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SUPERB!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 112 / 126
Date: December 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is so much fun it is difficult to express how happy I am having spent my money on it.

Graphics: 10/10. The graphics are absolutely incredible for being on a GBA. I've been playing Chain of Memories (CoM) on my Nintendo DS and often thought "wow, this DS does have good graphics..." just to remember I was playing a GBA game! In particular, the cinematic cutscenes could easily be N64 quality.

Music: 8/10. Original themes from the original Kingom Hearts. Well transposed to handheld, but nothing exceptional.

Story 9/10. If somewhat linear and not extremely original as the first Kingdom Hearts, CoM presents a genuinely sweet and enveloping story. Grown ups and kids should love it both, each one capturing and apprciating some of the sides of the story the other would not.

Gameplay: 10/10. This is where the game is actually great. It manages to insert a "card game" into a live action brawler. In combat againsty the heartless you command Sora through cards you collect and buy during the game. The cards can be combined to create enhanced effects and to deal major damage on your enemy. You will find out that creating a well balanced deck is vital to sucess. One suggestion: you have 3 possible decks you can keep at the same time, make one for normal heartless duels, and custom make another for boss encounters.

(One of the coolest combos is using 3 Cloud evocation cards.)

Finally, you will be exploring and shaping the worlds you explore through "map cards." In fact, every time you reach a door you must open it with a "map card."
These map cards are found as loot after duels and deciding which variety will affect the sort of "area" you will end up in and its contents. This adds a lot of fun and strategy to the game.

Bottom line:
A MUST BUY FOR ANY GBA OWNER!!!
Moreover, if you like at all Final Fantasy or Disney, you need to have this game.

This is Going To Be A Really Awesome Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 42 / 53
Date: November 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have played and beaten the first game of Kingdom Hearts and it was truely awesome. But if you think that It'll be the same as the PS2 game...you are wrong! Instead of running around and slashing at enimes you run around and choose card to play. For example, you have a number of cards in your hand, you and whoever you are fighting play a card at the same time. Who ever has the higher card attacks as much damage as shown on the card. Donald and Goofy are not with you in this game but you can summon cards with them on it and they will help you for a brief time. You can also use other cards such as Genie, Bambie, and all the others. Although the screenshots may seem like their from the first game they are not. Sora is on the path where the first game left off. A hodded mad comes and tells him up head is a mansion with someone inside that is very dear to Sora. But to get to that person Sora must loose something very important. As Sora wanders throughout the mansion memories come back to him. Such as Neverland, Wonderlan and Halloween Town. But he finds at the end is up to you to find out. So play the game! It is going to be truely awesome!!!

Good game, good game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 33 / 40
Date: December 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Okay, this game has awesome graphics for being on a GameBoy Advance. I mean it's pretty hard to get the same grahics on a GBA compared to a PS2. The reason why I say this is a good game is because of:
1) Kingdom Hearts was a good game, plus it had a ending that made you crave for the second one.
2) It ties together the KH1 and KH2.
3) Because it has a new battle system that I haven't seen at all.
4) It isn't the easist game that you can beat in 24 hours but you can beat it in a while (I like those kinds of games gives me some thing to do!)
5) Also you see old friends and new faces!
Okay those are the reasons I like this game, I am looking forward to the second Kingdom Hearts game to (Get to beat up Auron from FF10) Unfortunatly it won't come out for it least another year around Christmas time *sigh* what a pity. Well that's about it! Bu-bye!

Absolutely stunning GBA game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: June 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Handheld games are usually given second class treatment when it comes to big name franchises. The games are usually thorwn together quickly with low production values. Kingdom Hearts is the complete opposite.

This game plays, sounds, and looks beautiful.
The voice acting is done superb, the music and sounds are sharp and the graphics are awesome. I cant believe the high quality of the full motion videos in this game. I didnt think a Gameboy was capable of this quality.

