One of the games that almost anyone would have bet against ever being made gets a sequel and the results are very nice. Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 combined Square Enix created characters with classic Disney cartoon characters in an action RPG and the results were, while a bit odd, undeniably magic. Many have been eagerly looking forward to the continuation of the story on the PS2. But while they wait for the scheduled release of Kingdom Hearts 2 later this year, they might want to pick up Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to cool their jones for more adventures with this unlikely pairing of character sets.
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories picks up right at the end of the first game. Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy (Does anyone really know what Goofy is?) start off on a new adventure to recover a memory buried deep inside Sora. (See how that ties into the title? Aren't these designers clever?) Since we are dealing with Sora's memories, the locations of this game are -you guessed it - the ones he remembers from the original game.
While the original Kingdom Hearts for PS2 was all action/RPG, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories brings in a card battling system to supplement the action game. Now don't head for the door screaming! This is really fairly okay. Cards in the player's deck attack, defend and allow certain actions like opening doors. It works satisfactorily for most of the game. It brings an element of strategy into the battles as you try to attack with the most effective card for a given enemy and counter his moves with appropriate defense cards. As the player gets farther into the quest it works less well. With several enemies to fight at once, the player will have to allocate way too much of his attention to dodging attacks to actually sort through cards and use them in a methodical manner. At this point just going into combat with the strongest deck possible that can be played quickly works best.
The quest is rather linear, but it is a fun quest so its straightforward design can be somewhat forgiven. The gameplay can get a little repetitive at times, but since the play mechanics are fairly entertaining no matter how many times you execute them, that too deserves a little forgiveness. Sadly there just aren't any extras in the game beyond the main quest. That of course means there is little to motivate a player to play the game more than one time through.
Graphically Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a triumph. Not only are the game graphics well above the GBA average, but there are actually full-motion video cut-scenes to move the story along - a first for the GBA. Audio is also good, with a fair representation of the PS2's soundtrack and very short but quality voiceovers.
Control of the action portion of the game is handled well with the GBA's adequate selection of buttons and D-pad, but the inability to more methodically select and play cards in the heat of battle degrades the strategic portion of the game. It is not completely broken, and I am admittedly without a suggestion to make it better, but it does hurt the game a little.
While it is not the original Kingdom Hearts on the PS2, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories offers an engaging story and action that will give fans of this oddball adventure a little taste to whet their appetites for the main course coming later in 2005 with Kingdom Hearts 2. And if anyone figures out what Goofy is, let me know. And don't say, " a dog, idiot." Pluto is the dog. Goofy looks more like the love child of Pluto and some other more anthropomorphic character in the Disney stable. I wonder what Minnie Mouse has been up to?
