Review by: Deven Thrivikraman
Written on: December 24, 2004

Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Jupiter / Buena Vista
Genre: Action RPG
Number of players: 2
Release Date: December 7, 2004 (USA), November 11, 2004 (Japan)

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the prequel for Kingdom Hearts 2 (which is due out on the Playstation 2 late 2005), offers the Kingdom Hearts gamer a lot of in-depth information for the sequel while featuring a new type of battling system. Those who are not familiar with Kingdom Hearts for PS2 will have a hard time understanding what exactly is going on with the storyline and may lack interest compared to those who have played the original Kingdom Hearts for PS2. The full Kingdom Hearts story can be read HERE.

Chain of Memories picks up immediately where Kingdom Hearts left off as Sora is wandering through some sort of open fields along with Donald and Goofy. Eventually, Sora comes to Castle Oblivion where he is met by an Unknown. In Castle Oblivion, the only thing Sora can use are cards with are possessed with properties. Sora learns that he must use these cards to advance forward through the Castle. Sora and the gang must still finish their conquest from the previous Kingdom Hearts title; find Riku and King Mickey. However, upon entering Castle Oblivion, the gang learns that the worlds that they visit and the 'familiar' characters they meet are drawn from Sora's memories. It turns out Sora's memories are manipulated by a group of characters in trench coats called ‘The Organization' The goal of The Organization is to guide Sora in accomplishing a task of their own which has roots to dark and evil.

As you go further into the game, you receive a set of special cards in which you can advance to the next world. The worlds are similar to those seen in the first Kingdom Hearts. In order to move to the next floors in Chain of Memories, you must complete various worlds. The worlds you get to pay a visit to in Chain of Memories include Traverse Town, Agrabah, Olympus Coliseum, Monstro, Halloween Town, and Wonderland, which are all from the first Kingdom Hearts. The worlds in the game are all connected by rooms. You move from room to room by unlocking doors with cards that you find in the field, pick up from enemies, or gain from special encounters or events which come occasionally throughout the game.

The uniqueness of Chain of Memories which sets it aside from other games is that all important actions from opening a door to defeating heartless require a deck of cards. Though cards are used throughout the game frequently, the game is still action-packed. However, the actions you take are dependent on what cards are in your current deck (which can be set by you OUTSIDE of battle). All the cards are different and you have cards for melee attacks, spells, items and characters that you can summon.

Each card in your card deck has a number on it, from zero to nine. Your enemies also have cards with a number on them and when you and your enemy attack, the largest value attack will come out on top (If you have 6, and your enemy has 4, your enemy will stagger). When your enemy is negated like this, Sora will be able to strike the enemy. Or you can be tactful and wait for your enemy to strike and then counter it by using a higher card from your deck. If you run out cards, you can shuffle your deck but the more times you have to shuffle, the longer it takes for you to get your cards and it can be very vulnerable to one.

Also, when you use Door cards to gain access to the next part of a world, you can place a special effect on the area by choosing a specific card and seeing what happens on the other side of the door. There are also Special Moogle door cards you can use if you want to buy packs of cards to strengthen your combat deck.

The only complaint that I have with the card battle system is how later in the game when you have to fight a lot of enemies at once, there is no room to strategize and use the cards the way you want. This is when the game turns into a hardcore action RPG where you mash the A button repeatedly using whichever card that appears next. Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of the card battling system? Once you get used to your deck arrangement and have them arranged strongly, you’ll get used to the words ‘attack’ and ‘reshuffle’ in your mind.

With the cards, you can also do combos of course. This is done by using the L+R buttons at the same time. Once you line up 3 cards, just press the L+R buttons and Sora will unleash the combo attack. In the game, you’ll notice that many bosses will use combos and the only way you can match up is by having a combo of your own ready. One of the combo attacks is Ragnarok.

Also, you are able to summon Donald and Goofy in the game when you need their aid. For example, if you summon Donald, he can cast blizzard or even heal you. You can also summon characters from the previous Kingdom Hearts such as Genie but the newest one is Cloud. Remember, you have to find the cards for these summons if you want to summon them in battle.

Sora’s deck can hold up to 99 cards, but you can’t actually have 99 cards due to card points. Each card has a different card point value and cards with a higher attack value like 5 or 6 take up more CPs than a card with a value of just 1 or 2. This is where you can strategize how you want to play the game. You can build a deck with a few seven cards or you can build a deck with a bunch of low cards and then do combo moves throughout the game. Towards the game, you can just end up building a deck with magic and summon cards. My advice is to have a balanced deck as it is the best way to go for most battles. You can only make up to 3 different decks but only 1 can be equipped at a time.

And as you should have guessed, or seen from screenshots, you are able to level up in this game. When you level up, you can give Sora more CP, which means you can put more cards in your deck, or you can choose to increase Sora’s hit points or teach Sora a new combo move. One thing to remember is even though you are selecting cards and etc., the battle is real time. This meaning that you’ll be attacked by heartless relentlessly so you won’t be able to stand in one place. While you’re running around trying to dodge attacks, you also have to collect blue spheres which give you experience points.

One of the frustrating parts of the game is when you are fighting 3 or more heartless at once and you go into the ‘game slowdown’ mode when you try and do a jump attack or do a combo. In the game when you are not battling, you can just walk around and slash at boxes and what not with your keyblade. Some of the boxes drop extra cards for you while others release green balls that can give you your HP back. Also, before you enter the actual battle with an enemy heartless, you can hit them over the head and ‘stun’ them giving you a more than slight advantage over them during battle.

As I said before, you need cards to even go through doors. Most of the doors require a simple card that is obtained in random battles. Also something that is neat is that when you select the card to enter the next area, you can change the layout of the room as well as the amount of enemies that are around. If you’re feeling lazy, you can make a room with 0 heartless but if you’re arching for a battle, you can make a room packed with heartless. However, don’t get too excited as most of the doors do not give you this option, particularly the ones that are needed to advance the storyline.

When you come across blue heart cards, you will get some cutscenes which features familiar characters from the first Kingdom Hearts including Jack Skellington, Hades and Aladdin, among many others. The worlds you visit can be in any order after you beat Traverse Town in the opening of the game. Just like in the first Kingdom Hearts, there are new enemies in each area.

Even though Chain of Memories is on the GBA, the developers have done a good job in working in all the details of the Disney worlds and surroundings. Also, the hand-drawn sprites and backgrounds along with the FMV sequences give Chain of Memories a high score in the presentation and graphic categories. Without a surprise, you can tell the resemblance of all the heartless from Kingdom Hearts for PS2 as well. The audio in Chain of Memories sounds great as well with many songs from the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack. There are even a few sound bites from various Disney characters.

Square-Enix came out with Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and did exactly what they wanted to do; prepare the fans for Kingdom Hearts 2 as well as familiarize those who are not up to par with the story of KH and that is just what they did. Those who were expecting a lot of “new” stuff to be revealed in Chain of Memories will have to wait until Kingdom Hearts 2, but it should not disappoint you at all from liking this game.

There’s not much more to it except to wait for Kingdom Hearts 2.

KHInsider.com Final Rating: 8.5/10