Another retro video game flashback, not too soon after putting out the flashback for Bayonetta.

Today’s retro game flashback is going to be on Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

BACKGROUND

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep came out almost 10 years ago today in Japan on January 9, 2010, and on September 7, 2010 for North America.

There’s an international of the game that’s titled Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix, this was released a year later after the original release, it came out in Japan on January 2011 that featured changes that were made from the non-Japanese versions of the game.

• 

There’s another direct sequel called, Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep-A Fragmentary Passage that was released in 2017 as part of a bundle of games called Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 The Final Chapter Epilogue. The HD version of Final Mi was released for both the PS3 and the PS4 in 2014 and in 2017 respectively as apart of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix collection.

In this game, it’s a prequel to the original Kingdom Hearts game, taking place almost ten years before first game. Birth by Sleep starts new characters, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, these characters were also features briefly in Kingdom Hearts II. Their mission is to locate the missing Master Xehanort, and protect the worlds from creatures known as the Unversed.

Development for Birth by Sleep started back in June of 2005 with hints of the game Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix meaning to bring clues to an upcoming game, Birth By Sleep. The game was once again being directed by Tetsuya Nomura and was co-directed by Tai Yasue. Nomura even referred Birth by Sleep by even being “Episode 0” saying that the game is on the same scale and plays a big level of importance as both the original Kingdom Hearts game and Kingdom Hearts II in terms of Kingdom Hearts story.

Birth by Sleep was critically praised for gameplay, graphics, music and storytelling. Though some criticism towards the game was mostly do to level design and some characters.

GAMEPLAY

Birth by Sleep is an action role-playing game with some hack and slash elements that introduces a somewhat new gameplay aspect to the series called the Command System. The Command System lets players customize a Command Deck with techniques and abilities that they can perform at will, called Deck Commands.

Performing ordinary attacks and Commands fills the gauge that’s dispayed above the Command Deck. When certain requirements are fulfilled and the gauge is full, the player’s basic attack is changed to the “Surge” Command, which racks up powerful combos depending on what Command Style is activated. Filling the gauge the second time replaces the “Surge” Command with the more powerful “Storm” Command.

Unlike most of the previous games of the series at this point, this game does not utilize Magic Points (MP) for spells or even magic casting. It uses a system called, “Focus” that’s displayed in an orange gauge on the interface. The player can perform “Focus” to perform a technique called “Shotlock” with which the player enters a first person mode where they get to target their enemies to cast homing spells that differ with each character and technique.

Another gameplay element that was introduced is the Dimension Link (or D-Link). that’s measured in the blue gauge on the interface. This is used to draw power from certain companions to whoever the player meets throughout the game. Once gauge is filled, while performing a D-Link, it will unleash a powerful finishing move that is activated to take out enemies. Each finishing move has two levels which can render a finishing move more powerful than before, similar to that of the Command System.

The Command Board appears whenever the player completes a new world, and is accessed from save points and the world map once unlocked. Each world has it’s own Command Board that is unique from other worlds with their own tricks and mechanisms. Various Disney characters throughout the game will also appear in their respective Command Board to either be an aid or to even hinder the player.

Player Scenarios

In this game, its divided into three separate scenarios for each of three new characters story when you play as: Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. The first ten minutes of the story are mostly the same to whoever is chosen, the events that does follow differs from each character.

Gameplay for each scenarios is also different based on the abilities of each character: from power, speed, and magic. Terra is the most powerful in terms of physical damage. Ventus is the fastest character and Aqua specializes in magic. The players get to choose which of three characters they choose to start off with near the beginning of the game. Though Nomura has made suggestions to start with Terra first, followed by Ventus, and then Aqua so that the audience can able to understand the story. Completing all three of their scenraios, you also get to unlock the story’s final chapter.

GOING FORWARD

Birth by Sleep set the groundwork for many Kingdom Hearts games going forward. Its one of the most important games of the series in terms of it’s story. The game was developed by the same team that made Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories but used the same graphical engine from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. When Kingdom Hearts II was originally in development there was already a desire to eventually do a spinoff game for the series.

Development for the game began before the release of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix with the plot being completed, but development was halted six months because of Chain of Memories. It was made as a PSP game for the systems functions such as the co-ops and competitive multiplayer aspect. As stated before Nomura already had desire for a spinoff game for the series and to do it on a mobile platform and for it to feature different gameplay elements from the other titles of the series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you didn’t already know, Kingdom Hearts is one of my top video game series of all time, and Birth by Sleep is actually one of my favorite games of the Kingdom Hearts series. So, I was pretty excited for this post knowing that it was the 10th Anniversary for one of my favorite games. Putting Kingdom Hearts on a mobile system was a bit weird, but also not considering we did had a Nintendo DS game before this being 358/2 Days that came a year before it.

It did the PSP pretty well with its gameplay mechanics, and if you’re into it for the story and lore of Kingdom Hearts then your in for a treat with this one. This game also introduced one of my favorite Kingdom Hearts original characters being Aqua! So, I guess you can say I have somewhat of a bias with just that factor alone.

Here’s a question, if your a Kingdom Hearts fan and have played Birth by Sleep where would you rank Birth by Sleep in your pantheon of Kingdom Hearts games? Whose route did you take within your first play through?! Please let me know in the comments!