**Context as this will have spoilers for parts of the game that you might be interested in yourself so when it reaches that, it'll be marked for spoilers so you can read this review without any worry. Thank you!**

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a title I remember ever so fondly as a Kid, I used to play this game all the time and would think it's one of the most fun experiences of all time.
Then I grew up, played it again, thought it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be and stopped playing after a few hours.

In context, I'm a pretty huge fan of the series and got this title first before I ever fully played through KH1 by myself, since back then my family would take turns playing through the game and experience it all together. It took me a pretty long while to beat this game cause I thought it was extremely difficult (and you'll see why, just put a pin on this.) and took me well over a year before I actually finished it. I thought it was great!

The 2nd time I would play it, I was about 14 and kinda had a nostalgia kick, and since 1.5 HD Remix was coming out at the time with Re:COM as a title you could play I was excited. While I did really enjoy playing Re:COM at the time I also kind of have similar thoughts about that game now that I do have with the original version on the GBA since essentially they're the same game, but at the time I didn't really think much of it.

I boot up the original GBA version, play it for a few hours, and shut it off never to play it again. I mean yeah it's a good game and all but I didn't really want to waste my time with it since I was going to be playing the version on 1.5 with Updated Graphics and 16:9 Widescreen. There wasn't really a reason for me to ever go back to it I thought.

With that being said, I've played both versions of these games about equal amounts of times and honestly I think each have their own merits and also problems that are somewhat separate from each other and what I'm going to discuss isn't going to pertain fully to that game as well. Hopefully though I could get across my own feelings with this game before I could fully begin the review and show you all where exactly I come across with some of my ratings. Without much further ado though, here we go!

G R A P H I C S

This absolutely isn't going to surprise anybody if you happen to look at this game just at a glance, but this game personally for me is a crowning achievement of what sprite based games can look like on the GBA. It can be simple as how they basically crammed full FMVs into a small dinky cartridge, how the sprites themselves animate, or even the portraits that show up during Story Cutscenes. Then there's the smaller details like Keyblade artwork on the cards, the scaling effects and other tinier details that all make this look so fantastic.
This to me is one of the biggest upsides of playing the GBA version. You can immediately tell that Jupiter who created the game already knew full well how to make the game look as incredible as it does. These are the same people who worked on The World Ends With You which is another fantastic looking Sprite game. I think alone, this is the peak of quality that a lot of GBA should strive for and I'm positive about giving this rating is absolutely deserved.

S o u n d

I've always sort of been a bit mixed on how I think this game sounds because I do have bias after being able to listen to how incredible the original PS2 soundtrack of Kingdom Hearts 1. There are original Tracks to the game and I think those sounds really great for their hardware, honestly. I think the Compositions of the KH1 Songs though kind of leave a bit to be desired.
I don't believe they're bad obviously, They're pretty okay. Again with bias I kind of have to recognize that they've been done better but have to realize that the GBA has it's limitations. I love the GBA soundchip too, there are OSTs on this hardware I adore. I just can't say the same for this soundtrack in full.

As for other things, like SFX and Audio Quality, I really don't have any Qualms with this. They really did a good job with this aspect of the game. They even added Voices for Characters and Support cards which is pretty cool. You don't usually tend to hear Voices on the GBA since they take up a lot of space but I'm pretty happy they went the extra mile.

A d d i c t i v e

This is where opinions will basically be different for everyone. How addictive a game is usually is pretty dependent on how fun the gameplay is and the Loop of obtaining cards to use for battle plus on the Overworld to unlock doors and experience to level up. I think this game does have a somewhat fun enjoyable loop, but the problem is that the Gameplay tends to feel a lot more grindy and unnecessarily challenging at points and especially during the End of the game where it hits the worst.
"Of course" you say "It's an RPG so you probably would be expected at least to grind a bit" but I don't have any problem with Grinding at all. It's when the game halts you completely when you have a pretty good pace of fighting everything within a room and earning experience but you're still blocked and have to grind for way too long to even progress. That's when it hits. This game feels really unbalanced.

With all my complaining aside, I still will commend the developers for what they could do with this game. Sure I can find the grind of the game unnecessary at points but I still do at times enjoy myself with what's presented. When it's good, it's really addictive to get into. Sadly though that's only half the time.

S t o r y

This to me probably has to be one of my Favorite Stories told within the Kingdom Hearts series (Yes, after however many games there are in the series, this is the one.) It's told in a pretty engaging way and narrative is extremely commendable for what's basically a Handheld sequel to a game that's arguably got one of the more simple plots in a RPG.

