hen the first Kingdom Hearts released for the PS2, it marked the momentous pairing of RPG heavyweight Square Enix and animation giant Disney.  The result was a game that managed to blur the lines between gaming and feature films and still manages to hold a special place in the hearts of gamers around the world.  While Square Enix is still hard at work on Kingdom Hearts 2, they’re also busy putting the finishing touches on Kingdom Hearts:  Chain of Memories for the GBA.  Today I got a chance to sit down with the latest build of the game and am happy to report that it seems to be coming together quite well.  While it is radically different from the first Kingdom Hearts, the new features in Chain of Memories fit like a glove.

Chain of Memories begins immediately after the events in the first Kingdom Hearts.  Sora awakens to find himself in a strange field where he spots a mysterious cloaked person.  After some confusing conversation he finds himself at an even more mysterious castle; Castle Oblivion.  It seems that this strange castle robs the memories of those who dare enter it and the higher you climb within its confines, the more memories you lose.  Sora is initially reluctant to enter but once again the cloaked man appears to tell him that only be scaling the castle’s many levels will he be able to once again reunited with some “special to him.”  Determined to find this special someone, Sora enters the castle.  But, it seems that the castle has more surprises in store than simply robbing one’s memory.  Sora immediately finds that his compatriots Donald and Goofy have disappeared.  The castle, it seems, is powered by magical cards.  Sora’s memories are transferred into these cards and nearly every action that he can perform is bound to them.  Attacking, casting spells, calling friends, and even opening doors is tied to the cards.  Confused, yet determined, Sora sets off on his adventure, already beginning to feel his memories fading into nothing.

Whereas the original Kingdom Hearts was a fully 3D adventure, Chain of Memories has to make do with the limited capabilities of the GBA.  But, this isn’t to say that this is a detriment.  The Castle Oblivion is presented in a pseudo-isometric format.  The environments are isometric while Sora can run around in any of eight different directions.  Levels are made up of a large number of different screens, each of which is multi-tiered into different levels.  Sora can run and jump around in a level, grab onto ledges and pull himself up on them, as well as swing his trusty keyblade to bust open barrels and other items to find hidden goodies.  As far are controlling Sora, nothing is too out of the ordinary.  But unlike most traditional RPGs you won’t be taking part in random battles.  As you run through a level enemies will appear from the ground and pursue Sora.  If they manage to catch you, you’ll be transported to the battle screens where the fighting takes place.  To get an extra bit of help in combat you can stun an enemy with your keyblade before it hits you.  Doing so will cause your opponents to be stunned for a few seconds once a battle begins.

Once you’re in a battle you’ll immediately get acquainted with the new combat system that Chain of Memories uses.  All combat is card based, from normal attacks, using spells, and even regaining hit points.  When you start off the game you’re given a rudimentary deck of cards that include a hodge-podge of different cards.  One in a battle your cards are displayed in the bottom left-hand side of the screens.  Pressing the L or R should buttons will cycle through the cards, making it easy to play only the cards that you want to.  Once you have a card selected you can use it by pressing the A button.  The catch comes in the fact that your enemies also use cards to perform actions.  Each card that you have, as well as your enemy, is emblazoned with a number.  This number dictates how powerful the card is.  If you play a card with a higher number than your opponents you move will take precedent over theirs.  For example, say you play a keyblade card with a 9 on it.  Your opponent counters with an attack card with a 5.  Your 9 card will beat their 5 and you’ll deal them damage.  If an opponent plays a card higher than yours the result is a “card break,” which nullifies your attack, deals you damage, as well as knocks you off balance for a split second making you susceptible to a follow-up attack.  A little further on in the game you also learn the ability to string together multiple cards for combo attacks.  Pressing the L and R should buttons at the same time will let you queue up a number of cards.  After you’ve selected your cards pressing both the L and R buttons again will unleash your action.  The cool thing is that the numbers on your cards for combos will add together, making your card number much higher.  Say you play three keyblade cards with 8, 4, and 3.  The result is an attack with a number 15.  Needless to say, this total ends up being quite tough for your opponents to counter with a card of their own and usually results in a pretty damaging combo.