And this aint no short romp through the enchanted lands of Disney. The main story took me 18 fun hours to get through. Plus there is a second complete game, with a new character and abilities, once you beat the main story.
And this second game is full with a new story and dialogue. This is pretty much unheard of...

Thoguh i must admit that some of the boss battles in this game will have you ripping your hair out. While the card battles and card collecting is addictive and fun, it can be annoying when some bosses have stacks of the best cards in the game...

All in all this game is a pure gem from its quality packaging and to its superb graphics and gameplay. Whether youve played Kingdom Hearts for the PS2 or not, every Gameboy owned should pick up a copy of this game.

A great sequel!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: December 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, is the bridging gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2. It offers a new storyline, a new battle system, and a new look at the series, including cut scenes that match the graphics of the original Kingdom Hearts.

In Chain of Memories, Sora comes across a crossroads. A dark figure in a hooded trench coat appears, and says that Sora has much to gain, but in order to gain something, he must lose something in return. Sora turns around to face the figure, but the figure vanishes, and suddenly, the figure appears, now floating above one single road, the crossroads now gone. Sora follows after the figure, coming across a disfigured castle named Castle Oblivion. Inside the castle, Goofy, Donald, and Sora meet up with the figure once more...

In Chain of Memories, Sora is reliving all of his memories, in a way. None of the characters, apart from the hooded man, Donald, and Goofy remember Sora, no matter how hard he tries to make them remember. The first world they go to is Traverse Town, where you are taught the basics of control Sora in the game, and of how the battle system works. The battle system is made up of cards. If the card has a Keyblade on it, you attack. If it has fire, a snowflake, or lightning on it, you use magic, and so on and so forth. If you get a character card, the character who is featured will attack the enemies for a short amount of time, while Sora in unable to use any of his attacks. Also, you are able to make combo attacks by combining three cards, almost always gaining you a quick victory, especially again the defensive enemies.

The storyline is not a complete remake of the original. It's entirely new, just with similar characters and areas. In the game, you must reach the top of Castle Oblivion, and defeat the boss. After you complete the game for a first time (spoiler), you can replay the game with another storyline, using Riku and King Mickey as main characters. (spoiler)

The graphics are amazing. The isometric view really makes the game a lot easier in the overworld, and the side view for the battles makes it easier to go in and attack. Also, the opening cut scene has, as I said, graphics that match the original, including a small clip of what happened at the end of the last game.

The music is awe-inspiring. The makers of the game have recreated the scores from the original Kingdom Hearts, giving it a wonderful feeling of the past. Remember "Dearly Beloved"? You can hear it again. Including new music just for the game and new areas.

This game is great, though it might take a few tries to get used to the card system, but overall, it's a great game that came out in time for Christmas. I suggest that you put it onto your lists. And parents, if your child is a RPG-freak, get them this game. They'll thank you for it.

Either you like it, or you don't.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: August 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Introduction/Note

Ah, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the long awaited sequel that links Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II's stories together. Is the game worth the money? Does it live up to the hype? Relax, that's what I'm here to tell you.

Story

The story of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is an interesting one. The game begins with a cut-scene with some ending footage from Kingdom Hearts 1 and then continues from there. Sora, Donald, and Goofy run down the same path as in Kingdom Hearts and eventually stop at a cross-road. While there, Sora (Donald and Goofy vanish without a trace) is greeted by a mysterious man in a black coat. The man speaks the following: "Ahead lies something you need, but to claim it, you must lose something dear." After that, the man vanishes and all of the roads form into one, leading to the equally mysterious Castle Oblivion.

In this castle, the story picks up, and as you proceed through the game, you will uncover a plot of mystery, deception, and depression (I bet some will argue with me on that last part, though) as you travel to worlds you visited in Kingdom Hearts to find Sora's lost memories. (I'd tell you what's that all about, but I'm going borderline spoilers here)

The story unfolds like so: You go to a world, solve the problems of the people living there, fight a boss or two, and leave. When you leave, the main story of the game continues. Since you only have a few scenes in-between every world, you will more than likely want to just skip over worlds to get to the next story bit.

