Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
PSP
Nostalgia Factor:
As you can probably tell by all the Kingdom Hearts reviews I have been posting lately, I am playing through the series in order, one game at a time. Birth By Sleep is the final game on the 1.5 + 2.5 Remix disc that I have for the PlayStation 4. I had never played Birth By Sleep before, but I had read a lot of mainly positive reviews about the game. As a result, I was really curious to see what the game was all about.
Before we continue, I wasn't sure whether to count this as as a PS4 game, since I played it on this console, a PS3 game, since the version I was playing was the PS3 Final Mix HD version of the original PSP game, or as the original PSP game itself. I decided on simply counting it as the PSP game. Sure it was remastered in HD for the PS3 (which was then ported to the PS4), but the game itself wasn't created solely for the PS3 or the PS4. It's a PSP game. I like to give shout outs to the original versions of games whenever possible. Plus, the PSP doesn't get a whole lot of credit in general. Why not let it shine here, if only for one brief moment?
Story:
I like to think I’ve done a relatively good job in keeping up with the storyline to this point in the Kingdom Hearts series. I may not know every single little plot detail there is to know, but as far as basic facts go, I think I’m following the story okay. But I have got to be honest with all of you. This is the game where I kind of stopped caring about things. I don’t know if it is the game’s fault or the fact that I’ve been playing so many Kingdom Hearts games in a row and I am getting tired of the series. Maybe it is a combination of the two. Whatever the case may be, I had a hard time watching the game’s cutscenes and I would often zone out and start looking at my phone as the cutscenes played. I’m going to do my best to recap things for you, however, and if it is not 100% accurate… well, I don’t really care.
The first thing you should know about Birth By Sleep is that it is a prequel that takes place about ten years prior to the original Kingdom Hearts title. The game starts out with a tutorial where you take control of three brand new characters and learn basic combat skills. These characters’ names are Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. Once the tutorial is complete, you are given the choice of which character you would like to play as. If you want to truly complete this game, you will play through it at least one time with each character, as each character has a slightly different (yet intertwined) storyline with the other characters.
After you make your selection, the game truly begins. It starts with all three characters taking place in a trial that will determine which of them becomes a Keyblade Master. Apparently there used to be some kind of secret order of Keyblade apprentices out there that would train their whole lives for the honor of being promoted to master. None of this was ever touched on in the previous KH games, so immediately I was very confused and had a million questions. Who are these people? Where did they come from? How long have they been in existence? How does this relate to Sora? I thought Sora was unique. How many Keyblade Masters exist out there? No matter what you do, however, the outcome of the trial is always the same: Aqua wins. This is where the game splits off down three separate paths depending on the character you selected.
Terra is tasked with investigating the disappearance of a Keyblade Master named Xehanort, along with investigating the sudden appearance of a group of monsters called the Unversed that have started terrorizing all the worlds. If you picked him, this is your quest. If you pick Ventus, his quest takes him on Terra’s path as Ventus looks to track down and help his friend. If you pick Aqua, her quest takes her on a journey to find Ventus and bring him back and to make sure Terra accomplishes his task, while also monitoring the “darkness in his heart”.
This is where things start to fall apart and become a bit too convoluted for my tastes. Just like in previous Kingdom Hearts games, characters talk to one another in a cryptic fashion that doesn’t really explain or tell you much of anything. They also have weird and confusing names too. This makes it really hard to piece things together, especially when you aren’t paying that close of attention to begin with. You jump around from Disney world to Disney world, fighting enemies and watching boring cutscenes. Like I said before, I started to zone out for a while. There is some kind of big grand plot going on behind the scenes where one of the Keyblade masters is trying to forge the most powerful Keyblade of all time. Apparently Terra and Ventus fighting one another creates this Keyblade? I don’t know. There are other things going on too. You encounter young versions of Riku, Sora, and Kairi, and their hearts are somehow tied to Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. How they are, I don’t really know.
The game also alludes to Ansem and the creation of the Heartless and the Nobodies. Roxas ties in to things somewhere in there too. I’m a Game of Thrones fan and I have no problem with lots of characters and grand over-arching plotlines. But things have to be well-explained and make at least some modicum of sense. When there is just a bunch of outlandish stuff happening while the characters mumble cryptically to one another, that doesn’t equate to good story telling in my opinion. In fact, I think the game’s story is a complete mess at times, as evidenced by the fact that I completely gave up on trying to follow it. I know this game ties into Kingdom Hearts III somehow (I’m sure Terra, Ventus, and Aqua play roles in that game), and I am hoping that my limited knowledge of WTF is going on isn’t going to hurt my enjoyment of that game too much.
Gameplay:
While I found this game’s storyline to be a bit lacking, I can’t say the same for its gameplay. It is pretty fun to play. I don’t think it is as good as Kingdom Hearts II, but I still enjoyed playing it. I tried to just ignore the game’s storyline and focus on what the series does best: fighting enemies and exploring Disney worlds.
I’ve reviewed so many Kingdom Hearts games lately that I am not going to sit here and recap YET AGAIN how the game’s combat and controls work. If you’ve played any of the other games in the series, you know the drill. There are a few wrinkles thrown into the gameplay, so I’ll at least explain those.
