Kingdom Hearts is known for a lot of things. It's known for heroism, togetherness, friendship, bravery and some really weird attack systems. You have the command deck, the affinity for reaction commands, flowmotion and most important in the set of weird attack system, card sleights. That is what KH Chain of Memories on the Game Boy Advance and KH Re:Chain of Memories on the PS2 (and future consoles) displayed for an attack system. For this game, you focus on KH1 hero Sora going into a massive castle that rids his memories. It also parallels his best friend, Riku, in a twist of wondering how he can use the darkness to his own better future. On top of that, this is the main introduction to what fans know as Organization XIII. So what does this game do well? What does it do that isn't good? We'll separate this up by Sora's story and Riku's story.
Sora's Story Positives:
1. The end is really good. I enjoyed the last couple of worlds you have to venture with Sora in this game. That's the best way to say it. The worlds aren't massive in length but are actually fun to go around and see and fight in.
2. The ability to go through and make the sleights are something that is really neat and something that makes you really think of strategy and how to make your deck to make the best combo, healing, making the elixirs and potions work and so much more. I felt this was a good step forward in making the game good from an attacking/strategy standpoint.
3. Visually, this game is fantastic on either the GBA on the original Chain of Memories or the PS2 version. It's fantastic in its own right of course, compared to today. But in this time frame, the graphics and honestly the soundtrack were both fantastic overall. It's a job well done by the folks with Disney and Square for this game.
4. The boss fights, for the most part, are a challenge but they are doable and they are worth the challenge. The best are against the Organization members and the in-between worlds fights. So I would definitely have to recommend a lot of those boss fights.
Sora's Story Negatives:
1. There is just so much rehashing and the rehashing of the bosses in the worlds. That's a major downside to Sora's side of the story and something that really just feels like a letdown.
2. The story just feels so dull even with the last couple worlds. It's just really, really a downside overall. It's a sobering reminder that not all KH games could be great with story, but coming off the greatness that started with KH1, it's a bit frustrating that they couldn't make it better than this.
Riku's Story Positives:
1. This adds another perspective and it adds Riku's trials and tribulations as he fights the darkness and tries to come out on top of this. It's a good view into the struggles that he deals with.
2. His story with the worlds is honestly done very well in a straight forward fashion. There is no major pomp and circumstance. There are just straight forward and you do one thing, get to the end, and finish the world. This makes it for a solid, quick deal.
Riku's Story Negatives:
1. Oh boy, did I rage at the final boss. There's a major reason. There's simply no reason that he can break everything while you can do next to nothing on it. On top of if you get a great break, his guardian can block something as well. It's incredibly frustrating and made me just quit the fight, check the ending on Youtube. To me, it's just a terrible mechanic. Which btw, that's the ending? Kinda just.. weak.
2. His deck is fine.. if you like it being extremely limited and having to do a lot more to be strategic with it than Sora's. It's just kind of annoying especially later in the game. It's just again, fine to be strategic but to be this limited in what you can do is just not the way to go about it.
Rating:
My best rating I can say for it is 6 out of 10. It's not a bad game, but certainly not great. I can't rate this as good either. Just above average overall. If you want to play it as a first time playthrough, great. If you want to watch the cutscenes though, I don't blame you overall.
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