Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - 9/10
A review by K-Man
Alrite, so it isn't the next major installment in the
Kingdom Hearts series but hardcore fan or not, this is one Kingdom Hearts title you do not want to miss. Especially if you're dying to get a new DS game already.
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is the side story that happens between Kingdom Hearts I and Kingdom Hearts II. The story revolves around the mysterious boy named Roxas who strangely resembles Sora, the main protagonist in Kingdom Hearts I & II. It also revolves around Xion, a girl who suddenly becomes the XIV member of the Organization and strangely resembles Sora's best friend, Kairi. In the game, you will play throughout Roxas' time as an Organization XIII member, a group of Nobodies who noticeably wear these ominous black coats. Their main goal is to gather as many hearts as they can by destroying these strange creatures known as the Heartless. By gathering all their hearts, the Organization plans to built Kingdom Hearts, an entity that contains nothing but hearts. The Organization plans to harness its power so that they can fill the void where their hearts used to be as Nobodies are born without a heart. However, Roxas and Xion are a special kind of Nobody. Unlike the rest of the members, they wield a Keyblade. A powerful weapon used to successfully collect the hearts from vanquished Heartless. As you progress through the game, you'll come to know Roxas' history with the Organization, who Xion really is, and the difficulties of trying to keep a friendship strong no matter how grim the situation is.
Now the first thing I noticed is that Square Enix did a pretty good job of trying to keep the game away from mentioning any of the past Kingdom Hearts games. As I have never played a single one, I was grateful for that and it let me enjoyed the game even more without trying to question where did this happen or who that is. However, that does not mean it does not mention any of the Kingdom Hearts games completely. Since this does takes place after Kingdom Hearts I, you would know that Sora is in a great state of sleep and that his memories have been scattered everywhere. I won't explain why he's in this coma but it is revealed in the game of why it's getting to be difficult to get his memories back. The other thing I noticed is how the game rarely uses the touch screen. Unless you're organizing your magic, weapon, and potions, or using it to move the camera, all gameplay will be controlled based. I can't say if this is a good or bad thing as everyone have their own preferences but I can tell that not having the touch screen used for combat lessened the frustration of blocking and dodging. Square Enix really pushed to what the DS can handle and though they decided to stick to a 3D world and not 2D, that was a risk that pulled through.
STORY - 8.5/10
Kingdom Hearts is known to have memorable stories especially when it comes to their endings, this game is no exception. I was always eager to know what will happen next whenever I completed one major mission. The more you progress through the game, the more intense the story will get. You start out the game after it's been a week that Roxas has joined the Organization, you'll get to know better just a few of its members and you'll eventually learn who you truly are and why you resemble this Sora so much. I felt like the story starts to get interesting by the time you've passed the 150th day or so (don't worry, you won't be going though all the 358 days, you'll be skipping about 2 weeks' worth every now and then.)
What made the story interesting was the amazing voice acting they included for the cinematic cutscenes. For a portable title, they really got the voice top notch and this shows that Square Enix put their a lot of heart *cough* into this game. One problem I did have with the story is that they didn't really explain what the hell Kingdom Hearts really is, I mean I know it's something made up of hearts but is it really a Kingdom or is it some kind of entity that must be harnessed? This tend to be quite confusing whenever they mentioned it but you'll soon ignore it and continue on. I also had a problem about how sympathetic Roxas is about him not having a heart and all these questions about why he cannot feel this or why they can't have that. You'd think by now he'd learned that Nobodies without a heart cannot feel emotions which makes them such complex beings. But that's understandable since Roxas is more than just an average Nobody and he strives to know his true identity even though that answer has been in front of him all this time.
Of course throughout the story, you'll be exploring several worlds. From Twilight Town to Agrabah, to Neverland from Halloween Town, these are just some of the worlds you get to visit. However most of them is very linear and by that I mean, it's not very open. It's like you can only visit just a part of that world. The most linear world I can think of is Olympus Coliseum which is basically just the outside, entrance, and the inside of the Coliseum. In fact, that's where you'll mostly be defeating the Heartless if you're assigned to that world. Since this is after all a portable title. don't expect much from exploring the various worlds from the Disney franchise. You can get that kind of experience from its console counterparts.
I was also disappointed with the poor interactions made with the Disney characters as the only interaction you'll be making with is Genie, Tinkerbell , Phil and even Pete! The rest you'll be hiding from. But the ultimate excuse for this is that Organization XIII members must stay incognito so that's a great excuse to not interact with most of the characters. As I said, if you're looking for a great Disney adventure experience, don't bother because that's not the main plot in the game.
Aside from the scarce Disney interactions, you'll still enjoy the main plot of the game for the more you uncover in the game, the less you'll care about which next Disney world you'll be assigned to. I believe Square Enix purposely did not want to mix the plot with a Disney sub-plot as that would take away from what we truly want to know from Roxas and Xion.
