Reviews Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Review~!

Tifa

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Whassup forums! I'm back again with another review just for you guys! This time I'm sinking my teeth into the only PSP exclusive entry to the Kingdom Hearts series.

While the fact that it's not a full fledged console release might turn some of you away, rest assured is well worth your time and money. Since I'm a Kingdom Hearts fangirl, I was more than willing to take the time out to fully explore everything this game had to offer before writing up this review. Even though I'm a huge fan that, doesn't mean I haven't realized the game's glaring faults. But even with its few shortcomings, I still feel like this is one of the best titles of the franchise, even surpassing the masterpiece that is Kingdom Hearts II in some aspects.

Anywho, let's get down to the biz-naz shall we?

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Console: Playstation Portable
Developer: Square Enix Product Development Division 5
Publisher(s): Square Enix
Genre:Strategy Action roleplaying game
Release Date: September 7, 2010 (NA) | September 10, 2010 (EU) | September 10, 2010 (AUS)
ESRB Rating: E10+
Players: 1 - 6 Ad-Hoc

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Terra, Ventus, and Aqua

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Phew, try say that three times fast!), is an action role playing game, that follows our three Keyblade wielding protagonists - Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. Just like in all the other Kingdom Hearts games, the protagonists in Birth by Sleep travel between the Disney themed worlds solving smaller problems while working towards one bigger goal. While on a world, you can move through the well designed environments, interact with new and old characters alike, collect treasure, and explore too! But if you thought you only get to play as only one of the three Keyblade wielders. . . you'd be absolutely RIGHT. . . and wrong, depending on how you view it. See, in KH:BBS, you get to pick which of the three you want to play as and then follow their personal story from start to finish. BUT FRET NOT, because at any time, you can save your progress and try another of the two, but I really suggest the start to finish approach, as it'll make things easier to understand in the end.

Each of the stories are surprisingly long considering this is a handheld title, clocking in between 8 and 15 hours depending on how you play. What sets KH:BBS apart from its sister entries is how the story is presented. Instead of it being one big picture like we're used to, it's instead delivered from three different viewpoints, meaning that to understand the whole story, you'll have to complete all three paths. While definitely a fresh new idea, it's not without its shortcomings. Each character travels through the exact same worlds, in nearly the same order, and while you may do different things and experience different parts of the story in each world, there are some reused cutscenes that you'll be speeding to skip through on your third time around. It's not all bad though, since for the most part the differences in each story's approach and tasks are large enough to warrant another play through.

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Aqua's commands recharging.

What KH:BBS does better (at least imo) than all the other entries in the series is its combat. Fighting in this game is definitely the best part, with a mind boggling amount of customization for your characters fighting abilities. It's so robust in fact, that it'll take quite a bit of effort to explain it even in this condensed review format! Instead of just mashing the attack button and spamming magic like in the previous two KH titles, you can now buy and find commands that can be activated on the fly with a simple press of the triangle button. But, after using each one, they take a bit of time to recharge, and switches to the next one assigned in your command deck, so sometimes saving that critical heal or heavy damaging attack until later can be game saving!


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Ventus using a Command Style.

That's only the tip of the iceberg however, as each command can be leveled up or even combined with others to form newer and more powerful ones. With well over 50 total combinations to possibly make, you can safely play through the entire game three times over and STILL not have discovered them all. If you think that's all there is to combat, think again, because in addition to the command deck, there's also a combo gauge that sits right above the attacks menu on your screen. As your character attacks, it slowly builds up and once the gauge fills, your character can unleash a powerful finish attack. But that's not all! If you say, get Aqua to use an ice elemental attack or two while filling the command gauge, instead of unleashing a finish command once it's full, she'll instead switch to a "command style", which for this example, would give all of her regular Keyblade attacks a freezing effect to accompany them and a devastating finisher capable of clearing an entire screen of enemies in addition to all that! While certainly cool, this can be ignored if you want to make the game a bit more challenging, but often times the effects are so entertaining to look at, you'll find yourself doing it anyway.

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Terra using a Shotlock Command.

