Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

Game'scover

About the Game

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Kh BBS) is the sixth installment of the series as Kingdom hearts 1,2,Chain of memories, coded and 358/2 were released before Kingdom hearts BBS. The game was once again developed by Square Enix and it was released in 2010 for a new console, this time being the Playstation Portaple (PSP) which is where it stayed. The game was heavily praised for combinning the magic of Disney with the action of Final fantasy yet again into this amazing adventure which this did not focus on Sora and friends. The psp also received the final mix version which was japan only very similar to Kingdom hearts 1 ,2 and rechain. The game remain on the Psp through out the years. The game Kingdom Hearts BBS final mix was released in the bundle called Kingdom hearts 2.5 which was released in Octomber 2014 for the ps3. The 2.5 version of the game included the remaster/extended version of the ps2 game Kingdom hearts: 2.5 and the game called Kingdom hearts ReCoded a DS game, however unlike the others the game is in the form of render Cutscenes. 2.5 was also released as a bundle with 1.5(a similar bundle made for Kh1) in a new bundle called Kingdom hearts 1.5 + 2.5, yet again in a new bundle called Kingdom hearts: The story so far (1.5,2.5 +2.8) and finaly it was inlcuded in the Kingdom hearts All in one bundle (a bundle which also included Kh3). The all in one bundle was released for the rest consoles such as Xbox,Pc and switch as cloud. The game's ps2-ps3-ps4 version have graphical changes and better loading screens. Furthermore BBS final mix version includes alot of extra boss batlles and cinematics that were scratch off from the original game as the developers didnt have time to imply it before the deadline of the shipment.

Whats is Kingdom Hearts?(no spoilers)

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee who is known for working on final fantasy vii. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between Square Enix and Disney based in a fictional universe. The main character Sora, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy journey around various Disney , Pixar and originally designed worlds.They battle the heartless and various creatures of darkness in order to save the world from the darkness. Throughout their Journey they make new friends along the way, characters from the disney world they visit and various final fantasy heroes. The series consists of thirteen games , and with the release of Kingdom hearts III in 2019 and The Remind DLC 2020, the game finaly concluded it's first saga known as the Xehanort Dark arc. After the events of the Remind DLC (2020), the game released Kingdom hearts Melody of memory which prepared th stage for the next game. In 2022 Kingdom hearts 4 was revealed alongside a new app game . The series are well received from the public although sometimes its beeing critisize for its bizzare story telling. The main issue of the series was the fact that all the games add to one story, however they re split to multiple platoforms such as Ps2,psp,ps4,Android,gba and the Ds. Square Enix though realised the mess they made and the remastered the games and released them as collections for ps4 and xbox. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including Cds with the soundtracks of the series,multiple figurines,plushies,clothing ,companion books(guides,artbooks), light novels, a collectible card game, manga series(by Akira Amano) and potentially an upcoming TV series.

Story of the Game (Minor Spoilers for the prologue of the game)

Game's iconic fight
Birth by sleep was first teased in Kingdom hearts 2 Final Mix when finishing the game. The thing was no-one knew what the game was going to be and based on what was shown, the community assume that that was going to be Kingdom Hearts 3(which came out 9 years later). The teaser had a serious tone, with three unknown keyblade warriors fighting a common enemy in a deserted area filled with various old keyblades in what seemed to be the final battle. Needless to say the teaser was fully CGI and made for a spectacular action packed teaser. The game was released in 2010 for the psp and originally it had some negative aspects as to two things.

Although a prequel and not KhIII the game did not fail to deliver one of the best Kingdom Hearts games and deliver a unique story of three new heroes who existed long before Sora wielded a keyblade. Instead Birth by sleep focuses on a new trio of Ventus, Terra and Aqua. Three heroes who train under Master Eriqus guidance to become their own Keyblade Masters. The game spents the prologue introducing the characters to the players, their goals dreams and generally their relatioships. Aqua and Terra are prepearing fot their keyblade master exams while Ventus, who is too young to participate offers to be a sparring partner. This acts as the tutotrial of the game. During the mastery exam, Master Eriqus invited Master Xehanort an old friends in order to spectate the exam. The two wielders succesfully made their way to final challenge where they were task to fight each other, as according to M. Eriqus when two forces of equal strength crash, the true self of someone is revealed. During the fight, both Aqua and Terra seemed equal however, Terra was about to use the darkness with in him to get the upper hand before stopping himself from doing.

