Birth By Sleep was a very interesting and ambitious KH game. Three new characters, new abilities, new fighting systems, lots of command customization, nice sttings, mature and dark story, good music.

Unfortunately the game had, in my opinion, severe flaws. The biggest one, is that just like recom, the basic swordplay, which is the foundation of KH1 and KH2 wasnt good at all. You couldnt guard, get an opening and land a combo on an enemy. The foes retaliated randomly and guard was kinda broken because it had a really big duration compared to other games. It wasnt as fast and precise.

Anothe problem i had was that TAV are very slow. Even VEN who is supposed to be speedy, he does these huge and sloppy swings with his keyblades and every strike is bascially an opening for the enemy to counter you. Sora in KH1 and KH2 even in recom, he attacks pretty quick if he has an opening, lorewise because sora is fighting for his life while TAV are more cocky due to being formally trained.

Last, the command system. While really cool,i dont udnerstand why commands are split in action and magic commands. if you are gonna distinguish the two why not just use the KH1 system where special commands where mapped to triangle and magic was its own box?

they could have used the traditional system but give TAV customizable abilities and spells. TAV share a lot of common spells while i would prefer it if each character had a set of unique spells and abiilities only that fleshed out their intricacies. Terra for ex Meteor and Quake, ven faith and tornado, Aqua time splicer and Glacier.

My main issue with the game is that the dynamic of the trio is very much tell don't show regarding their allegedly close friendship. We're told they're the closest of friends, but the game demonstrates their connection is more for lack of other peers than out of choice. Aqua has spent at least four years growing up and training alongside Terra, but her faith in him is flimsier than a politician's promise when challenged. She puts more stock in what the dark fairy who sent her tumbling into a dungeon and turned into a dragon by all the powers of Hell regarding Terra over personal experience. KH1 and 258/2 Days show us the main trios in those games being friends and having a normal day so we can feel for them when it all goes wrong. Birth by Sleep only shows us a tutorial training session that most of us rush through or skip over after the first time and a single battle against balls of light that again, most of us rush through.

8 hours ago, jbmasta said:

My main issue with the game is that the dynamic of the trio is very much tell don't show regarding their allegedly close friendship. We're told they're the closest of friends, but the game demonstrates their connection is more for lack of other peers than out of choice. Aqua has spent at least four years growing up and training alongside Terra, but her faith in him is flimsier than a politician's promise when challenged. She puts more stock in what the dark fairy who sent her tumbling into a dungeon and turned into a dragon by all the powers of Hell regarding Terra over personal experience. KH

 

thats another good point. also, we lack backstories on terra and aqua. we dont know anything about their childhoods,their interests, their dreams etc. they are just basically training to become keyblade masters bt why though?

there is supposed t be a friendship between these three,and i dare to say, something more than friendship between Aqua and Terra, but i dont understand why they are friends if all they talk about is becoming keyblade masters. what brings them together? its all so forced and unatrual. even in day, they gave some development to roxas and xion outside the organization. roaxs had a diary, xion liked collectin thalassa shells when not killing heartless.

 

8 hours ago, jbmasta said:

KH1 and 258/2 Days show us the main trios in those games being friends and having a normal day so we can feel for them when it all goes wrong. Birth by Sleep only shows us a tutorial training session that most of us rush through or skip over after the first time and a single battle against balls of light that again, most of us rush through.

 

ikr? its so weird. and TAV being seperated for most of the game doesnt help either. also whats the deal with ven? when he met terra and aqa he was a kid with amnesia and then after some years they are best friends! what happened that caused them to become friends?

The worldbuilding around the Land of Departure is also lacking, even by Kingdom Hearts standards. Sora, Riku and Kairi, we know they live on the larger island with what looks like a rural Japan type community, and Kairi goes to school with at least Selphie (Tidus and Wakka are definitely the jock type). We can also work out how the Castle That Never Was runs. But the Land of Departure feels like a concept that's severely undeveloped. Only four people who live there full time, one of which has been there for four years and along with two others restricted to that world. I know it's meant to be like the Jedi academy, but the Star Wars films and if you explore it, the expanded media material, provide enough context it's not a glaring worldbuilding omission. It's not a good place to grow up as the only adult authority figure preaches a strong pro-light anti-darkness message, which has negative impact on Terra. At the very least a therapist was needed.

What's also left largely unexplained is travel between worlds, as in how the trio know how to do it. It's up to supplementary material to explain that Terra and Aqua have made excursions before, but Ven hasn't and that's why he's in reduced circumstances for Castle of Dreams. This could have been touched up in game more for world and character building, as well as more interesting scenarios.

Keyblade armour and gliders also go undeveloped, a plot device or inter-world traversal but not explored to flesh out how they fit into lore and practice. How does one gain armour and the ability to transform their keyblade as such? It's a really cool concept I want to see delved into, perhaps to introduce for gameplay mechanics in future games (the keyblade glider to fly or as a motorcycle for example).

10 hours ago, jbmasta said:

ut the Land of Departure feels like a concept that's severely undeveloped. Only four people who live there full time, one of which has been there for four years and along with two others restricted to that world. I know it's meant to be like the Jedi academy, but the Star Wars films and if you explore it, the expanded media material, provide enough context it's not a glaring worldbuilding omission. It's not a good place to grow up as the only adult authority figure preaches a strong pro-light anti-darkness message, which has negative impact on Terra. At the very least a therapist was needed.

 

haha, you know i think the complete lack of NPCs is why its so underveloped. all original areas in KH that had inhabitants in them, Tiwlight Town, Traverse Town, Destiny Islands, had some NPCs in them that gave "life" to the places. LOD is basically like Kyeblade Graveyard lmao.

 

10 hours ago, jbmasta said:

What's also left largely unexplained is travel between worlds, as in how the trio know how to do it. It's up to supplementary material to explain that Terra and Aqua have made excursions before, but Ven hasn't and that's why he's in reduced circumstances for Castle of Dreams. This could have been touched up in game more for world and character building, as well as more interesting scenarios.

i think they just wanted to have a cool factor you know, keyblade wielders on motorcycles lmao. i thinkt the lanes in between are a light equivilent to the corridors of darknss.

 

10 hours ago, jbmasta said:

Keyblade armour and gliders also go undeveloped, a plot device or inter-world traversal but not explored to flesh out how they fit into lore and practice. How does one gain armour and the ability to transform their keyblade as such? It's a really cool concept I want to see delved into, perhaps to introduce for gameplay mechanics in future games (the keyblade glider to fly or as a motorcycle for example).

cool factor i guess? i think Nomure wanted to make TAV stand out from sora and riku. it was also used to conceal their faces in  the vanilla KH2 secret ending.

Birth by Sleep had an NCP shortage in general, only NCPs were original plot important characters like Eraqus, Xehanort and Vanitas, or established characters from the Disney worlds. Dialogue hilariously brings attention to non-existent crowds, in Castle of Dreams and Coliseum from Terra's story (the latter having loud cheers but stands completely devoid of characters). It was a PSP game, so fair enough that the resources might not have been able to handle NCPs the way KH1 and KH2 could, plus the plot most of the time justifies the minimalist overall cast.