The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - Command Board

And so, this years kicks off with the first 2010 title I've played: Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

This is a prequel to the series that started on the PS2, moved to the Gameboy Advance, went back to the PS2, then visited the DS and eventually ended up at the PSP game I am babbling about today.
The GBA game, Chain of Memories, was remade in 3D and ported to the PS2, where it was made much more enjoyable because you actually had decent controls, but with the exception of that title, all of the games so far have been exclusive to their platform.
















Now, there is nothing wrong with trying to reach as wide an audience as possible with this wonderful series, but the problem is that if you're a fan, you're pretty much forced to buy every single console there is, if you want to keep up with the story.
And that's the thing, the story is insanely complex. At first glance it may look like a simple gushy Disney-esque story with cute characters and an annoying emphasis on being friends with everyone and his Pluto, but hidden underneath is a complexely woven story about Heartless, Nobodies and Organization XIII (a storyline that starts in the GBA version, making Chain of Memories crucial to understanding what is going on) that is mostly told through hard-to-understand cutscenes and secret documents that you have to shift mountains for to obtain.

The DS version fortunately, can pretty much be skipped. It takes place around the time of the GBA game and the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2, but it doesn't really give any kind of important information, and instead opts to introduce a new character completely out of nowhere, only to kill her off at the end.
And no, that is NOT a spoiler, because anyone who's familiar with the story should know there was no place for a fourteenth member.
Besides, I just saved you the trouble of having to play through what isn't that interesting a game to begin with.

However, the PSP version, as Kingdom Hearts Mastermind Tetsuya Nomura would have it, is a "proper" entry in the series, on par with the PS2 games.
He'd say that wouldn't he.
I would too if I looked like THIS:















I would love to debunk that statement, but the fact of the matter is that, after clocking in several hours, I'm still at the very first planet (not counting the tutorial one).
Why?

Because of the Command Board, ladies and gentlemen.

You see, in Birth by Sleep, not only do you gain abilities and skills by finding them in treasure chests or just leveling up, you can obtain them through what is called the Command Board as well. Leveling up your skills happens through battle, as is usual in RPGs, but, again, can also be done (much more swiftly) through the Command Board.

"What, then, IS this Command Board?", I hear you say.
"And how does it help you earn/level up skills?", you'll also say.
Come closer, and I'll tell you...

Obscure videogame references for teh win!

The Command Board basically plays like a game of Culdcept.
If you know what Culdcept is, you will probably already start frothing at the mouth.
If you don't know what Culdcept is, you probably never had a lot of trouble fitting in at high school.

Let me rephrase, the Command Board basically plays like a game of Monopoly.
You know Monopoly, right? Everyone does. Except for Russia.
There they call it "Government".

But enough clever social commentary!

It's like Culdcept, without card battles. It's like Monopoly with a less linear board, no hotels, no stations, no get-out-of-jail-free cards, and, like, 5 different "Go" points.
Another way of saying it would be: "this game is not very much like Monopoly at all".

You play the game with 3 characters, one of which is YOU, or at the very least someone who doesn't look like YOU.
The other 2 are controlled by the CPU, or by human players, if you have any of those hanging around at the moment.
First you choose a board, then you choose the target BP. This is important!
BP (or "Board points") is basically your currency. They could've called it any other fictional currency like munnies, gil, fol or zloty, but they went with BP, because abreviations are the Hot New Thing, IIRC.

Right now, I've only unlocked the first board, so there's not much choice there, and games are played for 5000, 10000 or 15000 BP.
Look at the picture below.
DO IT!













The panels on the right show the current BP for all 3 characters, but you'll see there are 2 numbers. The one on top indicates how many BP you are carrying, the bottom one is your "capital" so to speak, which is raised by buying and upgrading squares and whatnot.
Each board has one Start Point (shaped like a keyhole), and 4 Check Points (yellow, green, red and blue). The point is to pass all check points and return to the start point to earn money. If you've reached the target amount, get back to the Start Point ASAP to claim victory.

BP can be spent on the squares. You start with 5 cards in your inventory, each representing one of your character's skills/abilities. On their own, cards can be used to gain advantages like extra dice, stunning opponents, preventing BP from being taken etc, but using them like that prevents the abilities from gaining any experience.
Each empty square on the board can be bought using BP, at which point you will place one of your cards (ie abilities) on that spot or BUY a new ability if the square comes equipped with one.
Land on a square owned by someone else, and you have to pay them BP. Land on one of your own, and you can fortify the ability by spending BP, which adds to the experience that ability will earn at the end of the game AND makes it more expensive when an opponent lands on it.

And then, there's a shitload of special squares with special effects, but I'm not gonna introduce all of them here. Suffice it to say, it's EXTREMELY addictive, and a very clever and fun way of learning new abilities and upgrading old ones.
I've been making it a point to play at least one 10000 BP round each time I start the game, before moving on with what is actually the main game.
Like I said, I haven't progressed an inch in the story so far, and I'm loving it!

You'll amass a lot of abilities quite quickly, and you'll often get abilities you already have, in which case you can use the Command Charge option in the main game, to combine abilities and make something stronger/better.
It's AWESOME, and I'm abusing the hell out of it :D

So yeah, more on the main game as it develops, but so far, I'm immensely enjoying the Command Board feature.
Last year, I played what would be my PSP game of the year right at the start of the year (Dissidia Final Fantasy), it looks as if Square-Enix is going to pull that off again this year...

posted by Ingen! @ 6:09 AM