Now as you guys know I am a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series for a few reasons which are stated here >
-Awesome music
-fun and easy to get into gameplay
-being able to beat the living beejeezus out of your least favorite villains in disney history
-well done presentation and an impressive roster of people behind it
-an interesting story that anyone can get into
Now for the reasons I may hate it >
-Prequel / Sequel asspulls (though I like them but it just seems ridiculous after awhile when trying to get the whole history of KH together)
-Certain disney worlds being used over and over
-Sora is the CENTER OF THE GODDAMN UNIVERSE
-Nomura's fetishs and flaws (like zippers)
Now let's examine the history of KH like this:
Birth By Sleep (KH Zero)
Kingdom Hearts
358 / 2 Days (KH 1.5A)
Chain of Memories (KH 1.5B)
Kingdom Hearts 2
Re: Coded (KH2 2.5 A)
Kingdom Hearts 3D (KH2 2.5 B)
Kingdom Hearts 3
Now the order they came out in is this:
Kingdom Hearts
Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts 2
Re: Chain of Memories (I almost consider it almost a separate game)
358 /2 Days
Birth By Sleep
Re: Coded
Kingdom Hearts 3D
You confused yet? yeah. Well, it seems like Square is doing what they can to over saturate this series to what they can to cover up any plotholes or continue with the story in anyway possible. Oh wait, we should be talking about Re: Coded shouldn't we? Yeah, let's do that.
Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded is a rather nice mixture and throwback to the things we liked about the KH series and manages to pull it off in a weird fashion. Let's talk about the gameplay, the battle system uses the Birth By Sleep Deck Command Engine where you can fuse commands and pull them off with the triangle button without delay and it even has it own version of the Overdrive system with the Overclocked meter which fills up each time you strike something and it levels up your keyblade and eventually lets you use your keyblade's limit. Confused, okay, simple time, hit things equals meter goes up equals limit break and repeat. However, each keyblade has a unique set of abilities you have to consider before going into battle that you can set in the menu or on the touch screen which can make combat alot easier or harder.
Now the Overclocked Limits are unique as some require button commands at the right time or some allow for some unique changes like going into FPS and shooting fireballs.
Now the leveling up engine is quite different from any other game though it will be familiar if you played FFX or anything with a similar engine. As you battle you gain Level Up Chips which you can install on the Stat Command Board however you can also gain other chips to increase certain stats and connect them to CPUs to double their potential or commands or accessory slots and so on. Now the board also has "cheats" which have certain effects of lowering your HP to double the chances of getting items and so on, you can even customize the difficulty to your hearts content... Wait a minute, this sounds very familiar, oh right, "The World Ends With You" used a very similar engine, a title they have forsaken due to Square only sticking to their guns for the money.
Now the combat in the game is also on par with Birth By Sleep and KH2, very smooth and fast paced compared to it's slower brethren 358 / 2 Days. So fun times to be had just the way we are used to? Not quite, each world you are thrown into, you have to clean out the bugs as well as solve the problems of that world due to some villain using the bugs to their own advantage or some other person letting them mess around with it. To clean out these bugs you must go into the Tron-like world of the datascape and clean them out, however, not all that simple, certain areas have challenges that use a betting system to reward you for whatever is required or not (this is what New Game Plus involves alot of).
Now another thing is each world has a certain gameplay mechanic that will be somewhat forced on you due to the bugs of these worlds. Traverse Town will end on 2.5D Platformer, Wonderland will end of a scrolling shooter, and so on. Now, most of these are implemented well and quite fun though the 2.5D Platforming segment is probably the worst considering you have two annoying boss fights and they are all auto-scrolling levels (vastly hated by any Mario / Platformer Lover).
Now the story involves Jiminy's First Journal (KH1 and COM) which only has one phrase that Chain of Memories cherished and KH2 made fun of it. However, they find one last phrase in it that is alittle scary and needed to be looked into. So Mickey and the gang investigate it and find the journal is full of bugs and they need to send someone in so they call up Sora from Journal to investigate and get rid of the bugs and decipher the mysterious message and possibly fix up the Journal. You will go through the all too familar worlds of Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Wonderland, Colosseum, Agrabah, Hollow Bastion, and Castle Oblivion.
Now I guess one of the problems that some address is these places have been used to death and use the same design as before though I can argue that Traverse has only been in 2 games before this one, Wonderland being in 3, Destiny in 2, Agrabah has been in every game except BbS, Hollow Bastion being in every game except 358 / 2 Days, and the Colosseum being in every damn game (Thus why I hate it's theme and everything else except the concept of being an arena to fight tons of things and get cool stuff).
I heard they also complained that none of the layouts had changed though Wonderland uses the version presented in 358 / 2 Days and the Colosseum is very different and the Cave of Wonders in Agrabah was very much modified. Though I can argue that most of this is because is based off the KH1 adventure and changing it would not make sense considering it's a near exact replica of that world from that time. My only gripe with this is we have done these worlds before more than twice over and there better be some new worlds in 3D and 3 soon because it's getting to be over-saturated for this series.
Now what maybe a problem for this game is it focuses alot on platforming than the rest of the other games due to these worlds and bugs (which appear in the form of blocks or enemies complete BLOKed up) these blocks will involve alot of platforming trying to get to the good stuff or bypass an area. This becomes quite a problem in some of the later areas where they put a huge ton of blocks in the most assholish way possible making the platforming almost as bad as KH1.
Now probably the strongest point of this game is how it thrives on some of the strongest moments in the series and attributes that were at one time lost or not given to us gamers outside of Japan like Maleficent gaining her super villain position and showing to be competent and Pete as a possible threat for once and fighting against Riku and the emotion behind it or fighting against #13. The ending of the game reveals all and reflects on Chain of Memories ending as well as what is to come in the next KH game. The music is almost completely borrowed from KH1 and duplicated in near exact quality (the DS always surprises me with it sound quality and what it can produce). The game doesn't drag itself out like some of the other games, it keeps the pace and stays at it.
Overall the game is beautiful for DS standards and smoothed out compared to 358 / 2 Days and oddly they took another nod from TWEWY with the conversation scenes and used actual cutscenes comparable to KH2 quality (which some will bitch why it is not on the PS2). All in all, the game is pretty short even for a KH game and or an RPG clocking in about 15 hours of normal gameplay (due to the pacing and shorter than FF PSP) and possibly extended through NG+. The game is very fun and addicting though is it worth $35 dollars (Average price for new DS game) right now? That is really hard to think about considering the shortness though the fun at hand. For most I would recommend alittle wait of dropping it to $30. Overall, it's a really fun and good title that can be surprisingly deep with it's gameplay if used correctly. It's made for kids but made with the adults in mind (like me). Overall, worth checking out (once the price of admission goes down a hair) and very fun
