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Hello hello, and welcome to the 4th review for A Month of Keys: A Review of the Convoluted Universe of Kingdom Hearts.

So let's talk Birth By Sleep, shall we?



Now, this may strike some curiosity among fans at first, because the cover only shows one familiar...at least seemingly familiar face (not counting Mickey) on it: Roxas.  So when this first released, there was a lot of speculation as to who this was, with some thinking it was a Roxas-centric game (though 358/2 Days would later be the game), but were shocked when they learned that the character they were seeing was in fact someone completely different.

This is actually a prequel to the entire series outside of Union Cross (which actually is set before Birth By Sleep), precisely 10 years before the events of the original Kingdom Hearts.  It's also the most gripping and heart wrenching of all of the Kingdom Hearts games in the series because it's the one that flips the switch to events of the original game, so it's doomed to be pretty tragic.  On top of that, it's the first multi-scenario Kingdom Hearts game from the start.  Where with Chain of Memories you could unlock a second episode after beating the game the first time, this one offers 3 episodes at the starting since there are 3 different playable characters.  On top of that, while there are major scenes that will mimic each other when 2 or all three of the characters meet up, a majority of the scenes that happen are specific to that character, and there are even areas that you visit in each world that may be specific to one character as opposed to the others.

Overall, in some ways it was a bit more ambitious than the other Kingdom Hearts games despite not being a numbered title.  It had a lot riding on it as a prequel, and in all honesty it's still one of my favorite entries in the franchise if not my absolute favorite simply because of the amount of care that went into it.  So let's get into it, shall we?

Story
As always, you're first introduced to a pretty neat intro either when you first load the game before it hits the menu, or when you first start a new game and don't skip the tutorial.

Terra, Aqua, and Ventus are all training in a type of school to be future Keyblade Masters.  In fact, after a night of training and star gazing (followed by the ominous words shared by all 3 of them in narration that it would be the last night they'd ever be together to see the stars), Terra and Aqua fight it out to become Keyblade Masters (with some interference by Master Xehanort at the start).  Terra, unfortunately, has issues keeping his darkness in check completely (it starts to slip out in his arm as he tempers it, but it doesn't matter), so only Aqua is named Keyblade Master.  While the three of them are off doing their own things (as shown in each of their scenes when you play as them), Master Eraqus gets an emergency call from Master Yen Sid (who considers himself no longer a Master, but still keeps the title).  Apparently, the Princesses of Heart are in danger as some unusual creatures that feed off of negativity (known as the Unversed) have appeared in countless worlds.  To prove himself to Master Eraqus, Terra is tasked with finding this threat and eliminating it, keeping the Princesses safe.  Ventus, worried about something he had heard about Terra, leaves to find him much to Master Eraqus' dismay since he wanted Ventus to be out of harm.  He tasks Aqua with searching the worlds and finding Ventus while also keeping a close eye on Terra to make sure he doesn't succumb to the darkness.  Now, it's a battle to find each other while keeping the Princesses of Heart safe while others conspire to keep them apart and use them for their own means.

So, at the start there's quite a lot going on.  You have 3 different characters each with their own goals and agenda thrown into three different situations.  Terra feels ashamed and upset for not making Master because he couldn't control his darkness, while also being continuously manipulated into using such power.  Ventus is constantly worried for his friends (especially Terra), and only wants to find them because of something ominous that a character whose face is hidden tells him about Terra specifically.  Aqua feels disappointed for Terra and wants to prove to the Master that he's wrong about Terra, while also dealing with the fact that she's now a Master and has to do her duties as one.

At the same time, despite everything going on, it's not incredibly difficult to keep up.  Not to mention, these are all characters that you actually feel something for.  They're all going through their own versions of turmoil and suffering, and you really start to feel for them.  This is game that doesn't hold punches on what it does to the characters.  It sets up for nothing but tragedy, and boy does it do it well.

I mentioned that there's scenes that overlap on playthroughs because there's points when all three of them meet.  What I didn't mention is that even then, those scenes (aside from one or two) are different because you see them in different perspectives, or you hear more that was said after a character leaves compared to when you played that character, or it goes into that character's thoughts immediately after to give perspective to their thought process at that time.  This is one that really goes pretty heavy with the story because it knows what it's setting up for, and god does it do it well.

