Why do people hate Chain of Memories?

[Jermaine 79]

COM/RECOM is the best executed (not best) game in the series in my opinion. It could have been a failure, but very few flaws in this game, and I love it.

[Joker 1,560]

I love COM

[Inanis 0]

I appreciate the difference in game mechanics, since it makes the series much easier to play through (in one go). I sometimes play BBS --> KHII in a row, and switching from deck commands --> action --> cards --> action is sort of nice. However, if I were to list a single overarching gripe about CoM would be either how slow Moogle Points come in (unless you grind like a maniac on Agrabah during a certain point in the story) or that cards are in random 'packs' (one playthrough I had almost all 7+ cards; another, I had 4 cards over 6+). If you were able to spend Moogle Points on individual cards (of course, with scaling cost), I would appreciate the system in its entirety.

 

I expect random systems in phone games (ie: medal packs in KH unchained X), not main titles.

 

I don't really think many people want more 'easy' games. I do think people want slightly more predictable or controllable ones. This actually allows for more strategy. Think Critical Mode Lv.1 Lingering Will boss fight. That's just as strategic as much of CoM. Revenge Value manipulation, Form and Limit control, combo chaining, insanely precise timing. All legit ways to appreciate strategy; as legit, I would argue, as the card system. Definitely more predictable, as everyone can manipulate revenge value...but not everyone can cache a set of 0-Card blocks, since they may not be given enough 0-Cards through packs.

 

That said, I still love the game.

[dabestgamer 62]

I didn't like the card gameplay because it was a little crazy for me. Yes, I know it requires strategies, but I hate being restricted and having my cards break. They should have given the players two options: KH1 gameplay or the card gameplay. It would've led to more replayability.

Problem is: It was originally designed for GBA. Kinda can't put the KH1 battle system on a GBA.

 

By the time the remake came around, the card system was already made to be the core of CoM's story and gameplay. Having the PS2/PS3 remake allow you to use the KH1/KH2 battle system (even as an option) would kinda remove the core partially, if not completely, that had been so integrated into it.

[ReverofE 698]

Honestly CoM wasn't even that bad.

 

Sora's Gameplay in that was amazing & Riku's Story/Character Developement was WAYYY better & more fleshed out.

 

Hell I'd replay CoM over Days anytime of the week. Days was awful particularly in terms of gameplay.

[Isaix 924]

I think I already answered that a while back in a similar topic but long story short, COM is not a terrible game,its better then Recoded,the story is great and the card system is fun but only for boss fights.My biggest problem is fighting regular enemies and exploring the disney worlds,its just boring and tedious.

[Shadow Broker 65]

Honestly I freaking LOVE COM! The card battle system was great! I just finished playing it on proud mode yesterday. Yeah it was complicated at first but when you play it throughout the game you will understand it. But of course I respect everyone's opinion.

[Tara St Michel 39]

I loved the storyline, I just hate the card system! Cards + realtime battle just don't seem to mix for me. I'd rather either have time to think of my strategies or just have something where I'm able to mash the attack button in moments of panic. I'd have been happier with a system like the one in KH Unchained X where you have time to plan your attacks if they REALLY had to go with the card system.

[Awesome Sauce 634]

From what I've played of Re:COM, I did not enjoy the card system. It limits everything I do for a 1-time usage and punishes me for doing a slight mistake. The card break mechanic is just BS and unfair, being able to interrupt an attack, spell or sleight by using a 0 or 9 destroys the point of using it in the 1st place. Then there are the boss fights that are filled with a deck of 7s and 8s and infinite sleights, which killed me too many times. Then there's the fact that if you run out of cards you can't do ANYTHING but reload, which also takes a long time and leaves you extremely vulnerable. All of this just makes the combat feel needlessly complicated, frustrating and dragged out, which goes against the fast-paced and simple-but effective combat of the 1st game.

 

The room mechanic interests me more in that based on the cards you have you can create different rooms and shape the floors in different ways, which I like and feel that complements the setting of the game.

