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Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories; A SoniCalvin Review
Topic Started: Dec 18 2008, 04:47 PM (139 Views)
SoniCalvin
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Hey guys. Me again. SoniCalvin. The guy you love to hear reviews, raves, and rants from. Even if it's forced on you. :P

Today, I'm gonna be covering a game that was released onto North American shores not too long ago. A couple of weeks ago, actually. Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories.

Only a few entries in the series, and yet despite that, Kingdom Hearts has come a long way from being a wacky idea thought up by two executives in an elevator. During Kingdom Hearts' development, we were all thinking, "How can this possibly work?" Eh, the more dramatic, serious stories of the Final Fantasy games merged with the silly, goofy characters (no pun intended) of the Disney company. Pretty ridiculous, right? But then the first game was released, and the concept actually goes and freakin' works! That's right, I didn't utter the other F word. I can't swear when Disney's involved. Anyway, everybody loved it, because there were Final Fantasy cameos, and many, many, MANY Disney characters! Nobody could believe that Donald and Goofy could be talking with Leon and Aerith in the same place. But it was happening.

A lot of people, including myself, thought this game would sadly never get any sequels, and it was a one-time deal. But then a couple of years later, Kingdom Hearts II was announced, and immediately, everyone was psyched. However, it would take a couple of years for Square to work on this title, and for all of us Kingdom Hearts fans eager to get their hands on this game, that seemed like forever. We got our fix in the meantime with the Game Boy Advance game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. It was nice, but it... well, it just wasn't enough. We were eagerly waiting for this game to be finished and released to the world for all to play, and when we played it, we were satisfied. Now, everyone's expecting Square to come out with a Kingdom Hearts III. Nomura has said that a series of handheld titles - Coded for mobile phones, 358/2 Days for the DS, and Birth By Sleep for the PSP - will all have a connection to a future game. So I can only assume that there will be an eventual Kingdom Hearts III. So, to put it bluntly, Kingdom Hearts rocks. A lot.

But there are some things about the franchise that a lot of us just don't have access to. We can't get these very special things that were only released in Japan, unless we import them. I am, of course, talking about the Final Mix editions of Kingdom Hearts I and II. The Japanese got a lot of stuff that we didn't. Extra bosses, extra Heartless, extra scenes, a new Drive form in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+... we were all jealous. Oh, and get this. Remember in Kingdom Hearts II, when Sora, Donald, and Goofy go to Christmas Town for the first time? They make several visits to this place. Not once did their appearances change to suit Christmas Town, they kept their Halloween Town outfits. Well, just to add more insult to injury, for Final Mix+, Square gave them alternate outfits for Christmas Town! Yeah, that's right! The Japanese get to see these three in different outfits, but we don't! And that's no fun!

But there's more to Final Mix+. Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ was a two-disc set. The first disc was the Final Mix edition itself, while the second disc was the very game that I'm gonna be reviewing right now. Nobody ever thought that this valued game would ever see the light of day in any other region of the world. But then, a few months ago, Re:Chain of Memories' North American release was announced. Of course, it would've been nice if it came with the entire Final Mix+, but I don't think too many people cared. They got to play this somewhat rare gem of a game.

But I guess you guys don't want me to sit here and just talk about it. No, no, you want me to tell you if it's any good or not. Well, alright then, my basic consensus? It's real good fun to play overall, but there are some things to take into account if you want to get this game. Like the difficulty. And the controls.

Story: 7/10
You Kingdom Hearts players probably already know what's going on, but for those of you who have never played the original Chain of Memories, I'll give you the basic premise. This is a full-on PS2 remake of the original Game Boy Advance title, Chain of Memories. An interquel game that takes place immediately right after the first Kingdom Hearts game, and helps to set up the events for Kingdom Hearts II. Sora, Donald, and Goofy have been lured into this placed called Castle Oblivion. A hooded man tells them that there's something they need in this place, but to get it, they must lose something important to them. The rooms in this castle that the trio of friends go into are, in fact, memories of places that they've been to in the first game. Traverse Town, Agrabah, Olympus Coliseum, Wonderland, Monstro, Halloween Town, Atlantica, Neverland, Hollow Bastion, 100 Acre Wood, Destiny Islands, and one place that they're sure they've never been to, Twilight Town. As the three make their way through the castle, they soon find that the further they go, the more memories they lose.

