Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix Plat Run

Plat Series
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
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• I whizzed through BbS Final Mix before KH3 came out, and 100%'d the game when it came out on PSP. So I'm familiar with most of it, but there will definitely be new experiences happening here. Let's get going.
  
• Does anyone else think the table and chairs in the Mountain Path look insanely uncomfortable to use? Terra’s ass must be red af after sitting on these Flintstone looking things.
• The Command Deck - a source of much controversy in the Kingdom Hearts community. I personally don’t have a problem with any of the games’ systems tbh, especially not this one, but it seems to be a pain point for many.
• This is a huge graphical downgrade from KH2. The maps have little to no detail comparatively. It’ll be easy to get used to though. This was a PSP game and you have to remember that.
• I had to win a spar with everyone to get the extra scenes. Ven was my favorite.
• Doing the stories in order, which means Terra, Ventus, Aqua.
• Terra’s voice actor is noticeably worse than the other cast. Not only does his voice not really fit him, the delivery is so off. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t ruining these cutscenes.
• Maleficent’s cackle lmfao.
• It’s sad that it takes 4 worlds for a NPC to appear. There was 1000x more to interact with in KH1 and 2.
• I take back what I said about the maps having little to no detail. Some of them are oddly large and barren, while others are filled with little details. It makes no sense.
• Already at Radiant Garden. I forgot how fast the story moved in this.

 

• I’ve been rolling through worlds - just reached Deep Space. Doing as much as I can toward the plat as I go, too, mainly getting everything at the Arena done.
• Second Chance + Once More achieved thanks to a lucky Chaos Crystal.
• This game could really do with more interactables. There are hardly any NPCs, and none of the cool things they put on the maps have any lore or backstory attached to them, either.
• 5 Lucky Strikes apparently means every enemy drops an item.
• The crocodile that scares Hook’s tail swings with the ticking of the clock.
• Wtf is this Chaos Ripper Keyblade? It’s got 10 Strength LOL…
• I’m close to having all abilities for Terra now. Always nice to get that out of the way.
• At the end of the Keyblade Graveyard. I’m gonna finish grinding out the abilities, then do a bunch of Arena stuff before the final boss. I figure I’ll have to do it anyway, so let’s enjoy this for a bit more before it’s Ten time.
• Get Bonuses being tied to the Arena is awesome. You never know what you’re gonna get.
• Can’t seem to unlock anything more to do in the Arena, so it’s time to finish off the first of the three stories in Birth by Sleep.
• I’m glad to be done with Terra now, he’s my least favorite of the three to play as.
• First storyline is predictable, but okay. I think BbS as a whole starts to get going more with Ventus and Aqua. Terra’s story almost serves as a prologue to the real action to come.
• This whole bit reminded me I never went back and beat KH2 for the extended secret vid after doing everything. Going to do that before Ven.
• There are so many more NPC’s in Ven’s story, wow. I’m really coming around on the world design, too. Still wish there was more to interact with but the maps are really good.

 

Funny that. I don't dislike any of the VAs but I remember everyone hating Aqua's voice when BBS came out.

 

I remember that. I'll admit there's something kind of off about her as well, but there's more emotion to her delivery and her lines aren't as cringey. My biggest issue with Terra was how monotone and unaffected he was. And whenever there was emotion in his voice, it didn't match what was on screen. I also think localization could have trimmed a few lines to give him a more "human" read. His script is robotic, which puts the VA in a hard place. I still enjoyed his story overall but the quality and depth of the acting between Terra and Ventus is insane.

 

• I spent a bit of time grinding back in Terra's file to get a taste of the endgame. But now I’m back playing Ven and just got Exp Walker. Always makes this game a breeze, even on Critical.
• Tbh I did die to Master Eraqus with Terra, so I must not be the KH master I think I am. I forgot to equip Cure because I was grinding commands (this happened a lot to be fair) and couldn’t take him out before I died lol.
• I wish we knew this trio a bit more before the game kicked off. I would have accomplished this in two ways. We see Ventus’s room, so we should also be able to go there. By extension we’d see more of the LoD this way and connect with their home more. I’d also have each Journal actually have writings from the individual characters in it. We should get inside their heads a bit more. Also for the love of god make things in the environment interactable lol.
  
• I love how different Ven and Terra’s storylines are and that they each see different parts of each world.
• Ven’s story is super tragic and satisfying. I mean so was Terra’s. I’m starting Aqua now.
• You're so weak at the beginning of Crit, it's almost a joke. I can see why people never play this difficulty. But tbh, once you get to around level 4 it starts turning in your favor.

