Alright, cards on the table; I have a shaky relationship with this game. Let me explain. While I love the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Birth By Sleep has always been the black sheep in my eyes. My opinion on it has swung wildly from year to year, always being the title that intrigued me while at the same time infuriating me. I could never get a super solid grasp on what my feelings were on it. And as the years went on, I found that I wasn’t alone in my confusion. I feel like every franchise has that division in it. That one title that produces what feels like a religious schism in the fanbase. Well, speaking as someone who was there at ground zero, that division was Birth By Sleep. Not immediately though. If you look at reviews and opinion pieces from the time, this game was accepted with open arms and heralded as a modern classic upon release. But over time, the conversations grew around this little title. And as time progressed further, the conversations grew more hostile. The things that we had so enjoyed the taste of turned to bitter ash in our mouths and we were fucking sick of Mickey Mouse. The long wait for the next console Kingdom Hearts entry made us bitter. And the easiest target was the popular game that was different from the old ones. But in today’s world, that fabled console entry has been long released, and the future of the series looks bright. So without that baggage clouding my opinions, how do I feel about this little title now?
Few details are known about the development of Birth By Sleep. Developed by the so-called Osaka Team, the game was initially in production during the development of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, an updated version of the original release. However, during production, the team was grabbed and set to task making the GameBoy Advance title Chain of Memories into a fully fledged 3D title for consoles. And so Re:Chain of Memories was born. But after that, they got right back to work on Birth By Sleep. And if you think these few games have stupid titles, don’t look at the rest of the franchise. Initially intended for the PlayStation 2, they shifted gears at some point in development and converted their title for the then-thriving handheld device, the PlayStation Portable. This was right smack in the middle of series director Tetsuya Nomura’s obsession with releasing the series over as many different consoles as possible and thus draining my mother’s bank account. Finally released in 2010, it was immediately loved and embraced by fans. Reviewers and critics were taken aback by a handheld game having quality on par with the rest of the franchise. Oh! But look out, games journalists from fourteen years ago! Using my benefit of hindsight and an immense amount of free time, I’m more than prepared to win arguments that you don’t even remember making by pointing out flaws in a videogame. Just know that by tricking a younger Corey into buying a second-hand PSP just to try this title out, you brought this upon yourselves.
The Three Mouseketeers
Birth By Sleep is a fairly simple story, all things considered. Set as a prequel to the first title, the game stars Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, three trainees who strive to be Keyblade Masters. We start our story with Terra and Aqua taking the test to become Masters under the watch of Devoted-Surrogate-Father Eraqus and Most-Evil-Coded-Person-In-The-Room Xehanort. They do their test and, due to some unseen shenanigans by Xehanort, Terra fails his test and only Aqua becomes Master. Almost immediately after this test, Eraqus receives word that the different worlds that they protect are under attack by a force known as the Unversed, a collection of shadowy creatures created from emotions of hatred. Also, Xehanort is somehow missing, he must have slipped out the back or something. So the two apprentices are given orders to go out into the different worlds, stop the Unversed threat, and also seek out Xehanort. Ventus, just wanting to be involved, heads out too. From this point on are a lot of Disney shenanigans, a lot of shots of Aqua clasping her hands over her heart, and a lot of melodrama.
And I mean, a lot of melodrama. The previous Kingdom Hearts titles were by no means exceptional works of fantasy writing, but all the tropes are blown up to load-bearing extremes here. Terra is the steadfast but gullible brute of the group, Ventus is the kid who idolizes his older brother, and Aqua is mother hen. Let’s just say it is abundantly clear who in this trio would be making Pizza Rolls and who would be eating them. The game’s structure has you play through each character’s campaign before moving on to the others, essentially giving you three stories to tie together. There are slight variations, but the script for each world is generally Terra getting tricked or at least half-tricked by the world’s villain into doing an evil thing, Ventus doing random Disney shenanigans, and Aqua picking up the pieces after the two of them. Playing through each path allows you to take in each character’s perspective and slowly piece the larger story together over multiple playthroughs. This is a pretty cool way to tell a story and cleverly engages with the unique opportunities offered by the medium of games. However, and I say this with love, it sometimes feels like Birth By Sleep was created solely to introduce the concept of dramatic irony to children. Essentially every plot point is centered around a misconception that we as the audience understand but the characters on-screen are unaware of. Normally, this would be fine. A story needs drama, after all, and the pot does need stirring. The issue comes from how the game facilitates these misunderstandings. It all boils down to the dialogue.
