Kingdom Hearts BBS Preview

Breaking the ice here, I repeat to you all this is NOT kingdom Hearts III! I repeat, this is not Kingdom Hearts III, this game may look like it since it features Terra, Venn, and Aqua in KHII preview after you finish the game 100%, but unfortunately, it’s not III. Coming out in just a month is the closest thing we have to KHIII, and that’s KHBBS (Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep). Considering there was Kingdom hearts 365 days, that was just an insider into more of the Roxas and the Organization XIII plot that you should have gotten in KHII, so I don’t consider that game to even be in league with referring to KHIII. This new game has been featured for the PSP, which I think was a perfect choice since it’s so like Playstation 2, but with more graphics, color, and light. Its an improvement with out it being too much of an upgrade to where KHIII won‘t overpower it in terms of looks. Instead of the much liked Sora, you have three characters you can play with, each with their own styles so you can be sure that there’s a lot to unlock and go through for each character.

Terra is the powerhouse, using brute force to overpower his opponents, his speed hasn’t taken a big hit but is still noticeable. Venn is a quick striker, beating down his opponents with a flurry of fast and precise attacks that don’t do much individually, but will become lethal the more he advances. Aqua is a magical enforcer, using spells to deadlock and deal maximum damage with magical attacks, not much for key blade close combat but really isn’t necessary with her skills in magic. You have to play with all of them to get anywhere in the story since most places are only open specifically to each person. This change of pace is nice since the game doesn’t just use a big story with one character, it uses pieces of each story with each character giving the total experience once you play with all three of them, it’s like a puzzle piece really.


The enemies now have changed, although not too different from heartless, they are a new type called the Unbirths. Not too much is known about them, but they have a similar gameplay as the heartless do, and have the same shadowy composition. I can’t reveal too much of the story to you since it’s a major spoiler even if I utter out a word “cough--Roxas is Venn. Any who…the major upside to this is that most of the old features from KHI and KHII is back in this game including the abilities, wacky Disney bosses, multiple key blades, and tons of worlds not yet seen. I have yet to see a real downside except for the fact that the only render in the game is the opening. (A render is the part in KHI and II where everything is portrayed realistically, as in the part after you beat the game, or when you saw the preview of BBS.) Other than that it looks as awesome as ever. The new material is it’s crowning achievement because of how awesome it looks and how it differs so much from both KHI an II. The new abilities include the command bar, (don’t know if it’s actually new since I never played Chain of memories, or 365 days.) a bar that fills every time you attack successfully and can lead to an awesome finishing move once it fills  up. I’ll explain more later so you don’t take it all in in one sitting. The next new ability is called the lock-on, which gives you the ability to lock on to every target in the room with a cursor and be able to attack them all with a push of a button. I find it’s going to be spammed a lot  since it doesn’t take much to use it, and it can literally obliterate a whole room in less than three seconds. This is a move I’d advise using only when your health is real low.


Now, the next new thing I’ve seen in this game that differs from KHII is the physical to magical ratio of attacking when you use a move. With Sora, physical to magical combos were only used automatically as an ability, like when in Master or final form, even if you tried to combo it up, you’d find that Sora paused the majority of the time to use spells, making it difficult to even use them, that’s why most people avoided using any magical spells in the game. Here, in BBS, its flows as nicely as if you were in Wisdom or Master form, all the combos fit perfectly and you don’t even have to be a dedicated magical user to use them anymore. I guess this is the difference between a key blade wielder, and a “Master” key blade wielder. Another new invite to the game is style change. This is picking up from the command bar again and this time, it’s a whole new change from using a finishing move. When you fill the bar up, once in a while your character won’t do a finishing move, but change his/her whole style of attacking. This style change will allow your character to unleash new combos and abilities that he/she couldn’t use before. A good example is the style change that Venn uses, Speed Rave. This allows Venn to go into overtime, making his moves faster and powerful dealing maximum damage. He can now use a new finishing move and a couple of other attacks he couldn’t use before.  Go to  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W64xrWy0tVI by TheHelpfulGuy to watch it in action. There are others updated to this year, but again, spoiler alert. The other two characters have their own style changes that fit them and they have a couple they share with each other like Thunderbolt. With those new features plus new key blades and enemies, who wouldn’t want to go get this?  I’ve already reserved a copy for myself and I can’t wait till I get it.