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Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of memories starts off exactly right where Kingdom Hearts left off. It connects Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II and explains the beginning of the second installment.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy, follow a mysterious man in black coat Castle Oblivion, a place where 'to lose is to find and to find is to lose'. upon stepping into the castle, you are approached by the hidden man who gives Sora a card, stating, ' The more you find out, the more you lose.' The card he gives he shows a familiar placeTraverse Townand upon activating the card, Sora is transported to the town where his adventures first began. Once he gets there, however, he realizes that this place isn't real and the friends he's made and the people he'd met had forgotten him. As he continues to revisit the worlds he had once saved from the ebbing darkness, Sora finds himself unable to understand if the memories he has are real or if they're make believe.
As he continues his journey, Sora finds is hard to remember the faces of the people he had traveled with-even forgetting about finding Riku. As you go along your adventure, stringing together lost memories and discarding old ones, you'll meet the characters from the first gameand even some new faces will appear. You'll encounter Organization XIII, realize what's truth and what's fiction, and, given the chance, unlock the second part of the game.
There are many things that separate this game from its prequel and sequel. The battling system is unique, how you play is absolutely genuine, and the very story line of the game is compelling. Now lets address these topics so one does not get confused as to exactly how different this game is.
First off, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories isn't like your typical role playing game. It combines tactics with fighting and introduces a new way of defeating your obstacles: cards. In this games battle system you must use cards to release your attacks. There are many different types of cards ( ones for attacking, ones for combos, ones for magic, and ones to release finishing moves ). These cards can run out and to replenish them you have to 'charge' them so to speak by holding in a button. If you run out of cards you can't continue fighting. You can collect the cards, make decks, get rid of the ones you don't want, and combine them to form more powerful cards. Not only do these cards allow you to fight, but they allow you to proceed in the game. Certain cards unlock rooms and you can use these cards to 'synthesize' a room, changing it. They allow passage into other worlds-or memories of that world. And, if you give it enough time and patience, find secret cards to unlock sealed rooms that hold valuable treasure.
Another major change in the game is how you play it. Instead of fighting alongside Donald and Goofy, Sora fights solo, using his friends as special battle cards that come and aid you during battle.
Leveling up is, refreshingly, up to you. Once you achieve a level, you decide what you want to level up. Whether you want to give Sora more hp, allow him to hold more cards, or learn new abilities, is completely up to you.
The layout of the worlds is slightly different then Kingdom Hearts fans are used to. Each section of the world you are in is a room made out of Sora's memories. Now, what's interesting about knowing the layout of a room you'll only be in for a few minuets? Everything. Strategy is a crucial part in deciding the rooms you are in. For example, the cards you collect from enemies are used to unlock the door to the next 'room'. And each card has a different type. Green, red, blue, or yellow. And each type has a title which allows certain things to happen. If you use a card that slow heartless down, then that 'room' is designed to follow that card. As stated before, cards completely rule the game. So when the time comes to unlock a door, choose carefully as it can be in favor for you or against you.
Once you get the hang of the battle system, you can complete the game easily and then focus your attention on finding the hidden secrets through out the game. But even then, you're not quite done.
Once you finish the game, you're not completely done. Once you return to the main menu There will be a third option to choose from: Reverse/Rebirth. By selecting this option, you have engaged yourself in Riku's story. Playing as Riku you battle the darkness in you and try and stay discrete as you unknowingly fight in the same memories as Sora is. Playing as Riku is exactly like playing as Sora: cards as the battle system and playing solo, choosing what you want to level up ( Hp, dark power, or attack. )
Both sides of the game are equally challenging and engaging, promising a never before experienced game play.
Overall, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories was a worthwhile experience. It features the voice cast of the original Kingdom Hearts and engaging music from all three games. The graphics are eye pleasing and the cut scenes allow you view the game as if it were an actual anime. However, if you want to forge ahead and skip these scenes, you are given the option if you pause the scene. Reaction commands are given when needed, and you choose the difficulty of your game.