This act of Terra, was enough for Master Eriqus to declare that the winner of this duel is none other than Aqua, as she never shown any sign of Darkness and showed that she had the Keyblade Master signs in her. That devestated Terra who whished to distant himself in order to focus on what had happened and how come there is darkness within him. Master Xenahort, approaches Terra and explains to him how he should not remain under M Eriqus guidance as he chooses to refuse the use of darkness. He then explains how darkness exist even within the purest of hearts and that by refusing it or preventing it will not benefit noone. Instead, someone like himself and even Terra should simply control it and chanelled its powers. Out of the blue, the sound of alert was ringing and both Terra and Aqua rushed to Mr Eriqus, where he explained that the balance of light and Dark is under threar according to his friend Yensid and that new enemies called the Unverse are outhere searching to destroy the light source of each world and threat the Princesses of light. He then explains to Terra how this can be his second chance to prove worthy of the sign of mastery and sents him off. Before Aque made her own exit she was told to be looking upon Terra, as the power of Darkness that was demonstrated during the exam should not be overseed, and how Terra's thirst for power may lead to something more dangerous. During all this, Ventus is visited by a masked figure who explains how Terra will be in Danger and that he ll never see eachother again and that if they do, they won't be the same. Ven rushes to his firend just to see him going away. Ventus decides to follow him which promps Eriqus to bestall yet another task on Aqua to bring Ven back.

This is where the Prologue of the game finishes. It then gives the player the option to choose which story they wish to progress to, the choices are none other than Ventus, Terra and Aqua. The right order and how the game should be played to make more sense is
  1. Terra
  2. Ventus
  3. Aqua
which is how they were shown leaving their planet.
The story that will follow has the heroes visiting new Disney worlds in order to: Needless to say each hero has their unique version of the same story. This can lead to some confusion to any newcomer, as things that occur in the Tale of Terra may have an explanation in the story of Ventus and a conclusion to the story of Aqua. This is why it is recommended to play the story in the order that the game suggests which is the same order mentioned above. The three heroes travel to a plethera of Disney worlds (which some are exclusive in Birth By Sleep) such as Snowhite, Cinderella and others. The planets are under attack by the Unverse which are creatures born in the darkness with the soul purpose of absorbing the light force of the planet and sink the world in Darkness. The heroes interact with other iconic heroes such as young Hercules, the seven gnomes and Zack Fair from Final Fantasy Vii. All the heroes have iconic moments and different interactions with each other and visit different parts of the Disney world making each visit special. To elaborate, young Zack looks after Terra because he looks like the ideal hero (which Anyone who played Crisis Core FFvii Know thats his dream), with Aqua he tries tocharm her with his looks and with Ven they become good friends with a common goal of achieving their dreams.
Various moments exist were the game loves to play with the players emotions throughout it's length. For example, the game opens with Ven in a comatose state which did not prevent Terra and Aqua to welcome them in their circle and train together under the stars. Aqua handing them necklaces as part of their friendship and hopes to meet again, just so the cutscene will proceed to state with all three talking at the same stating "This was the last night we spent together" foshadowing what is to come. As the plot thickens more stuff become complex such as Terra becomming aware of Aqua's secret mission, Ventus becomming aware of the masked figure identity and purpose and the villains goal to Awaken Kingdom hearts and grant him the ultimate power.

The story of the game is one of the best stand alone Kingdom hearts stories which it self last long enough to complete. The three heroes each follow their own story and their own destiny. To elaborate the Master Xehanort which was introduced in this game is actually the villain of the entire Dark saga (fom BBS all the way to Kh3), Aqua's tale continues in Kh 2.9 and all the heroes come back in Kingdom hearts 3. The game is fully voice acted with every Disney actor reprising their roles including some characters who made their cameo into this story. The games also has the speech bubbles that are mainly used as optional dialogues and to help in case someone is lost. The graphicks and animations have been significally updated (between the psp-ps3-ps4) making the game look beatiful. The game has plenty of in game graphic cutscenes and plenty a few CGI cutscenes.

