Kingdom Hearts: ReCoded

Another cutscenes movie of a handheld game

Kingdom Hearts: Recoded... if Kingdom Hearts 2 made a Tron reference this is pretty much Kingdom Tron: The Movie. Premise is that it's at the end of the games timeline. Jiminy Cricket looks through his journals and the first one (clearly of the first game) has nothing in it since it was erased in Chains of Memories beyond a note thanking Namine... except that it appears another note appears. King Mickey, Donald and Goofy uses a special device to encode it as data (again with encoding things to data), but the information is corrupt so they send in an avatar of Sora to debug the whole thing. Basically yet another retelling of the first game, but they also put in Chains of Memories parts as well. Now everything would have worked smoothly if not for some reason they were all sucked into the "computer" together with Pete who contacts Maleficent so they cause havoc on their end while data-Sora tries to fix it with the real Mickey, Donald and Goofy. I don't get much else of the story other than that after much struggle rid the book of bugs and confront the one behind it... Namine? 

For such a simple premise as Disney- and Final Fantasy-characters in one game it's a really complicated plot. Maybe I just didn't care again since its like a 2.5 hour movie without the roaming around to figure things out and missing a lot of boss banter that sometimes gives a lot to character motives. At least I haven't needed to learn another control scheme or using cards to play.

Other things to mention is that mostly the same voice actors, but they changed the Genie from Dan Castellaneta to someone who actually sounds more like Robin Williams. And to be honest, even though I know it's not the same voice for Mickey I can't tell the difference. It also sets up the plot for the next game with fighting a resurrected Xehanort... which was the apprentice of Ansem... and yet only was a Nobody. Apparently by skipping Birth by Sleep I missed out on some important plot points so I should probably finish of that game next.

Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix

Original cover of the game back in 2006

So I finally finished it, took me around 50 hours and reaching level 80 before being fed up with the side-questing and just finish it. At least I finished it before AntDude, but maybe not fair since I started like, a month before he started publish his reviews on the games in the series (and by now you can guess that I write these a long time before releasing them, but hopefully he has released his review before this). So lets see, shall we begin with the story as per usual?

Wait, who's this guy again?

So the game starts with introducing us to Roxas, a normal kid enjoying the final week of summer with his friends. Now, watching the movie in the last game I already know his backstory. He is Sora's Nobody, a being that have no heart and is part of Organisation XIII, he's actually their 13th member. He was defeated by Riku and somehow ended up in Twilight Town with memories changed. Of course, if you played the game in 2006 you wouldn't know that since then he was just Roxas, our tutorial character to give an excuse to reintroduce the basic controls from the last game and some added things, like now you can skate on a skateboard. So basically Roxas and friends are trying to make the days go, but Roxas starts to notice people in black cloaks that no others see, times stop at times and beings like heartless and nobodies appear and with them the Keyblade. Exploring the town he finds the girl Namine in a mansion at the outskirts. In the end he finds a mysterious laboratory under it that leads him to what pretty much is a cryochamber. And after all stress and pressure he starts it up... and he disappear as Sora awakens from his sleep, having regained all memories he lost at Castle Oblivion, but the memories from that castle is gone. Really, this section is rather bitter since I assume everyone wanted to play Sora, but from a gaming perspective this made more sense, but you actually gets attached to Roxas even though you know he must disappear somehow and it gets really though when he himself starts to wonder if its real or not and more or less begs to exist.... and then he's gone. Not only that, but walking around town as Sora afterwards feels empty, since no one remember Roxas. No trace of what he accomplished, the street tournament, his friends don't recall him and so on. It's like he was completely erased, like he was a Nobody.... Well, at least I can play with Donald and Goofy again.

Did he change clothes?

