One might be thinking: isn’t this a very old game released on the GBA that no one played? Well yes, it is an old game however the one I am going to review is the newly released PS2 version (even though I own both because I am a complete sucker). Despite what many may already figure from the title, this is not exactly “just another Kingdom Hearts game,” largely due to the interesting card based combat system. Already most people would be turned off to the game for one if not both reasons: it is a Kingdom Hearts game, and it is a card game. Coming into this game I did not care and in fact enjoyed the game more because of the former reason. Cutting down to brass tax however, this game certainly isn’t without its flaws but it can be entertaining if you want it to be.
Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories is a card battling game wherein you, the player, control Sora (the keyblade master, duh) and through the cards you create your destiny. The story revolves around Sora and company (Goofy and Donald) as they stumble upon Castle Oblivion in the middle of nowhere while questing to level 80. They enter (like the idiots they are) and shit hits the fan. A hooded man (from the Organization XII in case you didn’t know) tells them some China riddle speak like “to lose is to gain” and then throws a card at Sora with ferocity. Being the main character (indicated by his spiky hair) Sora catches the card in such a fashion that he upstages the superb fastball the hooded man launched toward him. Cursing under his breath, the hooded man disappears with smoke and mirrors. After hours of searching the room Sora finally decides to see if the only door in the room (the one they entered disappear obviously) will open. As he gets close to the door the card he was given has a chemical reaction shooting lazers, bullets, bullet-lazers, and strobe lights all around the room. Unfazed by such witchcraft and tricksies, Sora walks into the white abyss beyond the door post-explosion.
Seriously though, the story takes place in between the first and second Kingdom Hearts games and it sorta answers all the questions one may have when playing Kingdom Hearts II. I loved the PS2’s version of the story however because cutscenes with voice acting was added to the port. Even though the lip sync could have used some more work (i think they just left the sync to the japanese voices and dubbed the english over them), the added audio and visual aid in the PS2 version adds a lot more worth to the package. The story really is about Sora’s trek through Castle Oblivion and how at every new floor he reaches, he encounters another world according to his memories. Also at every floor is some for of amnesia because as Sora goes higher he loses a little more of his memory (which does not really make all too much sense since his memories are making the worlds, so if he is losing his memory how could he be creating the worlds with such accuracy). Anyways, you may have already figured out that since the worlds are based on memories, the worlds are the same as the first game. Now saying that they are exactly the same is wrong because the game is structured completely differently than the first or second game. Each world is broken up into a certain arrangement and number of rooms. To get into those rooms you need to go through doors, and in order to unlock the doors you need to use a “map card” which you can pick up after defeating enemies. Each map card has a specific quality to it which details what kind of a room it will synthesize. So, technically, you make your own fate. You could play through the game only walking through save points, but then again you wont have any experience or good cards and will get your ass handed to you in boss battles. The fighting system is different as well. There are enemies walking around every room (excluding a few) and by running into them you initiate a battle. Within a battle the fights play out similar to that of the other Kingdom Hearts games however Sora’s actions are controlled by a deck of cards created from outside the battle. To attack, use magic, heal, summon, do whatever you need to use a card for it. Each card is activated by pressing x and after a card is used the next one in the deck is ready to be used in the order assigned while building the deck. Each card also has a number associated with it and those numbers are used when an enemy uses a card as well. When both cards are played the game turns to the classic game of war where the higher card wins and they attack is launched. In the case of a tie, both cards are nullified and neither attack is initiated. Where the tactics part comes in however is that you can play defensively and wait for the enemy to attack and then counter their card. When someone is countered, they are open to an attack and are not allowed to use another card for a second or two. But, it is a risk because if the enemy has a high card, you need to throw a high card back at him otherwise you are defenseless to their attack. Once you run out of cards you have to hold the x button down to reshuffle your deck and the cards are all usable again in the same order. You might think that a good tactic would be to have really high cards at the top of the deck and then keep reshuffling however reshuffling takes time and you must stay stationary in order to reshuffle. Also, after each reshuffle, the subsequent reshuffle takes longer and therefore the better tactic would be to just dispose of your enemy with the fewest reshuffles as possible.