My largest gripe with the storytelling by far is the fact that none of these people talk like people. If even one character offered an explanation or a conversation that lasted more than five lines, the game would not happen. Lots of walking away throwing terse comments over their shoulder here. It all just feels forced in a way that renders the invisible hand of the developers a little too visible, making it all too obvious that we’re really just here to get to the ending conflicts. I have to believe this abrupt dialogue was an issue of the original hardware for the game not being able to handle too much audio. Otherwise, I have to accept that the writers thought that this was a bang-up way to write characters and I live with so much disappointment already. Not helping the case comes from the voice acting of the main cast. Now, the voice acting across most of the game is top-notch. With a special shout-out to Leonard Nimoy’s Xehanort and Corey Burton’s, uh, almost everyone else, there are people here who are earning that paycheck. And I’m not discrediting Ventus here either. Voiced by series veteran Jesse McCartney, Ventus is given the exact right kind of puppy dog energy that makes him the most personable out of the trio. With Aqua and Terra though, I’m not sure what the direction was besides working third shift with a Benzo addiction. They go through the story mostly monotone, with very little in the way of dynamics or levity. They just don’t sound friendly and come off as needlessly confrontational even when talking with presumed friends. I do not blame Willa Holland or Jason Dohring for how their performances turned out, that’s a direction issue. But the fact remains that these two characters end up being pretty bland due in no small part to the performance. With all that said, I’m not a huge fan of the story on offer here. While the writing can be interesting, the conflicts and characterizations are way too simple to introduce the desperately needed nuance. In an effort to tell more than just a “beat the bad guy” type of story, Birth By Sleep ends up telling a “beat the bad guy” type of story, just with more words. But while the story may not hit on all cylinders, this game has a lot more to offer in its other aspects.
Gotta Break That Loser In
If you know about the basic gameplay of the Kingdom Hearts series, you’ll feel pretty at home in Birth By Sleep. You land on various Disney worlds, meeting little Disney gremlins, and having little Disney adventures. You can swing your Keyblade weapon, guard, jump, and cast magic. So far, so standard. But Birth By Sleep does introduce a few elements to shake things up. For one, as stated before, your playtime is separated between three characters. Each one has a different moveset and excel in different aspects. Ventus is your all-arounder; he’s fast, nimble, and can dish out damage pretty equally as a melee or a magic user. Aqua is mainly geared towards magic, with her physical attacks not holding a candle to her spells. And Terra is your resident Unga-Bunga man. He’s slow and bulky, hits like a Toyota Tundra, and is always on the prowl for any tasty Elmer’s. All of these characters feel pretty unique and the game does a good job of establishing the personality of the three through their gameplay. But the changes don’t stop with multiple playable characters. Over the years, Birth By Sleep has become infamous in the minds of fans for one defining reason: introducing Command Decks to the franchise.
So let’s talk magic real quick. Magic and abilities in the first two console titles were pretty simple. You play through the game, learn spells through progression and leveling up, and then cast these spells using a limited magic bar resource. Easy. But with the Command Deck, a new dynamic is introduced. Here, the name of the game is planning. First, you select from a list of attacks, magic, and items in your pause menu. You then slot these commands into a list that’s accessible during gameplay. And boom, you’ve got a whole bunch of customizable tools at your fingertips. Instead of using a magic resource, once used, these commands then go on their own cooldown until they’re ready for use again. You can pick these commands up from chests, enemies, or even meld two commands together to create a new ability. The commands can be anything from simple spells to physical abilities and items or even massive screen-clearing attacks that take up multiple slots at once. These commands can also be given special properties like increased fire damage or deck reload speed and can even be leveled up to make these upgrades permanent. Sounds great, right? It is. Kinda. Maybe. For the most part.
