Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Review

Long before I started my career here at IGN, I distinctly remember sitting with my friend and fiercely debating the pros and cons of purchasing the original Kingdom Hearts (we weren't made of money, after all). On the one hand, the game had sweet Final Fantasy cameos and awesome character designs. But on the other hand, it had all these Disney characters I didn't have any interest in. We eventually decided that the purchase was a wise decision after discovering that Tinker Bell was a summon spell. How could we go wrong with pixie power?

Almost ten years later, I'm here reviewing the latest in Square Enix's fantastic series: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, a PSP-exclusive prequel that illuminates some plot points leading up to the original Kingdom Hearts. I'm always incredibly eager to try my hand at the Kingdom Hearts games because I have a personal attachment to the story, but I'm also the first one to point out the game's enduring problems. While Birth by Sleep does continue to suffer from some of the issues that have plagued it since the original, the latest in the series also boasts one of the best Kingdom Hearts battle systems to date, and is easily the most ambitious in its design.

So breathe easy, my friends: Birth by Sleep is definitely worth your money.

Watch our Video Review

Let's start with the basics for all you newcomers out there. Kingdom Hearts is an action role-playing game that combines Final Fantasy-style aesthetics with recognizable Disney worlds. Birth by Sleep is set before the events of the original Kingdom Hearts, so while you don't necessarily need to know what happened in the other games, your experience will be infinitely richer if you do.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep follows three separate storylines. At the beginning, players choose between three different characters: Terra, Ventus and Aqua. These three Keyblade wielders (and close friends) are tasked with defeating the recent uprising of creatures known as the Unversed. Along the way, they'll encounter some familiar faces and a few new threats.

These play sessions exist on separate save files, so once you start the story, you won't be jumping between them while you play. You can opt to start up a game and then quit out to a different campaign, but I found it very satisfying to play one character's story from start to finish. And as you might expect, you'll be rewarded for completing all three campaigns (the game keeps track of completed save files in order to unlock some yummy secrets).

Like the original Kingdom Hearts games, your hero in Birth by Sleep travels from world to world solving smaller problems and working towards one ultimate goal. While on a world, players move through the environments, collecting treasure and doing a small amount of exploring. The real draw, however, is the battle system, as enemies materialize around the player as he or she explores.

Fighting in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is awesome. Players can find, purchase or earn special commands that can be customized from the main menu. These commands can be selected with the d-pad during battle and executed with the triangle button. Once a command has been executed, the deck automatically cycles to the next command and the previous command enters a cool down period.

This system keeps the action fast and user-friendly, but also lets players customize their abilities at will. Commands can also be leveled up and melded to form new ones, so there's a mind-numbing amount of tweaking players have at their fingertips.

This battle system rocks pretty darn hard.

But commands are just one element in the formula. As you build up combos, a meter fills up on the side of the screen. If you use special commands to build up that meter, your character might enter a special "command style" which gives them a temporary but tremendous boost in ability. If, for example, Ventus were to cast a few thunder spells while filling the command meter, he would enter the Thunderbolt command style and his moves would be electrically charged.

If that wasn't enough depth for you, each hero also has access to attacks called Shotlocks, which are designed to help deal with large groups of enemies. These attacks take some skill to use effectively but the results are devastating.

But that's not all! Each hero also forges Dimension Links, or D-Links, with characters they meet as they travel. By activating a D-Link, your hero temporarily gains the abilities of that character. More commands means more variety when it comes to fighting, and that's a good thing.