Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)

Again with the giant Key-swords...

Kingdom Hearts! Running through colourful Disney worlds with anime-esque characters from the mind of one of the major players in the Final Fantasy creative process! Overly complicated and nonsensical storylines! Cheesy monologues about the power of friendship and the heart! It's all still in here!

Birth by Sleep is a prequel to the first Kingdom Hearts game, and as such introduces new characters and elements to the universe. The biggest departure is that in this game, rather than playing through with a single hero, you get to play through with three students of the fabled Keyblade, each offering thier own perspective on the narrative and their own unique playstyle. Well supposedly anyway... The biggest complaint about this game is that realistically they all play pretty much the same, visit the same worlds, meet pretty much the same characters and you end up wondering if there is really any point playing through with the same characters three times.

Whilst playing through the game, I was struck how, as opposed to the other side story handheld games in the series, this does actually feel like a Kingdom Hearts. Running around taking out enemies with your skills and magic is actually generally quite enjoyable, and a decent skill leveling system is in place, allowing you to combine skills and magic to make new ones, and also to learn passive abilities such as boosts to certain attack types or raise your HP. Although battles are generally not the most tactical of things, mostly bashing the 'x' button and occasionally throwing in a few special abilities, there is a good range of enemies and boss battles waiting, and a decent range of skills available to you to keep things fresh. The levels are generally well designed, with various secrets and treasures waiting to be discovered, and although each world is quite small, they are generally well thought out and realised, each with thier own characters, music and design elements.

As a prequel, the storyline is interesting in its own right, and by the end does tie back into the greater scheme of things. Anyone who has played the other games in the series will be right at home here, and the eventual links back to the orignal games' stories are satisfying. If you are a newcomer, a few of the finer details will probably be lost on you but as a prequel it is possible to jump right in and enjoy the game on it's own merit. The voice acting is generally good, and as usual the whole package is pretty polished.

Overall, fans of the series will definitely be at home here, and as a lead up to the eventual next game in the main series it's definitely worth playing, however the repetitve nature of traversing through the same worlds three times is a huge drawback, and one which disappointed me a lot. That said, it takes a cold heart not to smile at the premise of a Disney themed Action RPG, and this is definitely an enjoyable if flawed addition to the series.

3.5 Key based weapons out of 5

Thanks for reading! Andrew