NOTE: Each Kingdom hearts game has it's story completely finished, meanning that anyone who plays the game will enjoy an entire 40hours story mode with an ending that satisfies the player but also leaves the door open for more to come. The majority of the questions asked, have been answered through the game however other questions were answered or revealed in other games. The game beatifully introduces the player to the a cast(which will play amajor role in the future), the beatiful Disney worlds that some return some dont, worlds originally designed for the game and plenty of iconic characters. The music of the game is top tier, as some are the iconic Disney tunes such as The OST of Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo (cinderella) and others that were originally made by Square Enix. Kingdom hearts music is undenyably top tier, as since the games initial release there have been a plethera of sold out concert events called Kingdom Hearts Orchestra where the band plays the songs melody. Also in 2020 the Developer team made a rythm game Melody of Memory which put multiple of songs in to create a full on Game. The game's story mode is delivered mainly through fully voice acted cutscenes made within the game and a few that are delivered through dialogue speech boxes. There are a few CGI cutscemes but the majority is in game engine scenes. Furthermore, a common factor was that players used to get lost in KH1 which is something fixed in Kh BBS. The players can interact with any NPC around the map in order for them to tell the hero go there.

Gameplay

Trio Vs Unverse
The game focusses on the new trio who visit various Disney worlds helping who ever needs their help, while at the same time trying to find answers to their own questions. Each time the players get Control of one of the three heroes.

All three heroes are keyblade wielders and have been trainning under the same Master. Although the animations and skills of each hero differs, the game plays relatvely the same. Birth by sleep is an action role playing game which combines real-time combat, quick commands and RPG elements that boost the status of heroes. The Kingdom hearts series have also been referred to as Hack and slash RPG games as certain difficlties are too easy(usually up to Normal) and mashing attack usually works. Kingdom Hearts BBS proved yet again the fact that casually pressing the attack command will not win a boss battle or an encounter with plenty of enemies. When the heroes visit a new world, the players are free to manuver around and explore the areas. Each map consist of various items such as power up materials and chests containning various of items. SOme parts of the map will be marked as playable in the minimap however certain heroes may not access it. This means that the particular location that the player wishes to access cannot be accessed by using the current hero. This was done in order to keep the worlds fresh for the players as they will be visiting the same world three times and simply seeing the same location would ve been bad. This does not mean that the game wont have areas where the heroes meet. The heroes are all capable of walking around, jump and double jump to reach higher areas and glide(in Neverland) to reach further locations. The player's party consist only of the hero but in some cases random Disney or even final fantasy characters join the 'protagonist'.

The combat of the game is fun and more flashy than ever. The player can equip their skill points to increase their combos, their damage and their overall status. The heroes can hit the enemies with their keyblade and their ability to cast magic.

Close Combat is mainly achieved through the keyblade. Mashing the attack button will allow the heroes to hit their nearby enemies. The close combat of Kingdom hearts BBS is very smilar to Kingdom hearts 2. The heroes basic combos are flashy and very cool looking with each one having their own unique animations and finishers. The player can equip new powers to extend the combo by placing skills on their command deck. The command deck replaces the typical menu with attacks that can be used whenever as long as their cooldowns are free. By extending combos, heroes can start attacking enemies on the ground and then launch them in the sky in order to proceed with aerial combos. The player can further these combos by adding various finishes that might knockdown Unverse or even gather them close to them through the power of magnet and strike them down. The game itself offers a fair amount of enemies for the heroes to fight on ground or in air. Once again each hero have unique finishers and other attacks.

Maleficent Boss Ven vs Venitas

For Long range attacks the heries can us their magic abilities. Magic is slowly obtain while playing the game or through minigames. They re part of the main game and thus when the time is right they will be given to the player. These spells can be activated by manuvering in the command deck (bottom left). The player should manuver through the list of commands and find the one they would want to use. The spells dont require MP Bar as Mp does not exiist in BBS. Each time a spell is cast, the spell fades out and have a cooldown that has to run out in order to be used again. Spells may differ from eachother so do not assume that If fire is used as projectile for Terra means that it will be a projectile for both Ventus and Aqua. Some commands have the heroes throwing their keyblades in order to attack enemies.

