Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories Review (PS2)

Sun, Dec 21, 2008

Originally, I never thought I would enjoy the Kingdom Hearts series. I passed on the first game, but by the time the second Kingdom Hearts came out and I would watch my girlfriend play a bit each day, I realized that, hey, these games actually look pretty cool. So I did what many people did: went back, got Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and Chain of Memories on the GBA, played through the series, and began bugging Square Enix about their plans for Kingdom Hearts 3. We still don’t know a lot in terms of Kingdom Hearts 3, but to help appease American gamers Square Enix localized the previously-Japanese-only PS2 port of Chain of Memories for an English-speaking audience. It's something, I suppose.

For those unfamiliar with Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the title was the stepping stone between 1 and 2, taking place right after the end of the original Kingdom Hearts story came to an end. Sora is separated from his childhood friends, and Donald and Goofy are still searching for King Mickey. One day, the group is traveling down a path when they encounter a mysterious cloaked man. He hints that the group should enter Castle Oblivion to find what they're looking for, and then vanishes. Entering the castle, the group again meets this mysterious man in black, but as they try to engage him they realize that their abilities no longer work. The figure tells them that entering the castle has caused them to lose the memories of their abilities, and then creates a deck of cards made from their lost memories.

To “find those most precious to him,” Sora, Donald and Goofy must scale the mysterious structure. But there’s a catch—the higher they go, the more memories they lose. Soon, Sora begins losing memories while gaining new ones. The game revolves around the themes of memory and friendship, as Sora tries to figure out what’s real, what isn’t, and what he’s looking for—and what he's already lost. If that weren’t enough, once you complete the game you’re able to play the Reverse/Rebirth mode, which follows Riku’s separate journey in the Castle. It’s a different story than the one you'll experience as Sora, and it's just as engaging. Basically, once you beat Chain of Memories the tale is only halfway done.

Overall, it’s probably my second favorite narrative in the Kingdom Hearts series. While there’s little new in terms of Disney-related content, since all of your Disney encounters will be various retellings of the experiences Sora had in Kingdom Hearts, the focus on Sora, Riku, and their tumultuous friendship makes for an engaging tale that offered quite a bit of insight into the two characters. It’s a shame many players of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 missed out on these character-building experiences, but thankfully the money-desiring ways of Disney and Square Enix have brought the title to the PS2, where more fans will realize it exists.

While the greater emphasis on the Kingdom Hearts-specific characters was a nice change from the typical KH title, the combat was—and still is—a welcomed breath of air. For most people, the two main Kingdom Hearts titles offered little or no difficulty when it came to gameplay, and by the end got rather repetitive. They were built for an audience of both gamers and Disney fans who had never played an RPG before, after all. In Chain of Memories, Square Enix abandoned the usual button mashing action-oriented combat, and instead replaced it with a card-based system. At the time, it made sense given the immense popularity of card-based games. Plus, it was on the GBA and that couldn’t handle something as intense as KH’s combat.

Even on the PS2 years after the CCG craze has died down, though, the card-based combat remains a very nice alternative to the overly simple form. Like any card-based games, players build their deck using cards they’ve earned or found throughout their adventure, and how you customize your deck is largely up to your own personal preferences. Rather than press a button to hit with your keyblade or cast fire, you instead use those cards during combat. There’s more strategy to it than that, though, as each card features a number. Use a card, and if your opponent uses a card with a greater number they can interrupt the attack. Overall the combat may sound dramatically different from what you’re used to in a Kingdom Hearts title, but once you get used to it you realize it’s not that big of a change; it just adds a little more depth, strategy, and difficulty to the formula.

New to the PS2 version of the game is the Reaction system from KH2, and the fully 3D environment. The reaction system is just what you’re used to from playing through Kingdom Hearts 2; press triangle at the right time, and you’ll improve the skills you’re using.

It’s the 3D environment that really changes the way the game is played when compared to the GBA original. Looking back, most of the difficulty I encountered in Chain of Memories was largely due to the difficulty of movement in the limited environments. In full 3D, navigating around enemies while in combat and dodge rolling is much, much easier to pull off. The downside, of course, is that Re: Chain of Memories is thus not quite as difficult as some people may remember the GBA version being.

Outside of the Reaction system and the move to 3D, the only other noteworthy new additions to the PS2 remake are better sounding music, and voice actors. The original Kingdom Hearts cast returns to voice several of the characters during cutscenes. It is a little odd hearing Haley Joel Osment voice a Sora noticeably younger than the Sora he last voiced in Kingdom Hearts II, and it’s unfortunate that most of the game is still played without any voices (such as the Disney worlds’ characters), but the voice acting is a nice addition.

So is Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories worth a purchase? It depends. If you’ve already beaten the GBA title, there’s no real reason to play this one unless you desire to experience the game again. The additions and changes don’t make the game different enough to be anything but a fully 3D port, so it’s essentially double dipping on the title. If you never played the GBA version and enjoyed the two previous PS2 titles, however, Re: Chain of Memories is the definitive version of the two Chain of Memories titles. The combat feels a lot better, the graphics are (obviously) a lot better, and the voice acting/higher quality music make the game feel more like a Kingdom Hearts title than the GBA version did. It's no substitution for the lack of an American Final Mix+ release (especially since this game came as a free bonus with the title), but for most Kingdom Hearts fans it will do until Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out.

Chain of Memories, Disney, Donald, Goofy, Japanese, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2, port, PS2, Re: Chain of Memories, remake, Riku, RPG, Sora, Square Enix

This post was written by:

Brendon Lindsey - who has written 274 posts on GameCyte.

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3 Comments For This Post

debt relief Says:
December 30th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I just started the game and I was a little bit dissapointed but hey its Kingdom Hearts.
sora Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
i was mad about the cards...i dont rlly like the cards... they bug me! plus i think this is him just looking back at things cuz when i got to wonderland with alice and the white mouse the bed was already pushed over... plus i already new alice and i dont think i met her in part one of kindgom.....
chris Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
dude its from his memory thats why there world cards and stuff its from his memory so that why the bed was moved over........ and this game is awesome

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