And here the real part of the game starts. You leave Twilight Town and meet Yin Sid, the wizard from Fantasia that gives you your knew clothes and access to the Gummi Ship. And you're of. First stop Disney Castle, you are visiting the home of Donald and Goofy. Not much there beside introducing Queen Minnie and whatever Daisy is. You travel to Hollow Bastion that been resettled by the Final Fantasy characters from last game and Merlin... so basically the new Traverse Town. We even have Uncle Scrooge here trying to make some ice cream. Actually preferred Traverse Town to be honest, much more atmosphere. Then the rest of the worlds. There's worlds from Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules (old), The Little Mermaid (old), Aladdin (old), The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean and Nightmare Before Christmas (old). Most of them follow their respective movies and for the new worlds no problem, but The Little Mermaid I've already seen once so I don't need it again, but they had to so they could use some more songs from the movie in a musical. And again, the only ones that uses the movie music is Nightmare, Mermaid and Winnie the Pooh (of course the book is here again) of the old worlds and are joined by the Pirate movies. And to be honest they used a short excerpt from Beauty and the Beast at the end of that chapter. It's only the best Disney movie so of course it had to do it. The only one I don't know is the world based on Tron. Yes, another live-action movie from the 80's that I've never seen and fittingly is accessed through a computer in Hollow Bastion (where also Winnie the Pooh is as well). 

From the same creator who made Animalympics you say?

So you run around, level up, get abridged versions of the movies and I gotta hand it to them, Aladdin they based on the sequel Return of Jafar instead of repeating the same story again as they did with Mermaid. How can they even explain that since I killed Ursula in the last game and they point out that both Oogi Boggy and Maleficent are resurrected while Jafar was seen caught in the lamp in the last game, but Ursula just shows up and Ariel still believes her as if that part of the game didn't happen. Hercules is probably the only one I can't say that much about since it's basically just an arena level, but this time placed in the underworld and you can play with Auron from Final Fantasy X, neat.

The bad guys I presume

So if we go back to the story, why was Organization XIII a threat again. Well, in the span of the game they tried to get Roxas back, and if he wouldn't cooperate they were ordered to kill him, harsh, but hey I haven't read the terms of contract at the organisation. Then they tried kidnap Kairi, which is pretty much I as a player starts to see them as a threat... if I have played the first game and know who Kairi is. And the game tries to fool me in that a man named Diz is a bad guy since he has an evil laugh and plans some dark things with Ansem, the big bad of the first game. Helps that he is voiced by Christopher Lee. Turns out Diz is the real Ansem, a good guy who was usurped by the bad Ansem, not the one he planed with since that was Riku transformed by the darkness into Ansem. But Ansem bad guy is dead, so in this game we have his Nobody instead, Xemnas. And boy is that a cheating bastard. So endgame is that you figure out that Twilight Town also has another version of itself explaining why no-one knew who Roxas was. That Twilight Town has a portal to the World Between Worlds. Sora and gang fights their way through while meeting up with Riku and Kairi who escaped her prison thanks to Namine and later on King Mickey who helped Diz as he was collecting data... of Kingdom Hearts with act as a moon in the world of Darkness? The game has literally dropped me somewhere and I can't explain what happens. I don't even get the plan of the Nobodies. Are they struggling to feel? Or are they just eradicating everything so everyone will be as them? And defeating Hearless with the Keyblade creates the Kingdom Hearts? Or does it create Nobodies? I'm so confused. And I haven't even mentioned with the subplot of Maleficent and Pete going around looking for a Castle to control the heartless. I think they did a heroic sacrifice since after that they don't show, but with this game what would I know?

Pete, former captain of the guard and boss of Mickey Mouse on his Steamboat... how could it go so bad?

Anyway, the machine Diz uses blows up killing him... what he tried to accomplish I don't get. You fight your way to the top, fight Xemnas a couple of times. Everything is fine as you win, everyone but Riku and Sora are able to get in the Door of Light before Xemnas return and you jump on some sort of space ship and destroy him. And then the final battle atop the monster start which is also pretty awesome as you throw buildings at him and then the most cheapest fight start. Cheating bastard I say. I died like 6-7 times because the bastard is able to hide outside the perimeter of the fighting area and then he traps me so I have to play as Riku, before telling what the hell I'm supposed to do while the clock is ticking down. And then the damn quick-time event I just have to prey to god I get right otherwise he drain so much HP that is game over... again. But I beat him. And then we are in the world of Darkness just walking around. We end at the beach I recall from the Recoded movie? They pretty much give up, but a flask post appears from Kairi and a door of light appears. They enter and returns to Destiny Island. They meet Kairi, Donal, Goofy and Mickey, all in CGI. They don't look that good. Credits and then the post-credit sequence when they are alone on the island again (Riku, Kairi and Sora that is) and they get a new flask post from Mickey hinting on a future game. If its the other game on the CD I have to find out another time.