But wait, there's more! If you ever get tired of button mashing to clear enemies, each character also has special area of effect attacks called Shotlocks, which turns the screen into a sort of gun scope that you have to aim to lock on. Each Shotlock is a bit different, but after a some practice, they'll easily be the strongest attacks at your disposal.

There's also the Dimension Links too! (Geeze, cantholdalltheseoptions) Replacing the summons from KH and KH II, these Dimension Links (D-Links in game) allow your characters to temporarily take on the fighting style of other characters they meet up with in the story, such as Snow White, or the other two protagonists that you're not playing. With so many options to choose from at any given time, it's no wonder this is the best battle system in the series.

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The Command Board

If you ever find yourself getting bored from the main story, or just want to take a break, KH:BBS has got you covered in that department too. At any time on the world map or at a save point, you can access the Command Board mini game, which is like a cross between Mario Party and Monopoly. Much like Monopoly, you play the game vs the two other computer controlled protagonists and take turns rolling a dice to see how many spaces to move. If your character lands on an empty space, you can purchase it with game points and place one of the commands from your command deck there to level up. If any other character lands on your spot, they have to pay a toll to you, but the same thing applies if you land on one of their panels! The object of the game is to reach each of the four colored checkpoints around the board while collecting as many game points as possible before returning to the starting point. The first person to reach the starting point with the required amount of game points wins the game! It might sound boring, but really, I think it's really quite a fun little board game and a nice addition. If action is more your thing instead of board games, there's also the surprisingly deep, Mirage Arena to try out as well. This is basically a survival mode where your character defeats waves of enemies before facing a boss at the end. I can't count how many hours I've lost just playing this mode alone, so I definitely recommend checking this out at least once. As icing on the very delicious cake, your characters and abilities still level up even while playing these mini games, so it's not like you're totally ignoring the main quest when you take a break either.

Like with all Square Enix titles, KH:BBS looks and sounds beautiful. (Except Terra, his voice actor was gawd awful. He sounds so fake and forced!) Every attack and magic effect have jaw dropping animations and flashy lights to hold your attention, with each protagonist adding their own unique flair to each one. Even the character models are top notch, as you'll be able to instantly recognize the Disney and Final Fantasy characters. The developers spared no expense either, as the original voice actors for ALL the character reprise their roles, which is downright awesome to me. But, with all that being said, KH:BBS had one significant flaw that can't be overlooked; the loading times.


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Ventus talking with Tinkerbell.

Don't even bother playing the game without freeing up 624 MB to fully install the game. Playing it on anything else is just painful because the game
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LOADING REVIEW

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is plagued

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LOADING REVIEW

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with loading times. Even opening a menu or changing command styles MID BATTLE prompts a loading screen. While these are somewhat mitigated by the full install, they're still there and noticeable enough to break the action.

Another glaring aggravating flaw with the game is the lock on system. On a screen that hold enemies and only enemies, it works just fine. But in areas that have pots or other objects that can be locked onto, expect the game to target them instead of the enemies first. I have no idea why the developers thought that was a good idea, because if you're say, finished beating one enemy and want to switch to another, more often than not you'll find the targeting reticle locking onto a jar. If this only happened once in a while it wouldn't be a big deal, but this happens quite frequently, which is why I don't recommend locking on unless you're facing a boss. (Thankfully they don't have anything on screen to lock onto except them.)

But even with those glaring flaws, KH:BBS is still an excellent entry into the series and an amazing game in its own right. You don't have to be a fan of the series or even Square or Disney to enjoy the game. There's more than enough hidden content and a robust enough combat system to keep you entertained for at least a few weeks. While it does have its flaws, they don't affect the game enough to take away from its quality in a large enough way to bring down the whole game. That's why I feel like Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep earns a solid 9/10.

The Good
  • Cute story with just enough depth
  • OMGWTFHNNNG combat
  • Aqua! <3
The Bad

  • Targeting system
  • Loading times
  • A bit repetitive at times
The Ugly

  • Terra's VA; seriously he was cringe worthy


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-Tifa

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