[12/18/04] Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories

[Diso]

Game Name: Kingdom of Hearts: Chain of Memories

System: GBA

Genre: Action-Adventure RPG

Emulators: Visual Boy Advanced

 

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If You wondering where I was for a while, I was playing this. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a pretty good RPG that goes into the depth on memories. Sora, The Keyblade Master, Returns with his Disney friends as they go through worlds to obtain their memories back. However this time, Sora has to use the power of cards to help him defeat the enemy and recover his friend and his memories.

 

Story: The Story of this Game starts out with Sora, Donald, And Goofy. As they are running along in a field, a hooded figure approaches them. He beckons Sora to follow him to find something he had lost. Sora and his friends follow the figure into Castle Oblivion, a dark castle where a person's memories start to fade as he goes deeper and deeper into the castle. As they entered the castle, they are greeted by the same hooded figure and given a card crafted from Sora's memories. By using it, they can access worlds that Sora had previously visited. However, the friends and people from Sora's memories don't remember Sora like before. As Sora and his friends go through each world, the concepts of memories start to become revealed. A little bit later, Sora finds out that there is a group of people known as the Organization who has one of Sora's lost childhood friend captive. As the memory lost progresses, Sora has difficulty remembering his old past. The game continues on breaking links of Sora's memories and creating new ones.

 

 

Alright here we go. Theres a lot of features to explain in this game So I'll go with the simple ones first. First off is the Passive part. as shown above. This is when theres usually no enemies and you can talk to your comrades to find out what they think. You only reach this point in between worlds.

 

There are a lot of different Worlds Sora can go to: Monstro (Pinocchio), Neverland (Peter Pan), Hollow Bastion (Beauty and the Beast), Traverse Town (Final Fantasy 7 (Don't ask me!)), and many others. Each has their own unique monsters that Sora has to fight.

 

 

Now theres the map in each world. If you played the Chrono series, its familiar. In each level of the map there are Heartless that you can fight by running into them or hitting them with your keyblade. Hittin with your keyblade gives you an advantage because it makes the enemies dazed in the beginning of the battle. In addition to battles, there are also objects such as chests, barrels, trees, market stands that you can jump on or strike to get hidden cards or fruit. Doing this also allows you to obtain moogle points which will be explained later on.

 

The top right indicator tells you where you can go next. You can also access your map by pressing select. Each room is locked by a key and You have to fulfill a requirement to open them. One example is +1. That means you have to use a map card that you obtain from beating monsters that has a card level of 0-9 to open that door. If its a Green card thats +7, You have to use a green card that has a level of 7-9. It takes some time getting used to. With addition to opening doors, the map cards you use are also unique. All of the cards have some different effect to what will happen in the next room such as making more Heartless appear, making it a treasure chest room, or making your attacks stronger. You will have to choose wisely to conserve your cards so you don't end up into a room you don't like.

 

Now theres one more type of room. These are the quest and bonus rooms of the world. The bonus rooms have to be opened up with a yellow gold block card and they are only obtained later in the game so its annoying to go back to weaker worlds to obtain the bonus rooms. The quest rooms cards are obtained automatically with the start of the level and the completion of a quest room which is usually dialogue or a boss battle. There are usually 3 quest rooms in each world that Sora has to complete in order to finish the level. At the end there is a save point done. (Type 777 or You didn't read in your post If you half read this review)

 

The Moogle room! One of the best rooms in the game and needs a moogle room card to get one. What a Moogle Does for you is give you valuable attack,magic, and support cards that Sora can use in his journey. However, Sora has to trade moogle points in order to get card packs which are usually 5 cards each. Moogle points can be obtained by whacking random things such as trees, barrels, etc. and also by destroying cards that are typically useless to the player. The turnout of the cards are random, but its really worth it if you manage to get cards you want.

 

 

 

Status page. Here you can look at all the cards you obtained such as attack, enemy, map, and world cards. You can also look at the moves you learned and how to perform them which will be explained in the battle section. The last things you can do is quick save and Jiminy's Journal which provide an explanation of cards, stories, and characters. You can also customize your card deck here. By customizing your deck, it depends on the Card points you have. You can gain more CPs with each level but you have to choose it instead of HP or learning a new move. Adding and removing cards from your deck affects your Card points. You can't have more Cardpoints than your CP limit or otherwise You cannot use ur deck. Higher level cards use up more Cps while Lower level cards use up less Cps. There are also special types of cards called premium cards which cost less but can only be used once in battle.