Also to consider are the “sleights,” which are combos that Sora can do after linking three cards together. You press triangle to store the selected card in a bank which can store up to three cards. The values of the cards are added together to create a total value of the combo (used for priority described above) and the number also can correspond to a special move or the specific combination of cards may lead to a cool move as well. Sleights are very useful and powerful however when you use a sleight, the leading card is discarded from the deck and cannot be reshuffled back in. So, although very potent, sleights can be dangerous if you use them too much. After you destroy an enemy they drop experience crystals which after collecting so many you level up. In the level up screen you can choose to increase Sora’s health, increase the card point limit, or at certain points learn a new sleight. Card points are the points associated with using a card. Sora can only have as many cards up to the card point limit in order to avoid having tons of higher numbered cards or special cards. For boss battles, it seems as though the bosses never run out of amazing cards even though they use sleights like no ones business. Luckily, even though the boss battles are difficult there are mickey cards which you can smack out of them if you perform some action correctly upon the boss (e.g. counter them 3 times in a row). These mickey cards always help you in a large way for every battle (sometimes they even just paralyze the boss so that you can smack the crap out of them without the fear of being countered or hit). After each world you are rewarded with a cutscene which mostly goes into detail about the other characters in the castle and their plot to trap the keyblade master. However, then you just enter the next world (to your choosing of 4 normally) and you wash, rinse, and repeat the process from other worlds. Although the worlds can be mundane, the boss battles are plentiful and challenging.
The graphics and sound are you know…whatever. Nothing too spectacular but then again it is a port from a GBA game…kinda. The game looks exactly like KH I and II so there is nothing that stands out as great but then again there is nothing that really stands out as poor either. The sound is practically identical to the first game and that’s not necessarily a bad thing (since it was pretty good to begin with) but its lame that everything was recyclyed except for a few excerpts here and there. The voice work is very nice and it seems as though the whole original staff was on board yet again but the sync is a little off. Easy enough to ignore, but sometimes it is upsetting that the mouths couldn’t be timed just a tad tighter. Other than that, the game has a good replay value since there are tons of cards to collect and to add to the replayability of the game there is even another mode called Reverse/Rebirth. You unlock this mode after you beat the game and Reverse/Rebirth tells the caslte oblivion story from the perspective of Riku (ya, you know, that guy who like went into the darkness and stuff). I do not want to spoil anything but I must say I found it funny that Riku made it to the basement and Sora started on the first floor and they have no idea the other one is in the very same castle but just a few floors above or below. Riku’s story has its own cutscenes and even game play elements which really adds some flare to the game. Although Reverse/Rebirth is a lot shorter and easier in a sense, it is well worth playing through and it is still fun regardless.
So, after blabbing on forever about such a technically small game I suppose I should bring this to a close. KHRECOM is a game where you have to make the most out of it. Since you create the rooms you can create a fun and varied environment, or you can grind. You can pay attention to assembling a good deck, or you could just throw in high cards and hope for the best. Obviously if you are not a Kingdom Hearts fan then you should not play this game because it is heavily story based and the gameplay would fall incredibly flat if you dislike the characters or previous games. There are plenty of reasons to not play this game and really only one reason to play this game: you have played the other KH games and want more. This game will be forgotten about swiftly which saddens me because I enjoyed the journey, but it is really more of a niche game appealing to an obese KH niche market…so I guess they really hit the nail on the head with this one.
Major Infractions (-10)
- Recycled content galore
- Card system can be frustrating and one sided
Infractions (-5)
- Story does not cover as much as it should
- Battling system is very repetitive
Minor Infractions (-1)
- Lip sync needs work
Final Score: 69 (Out of 100)