In the worlds, other then the first and final three, all have the same story that they did in Kingdom Hearts. Now, I understand that you are trying to collect Sora's lost memories, but if I wanted to have the stories from Kingdom Hearts, I would just play Kingdom Hearts. The first world, while similar to what I just described, has a bit more than that, so I left it out.

The final three worlds, however, are strictly for developing the game's main story. Thankfully, it is enough to make you not mind that the story is a repeat of Kingdom Hearts everywhere else. In these final three worlds, which I will not name to prevent spoilers, all of the characters either make themselves known, or sink into the background and fade away. By fade away, I do not mean that they had a story bit and were forgotten about after that. =) You'll see what I mean when you reach these worlds.

The story itself, while complex and interesting, is not very hard to follow. If you read the text carefully and go back to read Jiminy's journal entries once in a while, you should understand the game completely, but some may still have trouble comprehending it.

8/10

Good Points:
-Original Story is very well developed
-Plot reminds me of FFT, which is a good thing for those who haven't played FFT
-Introduction of new characters, as well as development of others

Bad Points:
-The story for most worlds is the same as Kingdom Hearts
-The worlds seem just there to play as a way to give you more gameplay rather than story
-Story may be too hard to follow for som

Gameplay

The gameplay of Chain of Memories is rather unique. It uses cards, but doesn't play similar to something like Pokemon Trading Card Game. The cards are your attacks, magic, and summons. Everything you do in the game revolves around these cards.

While roaming around a world, you fight enemies to gain Map Cards, which are used to unlock doors that allow you to venture further into the world. The Map Cards are separated into colors, names, and level.

While it seems like a simple and easy concept, it gets VERY tedious after a small amount of time. Sometimes you must have something like a Red Level 7 card. If you don't have that Red Level 7 Card, you have to fight until you get it. The searching could take anywhere from five minutes to an hour or two. The latter times are more frequent in the later worlds.

During battles, you have attack cards (keyblades), magic cards, and summons. Each of these are separated by level as well. You have things like Level 1 Kingdom Key and Level 9 Oblivion for attack cards, Level 0 Fire or Level 6 Ice for magic, or Level 3 Dumbo and Level 4 Cloud cards (yes, I said Cloud) for summons. You cycle through your cards with the L and R buttons and use the A button to use a card. Level 0 being the weakest and level 9 being the strongest.

That's not all though. You can combine cards by hitting L and R at the same time while on a card. So, say you have three Cloud cards left. You would hit L+R over while on each card, and they will combine into things called sleights. You learn new sleights by levelling up. Now, back to the three Cloud cards example, if you have the three Cloud cards ready to be used, you hit L and R again and Cloud will use an Omnislash. However you can also use two card sleights. So, if you only had two Cloud cards, he would use Cross Slash instead of Omnislash. Naturally, the more cards you have, the more powerful the effect will be. You can also combine things like Cloud, Fire, and Kingdom Key cards for three separate attacks, but in a quicker pace then using them separately.

Don't forget that there are enemy cards too. If you defeat a boss, or sometimes a random enemy, you will get a card based on them. Some will give you things like faster running speeds, while others will give you abilities like Auto-Life.

There is also a feature called Card Breaks. If your opponent uses a sleight, you can use a level 0 card to break their sleight, and make them lose the attack and a card. Your opponent can also do card breaks to you.

Level 0 cards are not the only way to break sleights or attacks. If you create a sleight that has more total points than your opponents, then you will break their sleight and your's will be used. Or if they use a level 5 card, you could use a level 6-9 or 0 card to break it. If both of your cards have the same total points, all cards used would be broken and no one would get a turn.

Since it would be too much to just throw any and all cards in your deck, you have a CP (Card Points) limit. Higher level cards require more CP than lower level cards, so you can't stack your deck with all powerful cards.

