Favorite Character Story and Favorite Character Battle-Style

[Veritas7340]

I got Birth by Sleep for Christmas and just beat the last story (Aqua's and Final Episode) Sunday.
Overall, I think BBS just might be my favorite KH game (and consequently, perhaps my favorite game overall).

Which Character's Story did you guys like the best? Which Character's Battle-Style did you guys like the best?

For me [My Opinion, Not Trying to Impose something arbitrarily]

Story:

1. Terra:

To me, Terra's story was the best. He was befriended and manipulated by Master Xehanort to give into the darkness. It's sad because Terra did not seem evil; in fact, he seemed like he had very good intentions. He wanted to protect his friends; who can argue with that? It seemed like the KH version of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. SW is my favorite movie series of all time and SW III is my third/fourth favorite SW movie, so it was pretty cool.

However, at the end when he confronted MX, it reminded me of the Return of the Jedi scene with Luke and Vader. (Putting a spoiler because you never know if someone hasn't seen a movie)

Spoiler Show

Luke is overcome by righteous fury to protect Leia from Vader & Sidious. The background music is eerily suspenseful for a reason, for if Luke did not control his anger, he could've struck down Vader while defenseless in hatred.

I believe that anger is such a volatile force that if it is not controlled with great discipline, it can evolve quickly into hatred. In the end, Luke managed to stop himself, to not succumb to hatred.

With Terra, I believe that he had righteous anger to protect his friends but that it evolved to hatred of Xehanort, which in the KH universe is darkness.


2. Aqua:

For a good portion of the first half, Aqua's story merely consists of following Terra and Ven around; not much happens yet. However, it was all right how she finished the plot-line for some of the worlds, which consisted of confronting the main villains.

What I really liked about Aqua's story though was everything from Neverland onward. She beat Vanitas several times. She saved all of the main characters. Throughout the story, she didn't even give the darkness consideration. Aqua is the noblest, and in my opinion, the truest hero of BBS. She took on some of the most powerful villains of BBS and managed to overcome them in the end.

3. Ven:

Ven's story is dead-last but only in relativity. Ven's story is still good too. What puts it at last place for me is the sudden change after Radiant Garden. He started off trying to save Terra from Vanitas's cryptic threat: "By the time you catch up with him, the Terra you know will be gone forever." Then suddenly, his new mission is to "try to make new friends"...... What, why? All the revealed plot points involving what Xehanort did to create Vanitas and his connection to the X-blade and Sora were cool, but to me, it doesn't overcome that weird plot change.


Battle-style

1. Aqua:

It was reaally close between Aqua and Ven. In the end, I enjoyed Aqua's battle-style the most. Her block, Barrier, is the best since it shields her from all sides. Her unique attacks, like Barrier Surge, Triple Firaga, and Firaga Burst, were amongst the best of the entire game in my opinion. Her command surges like Ghost Drive were just great too.

2. Ven:

He has the quickest attack style and it definitely shows in his command surges (Fever pitch, etc.). He has Dodge roll. It's really fun to play as Ven. I personally think that the Wingblade command surge is my second or first favorite in the game.

3. Terra:

He has powerful attacks, but his comrades are better than him in several ways. His dodge move is nowhere near as effective as those of Aqua and Ven. When he is knocked back, he has no payback raid like Aqua and Ven. Finally, his attack style is considerably slower than the aforementioned duo. However, I have to admit that his counter move and shotlock command are pretty good.

 

[Sim]

I agree with your ranking of the battle styles, but for the stories, my ranking would go~

1.Aqua
2.Ventus
3.Terra

I appreciate how they did something different from what we're used to, with Terra mainly interacting with the villains, but to me, Terra's story just felt a lot emptier than the other two. He didn't meet as many characters, there weren't as many cutscenes, and the worlds just felt really hollow as a result.

I liked Ventus and Aqua's stories better for feeling more like the traditional KH game, but Ventus's character definitely got on my nerves with his naivety. I mean, the second half of the game he's just wondering around trying to find friends; it doesn't feel as if his story has much direction. It's kind of funny because Ventus is one of my least favorite KH protagonists, while Roxas is easily my favorite. I just prefer the more serious, determined Roxas whose entire life is a struggle of finding his place in the world and some sense of self to the aloof and goofy Ventus who just bumbles around from world to world looking for friends.

Aqua combined the seriousness of Terra's story with the Disney feel and character interaction of Ventus' story, so her story felt the most rewarding to me personally. Also, Aqua's story is boosted by the fact that you get to play through the final episode as her. (and the secret episode <3. I can't wait to play BbS FM on my PS3)

Vanitas is one of my favorite characters in the game, so the absence of any Vanitas fights in Terra's story also brings it down a little.