GAMEPLAY - 8/10
The gameplay wasn't completely RAGE filling, in fact it flowed nicely with the combat. The way you move, attack, and dodge will all depend on the Keyblade you're using. There are many different types to buy, so try seeing which one works the best. There are some that gives you more power in the air or if you're all ground, there's a Keyblade for that. Hell, there's even a Keyblade that boosts your magic. I did have a problem with the camera though especially when you're in tight corners. You can easily move the camera away using the touch screen but say you have the ability to have lock-on automatically, the camera can get really screwy. It's best to always to keep the enemy in sight in case they'll attack and you'll miss the opportunity of blocking it.
Since this is an RPG game, it plays a big influence on how you want to raise your stats. Not only that but it also plays a big role in organizing all your Keyblade, magic, and other tools. You have these panels and for every mission you complete, you unlock another one. Now for each weapon, potion, etc. you want to add, they come in blocks and depending how powerful they are, they can take up a certain amount of panels. But this is where it gets tricky because for every item that requires to take up a number of panels, they appear in this tetris style shape. So it's best to figure out and know how to balance the important items you'll be needing. I noticed that the magic spells you use like fire, blizzard, thunder, etc. are only limited in missions. After you complete a mission, you don't have to stock up on some more for the amount you started with stayed the same. This I thought, was pretty helpful.
Now the biggest problem with the gameplay is the objections in the missions. The way the gameplay works is that for each day, you must talk Saix. He's in charge of handing out your missions and the only way to play them. The missions however offer no variety. Most of them are either destroying a number of Heartless, defeating a boss Heartless, finding Organization emblems, or if you're sent to a new world, there will be some recon involved. Sure the combat is fun, I have no complaints about that. I mean, it's makes me all warm inside when I pull off chains from destroy several Heartless but eventually it will get boring. It's like a lather, rinse, repeat cycle.
Speaking of boss battles, they are actually challenging. Even if you played on Standard mode, it will take you several times to defeat a boss. In these cases, it's necessary to have a strategy and not go ahead for you will just fail miserably. There's a few challenging bosses so it's recommended you bring lots of healing potions. Also study your enemy for some magic spell you use them actually heal them so think before you cast!!
After you finish a mission, you can always go back to completely finish it if you so desire. You get more awards that way and also powerful upgrades. Not only that but there are also challenge missions. So depending on what mission, there are a set of rules you must follow in order to complete the challenge mission. One example is that you cannot jump at all, another is that you must survive for at least a minute and not attack back at all. There are way more harder challenges but if you think you're up for it, don't let me stop you.
Up to 4 players can play locally. Depending how far or how much you've unlocked in the game, you can play certain characters.
Alrite so many of you are asking, what about online multiplayer? Sorry folks, but multiplayer is only limited to local area so if you want to play with someone from the other side of the Earth, you can forget it. I don't know what the developers were thinking but sharing the experience in completing missions together can be quite fun. Not only that, but since you can also play as ANY of the Organization XIII members (YES, even Xemnas!), you won't be able to act out any cool Organization scenes together unless your friends are willing to come over which we all know it can be a pain in the ass wondering what's taking them so long to get here. The missions you can still do by yourself but it will get boring fast.
GRAPHICS - 8.8/10
So we all know Square Enix likes to push their games on the DS to the limit and Days is a good example of that. Apart from the regular scenes that's all text, the real eye candy here is the cinematic cutscenes. You barely see any blur, characters actually have fingers, and the background isn't completely horrible. It's surprising to know that graphics like this can be played on the DS. It's good to know that developers want to polish up their latest game as much as possible because these cinematic cutscenes sure show them off. Though SE decided to go 3D this time around, it was quite pleasing to the eye. The face is still visible but I did notice that characters must turn their whole bodies in order to move on. I didn't mind if but I did find it funny a bit.
Cinematic cutscenes is what makes this game shine. You can even tell the eagerness in Genie.. O_O
OVERALL THOUGHTS
As a newbie to the Kingdom Hearts series,
I NOW LOVVVVVEEEEEEE THIS GAME!!!
Apart from the repetitiveness of the missions, no online multiplayer, and wacky camera; the story, gameplay, and eye-pleasing cinematic cutscenes made it up for me. If you're new to the series but have never played ANY of the KH games, I suggest you start with this one. The only time I had to look up something was why Sora was in a coma, that's pretty much it. SE has done a good job trying to keep any mentions of the other games to a minimum. Kingdom Hearts hardcore fan or not, you will still enjoy this game. I am confident that the most memorable thing in this game is the story, especially the ending. I heard Kingdom Hearts has epic endings and they were right. Hell, the ending for this game almost made me cry. The score I'm giving this game is an
8.6 out of 10. There will be some minor things you will be annoyed at but you will overlook it the more you progress through the game. That is however you love Kingdom Hearts to death and will overlook everything and just see the game as the second coming. *cough* TSU! *cough*.
Thank you for taking the time to view my review of
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Submitted by K-Man
17/10/2009
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