Another addition is Premium Cards. These cards require no CP to use, but after used once, can't be reloaded back into your deck. So if you try and use all premium cards, you will run out of cards by the time you have to reload your deck. Not a very good thing.

In terms of difficulty, Chain of Memories is nothing extremely tough. Some bosses will cause you frustration, but it is usually because your deck of cards is unorganized, underpowered, or a combination of both. Like I said earlier, it's all in the cards. All you have to do is change around your deck and you can most likely win.

While exploring the worlds, you will probably notice that every world is the same. All the rooms have the same set up and patterns, with the only difference being the floor tiles and walls. It gets very boring running through the same course over and over again.

7/10

Good Points:
-Very innovative idea
-Bosses require strategy and not senseless button mashing
-Can be fun

Bad Points:
-Very tedious after a while
-Can take hours just to find a single card
-Levels repeat over and over again

Graphics

The graphics in Chain of Memories are outstanding. Quite possibly the best I have seen for the GBA. A nice feature of the game is the adding of PS2 quality cut-scenes. That's right, ps2 quality. You know the graphics that the original Kingdom Hearts had(bar FMV)? Well that's the cut-scene graphics for Chain of Memories.

The attacks and such are smoothly animated, and look really cool, but if there is too much going on at the same time, the game will slow down until everything causing the slow down finishes. I only came across this slowdown two times the entire game, so don't worry about it.

9/10

Good Points:
-Great GBA graphics
-PS2 quality cut-scenes
-Smooth animations

Bad Points:
-Occasional Slow down

Sound

The sound in Chain of Memories is pretty damn good. The battle cries are the exactly the same as they were in Kingdom Hearts, and the same goes for attacks and magic.

The music, while nothing to be frowned upon, repeats throughout the game from start to end, While I enjoy the music, I don't like hearing the same track from the start of the game to the end of the game.

Square did manage, however, to port all the music from the world in Kingdom Hearts over to Chain of Memories, and it sounds pretty good.

They also managed to get the song "Simple and Clean" over to the cart as well, voice and all. Very nice indeed.

9/10

Good Points:
-Sound quality very high
-Themes ported over from Kingdom Hearts
-Simple and Clean

Bad Points:
-Songs repeat the entire game

Replay, Length, and Rent or Buy

This game will provide a couple play throughs, I'm sure. Two times is the minimum, if you want to get the full story experience, since there are two different modes, each with their own story. I'm pretty sure you'd want to play through each mode at least twice.

The game provided me with about 12 hours and change of fun. I got it on Christmas, and have already beat Sora's Story, but I hogged the GBA most of the time ^_^.

Rent or Buy? Buy of course. You could probably beat both modes within the five days given, if you rushed, but no one wants to rush a game through just to say you beat it.

Replay: 10/10
Length: 8/10
Rent or Buy: Buy

Overall Score:9

Worth playing just to see the ending!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: April 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played all the way through Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and even though I had a hard time while playing it, it was worth playing it just to get to the ending scene.
Although this game is very difficult and the card battle system is highly annoying, through all of my frustration... Making it to the end of the game was very rewarding and made it all worth it!
For those of you who have played Kingdom Hearts for the PS2 and are going to play Kingdom Hearts 2, this game is the one that links Kingdom Hearts with Kingdom Hearts 2. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the whole story explains what happened to Riku after the events in Kingdom Hearts, and it shows what happened between Axel, Sora, and Namine before Kingdom Hearts 2. So why isn't this game KH2 and the new one for the PS2 Kingdom Hearts 3? Well, it's because this game isn't a true sequel to Kingdom Hearts because you play through all of the same levels as KH1, and by the end of the game Sora loses all of his memories, so it's as though the whole thing never happened. (Dont act like that's a spoiler, play the game for ten minutes and it tells you that it's going to happen.) But it's worth playing to find out what happened between Sora, Axel, and Namine in the past.

