Kingdom Hearts has become one of the greatest RPG franchises alongside Final Fantasy, and I kind of think that it gets some of it's success from the Final Fantasy elements put into the game because well hey if you took the Final Fantasy out then you would only have Disney and that is no fun. Anyway, this game I must say is okay it is not great like Birth by Sleep (the first and only Kingdom Hearts game I have ever played) but it wasn't terrible either. This is only the second Kingdom Hearts game I have played and I must say that I am not very impressed with this title, but does that mean all of the titles of the series are disappointing, well no in fact I have heard wonderful things about the other titles.

Now the game itself is not bad I mean I thought the story and the idea was great, it was game play that bothered me. I honestly didn't even get to finish this one because the game play kept screwing me over, or maybe I just wasn't good at the game but I think it was that first option. I rated this game an 8.7, because I did like the game but I felt it could have been improved mainly combat system. The over world controls are not bad sometimes you might confuse your attack button with your jump button but that is not that bad, however when you are in battle you must rely on cards to perform attacks and although that is fine and dandy considering you can still mash A and kill a good majority of enemies, you will eventually run out of cards which you must then stand there and hold A, you can't move allowing all enemies and there will always be a ton on the screen at once to attack you all together making things frustrating and complicated. Also the cards have different, what I like to call value numbers and if it is higher than your opponents then you attack but if it is not then your opponent gets the attack, which again is fine and dandy but only get a few high numbered cards unless you use combos but that takes to much time in real time battle. To perform a combo you must run around not getting hit by anything and hit L and R simultaneously on three cards and their numbers combine becoming the value number and you must hit L and R again to perform the combo. See too much work, the problem I think is that Square Enix tried to mix real time battle with elements of turn based battle and those two together just do not mix well.

Now for graphics this game actually looked pretty good, I rated the graphics a 9. The different locations looked wonderful, and full of color which I think is important for a Kingdom Hearts title. And Sora was identifiable and many of the other characters looked great. The sound was okay, I rated this an 8. The music wasn't bad, actually I didn't mind it nothing really stuck out to me or got stuck in my head but it wasn't bad to listen too. It was Sora, during battle Sora made the same noises over and over and said the same thing and it drove me crazy. Just shut up Sora and fight and stop that whole card break thing it is annoying.

As for addictiveness I rated this a 7, at first I was pretty hooked because the story was intriguing and the game seemed fun, but then I got through a few battles and now I barely ever want to really play the game. And that really sucks, because I desperately want to finish the story but I don't want to go through the stupid combat. Oh and before I forget to mention this, Hades is way to overpowered for how early you meet up with him it is beyond ridiculous!

Story, now here is my favorite part I rated this an 9. The story is flipping amazing. You play as Sora (obviously) and you have Donald and Goofy traveling with you looking for your friends Riku etc. when you stumble upon a castle you soon to find is called Castle Oblivion where your memories sort of play games with you. As you progress through the levels of the Castle your memories will play out in front of you but they sort of leave you as you go along and you must help Sora and company reach the top of the Castle and find your memories and friends in the process. Pretty complicated, but the way the game plays this out it makes complete sense and it is actually really fascinating. I mean a flipping castle that plays out your memories? That is awesome, I would attempt this Castle head on.

As for depth I rated a 7, there are not any hidden items that I really know of. But the maps are pretty extensive and the game is kind of long. It is one of the more interesting games for the game boy advance except for the combat system. But the difficulty is also a 7 and that is because the combat system is just to annoying and makes things complicated sometimes, the game I don't want to say it is hard because it really isn't. It's just the way things are played, the controls if you will, they mess things up a lot and that makes things complicated. I have spent nearly ten minutes trying to open one door because I had a ton of enemies coming after me and I wasn't even near a boss battle or anything. And speaking of boss battle, I still hate you Hades.

Overall, I say to at least try this game for it's story. It is definitely interesting, but don't be surprised if you are disappointed with the combat system and the combos. I hope that you have enjoyed this review and I hope that you read more of what I have to say about other games. Until next review.

Kingdom Hearts is one of my favorite franchises. But this game i my least favorite. But I love your review. more in-depth than most people I see. And I think you are the best I've seen so far.

redskiller76 : Thank you, I work really hard on my reviews. I played Birth by Sleep almost completely, I didn't get to defeat the final boss but I loved the game but this one was just okay, everything just seemed a little more complicated and the controls seemed a little clunky, maybe if it was improved many people would like it more.