It also strains believability when two (or even all three) of our protagonists just miss each other over and over again as they run through the exact same portions of the world.īut Birth by Sleep does liven up the series with new ideas the ability to merge two Commands (spells and special attacks) into combination attacks, encourages experimentation. Birth by Sleep restricts certain sections of each stage to one character to give a semblance of variety, but it's hard not to feel a little déjà vu when running through Neverland for a third time. All three characters visit the same Disney worlds in roughly the same order. Unfortunately, the areas in the game aren't quite as diverse. You can't rely on brute force with her, and magic is weak until it levels up and you find more spells, making her quest, initially, much harder than the other two, but rewarding in the long-run. You can probably get away with using the same strategies for Terra and Ventus, but Aqua is significantly weaker. Terra is a slow warrior, Aqua a nimble mage, and Ventus' skills lie between the two. While the controls for each of the apprentices are basically the same, the game differentiates their talents by borrowing from classic RPG archetypes. The one notable exception is Terra, who may have been aiming for stoic but comes off stilted. And the voice actors, including legitimate Disney veterans, do a great job of recreating existing characters and lending personality to new ones. That story is delivered in part by beautiful, in-engine cut-scenes that show off just how impressive the PSP can look. Each story informs the others, so you'll get a fuller picture of events by seeing it from all three angles. Any one character's tale presents a complete, six to eight hour Kingdom Hearts experience, but if you're interested in the lore you'll want to play through all three. This makes Birth by Sleep a long game, especially if you choose to play through all three stories. You can take on the role of the three apprentices in any order, and each follows a separate, but interconnected, storyline. Graciously, the context of a prequel keeps this story easier to follow than some previous games rather than keeping track of different characters who share the same name (like Ansem and Ansem the Wise) or single characters who occupy two metaphysical identities (like Sora and Roxas), we get a new batch of characters who are mostly free of complications - though Ventus' uncanny resemblance to Roxas is sure to raise eyebrows.Ĭlick the image above to check out all Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep screens. They're tasked with guarding the balance of light and darkness that keeps the worlds in check, but infighting among the leadership throws three up-and-coming apprentices - Ventus, Aqua, and Terra - in wildly different directions. This prequel revolves around the Keyblade Masters (Jedi Knights for the Kingdom Hearts universe). But in Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts finally finds a portable home that builds on the series' existing framework, and even surpasses the console games with a few clever ideas. The portable titles, like Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days have attempted to change or imitate the main series, though both felt more like little siblings than true successors. Kingdom Hearts has gone nearly five years now without a console iteration.
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