The game itself comes packaged in a holographic game case, displaying Sora and Riku along with fragments of memory that display other important characters such as the artistic girl shrouded in mystery, Donald and Goofy, and the ever reliable King Mickey. Along with the game you receive three beautiful Kingdom Hearts postcards, each displaying a different image, along with a full color booklet that gives you all the information you need to start of. My only quelm about the game is that map system you are given. Basically it only shows you which way you're pointing so make sure to take note of the room your in as it can get confusing as to which door you have and haven't used yet.
Originally the second disk in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, North America finally presents: Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories.
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Pros:
+Revamped version of a classic Gameboy Advance title
+Interesting card battling system
+Updated Graphics and Sound
+Enticing story
Cons:
-Not enough voice acting
Around 2004, Square-Enix released Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on the Gameboy Advance. It was easily one of the most rewarding games on the system, but it didn't really fall into the hands of too many GBA owners. That was pretty sad when you consider it was not simply a spin off. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories fits into the canon of the tale of Sora, Donald and Goofy. If some of the story in Kingdom Hearts II seemed confusing, it may have been because you didn't play Chain of Memories on the Gameboy Advance. Luckily, Square-Enix has released it on the Playstation 2, fully revamped and largely unchanged.
Chain of Memories takes place right where the first game left off with Sora, Donald and Goofy chasing after Pluto to find King Mickey. Their chase eventually takes them to Castle Oblivion, a place that holds all of Sora's memories. As Sora traverses Castle Oblivion, he'll be forced to conquer many of his memories from the first game.
Castle Oblivion consist of thirteen floors which are all representative of worlds you've been to in the first Kingdom Hearts game. Throughout you'll run into plenty of familiar faces. It's here where you'll first be introduced to members of Organization XIII and other elements that played a fairly large role in Kingdom Hearts II. As you play, it's easy to be overcome with nostalgia yourself.
Combat in this remake of Chain of Memories is pretty much the same as the original. While in the original two games combat was pretty standard and straight forward, Chain of Memories has a card based battle system. Cards dictate just about everything. It dictates items, magic and when you can attack. Each time you swing the Keyblade the card on top gets sent back to the bottom of the deck. You'll find yourself having to reshuffle your deck a lot of times. There's a big emphasis on strategy here as well. You'll be forced to really consider your actions. You definitely can't rely on button mashing this time around. As a result, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is also a pretty hard game. You've also go no Donald or Goofy to help you unless you've got the right card which summons them into battle.
Your enemies also have cards in play. The success of your strikes depends largely on the number. If you've got a higher number than the enemy, you'll be successful. Likewise, enemies are always dropping cards. You'll need them to access new areas and just to have a better deck overall. You'll also need cards to perform sleights, which are more or less Sora's special moves.
The card system is surprisingly complex for what is otherwise a simple game. As I said, there's a lot of challenge to the game. Overall, however, it probably makes it more fun to play. You could easily conquer Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II by relentless button mashing. Most Kingdom Hearts fans will probably welcome the challenge. You probably won't have to level grind, but you will find that you need to battle much more than in the other games. Battling with this card system in place, however, can get repetitive.
The biggest difference between the Gameboy Advance game and this one is obviously the graphical overhaul. Truthfully, the Playstation 2 game looks no different than either of the other Kingdom Hearts games. This is a very good thing. It's always running consistently, despite all the chaos that can be going on at one time. The music has also been revamped. The game sounds much better. There's been some voice acting thrown in as well, but not nearly as much as you might think. There's quite a bit of unspoken dialog throughout.
For those who've played Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II to death you need to pick up Chain of Memories. It answers all the questions of what took place between the two games and it comes at a bargain price. It's a game that no Kingdom Hearts fan should pass up.
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The Kingdom Hearts series is synonymous with fun gameplay, eye-catching environments and an interesting story. Unfortunately, Square/Enix & co. decided to throw one third of that mix out the window when they made this game. This game (which is a remake of the Game Boy Advance title Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories) features a truly odd spin on combat, in which cards are required to do ANYTHING in battle. You can't even swing your Keyblade without using cards to make that happen! It hampers the fun, action-intensive element of combat with a whole lot of fumbling around to get the right cards lined up at the right time.
