The last time I played Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep I was 14 years old.
I was just starting high school, completely afraid of what my peers thought of me, deeply in a closet I wasn't even fully aware I was in and hopelessly awkward and bad at socializing. You could say that Birth By Sleep was a comfort game of sorts at that period of my life like all of Kingdom Hearts in general was.
A kind of transitional title for a transitional period in my life, trying to make new friends in real life while learning more about this world and series that I'd grown up with.
I loved this game to death. I played it many many times, beat it on Proud mode which felt like a herculean task to me then as a child who was TERRIBLE at video games. It was a game very special to my heart and still quite special in my memories.
So my girlfriend has been playing through the series (I'm only reviewing the ones here that I played in this round of playthroughs, not the ones I'm majorly watching her play though I have played those) and I was quite excited to get to this one.
This special childhood game that I'd held near and quite dear to my heart, adoring the narrative, the way in which they took the things I loved about the series while managing to fit it all on a chunky UMD on the go, fitting right nice and snugly into my PSP library of Dissidia Final Fantasy and the constant grinding I was doing with Squall and Jecht in that game, the film RV starring Robin Williams and some Gundam SEED film for some reason when I don't even think I really watched the series.
There's a reason you don't revisit everything you once held up as "the greatest shit of all time" when you're like 14 huh.
This go around after so much time away revealed that wow this combat is kinda majorly ass. Introducing the new command deck system and styles was a cool idea! The problem is that it ends up replacing basic functionality in the move set in ways that just end up making the game feel like total shit to play at points, especially early on in everybody's campaigns. Things feel floaty but in a way that feels like a bad in-between of KH2's lighter snappier feel and 1's weight and heft to its movement.
The unversed as an enemy type are just kinda bland and nowhere near as interesting in terms of designs as the Heartless, Nobodies and the Dream Eaters even. Fighting a chunk of them when they can just kinda barrel through all of your shit with I-Frames with fairly little stagger opportunity makes fights just feel bad half of the time.
The level scaling is also quite strange. For I'd say Ventus and Terra's stories especially, there are multiple points where they go into a world for like 5 minutes, maybe have 2 fights, fight the boss and then leave. This constantly leaving you fairly underleveled and needing to grind if you want to do any meaningful damage in the next world at all. It's like the game is built around you running out and doing the Mirage Arena or grinding constantly and I just really didn't wanna do those if I didn't have to!
Hell, after a certain point in every story we had to grind AT LEAST once per character for like an hour just to be able to not get completely shit on by some random enemy we didn't have any trouble with before because now the world level is "6" whatever that even MEANS.
It was disappointing, coming back to this game that filled my teenage years. All the memories of how much fun I had with it are not necessarily overwritten but just given a different context of sorts. It's a bit of a bummer coming back to it and realizing that I wish I didn't have to play this game's combat for the things I genuinely do adore about it still.
The music is absolutely still phenomenal. Aqua's Theme is absolutely my favorite track in this series. The oppressive loneliness and distance of some of the tracks in this game, the way the tragedy is sewn through those strings. I would even go as far as to say that it's probably my favorite soundtrack in this series right next to 3 with how many memorable pieces are in this thing that hit my heart oh so deeply. Those notes fuckin move me!
The narrative as well still hits in a lot of ways for me. Though I do find it funny how much I've flipped on Ven and Terra's stories as I've gotten older. As a kid, I didn't HATE Terra's story but I had at the time thought that it relied on his stupidity for the plot to happen at all, not fully realizing a lot of shit about his story somehow but again I was 14 and VERY V E R Y dumb. Ven's story I think I liked because of the gaps it fills in for how Sora gets the keyblade and that kinda young naive nature Ven carries was relatable to me at the time.
Playing it now I honestly found more relatability in Terra and his struggles, his constant self doubt, his want to protect others but worrying about not having the strength to do it, people using him for their own ends and gains. It takes elements of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith but I think it manages to still both make the arc its own but also play it differently by having Terra wake up to and confront a lot of the direct manipulation at play with him even if he still stumbles and absolutely fucks up multiple times.
Ven's story this time around was still interesting but I don't know, it felt like it meandered a lot more. The second half of the game being this quest for connection was interesting, that sorta disconnect from childhood to adulthood, finding what true connection is and how the friends you’ve known for a long time may change in ways that scare you, in ways that you may not be able to understand or comprehend. Maybe it needed to meander a bit more to sit with those ideas but at points the meandering felt aimless in a very boring way that didn't hit at all for me. I guess where I’d settle on it is that it's not bad and the mysteries it illuminates are really interesting but I’ve grown colder to Ven’s story.
Aqua's story is still absolutely GOATed though. A tragedy in all its forms. Wanting to help your friend struggling with their own fears and insecurities, someone working towards the expectations and demands placed upon them but not particularly knowing the best moves either. Being so willing to believe in those you care about that you have trouble seeing the blaring red flags and warning signs in front of you. The introspective loneliness of her entire arc leading to its fairly tragic end. That final cutscene with her after the fight in the Final Episode still makes me cry honestly.
Aqua is still one of the best characters this series has and I desperately need her in more of it.
Birth By Sleep is messy but despite all of its flaws and issues I still have a warm place in my heart for it, but I won't lie when I say that I really wish it was more engaging to play throughout the entire experience. I wish the combat didn't feel the way it did. It's a genuine bummer in ways!
Also what in the FUCK are those secret episode requirements???? 9999 unversed on standard are you shitting me??????
I was just starting high school, completely afraid of what my peers thought of me, deeply in a closet I wasn't even fully aware I was in and hopelessly awkward and bad at socializing. You could say that Birth By Sleep was a comfort game of sorts at that period of my life like all of Kingdom Hearts in general was.