Meanwhile, in the lower basements of the castle, Riku goes through a similar experience: he goes through memories of places he's been to. Now, in the original Kingdom Hearts, we've seen him around in some of the worlds. He's from Destiny Islands. We know he's been to Traverse Town, Agrabah, Monstro, Neverland, and definitely in Hollow Bastion. But he also ventures into Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Atlantica, and Halloween Town. Interesting, because we've never seen him around these parts, and him going through these memories indicates that he must've been in these places sometime before. Unfortunately, there are no cutscenes with Riku in the Disney worlds, so it doesn't elaborate on that. Sad. Like Sora, he also ventures to Twilight Town, a place he's never been to before. While he isn't losing memories, he is actually fighting the darkness within himself, with King Mickey Mouse there to help him out.

While all of this happening, both Sora and Riku are being watched and manipulated by a shady group of people known as the Organization.

While a lot of the Disney characters from the first Kingdom Hearts game do indeed return, I've always felt the Disney worlds in Chain of Memories... felt shallow. Mainly because the narratives are the same stories told in the first game, with some story elements changed around a bit. Even so, I was expecting the cutscenes in the Disney worlds to have voiceovers. But they don't. Disappointing. Okay, the console Kingdom Hearts games have always committed this sin where you have to read your way through some cutscenes, but Re:Chain of Memories feels like it's doing it to an extreme with the Disney worlds, Hollow Bastion, and the beginning parts of Twilight Town, and Destiny Islands. Yeah. Right. If I wanted to read, I'd get up, and get a friggin' book! It depends on the game, really. Like, if it was a game like the Game Boy Advance, where that technology couldn't really handle having that many voiceovers, then it'd be acceptable. But this isn't the GBA, it's the PS2. I wanna sit down, and play a game. Reading your way through it takes a little too much effort on your part. Even more disappointing is that Riku doesn't have any dialogue interaction with any of the other Disney villains whatsoever. Just Maleficent. It's like each world just throws you into a boss battle, and... that's it. No talking with Jafar, Hook... nobody. This is the same problem the original Chain of Memories had.

But now that I have that out of the way, let's talk about the rest of the story, and the other characters. The overall story is great. If you've never played Chain of Memories, and played Kingdom Hearts II, then you're probably confused about some things that weren't answered for you. This remake and the original game answers those questions. It's even reworked some cutscenes, and thrown in some extra tidbits of knowledge. For instance, near the end of Riku's story, we learn that the coats the people of the Organization wear are more than just a fashion statement. These coats serve to protect people from being detected by people of the dark, and even protect them from being overtaken by the darkness. So, even the Organization can't have full control over the darkness.

Many of the main cast members return for this title. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, Namine, Axel... they're all here. Tony Anselmo and Bill Farmer once again do exceptionally great jobs as Donald and Goofy, respectively, as they always have for the past few years. Wayne Allwine has been providing the voice for Mickey since The New Mickey Mouse Club in the 1970's, and not once did I ever hear him do a poor performance as Mickey. Once again, he does a fine job here, although I don't know if it's just me, but he sounded a bit off.

The Organization characters had some good choices for VAs too. I thought they fit the characters really well, although it's a bit sad that some VAs had to come in to replace the previous ones. Brittany Snow did the voice for Namine in Kingdom Hearts II, and now she's replaced by Meaghan Jette Martin. Some girl who's made a guest appearance in the awful Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and what I presume to be a very bad movie, "Camp Rock". Also, in Kingdom Hearts II, DiZ/Ansem was voiced by the great Christopher Lee. Who replaces him here? ... Corey Burton. COREY FREAKIN' BURTON! Gawrsh, you think this guy has enough voice overs?! He can't even pull the role off that well! Sorry, Corey, but you are no Christopher Lee. But, with all this, at least a lot of the main characters, namely Sora, Riku, and Kairi, still have their original voice actors. I mean, you can't mess with them, right?

*credits list Alyson Stoner as Kairi*

WHAT?! Hayden Panettiere doesn't do the voice for Kairi this time around?! SON OF A-- Right, I know, I know, no swearing. Still, with Namine and Kairi, I guess you can barely tell the difference.

But those problems aside, there are a set of actors that perform their roles quite well. Young Mr. "I See Dead People" comes back to voice Sora, and that's fine, but Haley Joel Osment is older now, and Chain of Memories is supposed to take place after the first game, when Sora is still younger. Sora sounding older in Kingdom Hearts II, I could understand. In fact, he sounded exactly like I imagined him to sound like. But here? I dunno, older Haley Joel doing the voice for younger Sora just doesn't seem to work. But, whatever.