It looks a bit uncanny I must say

So overall a good game, I had fun playing it. Same voice actors, the music was alright and the little assets they borrowed from the movies they made good use of. The worlds felt a bit short though. A bit linear compared to the more maze like worlds from the first game. Gameplay wise... pretty much the same, but they added Drive forms in which you with one or both other characters in your party combine strength so that Sora goes into a ultimate form. And as per usual I ignored it until I noticed right up to the end that I didn't have high jump, double jump or glide which they even included in Chains of Memory... where you didn't even need them. Turns out that to get those abilities you have to grind out your drive forms. So I spent 10 hours getting most of them up the cap of level 7 so I could glide and jump to collect most of the puzzle pieces scattered across the worlds. I have a small nagging suspicion that they mentioned it when they introduced the drive forms, but I forgot about that and didn't bother using Drive since I might need it if a tough boss come by. So instead I went back and forth between a save point and some enemies to beat up so I could save the drive gauge by entering the gummi ship. Glad I did cause I stumbled upon this added area in Hollow Bastion (or Radiant Garden as it's renamed at the end point of the game) where you need to max those abilities, but I came through and then fought my way through some of the hardest heartless encounters in the game. Lucky 80 was enough. I still don't get the motivation of the villains and Sora's own motivation is finding King Mickey and Riku, just as in the first game so that's fine. All it really did was actually tempting me to get a Playstation 4 in order to play Kingdom Hearts 3 when it gets out. And at the current standing there's Nino Kuni 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, The Last Guardian. What do they say? At least 5 games before buying a console? Especially since I know neither of these would end up on a Nintendo console no matter how strong the NX is gonna be. Maybe wait for the Neo which would be an upgraded slim version I guess? I also guess I have to learn to listen to a different Mickey Mouse since the voice actor passed away around the time after the release. And Diz won't have Christopher Lee either since he's also gone. And now I made myself sad. Then again I learn that the voice of Goofy was in the original Robocop from 1987. Best movie ever!

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

or Eat the blue ice cream movie

God, the last game was a disaster for me. An obnoxious gameplay mechanic with cards is just annoying. Why was all spin-off games (and even main series games) so into card based gameplay? Thankfully I can play this game which is apparently set before, during and a bit after Chains of Memories. So I boot it up and... and it is a movie. Well, at least I don't have to play the game. Basically it's the cutscenes from the game with a small text in between explaining story event during the game. It's a couple of hours and what I got out of it is... that some guy Roxas belongs to an organization named XIII where he is friends with Axel from the last game. Roxanne is member XIII and they introduce XIV, a girl which looks a bit like Kairi, in the same way Naminé looked like Kairi.  And mostly the three of them sits and eats blue ice cream on a clock tower. Apparently some internal conflict within the organization where Axel is trying to smoke out some traitors while watching the two kids back. Roxas and XIV try to keep each other safe, but for some reason XIV is breaking down. Axel has to get her back several times and then she disappears which sets Roxas out to get her, but he is confronted by Riku who unleash some... I guess darkness to stop him. Which interestingly enough is the ending teaser from Kingdom Hearts 1. If you don't get it, sorry, I could hardly follow it. I'm glad I didn't have to play it since it saved me several hours of  gaming. Still, coming from this way I hardly care for the characters since Axel is the only one I know about (besides those doomed by canon is I killed them with Sora in the last game) and even if he was the nicest of the people in the last game I hardly find him that interesting. Although my sister disagree I would assume. 

90 % of the movie people!

