Day 41: Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

A good way to start off a Top 10 is to talk about my favorite game in the Kingdom Hearts series, and that's the awesomeness that is Birth by Sleep.

Before I played this game, the only other Kingdom Hearts game I played was Dream Drop Distance on the 3DS, and I thought it was an okay game, nothing too groundbreaking. But then I played Birth by Sleep, and I was utterly blown away by it. For one thing, this story serves as a prequel to the main series…while also being a sequel of another prequel…Kingdom Hearts' overall story is a freaking mess isn't it?

Anyway, the story centers around a group of friends, Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, who are also a group of keyblade wielders trained under the watch of Master Eraqus. One day, Terra and Aqua take their Mark of Mastery Exam, held by Eraqus and the main series villain Master Xehanort, to see who will become the newest Keyblade Master. Aqua passes while Terra fails after failing to keep the darkness in his heart in check. Sometime later, Xehanort disappears and the worlds a threatened by an enemy known as the Unversed, this game's version of the Heartless. Now it's up to Terra, Aqua, and Ventus to find Xehanort and save the worlds from the Unversed while also hoping to find its source.

Since this takes place before the first Kingdom Hearts game, the characters that our attention is drawn to are the likes of our heroes, and the villains of this game, Xehanort and Vanitas. It's at this point in the game where we see everything that sets the events of future games in motion. The creation of Castle Oblivion, the origin of Lingering Will, how Pete wound up working for Maleficent, the members of Organization XIII before they became nobodies, what Hallow Bastion looked like when it was Radiant Garden, and just what happened to Ventus, Aqua, and Terra. Yeah, all three of their stories end on a very depressing note, but like I said, it's to set up the story for future games in the series.

Onto the characters themselves, Ventus is an interesting character with a nice backstory, actually being Xehanort's pupil at one point. We don't know much about Aqua and Terra's backstory, but their overall personalities and struggles they go through more than make up for that, especially Aqua, who wants to protect her friends while also taking on the responsibilities of Keyblade Master.

And then we get to the villains of the game, Xehanort and Vanitas. Before Kingdom Hearts 3 made this character jump the shark, Xehanort was one hell of an intimidating villain, never afraid to manipulate anyone to get what he wants, especially Terra. As for Vanitas, he's the source of the Unversed, and born from the darkness within Ventus' heart.

All of these characters have interesting stories, struggles, and personalities that I love to follow.

As per usual though, when you're not focusing on a Kingdom Hearts game's story or characters, you're focusing on its gameplay and usage of Disney worlds, and in terms of the latter we got some really interesting worlds.

We have worlds based on the older Disney films like Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. We actually get to explore Neverland, there's this place called Disney Town where you can interact with all of the classic characters and play mini-games, Olympus Colloseum…got a bit of a downgrade, but it's serviceable enough I guess, and we actually got a Lilo & Stitch level based on the opening of the movie and how Stitch, known as Experiment 626, escaped to Earth.

There's also hidden data that suggests that a world based on The Jungle Book was also meant to be added. I like to pretend that in a parallel universe we got a version of Birth by Sleep that has this.

On top of original worlds and Disney worlds, Birth by Sleep also gives us The Mirage Arena, a place where you can level up by beating up hoards of Unversed and stronger version of the bosses along with some new ones.

As for the gameplay, it's all the keyblade slashing and magic casting that we all know and love. But setting this game apart from the rest is how this game introduces the Shot Lock commands, allowing you to unleash a powerful attack on your enemy. There's also Dimension Links, or D-Links, you can form with other characters. Using a D-Link refills your health, gives you a custom moveset, and you can even form your own finishing move based on whatever character you linked up with if you fill up your command gauge enough.

Birth by Sleep also allows players to fuse moves together to great stronger and better moves. You can level up these moves by either fighting Unversed on the field, or by playing this Fortune Street game called 'The Command Board,' I never really cared for this mode, but if you're a fan of games like Fortune Street or Mario Party, this should be right up your alley.

Finally, I want to talk about the bosses. Now, while most of the Unversed bosses aren't anything too special, boss battles against the likes of Braig, Eraqus, the final battles in all three stories, and the final confrontation with Terra-Xehanort in Radiant Garden are some of the best battles the series has to offer. They're so cinematic with such high stakes and great challenge that it's hard for me not to like them. Sure occasionally I get a cheap death, but I take a deep breath and just say, "One more time!"

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is, in my opinion, the best Kingdom Hearts game for giving us the best Disney Worlds, spectacular boss battles, interesting story with interesting characters, and doing a great job at explaining future events and setting up the story for the rest of the series. I can easily recommend this game as a starting point for anyone looking to get into the series, and recommend it as one of the best Action RPGs of the last decade.