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I'm not sure how long I've had Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories for PS2, but until recently I had played it little. In fact, I don't think I even completed the first world, Traverse Town. I'm not sure why; perhaps the time just wasn't right. However, I set my PS2 up and pulled the game out, and now |
The Story:
In this game, Sora, along with his friends Donald, Goofy, and Jiminiy Cricket find themselves trapped in the mysterious Castle Oblivion, in which, they begin losing their memories. Despite this, they must defeat the villains in the diverse worlds they encounter (many of them from Disney movies) in order to find the lost Riku and King Mickey, as well as regain their lost experiences.
One of this games greatest assets is its story line; its quite riveting. So far, I have found myself just as lost and confused as the characters themselves, and so, am driven to finish to game so I can find out what's happening to the characters. There's also something tremendously appealing about entering into sub-plots that involve classic Disney characters. Though the stories have been shortened and/or modified to suit the Kingdom Heart's universe, they are reminiscent enough of the movies to make me feel like I'm living out the stories I was so fond of in childhood. So far I've rescued Princess Jasmine from Jafar and defeated Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas. I've also met Hercules in the flesh (eh hem...pixels...), and I feel a tad like the teenager that shakes hands with their favorite musician and then refuses to wash their hands for a week.
Game Play:
When you are outside of battle, this game is fairly limited. The worlds are fairly plain and leave you with very few objects to interact with. So far, I've mostly come across enemies, things to hit, blocks to throw, and things to jump on top of. The primary goal seems to be to be to collect cards that allow you to unlock doors and build your fighting deck. In my opinion, the standard play is this games biggest weakness because, despite its importance, its boring.
However, the game comes alive when you enter a battle. Once there, you must defeat groups of enemies (called Heartless) and bosses by choosing playing cards that correspond to particular battle commands. Attacks. Types of cards include Summon Cards (which call on your friends to help you fight), Item cards (such as healing cards), and Attack cards, which are standard key blade attacks. (If you aren't familiar with this franchise, the key blade is your weapon.). I rather enjoy the battle set up. It is sufficiently flexible to be fun, since you can customize your deck before you enter the fight, and you can shuffle through your cards at will. However, it's straight forward enough so that the learning curve isn't too steep. While I admit that the controls took me a while to get used to, once I became accustomed to them I found them fairly intuitive. I really enjoy this game's emphasis on battle. Non-gory battle (think Paper Mario) is one of my favorite elements in a game. That being said, there may be a few too many heartless spread throughout the worlds. Sometimes I get tired of fighting them over and over again.
One of the biggest pros of this game is the player's ability to adjust the camera angle at any time during battle and standard play. Because you are working in fairly large areas containing multiple heartless, you have to be able to quickly adjust your camera angle and track your enemies. This game allows you to pan around 360 degrees, so you can keep your enemies in your view. However, I haven't figured out how to change the vertical angle.
Another big pro for an inexperienced and unskilled player, such as myself, is that you have unlimited lives. You also regenerate in almost the exact spot in which you died. This means you can play that pesky boss as many times as you need to without having to play the level over and over again.
Music and Art:
The music in this game is fabulous. So far it has all been instrumental, which I prefer because music with lyrics can distract me from the game play itself (especially when I learn the lyrics and have to sing along. You should have seen me rock out to the GameCube Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Music. But that, my friend, is a completely different post). I especially like the moody and nostalgic song that plays during the title screen. I can't find a name for it. If you know what it is will you please tell me in the comments section? It's also fun that the music in each Disney world is based on an iconic song from its corresponding movie For example, the entire time you're in Halloween Town, an instrumental version of This is Halloween plays in the background.
There is really no point in talking about the graphics; it's an older game and so the graphics are lower quality that something that you'd find new in stores now. However, the animation when you're out of game play (I'm not sure what the correct word for this is) is quite elegant. The lines are soft and rounded. The colors are strongly contrasting. (Think white castle of oblivion and characters wearing all black clothing.) It creates a deep, brooding emotional impression.
Major Themes:
Unsurprisingly, one of this games major themes is memory. As characters lose and gain memories they are forced to consider the nature of memories. They are forced to consider that, rather than faithful records of events, they are actually shaped and reshaped by the person experiencing the event. It's pretty awesome that it gets so philosophical. Any videogame that not only entertain me but also make me seriously consider the nature of the world I live is a winner in my book.
The Bottom Line: GO GET IT!
Eight years and two Playstations after its release, this is still a really fun game. The story and game play are both engaging and entertaining. Normally I lose interest in games quickly, probably because I'm not a skilled gamer. Either games get too difficult or I just get tired of doing the same things over and over again. However, I intend to keep playing this game after I finish this review because I want to know what happens to the characters and I want to see what worlds there are to unlock.
If you have this game and a PS2 pull them out of moth balls and play this game again; I don't think you'll regret it. If you don't have Re: Chain of Memories (but you do have a PS2), you should consider buying it. At $14.83 on Amazon, it is significantly cheaper than buying a current game, but should provide many hours of entertainment.
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