KHCoM My Thoughts On: Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

[Awesome Sauce 634]

Heya.

Continuing with my little marathon of the Kingdom Hearts series, I'm going to share my thoughts after completing my 1st playthrough of the game (Both Sora and Riku's stories) and some of the things I either enjoyed or disliked. Again, sorry if I sound pretentious/don't properly express my feelings and I encourage whoever decides to look at this thread to share their opinons on the game. Let's start:

 

-Story: This, for me, is the highlight of Re:COM. I think the story was great and did a nice job of showing the characters, their personalities and struggles, had interesting premises that were used well in each story and served as a nice bridge that explains some of the things that happened in KH2. I especially liked some of the members of the Organization and Sora's character the most. Pacing could've been better since most of the early worlds only serve as interactions between Sora,Donald and Goofy (Or in Riku's case, nothing at all) and most of the exposition comes at the end, but other than that, I loved the overall story of the game. Riku was the more interesting/significant of the two, in my opinion, but Sora's had more to it.

 

-Gameplay: The gameplay is a bit iffy. One one hand, I kinda thought the exploration was good in a different way. While the segmentation was annoying, I found the room concept cool, with the different cards making different rooms and having those rooms being recreations of the worlds and allowing for some customization. However sometimes the requirements for the cards would be hard to get, which would force me into grinding heartless just to get that one card because of the RNG. Then there's the whole "going to another floor erases all the rooms you created in this floor" thing, which I found stupid, but aside from that, I liked the exploration. Combat, on the other hand, was bad. Everything being done with cards only limited the amount of things I could do and made battles infuriating, dragged out and slow, something that went against what I loved from the 1st game. Reloading is even crappier and renders you useless for a couple of seconds, though this is not the case in Riku's story. I found Riku's combat, while not as open, more fun than Sora's. Structurally, this is KH1 with some alterations and the addition of another playable character. Finally, I liked how Sora and Riku had similar moves at their disposal but played completely different to one another.

 

-Graphics: The graphics look the same as KH1, so they still look good. However, I loved how in the C.O cutscenes, the characters were more animated and just felt alive, especially in the expanded use of detailed faces over "default" faces. That also means I disliked how all of the "worlds" in the game were just bland cutscenes with stiff models, text and no voice-overs. Overalll, they are a mild improvement over KH1.

 

-Sound: I freaking LOVED the soundtrack of this game. The remastered versions of old tracks sound just as good, sometimes better than their original versions and the new tracks are fitting for the parts they play in. They sound epic while giving this sense of "creepy, mysterious castle" which goes well with the setting of the game. Voice acting is still great, though the change in voices of some characters is glaring at first, but I quickly got used to them.

 

Overall, I loved the presentation of Re:COM and found it as an improvement over KH1, but found the gameplay to not be that good. Again, it does a nice job of continuing the plot of the 1st game and serves as a decent midquel/bridge to KH2. 

 

My marathon continues with the life of Roxas...

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Awesome thoughts on the game, Awesome Sauce!

 

The story is definitely amazing, and it's quite dark, as it deals with the tampering of memories and the thought of losing them and losing yourself in the process! These themes were represented well, and Sora was tested both physically and psychologically! Like you said, the game provided some answers to Kingdom Hearts II, specifically regarding the whereabouts of the other half of Organization XIII! I loved them in this game, and my favorite out of the bunch that didn't make it into Kingdom Hearts II is undoubtedly Marluxia! I loved his character, his goals, his voice, and his overall skills in battle! And he had a frickin rose scythe! FLOWER POWER FOR YA, BOYS AND GIRLS!!!! But yeah, the story was amazing, and Riku's was also just as good, if not better, since it dealt with his journey of redemption, as it began in Castle Oblivion!

 

And well, yeah, the gameplay of this game isn't too popular with the community, but I found to love it, actually! The card system gave combat a tactical feel to it, and with the right cards, I practically owned the battlefield, and Heartless couldn't even touch me! I loved unlocking new sleights and using them to slaughter Heartless in mere seconds! Riku's combat was also badass, and I loved using his Dark Mode, especially his Dark Aura attack!

 

The graphics were amazing at the time, and the game's aged well! And as for the music, this is Yoko Shimomura we're talking about, so yeah, the soundtrack is awesome! My favorite themes are the field and battle themes for Castle Oblivion, and Marluxia's themes!

 

I'm glad you got to play this game, it's definitely badass!

[tysonrss 38]

The original CoM was the first KH game i played. Wasn't to proud about it because of the combat system and eventually I ended up playing kh2 and later revisited CoM and found new love for the game because of its story. I admit I used cheats to max out the cp so that I didn't feel limited but as I got more into the series and played through the titles I redid my play through later without cheats. Eventually ended up getting the remake and was very excited after finding out that they actually cared enough to localize it. I got turned off by soras matured voice because of kh1 but I understood why he sounded different. Like you said, it gets very repetitive with the rooms and having to find the right cards. And combat sometimes seems up to luck with the bosses. Having played through this once on proud mode, the pain I went through on soras side was enough to keep me away from the game for a long time.

 

Now I've been itching to replay the series like you but I've done it so many times that I'm having a hard time trying to motivate myself to do it. Although it's been a couple years at this point I'm trying to psyche myself to get ready for 2.8, so I'm really thinking of playing BBS in a hour or so.

 

I wonder how fun CoM would be without the card battle system..

[Awesome Sauce 634]

 Having played through this once on proud mode, the pain I went through on soras side was enough to keep me away from the game for a long time.

 

 

The suffering I had in Proud of Sora's story scared me so much that I played Reverse/Rebirth in Standard, just so I couldn't have the same frustration I had. So don't feel bad.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Awesome Sauce

[tysonrss 38]

The suffering I had in Proud of Sora's story scared me so much that I played Reverse/Rebirth in Standard, just so I couldn't have the same frustration I had. So don't feel bad.

Riku's side actually isn't that bad on proud mode. What made Soras difficult was customizing the deck to conform to the higher difficulty. I've learned that if you defeat all heartless in each room you go through tends to make Sora/Riku paced at a decent level as you progress.

[Jake 1,488]

Honestly, I used to hate the combat system/gameplay in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. However, years passed by and I got used to it and eventually beat the game twice. Riku's story was the easiest gameplay I've ever experienced. His combat system is so easy I beat his side in like 3 hours without even trying. Lol.

[ReverofE 698]

Try Level Grinding To Level 99 with Sora & Riku then come back & tell me that Riku's gameplay is better lol.