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.