I'll also mention that on top of setting up these three characters as well as of course Master Xehanort (since some were speculating at first that this was a far-end sequel since he's an old man...but since it's a prequel...), you also get to see how many of the other characters met their destinies as well.  This wasn't a game that just fucked over one character and set the villain's plans in motions...this was a game that did that as well as either screwed over or incentivised a lot of familiar characters into becoming who they are in the later games.  Characters you'd expect with how they are in this game, characters that surprise you a bit with how they turn...as I said, this game pulls absolutely no punches in throwing everything at the wall in how it sets up every single character in the main KH universe.

It's also worth noting that the game really plays with the Dark being evil and Light not being evil concept a bit, suggesting that you don't want to be too either or because either way you'd be blinded.  While Xehanort is very obviously a patron of the darkness, he raises valid points about how there should be balance, and at one point even Eraqus admits his heavy reliance toward light has probably blinded him from things.

There is no absolute "Set" order of playing through the characters (though you have to play through one completely before you can "truly" play the next character), however it's recommended normally to do the run through as: Terra > Ventus > Aqua to get the best context of the story.

Overall, this story had a hell of a lot going for it and did it really quite well.  Some of you are probably like "God Pengu, why did you have to spoil that it's obvious a tragic game with a tragic conclusion? For all I knew, they could have been happy!"

For starters, if you watched both the Secret Movies from the end of Kingdom Hearts 2 (specifically the 2.5 Remix/Final Mix version) as well as even that intro, you know this isn't going to be a happy game.  If anything, Birth By Sleep is basically the Star Wars: Rogue One of the Kingdom Hearts series.  It's setting up for the big events of the first game, but you ever wonder why you only get a mention about one of those three characters, and it's not a good mention?  It was obvious from the start that this was only going to explain why events are they way they are, and it's not meant to be a feel-good happy-ending explanation, and I actually really appreciate that even more.

Gameplay
In many ways, the gameplay is the same as the other two main title games.  You run and attack in real time, can use magic, skills, items, and you move about places by running, jumping, and whatnot.

In addition to those, you have what are called Deck Commands.  No longer do you have to worry about MP to use Skills or Magic, because commands all officially just have a "Cooldown time."  However, rather than being able to use any skills or magic all willy nilly, you assign them to "slots" to use them, with some of the bigger magics/skills taking up 2 slots.  This has been compared to Chain of Memories with its decks, but since this is only skills and magic and it doesn't get "cancelled" since there's no "numbers" or "values" to battles, I'm actually pretty okay with this.

If you're wanting more powerful versions of spells/skills, you'll enjoy the Command Meld feature, which is basically a mix and match and hope for the best type of tool.  In it, you'll sacrifice 2 magic or skill commands (and fear not, because any new command skill/magic you pick up or create, you'll be able to buy from that point on from the various moogles scattered around).  By putting two commands together, they'll form into a new command whether it be a new skill or higher form of magic.  While it may seem a little random, it's actually not if you put the right items (such as two "cure" commands) in it, since if it's two identical magic commands for example, it'll give you the higher magic (such as two "cure" commands resulting in Cura).  You can also attach a type of crystal (which you'll pick up various types when fighting enemies) which will also attach a learnable passive ability (such as Treasure Magnet, Leaf Bracer, Attack Haste, etc...).  Once you've used and leveled up the command enough, you'll learn the ability permanently.

Once you gather that different "Recipes" scattered in chests throughout the game, you'll know what the various combinations will make.  Until then, you'll only know them after you've already played around a bit with it.

There's also something called "Shotlocks" which is basically holding a button down, targeting enemies while the meter goes down, and then letting go as a barrage of magic in the form of fire/ice bullets, magic missiles, and even constant attacks by your character teleporting to them directly will hit each and every enemy targeted.

On top of that, Finishers from KH2 have appeared in a much more in depth form.  Whereas it was something learned later in the game in KH2, you'll have them right at the start in Birth By Sleep with each character.  All three of them will have their own unique finishers as well as identical ones as well.  You'll start off with a basic one, and the more Unversed you kill, you'll unlock new ones.  You'll also have unique finishers that can only be learned by using a specific type of magic a set number of times, but the good ones will be unlocked simply by killing enough Unversed and making sure you switch to the right finisher so you can level up the next appropriate one.  But there's power damaging finishers, ones that will net you extra munny, and there's even finishers that make you basically play a little game of chance that will either net you higher damage or result in you being temporarily stunned, depending on if you win it (I usually recommend switching out of this finisher, since the game automatically throws you into it since it's the first one unlocked after your basic one).

