Erauqs is Square backwards. Just like Yen Sid is Disney backwards
Leonard Nimoy!
Nimoy and Mark Hamil?! *ala Chief Wiggim* Wha!?
Okay, enough with me screwing around, if you haven't noticed by the text, the pictures, the symbolism, the art, the EVERYTHING, this is a Kingdom Hearts game. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep to be exact. And with that being said, people familiar with the franchise can get all excited by the release of this, since it is supposed to be the origins of Roxas, Sora's Nobody, who is introduced as Ventus, which is his real name, 15 years before Kingdom Hearts 2 and 10 years before Kingdom Hearts, where Sora...oh no...I have gone cross-eyed. The games have amessed up storyline, which isn't anything new coming from Square-Enix.
Like I previously stated, you get to play and learn the origins of either Ventus, Terra, or Aqua, young Keyblade warriors on their way to becoming great Keyblade Masters. These three friends have been through all their training together and are nothing but the best of friends, up until Aqua and Terra are chosen by their master, Erauqs(EHR-ah-kess) to fight and be determined who is the first Master among them. During said fight, Terra is exposed to have some inkling to the Darkness, which causes Aqua to be victorious and named first Master. Terra, being a little bitch, runs off against Erauqs's orders to 'prove him wrong.' Mind you, this is the beginning of the game, that of which can consist of up to 36 hours of gameplay, and that's just the story. And from this incident, Aqua is ordered to go after Terra to stop him, and Ventus to stay home, like the good little pup he is. After this, this is where the real storyline diverts into 3 sections, all relating to which character you have chosen to play as after the main menu.
Now, it is important to know that I picked Ventus, as the levels, characters, powers, and story events are strictly tied to Ventus and his backstory amidst the journey of Terra. Also worth noting is that after completion of all three storylines, the true ending of the game will be revealed, like in Kingdom Hearts fashion.
Upon finding out Terra's secret, Ventus goes after his best friend to try to find out why Terra would do such a thing, Ventus is thrown into his own quest of searching for his self, Terra, and the Keyblade(also pronounced as kye-blade). I won't go fully into detail about it, because that is the duty of the player, duh, but some twists expected from a KH game appear, along with familiar faces and new ones.
Recognize these guys from Kingdom Hearts 2? You should; their Nobody names are (left) Axel and (right) Saix. Their real names are Lea and Sai, mind blowing right?
With all the story stuff out of the way, for the most part, the main thing you deal with is the gameplay. You hit the X button a lot. A LOT. Its not a bad thing, per se, but it does get repetitive and annoying switching between X and the triangle button for attacks. The control scheme is set up just like Kingdom Hearts 2 but with slight changes for the lack of second analog stick and two other top buttons, but it never really bothered me unless I was already locked onto an enemy who was thrashing about like Gyarados. The game becomes a button masher at the most annoying times, but with very little space and how the game is, its understandable.
You hop around from planet to planet, picking up stickers, new attacks items and Keyblades, and experience to level up, helping people along the way and beating the shit out of almost everything in your way. It is what it is, and doesn't apologize for it, so in a nutshell you can either love or hate it. In my case, being a Kingdom Hearts junkie, I loved it and have grown to understand the flaws of what type of game they are. I take the horribly stupid with the awesome really complicated story and have a heyday.
Jason, what horribly stupid thing could you possibly be talking about if you love this game already? Well, disembodied voice I just created for a segue, I mean the BOARD GAMES AND ONLINE ARENA!
I get that you want to have a fresh new spin on the games, and multiplayer is a huge thing people are into now, but with these types of games, they are abso-fucking-lutely unnecessary. I tried both once was immediately disgusted and repelled that I shut off my PSP without saving my progress and having to replay the amount of game I played previously. Ugh. Sickens me. Lets try to have...uh...some thing new this time. What are the kids into these days?...I know! Monster Hunter! And...er...um...OH MARIO PARTY! Yeah! Great ideas all around! Lets put those in here as the janky ass multiplayer which would turn off even the most fanboy of fanboys! *high five* *promotion* *bigger pension* *no dishonor served* 
The whole point is, I really like these games and will probably always like these games. I don't want shit just thrown in there just to try to do some fan service and make extra because multiplayer brings in the big bucks. Please stick to the personal stuff, the single players. Its what attracted most of the fans anyway, besides being both Final Fantasy and Disney. Regardless of my opinion or not; 4 out of 5.