Axel has always been my favourite Organization member, because he was so snarky, and very quick-witted. Quinton Flynn delivered his lines in Kingdom Hearts II perfectly, and he brings that wit back for Re:Chain of Memories. I just cracked a smile when Axel first came in and said, "Hello!" To me, it was like he was saying, "Hey, I'm back from the dead, suckers". XDD Another great part with Axel was near the end of Sora's story, during his fight with Marluxia.

Axel: The Organization's been betrayed. In that name, I will annihilate you.

Marluxia: That line's not you.

Axel: Well, had to try it once, you know.

These people all do a great job, but in my personal opinion, the one who does the most top-notch job here is David Gallagher, in his dual role as Riku, and the Riku Replica. He just sounds so believable, and very convincing. He does an especially great job as the Replica, conveying his emotions and personality perfectly, sounding aggressive, hurt, angry, and very menacing... every time he spoke, I just got into it.

Bottom line, the story and overall voice work is well done, but your mileage may vary.

Gameplay: 6/10
If you've ever played the original Chain of Memories, then you should know that the gameplay is drastically different from Kingdom Hearts I and II. First of all, let's go over the exploration. Sora and Riku basically control like how they did in Kingdom Hearts I and II, pretty good. You can still jump, and dodge roll, but instead of R1 (I think it was R1, I'm not sure), the lock-on targeting function is activated when pressing R2. It can take a while to get used to. When you're moving about in a world, you go around whacking objects for HP orbs and Moogle Points to spend on cards to use in battle. You get these different Map Cards for each world so you can go up to a door, and meet a door's criteria with any card you choose. So you get to create a room with any card you want and have. If you want to battle a few Heartless to level yourself up, then a card like Tranquil Heartless is the way to go. But if you're looking to take a break, and save your game before going into something like a boss battle, then you might want to consider Moment's Reprieve, where you can save your progress. Stuff like that. It's actually pretty cool, to be able to create a room to your own liking. To advance the plot of each world, you also get these special gold Map Cards, "Key to Beginnings", "Key to Guidance", and "Key to Truth". You gotta navigate your way through the world's map to get to these locations, and use these keycards.

Once you get into a battle with a few Heartless, that's where you'll start to notice the big differences in gameplay. Everything you do in the battlefield is based on cards. So whether you want to attack, use magic, or use an item, you've gotta have cards in your deck to perform those actions. To date, Chain of Memories is the first Kingdom Hearts game that requires a bit more thought and strategy in your battles. With Sora, you need to set up your deck so that attacks, magic, and items will be a bit more effective, and so it can get you through the game easily. ...well, mostly easily. I'll get onto the difficulty later. With Riku, you can't set up his deck. His is preset, and that could probably work to your advantage, or disadvantage, depending on your situation. So, the game is still pretty much a button-masher, except a bit more strategic.

You have cards numbered 0-9. If you play a card valued higher than the card your enemy plays, than you'll be able to use your attack/magic/item card. But if your enemy plays a card valued higher than yours, then they'll be the ones attacking so jumping and dodging are key to avoiding your enemies' attacks. Cards with the number 0 are special in that if you play them after an enemy plays their card, you can break through their cards, no matter what value they are. 0 cards are powerful, but they're also vulnerable. They can still be broken by a higher number, so watch it. You can reload your cards once you've run out, but holding down the X button at the reload counter with Sora, but Riku doesn't have a reload counter. Lucky him. This can get pretty tedious, what with you running around, trying to avoid getting hit, and standing still in one spot, waiting for your cards to reload. You can stock three cards together so the numbers will be add together into a bigger number to make things easier, and some card combinations will even allow you to perform special abilities called sleights. But you can't rely on this technique all the time. The first card you stock can't be reloaded, so you'd run out of cards pretty quickly.

Sometimes in regular enemy battles, as well as at the end of most of the boss battles, you'll get an enemy card, which, when played, will do something special, like dispel a boss's enemy card, heal yourself over time, and one will even gradually cause an enemy's HP to drop.

