The 3rd Birthday (Japanese: ザ・サード バースデイ, Hepburn: Za Sādo Bāsudei) is a 2010 action role-playing game developed by HexaDrive and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable.

A key mechanic is the Overdive ability, which allows the player to possess pre-positioned human allies and inflict damage upon enemies.

The game takes place in 2013, a year after creatures known as the Twisted have appeared from beneath Manhattan and decimated the city.

Among their number is series protagonist Aya Brea, who was found unconscious and suffering amnesia two years before the game's events.

Among the staff were Hajime Tabata, Yoshinori Kitase, Motomu Toriyama, Isamu Kamikokuryo, and Aya's original designer Tetsuya Nomura.

Depending on her score, she will earn differing amounts of Bounty Points, a currency used to customize weapons and repair protective gear in the hub area.

When activated, Aya enters "Liberation Mode", a state enabling her to move around the battlefield at high speed for a short period of time.

Overdive can be activated at any time, enabling Aya to transport around the battlefield to avoid enemy attacks or save herself when her current unit's health is low.

[1][2] In addition to leveling up, Aya's stats can be customized using Over Energy (OE) clips found during missions or acquired during Overdive attacks.

Bohr masterminded the death of other High Ones in order to form the Grand Babel, which functions like a giant Overdive system.

In a post-credits sequence four years after the game's events, Eve is walking the streets of New York and is wished a "Happy Fourth Birthday" by a woman resembling Aya.

As work was being finished on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Nomura voiced his wish to create a new game for the character Aya Brea, and this time it was taken up.

[14] The final version of the game was co-developed by Square Enix and HexaDrive, a company created by former Capcom staff members.

[15] As the new form of The 3rd Birthday had transformed into a third-person shooter, Square Enix wanted staff members with experience at developing such games, and then-company CEO Yoichi Wada recommended HexaDrive to Tabata.

As multiple HexaDrive staff members had also worked on fellow shooter Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Tabata agreed to the collaboration.

[15] While aiming for a high quality product, the team designed the game as if for the PlayStation 3 home console, then worked to fit it onto the PSP.

[17] While working inside the control and hardware limitations of the title, the team created firearms and the lock-on mechanic as the fundamental attack action, instead of the free-roaming style of a standard third-person shooter.

[19] Nomura was among the first to suggest this feature originally, tying it with increased enemy difficulty to present a dilemma to players who "might purposely make her take damage just to see more of her body".

[20] When the title was being developed for PSP, the team's main challenge with the character was to make her look as realistic as possible while retaining her established physical traits.

It was originally only going to represent the number, but Nomura added the extra lines to display the game's "multi-faceted" nature.

[6] A notable addition was the option to skip cutscenes, a feature the team regretted leaving out of Crisis Core.

[6] When she was originally asked to compose for the title, she was involved with a number of other projects which made handling the entire score difficult.

Re-orchestrations of two pieces of classical music, "Sleepers Wake" by Johann Sebastian Bach, and "Joy to the World", a popular Christmas song, were used by Suzuki and Shimomura respectively to represent key moments and motifs within the game.

[27] During production, Nomura and Tabata stated that the team were aiming to sell 500,000 copies of the game, a sales-goal based strategy they had previously used for Crisis Core.

[29] Eurogamer's Kristan Reed was less enthusiastic, referring to the conflicts with the Twisted as "relentless and ultimately repetitive", finding the high difficulty off-putting and Aya's movement speed unsuited for battle.

[4] Game Informer's Annette Gonzalez enjoyed the control layout and gameplay, but cited difficulties with the camera.

[31] Carolyn Petit of GameSpot said that the game sometimes succeeded in creating tension, but that other battles were frustrating and the camera was difficult.

[1] IGN's Patrick Kolan was pleased with the effort put into the game, and generally praised the battle and later levels, despite several cases of repetition during the main campaign.

[29] Petit praised the CGI cutscenes and varied level environments, and said the score "shifts adeptly between haunting and thrilling to suit the action.

"[30] Parish positively noted connections to the second game, but found the later story developments either confusing or weak, and disliked the way returning supporting characters had been changed.