There's also an extended version of "Drive Forms" in this game that you achieve differently than you would in Kingdom Hearts II.  If you learn a Fire-based drive form, for example, you only need to attack an enemy with fire at least once before your finisher appears, and you'll automatically go into that fire-based form.  What each of these forms do depends on what it is, though the name usually suggests what the overall trend of it is (fire obviously giving you fire-attacks, ice obviously giving ice, etc...), and your finisher at the end is a unique one for that form.  However, there's also the possibility of a Secondary form, which will happen at the end of your first if you once again do the right command that ends up triggering it (but once again, you have to learn the appropriate Secondary form to access it).  And once again, at the end of the Secondary form will be a unique finisher depending on which form you're in, and these ones are usually a little more powerful depending on the form itself.

Finally, there's what I personally consider a more useless feature, the D-Links.  D-Links are a little difficult to explain exactly, since the game doesn't really tell you why certain characters would get certain ones.  But basically, when you encounter a character in the game, depending on who your character is specifically, you'll form a D-Link or Dimension Link with them.  When you choose that character from the list in battle, your commands will change temporarily to a "unique" set (though Cinderella is really the only actually unique one, but Snow White's attacks are all named after the Dwarves), and once again your Finisher will alter since it's basically an extended Drive Form.  However, by using a character's D-Link enough times, you can actually level them up and gain access to 2 abilities that may or may not be unique to them from that point on when you use them as a D-Link.  These will also alter the Finisher to make it possibly more powerful depending on the D-Link character.

The reason I consider the D-Links useless outside of the unique finisher is really just that.  Throughout the game you'll be consistently using Command Meld to make yourself more powerful magic and skills, and you'll also be consistently learning new passive abilities already if you're changing up crystals to learn new abilities with each meld and also keeping track of what you've learned and what it still learnable.  They're handy in the beginning, but once you're past the first 3 worlds, they very quickly will be forgotten unless you're pretty attached to them.

So because this was originally a PSP game, you'd expect the worlds to be a bit smaller, right?  Actually, no.  The worlds themselves aside from two of them (and one is basically a skippable side-world known as the Mirage Arena) are actually a pretty decent size...about the normal size of a world in KH1 or even 2.  Looking at the first world you visit with Terra, that one had about 7 explorable sections, some smaller but some larger.  Some of the worlds actually offer quite a bit to explore, especially if you're playing the right character since, as I stated earlier in the review, there are some areas open to one character that may be locked off to others, and sometimes one character may get complete free-reign of all of a world whereas another may be blocked off from a section.

One world you'll visit known as Disney Town also has a few mini games within it as well.  There's a Kart racing mini game (Rumble Racing), and "Ice Cream Beats" type of game where you have to press buttons in time following the beat (which can be difficult especially on the higher difficulty of the songs), and Fruit Ball which is basically trying to knock large bouncy fruits across into your opponent's goal. For each character, one of these is required to be played once to progress in the story, but you can play any of the others at any time you want...and both the Ice Cream Beats and Rumble Racing mini games are actually required to be beaten completely to get a unique keyblade from each (Fruitball will get you a unique Shotlock).

I mentioned the Mirage Arena earlier as well.  In a way, this is the Colosseum area of the game since Olympus Colosseum doesn't serve that purpose.  You'll fight enemies in a similar style, some previous bosses will be refought, and you'll get some great rewards (such as the Ultima Keyblade for beating the toughest battle).  You'll also access Kart Racing tracks here for higher difficulties.

Finally, there's also something called the Command Board, which is basically a Mario Party-ripped game board in which you roll the dice, run around and collect GP (Game Points), and make it back to the starting points once you hit a certain amount of GP.  Along the way, opponents (There's 2 opponents for each board) can steal or use Command Cards/panels against you, and likewise you can turn the tables on them in the same fashions.  You can unlock various boards by completing a world with the exception of 2: One you unlock in Radiant Garden through another character, and the other you unlock by playing and winning a game on the other boards.  As strange as this may sound, Command Boards are an alternative way to level up and level up your Deck Commands.