 

[XINekuIX]

From greatest to least imo:
1. Terra, his story was amazing, he reminded me of Riku, and his story seemed to play the most key part. Also his character was mostly physical combat and brute force which is my playing style in kh games.

2. Ven,, because I loved his gameplay and story. He was a looser smoother fighter than Terra and is a mixture of both physical and magic. I also think from his ending he might be the reason Roxas doesn't look exactly like Sora.

3. Aqua was alright, fairly decent gameplay. Her story was more interesting than Ven's, but for the main part she highlighted everyone else's story for better understanding.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Since all three stories are one third of a whole experience I do not rate them in tiers, although in terms of story I do feel the need to clear something up about the seemingly weird change of objective in the second half of Ventus' story.

It's not like the story has no direction, but that in the second half of Ventus' story the focal point changes from "chasing blindly after Terra" (which was very naive to begin with) to Ventus learning about himself and changing.

To elaborate on the background of why this happens after Radiant Garden (and which is also why Ventus remains at that world for a while not knowing what to do until he meets Lea and Isa):

First we have to keep in mind that Ventus has only four years worth of memories due to losing all memories from before arriving at Land of Departure.
Second, Ventus, just as Terra and Aqua as well, has led a very sheltered life training under Eraqus with no major conflicts or disagreements coming as challenges to his friendship with the both of them.
Third, later on we learn that Eraqus actually kept an even tighter watch on Ven than on the other two, not only because he's younger, but also because of a mixed bag of wanting to protect the boy and to monitor him since he knew Xehanort did something to him.

This all leads to the situation that while TAV are friends and they love each other very much, Ventus himself has no idea of the possible dynamics a friendship can have nor of the different nuances that there can be. It extends not only to friendship, but probably a few other topics too which gives a logical reasoning for Ven's "naivety". If you recall, Terra had a great deal of this "naivety" due to having led a sheltered life before in his story as well.
Then comes the situation at Radiant Garden with Aqua and Terra bickering and going (verbally) at each other's throat.
Since Ventus never experienced such a tense situation between his best friends before he is confused and does not know how to handle it or what to make of it. Since Aqua and Terra mean everything to him as the closest form of "family" he has the fact that he can't do anything but watch their friendship "falling apart" makes him realize that he doesn't even truly know what having a true friendship even is all about nor how one can defuse tensions in it.

Afterwards, he tries to go along with either of the two in order to be of any assistance and try to get things "fixed", but is turned down because of them both not wanting to put him in danger, which leaves him pondering of what even to do.
This is then the situation when the meeting with Lea and Isa comes and Ventus realizes that the friendship between these two is notably different to what he is used to in the relationship he had with Terra and Aqua before at the Land of Departure.
So he sets out in order to learn more about the nature of friendship in general, in the hopes to get some clues on how to "fix" the issues with Aqua and Terra.

During his world visits afterwards, he himself makes quite some different forms of friendship himself with the three ducklings at Disney Town, Herc and Zack at Olympus, Stitch at Deep Space or Peter Pan and the Lost boys in Neverland. Each of those adds more to broaden his horizon and actually helps to shed his naivety which in turn bolsters his self-esteem and finally leads him to know what he wants to do.
Cue the big reveals coming when he finds the star shard at Neverland and eventually crosses paths with Master Xehanort. What he learns does throw him off greatly, but he doesn't break completely from it anymore. This is also shown later when he tells Vanitas "I'm through with you." and instead of cowering he vows to put an end to the whole issue with his own strength, even if that means to sacrifice himself in order to throw a wrench into Xehanort's plans.

Pre-Radiant Garden and "Friendship-tour"-Ventus would probably not have had the "guts" to do all this.

---

The battle styles are an interesting issue, as each of them have their merits.

Aqua's and Ven's styles are tied for me, as I like speedy characters and magic, they each excel in their different key areas and allow a wide variety of moves to use.
Ven has the best movement commands overall with things like glide etc., offensive commands that also Heal like Faith and his personal Command Styles (especially Wingblade) are among my most favorite moves in the whole series.
While Aqua is slightly behind in speed and agility, that she makes up with the best defense possible with her barrier (it even works in midair, making Mysterious Figure's laser orbs a breeze) and a terrific offense when you take the time to get her unique spells.
Her personal command styles (like Spell Weaver or Ghost Drive) are surely neat, but I found them a bit hard to control compared to Ven's and her HP as well as defense also isn't the greatest.

