Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep is 10 years old

[jukeboxhero2396]

I remember first playing it and being shocked about an on the go KH game (like PS2 quality), it wasn't until I got older that I realized stuff about the combat, but playing as ventus was so much fun. I also remember the multiplayer aspect on the PSP, school bus trips and playing pvp. Crazy times, sad that 2.5HD didn't port multiplayer.

 

[Phendrift]

Great game, has a really nice Star Wars vibe. Probably my favorite story and characters in the series

 

[hydrophilic attack]

i spent way too much time on this game

fighting the mysterious figure with terra was a huge pain lol

 

[almutama]

For what it's worth, I really enjoyed the D-links or whatever they're called. Seems like they carried it over to KH3 with keyblade forms. Also, shotlocks are a great addition as well, was surprised that they weren't included in KH 3D.

 

[jukeboxhero2396]

also, 2.5HD not having install data was so dumb lol. The install data for this game made loads almost instant for command styles or dlinks

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Christ, I remember picking the JP version up from an import store like it was yesterday. One of the first games I remember tuning into a launch livestream for, too. Watching the back half of Terra's story with that stream chat was an experience I'll always remember.

Great game, immediately apparent flaws and all. Playing it on a PSP was mindblowing.

 

[Synohan]

A decline in the quality of gameplay, but an increase in my love for the wacky story. BBS was the start of how lore obsessed I became with the series and I'll always cherish the game because of that. Some of the best music in the franchise too.

Command melding was a blast, and mixing all sorts of materials to get crazy new commands or absolutely broken abilities was a blast. Unfortunately it and other things make the game laughably easy even on critical mode. By far the easiest critical mode experience in the series. Melding multiple hastes made commands recharge incredibly quickly, felt like I was spamming Triangle most of the time. I also really loved figuring out that you could meld block and dodge roll. Creating an elemental dodge roll and mashing myself against enemies without pressing the attack button was great, and having blocks that restore an absurd amount of health was cool too. The base dodge for Ventus and Aqua having invincibility frames was also hilarious, you can't die.

 

[jukeboxhero2396]

I also remember people patched JP in English for some people to play, at least the menu stuff.

 

[Kinsei]

A huge decline in the quality of the series. Thank goodness KH3 brought it back up.

 

[jukeboxhero2396]

A huge decline in the quality of the series. Thank goodness KH3 brought it back up.

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thing is, BBS could have been similar to a console game. The original game was going to be made for PS2, so it could have used the KH2 battle system.

 

[Macca]

Birth by Sleep is a weird game. Both very good and absolutely terrible at the same time.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

One of the better KH stories. Aqua, Eraqus, and Master Xehanort were all great. Even Haley Joel Osment doing a villain role was fun.

Still salty they cut the Jungle Book world though.

 

[DanarchyReigns]

I didn't truly beat this until the PS3 version. PSP version was nice, but the lack of proper analog camera control was a pain.
Great ideas, great story, the melding system was satisfying as hell.
Though the mini-games and the Mirage Arena were ass.

 

[Niosai]

This will be a controversial opinion, but this game is what convinced me that KH could easily shred its Disney focus and I would still enjoy it heavily. Say what you want about the story, but BBS's story is gut-wrenching when you consider the whole picture, even without the context from the games set later in the timeline. Same goes for 358/2 Days, but that's not what this thread's about.

 

[ZeoVGM]

A huge decline in the quality of the series.

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Well, this is one of the crazier hot takes I've read on Era.

 

[Deleted member 30681]

probably the game with the strongest story in the series for me.

Despite it's shortcomings, I honestly find it really impressive that they managed to pull this game off on PSP. I think that context is lost on a lot of people who play it in the collections. I played it for the first time via the collections as well, but I try to keep it in the back of my mind that this was on PSP originally.

 

[ContractHolder]

This will be a controversial opinion, but this game is what convinced me that KH could easily shred its Disney focus and I would still enjoy it heavily.