So overall, there's some new additions to gameplay, but nothing that makes it more frustrating.  If anything, it keeps the seamless battle system that the other two main title games have, but just spices it up a bit...switching things around a bit and expanding on things that previous games have introduced.

Graphics
So because this originated on the PSP, you're probably thinking that graphically it wasn't the best.






That's...actually where you'd be wrong in that assumption.  Even on the PSP, this game was absolutely gorgeous to look at.  Characters looked nice, the worlds themselves looked lovely, the usage of colors all around was great, everything just looked fantastic for it being on the PSP.  When they remastered it and pushed everything up for the II.5 remix on the PS3 and PS4, it still looked absolutely gorgeous, and actually popped out even more because of the remaster.  Despite it being on the PSP at first, at many points even in the remaster it just looked a bit more sleek than the two main title games, and there's actually one specific reason I think that is:

This game is almost 100% completely voiced with very little text dialogue in in.  While this means that Empty World Syndrome still affects this game, it also did get rid of another problem and would be the first game before Dream Drop Distance to do away with it almost completely: the dead-eyed fish blubbing way of speaking that would sometimes switch out with the word-synced lip movements and actual emotional moments for a character.





Birth By Sleep kept it at least 99% of them speaking with the latter way when it came to your characters as well as the main antagonists (though world antagonists at points did suffer from this).  You always got to see how events really affected them because they were always designed in the way that you could see their emotions in the moment, rather than guessing by the dead-eyed lazy way.  As I said, this game went all the way with conveying its theme of it being a tragic story for the three of them, and they even kept it in something as trivial as making it so you always saw how the characters were in almost every moment you were playing as them.  Visually, I was actually very impressed that they were able to do all this on the PSP, and then with how beautiful it still looked when everything was shifted and fixed up on the console versions.

Music

Alright, so this game probably has my favorite version of the title menu theme, Dearly Beloved.  For the past 3 games, it's mainly been just an "enhanced" version of the original one.  Up to this point, KH2 had at least a change in the setup since CoM was basically the same thing with a different instrument in the middle.  It was a beautiful rendition that they obviously gave a bit of care to, making an already lovely sounding song sound nicer for the sequel.

Birth by Sleep basically took that version and went farther with it.  It almost feels like a slower piece than KH2's version despite 2's already being soft and slow.  But what absolutely kills it for me is about a minute in, there's a slow build up of music, and then that build up leads to a violin playing something unique and different than what I've expected in the song...and damn does it set the tone for the game.  It's a slow, almost really sad sounding piece in the middle of this beautiful song to almost foreshadow that you're not going to have a good time and should probably have a tissue or two ready.

Dearly Beloved (Birth By Sleep version)

The character pieces also follow this, with Aqua and Ventus' songs sounding particularly melancholy, while Terra's is less depressing sounding, but still has a hint of it in the tone, especially with everything you learn about how his character is when you progress through the game.

Ventus' Theme

Aqua's Theme

Terra's Theme

Compared to the previous games' more jolly and whimsical music, this was a completely surprising 180 in overall tone as well.  All of the worlds still had their usual fun music (Stitch's world having some of my favorite), but all of the overall outside/event music just always had this underlying tone of sorrow to it.  It was basically as if Lemony Snickett had dictated the music direction, because the direction overall seemed to be "This isn't your happy fairy tale game, and you're probably going to regret playing this if you continue."

It was just such a fascinating direction to take to where even the music itself was heavily foreshadowing how the game would be.  Because of that, this one is a particular favorite of mine simply because of how well it does that between the fun-happy-world music.  But even all of that melancholy music shadowing over everything, the world music was still bomb.

Here's some notable songs, both story-wise and world wise:

Tears of the Light

Enchanted Domain (Sleeping Beauty's world)

Deep Space (Stitch's world)

Keyblade Graveyard

Sounds and Voices
Kingdom Hearts 2 and beyond, a lot of the sounds for the UI were very much the same...which I'm perfectly okay with.  Everything in 2 sounded fine, and this hasn't changed in Birth By Sleep.  Attacks and skills, finishers, magic spells, D-Link changing, all of it sounded pretty good.  I honestly can't think of any particular sounds or noises that threw me off.

