Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Review (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep transports the familiar Disney-inspired RPG franchise exclusively to PSP. You take turns to play as three protagonists, each on a quest to locate a Keyblade master and fend of evil creatures spread throughout familiar Disney worlds. Stephen Ebert gives his verdict…
The basics
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep sees you take control of three characters: Terra, Aqua and Ventus – each with their own storyline as they enter some of the same fantastical worlds seen in several well known Disney films such as Cinderella, Snow White and more. The result is almost three separate games: only by clearing the game with each character can players get the whole story, lending some serious longevity to Birth By Sleep.
The good
If you’re not a fan of turn-based combat, but love RPGs you’ll find plenty to love here. Birth By Sleep does away with turn-based attacking for more conventional button tapping, combined with one and multiple button-activated magic spells. RPG games can be intimidating to newcomers, but Birth By Sleep’s gameplay is instantly accessible, and made easier to understand thanks to neat tutorials and instructions throughout.
New to Birth By Sleep is the ability to customise what’s called a ‘Command Deck’ giving you the chance to create and alter your abilities combinations at will. Magic abilities are listed on-screen, activating them is as easy as pressing a button. Adding further depth to combat are ‘D-Link’ attacks that let you use the abilities of characters you’ve met throughout to keep combat fresh and exiting.
The bad
Because you’ll need to clear the game with each of the three characters, there’s plenty of Birth By Sleep gameplay to be had, but some of the earlier levels are aren’t exactly complex, and a little on the easy side.
The bottom line
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is a thoroughly playable RPG with fun gameplay, diverse combat and a well executed story with many hours of gameplay to make it well worth adding to your PSP collection.
