This one is by the staff at PlayStation: The Official Magazine
Has it been half a decade since PlayStation saw an original Kingdom Hearts? Yet even as our hopes of a full-fledged PS3 sequel get dimmer with every passing year, King Mickey's realm has never looked better than in the PSP's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. And that's no small-screen delusion. Not only are the recognizable characters far more comically expressive, but the environments new and old have never been closer to their cartoon counterparts.
Yes, even the princess levels keep in thematic "toon" with their inspiration in a way only Kingdom Hearts II's Tron level had done. Angular tress and sloping cliffs in Sleeping Beauty's enchanted dominion are immediately distinguishable from the brightly flowered meadows of Snow White's dwarf woodlands. Even the smaller details, such as a newly created Indian village, did a brilliant job of convincing us we'd never truly been to Neverland before. It doesn't necessarily take an animation nerd to appreciate it, yet it has vastly improved the unenviable task of adapting almost a century's worth of Walt's legacy into the framework of a Final Fantasy role-playing game. After all, this is most certainly a Disney game.
Triple Threat
The story so far? It doesn't matter. While hardcore fans will delight at having light shed on gasp in the story, newcomers needn't shy away for fear of being left in the darkness. Sleep is set years before the events of the PS2 games and stars the mysterious trio of keybladers glimpsed at the end of Hearts II. Best of all, instead of selecting a class at the beginning of the game, we got to play as all three: Terra, the hothead powerhouse; Ventus, the Roxas doppelganger; and the vixenly Aqua. All have their own set of skill sets, objectives, and a 15-plus hour story arc. We encountered different Disney characters and scenarios with all three of the characters, some of which were a lot darker than we expected. But the biggest incentive to complete all three stories is because that's the only way to unlock the playable secret ending.
While there are no summons this time around, the D-Link system more than makes up for this by allowing the characters to access another's powers. A quick tap of the D-pad provides instantaneous access to not only the abilities of all three protagonists, but also several iconic character encountered throughout the game.
Command and Conquer
Disney dorkouts aside, non-RPG fans should know that not only is Sleep one of the most action-oriented Hearts titles to date, but it also sports one of the deepest, most rewarding combat systems available on the PSP. Along with copious combos, we let loose with elemental magic, special abilities and devastating barrages of lock-ons, all in real time. The sheer variety of battle combinations and unlockable skills available in the command deck are absolutely staggering- and all these abilities can be switched out, leveled up, and melded together to increase in power.
and with ample time provided to try them all-and no wrong way to grow-taking the time to explore the seemingly infinite number of battle combinations makes for one of the most addictive and hardcore portable experiences we've ever played. The beautifully creative boss fights crank up the challenge, giving us an enormous sense of accomplishment that comes from knowing when to time guards and unleash attacks with an almost Street Fighter precision.
As enjoyable as Sleep is, it still feels a bit dated. The camera system retains last-gen suckage making lock-ons occasionally unclear, and the rare instances of platforming are an outright pain. The pacing can be a drag too: enter world, enter small area, cutscene, combat, cutscene ,move to next area. Now imagine each comma in that sentence representing 30 seconds to a full minute of waiting. Anything other than a full install of the game on a PSP results in one of the most persistent and lengthy load times we've ever witnessed. Menus, save points, and even chargeable moves require...loading...while playing off the UMD. It's agonizing, to say the least, and even more tolerable when gaming on the go.
Other than these significant technical drawbacks, it's hard to fault a game game celebrating several decades worth of history for sticking closely to its roots. Sleep remains a glorious reminder of what occurs when the grandeur of the Disney legacy melds with the talents of an A-list game developer. Now, if Square Enix could just get around to announcing Kingdom Hearts III...
Got this straight from the new issue of PSM. They gave Kingdom hearts Birth by Sleep a 4/5
This one is by the staff at PlayStation: The Official Magazine
Has it been half a decade since PlayStation saw an original Kingdom Hearts? Yet even as our hopes of a full-fledged PS3 sequel get dimmer with every passing year, King Mickey's realm has never looked better than in the PSP's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. And that's no small-screen delusion. Not only are the recognizable characters far more comically expressive, but the environments new and old have never been closer to their cartoon counterparts.
Yes, even the princess levels keep in thematic "toon" with their inspiration in a way only Kingdom Hearts II's Tron level had done. Angular tress and sloping cliffs in Sleeping Beauty's enchanted dominion are immediately distinguishable from the brightly flowered meadows of Snow White's dwarf woodlands. Even the smaller details, such as a newly created Indian village, did a brilliant job of convincing us we'd never truly been to Neverland before. It doesn't necessarily take an animation nerd to appreciate it, yet it has vastly improved the unenviable task of adapting almost a century's worth of Walt's legacy into the framework of a Final Fantasy role-playing game. After all, this is most certainly a Disney game.
Triple Threat
The story so far? It doesn't matter. While hardcore fans will delight at having light shed on gasp in the story, newcomers needn't shy away for fear of being left in the darkness. Sleep is set years before the events of the PS2 games and stars the mysterious trio of keybladers glimpsed at the end of Hearts II. Best of all, instead of selecting a class at the beginning of the game, we got to play as all three: Terra, the hothead powerhouse; Ventus, the Roxas doppelganger; and the vixenly Aqua. All have their own set of skill sets, objectives, and a 15-plus hour story arc. We encountered different Disney characters and scenarios with all three of the characters, some of which were a lot darker than we expected. But the biggest incentive to complete all three stories is because that's the only way to unlock the playable secret ending.
While there are no summons this time around, the D-Link system more than makes up for this by allowing the characters to access another's powers. A quick tap of the D-pad provides instantaneous access to not only the abilities of all three protagonists, but also several iconic character encountered throughout the game.
Command and Conquer
Disney dorkouts aside, non-RPG fans should know that not only is Sleep one of the most action-oriented Hearts titles to date, but it also sports one of the deepest, most rewarding combat systems available on the PSP. Along with copious combos, we let loose with elemental magic, special abilities and devastating barrages of lock-ons, all in real time. The sheer variety of battle combinations and unlockable skills available in the command deck are absolutely staggering- and all these abilities can be switched out, leveled up, and melded together to increase in power.
and with ample time provided to try them all-and no wrong way to grow-taking the time to explore the seemingly infinite number of battle combinations makes for one of the most addictive and hardcore portable experiences we've ever played. The beautifully creative boss fights crank up the challenge, giving us an enormous sense of accomplishment that comes from knowing when to time guards and unleash attacks with an almost Street Fighter precision.
As enjoyable as Sleep is, it still feels a bit dated. The camera system retains last-gen suckage making lock-ons occasionally unclear, and the rare instances of platforming are an outright pain. The pacing can be a drag too: enter world, enter small area, cutscene, combat, cutscene ,move to next area. Now imagine each comma in that sentence representing 30 seconds to a full minute of waiting. Anything other than a full install of the game on a PSP results in one of the most persistent and lengthy load times we've ever witnessed. Menus, save points, and even chargeable moves require...loading...while playing off the UMD. It's agonizing, to say the least, and even more tolerable when gaming on the go.
Other than these significant technical drawbacks, it's hard to fault a game game celebrating several decades worth of history for sticking closely to its roots. Sleep remains a glorious reminder of what occurs when the grandeur of the Disney legacy melds with the talents of an A-list game developer. Now, if Square Enix could just get around to announcing Kingdom Hearts III...
Got this straight from the new issue of PSM. They gave Kingdom hearts Birth by Sleep a 4/5