For those of you who haven't played the original Kingdom Hearts, or dont own a PS2, the game is worth playing because of how cool the KH series is, and since it's not a true sequel and has a story of it's own... You dont have to play Kingdom Hearts to enjoy it.

Although this game's battle system is very annoying and hard to work with, the game has an amazing story and great graphics!
Making it to the end of the game and seeing the breath taking 3D ending cut scene makes all of the frustration that you felt while playing through certain points in the game all worth it!

Pros: Great game with a great story!
Amazing 3D cut scenes throughout the game make it a pleasant gaming experience!
It's amazing that the GBA is capable of such Great graphics, and PS2 quality cut scenes!
Game contains the KH theme song, "Simple and clean" which plays during the credits after you beat the game!
The voice acting, while limited, is still very good.
A great game for people who like Kingdom Hearts, but dont own a PS2.
The story for Riku's mission is very deep and explains what happens after Sora's mission ends, so it's kinda like you're buying 2 games in one!

Cons: The card battle system is very annoying, and takes alot of getting used to.
Leveling up is hard because you have to collect gems that fall from your fallen enemies to gain experience!
Because of how you level up, you have to run around, or roll under other enemies on the field in order to get at the experience gems!
Leveling up is also annoying because of the fact that you need alot of CP (Card Points) to increase the size of your deck, so you're always having to upgrade your CP which makes it hard to find time to upgrade your HP (Health Points)
Sometimes you'll get so frustrated while playing that you will feel like turning it off, and never playing it again!

50/50: You have to unlock The Soul of Rebirth option if you want to play as Riku and find out what happened to him after KH1, but Riku's mission is so much fun and so much less annoying to play than Sora's mission so it's well worth the trouble of beating the game as Sora to unlock it.
While there are no cut scenes during Riku's mission, the cut scene at the end of Riku's mission in nothing short of awesome!

Overall: Although this game can be very annoying at times, and even drive you crazy! The game has a great story, and even when you're most frustrated with it, you'll find yourself wanting to play it just so you can see what happens next. On top of that, this is one of the only GBA games that I've ever seen that has 3D graphics anywhere in the game! Sure there have been other GBA games with some 3D, but not this kind of 3D! I'm talkin' PS2 quality 3D! The game itself isn't 3D, so dont get the wrong idea... But the cut scenes that take place during certain parts of the game are. So if you've got the money, I recomend buying this game. Yes, it really annoyed me at times, but the amazing ending made it all worth it for me.

Fun to begin with, but gets very, very boring.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 17 / 22
Date: December 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Unless you're a fan of the original Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 then I would probably stay away from this game. You'll be totally lost and confused and won't know who the hell any of the characters are aside from the recognizable Disney ones. Plus, they are all suffering from amnesia and their long, too frequent, cut-scenes have an enigmatic feel to them so you'll still not really ever be sure what is going on no matter how far you get into the game.

I think the card-based strategy of fighting and evolving is a horrible, badly conceived misfire of an idea. This kind of thing may be fine in a Beyblade video-game but in a Disney/Final Fantasy game it's just inappropriate. The whole concept is scatterbrained and random and has no real skill involved. It takes ages to build up a decent combat deck and even when you do the fighting is endless, tedious and boring. You'll fight the same villains in every level and while in appearance the levels may look different (taking their inspiration from many different Disney films) they are essentially all the same.

The fun comes from spotting popular Disney characters and trying to get into the story that involves them. But the plot is so incomprehensible and alienating that I just didn't care after a while.

I did stick with the game for a good few months and found advancing through each level to be an exhilarating and thankless chore. Nothing changed and I never really felt like I was getting anywhere. I've played better RPGs than this and so have you. As RPGs on the GBA go, I've yet to see one that truly works.

Skip this unless you're a die-hard fan of either franchise.

Graphics A
Sound C
Gameplay C+
Lasting Appeal C+

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memoires

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Well, having played all the way through the game, I guess I can take a shot at the review.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories takes place right after the first game. It's supposed to link the first and second games, but until Kingdom Hearts II comes out next year, nobody's really sure how well it does that.

