Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Review

September 7, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. September 20, both my birthday and the day I had to stay home sick, I received Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, and let me start by saying that it is probably the best entry in the series. I had plenty of time to enjoy the new features, and lament some of the older problems. The biggest changes have been made to combat this time around, but that’s not where all the changes were made. Whether you’re a returning fan or just getting into the series, I’ll try my best to explain the features of the game.

The game has three playable characters: Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. Each have their own story line which run parallel with each other. During the story, you’ll encounter the game’s monsters, the Unversed. For anyone who has played the game, these are the Heartless of Birth by Sleep. But if you have never played a Kingdom Hearts game before, just think of them as the faceless hoard you’ll see in action games around the world. The worlds restrict access depending on which character you are, so don’t expect to go through all the same areas while playing as Ventus after beating Terra’s story. Each character has slightly different attributes, so even combat is played differently between characters.
Speaking of combat, the combat menu has been completely changed from its old format of navigating through several windows to select a single item or spell. Instead of that, it has been replaced with the command deck, where you can place skills and items you wish to use during combat. Using the D-pad, you can scroll through your deck and press the Triangle Button to execute the command. It’s important to try and keep the hurt on the monsters, because while attacking an enemy, the gauge above the command deck will fill up. Once full you can perform a finish attack. Skills will also fill the gauge if the attack connects, and depending on the skills you use you can do a Style change. During a Style change, your attacks properties will change into either sped up attacks, stronger attacks, or gain elemental attributes. The summoning ability in previous games has been replaced with the Dimensional-link or “D-Link” as it is referred to within the game. Your command deck will completely change as well as the Finish attack depending on who you are linking with. Last notable change to combat is the ShotLock ability, holding down both the shoulder buttons will bring up a targeting reticule, which can be used to lock onto multiple foes at once and is executed with the X button. This is handy for large groups or bosses that give you little chance to attack, just back away from the middle of the fight and take aim.
Now, I’d like to go into more detail on the skills here. In previous titles, you had magic and passive abilities. But in Birth by Sleep, you also have physical skills. You may have guessed already, but your physical skills will draw from your strength stat rather than your magic stat. The skills also gain experience when equipped. Once a skill reaches a high enough level, it can be fused with another skill for a new skill for your command deck, and it may also yield a passive ability. Abilities vary depending on crystals you put in a skill while fusing, and are active as long as the skill is in your command deck. There is a way to have the effect of abilities without having the skill in your deck, and that is to master the skill. Most abilities stack, so it’s nothing to worry over if you have two skills with the same ability.
Though there have been many improvements to the combat, the easier difficulties can still be played with no skill. Simply mash X to get through most situations. But this is only a minor complaint. Those more serious about playing will wish to challenge the harder modes, which requires a fair amount of skill to complete.
New features made outside of combat include a board game Monopoly rip-off, and the Mirage Arena. “A Monopoly rip-off? How useless,” one might think, but by playing a game, you can gain experience for your skills depending on how well you did, and even get new skills by taking over places on the board. Other than that, it serves no real purpose besides being a distraction. Now, the Mirage Arena serves as the Multi-player area of the game. Here, you can fight against other people, play Co-op through one of the cups, play a game of imitation Monopoly, or race against your friends. As you play through the arena, you will get medals which can be used to buy items and abilities that cannot normally be bought, and you will also gain arena levels which will unlock new missions in the arena to be played alone or with friends.
Now, if you’re a returning fan of the series, you’ll notice that they left something out from KH 1 and 2. That’s right, the Gummi ships are gone. Most people I know who like the series enjoyed the Gummi ships to some extent, but I loved constructing Gummi ships in the first game; I spent hours after I beat the story building new Gummi ships. I also loved to replay the Gummi ship levels in KH 2 trying to achieve that high score. Some people may think that it was annoying to go through, but I thought it was a nice change of pace in between new levels. Though most won’t care much about this, I count this as a negative.
Though the PSP is rather powerful for a handheld device, Birth by Sleep really stresses the machine, even on the lowest graphical setting. Expect lag and long load times while playing. But to help with this problem, Birth by Sleep offers the option to download certain parts of the game to the memory card to speed up load times and make combat run more smoothly. While this helps, even with the largest amount (600 MB), you can still expect to experience some lag.
Overall, Birth by sleep is a solid title for any Action RPG fan with a PSP. With so many skills to create, Unversed to defeat, and D-links to master, you can expect to be playing late into the night with this game.