Damn okay uh, I finally finished Birth By Sleep (technically).
I got basically to the end of the game but then my game kept freezing so I did have to watch the final parts of it online but i'm saying it counts lmao.
This game is, honestly a bit of a mixed bag for me, again the fact I couldn't finish it properly myself kinda fucked with my experience but I will say the good 100% outweighs the bad here.
Let's start with the story.
To be honest, I really wasn't feeling the story of this game for the first half. This game is split into 3 stories, each one following a different main character, I'm already not normally a fan of this type of story-telling in games as it is without the game being a 30 hour long RPG and I do think it ruined the experience for me a little bit. BUT once you kinda piece the story together and in the second half of the game man that shit really picks up.
The main characters are Ventus, Terra and Aqua.
I enjoyed most of Ventus' story.
I really enjoyed the back half of Aqua's story
I was not a fan of Terra's story lol.
I like Ventus and Aqua as characters, I think they're both great. I do kinda like where Terra's arc goes but not overly fond of the character himself.
Anyway yeah when you get all 3 stories together the final act is honestly awesome, especially in Ven's and Aqua's stories. both have very Kingdom Hearts endings which I enjoyed. Although I feel so sorry for Aqua man she gets the roughest deal at the end, she was really the MVP through this story.
Also like most multiple story games there's a secret final story when you complete all three. It's just some cutscenes wrapping up the whole story nicely and man I gotta say, that final story segment alone boosted this up like half a star. It's so beautifully written and the music is perfect and to be honest? I nearly cried. it wraps up this game perfectly and sets us up for the next one which got me hella excited. It was just such a beautiful ending. my second favourite story in a KH game so far just because of that ending, only behind KH2 cause that game is near perfection. but also in front of 358/2 days (which I have not played cause it's a DS game but I watched all the remastered movie cutscenes which game with the remaster collection so I know the full story, which is also great).
Anyway yeah, first half of the story is meh, second half is great, ending is beautiful.
Now onto the gameplay which is... well.
Each character has their own gameplay style but they all also follow the new format. Instead of having button combos or a neat little menu in the bottom left to swap between attack and magic you know have a scroll wheel. where you equip specific attacks and spells and items that you scroll through mid-fight... I don't like this.
I loved the neatness of the menu and accessibility of the button commands in KH2, I get they wanted to make it different but it definitely feels worse for me. Also no more reaction commands :((
Alright so the characters:
Ventus plays basically like Sora but slightly faster and slightly weaker, definitely the easiest one to get used too.
Terra is more of a powerhouse character, he's slow but strong and doesn't have much magic capability. Luckily, smacking the shit out of things without using magic is my usual playstyle so Terra was probably my fav to play as. Too bad I didn't like the actual character all that much.
Aqua is the opposite of Terra, she's fast af but physically quite weak, however she makes up for it with some VERY powerful magic. definitely took me the longest to get used too but I did enjoy my brief time with her.
Now for the rest of the game.
The disney worlds you visit are... okay. I'm not really a big fan of the worlds they picked here, a lot of disney princess ones. I did enjoy Deep Space from Lilo and Stich tho as well as Neverland being pretty decent. Also they really are just never getting rid of Olympus Coliseum lol.
The soundtrack as per usual is on point. this franchise has some of the best songs in gaming history.
The new keyblades are on point as well. The one thing this game did better imo than KH2 was the keyblades. There's loads of optional keyblades you can get through the SHIT TON of side missions/events you can do, which I love and all the designs are a lot more creative this time around. Each keyblade really feels like it's from the world or event you got it from and it's great.
No Gummi Ship... Thank god.
Slight spoiler for the story but I have to mention this. I'm so glad you get to beat the ever living shit out of Peter Pan as Terra. That guy is such an obnoxious asshole in these games and watching him get beat up was so satisfying. IF ONLY I GOT TO DO IT MYSELF STUPID FREEZING GAME!
Anyway, overall this game is pretty good. Not really a big fan of the 3 way story thing. Especially since it feels like you're just restarting every time you go to the next story and i'm also not a big fan of the new combat meny style BUT, the second half/ending to the story and the shear amount of side stuff and shit you can do in this game more than makes up for it. As I said, the good 100% outweighs the bad. Epic Game.
Now I just gotta go through Chain of Memories (it's been recommended to me that I should just watch the cutscenes so I'll probs just do that).
Also need to watch X Back Cover and then watch union crosses story and then play Dream Drop Distance and THEN I can finally play Kingdom Hearts 3 lol.