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I'm going to be honest, other than Mickey, Donald and Goofy? I 100% agree with you. Even if I do like the Disney worlds.

 

[Kinsei]

Well, this is one of the crazier hot takes I've read on Era.

Click to shrink...

The gameplay in BbS is legit trash.

 

[oni-link]

I didn't play this until 2.5 HD on PS3 in 2015, but I had a really good time with it

Probably enjoyed the combat more than KH1 and 2

 

[King Kingo]

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is an amazing game for a variety of reasons. Not only is it the first game to introduce multiple playable characters with multiple endings, but the stories of Terra, Ventus and Aqua are smartly interconnected to provide a very rich experience.

Setting the game 10 years before the original Kingdom Hearts is genius. It re-contextualises a lot of existing characters and the Disney world selection is intentionally evocative of the distant past. Also, having a break from focusing on Sora was healthy for the franchise.

I'd argue that Birth by Sleep is the most important non-numbered game for Kingdom Hearts III. It conceptualises the Keyblade War, introduces the main antagonist and sets the foundation of Organization XIII.



For those curious, this is the concept trailer for Birth by Sleep whilst it was being developed for PlayStation 2.

 

[KingdomKey]

Yes, BBS. I didn't really get to play it until 2.5 came for the PS3 since I didn't have a PSP.

It's a fun game. I still think it's the best of the handheld games and I liked being able to play as three characters. I might not be a huge fan of the command deck and the damage scaling towards the last few worlds, but the story was interesting.

 

[babycakin]

BBS has the best music pieces in the entire series: Unbreakable Chains, Mysterious Figure, Dismiss, Rage Awakened, Hau'oli Hau'oli, and Mkaukau. An unforgettable experience!

 

[Pelao]

I went through this series a couple of years ago on PS4 in preparation for 3 and I gotta say BBS is my personal favorite, is a short stand-alone story with solid gameplay.

 

[catboy]

fantastic game with a really strong emotional core

shame the things it set up were poorly capitalised on though

 

[Macca]

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is an amazing game for a variety of reasons. Not only is it the first game to introduce multiple playable characters with multiple endings, but the stories of Terra, Ventus and Aqua are smartly interconnected to provide a very rich experience.

Setting the game 10 years before the original Kingdom Hearts is genius. It re-contextualises a lot of existing characters and the Disney world selection is intentionally evocative of the distant past. Also, having a break from focusing on Sora was healthy for the franchise.

I'd argue that Birth by Sleep is the most important non-numbered game for Kingdom Hearts III. It conceptualises the Keyblade War, introduces the main antagonist and sets the foundation of Organization XIII.



For those curious, this is the concept trailer for Birth by Sleep whilst it was being developed for PlayStation 2.

Click to shrink...

Never knew about the games origin on the PS2, thanks for posting this!

 

[DrHercouet]

Soooo this is the first KH game I played because I didn't have a PS2, or 3, or 4. Got into the series later, legit in love with KH2 but I have amazing memories about BBS (well, not that amazing because they're related to a bad breakup but, you know, game wise, it was dope) Just to be sure : why do you guys consider its gameplay trash ?

 

[Deleted member 34949]

One thing about BBS that doesn't get enough credit is that for all of the shit it has to juggle regarding its connections to other entries, the explanations for the important stuff was surprisingly relatively straightforward and more or less make sense. That's kind of an accomplishment for a post CoM KH game.

The gameplay in BbS is legit trash.

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I feel like fun, but poorly balanced and designed is a good descriptor for BBS' combat.

Dream Drop Distance's combat on the other hand, is legitimate trash.

 

[rottenpie]

One of my fav games of the franchise :)

 

[Niosai]

I'm going to be honest, other than Mickey, Donald and Goofy? I 100% agree with you. Even if I do like the Disney worlds.

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The main issue is that I think if they did make a non-Disney-focused game, it would probably divide the fanbase heavily. Yeah, I love the KH story for better or for worse, but Disney literally owns the franchise. So there's another hurdle.

