A look back at: Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories

Ugh, hack-and-slash gameplay returns, but this time with cards! I'm not into either, but I do give Kingdom Hearts the benefit of a doubt for not being way too unfair with the former style of gameplay. Combine that with the card gameplay, is this really the first time that card-based gameplay is used for an action RPG? It makes for one of the weirdest entries in the franchise, and arguably for games as a whole.

So basically, every action that isn't running, dodging, or jumping is gonna use cards. Attacks use cards, items use cards, magic uses cards, summons use cards, thankfully you can refurbish your deck when running out or when necessary. But then you have to go high/low with the cards enemies use if you're not intent on dodging, card-breaking them while avoiding getting card-breaked yourself. Button-mashing moves only work well when your deck is chock-full of high numbers and you know exactly what you're up against. With the enemies getting higher cards, the lesser ones are made into combos, perhaps sleight moves, so that I can do maximum damage without receiving much in return. Against bosses, I used a different kind of deck, one with Strike Raids or Sonic Blades that would be impossible to break without higher sleights or 0 cards or so. The different room cards offer plenty of gameplay possibilities as well, sometimes with benefits to the player.

But it's still a linear game, mind you. You climb up the castle, open a world card up, go through several rooms doing events before going to the exit room, usually fighting a boss in-world or after the world before moving up. All the while it's a memory game for the characters, which just gets weirder the more they climb. But, like, it's a foregone conclusion that Namine is a good character after all, just forced to do things for those black-robed Organization members. This is supposed to be a direct sequel to Kingdom Hearts, despite not being called II, and this remake seems to give Sora a more mature voice.

At least we get to play as Riku here! Okay, so for this I chose Beginner mode for him because I ran short on time overall and I wanted to cover so many other things, so beating the Riku game managed to take about a week tops. It's different, but the card mechanics remained the same. It's just there's significantly less customization in general. Random battles were mostly won by combining a Mickey card with two attack cards, with the projectiles hitting everything all over the area, usually netting me another Mickey card. The worlds are just slightly different overall but there's no additional cutscenes for battling the same bosses Sora did in each world. The dueling mechanic and Dark Mode were intriguing, I ended up using Dark Mode a few times on accident but the power boost was necessary. And dueling, while I wasn't fond of initially, ended up being the winning play against the last few bosses. It was a bit more enjoyable, but woo, let's not combine card games with other genres like this.

A look back at: Kingdom Hearts

I did say it was gonna take months until I get to my next RPG. Turns out that was only one month or so, so I was fibbing. But you know what? When you really, really want to get something done, you absolutely would want it done as soon as possible, no matter how much grind and grit you put into it. Kingdom Hearts was something on the back burner for a long while, and for my 200th RPG to go through, I would say it was worth it. A whole lot more worth it than I would imagine.

The series isn't really looked upon in the same limelight as more edgier games, but that's fine. What I care for is the proper mix of gameplay and storytelling and this game does deliver well enough in my view. Again, while I'm not the biggest fan of hack-and-slash, some things ensure that this is quality. Great customization of spells, shortcuts for some spells, special attacks to use that allow you to wail on enemies with proper combo timing as well as keeping you from being damaged. Some are just too good to use that they aren't as good. I preferred both Sonic Blade and Strike Raid for the majority of the game personally, they were the first two specials unlocked.

That isn't to say that this game isn't an RPG though, it totally is and it tells you up front that it is despite the linear storyline. You even start out with what kind of playstyle you want to go with, defensive, offensive, or magic-oriented. The game starts out slow enough to get used to tutorials and controls before throwing you into the hub that is Traverse Town, and unlike other hubs, there's always something to do. You can grind on enemies in other districts or go shopping or other things. The widely criticized Gummi ship rail shooter sections were things I didn't mind much myself, just slow down and shoot anything that moves. Customizing the ships though, wow that's a different beast altogether, took a long while to get used to how to do it, but in the end it may not really matter all that much, especially once you get the Warp Drive, which is early.

World-building is essentially world-mashing. You journey to familiar Disney locations, meeting certain Disney characters, and even having a few as party members against their respective villains. It results in differences in how some characters end up canonically, namely villains are basically defeated by your party in different ways than their original. Clayton for example doesn't accidentally lynch himself, but his Heartless carrier ends up flattening him instead. Others like Jafar have their ends met in ways similar to their originals. For other characters, it's nice to see development for Donald and Goofy, and how a few other allies act, but some characters get propped up without a whole lot to them at all. You don't get to interact much with the seven Princesses of Heart, only getting to see Alice and Jasmine before knowing that they are two of them, and the other four (not including Kairi) you don't get to talk with much at all. Mickey Mouse himself is supposed to be the Disney King, but you only see him at the ending. I am aware the game spawned sequels, so maybe we'll be seeing more of Mickey soon enough. Along with the ambiguous Riku, sure, I kinda like him somewhat. Sora also does alright for a heroic character, knowing what he needs to do and how to do it. The Heartless are a nice touch of original dark villain minions with many variants, appropriate for the game.

Still though, regardless of what you might think about the overall game and its mishmash of Square with Disney, it's absolutely worth trying at least once. I'm just glad that this experience did NOT take months as I have originally anticipated.