A new mechanic that the game included is the introductions of Shot locks. These are very powerfull attacks that deal a severe amount of damage, while granting invincibility and looking very flashy. Shotlocks require the player to press and hold down a key in order to access it. Then withina time limit the player have to move the camera around while the games locks on enemies or enemy. The ammount of time that the player remains in focus mode is assosiated with the amount of energy found in the Focus bar, marked as yellow next to the players profile in bottom right. The more the bar, the longer the time the player has to aim. Shotlocks have two forms, fully charged and partial charge, with full one being the most powerfull version of it. Each Shotlock has its own animation and the player can unlock different versions of shot lock.

Another new mechanic that the game has is the command Style. During combat, there is a bar above the command deck that slowly fills up. The more abilities used the faster the bar fills. When its ready the player can activate it with the press of the button. The player will then enter the style mode where they have flashy abilities that not only change the attack patterns of the heroes bu also deal significant ammount of damage. The skills being used effect the type of style the player can join, for example using fire alot? fire style, thunder? thunderous etc. Whilst in an awaken form the game might also unlocked a new ability which can also be very catastrophic. Under the effect of a style the player is given the option to simply press X and enjoy the catastrophic attacks of their hero.
Furthermore another new ability in the game is the replacement of Summons for D-Links. Each time a hero saves a world, the player is rewarded with a D-link of a hero which was in the that world. D-links required D-link energy which is a blue bar that can be seen ontop of the players profile bottom right. Once the bar is filled an option will be given with a menu of the given Dlinked heroes. By choosing a hero the time freezes as the heroes are "remembering" their bond with that particular hero. Once complete, the player's life goes back to 100% however their movements, movesets and attack patterns change to match that of the hero. Some heroes like Zack fair have nice patterns but others like Cinderella are more weaker than the others.

Each time the player clears a map the heroes re given a different keychain that the players can use to change the keyblade. In other words, its a different weapon. Each weapon has it's own stats such as Attack, defence and others. Nevertheless, this does not mean that they key with the highest numbers is nesessarily the better one because each key has it's own passive ability. For example a blade may increase the strength of the first strike, another one may be better in aerial combat, another one increassing the power of certain spell, HP orb drop rates and so on. It is recommended to always read what each keyblade offers extra other than the typical number change.

The last new inclusion to the game was the mixure of items. The players are allowed to mix their abilities in order to create new ones. For example mixing the dodge ability with the fire element causing the hero to produce fire when dodging.

Visiting new worlds

In the previsou entries such as Kingdom hearts I and Kingdom hearts II when visiting a new planet the players had to play through some Gummi ships levels. Birth by sleep removed the gummi ships and instead allows the heroes to simply select a planet and fly towards them. There are certain instances where the player will have to phase a boss battle. Unlike Sora and his friends, the trio can transform their keys into ships that they can ride. The player can attack the enemy and avoid incomming blows by simply join or using the spell Barrier.

Worlds and level design

custom Pic custom Pic
As mentioned above the game focuses on the tale of three new heroes as they move in around the cosmos visiting worlds one after another. Some of the worlds are originally designed by Square Enix themselves while the others were designed by Square Enix however, they re based on their Disney movie counter parts. For example, the Radiant Gardens is an original area designed by SqE but worlds like Snowhite and sleeping beauty are based on their movies (Snowhite and Seven gnomes and The sleeping beauty ). The worlds of Kingdom hearts Birth by Sleep are small sandboxes that combine each part with another. This time around the maps make it clear as to where to go and so the player cannot get lost. The game also has the map of the world accessible almost instantly when landing in a new world. Each time the player visits and area they have their appearance change in order to look as if they re of this world and not outsiders, in order to protect the world order. For example, in Cinderella the heroes have their size shrinked to help Cinderella's friends. It should also be mentioned how the Unverse also receive the same treatment which enchances the games beauty. To elaborate unverses appearring in Cinderella looks like musicians, where as unverse found in thw woodes look more like animals or wild life such as mushrooms. The levels themselves have also their own unique design and gameplay elements, such as riding a ball of whool in cinderella or using Tinker Bells fairy dust to fly in the Neverland. All the worlds have plenty of checkpoints (Save clouds) that the player can use to save their progress. Save spot is where the player will respawn or acess when teleporting back in the map. It should be mentioned that the three heroes have their own unique save slots, and its easy to be mistaken and accidentally overwritting the save of a different hero . There are also plenty of locations where hidden chests are. Some require a small puzzle to be solved while others require the player's observation skills.