All three of the game’s characters have a different fighting style. Terra is slow but powerful. Ventus handles similarly to Sora. Aqua is the most unique, as her attacks are very weak and she relies mainly on magic to get through battles. As you play, you acquire D-Links to the other characters. So if you are playing as Ventus and you are having trouble with a tough boss character, you can use the D-Link to switch your fighting style over to Terra. Maybe you’ll have better luck with him. D-Linking also fills your health gauge, so I often would use it just to save myself from annihilation when I was out of magic and health potions.
Each character also has a special Shotlock attack. You activate this by holding the R1 trigger button. This brings a big target on the screen. Move this target around and lock on to as many enemies as possible. Hit X and your character goes into a frenzy and attacks everyone you have targeted. This attack comes in handy big time and become one of my favorite additions to the game.
There are several gauges and drives on the screen and it can be a bit overwhelming at times. You got your health gauge, the D-Link gauge, the Shotlock gauge. There is also a command menu on the bottom left side of the screen with several gauges attached to all the special moves. You use the up and down arrows on the D-Pad to select from the command menu. You can program this menu when paused, outside of battle. I tried to keep my menu full of various things like special attacks, spells, and potions. When you use one of these special attacks or spells, it drains a gauge and you have to sit there and wait for the gauge to refill before you can use it again. But the cool news is that as long as that gauge keeps refilling itself, there is no limit to how many times you can use the same attack or spell.
Last but not least, there is a gauge similar to an overdrive gauge that fills up when you deal out damage. When this gauge fills up, you become extra powerful for a limited amount of time. A cool feature is that if you use an ice spell (for example) before the gauge fills up, your overdrive becomes an ice-based overdrive that deals ice damage to characters. If you keep using magic while in overdrive mode, you can kick your overdrive into an even more powerful extra gear. This is especially helpful when you are playing as Aqua, since her attacks are normally pretty weak, but her gauges fill up super fast.
Structurally, this game plays out in a similar fashion to all the other KH games. Fight through the Disney levels, make it to an original area at the end of the game, fight a bunch of bosses, and watch the credits roll. I do have to give Birth By Sleep credit for mixing things up though. The three characters, the different fighting styles, all the changes to the combat system, there are even a couple of worlds composed primarily of mini games for you to check out. I commend them for a valiant effort at trying to keep things fresh. I just wish the game’s storyline held up its end of the bargain.
Graphics:
This is a good looking game. Nothing special though. It looks just like the last few games in the Kingdom Hearts series. I know I played the HD version of the game and not the original version on the PSP, but even still, I have to say that this looks good for a PSP title. I thought it would be a lot more primitive looking, even with the fresh coat of HD paint. But it looks good!
I guess that’s really all I have to say about that.
Sound:
If there is one thing Kingdom Hearts has always done right, it is giving us quality audio to listen to. The musical score in this game is great, as always. It could be because I haven't seen many of the Disney movies featured in the game (Cinderella, Snow White, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, etc), but I actually didn't enjoy the music quite as much as I did in past games. It's always easier to groove along to songs that you know and love, and I didn't know or love any of these songs. It is still an excellent score though.
Voice acting is also very good. With the exception of Aqua, who sounds stiff and robotic most of the time, all the voice actors bring their A-games. Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill lend their voices to this game, which is freaking awesome. Once again, another impressive audio showing from the Kingdom Hearts series.
Overall:
I had a pretty good time with this game. It wasn't my favorite game in the series, but I still thought it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed how they attempted to change things up in regards to the formula of the game. The three characters, the three different fighting styles, the three different storylines, all the changes to the combat system. The series was starting to get a bit stale in my mind, so I am glad they injected some life into it.
I also enjoyed seeing so much variety in the Disney stages. All the old Disney movies represented here really made this game feel like a genuine prequel. I don't know if that was the intent or not, but hey it worked for me. Too many Kingdom Hearts games simply rehash Disney stages that you have already seen before, but the only repeats in this game are Olympus Coliseum and Neverland. Even then, they change the format of the stages so much that it doesn't feel like your average rehash. Radiant Garden also makes a return, but again, they changed up so much stuff that it is like visiting the stage for the very first time.
The game is fast moving, fun, and very hard to stop playing. Each Disney stage only takes about a half hour to an hour to complete, so it constantly feels like you are zipping around and seeing new things. Even though you visit all these stages three different times with the three different characters, none of the stages ever get stale or overstay their welcome. I could do with never having to play "Fruitball" again, however.
My major complaint with this game is with its storyline. It is just a bit too convoluted for my taste. Right off the bat I had too many questions with what was going on, and very few of these questions ever got answered. Or they did, but they were answered in such a manner that only served to confuse me even more. I think I understand the very, very basic gist of this game's storyline, but beyond that - heck if I know. If this game does tie into Kingdom Hearts III, which I think it does, I hope they offer some kind of recap at the beginning of the game to help me understand what is going on.
If I had to rank this among the Kingdom Hearts games I have played, it would be below Kingdom Hearts I and II, but ahead of Chain of Memories. I had fun while I played this game, but at the same time I was very glad when I was done with it. I don't know if this is because of the game itself, or just because I was "Kingdom Hearts'd out" after playing through so many games in the series in a row. I am glad I played the game and I did enjoy my time with it, but I am not sure if I will ever play through it again.
Final Score:
B
If you liked my review of this game, please check out some of my other game reviews:
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