D3stiny_Sm4sher has been waiting a couple days to get this one up on the site. Due to some technical issues (completely on my part), we couldn’t get it posted until now. Now he doesn’t have to wait any longer, and you can see what D3stiny_Sm4sher has to say about the game! You guys enjoy that piece as I sneak off to bed. Make sure to leave your comments! See you all in a few, short hours. Hey, all. Sorry this one took a while — two weeks and I really marathon-played this weekend out. I must say, the game surprised me in a number of ways, both in its plot reveals and its gameplay choices. Let’s dig in, shall we? Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days The Black Coat: Obtained: Rented via GameFly Time Played: 27 Hours Completion: Completed the Story Mode, completed a few Challenges and played Mission Mode single player for a while, too. No multiplayer, unfortunately. Difficulty: Proud Mode (Hard) Note: I will be trying to make story references vague but do be aware that there could be spoilers of some kind or another. The Organization: Ever since the initial trailers for Kingdom Hearts 2 were released, the infamous black coats of Organization XIII have become a staple of cosplay gatherings and a source of mystery, whether during the course of the GBA title Chain of Memories or the full sequel on the PS2. Even if you played both, there were still many questions left unanswered. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days has two goals in mind: to bring the proper KH battle system to the DS in 3D, and to fill in most of the gaps that take place between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 that Chain of Memories left wide open, as well as set up the story of quasi-protagonist Roxas that we never really had explained. The short of it is that KH:358/2 Days fulfills both of these goals, but it, like the previous portable Kingdom Hearts title, has a lot of strange and unexpected design choices. Players assume the role of Roxas for the entirety of the game, who plays very similar to Sora from the other titles. Combat, fortunately, is pretty faithful to what you would expect in a KH game, with full-on 3D action, combos, magic, and the like. Granted, it feels not quite as polished as it does on the main consoles, but it’s still a pretty satisfying feat for the DS. However, while the combat is by and large the same, this title brings its own entirely unique and brilliant twist: a panel system. Every time Roxas completes a mission, he will gain a new Panel. Panels end up functioning a lot like the Badge Points in the first two Paper Mario titles — all of Roxas’ abilities and stats are tied to these Panels, even his level. Instead of leveling up stats permanently, players are given a Level Up Panel, which upgrades stats accordingly when equipped. Items, Spells, Abilities, EVERYTHING is tied to the Panel system. This will make you feel very constrained at first, but once the game opens up you will realize how interesting the system is, allowing for complete flexibility in allowing you to completely change up your fighting style at any time. As you progess you’ll collect and synthesize Panels that allow other items to be “Linked.” For example, some Weapon Panels will have more or less space to “Link” extra abilities to them. Some things, like Level Doublers or Triplers, etc., allow the Level-Up Panels you link to them to multiply. Of course, you need to fit these different grid-shapes into your gradually growing Panel chart. Want to go all out with Attack? Equip abilities and a weapon that maximizes physical combat. Want to go crazy with Magic? Switch it all out for spells galore. Because even Roxas’ stats can be altered by what Panels are equipped, you can effectively be an all-out airborne fighter in one mission, an item-using fiend in another, and a mage-style warrior in the next. This element of strategy is a great idea that really feels like an evolution of the character growth in every KH game up until now and, gameplay wise, is easily the highlight. Later on, not having the right style of Panels equipped can make or break your success. Considering how pathetically easy KH2 was, the fact that this strategizing allows for the game to have a bigger kick in the challenge department is more than welcome. The types of Weapons your have equipped also can completely change your combo flow, not to mention the way that abilities like gliding, rolling, and blocking can all be Linked up with other abilities to increase or alter their effects. There’s also a much more fleshed out and important synthesizing element to this game. Like I said, the combat is pretty faithful, but it’s also fairly noticeable that it’s not as solid as the PS2 titles. Hit detection can sometimes be a bit spotty, which I found to be very frustrating in a few boss fights in which the target I needed to hit was kind of small. There are a few other minor elements which could’ve used some more tweaking, as well, but overall, it’s all-around a good representation of KH combat — complete with bouts of absolute repetition and button mashing, unfortunately. Perhaps it’s because I was playing in Proud Mode, but more often than I would have liked did I feel like the answer to killing the more difficult enemies was to simply button mash over and over, some of them taking entirely too long to slay until I was stronger. Now that I’ve gone over the main components of the gameplay, let’s sort out a couple of strange oddities. For starters, the game is played in Missions. There is no free exploring. You start your day in the Organization’s HQ, prepare for your next Mission, and go out to a world to complete the mission. Rinse, repeat. Through the whole game. At first it’s really tedious and slow, but the game eventually picks up and gives you some more variety. Still, there’s never any point when you feel free to just explore — most of the time, certain non-relevant sections of a world are cut off from you because you ought not be “dawdling” in your missions. It works for the portable nature of the game, but there really could have been more variety in the missions and some better kind of indication as to which missions would only take 5 minutes and which ones take more like 20. You CAN replay missions whenever you like and even can unlock special challenges to really test your skills (and unlock extra items/Panels), which