Collectables - Post Game content

The game has a few collectables for the player to collect. These collectables do not include the keyblades and D-Links, as most of them are given to the player through the Story. These are:

  1. Stickers
    2. Around the worlds, there are glowing crown symbols that represent stickers. These can be placed in the sticker album in order to unlock items.
  2. Command Board
    3. The Mini-game looks like a Mario Party Game. The player sets a GP(game point) Goal which is required to reach to end the game. The rules of the game follow the Monopoly rules where the player has too purchase squares in order to force other players to pay them GP when they land on that particular square. The game unlocks various abilities.
  3. Olympus Coliseum.
    4. In the Olympus coliseum the player can challenge Hercules in challenges that require smashing pbjects to obtain points
  4. Unverse Symbols
    5. These symbbols have a unique challenge that differs based on the location. Some are simply defeat enemies within time, others prevent meteors from hitting the ground and others.
  5. Mirage Arena
    6. This is a planet that consist of minigames. The planet consist of
    1. Enemy Waves that the player has to clear
    2. Optional Enemy bosses
    3. Command board Extreme (harder version of command board)
    4. Rumble Racing: A minigame very similar to Mario kart where the player can use powerups and barrier to sabotage enemies.
  6. Disney Town
    7. The world has it's own story to go along with it, but most of the stuff are revolve around minigames. These are:
    1. Rumble Racing: As mentioned before, this is the official place that the gamemode can be found
    2. Ice Cream maker: A rythm base game that requires the player to memorise patterns in order to build ice cream for Donalds Nephews.
    3. Fruitball: A version of voleyball where the players prevent fruits from landing on their side of the field.
  7. Ice Cream
    8. Unlike the rythm game, this game has different monsters around the worlds that when defeated drop items for the player to use in order to make consumable ice creams that have buffs and other status boosts.
After the player defeats the final boss, a number of secrets boss encounters will become available. These bosses are harder than others and some require mechanicks. As mentioned above some are available inside the Battle Arena but some others elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

trio in destiny Island

Overall Kingdom hearts Birth by sleep was game that came up with possitive reviews and continued the confusing journey that would become the Kingdom hearts Lore. The game was heavily improved from kindom hearts 2 (as the other hand helds games changed the gameplay ) introducing new mechanicks and new concepts while also improving on its combat system. The game till this day is consider by some, as one of the superior games of all the 12 Kingdom hearts entries, resting behind Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom hearts III. Seeing how a psP game gotten Ps3 and Ps4 remasters it shows that the game definetely surpassed the test of time as people still talk about the game and people still play the game till this day(10 years as of the writting of this.) The story of kingdom hearts BBS is very interesting, unique with amazing character moments that became iconic for the series and heroes who were beloved as much as Sora and the others. The combat of the game was very polished, simple and very close to Kingdomhearts 2. The game introduced new mechanics such as Shotlocks which were heavily praised and made their return and upgrade in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance and KhIII later. The maps are very well design with unique locations everywhere and different mechanics left and right such as the previously mentioned Fairy dust. The game is mainly voice acted with only a few instances where speech-bubbles appeared. If the player gets lost an interaction with any NPC will pin point the location the player should go. The upgrades that Sora receive are usefull and the players can always choose where to spent their AP points. Some maps suffered from the fact that the game was on the PSP and locations that should have had NPCs simply look empty, somthing that Kh1 also suffered back in 2002. The boss battles are challenging and requires alot of attention to detail in order to survive. The collectables are hidden everywhere and the players should try to pay attention of their whereabouts as collecting.

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