Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

"Kingdom Hearts... ... ... No really, that's it..."

First off, I love Kingdom Hearts. I thought it was a brilliant game, and I spent a large portion of my winter the year I got it doing nothing else but playing Kingdom Hearts and drinking soda. I think I might have gone to school or something, but all I can remember is KINGDOM HEARTS.

So when I learned that there were going to be sequels, you can bet I was excited. Kingdom Hearts II still looks like it's going to be really great, and you can count on me to be sitting outside of the store at 3 in the morning the day it's released, waiting to get inside. But then we all heard about Chain of Memories. This game that came in-between KH and KH2. Well, this was no problem for me, as I already had a GBA and had no problem throwing away money to add games to my collection.

So, my friend and I kept up on the news on it, looking at screenshots when they became available. We noticed that all the same characters and locations from the original game were appearing in KH.COM. That wasn't so bad until we really couldn't find anything else. So eventually, my friend ended up saying "This game is going to be Donald and Goofy saying, 'Hey, Sora, remember when...' and then you play through the game again."

Sadly, that wasn't far from the truth.

Not long after it was released, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was mine. And I've played through the entire game since then. Sadly, the game's "story" consists mainly of a trip through Sora's memories, hence the title of the game. You play through all the old stages of Kingdom Hearts, keeping the same old stories in each world. Instead of flying between worlds with your GummiShip, in Chain of Memories you travel through Castle Oblivion, using cards to "create" the next world you go to. Between each world, no matter the order you give, you learn more about the people in Castle O, who are the only new characters in the game. Sometimes you will fight boss battles here, so you do have a little bit of new to discover. Actually, these short between-world cutscenes are the only bit of story the game has (considering the mini-stories of each world are next to nothing, and only copied from the first game/Disney's movies).

You fight the same heartless in the same worlds with the same story as Kingdom Hearts. And that's about it. But there is a unique and exciting story hidden under it all.

Gameplay

The Gameplay in Chain of Memories is very original, despite its close connection to the first Kingdom Hearts. The worlds are separated out into rooms which are almost randomly generated (depending on which card you decide to make the world with... yes, this entire game revolves around cards and memories of the first Kingdom Hearts...), where heartless roam around (a set number per room). When you touch the heartless, you enter a battle. These battles are strange at first with the new card system, but it is actually a unique and fun way to play. It's not difficult after you try it out for a bit, and don't worry, it's nothing confusing. You can easily go through the game smashing A (there will be a few places where you'll have to form your "deck" well or make some card combos). Think of cards like your weapons and items, rather than the battle system itself. Completing a battle gets you a room card (sometimes) so you can proceed through the rooms, tweaking them to your liking (more or less heartless, slow heartless, etc.)

While the movement is easy to control, the cards are still annoying. Sometimes, getting a card you need or want can be very difficult. Besides battling, your other actions are saving the game, opening treasure chests and doors, and shopping at the Moogle Shop. Everything else, like talking and exploring, is done for you with cutscenes (or lack of actual explorable worlds). The Moogle Shops are expensive. You'll have to spend an hour or so fighting heartless just to buy a couple booster packs of cards, and the chance of getting a card you need is slim. And you can't get cards of a certain type in a booster pack until you've discovered them somewhere else (for example, you can't get any Thunder cards in a pack until you've found the ONE Thunder card hidden somewhere in the game, which is pretty rare to find).

Nothing in the game is really difficult, just rare (with the exception of the suddenly-impossible few last bosses), so you could be spending a lot of time doing the same thing over and over trying to find a care you need or want. And speaking of that, you're going to be doing a lot of things over and over. Every minor battle is basically the exact same thing, and the bosses aren't that much different. Be prepared to set aside quite a few hours of pressing the a button rapidly. So, easy to control, with no point in controlling it.

Sound / Graphics

As far as the capabilities of the GBA, Chain of Memories really does well. The music is actually imported from Kingdom Hearts from PS2, of course reduced to GBA-quality, but it's almost perfect in its likeness to the old music. The sound effects are seemingly ports, too, with some new ones mixed in, and some new voices (which sound great coming out of the GBA's little speaker).

The graphics are not bad at all, the sprites are all colorful, pretty, and well-animated (a nice transition from 3-D to 2-D). The backgrounds are all nice remakes of the scenery from KH, also. While it's merely copies of the graphics from the original PS2 game, it all looks very well done instead of just thrown together. There are actually even a few 3-D clips during cutscenes, and they look pretty nice.

The graphics and sound are a major strong point for this game. They use the GBA's hardware to its full potential.

Story

This is what kept me playing this game. Even though 90% of the game is nothing but a copy of the original PS2 game, the little cutscenes between the levels are where you really start to understand the point of Chain of Memories. After the completion of each world, you get to creep a bit more into the game's storyline, which strangely enough, is very interesting. Telling just about any of it could be considered a spoiler, and each time you find out some, you want to find out more. Sadly, this story could be told in about 10 minutes, but you have to go through all the old PS2 worlds, which take a while, to see each part, which almost makes it not worth it.

Replay

Once you're finished with the game, you'll open up a second game, which is surprisingly different from the first. This quest will let you learn even more of the story, so it's a very interesting extra quest. It actually was much of a surprise, since I didn't read any guides and hadn't seen any screenshots from it prior to playing the game. Once you've completed the second game, you won't want to play this game again. Ever. It's nothing but the same thing, again and again and once again, just to get through a small (but good!) storyline. Once you know it, you're not going to need to see it again (I mean, it's all just text boxes).

Overall

Overall, Chain of Memories is not a bad game, but it's nothing special. While it does have an interesting and innovative battle system and a very intriguing storyline, it also is just pressing the A button repeatedly to watch yourself replay the entire PS2 game all over again... and I think gameplay is a lot more important than graphics and battle system. I mean, I'm sure Dora the Explorer videogames have good graphics, too. So, my final score for this game is 6. It's better than an "average" game at 5, I guess, but it's really not something you're going to want to play through unless you're a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts. And if you think you might need to play this game to understand Kingdom Hearts 2's story, don't worry. The story presented here is more like a "vacation" that Donald, Goofy, and Sora happen to take on their way to where ever KH2 is going to start. Playing the original Kingdom Hearts is all you'll need for KH2. After all, Chain of Memories basically is the first Kingdom Hearts.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/05