I will give it credit though for feeling very nice to see the bad guys (I assume) have this interaction. I don't get what they do and I assume it's due to it being a prequel to Kingdom Hearts 2 where you get to play Roxas. I know this since my sister for some reason become completely obsessed with this series and pretty much have them all and I watched her play the second game so I get a little. But now I got Kingdom Hearts 2.5. but I wonder when I will get the time to play that. I'm getting a bad habit of ending series before finishing them off.

Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories

Cardgames in a castle

So I got to play the sequel of Kingdom Hearts. If I'm correct it was originally a Game Boy Advance-game, that was remade to a Playstation 2-game that then was ported over to the PS3. Given that origin I get why they changed the gameplay. Instead of the action-rpg that the original game gave us they instead gave us a... card-based rpg. Seriously? That's not the only time a spin-off game gets a card-based gameplay. Metal Gear had the Acid-series, Paper Mario gave us the boring Sticker Star (which obviously had stickers instead of cards, but it work pretty much the same). Sometimes it doesn't need to be a spin-off, but the whole game like Baiten Kaitos. And to be frank I hate that game mechanic. Either everything is chance based or you have to craft the perfect deck with just the right sequence of cards to really make the best attacks. But I think this game is even worse than at least Baiton Kaitos. Barton Kaitos problem was the randomness of what cards you drew from your deck, but here using combos means that the first card in the combo is taken away shifting the orders of card you get. Meaning that if you don't finish a battle before reshuffling your whole strategy is out of order. Best bet is editing together a magic deck since it really works for crowd control. Start with Aeoroga, then a magnetic attack followed up by stop time then hit the rest with firaga and blizzaga. Throw in some Thundaga and curaga to make sure you always stands on top. Really, a battle just last at most 30 seconds and in the final area I went up over 10 levels without much problem. In the end that deck was even able to defeat the final boss even though it was a hassle. 

Dude looks like a lady

Story starts right as the original game ends with our heroes following Pluto to a mysterious castle, Castle Oblivion. They are tasked to reach the top of the castle and along the way they will lose their memories and might regain some lost memories. Basically it works as the Auryn wishes in the Neverending Story 2. During the trip Sora get's memories of a girl named Naminé and he begin obsessing over her to save her. Behind the scenes a secret organisation is behind all this as they control Naminé to erase Sora's memories and replacing them with those they want. But apparently the local leader is trying to use Sora in order to take over the organisation and Axel, the red headed one, is working to stop the pink haired one. In the end Sora defeats all of the local organisation members (but I get it that Axel is the only one that lives to tell the tale) and saved Naminé and to undo all the jumbled memories Sora, Goofy and Donald is put in stasis. 

Same white walls everywhere, makes it feel like the endless staircase in Mario 64

I hate this game. The gameplay is just annoying since your action is limited with what cards have which determines combos and so on. The story has interesting parts, but most is just meeting the same characters in the first game, but changing up the story, although still pretty much be the same outcome... and pretty much the same bosses. You change the layout of the castle by using room cards you collect after winning a battle (unless you have over 99 of them, which you will get). And when you defeat the final boss (who cheats by the way by using an attack that makes you drop all your cards so you have to pick them up, bastard) you unlock another mode as you play as Riku... F*** that. The only time I would play that is if I in 10 years replay the game... you know in anticipation when they finally release Kingdom Hearts 3. But seriously, maybe a handheld console would have worked better since that was the original intent... and when I'm thinking about it, why do they give you glide and super glide abilities when you can't use it to search the environments?

Final note is the voice acting, clearly Haley Joel Osment hit puberty and makes the decision from the remaster of the first game to not add voices even better. On one hand I think the voice doesn't suit anymore, but I assume that is nostalgia talking, cause as a whole it sound alright. David Gallagher and the others sound as they did before so it sticks out a bit, but he isn't bad. And since he got that voice for the whole game it makes it acceptable for me. I would guess I would have approved even more if he hit puberty in Kingdom Hearts 2 after this game since, hey, prolonged stasis exposure.