The Beginning of Something Much Greater (Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep [PSP])

Maybe it's my rose-tinted glasses, but I have never played a better PSP game than Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. Now granted, I've had a PSP for less than a year, but I have managed to play a good amount of stuff on it, since both my old roommate and my brother owned one for a while. Mooching FTW!

Anyway, back to Birth By Sleep. This game is a prequel to the entire Kingdom Hearts Franchise, chronicling the journey of three young Keyblade wielders who are investigating the appearance of some nefarious creatures known as the Unversed. The player ending up trekking through all three characters' story lines, eventually assembling a clear picture of the events that transpire over the course of the game.



All three characters are reminiscent of the three main characters form Kingdom Hearts I and II, with Ventus mirroring Sora (and looking exactly like Roxas), Terra channeling the badboy hardassness (yes, that is a word . . . now) of Riku and Aqua mimicking the ever-caring Kairi. Each character not only has a different perspective on the overall story of Birth By Sleep, but they also bring different attack styles to the table. Aqua, my personal favorite, is a wiz with magic attacks which helps to make up for her lackluster defense, while Ven prefers quick, close range dash attacks (very similar to Mickey's attack style). Terra has a rougher style which makes use of his long frame and pure power.

Similar to KH: Chain of Memories and KH: 358/2 Days, you slot in commands for you attack deck, abilities (such as High Jump, Block and Glide), and a new feature call a Shotlock technique. Shotlock are spells which can lock onto multiple enemies to unleash a barrage of attacks, while being completely immune to damage during the execution of the technique. It can be quite handy during, oh say, a boss fight where you are right about to die and you have 4 more seconds until your next cure spell recharges. And believe me, that will most likely happen to you too.



Shotlocks aren't the only new addition to the KH battle system; instead of having summons in BBS, our three heroes are able to forge bonds with the people they meet along their journey, allowing them to "borrow" that character's command list. These bonds, called Dimensional Links or D-Links for short, can be upgraded by collecting special gems dropped during combat, which add new finishers and commands to the command repertoire.

Another great addition the the BBS combat system is the addition of Command Styles. Command Styles give the player special abilities related to the types of attacks used in combat. Say for instance that you use several fire attack; you will activate the FireStorm Command Style, which adds fire damage to all of you attacks and ends with a dynamic fire finisher. This makes for some extremely cinematic combat sequences, but pretty much requires you to install the game if you intend to run it smoothly. I highly recommend doing that anyway, but this is yet another reason to do so.

Terra takes it to the band using the new FireStorm Command Style.

You level up your commands through either battle experience or by playing the Command Board Mini-game, which is essentially Monopoly without a banker. Commands can also be melded together to form new skills and abilities. This is also how you create all of your passive abilities that are absolutely vital in proceeding through the many worlds.

The Command Board is kinda like the bastard child of Monopoly and Mario Party, and, just like is both games, you can can get F'ed in the A in a instant. (Image from IGN.com)

Speaking of worlds, the game features both old classic, such as Neverland and Radiant Garden, and new worlds, such as Stitch's Deep Space world and the new multiplayer-centric Mirage Arena. Each world features some cool new environments and great boss battles that will put your command deck to the test.

Aqua and Stitch . . . er Experiment 626 face off against Gantu in Deep Space. (Image from GameZone.com)

The story is fantastic and provides a great deal of insight into backstory of both Sora and Xehanort, while also providing a glimpse of a universe before the invasion of the Heartless and Nobodies. All three stories are dynamic and moving, and each character is a blast to play. Also, once all three stories are completed, you can access a bonus final chapter, so make sure that you save all of your clear data files. Their are also hidden bosses, which provide quite the end-game challenge.

Like I said from the get go, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep has been the best PSP game I have ever played, and quite possibly the best of the series so far. The game packs in so much emotion and story into such a small package that it's a must buy for Kingdom Hearts fanatics. 10/10 easily. And for you hardcore fans, beat it on Proud or Critical Mode for a sneak peak into the next major Kingdom Hearts title. I have more Kingdom Hearts coverage on the way, as I'm 3/4ths of the way through Re:Coded right now. Also, got a review of OOO 17 in the pipeline, along with Episode Yellow review (since I can't figure out if I not so keen on the movie or just hate the new rider) and NBA Jam for the Wii (f*ck Larry Bird btw, that douche bag).