Like crisis core, I’m always pretty impressed at how much of its own thing Birth By Sleep chooses to be.
These are the types of prequels that work for me. Not everything about BBS feels necessary though. It kind of over-explains the keyblade and a lot of little mechanical elements from 1 and 2. Over-explain is not a synonym for bad or poorly written. In fact I think absurdly detailed lore is a strength of the series for those who follow it. I’m working on becoming a hardcore follower. As someone who only really cared about 1 and 2 prior to the release of 3 I was a bit of a hater when it came to how important every single game was to the big picture. I’ve grown to respect it a lot now. It’s honestly wild how much they put into BBS. The series screams confidence in its ideas. It rarely steps back and changes its mind on writing decisions.

I had played BBS before on psp a decade ago and at least played some of / watched summaries of the other handheld games before replaying 3 recently. I really like 3 at this point. It didn’t feel like I gave it my all though, so I’m replaying everything and really giving the story my full attention.
BBS is a great game. It’s a little awkward and slow to play, but it’s an HD psp game so I’m not expecting the combat of 2. It has a bizarre difficulty curve with bosses. The world selection is rarely interesting. There’s plenty to complain about. I left the game with more criticisms than I had originally but also more praises. The secret endings and final episode set up the future story so well. As stilted and corny as Kingdom Hearts can be it’s honestly wild how grim the outcome of this narrative is. I’m already remembering moments from 3 and amping myself up to play it for a third time so I can feel a stronger emotional punch from it. A quick recap of the story is a fine way to refresh yourself but I’m convinced the only way to enjoy this series outside of 1 and 2 is to sit down and play them all. They aren’t that long and the gameplay is fun enough for the 20ish hours it’ll take to beat. YouTube recaps or reading the story just doesn’t replace the necessary experience of a full length game that focuses solely on these characters. It brings them up to main characters instead of delegating them to side characters that you kind of know a little bit about. This goes for every “spin off”.

I respect Kingdom Hearts for rewarding the dedicated fans who stuck with every game. Even I was frustrated at how 3 played out when it released and I am now working on beating Dream Drop Distance to complete my KH catalog. I had played BBS before but I needed to remember why it became so vital to the series. So often do video game series give up on its most hardcore fans and resort to ‘soft reboot’ territory. Kingdom Hearts is one of the few examples I can think of that loves its hardcore fans as much as it does. I didn’t understand that for a while, but the past year or two I have fallen back into the series’ grasp and I don’t think it’s letting me go anytime soon.