 

 

Now for the battle portion of the Game. Sora attacks with his keyblade depending on his deck. He can either use magic, attacks, support cards, or summons. Each is useful in their own way. Each card also has a level of 0-9. This is because you can cancel out the enemy's attack card if you have a higher value then they do, but it also works against you too. A 0 level attack card can card break any card but only after the enemy attacks so its useful if the enemy is using combos.

 

A good thing about the battle system of Sleights. Sleights allow you to perform special abilities with the cards. For example, If you use three lightning cards, Sora will cast Thunderga instead of a weak Thunder. The drawback of using sleights is that the first card you use won't come back, so its a good idea to use a low level card or a premium card. However, later in the game, You obtain cards that enable you to get the cards that were used in Sleights or Premium cards back. The more cards you put in a sleight the more powerful it will be.

 

Now I'll explain each type of card. First there is the attack card. This is usually a card thats in the form of your weapon and has different grade levels to 3 different attributes: Attack Power, Swing Speed, and Card Reload. These rank from a D to A Star with Star being the highest. You obtain new attack cards in each world or sometimes they are found in bonus rooms or after a main story dialogue. These are usually the most helpful in destroying weak enemies and canceling out attacks. Magic cards are usually only helpful if they're used in sleights. Alone, they do suffecient damage, but in their most powerful form, they take a nice chunk out of the enemy's HP. Summons are the more advanced form of Magic, These usually involve a Friend or Character Sora Met in his adventure who helps Sora by Attacking or casting spells to help Sora defeat the Heartless. Friend cards which are a type of summon cards drop down in the battle where Sora has to pick them up. These cards are only obtained when Sora has a friend with him indicated on the status screen. A special type of friend card is the Mickey mouse outline card which is a level 0 card that helps Sora fight Boss Battles. The Support cards are usually to help Sora obtain his cards back without the long reload wait.

 

In addition to the normal cards, there are also enemy cards you can use in battle by pressing SELECT. These enemy cards are usually obtained after you beat an enemy or after you beat a boss. These cards have a special effect on Sora such as More Attack Strength for 30 Attacks or Quick Reload for 3 Reloads. There is usually a limit to the effect so You have to use them wisely. They also cost Cps so using them wisely is a good idea.

 

With all these different types of cards in your arrsenal, its sounds simple enough to destroy the enemies. But If you run out of cards, you have to reload them by charging up a small meter. This meter goes up with reloading the meter 3 times to obtain ur cards being the maximum reload level. This can be dangerous at times because Sora is left vulnerable while reloading. The enemy cards can usually by used to help Sora protect himself with the reload times such as quick reload, and being able to reload while moving.

 

 

Overall this is a good game with a variety of cards that help appeal to the game. Also as you saw in one of the pictures that the person isn't Sora. Its Riku who was with the king (Mickey Mouse) and is another story you can play after you beat the game. So Yeah theres two long halves to this game buts its equally enjoyable. Also, Cloud Kicks major ass. Hes a tank of Destruction in this game.

 

Authors Note - Note That I have not played the Kingdom Hearts game for PS2 so I was playing this story with a bit of a gap in the story. Also, I read that this story is a side story until Kingdom Hearts 2 for PS2.

 

Controls: 9.5 (Sleights = bad buttons lol)

Gameplay: 9.5 (Getting map cards and battle cards annoying at times)

Graphics: 9 (Its GBA and theres 3d movies which is unexpected)

Sound: 9.5 (Familiar Disney Tunes)

 

Grade - 9.4

Overall Grade - A

 

Overall I give this game a

[Agozer]

Yes, this game is very good and the card system adds some depth to the gameplay itself.

[Gryph]

Nice review. Even though these games don't really interest I may give it a go sometime.

 

EDIT: The part I read was good.

 

777

 

EDIT2: I read all of it now.

Edited December 18, 2004 by GryphonKlaw

[Mag]

I'am definitley gonna have this in my flash card once it arrived.

[Daeval]

Nice review!

 

I expected this to be simple and kind of boring, but it sounds like it has some depth. I'll have to give it a try.

[sf2_ryu]

i wanna try that game b/c i liked the kingdom hearts games fun

[Agozer]

btw, your topic title was wrong, I've changed it.

[Diso]

Yeha I noticed that.

 

This is one long ass game. It took me 18 hours just to beat the first part. Now I goto go through the second part >_<

[Mag]

I love the KH intro song, by Utada Hikaru.. song name: Simple and Clean

 

the english version was way better than the japanese, hah the irony of that

[Samurai Edge]

I didn't like the game previously because I don't undertstand the system, but now I'm enjoying it too. I'm at level 7 now, choosing a world to enter, and Pooh is damn irriating.

[Skythe]

Pooh is Emo and was ready to pull the 9 to the brain.