Kingdom Hearts Marathon; Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep: With the exception of Evil Mc Wigglefingers, did anyone want to know the answers to these questions?

As much as that might sound like a joke, the best way to describe Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep's plot is to ask that question because that's all this really is. Like with all the non-numbered games, it exists to answer questions. What doesn't help this though was that it was made for the PlayStation Portable, and until relatively recently, was the only place you could play it (unless it got a PlayStation Vita port on the shop, though considering how well that did, you could make the argument that my point still stands). Thankfully though, there are other ways to play it now. So how does it improve on from Kingdom Hearts 2, and the other handheld spinoffs?

I'm not kidding by that last part by the way, as even though I'm playing the PlayStation 3 port, it's a more fitting comparison to compare it as a handheld game, many parts of this game are designed with shorter play sessions in mind, such as the story. Instead of Sora this time, we have three new playable characters, Terra (our stand-in for Riku, but if Riku hit the same steroids Ike did in Super Smash Brothers 4), Ventus, "who looks an awful lot like Roxas, sounds an awful lot like Roxas" and is just kind of there in terms of the story, existing only for symbolism with Venitus (I hope that's how you spell it at least) and Aqua, the most competent person here, and therefore the one that gets the most f@!$#d over in terms of how bad the situation gets which, considering what happens to the other two, is saying a lot. After the Mark of Mastery Exam is tampered with by Master Xehanort, someone who is so clearly evil I'm surprised anyone who's not a moron would think he's anything other than evil. I know the whole "don't judge a book by its cover", but Birth By Sleep puts in no major effort to hide the fact that he's the bad guy that it is not a surprise at all to find out that he's the main bad guy of the franchise. The main bad guys of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2? Yeah, they come from this guy. Anyway, a new threat is discovered in the worlds that mostly tie back to a concept I overlooked in the Kingdom Hearts 1 review as they didn't have much of an impact other than being the people to find, the Princesses of Heart. Who are they? Take the six most well known Disney Princesses (Elsa and Anna don't count, they didn't exist yet), and Nomura's OC, Kairi, and there, Princesses of Heart. While Aqua's the one officially sent out, the master of the three sends out Terra in the hope that he will learn to control the Darkness inside him. Ventus on the other hand just sneaks out. Like with the previous games reviewed, the story becomes a retelling of the stories of the movies the worlds come from, only now divided into three. If you want the full story, you have to play all three characters. What is it building up to though?

Encase the similarities were a bit too subtle

Long ago, a war was fought between Keyblade owners for possession over a special Keyblade known as... the Keyblade... from here on out though I'll be referring to it as the x blade, though the proper spelling of it requires a special x symbol. Anyway, Xehanort wants the x blade, and to do that, requires putting all three of our protagonists through absolute hell. Including sending Aqua into the realm of Darkness after Ventus is put into a Coma and left in Castle Oblivion, and Terra's body becoming Xehanort's new body, with Terra himself being stuck in his armour as the Lingering Will boss from Kingdom Hearts 2. I know this is going to come off as a butchering of the story (in fact, all of these reviews probably are). A part of it is to hide what spoilers I can that aren't going to impact another review later down the line, and the other part is because of the format. These aren't complete summaries, these are reviews. If you want a complete summary, you're better off looking at a fan-made wiki. As for my thoughts on the story? While it's solid, and there isn't much backstory to explain as it is a prequel, it being a prequel does make it harder for me to be invested in the characters.

A common problem I have with prequel stories is that, with rare exceptions, if I know the fate of a character from a later story, something bad happening to them is either expected or leaves no impact on me cause I know they're fine in later stories. Because Terra, Aqua and Ventus aren't mentioned in later games (granted, because they didn't exist yet), my first reaction is "ok, something bad's going to happen, there is no point in getting invested in these characters". Granted, this is a problem mostly because of how I think, though I get the feeling that I'm not alone in that statement. Another problem is in the story structure. Due to how the story is split between the three characters, parts of the game can feel repetitive, and not for a lot of payoffs especially if you're familiar with the stories of the movies. While there are original worlds, a lot more then previous games, in fact, the original content is spaced out a lot, and you can't skip worlds that you've already been too just to see the original content exclusive to that character. What does help keep things from feeling too repetitive is that the three characters do behave differently, somewhat fitting as they're also the game's difficulty modes (which I'm personally not a fan of as I would have rathered each had an Easy, Normal and Hard mode). It's a small thing though that does help a lot. Other changes to the gameplay include the Command deck system, which replaces functions like Mana for a series of quick access commands you can set up before a battle to use at your leisure, but each one has a cooldown timer depending on the action. Actions can include spells, consumable items and powerful moves, with the stronger the move, the longer the recharge time. Dimensional Link is the new name for the summons, and Command styles are a more balanced, unique version of the drive forms from Kingdom Hearts 2. All of which helps put Birth By Sleep on the calibre of Kingdom Hearts 1 and Kingdom Hearts 2, something that the other handheld games have struggled to do. This is a genuine portable version of a Kingdom Hearts game... reviewed by someone playing the console version because he doesn't own a PSP... See why I want the 1.5, 2.5 and 2.8 bundles to come to Switch?

Are the similarities blatant enough yet?

Presentation wise, this looks great on both the PSP and the PS3 (I may not own a PSP, but I do know how to use Youtube). It doesn't look or sound dumbed down when compared to its console siblings. It's genuinely surprising how much power one could get out of a PSP at the time. When compared to 358 Days Over 2 on the Nintendo DS (No really, that's the way they want you to read 358/2 Days), the difference is Night and Day. While it might not be completely on par with Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, for a portable Kingdom Hearts, it's the best of the lot and certainly one of the best Kingdom Hearts games. While some of you might be waiting for the review to continue with a look at, and I quote, "Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth By Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage", a demo found inside Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue (I got a headache just writing that, though it could be this heat wave...), I do not own a PlayStation 4, and while Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming to X-Box One, no other Kingdom Hearts game has ever come to the X-Box consoles. It's why I'm honestly surprised they're still doing KH3 for it. For now, I'll leave you here. Next week we conclude this Marathon with Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (yes yes, very clever), though up next is a look at the Autobot and Decepticon Clones, the precurser to the repaints... wait now, that was the Seekers, never mind.