Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Review
Given the track record of the past Kingdom Hearts portable iterations I didn’t have a lot of anticipation for Birth By Sleep. I tried to go into the game blind since I knew I’d be playing it regardless, me being the fanboy that I am, but I’m overjoyed to say that I was pleasantly surprised by almost every aspect of Square Enix’s latest entry.
For the uninitiated BBS is actually a prequel that takes place a few years before the first Kingdom Hearts and attempts to fill in the gaps in story which, as those that follow the story will know, is no small task. You play as Ventus, Terra, and Aqua, each with their own overlapping stories, as they try to track down their Keyblade master who’s mysteriously disappeared as creatures called the unversed have begun popping up all through the worlds around you.
The story was my first big surprise, maybe because I was expecting the disappointment of the previous games convoluted plots, but all through the game I was surprised by constant tidbits of information that tied up loose ends and filled in gaps in the Kingdom Hearts universe, as well as how naturally integrated the information was. There were also some cool character cameos along the way. Its just a shame the voice acting is so hit or miss with the characters, and I really would have loved to see more computer-generated cutscenes to help drive home the emotion of the story.
Another big surprise this time around is the drastic changes in the combat system. Everything has been overhauled for a much more in depth and strategic experience. No more card-based fighting here, and the combat goes well beyond the typical button mashing the series has gotten flak for from critics in the past. You now have an expandable deck with slots for equipping moves in combat that forces you to decide which spells, skills, and items you want to use. As you fight your equipped skills and spells will level up until they reach certain levels, at which point they can be fused to create new combinations or possible rare skills. You also have a slot for different unlockable ultimate attacks called shotlocks that do massive damage to multiple enemies, and can equip blocks, counter attacks, dashes, and other basic moves that can’t be fused, but can be leveled up or replaced with more effective skills like high jump. Any skill you unlock can be purchased again from the moogle shop to alleviate the threat of wasting good moves in a fusion flop, so this will most likely become one of the biggest time sinks in the game. Shuffling through your deck for the right move in the heat of battle can be awkward though, and the lock on feature will inexplicably break off from your target from time to time. My biggest gripe by far, however, is some of the later bosses. I don’t mind a challenge, but you’ll occasionally run into the artificial difficulty of the bosses attack combos being paced so that if you’re ever caught in it theres no way to escape, leaving you to scream in frustration as you watch your life rapidly deplete.
After you’ve played through as all three characters, and any time in between, you’ll find an amazing amount of side quests to keep you occupied, most of which will unlock new content for the multiplayer-centric Mirage Arena. You can play the arena alone with computer controlled bots, but it’s designed for you and up to five friends with a versus arena, co-op arena, racing, and a Monopoly style board game, all of which have levels you can unlock by playing through the single player. Theres plenty of incentive to give the arena a try, including items and rewards for your character in single player, it’s just a shame that its local online only.
It’s great to see a portable Kingdom Hearts game I can finally wholeheartedly recommend, and I would love to see this game’s systems and mechanics built on in a console version. My last bit of advice is to install the game, if you can spare the space on your memory card, as the load times are longer than they should be, and you wont have to wait for the game to load every time you press pause or worry about slowdown. Even if you can’t though, don’t let that stop you from picking up this great experience, especially if this is your first foray into the Kingdom Hearts universe, it’s a great place to start.
