, perhaps, you're a big Square Enix buff. A few SE games got some major buzz this past weekend, including our own highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. While we have not yet found video of the playable demo that fans were treated to at the event, we do have a breakdown of what was included, as well as other juicy details on the title. The first, and most important bit, is that the devs are aiming for release this summer. Whether or not they'll make that timeframe is debatable, but DS dev cycles seem to be pretty quick, and if there's already demo action, it might just be in the cards.

We have culled some specific details from the demos available at Jump Festa and compiled the information after the jump. It goes without saying that some of this info may include spoilers, so if you're looking to stay away from specifics, you might want to skip it.

To get players ready for the Jump Festa demo, Square Enix has posted the control scheme for Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days on the game's official website. While we don't necessarily need to know which button does what, it's an easy way to find out what can be done in the game at all. NeoGAF's Kyoufu translated the diagram, and revealed some details of the game's multiplayer in addition to the awkward control scheme: In multiplayer, one player controls Roxas and others control spikey-haired pretty-boys Organization XIII members Xigbar, Axel, and Saïx.

As for the control scheme: it is an attempt to cram all of the functionality of the original games' dual-analog, four-shoulder-button control scheme onto the DS, and it sounds about as natural as you would expect from such an endeavor. For example, you have to hold both L and R to lock onto an enemy -- the individual shoulder buttons handle camera control. Also, menu control has been moved from the d-pad (of course) to the X button -- we think that you scroll through options by tapping X. Kyoufu's translation is reproduced after the break.

[Via NeoGAF]

The deluge of pre-Jump Festa info continues, and with it comes a three-page spread on Blue Dragon, complete with new images. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of blue in the pictures. Who'd have thought?

We've seen and heard a lot of rumblings about whether or not Blue Dragon can make the leap from console to handheld, but it's worked for so many other games and franchises that we don't have any major worries. Certainly it will look good, but after the mediocre reaction to ASH, we've got fingers crossed concerning the game play. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see that, however. For now, you can check out the scans after the break.

With Jump Festa right around the corner, Japanese magazine V-Jump is teasing readers with spot coverage of games we can expect to see at the event ... and that means Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. While there's only one page (which we've tucked away for you after the break), there's a mix of old and new images that should have fans salivating for more. We can't wait to see the footage out of next week's event! There have been so many scraps that we're about ready for a full meal on this one.

We knew the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days would be at Jump Festa, but before, we thought there would be only a carefully prepared (and short) trailer hidden away behind closed doors. Not so! Apparently, the highly anticipated title will actually be playable at this month's event. Even better? Multiplayer mode will be on display. That's a huge difference from a hidden trailer, and we can't wait to see what is unveiled for the next DS game in the franchise.

Square Enix has announced their lineup for this month's Jump Festa, and though it's not extensive, there's enough variety to please even the pickiest of SE devotees. Final Fantasy IV, which releases right before the two-day event, will be playable, but what's really exciting is that we've been promised videos of both Front Mission 2089 and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. With the dribs and drabs we've seen so far from the very intriguing upcoming DS Kingdom Hearts title, that footage promises to be popular.

Of course, now that we're building it up in our minds, it will be precisely four seconds longer than the last footage we saw, and we'll still know very little about the game.