Overview
At the end of the Japanese Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix upon fulfilling certain conditions you were treated to a secret movie called birth by sleep. In which we saw three armoured keyblade wielders fighting against two other keyblade wielders. After witnessing this it left us with one question who were these people what was going on, why did it look like Roxas had died. Well in 2010 after most had forgot about this Square Enix announced their latest game for the PSP Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. A series that details the events that setup the story for Kingdom Hearts. Plot Our plot occurs ten years before Kingdom Hearts one. It follows the story of three keyblade wielders apprenticed under the keyblade master. Two of the apprentices are taking an exam in front of the master and his old friend master Xehanort. These two apprentices are Terra and Aqua. Their exam is interrupted by Xehanort and Terra temporarily gives into darkness causing him to fail. After the exam they find out about a new threat the unversed creatures of pure negative emotion. And Terra is sets out to deal with them. Ven the third apprentice is then threatened by a mysterious figure and two sets out to prevent the mysterious figure from harming Terra leaving aqua to go after them upon master’s orders to prevent disaster from here our adventure begins. Gameplay As with every main series Kingdom Hearts game birth by sleep while contain the base battel mechanism of basic attacks and magic also contains several unique features. There are four primary new features brought into the game. The first is called a command deck and commands. Commands are effectively skills these are then separated into magical skills like fire, fira and cure and non-magical striking skills like strike raid sonic blade and Ars Arcanum. You initially start the game with three command slots five if you start in the hardest difficulty critical and you can have up to ten of these slots. Most skills take up just a single slot however stronger skills take up two slots. You can purchase stronger skills at moogles alternatively you can create stronger commands by fusing two commands together. If you add synthesis crystals, you can also obtain abilities and upon mastering a command these skills are yours to keep without having the command in your deck. When you use a command/ hit an enemy a meter above the command menu will fill a set amount upon filling the meter completely you may perform a finisher. However, if you fulfil a set condition for example using fire magic in your combo you may activate a command style these give you special combos that can be used in battles as well as a specific finisher these can be useful for crowd control or some can be useful for destroying particularly strong enemies. During the second half of the game you get lv 2 command styles which are once again activated by using set skills while in a lv 1 command style these are even stronger and have some of the best fishers in the game. As well as a massive increase in damage. The final two features are shot lock commands by holding the L and R button you can lock onto enemies from a distance and fire different variations of laser based attacks, giving you a more targeted ranged option than your traditional magic. If you manage to lock on to some enemy/ enemies with every shot, then you will get a bonus attack from these each shot lock having a specific bonus. However, using these skills depletes what is known as a focus gauge, the fullness of the gauge determining how many shots you can get in this can once again be filled by striking enemies. The final feature is called D links these are bonds you form with various characters upon activation it fully heals you and gives you access to an exclusive command deck for each character and a specific finisher. As well as this it also changes your battel style for example using Ven’s D link makes you attacks more rapid whereas using Terra’s makes your attack slower but hit harder. Sound The sound design on the game is superb. Most cut scenes actually have the English voices despite the fact that it was only released in Japan. Meanwhile the soundtrack itself from the initial opening is absolutely splendid, the original opening being remixed specifically for this game going from a much lighter song to a more dark and foreboding tone. Once more even if you don’t like/ have never played is well worth a listen too. The annoying beeping if your health bar falling below a set amount is still their though. Once again the voice acting for this game is magnificent, especially note should be payed to Leonard Nimoy master Xehanort. The track for this game sticks far more to the dark and foreboding rather than the comparatively lighter tone in Kingdom Hearts one. However, this suits the tone of the game well. Graphics As a title for what was then the new PSP this game is gorgeous using the power of the PSP it was the first time we had console looking graphics on a handheld. The game play itself looks fluid and smooth every character animation in combat looks great and makes that battles feel dynamic and exciting. With every enemy having their very own look and feel making them individual and easily distinguishable from one another there are no re-skins of old enemies so every world is slightly different. On a side note command styles look absolutely amazing. Meanwhile the pre-rendered scenes look like a high budget animated movie even through there are fairly few of them. With most scenes being interactions between the character models, which still to be fair, look very good and it being easy to see the characters emoting and reacting. Summary Pros and Cons Pros
9.5/10 Andrei
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