The combat system is a bit deeper with you equipping skills which unlock style forms which change how your character fights and is pretty fun, though it's still lot of running and whacking things though no frustrating platforming like the original. I feel the plot is much better though it depends on who you play as. Terra's story is kind of a start of darkness tale, Ventus plot is probably the weirdest and far out there of the bunch but makes sense in context with the other two character scenarios and Aqua's plot is pretty good. Overall I feel BbS is probably the strongest entry in the KH franchise and luckily it doesn't require you to play the other games to understand because it is a prequel. If you're still not convinced, don't sweat it.

Instead I feel I should bug Del to play the console versions of Persona 3 because it plays more like a traditional RPG though you still do all the social link stuff.