There’s another reason that Birth By Sleep is considered the deck game in the franchise. And it’s because hitting enemies with a regular attack sucks. Physical attacks scale terribly in this game and in the mid-to-endgame, you’ll oftentimes find yourself smacking basic goons around for far longer than feels necessary if you haven’t been grinding appropriately. Pair that with the fact that many of the tougher challenges in the game have either no or inconsistent stagger, and getting in close with your big stick is not very tempting. This creates a sort of inverse difficulty for characters throughout the game. Terra might start out like a brick shithouse, flexing his muscles and laying waste to everything in his path for the first few worlds. But once the difficulty ramps up, his weak magic leaves him at a serious disadvantage. On the other hand, Aqua feels downright underpowered for a good chunk of the game. Her attacks suck and the commands that the game starts you out with are garbage. But once you get some good commands together and invest in a few damage and reload boosts, she’s arguably the strongest character out of the three. And I mean, oh boy. Those commands. Birth By Sleep feels like a game that wants you to break it. There are so many overpowered spells and combinations available to you that it’s almost impossible not to stumble across one per playthrough. At its core, this is a game that only nerds will really enjoy. The earlier titles can be enjoyed by anyone, really. If you just wanna hop into a game, shut your brain off, and press the attack button a whole bunch, we’ve got that shit on tap. But to really get what makes Birth By Sleep fun, you have to enjoy the process of watching numbers get higher. The idea of constantly swapping out commands to tweak your strategy has to make you cum. Because your end goal is to walk into a room, press the triangle button four times in a row, and watch everything die. And while this isn’t fun from a purely gameplay perspective, the feeling of watching a carefully laid-out plan play out provides a dopamine hit just as strong.
Other Worlds Await
When Birth By Sleep was created, it was billed as a sort of prequel to the series as a whole, able to fill in gaps and answer questions posed by the first few games. Nowadays, that sentiment is, at best, quaint. We have so many games and so much background lore that we literally know every time that Mickey Mouse has put on or taken off his shirt. But the philosophy of a prequel was extended to the Disney world choice as well. In this game, you’re given a handful of worlds to explore that show the beginnings of Disney’s history, such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. To even it out, you also get a few that set up prominent worlds in future Kingdom Hearts titles like Hercules and Peter Pan. Having an ethos behind which Disney properties to include gives Birth By Sleep its own identity and makes it probably the only game in the franchise with this sort of consideration put forth. The stumbling block comes in how these worlds are represented. As an example, the beginning of the game hits you with three back-to-back worlds all about twee princesses in castles and forests. I give all the credit in the world to the designers for getting something different out of all of these locations, but you can see them stretching to find anything interesting to include. Standout moments like a fight with the Magic Mirror from Snow White or teaming up with Prince Philip to fight Maleficent shake things up, but can’t distract from how bland the level design ends up feeling. Even later worlds end up just being reduced to just differently colored hallways. While there is the occasional burst of creativity, these worlds were not made to be explored, they were made to be passed through once, which chafes against the gameplay loop of the multiple campaigns. Not all is lost on that front though. On their adventures, each character usually explores places in a world that the other two never get to see, which keeps the routes feeling fresh. And of course, each character will have their own interactions with the cast on hand. So while not everything is perfect, it’s still very easy to enjoy your time hanging out with Smee and Phil despite the annoyances.
As far as prequel stories go, Birth by Sleep is a serviceable one. Many prequels fall into the trap of just explaining what the stories before have already established without adding anything new. They’re built upon a base of pleasing the fans who recognize the thing they liked before. How did Hannibal Lecter start eating people? Why are Mike and Sully such good friends? The sort of thing that people who like jingling keys and flashing lights really respond to. And you will find such fan service here. Plenty of familiar characters pop up. They’re all over this thing and will usually take a beat or two to chew scenery before they exit the story stage left. However, this is hardly all Birth By Sleep is. This game’s story is nothing if not ambitious. Not relying on any plot points from earlier titles and introducing an entirely new cast of characters, Nomura and his team end up swinging for the fences here. In essence, this is a stand-alone title all its own. It straddles the line of being easily understood by newcomers, while also winking and nodding at the ones who have been here from the jump. And in this, I think Birth by Sleep succeeds. While I’m not a huge fan of the execution overall, I have to give credit to the fact that the designers were able to write a story that was valuable for two separate groups of people at the same time. But this does come at a cost. To tell a satisfying story, the actions in Birth By Sleep have to mean something. And, oh boy, there are quite a lot of actions here. The story does that annoying thing of tying virtually all future events and characters together through prophecy. Future characters were always “meant” to be special because of the events of this game, that type of deal. And while I’m not going to go to bat for the story of the Kingdom Hearts franchise of all things, this tidying up of plot points does make the world-building feel very small. The idea that there was always an invisible hand guiding and manifesting this future slightly undermines the potency of these events. But, like most of the story nitpicks, this isn’t a deal-breaker. The fact is, this is the sort of territory that comes with any sort of prequel. But there were benefits to telling this story. And all things considered, I think the team got a lot more right than they got wrong.
