Level One: Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Final Mix)

Format: PSP (Re-Released as part of KH 2.5 Remix on PS3)
Current Playtime: ~7 hours
Characters Played: Aqua
Difficulty: Standard

So I'm finally back after how long? Three months? More? Put bluntly I had a very busy period and a lot of games to play, I just couldn't be arsed to write, I am so sorry!

Anyway we're back, and the new year has rolled in! Time to actually do what I said I would do and finish every game I play before starting a new one, starting with... Kingdom hearts - Birth By Sleep.

Now if anybody knows me, they'll know I'm really not a huge fan of change, so when you take a series I adore and take away some of the defining features that made the game part of the series, you're already pretty low down in my books, just take a look at Bioshock Infinite for example. Bioshock infinite took away the well recognized Big Daddies and Little Sisters, as well as the familiar setting of underground dystopia Rapture, in favour of a floating paradise in the sky, Columbia. Needless to say I was pissed, how can you still have a Bioshock game if it's not in Rapture!? With no Big Daddies!? But I admit, I was young and naive then; I've played Bioshock Infinite, and it is indeed an outstanding game, an outstanding Bioshock game, nonetheless. It kept all the basic game mechanics the same and still pulled off that classic Bioshock old-world style as well as that uneasy feeling you got while exploring Bioshock 2's dark and unsettling setting, it tells a unique and interesting story just like the previous games too and I honestly believe it really is the best Bioshock yet.

Enter Kingdom Hearts - Birth By Sleep, a game which in theory I should hate like I hated Bioshock Infinite when I first saw it, however the reality is quite the contrast, this might indeed be my favourite Kingdom Hearts yet.You can see how I'm drawing parallels here I'm sure.

As with most Kingdom Hearts games, there's your fair share of minigames, including an ice-cream music games, a monopoly rip-off, and who could forget the classic 'beating up fruit' game

Kingdom Hearts BBS tells the story of Ventus, Terra and Aqua - three wielders of the iconic Keyblade that have seemingly little or no ties to any previous characters (except Ventus, he looks like Roxas and is just as much of a pussy). You can choose to play as any of the three characters, noting the fact that each playthrough with a different character will show you different sides of the story developing into one big whole picture.

 Let's take Aqua's story for example, seeing as that's the one I've been playing, at the beginning after taking her Master's exam with Terra and succeeding where he failed while Ventus (too young to take the exam) looks on. After this section Terra leaves, clearly angry at having failed, aqua goes to follow but is stopped by the master, and he tasks her with bringing back Terra, and later Ventus who also leaves in pursuit of Terra, albeit against the Master's orders. This is what forms the base of Aqua's story and her incentive for travelling to all the other worlds, however this is something you'll only know if you play through Aqua's story, as I can guess this particular scene will only appear in hers, and the same goes for scenes from the other stories which must definitely be omitted from hers. Though this arguably causes a fragmented story full of holes, the holes are in fact mysteries that keep you playing on, and indeed make you want to play the other stories too, they tie together so nicely that discovering the truth about pretty much any event in a different story is insanely satisfying and full credit to the writers for that one.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, why make the real one so bloody obvious!

Gameplay-wise some of the pretty basic Kingdom Hearts mechanics have changed but actually results in a system so much better than other KH titles. You still have your basic attacks and jumps but all the spells and special abilities you want to use in combat are called 'commands'; you can choose and make a 'deck' out of them which makes the set number of abilities you can use, up to about 8 different ones. with the right build you can create some pretty spectacular combos too. BBS also still kinda has KH2's Summons (but they're basically just extra 'Limit Breaks'), and has a new kind of ability called a 'Shotlock Command', but neither of these things are particularly necessary and can quite easily be forgotten about. I know I only use them when I realize I haven't used them in a long time.

As for the enemies you face? Well it's not the Heartless this time around, instead you have The Unversed, but they actually have a pretty unique and cool design, not to mention they're so similar to Heartless in terms of their attacks and movement that I'll let that one slide, I actually like them a lot; much more than those dynamically coloured turds we fought in Dream Drop Distance

All in all BBS is a spectacular game, it brings about a lot of really quite risky changes and handles them all well and even building on and improving them, all while maintaining that wonderful Disney-Final Fantasy fusion of gameplay, story and style that just leaves us thinking "Now this; THIS is a Kingdom Hearts game"

Sure okay the whole Command and Command Fusing system is kinda complicated, but hey, this is literally all the equipment you can equip in the game so that's simple enough for you!

TL;DR: Though it changes a lot it's the best Kingdom Hearts yet, a beautiful story delicately woven like three silken threads, and some truly enjoyable new characters too. Also: Play Aqua, because Terra is a dick and Ventus is a pussy. Deal with it.