N-Philes

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Posted by Jason.

I'll spare you the "Square and Disney, what a shocking combination" banter, since we can assume everyone got that out of their system with the original Kingdom Hearts on the PS2. Now the joy of this lethal corporate combination is reaping its benefits upon the Game Boy Advance crowd in the form of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. ‘Memories' isn't so much a direct sequel to the PS2 title, but serves more as a side story. It picks up immediately where the PS2 game left off. Series protagonist Sora and his side-kicks Donald and Goofy are traveling down a long road through a grassy field in search of Sora's lost friend Riku and the missing King Mickey. Sora gets a nasty surprise one night when a cloaked figure appears directing him to Castle Oblivion claiming that "Ahead lies something you need, but to claim it you must lose something dear."

What you learn, quite quickly, is that this castle is just a rehash of all the worlds and characters Sora visited in the original Kingdom Hearts, and each level centers around one character's loss of memory; with the game itself centered on memories that Sora seems to have lost. If you're expecting a truly original story here, you're going to be mildly disappointed. Worlds, monsters, and even bosses are taken straight from the original Kingdom Hearts using the tepid excuse that all the castles levels are based on Sora's memories. There are new baddies, in the form of the hooded figure and a few others; but for the most part this game just offers more of the same in terms of content.

However, it turns out Castle Oblivion plays by its own rules. Inside the castle everything from battles to the castle map is governed by cards. Battle is governed by a series of cards that run the gamut of physical attacks, magic spells, summons, and items. Your character can build several series of decks, equipping the different decks for different situations. Also, during fights some special one-time-use cards will drop. These can call your friends, such as Donald and Goofy, into battle to perform a series of attacks or in boss fights they can act as a special attack against some bosses. These types of cards drop randomly during fights and disappear after the battle if not used.

Now, the real strengths and weakness of this card system lie in what are called "card breaks." When playing a card at the same time as an enemy, the person with the higher valued card (or zero in special circumstances) can "break" the other persons attack leaving them open to a counter attack. This means you have to use a bit of strategy as to what cards you use, and when you use them. You can also store three cards at a time to perform chain attacks or special attacks called "sleights." However, while you are trying to manage all these cards and watch the value of the cards you and your enemy are playing you also have to be running and jumping around to avoid the enemy and watching when your deck of cards runs low so you can refresh the cards to be used again. In the end you either have to focus on the cards, and let yourself get pummeled by the enemy, or focus on attack and defense without any idea of what cards are being played.

The other aspect of the card system is world and map creation. Each floor of the castle is based on the worlds from the original Kingdom Hearts, but the order you play them is left up to you. Each world is represented as a card, and at the end of each level you get to choose which card is played next. These levels are then made up of a series of rooms. The content of each room is also determined by cards and can dictate the number of enemies and their aggressiveness, allow for special conditions to battles, or create special rooms with treasures or Moogle shops.

Each level includes several special rooms, which must be opened with a specific card. These rooms hold plot events which further the story of that particular level. This room creation system is nice because it allows for a truly unique experience, and it also allows you to go back and change rooms you've already created. Of course there are restrictions on creating rooms, forcing you to choose your rooms based on the respective card values or colors; but then changing the room will also change the values needed to create surrounding rooms. It may sound a bit complicated here, but it's fairly simple in practice.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B-.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories isn't the best reflection of its PS2 namesake. Most of the game's content is just rehashed from the original and the card battle system, while interesting, leaves much to be desired. However, I don't want to leave the impression that the game is all bad; it's a mildly amusing game that half-heartedly struggles to maintain the feel of its predecessor while still maintaining an air of uniqueness. It'll definitely serve to entertain, though those who haven't played the original game may be a little lost. And if nothing else it's an intriguing diversion to tide us over until Kingdom Hearts 2.

Posted in: Reviews

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