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Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories
- Price: $29.99
- Genre: Role Playing
Common Sense Media says
Engaging RPG remake with charming Disney characters.
Parents say
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that while there is constant fighting, it's of the cartoon variety. There's never any blood, just action. While the game is full of classic Disney characters, the story is can be dark. Goofy and Donald seem more like maturing teens than kiddie characters. The game also features characters from the Final Fantasy series of video games.
What's it about?
Kingdom Hearts series of games is a strange one that combines Square-Enix's crew of Final Fantasy characters with many of Disney's most well known cartoon personalities, everyone from Donald Duck to Simba from The Lion King. In KINGDOM HEARTS RE: CHAIN OF MEMORIES, this remake of a Gameboy Advance offering sees young warrior Sora exploring a large and mysterious castle where friendship can be regained and memories just may not be what they seem. Joining Sora for this role-playing journey are Goofy, Donald, and Jiminy Cricket.
You'll spend the better part of an hour learning how to play Chains of Memories. Running, dodging, and jumping are simple touches of the controller. But you'll collect cards with various powers along the way, too. Wielding the proper cards in the magical deck that allows you to win in battle takes serious strategy. You can cheat this a bit to regain your card powers by pressing up on the D-pad and the 'X' button at the same time. As the story unfolds with pretty video cutscenes, you'll battle bosses and discover places in which to save your game.
Is it any good?
If you don't think a PlayStation 2 remake of a Gameboy Advance game is worth your time, think again. Not only is there charm to this story, there are so many characters that the twists and turns never seem to end. While the graphics still have some jaggies, they have been redone to the extent that you'll never think this once was a handheld game for an outdated Nintendo system.
Yet there are challenges for the player. Many of the minor battles done in an effort to level up your character are repetitive and, therefore, border on being boring. (The boss battles, however, are generally compelling.) Although voiceover work is done by actors Haley Joel Osmont and David Gallagher, there's not enough of it. Most of the time, you'll be reading lines of text and seeing characters silently mime words. In this day and age, that's fine for a handheld game. But it's lazy and inexcusable for a console game, even when it's a last generation model like the PS2. Still, the joy of exploring various lands, especially the Nightmare Before Christmas environment, can't be denied. Whatever the flaws, you just keep coming back for more.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about what it would be like to live with Disney characters who could cast spells. What spell would you cast to help protect your family? Knowing the more mature personalities of the Disney characters in Chain of Memories, which one would you choose to be and why? Or would you rather be one of the Final Fantasy characters featured in the game? Why?
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AGE
I like the Kingdom Hearts franchise, but it could get a bit repetitive in the castle. The story is great, though.
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AGE
Not the best Kingdom Hearts game, but nothing of concern.
This game is key to understanding the story line, but the battle system is difficult and annoying.
Me and my family are Jehovah's Witnesses so we're very cautious about video games and we have found nothing of concern.
I can tell you one thing, your child will ether learn patience... Or smash their controller against the TV.
It might just be best to watch a walkthrough on youtube if you want to understand the story.
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AGE
definitely worth playing.
Like the other Kingdom Hearts games, Chain of Memories has an intricate, deep plotline, excellent graphics, and good characters. Sora and his friends are positive, determined people; in short, good role models. There is fantasy violence in the playing part of the game, and some violence in cutscenes- a character throws an unconscious character to the ground, and hits another character across the face, throwing her to the ground. Another character holds a weapon threateningly to a character's throat (the Marluxia-Namine thing near the end, for those wondering).
All in all, a very good game. Worth playing.
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AGE
Difficult, With a confusing story if you don't already know the series... play the others first
KINGDOM HEARTS- Re: Chain of Memories is a difficult yet engaging game. It's the continuation of KINGDOM HEARTS into KINGDOM HEARTS 2- other words, the bridge between the two. No spoilers here, so here's the lowdown. The battle system is based off of "cards": Magic cards, attack cards, item cards. The game is based off of choosing (quickly) a couple of cards, and mashing together attacks and making combos. You must also use the control stick to move your character like a maniac (DODGE! DODGE!)... gee whiz. This made battles very tedious. Boss battles are engaging but I was never looking forward to the next one. It's very much like FINAL FANTASY XIII- you attack a monster, you set off a little "battle arena" and fight the Heartless until they're all gone. And there are LOTS of battles in one room... *sigh*. The story is interesting to those who like the original KINGDOM HEARTS and 2, but I would just read up the story instead of buy this game. Unless you want an extremely difficult challenge, I wouldn't reccomend this game to everyone. (Note: Consumerism- continuation of FINAL FANTASY and Disney franchises. Get ready to be a consumer in these franchises for a while.)
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Kid, 12 years old
November 10, 2009
AGE
IT is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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AGE
THANK GOODNESS IT CAME TO AMERICA!
This game is like the bridge between the 1st and 2nd games, it tells what happened and answers some questions such as "Why is Sora in the egg thing in KH2?" and "Where's the other half of the Organization?". It also has a difficult battle system. I love it!
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AGE
Horrible battle system ruins game
Only Die Hard fans who dont' have gameyboys least ways want those graphics might want to play this game just for the story between kingdom hearts and kingdom hearts 2.
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AGE
Kigdom hearts Re:Chain of Memories
i love the game and your kids will love it too i started playing the series at a young age i didn't mark the game as easy because you need strategy to play with the card system
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AGE
cards=bad
Wonderful series, but the battle system in this game ruins it.
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| Available online? | Not available online |
| Genre: | Role Playing |
| Developer: | Square Enix |
| Release date: | December 2, 2008 |
| Price: | $29.99 |
| ESRB rating: | E10+ for Fanasy Violence |
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