 

[Deleted member 13155]

I like BBS. The melee combat is trash, but this game isn't about the melee combat. Its about the commands. You can easily break this game with Meld and I had fun doing that. Go out of your way a bit and you're popping top tier attacks early game. I think I had Meteor by deep space with Ventus.

I easily rate it above DDD, but probably also above 3.

 

[Lunchbox]

I didn't play it until 2.5 on PS3, it was nice back then playing a brand new KH game basically to me.

 

[Kinsei]

I feel like fun, but poorly balanced and designed is a good descriptor for BBS' combat.

Dream Drop Distance's combat on the other hand, is legitimate trash.

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I'd argue DDDis a bit better in the combat department if only because the movement is better. BbS managed to fuck up the simple act of jumping.

 

[SmokedSalmon]

Absolutely love this game. I know it's sort of become the villain of the series because of it's continued influence on the games, but I absolutely had a blast with it when it came out and still do.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

BBS is still my favorite KH game. The three playable protagonists with differing playstyles and an interwoven story was so cool.

I still hate the board game, though.

 

[Verelios]

Yeah, I remember walking in to pick up my premium edition at GS and being kind of shocked how many other fans were waiting for it too at the time. It did pretty well for a psp game.

 

[SchrodingerC]

Love the game, even though the gameplay and worlds does have an unfortunate feel of being limited by a less powerful system. The HD version somewhat remedied this, but not much.

The story though...
It is impressive how Terra was so aggressively dumb, that it caused him to get body snatched and creating the cascade of every Heartless/nobodies problem to happen. Ventus was a bit better in this regard, heart loss not with standing.
Aqua had to deal with so much bullshit.

 

[Deleted member 679]

The more I play this game, the less I like it. Kind of awful.

I really like the characters, though.

 

[Deleted member 21411]

I like the characters and I think the story is pretty enjoyable but I can't stand the gameplay and especially the structure. Still for my kh replays I have a good time with it when I lower the difficulty to piss easy to speed past it

 

[jukeboxhero2396]

the multiplayer in this game was crazy, it's ashame 2.5HD never had it and tuned it for PS3/PS4.

 

[V has come to]

best non numbered KH game (and better than 3). really liked the story in this one, sets up something far better than what we got

Terra's gameplay is legit trash tho

 

[DanteLinkX]

Fuck, im old.

 

[Deleted member 864]

This and Dissidia 012 are what made me get a PSP. It's probably in my top 3 for the series, even if I dread going through Terra's story every time I replay it.

 

[Backers]

my favourite game from my favourite licence

 

[Weiss]

KH2 was where things went downhill but BBS was when it became completely irreversible.

Once Xehanort showed up on screen there was no saving the series.

 

[exodus]

Easily my favorite KH game. It's the only one where the story was enjoyable. I enjoyed breaking the game with the abilities as well.

 

[nuggetgamer52]

Had a lot of good times with this game. For a long time it was my obsession. I took it everywhere with me. Its my favorite story in the series so far. Has some flaws no doubt, but it still holds has a special place in my heart.

 

[Salty Rice]

I played through all the games before 3 came out and Birth By Sleep is easily one of the best KH games imo.

 

[King Kingo]

The story though...
It is impressive how Terra was so aggressively dumb, that it caused him to get body snatched and creating the cascade of every Heartless/nobodies problem to happen.

Click to shrink...

I always saw Terra as a parallel to Sora in terms of naievity and trustworthiness. The only difference is that Sora always had constant guides through Donald and Goofy whilst Terra never that moral compass during his travels.

The parallel is further evident with Sora in Dream Drop Distance, he was guillable in that game.

 

[Order]

I remember how game changing the battle system was.

Back before the west got KH2FM, everyone thought BBS was the best KH game.

Good times

 

[ZeoVGM]

The gameplay in BbS is legit trash.

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Sometimes opinions are wrong.

This is one of them.