Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep — Death by Keyblade

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is definitely the best game in the franchise.

Looking back on it, in a way the review I wrote for 358/2 Days a few days ago doesn’t seem fair. In the process of writing it, I was in the middle of a playthrough for this game, having played the DS game a little while before it. I was ready to give it a slightly positive review despite its crippling flaws, because in a way, it did an admirable job of mimicking its console brethren in its style, albeit with monotonous-though-portable friendly missions. BBS, however, does a much better job of it, and contains more of what people really like about the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

The beginning is bound to give anyone who suffered through the overwrought opening of Kingdom Hearts II a few nightmares initially — which includes playing a character who looks just like Roxas — but you’ll calm down when you realize it lasts no more than 15 minutes. After the introduction of the three main characters, you get to choose who you want to play through the adventure with. You have Terra, an older teenage-looking guy who bears a striking resemblance to Zack from Final Fantasy VII; Ventus, a boy who bears a striking resemblance to Roxas from the older KH games (noticing a trend here); and last is Aqua, the most unique addition to the group, and not solely because she’s a different gender.

This is the kind of Surge that’s good for you.

You have a choice as to who you want to go through in the game first, but the recommended order is starting with Terra, then going through as Ventus, and saving Aqua for last. You shouldn’t have much of a problem playing as Terra and especially Ventus (whose style is similar to Roxas’, which was much like Sora’s) if you’ve played a Kingdom Hearts game before. Aqua, however, is the most unique character of the bunch because of her play style, which is one of the reasons why you should save her for last. That order is also recommended because playing Ventus’ quest first will leave you with more questions than answers if you don’t play Terra’s first; Aqua’s story is the one that answers the majority of the mysteries, many of which won’t make sense if you don’t go through with the two dudes first. Her style is also the most esoteric of the three, but she has the most potential. Provided you have some nice Shotlock Commands installed (more on those later), she can become your best character.

Also, the earlier parts of Ventus’ quest are laden with fetch quests, which will leave a bad taste in your mouth if it’s your first experience. You’ll want to start off with Terra. Trust me.

The setting for BBS’ plot is ten years prior to the events in the original Kingdom Hearts. Its aforementioned main characters are training under their master, Hironobu Sakaguchi Eraqus, in order to become Keyblade Masters themselves. Working along with them is another mysterious Keyblade Master known as Xeanort, who has an even more mysterious apprentice named Vanitas. Similar to the previous mainline Kingdom Hearts games — since, you know, this is a mainline game despite not having an admittedly innocuous number attached to it — you’ll be visiting plenty of worlds you hopefully know from popular Disney movies.

DON’T DO IT

There have been plenty of complaints about how many Kingdom Hearts games have been straying from the Disney side and more toward the Square Enix fantasy fodder part, which started with KHII’s introduction of Organization XIII (though they were semi-introduced in Chain of Memories). Since 358/2 Days focuses on said organization, it’s a big offender of this. BBS, however, has far more Disney than Square Enix in its story. It captures the charm of classic Disney movies like Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves very well, and none of them feel like a blasé attachment because of poor and confusing level design. Don’t expect Olympus to be much different from what you’ve seen in the previous games, though.

The battle system in BBS actually represents a nice evolution of what you found in the previous KH games. The controls are mapped perfectly this time around, and with a camera that does what it should. You still select items with the D-pad, which can get a little annoying if the battle you’re in becomes rather hectic, but it’s never too annoying once you learn the ropes. But the battle system here has many new features. Having the ability to finish off your opponent with a “Finish Command” is useful, but it’s not one of the more noteworthy ones here.

You have to options to give yourself an advantage in combat. The first is through a change of command styles, which can be obtained through using a number of Shotlock Commands — that’s magic and special attacks, for you normal folk. For instance, if you use a number of fire-based Shotlock Commands, you’ll transform into a fire-based command style. Aqua needs to be especially reliant on these early on. As you go through the game, you’ll form D-Links (Dimension Links) with multiple characters, which are useful if you’re stuck in a battle with a spell that isn’t in your main arsenal but is included in one of your D-Linked characters.

Aqua’s hard to grok, but she ends up being the best and most fun to use.

You don’t need me to tell you how good this game looks, but I will anyway. It’s definitely one of the most graphically impressive games on the system, and it’s up there with the PS2 games in parts. The PSP isn’t very good with environmental geometry, so the locations you travel to won’t be as picturesque as they could be because of that. Interestingly, this game gives you the option to increase the resolution from 16-bit to 32-bit, and increase the clockspeed to 333MHz to make the performance better. It comes at a cost, though: it’ll kill your battery quick if you’re using the regular battery. It’s not too bad with the Stamina Battery on a PSP 2000 and 3000, but you still want to keep your AC Adapter handy.

There’s been talk about how this game has the worst voice acting in a Kingdom Hearts game around, and unfortunately, everyone who said this is right. That’s not to say it’s bad at all, but the performances are uneven. Jesse McCartney does as good of a job with Ventus as he did with Roxas, as does Haley Joel Osment as Vanitas, and Mark Hamill does a great job with Master Eraqus. Jason Dohring and Willa Holland’s performances as Terra and Aqua, however, are merely OK; especially for the former. Also, though Bret Iwan’s performance as Mickey is pretty good, it doesn’t quite measure up to that of the late Wayne Allwine.

At least he’s not donning a hood this time.

The music is as good as ever, as if anyone needed further proof of how great of a composer Yoko Shimomura is. Though some tracks from the previous games pop up here, there are actually quite a few new tracks here as well; this should help in proving that this game isn’t just some spin-off.

If you like Kingdom Hearts, you pretty much need to play this game if you haven’t already. It’s not too bad for non-fans to get into either, since this game takes place before the plot went to hell (though there are a few special moments, admittedly). Delve a little deeper, though, and you’ll find yourself stuck on a web you can’t escape from.