can add loads of replay value if you want to sink yourself into it. Seriously, I’m pretty sure I could have easily invested 40 hours into the game if I actually went to try and complete everything. There’s even a Multiplayer Mode, the main draw of which (besides playing with friends) is that you cna play as a wide variety of characters, including some unlockable ones, most of whom have their own style of combat. This means that one Panel configuration can come up with completely different tactics if you use it with a different character, and you CAN play this Mode on your own if you just want to unlock extra abilities and items. While the Mission structure ends up working well enough, the real hard-hitting disappointment is the lack of variety, not just in the Missions but in the worlds. I hope you like Twilight Town, because you’ll be spending more time there than anywhere else, hands-down. Beast’s Castle, Agrabah, Wonderland, Halloween Town, Olympus, and Neverland were the only other worlds I visited (pretty sure that’s it), with no indication of any other potential places to explore. That’s right, that’s IT. And granted, you do end up exploring some familiar territory and some new, but even so, all of it ends up getting rehashed a pretty fair amount, just with a different set of objectives tacked on. It gets pretty tiresome until the game picks up a bit. Speaking of which, this game is a prime example of the snowball effect in game pacing. If you found KH2’s intro sequence of 3 hours or so to be frustrating, prepare to be even more aggravated. The first five hours were grueling and painfully slow, it picked up at a gradually faster and faster pace, unti the last hour or two when I couldn’t put the thing down because of all of the plot revelations going on and all of the abilities I had acquired. I really need to touch on plot here, specifically: as a major Kingdom Hearts fan, I found the game to be extremely lousy in the Disney department — you hardly really see any Disney characters at all and when you do they’re pretty much just off to the side. The real plot here is about Roxas, Axel, and the 14th member of Organization XIII, Xion [Shee-ohn]. If you’ve played KH2, you already know the fate of at least the prior two characters, and finding out their story, as well as the unknown element of Xion makes a lot of things in KH2 make a lot more sense. Not only does this game explain the background of Chain of Memories, but it also really fills in some of the confusing gaps KH2 left in its plot. The game expects that you have already played the other two titles, and feeds you tons of subtle and more obvious references that really connect a lot of disjointed dots. As a KH fan, you owe it to yourself to at least experience this for the plot points it reveals that tie some loose ends up. I especially appreciated how a lot of the explaining that goes on is shown to you rather than told. Especially in the last few hours of the game, I found myself going, “OHHHH, so THAT’S why–” etc. One of my major issues with KH2 was how much of the plot made no sense at times. Now most of it makes more sense to me. It’s a good example of setting up a mythos and feeding the player the whole story in pieces across different experiences. That said, if you haven’t played any of the KH games past KH1 yet, don’t hold back on trying this out. You’ll just end up experiencing the story’s pieces in a different order — if anything, I actually would recommend players play this after Chain of Memories but before KH2 if they haven’t yet experienced the main sequel. Don’t expect EVERY mystery to be solved here, (Mickey is as enigmatic as ever) but you will walk away pretty satisfied with what gets explained here, and by the end it will likely be the driving force behind completing the title, with the challenges and mission completion rewards being leftover for hours and hours of replay time. The presentation is kind of a mixed bag. For the DS, it looks pretty great and sounds pretty good, but by comparison to the PS2 titles, it’s pretty pixelated and fuzzy (especially anything up close), most of the music tracks are borrowed from KH1 and 2, and much of the level design is, as well. It really feels more like their goal was to port over KH gameplay to a portable while filling in story gaps. Sometimes the pixelation of a lot of objects could get a little disappointing, but given Square’s ability on the platform it really is likely more to do with the system’s limitations. After all, Phantom Hourglass looked great for a DS game and that one also showed lots of pixelation when you got up close. Still, noticing that the Keyblades during story sequences are actually 2D is a bit weird. The full CG cutscenes are a nice change of pace and allow for actual voice acting (which can sometimes feel a little stilted), but even these are a little fuzzy or blurry in their video quality. Overall, it’s a good effort but I’m sure Square can do better, as well. A lot of animations (and voice quips) are repeated way too much, and believe me, if you thought that sitting on the Clock Tower eating Sea Salt Ice Cream was novel in KH2, you will be damned sick and tired of it by the end of this game, because it happens at about the end of every mission. The Memory: Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days really brings the KH gameplay experience to a portable platform and, overall, does a good job. If you come in expecting an all-star Disney cast and a free world to explore, you will be sorely disappointed. Go in expecting an interesting character growth system, generally accurate KH combat, and a story entirely focused on Organization XIII, and a hunger for some mysteries to be solved, and you will have a good time. If there were more variety in missions, more Disney worlds to explore, and more even pacing, the game would be a must-have on the DS. As it stands, these issues prevent it from being a true classic, but if you’re a KH fan who wants more of the same gameplay with a lot more plot development on the Square end of the Square-Disney universe, definitely look this one up. High Score: 8/10 And in case you’re wondering, yes, the title of the game ends up making sense by the end, if you’re observant.
Originally posted here:
GoNintendo End of Day Thoughts: Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Review by D3stiny_Sm4sher
