Kingdom Hearts

Specifically, "Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep" for the PSP.

I was introduced to the game on PS2 and played through Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.

I understand that sometimes companies like to make a prequel to current titles (ie. God of War for PSP). It makes playing the game and understand the story fun. However, I have a slight issue with Kingdom Hearts. While the story shouldn't be that confusing, it is the release of the games that annoys me.

So, according to the Kingdom Hearts wikipedia, this is the order of the games...

Birth by Sleep (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
Chain of Memories (GBA, re-released on PS2)
358/2 Days (NDS)
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
coded (mobile phone)
Dream Drop Distance (future title)
Kingdom Hearts III (future title)

Here's the issue... they released games on other platform that some fans may own. They did re-release some on PS2 but some titles were only available in Japan. I don't think I would spend money on a console for just ONE game.

I thought Birth by Sleep was pretty fun in game play. The fact that you need to play ALL three characters to understand the whole story makes the game that much more re-playable. Although, each character's game play is only about 8-10 hours depends on if you are the treasure loving person. And if you collect all of them, you there is a "Final Episode" that concludes all three storylines.

Which brings me to my issue... what the heck happened? Birth by Sleep (BbS) is suppose to be the prequel to Kingdom Hearts (KH) but after finishing BbS, I am having trouble connecting the stories. How does the 3 characters link to the KH main characters? What's gonna happen to the girl who sacrificed herself to save her friends?

Gameplay wise, it's just like the original KH but I find that sometimes the buttons would not respond to what I do and I get killed... one thing I did learn from this game is how the "block" is quite handy in beating bosses. You could literally stand there, smash the block key and counter attack and win.

I think I need to replay KH and KH2...