Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - KH Retrospective - AntDude

You know what Kingdom Hearts needed? A deck of cards. Duh. Here's Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

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[alranican]

Fun fact, the GBA version of the game also had that intro cutscene. Pretty impressive that it could handle it.

[xerohpoint]

In Japan pink is the color of death so combine that with his pink scythe and pink hair, Marluxia is basically japan's grim reaper

[snomangaming]

It's called Re: Chain of Memories because that's the sound I make when I play it.

[dmas]

4:54 Axel isn't really chilling. He's a wild card who actually has plans to stop some of the Organization like Marluxia and Larxene. Hell, he straight up takes Vexen out.

[beefstew]

We interrupt Kingdom Hearts to bring you Yu-Gi-Oh!

[OmegaChase]

The "Re" in "Re: Chain of Memories" is short for "remake". So it makes sense.

The game has VA cutscenes, just not in the World Floors.

Sleights only sacrifice the first card, not all 3.

If y'all think KH has a lot of stars, wait until ya play KHUX on the mobile phone.

[goranisacson]

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories is always a title I'm going to hold dear, despite all the off and iffy things about it. For I forgive it rehashed Disney worlds and samey rooms, because it was the first Dungeon Crawler-esque game I played (way back when the GBA-version was released, I played it WAY back) and I fell in love with "choosing" rooms and feeling like I was in charge of building the mazes I traversed. Furthermore I greatly enjoyed the expanded scope of attacks you had at your disposal- Tornado, Warp, the various Strike Raid variants, the card based battle system may be much trickier to get into than the more straight-forward system in KH1, but I liked feeling in charge of my own combos, of designing my game to have the attacks I wanted to have. The varied attacks made Sora feel like he had a whole arsenal of cool tricks, and I do so like having an arsenal- see my obsessive gathering of all the souls in games like Dawn of Souls. Sure, it may be stiffer... but I like feeling overpowered.

Also, I really like the story. I can acknowledge that there's not a whole lot of it that really carries over to other games, but the Organizations civil war made the various Nobodies feel distinct and gave them far more chances to shine as characters than KH2 ended up doing. To have Sora's memories manipulated and essentially slowly destroy himself the further you went was a pretty neat subversion of the Hero's Journey-trope in kid me's opinion. And most importantly... this was the game that made me care about Riku. I was not kindly inclined towards Riku back when I played KH1. I didn't get why Sora was friends with a guy who always fought with him and stood in his way. While that was because I was a really awkward child who didn't really get the concept of a friendly rivalry, I will say that Square didn't really DO much to show that Riku cared for Sora and Kairi beyond him saving the day at the end of KH1. I just never really bought their friendship. Showing Riku despondent and alone made me see things from his point of view, get into his head, and best of all- the one who saves him from that is Mickey Mouse.

I freaking LOVE that. Riku's angst during this segment could so easily become overdone and unbearable glurgey. They could have made it so that something like... the memory of Sora is what helps him through, but I wouldn't have bought that since I was still in the mindset where I couldn't buy Riku as Sora's friend. But to have someone completely new enter his world and help him just out of the goodness of his little mousey heart, provide him with support when he had no reason to do so, and just generally be someone whom Riku could grow a brand new friendship with... it helped me see Riku in a whole new perspective. It was a friendship unburdened with the writing of KH1. A fresh new start, to help you see Riku from a fresh new perspective. Also, the Angsty JRPG Loner turns into the worlds biggest Mickey Mouse fanboy. That's just so unexpected and really adds a heaping helping of character that Riku sorely needed.

So, yeah. Not gonna deny that the levels are samey and that splitting up the plot over so many formats is frustrating. But for all those reasons above, I will always go to bat for Chain of Memories because it was just what I needed at the time to really solidify my love for Kingdom hearts, and connect to it in a way I don't think I would have if it hadn't existed. Looking forward to the next video in the series... mostly because KH2 did a lot to spoil some of that love. And I cannot wait to see the sparks fly.

[HybridAngelZero]

I gotta say... I absolutely love this game. I can play it for hours, I love the customizable dungeons, I love the deck building and battle system, and I even love the story.

[MrScottyTay]

Re: is in the title cause it's a full on remake not just a port. Same thing with Re:Coded

[themagicalandmarvelousgeek]

Omg silver haired agst and round ears is the best nickname I've heard for those two since hatsune Riku and American pikachu! XD

[Soynereh]

Dare to say I actually love this one. Pulling out special moves, the strategy, the story, I srsly enjoyed it.

[Evnyofdeath]

I'm just gonna say that I love the story of these games, I actually understand them pretty well (looking up the info from the Ultimanias helps), but I can understand why some would be frustrated

[NanaKyoto]

It's all about the heart of the cards in any game, you just have to believe.

[braveng]

Antdude it's called re: chain of memories because it's a remake duh

[GenAqua]

Lea, Xion, Roxas, Marluxia, and Larxene are my favorite Organization members. And as an aside, I DESPISE Larxene, her voice actress Shanelle Grey gave an impressive love to hate performance. I love AntDude's name for Marluxia....The Prettiest Anime

[MrScottyTay]

with the sleights, only the first one gets removed from your deck, not all 3

[TallManVanitas]

You know, that reminds me: Did we EVER find out what that note Pluto had says?

[AceZDream]

"And it's here that we find out that Maleficent from Cinderella" . . . XD I've had stuff happened like that with me and editing before.

[TigeriPlaysGames]

the gba version of this game was actually the first KH game i ever played. going into it just as a game, not knowing anything about KH, i really enjoyed it.

[Brandonishere]

The really cool thing about the GBA version is that there was a vs mode so if you and your friend had it. You could take your deck and duel your friend with their deck.