Second place is then Terra's, although his style also has its merits especially for crowd control with attacks like Meteor Crash, Chaos Blade or Quake. A single one of his hits is as strong as three or four of Ven's and any enemy who doesn't require a specific strategy or much of dodging (like all the secret bosses, lol) is easy peasy to be felled with Terra's strong blows.
When using Terra and being fed up with his low speed, I occassionally resort to use Ventus' D-Link which grants Haste, making Terra considerably faster and each single blow still hits like a truck.

 

[gamerobber7]

^ Really nice explanation Sephiroth.

Now for my turn.
Story-wise (they're all pretty close) :
1.Terra- I felt that Terra had some really interesting points in his story. Trying to prove himself to Eraqus, deciding whether MX is right about darkness, protecting his friends at any cost, and of course his ending which is pretty sad.

2.Ventus- Ven's story was great too because he didn't have any memories from a good chunk of his life but still found happiness in his life at LoD. Once the main plot happens his life falls apart with his friends leaving and arguing with each other, him finding out about his connection to Xehanort, and his part in making the X-blade. His sacrifice at the end was really great too. I did enjoy his connection with Sora at the beginning and end of the game as well as his friendship he makes with Mickey.

3. Aqua- While overall I enjoyed the other two stories better Aqua did have a well put together story too. The way she goes after her friends to help them, is the first to fight with Vanitas (multiple times at that), and is the one to help Ventus and hide him were great scenes to watch. I also think that her sacrifice to help both of her friends at the end was really tragic. The main reason Aqua is third is because while the other two had interesting developments in their stories throughout I didn't feel Aqua's story picked up until Neverland.

Battle style wise is a little easier to decide:
1. Ventus- I really latched on to Ven's play style because he's quick and has some fun command styles. It also helps he is a mix of the other two being stronger than Aqua and better at magic than Terra.

2. Aqua- She has a pretty unique moveset. Her cartwheel, barrier, and command styles were all fun to play with. The only reason she ranks below Ven is because it took me a while to get used to her battle style and because of her low HP I died the most with her. >_>

3. Terra- I would have to go with Terra for least favorite mainly because his style is slower and has less magic. While I do like his ability to wipe out lots of normal enemies at once when it comes to one on one it is harder to win with him.

 

[Veritas7340]

^ Really nice explanation Sephiroth.



3. Aqua- While overall I enjoyed the other two stories better Aqua did have a well put together story too. The way she goes after her friends to help them, is the first to fight with Vanitas

I liked your description of Ventus's story as well as Sephiroth's in-depth explanation of the second half of the Ven arc.

Just wondering, didn't Ven fight Vanitas first? Remember that when the trio unite at Radiant Garden this happens:

Ven: "The guy in the mask is history! He'll never bad-mouth Terra again!" -- This refers to Ven's battle with Vanitas at the Keyblade Graveyard before he goes to Radiant Garden

later on right before Aqua leaves Radiant Garden

Vanitas said something along the lines of 'Well, at least you know how to fight and Ventus doesn't or something like that (can't remember the line)

 

[gamerobber7]

I liked your description of Ventus's story as well as Sephiroth's in-depth explanation of the second half of the Ven arc.

Just wondering, didn't Ven fight Vanitas first? Remember that when the trio unite at Radiant Garden this happens:

Ven: "The guy in the mask is history! He'll never bad-mouth Terra again!" -- This refers to Ven's battle with Vanitas at the Keyblade Graveyard before he goes to Radiant Garden

later on right before Aqua leaves Radiant Garden

Vanitas said something along the lines of 'Well, at least you know how to fight and Ventus doesn't or something like that (can't remember the line)

..... Well I was wrong then. xD You're right I must've mixed up the timeline.

 

[Veritas7340]

It happens. It's kind of funny in a way -- your liking Ven's story and battle style more and yet accidentally giving Aqua the credit for first altercation with Vanitas.

Come to think of it, it's too bad Terra and Vanitas never got a proper 1v.1 battle; that would've been cool

 

[Sephiroth0812]

^ Really nice explanation Sephiroth.

Thanks. ^__^

I liked your description of Ventus's story as well as Sephiroth's in-depth explanation of the second half of the Ven arc.

Just wondering, didn't Ven fight Vanitas first? Remember that when the trio unite at Radiant Garden this happens:

Ven: "The guy in the mask is history! He'll never bad-mouth Terra again!" -- This refers to Ven's battle with Vanitas at the Keyblade Graveyard before he goes to Radiant Garden

later on right before Aqua leaves Radiant Garden

Vanitas said something along the lines of 'Well, at least you know how to fight and Ventus doesn't or something like that (can't remember the line)

I couldn't really restrain myself as the reasons of why that second part of Ven's story happens as well as the change that brings about in the kid gets often overlooked or dismissed.
I guess this is however also partly to blame on the less than optimal scenario writing of the KH games in general.