 

• Bloody hell, thank god there are subtitles when Jaq talks.
• Now that the Disney storylines are ending, this is getting awesome. End of Castle of Dreams really felt right.
• I’m gonna try to get through these worlds as fast as I can, I really want to get EXP Walker out of the way.
• Bruisers are death as Aqua. Slow is the only way around them when you’re this weak (level 2).
• The more I play as Aqua, the more I hear the awkwardness in her vocal performance. Half the words seem confused.
• I love the axe in Prince Phillip’s cell. Like are they gonna chop his head off in a Disney game or something?
• Aqua has a really complicated relationship with mirrors.
• There’s a lot of romance in Aqua’s story for someone who doesn’t seem to be romantically into either of her friends.
• Finally at Radiant Garden. Where my Mandrakes at?
• On Crit there’s a breaking point where you go from utterly useless to completely broken. I melded Second Chance, Once More and Leaf Bracer at the same time and it was a small boost to say the least.
• So Aqua met Mickey 15 minutes ago yet doesn’t mention it to Minnie? Why?
• Then she’s surprised that Ven and Terra were there, even though Ven just gave them all the passes at the same time? Someone was sleeping when they wrote this.
• Wait, it seems like she might have some kind of feelings for Terra. I must have been blind as **** to not have keyed into this before.
  
• I’m right before the Vanitas fight in Neverland. Have a couple Mine Squares ready to make this fight cake.

 

• It took 10 hours but I’m about to do the end of Aqua’s story. I managed to get all her abilities during the normal play through so that’s nice. I’ll probably go right into the extra episodes after this to unlock everything in the post game for all three characters.
• Final Episode done. That was a lot shorter than I remembered.
• Ok, it’s Post Game time! I’m gonna start with Ven because he’s so fun to play. First things first, I’ll do what I can in the Arena while grinding out the commands I’ve yet to collect.
• Well damn, I thought I’d have all commands but some of these can’t be melded. Let the grind continue.
• Omg, Pete in Fruitball is a NIGHTMARE.
• The Ice Cream Beat bit took about 30 minutes. That’s a huge relief LOL.
• Those mini games weren’t too bad, actually. After the stories I’ve heard regarding Ice Cream Beat, this was fine. I am a rhythm master, of course.
• Getting the unique commands off the Command Board would have been a lot easier if I’d known they don’t appear in the Mirage Arena…
• It literally took 10 minutes to get those unique commands now that I know what I’m doing.
• Well, Ven is getting done with a lot of the optional stuff. But I still need to win a few games in the Arena and grind out those 9999 medals. That should provide 3-4 levels though which will be nice for the secret bosses.

 

• Need medals? Fight Monstro. Holy ****, I just finished the 9999 medals requirement and bought everything unique in the store in like fifteen minutes.
• Ok, that’s Eraqus unlocked. I’m going to go finish up some loose ends in the journal before I fight him.
• I found an insane leveling strat in Neverland buried on YouTube and it took a few hours to go from level 49 to 99. That wasn’t anywhere as tedious as I thought It would be.
• Secret boss time… I know these guys are considered some of the hardest bosses in the franchise on Critical, but I’m ready. I took down Lingering Will pretty confidently so I’m not shaken, yet. Here we go.
• Killed Eraqus in one go. He was a really cool fight but I’m ultimately too powerful. The i-frames in Thunder Surge are straight nonsense. I’m sure there’s a cooler way to do this fight but I’m not here to **** around.
• No Heart took 2 attempts and was a great fight. I love the two phases. Also, wtf is this Keyblade called Crown Radiance? I’ve never gotten this deep into Final Mix so I’ve never had it but wow, I’ll take it.
• Vanitas Remnant is insanely annoying. I’m on my fifth try here. I have the Surges still and the Curas because I heard if you go behind a rock he won’t heal.
• He’s healing, this isn’t working lol.
• Wow, I switched the Curas out for Hi-Potions and won on my 3rd try. This was an insanely hard fight though. I’m trembling thinking about MF.
• This isn’t the place to moan about KH3 but it always pissed me off that you never got Void Gear in that game. There were a lot of interesting Keyblades they missed out on because they went too hard on transformations which limited them on weapon design.
• I just killed MF on my first try. I must subconsciously really want to move on to DDD.
• I had to get a three star on one more Unversed Mission, but now Ven is done. I’m going to do Aqua next because she’s more interesting than Terra imo.