Friend cards will often times drop into the battlefield. You want 'em, you'll have to pick them up. Donald and Jack will cast magic, Goofy will spin around in a tornado hitting enemies with his shield, Aladdin will hack and slash enemies with his sword while producing Moogle Points, Ariel will act like a drill, and spin into enemies, Peter will stab enemies with his dagger, and Beast will just pile-drive right into enemies. Riku's only got one Friend card, but it does a lot. Mickey will come out, flash a card, and it will deal damage to enemies, stun enemies, reload your cards, and heal you all at once. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we like to call "god-modding", because Mickey is that cool. :P

Riku's gameplay is pretty much the same as Sora's, with some twists added to it. If you play a card that has the same number as your opponent's, then you have the option to press triangle, and get into a little card duel with them, where you must play a higher numbered card that the opponent dishes out under a time limit. If you don't do this in time, then your enemy wins and is free to attack you. But if you win, then you'll pull off one of a few fancy finishing moves that will leave a trail of destruction in your wake. Also, Riku has a meter in his HUD display, called a DP meter. You fill it up by taking damage, or by breaking enemies' cards. Once it's filled up, play an attack card, and you'll change into Riku's dark form that was first seen in the first Kingdom Hearts. Riku's a lot more powerful in this form, able to obliterate his enemies with the power of darkness.

Overall, I think the gameplay's pretty easy to get into, and easy to get along with. The gameplay's fine, but since it's card-based, and with all these numbers, it requires some more thinking than your average button-mashing Kingdom Hearts title. It can get real tedious when you're trying to reload your cards, or trying to find the right combination to hit your enemy with, while trying to avoid taking a hit.

And here's one problem I found a bit odd for a Kingdom Hearts game. I found some times when the controls wouldn't respond to my button presses during battle. Often times, Sora would just be standing there, not even staggering from a hit, ready to attack, and no matter how many times I pressed the attack button, Sora wouldn't respond. That's... pretty bad. Wonder if Square even playtested this thing before releasing it. But these moments are few and far between, so I don't think it'll matter.

Graphics and Design: 8/10
It certainly looks, and feels like a Kingdom Hearts game, what with bright and cheery graphics. The animation is great. It looks good for a game on the PS2, and the character models look awesome. Although, like previous Kingdom Hearts, I have some problems with it. First of all, we all know that character models in the series have two types of facial animations. There's the type where the faces, you know... actually move. It's when they look believable. When Donald and Goofy look at each other, worried for Sora, you gotta feel for them. When Riku and Mickey smile at each other, and shake hands, you can't help but smile. But then, there's also the type of facial animation where the characters look like they're staring out into space. That's rather dull.

When you start a game with either Sora or Riku (Riku's story is only available to play after you beat Sora's), you get to choose between three levels of difficulty: Beginner, Normal, and Proud. Most of the boss battles are engaging and fun. I say most, because there are those battles that you just can't seem to work your way around, no matter the difficulty setting. There are those that you just seem to find so frustrating, having to fight them over and over again. Like the Riku Replica, and Larxene battles. There's hard, and then there's incredibly cheap. I swear, if you're lucky enough to get these two down to their last bar of health, you gotta rely on sleights to do the job all the way. These guys are just cruel. Now, the battlefields have been sized up a bit for this remake, but with these two bosses, and with them running so fast, and them never leaving you alone when you're reloading your cards, or healing yourself, the battlefields still seem as small as the original GBA game. It's supposed to be Beginner Mode, so why don't they downgrade the difficulty of these cheap bosses down a notch? It's ridiculous.

The Kingdom Hearts series has always been notable for its great music. And Re:Chain of Memories is no exception. Once again, Yoko Shimomura returns to bring great music to the franchise, translating the music from the original GBA game to PS2 greatness.

After beating Sora's story, you unlock Riku's Reverse/Rebirth story, and you also get this Theater mode, where you can watch Sora's cutscenes all over again. You get Riku's cutscenes upon beating his story. It's nice, although I think to make it look more like a movie, maybe Square should've made some of the actual battles as cutscenes for Theater mode. Probably what bothers me with Theater mode is the preview images of most of Riku's cutscenes. I'm talking about his time in the Disney worlds of course. The preview images in Theater mode show him doing battle with Disney villains and Heartless bosses, almost as if it was an actual cutscene. And I'd really like to see those, but I can't, because Square insisted that Riku don't talk with these guys and just fight them. No fun.

Overall: 7/10
First, the game that started it all, then the interquel for the GBA, then the sequel, and now a remake of the GBA game. Coming up next for Kingdom Hearts is a DS game focusing on Roxas' time in the Organization, and a PSP game taking place ten years before the first game, explaining how the Heartless came to be, and how it all started. Yep, Kingdom Hearts has come a long way, I'd say. The previous games have always been a good play, and Re:CoM is pretty good too. Although with some problems you might find irritating, these problems shouldn't really bother you too much. If you played and liked the original Chain of Memories, and want to see what's new with this remake, get it. You might like it. If you have never played the GBA game for whatever reason, you're missing out. I strongly recommend Re:CoM, as it's a solid entry in the series.
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