How Not to Suck At Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

If you've been playing Kingdom Hearts since 2003 this post is not for you. If you picked up Birth By Sleep on a whim for your PSP and you're finding it tough, here are a few tips:

1. Meld. Meld again. And then meld again.
It may not seem important as you play, but when it comes to boss time, you'll be sorry if you didn't. The meld list is very long too. You may want to buy a strategy guide or looks online, like here so you know what makes what. That way you won't waste a bunch of leveled up spells.

2. Backtrack.
If you seem stuck at a certain point, backtrack to the places you've already been. It can feel like a waste of time, but you will find things you missed and level up as you go.

3. Command board.
It's weird. There's no reason to have a board game in the middle of an rpg. They could have made everything easier to get in the main game and not had a command board, but they didn't. So use it. It's an alright distraction from the regular game play and can help you level up.

4. Stay in touch with the story.
You can mostly go where you want and do what you want in this game. For this reason, it can be hard to keep up with what is happening. Notice the battle levels on the different worlds as they open. You don't have to do them in difficulty order, but it's not a bad idea. The fights will gradually get harder, and the storyline will more logically progress.

5. Take notes.

There's enough spells, abilities, and items to keep up with that you may want to take notes. I had a group of pages for each character as I played, and my organization got a little better with each play-through. I used a steno notebook because it's already formatted for columns. Some may feel that taking notes for a game is too much like work, but its quicker, in my opinion, than having to constantly refer to the guide book or in-game menus.

The inherent flaw/advantage in Birth by Sleep is that you will play the game three times. Each time you play, it's gets a bit easier, but also a little more boring.

How to not suck at Katamari

Ok, you may think its impossible to suck at this game. All you do is roll stuff up. If that is your mindset, this post is not for you. If you like playing the game, but keep getting insulted by the King of All Cosmos as he abuses you, here are a couple of tips.

1. Non-stop Rolling.
Try to never stop moving. even if you are rolling up little things, it's better than rolling up nothing. Aim for always hearing the pluck of new items on your Katamari.

2. Find a Path.
If you do a Prince Look, you will often see that the level is laid out in a pattern or path. Once you understand the paths, you don't need to prince look to find them every time.

3. Stay in Your League
Try to stay around things you can pick up. Don't wander too far away where everything knocks you around. You'll loose a lot of time, and possibly shrink your Katamari in the meantime.

4. Look for Hidden Spaces.
Often there are doors that open to reveal a hidden space filled with things to roll. (In Beautiful Katamari, there's a room filled with gold bars or Xboxes.) When rolling outside, look for shops or restaurants you can enter. Usually they are packed with easy to roll items. These places have a dual purpose: you quickly grow your Katamari and leave with a more complete collection.

5. If at First You Don't Succeed, Try Again
Familiarity with the level is a huge bonus in Katamari. You learn what you can roll up and when, so you can have a mental game plan about which areas to tackle first. For example, in indoor levels, I try to stay on tables or shelves as long as possible, because items are often bigger and closer together than on the wide open floor. And, once on the floor it's hard to tell where you are and what's around you without taking the time to Prince Look.

The katamari games, albeit a bit redundant, are among my favorites on any system. I usually don't buy a new (non-nintendo) system until there is a Katamari game for it. I know that sounds strange, but they never have multi-platform releases, and it so happens that the price has often dropped by the time it comes out.

How to Not Suck: Lumines

Truthfully, I still don't know the answer. My PSP is still pretty new (though already undermined) and I'm trying to build up a library. One of the few games I remembered playing was the original Lumines on a friend's PSP. I obviously didn't remember how bad I suck at it (really really sucked, for the record). I rarely return or sell games once I buy them, and I was determined to keep from making an exception.

The basic concept of the game is to get a single colored block of four squares grouped together. Many squares together are worth more points. The blocks are dissolved by a vertical time line, which moves incessantly (just like time!) across the screen, from left to right. The blocks eventually start falling faster and faster, and you must scramble to get the screen cleared. It's a tetris-style "how long can you last?" type of thing.

I kept playing with only fluke-like moments of success before utter failure. Frustrated, I went to the tutorial. I didn't want to need the tutorial, because it's a damn puzzle game. If it just said "get a block of the same color to win! More blocks equal more points! Good Luck!" I'd be even more pissed.

And that's mostly what it said, with some helpful animations. This tutorial showed me that it could be done, but I just didn't understand how to replicate the process. Searching the menus for more options, I found a mission mode that acted as an action tutorial. I was asked to dissolve blocks in a certain number of moves (often one or two). By solving the puzzles, I learned the strategy of the game that I had been lacking. (On a separate note, I still don't understand the puzzle mode.)

So, I know how to suck less at Lumines: Try the mission mode and practice a lot. I got 15th today on the scoreboard, my highest finish so far. Still, I fear being truly skilled at Lumines may forever elude me.