So I am a bit of a Kingdom Hearts fan, but my love for the games themselves vary. Loved Kingdom Hearts 1, thought Kingdom Hearts 2 was mediocre in comparison, I've played a few other titles of the series, but it would seem rather pointless to review each installment of each game since I'm only reviewing one.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories was actually one of my first GBA games I got and then later on I bought the ps2 version of Chain of Memories. Out of all the kingdom Hearts games I have played Chain of memories is by far my favorite and there will probably be a lot of disagreements as to why hopefully by the end of this review you'll understand why.

Game play: This would probably be one of what many consider to be the major flaw in this game.  Why in the world would a card system be implemented like that? Kingdom Hearts was all about rapidly pressing X as hard as you could in hopes that if you press the button as hard as you can the attack will be stronger. Suddenly you're now reloading your card deck, the combat is slower and more bland, every time you see an enemy it sends you into an arena. At first I was even annoyed by this fighting normal enemies was extremely boring and even though this is my favorite game out of the games I have played I'll stand by that, but looking back I feel like the card system did something really well. I can recall in every boss fight instance it would take multiple tries and deck edits to win the fight. How your cards are set up play a very important role in the game (unless you're Riku) It ads a layer of difficulty and planning to the game that none of the other games achieved. When I played 1, 2, birth by sleep, 365 days, Recoded, I would just rapidly press my attack button and jump around, but in Chain of Memories I had to take time to develop a strategy and plan everything I could out. Game play in that sense is very solid and if you look last the stupid basic battles you'll find that the games combat system is actually very well made. 

Story: Another strong point in this game. Even if it's a bit clichéd we can't ignore that fact that Chain of Memories not only fluidly sets up a excellent transition between 1 and 2, but the story in itself is enjoyable. Maybe right off the bat you didn't see anything special in it, but once you played the other games you saw connections, or maybe you in general liked the story. I myself really enjoyed the story in itself. Watching the characters climb through the castle slowly loosing their memories and re entering worlds from 1 was nostalgic and at the time when I played it exciting. Replaying some of my favorite boss fights with an entirely new combat system, re entering Hallow Bastion a second time, fighting the organization. It was all so fluid that even if the game's levels were recycled it was new enough for me to enjoy myself. I'd really hate to spoil it in the event that someone reads this before playing so I'll leave it at this. 

Graphics: At first I thought the game featured rather basic and common graphics for a GBA game. After letting a friend borrow my copy he pointed out just how good the graphics are. Of course the game itself, the levels, the basic cut scenes, those aren't really all the notable, I'm talking about the actual cut scenes in the game. While there are only a few the graphical power behind them for being such an old game is extremely well made. I was amazed whenever I saw one of those cut scenes it was rather shocking to see one on the GBA.

  Emulation: Heh, well it's emulated. Take some time to get used to the controls before you jump into the game or you'll be rather frustrated. Once you figure out where everything is mapped though you should be good to go.

Depth: This game really offers quite a bit as far as story goes. It does have secret rooms, but those are for cards to edit your deck. It does however have quite a large story featuring two characters with two completely different story lines. I would be shocked if this game didn't take a decent amount of time to finish, but the story to me at least was extremely exciting to play through. I think I've played this game four times now and each time I've realized something new about the game. 

Overall: I really do feel that being a fan of kingdom hearts that I may not be as critical about the game as I need to be. That being said someone who is only playing to play this may find the game to be very eh. It does have it's flaws and the combat system is only exciting at some points during the game. If you aren't here for the story and if you can't look past the card system I do suggest you look for something else. If you are a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series play this now. Maybe the combat will disappoint you, but the story itself is really what you should play this game for. Anything else and you'll be disappointed.   

This is a great first review. I liked how you organized it differently than everyone else. Great job. Keep up the good work.