Besides being able to use keyblade cards to attack, you’ll also gain a wide number of cards that can perform actions like magic spells, recover hit points, and summon familiar Disney characters like Goofy and Donald to come to your aid and attack enemies for a few seconds.  These cards play just like the keyblade ones and also sport their own numbers.  Outside of combat cards are also needed to unlock the many doors that you’ll run across during your adventure.  Some doors are marked with locks that require a card with a certain number on it.  Others require a special card that can only be obtained by defeating certain enemies.  And, to make things even a bit more complicated, some doors require both a special card and a number card to unlock them.

The trickiest feature of the new card-based system actually involves the deck itself.  You only have a certain number of cards in your deck and once you’re run through them you’ll need to shuffle them if you want to perform any more actions.  Pressing the A button while selecting a special shuffle icons that appears during combat will shuffle up your cards.  The drawback is that while shuffling you have to remain motionless for a few seconds, which usually leaves you open to attack.  Also, special moves called “sleights” will consume cards from your deck permanent until your next fight (and can only be performed by queuing up certain combinations of cards).  Think of sleights like special combat move, like a sliding keyblade lunge of a keyblade strike that stuns opponents.  The catch is that once you use a sleight move the first card in the combo that you play is removed from your deck.  What this results in is you having less and less cards to use if you keep using the moves over and over again.  Essentially, you can end up leaving yourself no cards to pull off attacks, which needless to say, isn’t very battle savvy. 

To counteract the chance that you’ll run out of cards, Sora has a special card point system that is part of his leveling up process.  As you defeat enemies they drop experience orbs.  Once you gain enough of them you’ll level up and will be given three options: increase your hit points, increase your card points, or learn a new sleight move.  The hit point option is pretty self explanatory; you get more hit points so you can stay alive longer.  The card points are probably the most important since they dictate how many cards you can carry in your deck.  When you start off the game you’re given a limited number of card points. Since all of the cards you pick up have a number on them, the total of those numbers cannot exceed your card point limit.  So, if you’re maxed out at 300 card points and want to add a card with a 9, you won’t be able to until you level up and increase your card point capacity.  Sound confusing?  Well at first it is but after a bit of time the system begins to make more sense.  Also, you can put together multiple decks, so if you feel like putting together one that is strictly focused on attack cards and another mainly comprised of magic cards, you can.  But to really be successful you’ll probably want to compile a deck that contains a wide variety of cards. 

While the game is broken down into different “floors” of the castle, you’ll initially be given the choice of playing through a number of different levels after you take part in a short tutorial floor that helps get used to the card system.  If you’re a fan of Disney movies and enjoyed the many worlds from Kingdom Hearts, you won’t be disappointed by Chain of Memories.  You’ll be able to travel once again back to such memorable places as Agrabah, Halloween Town, the belly of Monstro the whale, and the Olympic Colosseum.  While I can’t give away any more details about the game’s levels, each of them are faithfully recreated in some pretty surprising detail.  Each level also comes complete with different enemies (the Heartless) that will dog you at every step.  The open-ended feel of progressing through levels adds a nice degree of freedom to your exploration.

One the visual side of things Chain of Memories impresses with some spot-on animation and detail, especially for character models.  Disney characters (as well as returning Final Fantasy folks) are all well created and for the GBA look surprisingly well.  The levels, while multi-tiered, don’t far quite a well and while detailed, seem to be a bit too similar in layout to really convey a sense of originality.  But, on the plus side, the game features some of the most amazing cutscenes that you will ever see on the GBA.  The small screen of the GBA actually makes things more detailed (as opposed to playing using a GBA Player and a TV), so keep an eye out for some seriously eye-popping movies.

Overall Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is shaping up to be one of the most enjoyable GBA titles on the horizon.  The card system, while new for the series, works well and really adds a nice degree of strategy to each enemy encounter.  Also, it doesn’t hurt that the game is sporting some of the best visuals to appear on the GBA.  While you may be counting down the days until Kingdom Hearts 2 hits the PS2, be sure not to overlook this promising GBA adventure.