A Shared Dream
Now, regardless of the dubious quality of some of the games, the Kingdom Hearts series always comes through with banger soundtracks. And the hits don’t stop here. Yoko Shimomura is back again and handles the bulk of the work, but does offload a handful of songs to series newcomers Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito. And I’m pleased to say that everyone brought their A-game to this project. Shimomura brings her always-impressive melody work to the table, with cutting violins and interwoven brass that serves to elevate the work and bring out emotion. Her sound is the heartbeat of the series and her ear for dynamics lead to a soundscape that never overwhelms, but always intrigues. Ishimoto pulls through with very solid compositions as well. He never deviates too far from Shimomura’s base soundscape but shows a much greater focus on percussions and a knack for incorporating electronic elements in many of his tracks. Although he doesn’t grab too many tracks, his presence is felt, as he is responsible for some of the more iconic boss battle themes that stand up against the entire series’ catalog. Sekito was handed more of the grunt work in the soundtrack, but that isn’t meant to diminish what he can do. Mainly tasked with rearranging previous songs from the series and composing a few tracks for the minigame world, Sekito handles his work like a professional. And while I enjoy his rearrangements a lot more than the auditory cotton candy vomit that is the minigame soundtrack, he’s a valuable member of the team and did his best with what he was given. All in all, Birth By Sleep more than meets the quality set by the rest of the series. Part of the reason why I didn’t go crazy grinding out commands and leveling up was because the soundscape was so pleasant. And the fact that this game has produced a few tracks that stand among the best in the series is an acolade that cannot be taken from it.
Birth By Sleep has a surprising amount of content for a title originally intended for a handheld. Along with the secrets and chests to find in the worlds themselves, you also have totally separate modes to play around in. The Mirage Arena is essentially a collection of tournaments, with you facing off against waves of enemies and bosses. Most of these bosses are unique to the Mirage Arena, so it’s at least worth checking out. You even used to be able to even play this mode multiplayer back on the PSP days. However, once Square saw how Kingdom Hearts fans interacted with functioning humans, they realized how naive they’d been, and this functionality was removed from all subsequent releases. The arena isn’t a bad way to grind experience and level up your commands, so I’d say it’s worth doing. But any serious command grinding is going to need to happen in the Command Boards. This game mode plops you and a few opponents on a game board and has you rolling the dice and going around buying up spots, ala Fortune Street. You buy up spots on the board by placing down your own commands and can boost the value of these spots by spending money to level them up. The real kicker is that this level-up carries over into the main game. So if you play your hand right, you can almost immediately boost something that otherwise would have taken a half hour or more of grinding. It’s pretty usful, and the gamemode is fun in its own right, so I say it’s a win-win. The version of the game that is most easily available nowadays is the Final Mix version, which contains a few extra goodies like optional bosses and a secret episode to play through. And while some of this content is much better than other parts, it is there all the same. All in all, Birth By Sleep is the type of game that, even with its somewhat short length story-wise, can keep players occupied for far longer than you would think at first glance.
The End Of Another Summer Vacation
As an unconditional fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, I’ve always forced myself to tolerate Birth By Sleep. It’s apart from the rest of the series in a lot of ways. The story, gameplay, and world design are all much different from the titles that I really gravitate toward. I’ve always liked more reaction-based gameplay versus the more cerebral take that Birth By Sleep puts forward. But on this most recent playthrough, I think I started to get it. Once I stopped comparing it to what came before and really opened myself to what this game is good at, I started having fun. Yeah, beating up the shithead cat from Cinderella is fun. And I do enjoy putting Peter Pan in his place. Once I slowed down and pushed myself to engage with commands rather than just grinding out levels and brute forcing my way through, I started to see what this game provided that I couldn’t get from any of the other titles. And I began to appreciate this little detour from the norm. Is it my favorite in the franchise? No. But I can definitely see why it’s so loved in the fandom. There’s a magic in this little title that, even with all the faults and weird idiosyncracies, shines through.
If you want to watch the game try to match subtitles with Jaq’s dialogue, you can find this game pretty much everywhere. Straight up, I do not recommend playing the original PSP version. Luckily, Birth By Sleep is included in the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 and 2.5 Remix collection. I linked the PS4 version, but you can get this collection for pretty much anything nowadays, Xbox, PC, TI-85 probably. Point is, it’s way easy to find.