The Keyblade crew make the transition to PSP, but have they trained themselves to tactical this handheld arena?
Format: PSP Dev: Square Enix Pub: Square Enix Out: 10/09/10 Players: 1-6
If there’s anything that will send you to sleep in this neatly packaged RPG actioner, it’s the cutscenes. On the PSP’s widescreen, our plucky adventurers and their salon-fresh hair looks striking. And there’s no question that diehard Kingdom Hearts will relish the opportunity to see the fictional beginnings of the Square/Disney love-in. For a handheld title though, having play broken up by flat, melodramatic cutscenes, some of which go on for longer than you would wish, is no fun.
How fortunate then that Kingdom Hearts’ gameplay has been adapted far more effectively for the handheld, resulting in swift encounters which the little device’s buttons are just about suited to handle. You’ll find no magic points (MP) or mana in this iteration. A new Command System and Focus have been mixed in to produce a play formula that’s more suited to casual snippets of combat rather than recurring episodes of strict portion hording and level grinding.
The combat itself shares some similarities with that of Dissidia: Final Fantasy. However, Birth by Sleep wrestles with the problematic issue of throwing more enemies on-screen than the shoulder button-controlled camera can keep up with. Supplementing its new combat structure is the Command Board. As with Crisis Core’s slot machine-like Digital Mind Wave, this is another mini-game built (mostly) on luck that can reward you with new items should you have the patience to persist.
Square have proven once again that they have the chops to bring their renowned RPG series to different consoles and maintain a high level of production quality, from the amorous rhythms composed by Yoko Shimomura to the Disney cameos that have long been a series’ staple. Sadly, it can be difficult to appreciate these trimmings when issues like load times and flat voice acting set in. Nevertheless, Birth by Sleep’s gameplay is awake to the fact that it’s on a handheld system, which in itself is enough.
Aaron Lee
Tags: disney, handheld, kingdom hearts, rpg, square enix