Voice wise, they did particularly well with this one.  Much like KH1 and 2, the voice acting was pretty top notch.  Terra at first was a somewhat difficult one to get used to, but considering KH2's Xehanort, I get why they chose this VA even though he does sound a little off sometimes.  So in that respect, I actually respect their choice.

Instant crowd pleasers are Master Xehanort and Master Eraqus' voice actors.  Playing the Master of the Light side (Eraqus), you have Mark Hamil aka Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.  Playing the Master of the Dark Side (Xehanort), you have fricken Leonard Nimoy.  I honestly couldn't have even dreamed of a better matchup than Spock from Star Trek as a bad guy versus Luke Skywalker from Star Wars as his opponent.  They were such phenomenal choices, and I was ecstatic when I first heard both of them talk.

Surprisingly, Haley Joel Osment also has a voice in this game, but I won't spoil who...and no, it's not Sora since Sora would be like, 4 or 5 in this game.

Likewise, despite not being Roxas, Jesse McCartney voices Ventus since there's a very specific reason that Ventus and Roxas are basically twins.

Outside of those, everyone did a great job as their respective characters.  Once again, they were able to get the original (or current original) VAs for certain characters such as Scrooge McDuck, Experiement 221, Minnie Mouse/Huey, Duey, and Louie (all 4 were the same VA), Stitch, Gantu, Young Hercules, Snow White (the current VA), Zack Fair (from Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core)...not to mention some exceptional talent such as Rob Paulson (who has voiced a lot of characters such as Yakko Warner from Animaniacs) as well as Jennifer Hale (most known as FemShep from the Mass Effect series as well as the most current voice for Cinderella.  Susanne Blakesee (Maleficent from KH1 and 2) comes back as well to reprise that role as well as play the roles of Lady Tremaine and the Evil Queen/Old Witch which she does pretty well.  Hell, Kathryn Beaumont (the original voice of Wendy/Alice Liddell) came back to voice an original character (Kairi's Grandmother), which actually surprised the heck out of me.

Overall, the voice work continues to be great, and in fact I think this game has the best vocals so far, with KH1 being slightly behind.  By this point, Richard Epcar has gotten better and I've gotten more used to his version of Ansem compared to Billy Zane, and my only minor gripe (which again I still understood because of what happens to him) was Terra.  But with someone like Nimoy playing the villain? I was definitely on board the moment he first talked.

Replayability
I mean, you have to beat the game at least 3 times (1 time with each character) to get the full story, so already there's replayability there because the game will be slightly different (and storywise really different) with each character.  There's also a few mini games as well as an Arena that net some great rewards, so there'll be other things to keep you busy while you're on your main quest.

On top of all of that though, there's not one, but two secret episodes to play in this game once you've beaten everything.  The Final Episode (aka the first secret episode) requires that you gather all 12 Xehanort scattered throughout the worlds, and only obtainable by collecting set amounts with all 3 characters.  The Secret Episode (exclusive to Final Mix/II.5 Remix) can be unlocked by the following requirements:  To unlock it on Standard, the player must complete the Sticker Album and defeat 9,999 Unversed to obtain the Keyslinger Trophy, complete the Sticker Album on Proud, and simply clear the Final Episode on Critical.

By beating the Final Episode, you'll unlock a new secret movie called Blank Points.  However, it also plays a few cutscenes at the end that explain exactly what happened to each of the three characters and why you don't see them in the later games.

By beating the Secret Episode, you'll unlock a new secret movie called A Fragmentary Passage, which gives more insight to the character you just played as.

So yeah, there's a lot going on in this area.

Overall
Overall, I can't recommend this game enough if you're getting into Kingdom Hearts.  Chronologically, this would be the best place to start (technically Union X/Unchained X/Dark Road would be the best since it's the very first in the timeline), and it's a great place to start.  Visually it's great on PSP and later systems, sound and music wise it's great, and the voice acting is phenomenal.  All of that as well as the story just really scores what kind of game you're going into, and just be prepared because it's not a happy or uplifting type of game.  It tricks you with the world traveling at parts because the characters go through those types of situations to lift their spirits, but the game will thoroughly build on that only to completely smash any ideas of hope for the characters in the end.  But that's okay, because damn does it make for a great prequel, especially with a guy like Leonard Nimoy voicing the villain.

So yeah, 10/10 do recommend if you're jumping into this series.