Yea, Ven did face Vanitas first, however Aqua does deserve the credit to be the first to kick Vanitas' butt one on one, since in his first fight with him Ventus had help from Mickey in defeating Van.
This is actually also an indicator of how much stronger Ventus became both battle prowess-wise and mentally over the course of his journey as later on during the final battles he defeats Vanitas alone twice in a row, and during the second round even when Vanitas was wielding a prototype of the ultimate Apocalypse weapon.

As for Terra and Vanitas going one on one, considering Terra's raw power and that he's on the same power level as Aqua, I would assume that Terra would have trashed him, lol.

 

[kingscr34m11]

I played all three stories at the same time, changing characters after each world. It definitely made it feel like each was dependent on the others but I guess if I had to pick my number one would be Terra's. It alone had major implications, not just for the other two stories but the whole series. They probably could have fleshed out his story and made a game just about him.

Then Ven's because it gave us a bit more detail on Sora's story with Aqua last because all her story did was plug up the plot holes.

Favorite te battle style is without a doubt Terra, dat raw power, then Ven, the speed was cool but more of what we've already played, and finally Aqua again, because I don't particularly use magic.

 

[Absent]

Favorite Story: Aqua, simply because of the behind the scenes scenarios and the Final Episode. Also she redeemed women as main characters in the series.
Battle Style: Aqua, because I adapted to her style the quickest. I did the order of Terra/Ventus/Aqua but found myself struggling to get used to them. I will say Ventus was a breath of fresh air after the using Terra.
Which reminds me, I never used Block until Aqua because it was somewhat hard to use it effectively, Barrier saved me so many times in proud mode. Aqua is broken, I'm sorry but after Castle of Dreams my magic destroyed everything, it was so hard to get back into Terra and Ventus without expecting more. Also Aqua redeemed Magic as whole for me as well.
Aqua in Mirage Arena is godsend.
Usually the character you begin with is usually the most powerful/used one in your game, but that for me was not true.

 

[Gram]

As with Sephiroth I dont rank story but as far as battle style my favorite is Aqua.

I felt like an actual mage when using her and it was fun granted her cartwheel and barrier make her the easiest to use I still like her style.
She also had one of the more fun command styles to me with Ghost Drive.

Second for me would be Terra. After playing through Aqua and Ven's styles that focused more on magic and speed Terra's style was a run change of pace. It was fun just to charge in using basic and keyblade command attacks and his ultima cannon is by far the coolest shot lock.

Aqua is broken, I'm sorry but after Castle of Dreams my magic destroyed everything, it was so hard to get back into Terra and Ventus without expecting more. Also Aqua redeemed Magic as whole for me as well.

The entire game is broken. Thanks to melding, so long as you know what your doing, you can pretty much break the game from the get-go with any character.

 

[VenTer]

From greatest to least imo:
2. Ven,, because I loved his gameplay and story. He was a looser smoother fighter than Terra and is a mixture of both physical and magic. I also think from his ending he might be the reason Roxas doesn't look exactly like Sora.

Yes, after the final battle with Vanitas, Ventus's heart returned to Sora's heart. As in told in KH 1, when Sora wanted to free Kairi's heart inside him,Ventus's heart has been in Sora's heart for a long time. So when Sora stabs himself to free Kairi's heart and he turns into a heartless, Roxas and Namine were born. Roxas got his appearance from Ventus, while Namine got her blond hair from Ventus too.
Because Sora's heart and Kairi's heart and Ventus's heart are in one body.

 

[KeybladeGuy]

I like Ven's battle style. The backwielding of his keyblade is cool looking at satisfying when hitting unversed. However, of the three BBS protagonists, he's my least favorite.

 

[kuraudoVII]

This is a bit difficult for me to sort in regards to story, but if I were to pick the best one, it would be a toss-up between Terra and Ventus' with Aqua's following just behind. My line of reason for this is that Terra had one of the more interesting more mature take on Riku's journey in Reverse/Rebirth except his had a more realistic outcome than Riku's. It was also interesting to see the villains trying to persuade Terra and, in the case of Master Xehanort, succeeding for the most part. I'd mention the whole Terra=Anakin analogy, but I think that that particular globule of information is basically a "Luke, I am your father" moment, so yeah.

