Now since it's been a few days since I last posted something, and the poll is closed now. Firstly, lets congratulate... Xion, Roxas, and... Kairi! Sorry Axel, you didn't make it! you got beaten by Kairi thats why you got... uhhh failed-photoshopped-out... Anyhow, these three awesome characters got even votes! Congrats to Ax... I mean Kairi, Roxas and Xion!
Now about Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.
Like the title, while playing Birth By Sleep while university is still going on, bad idea. I ended up playing almost all night and hardly got any sleep until I had my next class. so bad >.> I am currently at 76 hours into the game, 94% completion on everything. Just need to beat the last hidden boss, Mysterious Figure and collect some commands and items. One thing I want to say to Mysterious Figure... !@$#$^ you! you are too damn hard! Can't kill you after you turn invisible and create too many invisible clones of yourself to ambush me... ahhh! Anyways...
First off, I want to say that this game is AWESOME fun. The battle system is well designed, lots of varieties and combos you can create, endless customization depending on your play style and a really complex Command Melding system where you can upgrade your abilities and skills.
The General battles are like all Kingdom Hearts games but this time with more new (and sometimes annoying) monster, the boss battles are innovative and really fun, where each requires a different strategy and are all very challenging on Proud or Critical mode!
spoiler alert
About the story, there are four parts to it. One main story for each of the main characters, Terra, Ventus and Aqua, and then there is the Final Episode which is unlocked after beating all three characters story and collect all Xahanort's Report, where you play as Aqua. You will also see many familiar faces in this game, many many familiar faces!
The first character I chose to start with was Ventus, as he looked too much like Roxas, and it seems to be appropriate to start with someone thats... rather familliar. After going through and completing his story, I was a little confused, as things were jumping too fast, and there were things that I just couldn't figure out... like why was Aqua standing in the middle of Radiant Gardens after the battle against Trinity Armour? Why did Terra appear in the Land of Departure with the power of darkness?
It was just a little confusing, but as soon as I started the second character's story (Aqua), I knew that everything will make sense after I finish all three characters. The story is told in three different perspective, and it is so well told that nothing is really repeated, and every character's story was fresh and entertaining like a brand new game! Really well designed and thought out I have to say! Every character took me about 12-18 hours, Ventus' too me the longest because he was the first character that I played, and Aqua was the hardest to beat in my opinion because of bosses. Also, the Disney characters are awesome and was blended into the game extremely well! (maybe with the exception of Peter Pan and his crew... but Tinkerbell is awesome though!)
For me, the best part of the story, was the secret ending that you can unlock by beating all stories including the Final Episode in proud or critical mode. You can unlock it in normal mode but you need to complete the Report section for all characters, and that is really hard... so choose Proud mode if you are interested in the secret ending. The secret ending tells you so much that is otherwise left unresolved in the normal endings, and it is a delightful one because after watching it, I'm certain that there will be a next Kingdom Hearts game, and hopefully we'll get to see Aqua, Terra and Ventus again! Really hope they will all appear or have some sort of relation with Sora in the next game.
Another awesome thing about this game is that you learn quite a bit about the past of Organisation XIII, when they were all still human, and you even get to fight some of them!
End of spoilers
Well, I will still be playing Birth By Sleep until I beat Mysterious Figure... or until my thumb falls off while trying to beat him... hopefully not the latter since I want to play more games and the piano... lol.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is overall an amazingly well put together, well thought out, and extremely fun game. Oh it is also really beautiful, but it does lack CGI cut scenes... sigh.. the limitations of PSP... But if you only finish one or two character's story, you probably won't get the whole package of fun and experience.