This will be a somewhat brief but spoilery part of the review so will keep stuff blacked out for what's plot important.

Sora and his friends happen to be traveling through a grassy field while stumbling upon Pluto, leading them into basically nowhere. At the dead of Night, Sora wakes up and starts to look around before being met with a Man in a Black Coat, persuading him to follow him towards the path. Then cuts in a scene of a mysterious blonde haired girl drawing up a Castle that happens to be the stay of where Sora and Crew will be fighting through many floors up.

It turns out the man in the Black Coat seemed to lure him there because all the powers that they once knew were basically non-existent and are left now left with no choice but to go up as they enter through gets locked. As you get further through the game, you start to meet other people who happen to be apart of this organization that they call themselves, fighting them off and trying to achieve something but what?



However after completing the story with Sora, a new side is shown through Riku and it tells his own journey through the Castle with different mechanics. I will not be talking about it as this is a review of the main game mostly. Overall though, I really do enjoy this story. This is just somewhat abridged from what does happen so if you happen to find yourself interested and don't want to play the game then more then likely a good idea to find a Story Playthrough of all the cutscenes.

D e p t h

As I mentioned in the Addictive Section, there is some depth to the game that kind of unfolds as you get through. The main thing to keep mind is one of the main mechanics of this game is Sleights. You're allowed to put together 3 cards and do a combo accordingly, however to get the most of this, you need to have the right Slight unlocked as well as the cards that go with it. This adds a lot to the game, however the biggest thing is that these can sometimes break the game. There are Slights in the game that are basically so good that you never need to touch another one ever again.

However if you're not about that, the other things that the game does add is that there isn't just one keyblade card type, but multiple. Usually in each world too you'd unlock them and be able to customize your deck accordingly. The biggest barrier though is Card Points. You usually need a lot of them to make a good deck and the only way to get them is through Leveling Up. You get to choose from one of three things to obtain which is extremely vital. Once again, a reminder that The grind isn't so bad at all until it becomes extremely bad. The main thing to mention is to always get Card Points and Sleights, never get HP unless you're finding that you're having trouble with Bosses.

Speaking of, Cards in Battle are allowed as many uses as you'd like... as long as you don't put them into a Sleight. Every time you reload, you'll get the cards that weren't used this way. This adds a bit of depth but you might as easily skip over this fact since they don't really fully explain it to you. The only way to recover Slighted cards is with Potions or Ethers. They become really valuable during late game. You also are allowed to put in Boss Cards from the ones you've beaten and you can switch over to them with the select button, they range from extremely mediocre to way too overpowered, but they usually cost a ton of Card Points which is why you always want to keep upping it with your Level ups.

There's a lot more smaller things to go over, but this is a general synopsis.


D i f f i c u l t y

This is a generally hard part to actually rate since this is all dependent on how many Moogle Points you get, what type of cards you receive from their shops, getting the right Cards for the OW to be able to even get into those Shops, ect. This is only grindy because you never know what you're going to get and some people might just be luckier then others in that regard. However to state that this game is hard at least during the Disney world explorations is a bit of a overstatement. Some of the Disney Worlds are pretty easy as long as you're exploring enough, save for the bosses that are actually a bit BS.
After you get to Destiny Islands, it slowly starts to ramp up in difficulty, then Twilight Town is a clear step up. Once you get to the final dungeon, say your prayers. This is without a doubt the worst part of the game for me and it's why I said I beat the original and Re:Com equally. I quit them both on my second playthrough.

Not only are you expected to have a backlog of cards for the overworld, but you're also expected to have a really good deck (Or for that matter, cheese with Sleights) and it just... isn't fun. Is it difficult? Well as long as you Cheese the game with Sleights like I said, not really. But if you're a casual experiencing this game for the first time and are met with this game's hellish difficulty spike at the end, then yes. It's a extremely difficult part of the game and honestly makes this a lot more challenging then it needs to be.

F i n a l T h o u g h t s

This game to me will always have a bit of a special place in my heart, despite how much I don't really like going back to it now and days. While I don't really enjoy the game as much as I used to when I was younger I can commend the Graphics and the Story so much just for what they are. It's such a well polished product in some aspects, but there are other aspects to me that I see as either lacking or I feel like is extremely flawed. It is not a perfect game for that matter and that's alright.

I know I've been somewhat pointing out at the beginning that this game has some problems that are exlusive to this version but I think this game is less broken then Re:COM on a gameplay standpoint. I commend the efforts of what they pulled off and if you are looking for a different experience then what all of the other Kingdom Hearts game do then look no further.