Ventus sort of ties with Terra here since, as Sephiroth already said, his story was essentially a story of growth from a naive kid to a mature and steady friend and warrior. His fights with Vanitas were some of the best parts of the entire series due to some of the banter between the two as well as the nature of their existences. Ventus overcoming Vanitas on his own at the end of the game was extremely satisfying for me and made me feel awesome for having played that segment.

Aqua just barely falls underneath both. Her story is not bad by any means - it's actually one of the best stories in the series - but most of her most interesting moments don't occur until the game is nearly over (Radiant Garden and Neverland excepted). I think part of the reason that I find the others' stories more interesting is that they changed more than Aqua did.

As for playstyles, my favorite is unquestionably Ven's, then Aqua, then Terra. With Ventus, it was the easiest to adjust to since he basically played like Sora and Roxas in addition to having more speed and fluid attacks than Terra and Aqua.

While I don't like Aqua's style as much as Ventus', I've grown very attached to it since I've held onto it far longer than the others due to the extra episodes as well as preparing to (and beating) Vanitas' Lingering Sentiment and Young Master Xehanort as her. Also, Ghost Drive is UNFAIRLY BROKEN and fun to use.

Terra's is fun and all, but he tends to be very slow without certain D-Links and Command Styles. He has the hardest time with bosses due to this and his significantly larger hitbox. Still, it's hilarious defeating Terranort with just Block and Counter.

 

[Pisceanreve]

Hm...my favorite playing style is probably Aqua's. I love her magic and the design of her movements.
As for story, arghh...it's a toss-up between Terra and Ven. I'm going to say Terra even though I found his character a little dull. I wonder if a better voice actor could have lent a more dynamic personality to Terra?
I liked Ven's story a lot, but Terra's was different--sort of dipping into the dark side unintentionally and that whole ending was just... arghh upsetting! Though Ven's story seemed friendlier; I like a balance between lightheartedness and darkness (no pun intended) in my storylines. Hmm...I'll have to play it again!
(And I really have no choice as I lost my memory card for my PSP XP)

 

[dgdx218]

I agree that Terra did have the best story out of the three and it did remind me a lot of SWIII(my favorite out of the prequels). Next for me was Ventus because I find the whole x-blade thing pretty interesting, but the rest was pretty boring. He also seemed liked the center of BbS, as he had a bit more to do with every one else. Like how MX went to Terra because his original "successor" Ventus didn't make the cut. And how Aqua made Castle Oblivion in order to keep Ven safe. To me it seemed that Ven had a bigger impact on the overall story than Aqua. In Aqua's story she didn't really do anything until the end of her part. While what happens is great it just took way too long to get there. I did like to she her adjust to being a keyblade master but again that isn't until the end. Overall Aqua's story was my least favorite but I still enjoyed it.


In terms of gameplay, Ven was my favorite because I prefer quick light attacks over slow heavy ones. And I LOVE Fever Pitch because he was even quicker then. Next was Aqua because she was different from any of the other playable characters in the series and it was refreshing. However I do think she was also the hardest to get used to because of this. I also loved the magic that she could use because I think she had more exclusive spells than both Terra and Ven. My least favorite was Terra because of how slow he is and he dodging was the worst of the three.


Also in my opinion each character had there own set difficulty. Terra was the easiest(largest attack stat), Ven was medium(not as strong as Terra but can take a hit better than Aqua), and Aqua was hard(because of how fragile she is and how different she is from every character in the series in terms of fighting style.

 

[MyNameisAnsem]

Terra's story, Ven's gameplay were the best. I never played much Aqua though, so I don't remember much of it. Ven ended up becoming my favorite to play as ever since I played the Mirage Arena with a friend for the first time. At that point, Ven was the only one who's story I'd beaten, so I had to play as him. After so long, I just sort of stuck with him.

 

[Kok0roxGuardian]

My favorite character would have to be Roxas, battle scene? Gosh, there are just so many...probably his fight with Xion. I remember just sobbing after that, but I did see it coming as she wasn't mentioned in any game taking place after that. It made me so upset!

BBS was actually the first of anything that I liked characters besides the main character. Ventus is a really good character. But Aqua holds a dear place in my heart too. As for Terra he's cool but not one of my favorites. I always found his fight with Terranort extremely difficult.

 

[BlueKey777]

storyline wise:

1. Terra has the most interesting story because it involves master Xehanort a lot

2. Aqua has a good storyline beacause shes trying to be a friend and a leader

3. Ventus's story didn't really appeal to me for some reason...



Battle:
Aqua
Ven
Terra