Kingdom Hearts: Chain of memories stands at a rather unfortunate position between the far superior Kingdom hearts I and II. Even more annoying the story of the game isn't just something hastily made up for the handheld port but it is almost necessary to know to grasp the more complex parts of II (especially the beginning), so you can't really skip this game and head to later games either. Actually the whole series of KH has a problem with hitting plot-critical games for every single available system, but I digress. The real question is of course: is the game actually worth playing. The answer to that is both Yes and No. Let's elaborate.

Graphics: As far as the graphics go they're really amazing, For a GB advance game at least. Animated sequences are well made and don't really pale in comparison in regards of content to others in the series. On the downside sometimes the game starts lagging; especially when there are many enemies on the screen. Anyway the main problems in the game lie completely elsewhere.

Sound: As with graphics, sound is also amazing. Lots of thought process and consideration have obviously been made for this game. I'd even go so far to say that this game is worth playing at least once just because of those factors. Creators of the game really wanted people to like this.  Only complaints I have about music is that they re-used much of the sounds and themes from the original Kingdom Hearts from PS2, and sometimes - especially at Atlantica and Halloween Town - listening to the same jingle over and over can get somewhat grating. On the other hand original music they made to this game is amazing; especially the Organization battle theme.

Addictiveness: This is were things start really crumbling apart. Fighting in the game simply isn't very fun and that's quite a major problem when considering that the game is 90 percent fighting and grinding. It's obvious the makers tried to innovate with card-system, but almost everyone can probably agree that it's kind of a mess. You need to keep staring at your deck to see what level and what kind of card you're using and at the same time try to keep up with the physical hitting and dodging enemy attacks. Then at the same time you must keep an eye on the deck of your opponent to see that your cards are constantly higher than his while also maintaining your own deck insuring you don't run out of cards by using sleights which may combine different cards into higher ultimate attacks and ugh... Even at the very ending your battle strategy will most likely be just trying to whale all your cards at enemy hoping he won't break them.

Even worse, battles aren't like in any other KH games where you can just run past an enemy if you don't want to fight. Here touching an enemy sends you to fighting mode much like in most Final fantasy or pokemon games. There you will have to fight the enemies to the end and get the card or run away. But you need both the cards and the levels to make on so there's not much reason to run away beyond sheer boredom. I still can't understand why you couldn't just fight enemies on the map screen, but it might have something to do with technical limitations of GB advance

But it gets EVEN worse. To open new rooms in the map you must open them with cards you gain from the battle. This is bummer on two entirely different levels. First off it makes stages rather dull. Because whole map is dictated by what kind of card you use to open the door worlds feel unimaginative and linear. This may make sense in the context since those cards are based on memories rather than actual places, but it really doesn't make much to save the maps. Even worse some doors require cards with specific values to open them. Without wishing to spoil anything, to open the final door of the game you need a blue card with exact value of 1. If you haven't got one you likely have long hours of grinding ahead of you, and let me tell you; After the second hour of fighting, the battles get REALLY monotonic and one annoying bit of the whole experience starts to feel more like a game breaking flaw. 

Now I've whined quite a lot about the cards but trust me. They are the core of damn near everything you do in the game and their flaws become apparent really quickly. I can definitely see what they were trying to accomplish with them. The battles are probably meant to be some sort of hybrid between the real time and turn based combat, but in the end it only serves to bring out worst sides of both battle systems. In some boss battles it feels like it could actually work, and some people may consider it an absolute delight but I'd say it just plain isn't worth it.

Story: Finally I get to the story; the very reason I and probably anyone wanted to play this game. The million dollar question of course is: Does it hold up? Well sometimes it does and sometimes doesn't. Sadly most of the worlds are a real bore. Every level has three acts which are opened by, you guessed it: cards. Three acts are barely enough to establish neither setting nor the characters, so in most of the worlds you get to fight the boss barely before you got to meet him. And then the whole story for that particular world just completely stops there. Even worse sometimes the dialog in the middle of the world gets somewhat sappy and you're left wondering if it's worth sitting through

On the other hand the main story kicks a**. There's a great set of interesting characters and they all have their own agendas and personalities, and nearly all of their actions actually move the story on. Then when you finally get to fight the characters that have been seen scheming through the whole game, it feels like all the shortcomings in the game become just titbit's. That is at least until the actual fight begins and you once again witness just how annoying the cards can make the whole thing. Anyway without the story I probably would have quit playing the game after first few hours, but after seeing the whole thing trough I may actually have to recommend it.

Depth: The game definitely has much to offer. After you've completed Sora's story Reverse/Rebirth opens and you may want to play through that too. There are also many more cards that can be collected, but the question is do you really care so much about the damn cards. I certainly didn't, but maybe you're more patient. Still after you've completed the main story I don't think there's much that would make you want to keep on playing it for more.

Difficulty: Once again I'm really torn. The card system makes some of the boss fights rather hard, but usually once you see their strategy they can be beat (pro tip: always hold one card with 0 value close so you can break bosses sleights). Even if you keep on dying it's completely possible to just keep grinding so long that the boss becomes easier, so it's not like the fights are impossible. I will still rate this game to be quite difficult; mainly because some organization fights can really wear on your nerves even if you think your deck is pitch perfect.

Overall I can say that this game is definitely worth playing at least once just to get to see the story, but if you're new to Kingdom Hearts I'd definitely recommend starting with some other game from the series.

I actually played the Playstation 2 adaptation of this game before playing the GBA version. I am very glad I did that. I might not have bought the PS2 version had I played through this one first. It is good, don't get me wrong. But Kingdom Hearts in general is just not as good in GBA format.

rcarter2 :

I'm actually playing through KH:RCoM, thanks to the HD Remaster on the PS3.

I have to say, I'm not a fan of either the handheld or the system version.

The card battling system is so ****ing stupid. So glad they ditched it in later games.

I actually bought Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 remix for PS3 before playing the GBA version, but before I could start it my PS3 crashed. I still haven't been able to fix it or get a new one, so the only version of the game I've played so far is the one I reviewed. I plan to play it as soon as possible though.

I certainly hope that some things like movement in battle and constant slowing are fixed there, but I'm afraid the card system won't be any better. I will still probably play through the game again, just to see the story completely voiced and animated.

P.S. I would have probably bought RE:chain of memories for PS2 years ago, but it was never released in Europe. Feels almost like there's some strange force preventing me from playing the game.

Eh, the card system on the console version is just as bad. I think I prefered the mobile version because of how intuitive the controls were in comparison to the console version. Several times, I've went the wrong way on the card selection screen because of how it's set up.

Movement feels a little better though, but not enough for me to say it's a better game.

I've only gotten to like Floor 6 of Castle Oblivion so far, and I've honestly been playing on beginner, because I just want to finish the game, and hate the card system. I just beat the original on Final Mix difficulty, and I think I'd rather replay the first game on Proud than give RCoM more time on my screen.

Don't recommend it, honestly. It's pretty bad. Can't wait for the KH 2.5 HD remix. Want KH2, and BBS.

This is a pretty good review. I had the game, and I really didn't think that it was very good so I sold it. But you had a great review here, nice job.

Barathemos :
Thanks. It took some effort but in the end I wasn't sure if it was actually written very well, so it's really great to get some positive feedback .

Lol, I actually loved this game myself. It's a nice change from the other games on the consoles. That's pretty much why I wasn't so fond with the coming of Re:Chain of Memories, because it took a lot of the original's "magic" away. For me, at least.

uusretrohippi : okay i also enjoyed playing this game. okay dude nice job on descripbing every element of gaming. your review of this game was really great. you should do even more review like this