A kind of transitional title for a transitional period in my life, trying to make new friends in real life while learning more about this world and series that I'd grown up with.
I loved this game to death. I played it many many times, beat it on Proud mode which felt like a herculean task to me then as a child who was TERRIBLE at video games. It was a game very special to my heart and still quite special in my memories.
So my girlfriend has been playing through the series (I'm only reviewing the ones here that I played in this round of playthroughs, not the ones I'm majorly watching her play though I have played those) and I was quite excited to get to this one.
This special childhood game that I'd held near and quite dear to my heart, adoring the narrative, the way in which they took the things I loved about the series while managing to fit it all on a chunky UMD on the go, fitting right nice and snugly into my PSP library of Dissidia Final Fantasy and the constant grinding I was doing with Squall and Jecht in that game, the film RV starring Robin Williams and some Gundam SEED film for some reason when I don't even think I really watched the series.
There's a reason you don't revisit everything you once held up as "the greatest shit of all time" when you're like 14 huh.
This go around after so much time away revealed that wow this combat is kinda majorly ass. Introducing the new command deck system and styles was a cool idea! The problem is that it ends up replacing basic functionality in the move set in ways that just end up making the game feel like total shit to play at points, especially early on in everybody's campaigns. Things feel floaty but in a way that feels like a bad in-between of KH2's lighter snappier feel and 1's weight and heft to its movement.
The unversed as an enemy type are just kinda bland and nowhere near as interesting in terms of designs as the Heartless, Nobodies and the Dream Eaters even. Fighting a chunk of them when they can just kinda barrel through all of your shit with I-Frames with fairly little stagger opportunity makes fights just feel bad half of the time.
The level scaling is also quite strange. For I'd say Ventus and Terra's stories especially, there are multiple points where they go into a world for like 5 minutes, maybe have 2 fights, fight the boss and then leave. This constantly leaving you fairly underleveled and needing to grind if you want to do any meaningful damage in the next world at all. It's like the game is built around you running out and doing the Mirage Arena or grinding constantly and I just really didn't wanna do those if I didn't have to!
Hell, after a certain point in every story we had to grind AT LEAST once per character for like an hour just to be able to not get completely shit on by some random enemy we didn't have any trouble with before because now the world level is "6" whatever that even MEANS.
It was disappointing, coming back to this game that filled my teenage years. All the memories of how much fun I had with it are not necessarily overwritten but just given a different context of sorts. It's a bit of a bummer coming back to it and realizing that I wish I didn't have to play this game's combat for the things I genuinely do adore about it still.
The music is absolutely still phenomenal. Aqua's Theme is absolutely my favorite track in this series. The oppressive loneliness and distance of some of the tracks in this game, the way the tragedy is sewn through those strings. I would even go as far as to say that it's probably my favorite soundtrack in this series right next to 3 with how many memorable pieces are in this thing that hit my heart oh so deeply. Those notes fuckin move me!
The narrative as well still hits in a lot of ways for me. Though I do find it funny how much I've flipped on Ven and Terra's stories as I've gotten older. As a kid, I didn't HATE Terra's story but I had at the time thought that it relied on his stupidity for the plot to happen at all, not fully realizing a lot of shit about his story somehow but again I was 14 and VERY V E R Y dumb. Ven's story I think I liked because of the gaps it fills in for how Sora gets the keyblade and that kinda young naive nature Ven carries was relatable to me at the time.
Playing it now I honestly found more relatability in Terra and his struggles, his constant self doubt, his want to protect others but worrying about not having the strength to do it, people using him for their own ends and gains. It takes elements of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith but I think it manages to still both make the arc its own but also play it differently by having Terra wake up to and confront a lot of the direct manipulation at play with him even if he still stumbles and absolutely fucks up multiple times.
Ven's story this time around was still interesting but I don't know, it felt like it meandered a lot more. The second half of the game being this quest for connection was interesting, that sorta disconnect from childhood to adulthood, finding what true connection is and how the friends you’ve known for a long time may change in ways that scare you, in ways that you may not be able to understand or comprehend. Maybe it needed to meander a bit more to sit with those ideas but at points the meandering felt aimless in a very boring way that didn't hit at all for me. I guess where I’d settle on it is that it's not bad and the mysteries it illuminates are really interesting but I’ve grown colder to Ven’s story.
Aqua's story is still absolutely GOATed though. A tragedy in all its forms. Wanting to help your friend struggling with their own fears and insecurities, someone working towards the expectations and demands placed upon them but not particularly knowing the best moves either. Being so willing to believe in those you care about that you have trouble seeing the blaring red flags and warning signs in front of you. The introspective loneliness of her entire arc leading to its fairly tragic end. That final cutscene with her after the fight in the Final Episode still makes me cry honestly.
Aqua is still one of the best characters this series has and I desperately need her in more of it.
Birth By Sleep is messy but despite all of its flaws and issues I still have a warm place in my heart for it, but I won't lie when I say that I really wish it was more engaging to play throughout the entire experience. I wish the combat didn't feel the way it did. It's a genuine bummer in ways!
Also what in the FUCK are those secret episode requirements???? 9999 unversed on standard are you shitting me??????
5 Comments
Really enjoying your KH reviews, tho ive never played any of the games myself your opinions seem spot on from what ive seen of it. Personally id raise the score to a 4 though just cause Birth by Sleep Final Mix is a really funny name
@poyfuh Thank you! Aqua is pretty sad T-girl coded tbVERYh.
@moschidae Thank you, I'm glad you're digging them! Birth by Sleep is a pretty funny name and I love the way they name drop it in here quite honestly it is v e r y funny.
aqua is perfect and she deserved better, wish she got to do anything in this series besides suffer. i think i'm a lot more lukewarm on everything in BBS, but i like your more balanced take on what works and what doesn't
poyfuh
4 months ago