I've fallen in love with this series but goddamn it is a task to get through it all.
I got basically to the end of the game but then my game kept freezing so I did have to watch the final parts of it online but i'm saying it counts lmao.
This game is, honestly a bit of a mixed bag for me, again the fact I couldn't finish it properly myself kinda fucked with my experience but I will say the good 100% outweighs the bad here.
Let's start with the story.
To be honest, I really wasn't feeling the story of this game for the first half. This game is split into 3 stories, each one following a different main character, I'm already not normally a fan of this type of story-telling in games as it is without the game being a 30 hour long RPG and I do think it ruined the experience for me a little bit. BUT once you kinda piece the story together and in the second half of the game man that shit really picks up.
The main characters are Ventus, Terra and Aqua.
I enjoyed most of Ventus' story.
I really enjoyed the back half of Aqua's story
I was not a fan of Terra's story lol.
I like Ventus and Aqua as characters, I think they're both great. I do kinda like where Terra's arc goes but not overly fond of the character himself.
Anyway yeah when you get all 3 stories together the final act is honestly awesome, especially in Ven's and Aqua's stories. both have very Kingdom Hearts endings which I enjoyed. Although I feel so sorry for Aqua man she gets the roughest deal at the end, she was really the MVP through this story.
Also like most multiple story games there's a secret final story when you complete all three. It's just some cutscenes wrapping up the whole story nicely and man I gotta say, that final story segment alone boosted this up like half a star. It's so beautifully written and the music is perfect and to be honest? I nearly cried. it wraps up this game perfectly and sets us up for the next one which got me hella excited. It was just such a beautiful ending. my second favourite story in a KH game so far just because of that ending, only behind KH2 cause that game is near perfection. but also in front of 358/2 days (which I have not played cause it's a DS game but I watched all the remastered movie cutscenes which game with the remaster collection so I know the full story, which is also great).
Anyway yeah, first half of the story is meh, second half is great, ending is beautiful.
Now onto the gameplay which is... well.
Each character has their own gameplay style but they all also follow the new format. Instead of having button combos or a neat little menu in the bottom left to swap between attack and magic you know have a scroll wheel. where you equip specific attacks and spells and items that you scroll through mid-fight... I don't like this.
I loved the neatness of the menu and accessibility of the button commands in KH2, I get they wanted to make it different but it definitely feels worse for me. Also no more reaction commands :((
Alright so the characters:
Ventus plays basically like Sora but slightly faster and slightly weaker, definitely the easiest one to get used too.
Terra is more of a powerhouse character, he's slow but strong and doesn't have much magic capability. Luckily, smacking the shit out of things without using magic is my usual playstyle so Terra was probably my fav to play as. Too bad I didn't like the actual character all that much.
Aqua is the opposite of Terra, she's fast af but physically quite weak, however she makes up for it with some VERY powerful magic. definitely took me the longest to get used too but I did enjoy my brief time with her.
Now for the rest of the game.
The disney worlds you visit are... okay. I'm not really a big fan of the worlds they picked here, a lot of disney princess ones. I did enjoy Deep Space from Lilo and Stich tho as well as Neverland being pretty decent. Also they really are just never getting rid of Olympus Coliseum lol.
The soundtrack as per usual is on point. this franchise has some of the best songs in gaming history.
The new keyblades are on point as well. The one thing this game did better imo than KH2 was the keyblades. There's loads of optional keyblades you can get through the SHIT TON of side missions/events you can do, which I love and all the designs are a lot more creative this time around. Each keyblade really feels like it's from the world or event you got it from and it's great.
No Gummi Ship... Thank god.
Slight spoiler for the story but I have to mention this. I'm so glad you get to beat the ever living shit out of Peter Pan as Terra. That guy is such an obnoxious asshole in these games and watching him get beat up was so satisfying. IF ONLY I GOT TO DO IT MYSELF STUPID FREEZING GAME!
Anyway, overall this game is pretty good. Not really a big fan of the 3 way story thing. Especially since it feels like you're just restarting every time you go to the next story and i'm also not a big fan of the new combat meny style BUT, the second half/ending to the story and the shear amount of side stuff and shit you can do in this game more than makes up for it. As I said, the good 100% outweighs the bad. Epic Game.
Now I just gotta go through Chain of Memories (it's been recommended to me that I should just watch the cutscenes so I'll probs just do that).
Also need to watch X Back Cover and then watch union crosses story and then play Dream Drop Distance and THEN I can finally play Kingdom Hearts 3 lol.
I've fallen in love with this series but goddamn it is a task to get through it all.