[Fates Chance XIII 307]

I think its mostly the combat system- which I remember liking when I was a kid. Although, the original CoM was my first KH game so I hadn't got to exp the wonders and freedom of the other games game play. Which is probably why when I revisit CoM now after having played all the other games, im not as big a fan as I used to be. I can imagine what fans of the original game thought when they first got this as a sequel to KH. It mustve been a pretty big shock and annoyance.

[The 13th Kenpachi 4,279]

In re com the battles weren't so bad, but the rooms and the way the worlds were laid out was atrocious. Every world had the same formula and using cards to unlock doors was so stupid. If you want to revisit a world you have to unlock all the doors again which is irritating because the game is difficult, therefore you'll need to level grind.

 

Every world is dull and an exact replica of KH1, some things should have been different to make the worlds a bit more fresh. And why are there doors everywhere in the first place? The worlds should have been more open and less restricted in RE:COM.

 

You get to a Riku replica fight or a Larxene fight or something, you realise you need to grind. But to level grind, you'll have to use up even more of your cards since all of the doors close when you leave the world.

 

If RE:COM had a KH1 battle system it would have been the best game in the franchise imo. Such a wasted opportunity.

[dabestgamer 62]

In re com the battles weren't so bad, but the rooms and the way the worlds were laid out was atrocious. Every world had the same formula and using cards to unlock doors was so stupid. If you want to revisit a world you have to unlock all the doors again which is irritating because the game is difficult, therefore you'll need to level grind.

 

Every world is dull and an exact replica of KH1, some things should have been different to make the worlds a bit more fresh. And why are there doors everywhere in the first place? The worlds should have been more open and less restricted in RE:COM.

 

You get to a Riku replica fight or a Larxene fight or something, you realise you need to grind. But to level grind, you'll have to use up even more of your cards since all of the doors close when you leave the world.

 

If RE:COM had a KH1 battle system it would have been the best game in the franchise imo. Such a wasted opportunity.

I'm pretty sure Re:CoM was never remade to have KH1 battle system because of the original CoM. Obviously, a GBA can't handle the complexity of KH1's battle system so they developed the card system.

 

 

And then they decided to focus a lot of CoM's story and gameplay elements on the cards. The cards were such an integral part of both that it wasn't a simple task to just remove it in favor of the battle system used in the numbered KH games. Doing so would just stray away from the design CoM ended up having.

[Xiro 3,468]

That's why I wasn't a big fan of the FFX turn based system. I couldn't take 10 steps without an enemy appearing, and it always took some minutes to defeat them. While all I wanted was to see more of the story.

You can always just run away from unnecessary fights though... Although I think there was a trophy for CoM if you didn't run away in a playthrough.

Somewhat unrelated, but your and Shinobi's point about the potential repetitiveness of rooms is pretty understandable. If you make all bottomless room you don't have to look at anything though 8D

 

Then there's the fact that if you run out of cards you can't do ANYTHING but reload, which also takes a long time and leaves you extremely vulnerable.

Item cards helped with that, even if they were a bit costly. Also, if you have to reload manually, I'm fairly sure you didn't have to reload all in one go, so you could do it when you're safe and run/roll around when you're not.

 

 

I thought the gameplay was pretty well done. I enjoyed getting more cards and sleights and updating my deck and strats as I went along.

Some people have been complaining about the RNG, but you can usually see when an enemy is preparing a sleight. (Maybe sometimes you just tend to focus on your own cards and stuff, which is understandable.) 0 cards are less readable, but that's kind of their thing. Besides, 0s are double-edged; they can break anything, but they're also broken by anything, making them not as OP.

As for shop and drop RNG... Well, drop RNG is kinda expected. Idk if shop RNG was the best thing, but it's probably more balanced than being able to buy whatever cards you want (and they also aren't as costly as, say, medals).

The last few bosses before Marluxia did feel like there was a difficulty spike, but different strats like Lethal Frame spam can turn battles around.

Also, one thing that I know I didn't do much of was make good use of the enemy cards (except for Xemnas and a couple other really good ones ). Those add another level to think about when you're building your deck.

 

However, one issue I did have was that it took a while to get back into the swing of things after not playing the game for a while, which can be kind of annoying.

 

Also, a few people have said how the GBA version feels better than the PS2 version. Playing only the version in 1.5, I kinda want to try out the GBA version to see what it's like.