 

• I’m sort of in the endgame with Aqua already. I’m going to do some random stuff like finish off D-Links and mini-game Arena missions. Then probably do some leveling before taking on the secret bosses.
• Aqua’s movement is so awkward compared to Ven. Especially the way she comes out of Air Slide, it leaves you totally open.
• Ground out the medals. More Command Board games are next. I’m pretty good at them now, but they still annoy the **** out of me.
• It took 5 hours to get Aqua from level 60 to 99. It took Ven 3 hours to get from level 49 to 99. Crazy how much the battle levels not increasing for Aqua hurt her here. Also, her animation for Victory Pose is way too long.

 

• Got Vanitas Remnant on my 2nd try with Aqua.
• For some reason No Heart gave me the most trouble of the first three superposes this time around. I think he was so easy with Ven that I wasn’t sharp going in. Still, they’re all done and now all that’s left to 100% Aqua’s journal is MF.
• I beat this guy on my first try with Ven, so let’s see how I do with Aqua.
• Took three tries, but I took his ass down. The thing about these fights is as broken as these bosses are, Thunder Surge is more broken. My deck of Surge x5 Cura x3 has eventually worked every time.
• I do think the additional boost in Defense is worth it on Critical if you want to spend the 3ish hours it takes to grind to 99. There are certain moves that don’t force a heal if you do. It’s still totally unnecessary though.
• It’s finally time for Terra. He’s level 43 so I might start with some leveling now.
• Damn, his battle levels are low, too. Ven was the only one with level 10 in Neverland. Ah well, it’s 8 here like Aqua, so I imagine the grind will also take around 5ish hours.
• I need to remember to do Vanitas Remnant before No Heart this time. It’s the only way to make Void Gear useful, seeing as how Crown Radiance eclipses everything else.
• WAIT, Terra has Chaos Ripper. Surely nothing beats this, right?
• Funny I just said that, because I had to unequip Chaos Ripper. I was level grinding and my Thundagas were terrible. Then it hit me - Ripper gives Magic -2. So I equipped Pixie Petal and now I’m all good lol.
• His Victory Pose is long, too. Ven is the easy 99, whereas Terra and Aqua take another couple hours of dedicated grinding.

 

The secret bosses with Terra ended up being awkward compared to Ven and Aqua. He has a bigger window on his i-frames and that led to the MF and Remnant fights being a wild toss up. Ultimately I felled both, with Vanitas Remnant giving me the most trouble as he’s the least spammable with Surge of the 4 secret bosses and requires a large amount of dodging (Terra’s weakness) to beat. I won’t beat a dead horse because these bosses have been discussed to death but I can see why people dunk on Terra Crit so hard even if I thought it was a good but not insurmountable challenge.

I saved the Break Dance trophy for last, and popped the dance with Terra to trigger the plat. It was honestly an amazing moment - both as an accomplishment, and as relief from the nightmare that is the BbS trophy grind.

Even then, the Trinity Archives in the game’s menu were only at 97%, so I spent an extra 2 hours finishing that off to “perfect” my file so to speak.

So what do I think about BbS? There’s so much good and so much bad, it’s hard to begin. It delivers an incredible experience on tons of fronts - the combat, world selection and music all hit the spot. The maps unfolding from 3 points of view was clever and makes for fun exploration. But there’s also some magic missing in the exploration with the lack of NPCs or lore woven into the world itself. Nothing can be clicked on or interacted with beyond the Moogles, Save Points and Chests. It makes for a stale experience, especially when it comes to playing as three different characters, as you end up running through maps just grabbing chests on later runs - you’re not really exploring anymore, because you know there’s no reward beyond what you can simply see.

There’s also a feeling of the earlier parts of the game not really mattering because you can’t be surprised by anything. You know all 3 characters will end up at the Graveyard. That’s not really the story’s fault though, because it is a good one, but more the awkward situation Square put us/themselves in by having a video in KH2 be the climax to a game that came out like 4 years later. So the whole game feels like you’re just spinning your wheels while cruising to the Keyblade Graveyard - a problem I thought KH3 also had.

I could honestly write an essay about this game. I have no idea why it wasn’t a AAA PS3 title but here we are. I don’t think it aged well after going from KH2 into it and then into DDD after. That said it still probably has the best storyline of all the side games so I really don’t know. I’ll wait until I finish the full series run before I give my final verdict on this one.