“Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories” is a solo title released Dec. 2, 2008 for the PlayStation 2. The game is a full remake of the 2004 “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.” For the purpose of this review I played my copy on the PlayStation 5 through a digital copy of the “Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix“ which includes “Re: Chain of Memories” as well as other games in the “Kingdom Hearts” collection.
Our story begins following the events of the first game, with Sora, Donald and Goofy defeating Ansem and with the help of Riku and King Mickey sealing Kingdom Hearts. The cast ventures into a field and is happened upon by a hooded figure with a cryptic message: “Ahead lies something you need, but to claim it you must lose something dear,” leading them to Castle Oblivion; a foreboding structure consisting of 13 floors filled with illusions of worlds past visited and an enigmatic group of colorfully haired, black cloaked characters with their own devious intentions for Sora and company. They are known as The Organization.
Gameplay here consists of two opposing things, combat and exploration. Both are a mixed bag here, but to start with the positives; Combat is rather complex as each attack requires a card, and everything in Castle Oblivion is at the mercy of the cards. You’ll have to pay attention though because if your opponent plays a higher card they’ll ‘break’ your card and you’ll lose your card permanently. All is not lost though, you have special abilities known as ‘sleights’, where you’ll stack cards within a certain count and perform magical abilities like a flaming Keyblade or freezing opponents. You are given absolute control here as you can customize every single card in your deck and eventually garner your opponents cards granting greater boons.
The boss battles are some of the series’ most challenging, I did not realize the amount of tension that could be experienced in a card based battler but facing off against the highly stylized members of The Organization along with their frantic battle themes was enough to make me lose my cool at certain points-In a Disney game, featuring Mickey Mouse no less.
The painful side of “Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories“ is its exploration, or lack thereof. Do not expect the fun platforming of the first game. While the developer could have expanded in this remake they chose to stick close to their roots, in that each room, generated by a card of your choice is usually shaped like a box. It is about as exciting as it sounds and repetitive. You’ll be doing this daunting task for about 50 hours. My solution was to create rooms with fewer enemies so as to speed through the story, however, I was challenged if I did not complete enough battles when facing bosses.
All in all “Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of memories” has its ups and downs. My primary goal for playing it was to follow up with the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix review I did last fall and prepare for the eventual “Kingdom Hearts 2” review. Do be on the lookout for that.
