Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - IGN (original) (raw)

Square-Enix's first self-published GBA game is one of the most impressive handheld productions of the year.

I'm sure there were more than a handful of people thinking the designers at Square were off their rocker after they pitched the idea of Kingdom Hearts for the PlayStation 2. An adventure that put Disney characters and Square characters in the same realm? Apparently the insanity paid off, as Kingdom Hearts turned out to be yet another one of the company's success stories, and one of the more popular games released in 2002. The series will continue on the PlayStation 2 next year, but to hold players over Square-Enix, Disney, and the GBA development team at Jupiter have created a side-story to bridge the original and sequel together in an adventure that definitely brings the emotion of the PS2 title to the handheld. The game itself is really something significant and unique for GBA gamers, though the storytelling far outweighs the slightly repetitive and basic gameplay.

Features

Link cable support for two player battles
Three card deck slots
Cartridge save (one slot, one quick save) Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is by far one of the most elaborately designed adventures ever created on the Game Boy Advance. The designers spared no expense fleshing out the GBA tale as far as Square-Enix did in the original Kingdom Hearts on the PlayStation 2. The game begins with an enormous bang: a full console-style introduction featuring a short rendered sequence via full-motion video, similar to how the story of the PS2 game kicked off. Here, players are lead into the game's tale of Sora and his Disney cohorts, following a quest to uncover a memory hidden deep inside him.

The GBA game doesn't cater to anyone new to the Kingdom Hearts series. It begins as the PlayStation 2 title ended, so anyone needing a refresher course on who Sora is and why he's partnered up with Donald and Goofy, or why they're moving from Disney world to Disney world will have to track down a copy of the first game in the series -- the instruction manual's three sentence summary can't really portray the feeling that's represented in the actual PS2 presentation. If you haven't played through the first game in the series and head into this adventure first, be warned that the story in the GBA game reveals some tidbits that would be considered "spoilers" for the original's plot.

The whole idea behind Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories revolves Sora and his memories. Players must work their way through worlds of Sora's memory, which means that most of the locations in this quest are repeats of what players have already experienced in the original game. Unfortunately, that also means very few "surprise" locations for players already familiar with the first game in the series. Still, even in familiar territory, the new story is very engaging and keeps the interest all the way to the end where everything's resolved...until Kingdom Hearts 2, that is.

Where the GBA title feels like the PS2 game in presentation, it's completely different in gameplay. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories revolves around a "card" mechanic for pretty much everything in the adventure. Nearly all important actions from opening doors to fighting in battle requires a deck of cards, which is definitely what makes this adventure feel so unique. But it's not Yu-Gi-Oh or Duel Masters, so don't be scared off because of the dreaded "C" word; even though cards are needed, the entire game is nearly all action.

Door cards not only gain players access to the next portion of a world, but also seed the area with a specific effect. By using a specific card, players can choose what happens on the other side of the door; from freezing Heartless creatures in place, to unveiling special treasure chests that can be enemy creatures in disguise. Special Moogle door cards will bring a Moogle creature to the other side, giving players the ability to buy packs of cards which can be used to strengthen the combat deck.

See, every attack in battle is represented by a card in the deck, and the strength of the attack is represented by a number on that card. A card's value can be used as a defense to an enemy's attack card; countering an enemy card with a equal or higher value card is called a "card break," canceling out the attack with one of your own. Offensively, the opponents can do the same to you -- attack with a low-value card, and you run the risk of having it broken by the enemy's higher value. It's a very interesting and unique combat system that encourages players to create the most powerful deck before going into battle, as well as sort through their hand during a battle to pull up cards that will take out enemies more easily.

This card battle element certainly works early in the game, and comes into play during the extensive boss sequences. But deeper in the adventure where battles involve literally a dozen enemies to fight, it leaves little room for the strategic element. So, eventually the combat system, which is meant to offer more thought and strategy than a button-masher would, turns into what it's trying to avoid. Once you've got your deck arranged in a strong fashion, you won't even bother looking at the cards the enemies are throwing at you...it's simply stringing the attacks along, reshuffling the deck, attacking them again, until they've been wiped from the screen.

As extensive as Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is, the game is, unfortunately, an adventure game with very little adventuring. The quest involved is incredibly rigid and straightforward with almost no puzzle elements to the game design. Levels are laid out in simple north/west/south/west fashion with small sub-rooms for each area. If there's a locked door, there's always an open one a few screens away that leads to the next part of the adventure. Important keys to get deeper into the level are always handed to a player after a cutscene plays out, which is a very uncreative element to an otherwise very creative storyline.

Verdict

Fortunately, the negative elements aren't really enough to bring down the enjoyment of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The production value alone is worth the price of admission, and even with repeat scenarios, a strategic combat system that turns into a button-masher, and surprisingly linear quest, this game has an engrossing storyline that actually changes up after the adventure comes to an end. So once it's over, it's not over, and that's adds a lot of value to an original quest that takes more than a dozen hours to complete. The company has already wowed us with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy 1& 2; very few developers put in the same effort that Square-Enix has for its first self-published Game Boy Advance title, Chain of Memories