In the game, you reprise the role of Sora, the fourteen year old Keybearer, who, with help from Donald Duck and Goofy, of Disney Fame, made their way through the first game in one piece. Sora is still walking on the endless path from the first game when a strange, hooded man appears and tells him that he must lose something in order to gain something he needs. Sora is led to Castle Oblivion, and that's where the newest Kingdom Hearts adventure begins...

Confused? If you're reading this without having played the first game, that's understandable. I don't really recommend this for people who haven't played the first Kingdom Hearts game. If you can, do so, as that's a great game as well.

The first thing about the game is that it's got wonderful, colorful graphics, that really bring out the Disney atmosphere of the worlds you visit. There are several scenes in the game that match the quality of the PS2, which is impressive for a Game Boy Advance.

The battle system in the game is card based. Now, as any gamer knows, card battle systems are extremely bad. Look at what a card battle system did to PSO. But, leave it to the brillance of Square Enix to fix that. Unlike most games, you can reshuffle your deck in midbattle, thereby managing to keep your cards. Cards are divided into Attack, Magic/Summon, and Item cards. Overall, the battle system could've been improved much more. The cards are valued on a scale of 0-9, 9 being the strongest. Unfortunately, even near the end of the game, 9 cards are next to impossible to get. At least good ones. But it's still the mostly hack and slash gameplay from KH. The magic and summons are nice, but not totally necessary to use in battle. As usual, Sora's keyblade does most the work.

The storyline, while confusing at first, is very good once you draw closer to the end. Sora is on a quest to find his true memories, but as he goes further on this quest, he loses mermories he has. There is a big twist in the storyline that some people might not have expected, and that adds to the story. The Organization Members are vaired in Character, and each one is maniacal and cunning in their own little ways. Axel is my favorite character in the game, simply because of how he fits in the full story.

The sound is okay overall. There are no vocals, except the small battle cries in the battle system. The music is very close to the original, and manages to keep the same tone as the first game. The small tones of entering menus and text are repetitive but once you get used to them they are fine.

Once you clear the story of Sora, you unlock Reverse/Rebirth mode, which allows you to play the game through a different perspective and shows a darker side of the story. This is a lot of fun, more fun than the first. I highly recommend playing this mode.

Overall, Chain of Memories is really aimed at the people who liked the first game. Reverse/Rebirth is where the action really is, but the main storyline is also very good. I have to give it about a 4.5 out of 5.

It's OK, but...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well, It's OK. I think that the best part is the card battling system. you have a deck of cards. Each card has a value from 0-9. Enemies also have and use cards for attacks, the same way you do. When you use a card while someone else is, the card with the higher value succeeds and the lower valued card is "broken" and the user is stunned. that's probably the most interesting part of the game. The rest is kind of boring. The awesome graphics that have been advertised on the site only occur a few select times and look pixelated. Another down in this game is that all the rooms in the game follow a random predefined structure, but still have different colors. (in English: all the rooms have the same structure but different color schemes. Don't imagine this game to be anything like KH1, there are no trinity spots, space flights, or items. Even in Atlantica, there is no difference in game play. But I do have to admit, the companies idea was great. Make Sora loose his memories for an excuse to have to do the story over. This was a way to let people with only a GBA play, what they think, is a GBA version of KH. They also made it a continuation of the old game to force veteran players into getting it to complete the story. And to top it off, the ending ids a cliffhanger, forcing you to buy KH3. Even though the scheme was perfect, I wish that Square Enix could have put more work into game play. The bosses are extremely easy and take a long time to complete, thanks to the enormous amount of health that was given to them. The conversations take a long time to complete, and it gets annoying when an enemy constantly breaks your cards. I don't advise buying this game as it is a waste of money. My friends tell me that you can easily get KH2 and pick up on the story line without even getting KH1. I hope that you don't make the same mistake i did and get lured into Square Enix's trap.

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