Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (2007)

Well I made it about one world in and got bored, so I just watched the cutscenes on YouTube since I needed the story for KH2. I think I understood most of it, too. It’s hard to keep track of who is good and who is not. Also sometimes it’s not clear if an Organization member is dead or is just disappearing. Also they can die but they also have no hearts so maybe not?

Sora was way too forgiving with Namine for messing with his memories. Also now he wants to protect her even though he doesn’t know her? K.

I thought Riku’s storyline was much more interesting especially with the whole I have darkness inside of me but I will use it for good and I hope we see more of him in KH2.

Well after beating Kingdom Hearts 1 (which I will write about it another post) I decided to start this game and.. I’m not sure how I feel. I was warned that the card battling system is clunky and it sure is. It’s way too fast paced and hard to keep up with.. and I just started. I do wish it was turn based which would make things a lot easier. But I know playing it is important to the story. Worst case I can just give up on the card game, and watch the cutscenes on YouTube.

Obviously in the years that this game has been released, much better card games have come up. I do wish that when they did the remaster of this game they would give you the option to make it turn-based... or some other hand-holding addition.

Chain of Memories is always going to be conflicting title in the Kingdom Hearts Saga.

Gameplay: The live action card battle system took me some time to get my head around but once I did I had a lot of fun building decks toying with different combos and trying different play styles. I played the game on Beginner difficulty as I mostly just wanted to play through the story but was remarkably surprised at the challenge the game threw my way. Random encounters were simple enough but there were still quite a few boss battles that gave me quite a lot of trouble some taking me several attempts. I was met with a fun level of challenge but would imagine any higher difficulty would have had me pulling my hair out (as one Organisation member in Riku's story did).

I'm tempted to dub this the Dark Souls of the KH series but haven't tried the other difficulties to know for sure. I think part of its difficulty does lay with bothersome difficulty of navigating your cards to break your opponent while dodging and planning your next attack it can all get very overwhelming especially in the the faster paced battles where your opponents attack relentlessly. Then maybe I'm just bad. If someone cares to let me know please do.

Story: On its own the story felt jarring and out of place. After beating Sora's portion of the game I decided to watch the cutscenes from KH: 358/2 Days (I played of PS4) and boy did things start to make sense and come together and completely reshape my opinion of the games story overall and build hype to play through Riku's story. The two stories are intertwined and crucial to the overall coherency of one another which is a weakens the game as a standalone title but come together to make an important part of the Kingdom Hearts universe lore and backstory.

Other Comments: The game worlds literally recycle Kingdom Hearts 1 assets and having come fresh of the first game were a bore to venture from point A to point B generic room by generic room. There is nothing new to see in Chain of Memories apart from the pristine white halls of Castle Oblivion which did offer a certain interesting unique ambience. Also the Disney stories failed to engage me whatsoever they really added nothing but levels to game in this title.

Final Thoughts: I spite of its many flaws I still really enjoyed Chain of Memories for its challenging battles and intriguing story (in conjunction with 358/2 Days).