Simply amazing game that's well worth the money!

Square Enix and Disney does it again in this installment of the Kingdom Hearts series. This is the prequel to the previous Kingdom Hearts games, such as KH1, KH2, Chain of Memories, and so on. I bought this game because I had played KH1 and KH2 in the past, and as a prequel, I didn't know what to expect when I first got the game, but as I got started, played through the beginning, and went through the cutscenes, I immediately loved it.

Ratings:

Gameplay - 5/5

This is the first time I've played a Kingdom Hearts game on a handheld device, and I must say that it was quite an experience. The controls weren't all that different than what I remember on a regular console, and they were easy to use. The tutorials teach you all that you need to know, unless of course you barely pay attention to them. You'll easily learn all you need to through gameplay!

Story - 5/5

The story of KH: BBS is pretty original in its own right, and after you do a complete playthrough of the game you'll find that it starts to tie in plots from previous games and helps you to better understand the complex nature of the series.

Graphics - 5/5

Despite it being on a handheld device, the graphics in both the gameplay and the cutscenes were rather beautiful, especially in the secret movie at the end of the game.

Sound - 5/5

The sound quality was simply perfect, and the developers were creative in allowing us to play through nostalgic pieces of music in minigames.

Overall rating: 5/5

Simply put, this is one of the best handheld games that I've played yet, and I would highly recommend this to any Kingdom Hearts fan out there who wants to know how the Kingdom Hearts story began.

Amazing game, with a few setbacks

(To preface the review, I am a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, but I was VERY hesitant about buying a portable gaming system just for one game. I was not disappointed) Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, first and foremost, is a must-have game for the PSP. If you own one, do yourself a favor and buy this game. It isn't the type of game that you can just pick up, play for five minutes, get a hi-score and move on with your life, but you definitely won't want to be putting it down anyway. It is a fluid fighting game with a few key twists that keep the player actively involved in the combat as well as the storyline itself. There is definitely quite a bit of storyline involved in it, more than enough to delight any KH fan, but it isn't as much as the typical Final Fantasy game, which could have scared off any potential buyers outside of the fan base. The action is on par with the PS2 versions of the game. I would go so far as to say it surpasses KH1 in terms of overall playability. The graphics might not be quite up to par, but everything else about the game is. The only big heartache I have with this game is the load times, which is a twofold problem. The file size to copy this to a Memory Stick is around a half of a gigabyte (I want to say a little over 600mb off the top of my head) which means that you'll need at least a 2gb card to fit anything else on it. As is typical with other KH games, there are videos every time you visit a new world, and each one takes some time to load. While I have to admit that it's not the most ideal situation, I will say that the wait is well worth it. For fans of the series, you'll find this to be a great extension (if not a little too distanced from the others, in a good way). Actually, it's a little disorienting to be playing a game as fluid as KH2 on a screen that fits the palm of your hand. For those that are new to it, you will find that this game is incredibly well crafted and features a seemingly overwhelming amount of customization. At first, it seems like a downside, but you'll find that there is a lot of reward in the menus. You can play through the game three seperate times, each with its own unique storyline, which gives the customization depth more use. I would recommend that anyone buy this game with a PSP. For huge fans of the series, the money invested is very well worth it. (And the PSP isn't half bad, either.)

Worth every minute of playing :D

If you're a Kingdom hearts fan or not,you just need to buy this it's completely awesome,it's has 3 great story beacause you can play with 3 different characters(Terra,Ventus and Aqua),it envolves the world of disney in a coolway and still sticking to the real story that happened in each world. I recommend this gaame to anyone ,it's one the best game ever to be on psp.

Awesone product!!!! Grat value for the money i pay

Good PSP game and great series on playstation platform. It's a great RPG game for everyone. I love this game. Very good price. Good story for the game.

Birth of Awesomeness, to say the least

This definitely lives up to the hype surrounding Kingdom Hearts. It has gorgeous Keyblades, full utilization of the graphics engines given by the PSP, nice cutscenes, and good voice acting (except for Terra, he was corny, to say the least). Though I did end up buying it at a higher price somewhere else because the seller on eBay canceled my order, the effect is still the same. I got thirty six hours of awesomeness, of trying and failing to beat Vanitas Remanant and the Unknown, and then that was it. It shone like the rising sun for 36 hours like promised, and bam, it was over. No replay value, except to play on a higher difficulty, which is pointless for me because I barely beat the game in Standard mode, and would fail in Proud mode, and go out in a two second blaze of glory in Critical Mode. I bought it because it would fulfill my undying love for Kingdom Hearts, and that love was requited, but only for 36 hours. It would have been nice if they put more features in it to keep people playing and replaying until the next one comes out.