A must get, if you like action-adventure games. If you're a KH fan, then no questions asked! Amazing gameplay and story!
Throughout KH1 and KH2, I think that Square has been improving the battling system. In birth by sleep, there is no MP cost for magic commands. Instead every command requires time to recharge after one use. There are crystals you can utilize that can help lessen the reload time on commands.
There are attack commands and magic commands. Some of which will affect the status of the enemies, such as sleep, poison, confusion, slow, and stop. Against certain enemies, using the right one can put you at the upper hand.
There is a command melding function, which allows you to combine two different types of attack command or magic command, from then which creates a stronger or unique command. Melding the same kind of magic will often lead to a stronger version of the same one such as cure + cura = curaga. The best part is that everytime you meld commands you may add a crystal. Crystals are items that give you character special abilities. They include, more exp, more munny, faster command reload times, HP boost, combo plus, magic damage boost, attack damage boost, etc. The more of the same ability you aquire everytime you meld commands, the more powerful the ability becomes. HP boost is definitely very useful for boss battles, and tough enemy encounters because some of them have very powerful combos, which can 1-hit-KO you if you do not have high HP.
One of the more satisfying aspects of the battling system is the ability to unleash a special attack. There is a meter that increase everytime you hit an enemy. When that meter is filled, your character will go into a certain type of berserk mode where he/she gets an element implemented on her attacks and combos based on which magic/attack command you have used to attack the enemy. However, if you filled the meter using just a normal attack(sword swings), then you just get a normal finish command which is a powerful swing of the sword usually lasting one or two hits.
There is one down side to the battle system. Not enough shortcuts to commands. By default the game requires you to scroll through your commands to execute them. The game does help you, by letting you put the most wanted command to a hot key. However, later in the game when you acquire more space to input commands, I think at least 2 shortcuts are needed. For aqua's story I had equiped two curagas for the boss, but when I use one curaga, and I'm waiting for it to reload, I have to run away and scroll through my list of commands to find the other curaga. If there was a second shortcut then I wouldn't have to risk being attacked.
The graphics for this game is very nice for a psp game. The different worlds have a variety of settings, which doesn't make the scenery repetative.
There is a decent amount of replay value in this game. You have an arena which you can face off with your friends. In combat or in mini games, such as racing. There are also plenty of things to go back and collect if you haven't done so. Such as the Xehanort reports which enables you to unlock the final episode.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed my review please add me and track me. I will write more.