Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is the newest addition to the beloved Kingdom Hearts series, released exclusively for the PSP. The series is acclaimed for both its fusion of Disney and Final Fantasy elements and for its fun and frantic action-RPG gameplay. So how does this latest title fare when compared to it's PS2 predecessors? Read on to find out.
Birth by Sleep is a prequel set ten years before the events of the first game, and revolves around three young Keyblade wielders and their struggle to vanquish a threat of dark monsters called Unversed. The happenings in Birth by Sleep set in motion everything that comes to pass in the first and second Kingdom Hearts game, and even alludes to things to come in future titles, making the game a must-buy for fans for that reason alone.
Without revealing too much, aside from illuminating and alluding to the events in the Kingdom Hearts I & II, it tells an interesting, if flawed, coming-of-age story for the it's three protagonists. Terra, Ventus, and Aqua take center stage in this iteration: players select who they want to play as in the beginning of the game, and create separate save files for each character. The game keeps track of your progress, and rewards you based on your completion percentage with each character.
Each character goes to the same worlds as the other two, but Square-Enix did a good job of varying up the gameplay for each of them so that playing through all three story-lines is as painless and enjoyable as possible. For example: Terra spends most of his time in the "Dwarf Woodlands" fighting within the evil Queen's castle, while Ventus goes on a hide-and-seek quest within the dwarf mines and has an escort mission in the woods. All worlds are varied in this way, so even though the characters go through all the same worlds to get to the end of their respective story, you will rarely spend time in the same places or doing the same things.
While that is all well and good, the addictive, button-mashy gameplay is a major contributor to the enjoyment (or at least, my enjoyment) of the game, and Birth by Sleep delivers perhaps the best action experience of the three major Kingdom Hearts games. Fighting in Birth by Sleep is the real draw, as it not only refines the action-heavy elements introduced in Kingdom Hearts II, but adds and expands upon it with a variety of new commands and abilities.
You of course have your basic melee combo attack, but supplementing that are the Deck Commands. Commands are executed with the triangle button, and vary from familiar special attacks like Sonic Blade and Blitz to spells like Fire and Thunder and items like healing Potions. Even classic Final Fantasy spells like "Mini" and "Confuse" are available to equip. Players can customize their deck of commands in the main menu, and can cycle through commands during combat with the d-pad and use them whenever they wish: before, during or at the end of a combo, to great effect. As if that weren't enough, commands level up as you fight, and fully leveled commands can be melded with one another to create completely new ones. The attack possibilities through Deck Commands alone are immense.
Also new to the battle system are the Shotlocks, powerful multi-hitting projectile attacks . By pressing L and R, the camera allows you to lock on to multiple opponents (or one enemy multiple times). After all targets have been selected (which depends of the Shotlock, as some allow for more targets than others), pressing X will release the attack. Effective use of these attacks can cream enemies and bosses alike, which makes learning when and how to use them very rewarding.
Command Styles are also new. In essence, they are a spin on the "Drive" mechanic from Kingdom Hearts II. By attacking enemies, a gauge above the Command menu fills up. Depending on the type of attacks used to fill the gauge, your character will adopt a new attack style: using fire attacks, for example, will allow your character to enter the "Firestorm" style when the gauge fills up, changing your melee combos and adding a strong fire effect, as well as allowing a unique fire-based finisher.
The Dimension Links (D-Link) system rounds out your arsenal of attacks. As you progress through each hero's respective stories and meet new characters, you create D-Links with them. These allows you to use that character's abilities when you activate the D-Link. Even better, D-Links fully heal you when activated (useful in a pinch) and grant you secondary bonuses in addition to unique Deck Commands, like double experience when Mickey is activated, or Auto-life with Aqua.
Continued in Part 2.
NY Console Games Examiner articles ©2010 by Gabriel Zamora; reposts permitted with link back to original article. All other rights reserved.