The game still features pretty (if somewhat limited) scenery, and of course it's great to fill those pesky story-gaps that were left between KH and KH2...but why did they have to do so in some sort of bizarre Yu-Gi-Oh card-flinging fashion?? I'm sure there's those out there who enjoy this change but I feel that it's an unnecessary revamp of gameplay that detracts from the overall experience, instead of adding to it. In a 3-D world with full range of motion, restricting even your most basic attacks to what cards you have in hand is ridiculous. Imagine...you're in mid-air, pounding some justice into an enemy, when suddenly you run out of cards and can't do much of anything until you've had a chance to run away a bit and reload your deck.
I do like the story and I will get as much use out of the game as I can, but I really don't like the changes. It's like having a driving game which you control with your abdominal muscles, or a facial-gesture-controlled martial arts combat game...an unneccesary amount of abstraction from the natural jumping-dodging-and-swinging-my-weapon-at-lightning-speed action/adventure vibe.
Honest reviews on Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
First, like many reviewers have already stated, this is not the Kingdom Hearts you have experienced on the PS2. If you expect somthing like those games, or forget to take into account that this game was originally released for the Gameboy Advance, you will constantly be shaking your head in a "why did they do this" kind of way.
Some history, this game the remade PS2 version of the GBA game was originally a bonus feature to a director's cut of Kingdom Hearts 2 released in Japan. (The Japanese market actually gets a lot of these. I think that is because as JRPGs are usually released in Japan first and then tweaked for the NA market, they feel the need to go back and re-release the game in Japan with the tweaks and possibly some added features, who knows.) Because of this I think it would be a bit much to expect the entire GBA game to be completely remade.
That said, this game does sport some impressive production values, i.e. some actual voice acting by many of the original actors including Haley Joel Osment as Sora. The use of the KH1 engine bring most visuals up to par as well.
But this is where things can get confusing. Many people will wonder "why do I need to use these cards wouldn't it just be easier to have the old control setup back????" Well the truth is, without the card battle system this game would be almost TOO simplistic. This game is really a dungeon crawler with a veneer of strategy derived form the card system. Gone is almost all the exploring and platforming bits from the first 2 games. So without the card system to occupy a lot of your time, that is thinking about your deck, you would spend a LOT more time complaining about just how generic that individual rooms are.
Which gets us to the dungeon crawling bit of the game. Each "world" is a floor in Castle Oblivion and you complete the world by using a map card to "generate" a room. The number of rooms and the general layout is constant but what is in the room is generated by the map cards. Progress through the rooms to unlock the story elements. Wash, rinse, repeat.
What keeps this from getting repetitive and old is the strategy of the card system and the unlocking of the story bits. The worlds themselves generally follow the same storyline as that of the first game, i.e. the Queen is still irratated with Alice and you need to help her, and so on. The real meat of the story, which keeps you playing, is the bits that are revealed about Organization 13 and what happened between KH 1 and 2.
Downsides? Well, the camera is still pretty hectic though nowhere near as bad as KH1 if you don't lock onto the heartless. I never did as locking on seemed to keep you targeted to a single enemy where you seem to attack the closest enemy without lock. Not really a problem as most magic still hits without the manual lock and combos attack the same enemy as well.
Breaking stuff in the room reveal goodies as well but the fact that these acquired goodies don't register for a couple of seconds after grabbing them can be very frustrating. This is because battles aren't random per se, but engaged after you touch an enemy in the room. The issue is that enemies appear or "pop" on screen when you get close. This is only problematic of course you are waiting for that magic card you just snagged to register when a heartless appears nearby and bee-lines it for you, touching you before you collect the card. The common Hearltess (those little black guys) are really fast making this happens more than it should and can be very aggrivating when it does.
Still, nitpicks aside and understanding what you are purchasing can make this game a good experience. The gameplay value is here lengthwise as well.
3.5 stars. Bump that up to 4 if you are very interested in knowing more of the KH storyline and have an affinity for a little strategic thinking with your dungeon crawlers. 3 stars if you don't fit the above description; fun but you won't be getting the most out of it.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
When I first started playing Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, I was a little hesitant with the new fighting system. But after getting used to it, I found it very invigorating and it turned out to be a great move on SE's part. This game bridges the gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, and makes you really understand what is going on at the beginning of KH2. The added cut scenes and transition to PS2 has made the game extremely enjoyable, adding replay value over the original. Whether you've played the GBA version or not, I would recommend getting this game. If you love the other 2 games in the series, then this is a must have.
