Kingdom Hearts CoM

[Pandarbock]

This game is actually quite enjoyable, although at first I wasn't so sure I liked it as it doesn't play like anything I have ever played. It is certainly one of those games that just works as a portable game (such as advance wars, fire emblem, FF tatics advance). The game isn't exactly an RPG, its not quite a card game, I am not quite sure what to call it. Basically you fight in realtime against monsters using a card based system in which you create combos that do different things. There are 4 different battle type cards: magic, attack, summon, and attribute cards. All the cards are numbered and are counter by the enemies, basically higher card wins. The stages themselves are altered by cards as you basically build the world as you go along by using map cards that have different attributes such as: more enemies, treasure room, monsters week to certain things type rooms and so on.

Anyway in playing this game I can basically say that it would have benefited greatly in play mechanics at least in battles if it had been made for the DS. For example the cards you use for battle are shown in the lower left corner 3 at a time the one you can play the one prior and the next card. You scroll through your deck with the shoulder buttons L backwards and R forwards and then to set up your card combos you press both shoulder buttons to place the current card into the combo set and execute with the 2 shoulder buttons again when 3 cards are selected. The only other buttons you use while battling are the A button for executing a single card B for jump and the digital pad moves you around. So say the game had come to the DS, basically alot more of your deck could be shown, it would be easier to setup the combos and execute them using the touch screen as you could basically have a combo button on the TS and the touch the cards you want to use, and the digital could still be used for movement while the shoulder button is used for jumping.

This was really just an example I gave as it shows how the DS could be used by developers to make games a bit more intuitive and less cumbersome. Anyway the game is great so I would defenately suggest to anyone who digs portable gaming to give it a try. My only complaint so far being that the games story seems references the PS2 game alot which isn't so bad but I have yet to play it so it sort of seems like it is ruining plot line for me.

[Glockstar]

Really?!?

I am hating this game. And I am totally kicking myself for opening the box up.
(A little voice said, 'don't do it!' But I didn't listen.)

First off, the areas to "explore" are tiny and confined - do to the fact that the GBA screen is so small, while the characters are so big (so that you can see them) - and there's basically nothing to do except open doors and open doors and... open doors. And then there's the random encounters, which I think are more annoying than in any other J-RPG I've played, not only because they happen all the time, but also because the combat system is horrible.

Second off, the areas that are explored are pretty much the same as the ones in KH for the PS2. But that's the premise of this game. Which is excused by the following riddle, 'You will lose all that you have gained, but in order to have lost it, you must have found it first.' :rolleyes: Which basically means, 'Remember this level? Remember this land? Remember that friend?' Hence the title, "Chain of Memories". This is a pathetic excuse for a story - and a game. It's exploitation, plain and simple. Square knows that we're all just a bunch of suckers... I'm sure they assured themselves saying, 'if we stamp our name and Disneys on it, they will buy it'. I feel like an @$$.

I like a good card-battle game. Well, I like Culdcept and Xenosaga, I should say. Something like - or even betwixt - those two would make for a great GameBoy RPG, I thought. Well hear me now, CoM is none of that.

CoM is not a card game! It's an action-RPG. Well, actually, it's not even that - it's more hectic. And it's senseless. Combat is not about matching enemies card-for-card in organized turns - as all combatants can play their card(s) anytime they want! True, you will expend your cards faster if you button mash, but the penalty is nothing - all it does is it take longer and longer to reshuffle your deck. I suppose you could save up your cards for a "combo", but the ones I've see don't do anything special, and they are so not worth it. So the battles are pretty much all about running around in this small square-area (which is what's contained inside the game screen), while you try to dodge enemy fire and toggle thru your cards at the same time, throwing down cards, and then running/dodging to collect the little spoils that pop out of defeated enemies (like they do in your typical platformer) - which sometimes includes more cards. Yay.

I've tried to like this game - really - but I am done with it. Already. No, I haven't beat it. I have no desire to. I think it's an awful excuse for a game. And I just want it out of my face.

[Pandarbock]

Really?!?

I am hating this game. And I am totally kicking myself for opening the box up.
(A little voice said, 'don't do it!' But I didn't listen.)

First off, the areas to "explore" are tiny and confined - do to the fact that the GBA screen is so small, while the characters are so big (so that you can see them) - and there's basically nothing to do except open doors and open doors and... open doors. And then there's the random encounters, which I think are more annoying than in any other J-RPG I've played, not only because they happen all the time, but also because the combat system is horrible.

Second off, the areas that are explored are pretty much the same as the ones in KH for the PS2. But that's the premise of this game. Which is excused by the following riddle, 'You will lose all that you have gained, but in order to have lost it, you must have found it first.' :rolleyes: Which basically means, 'Remember this level? Remember this land? Remember that friend?' Hence the title, "Chain of Memories". This is a pathetic excuse for a story - and a game. It's exploitation, plain and simple. Square knows that we're all just a bunch of suckers... I'm sure they assured themselves saying, 'if we stamp our name and Disneys on it, they will buy it'. I feel like an @$$.

I like a good card-battle game. Well, I like Culdcept and Xenosaga, I should say. Something like - or even betwixt - those two would make for a great GameBoy RPG, I thought. Well hear me now, CoM is none of that.

CoM is not a card game! It's an action-RPG. Well, actually, it's not even that - it's more hectic. And it's senseless. Combat is not about matching enemies card-for-card in organized turns - as all combatants can play their card(s) anytime they want! True, you will expend your cards faster if you button mash, but the penalty is nothing - all it does is it take longer and longer to reshuffle your deck. I suppose you could save up your cards for a "combo", but the ones I've see don't do anything special, and they are so not worth it. So the battles are pretty much all about running around in this small square-area (which is what's contained inside the game screen), while you try to dodge enemy fire and toggle thru your cards at the same time, throwing down cards, and then running/dodging to collect the little spoils that pop out of defeated enemies (like they do in your typical platformer) - which sometimes includes more cards. Yay.

I've tried to like this game - really - but I am done with it. Already. No, I haven't beat it. I have no desire to. I think it's an awful excuse for a game. And I just want it out of my face.

Actually I thought the game was a complete pile of trash when I first started playing it I felt the same in that I wasn't sure why I opened it. Now that I have actually given it some more time (I am on halloween town well level 3 as you can pick what ever town to make each level) and figured out the seemingly chaotic at first system of the attack cards and how to use the map cards right I have come to actually enjoy it. Sure you can button mash but later on you will get your ass handed too you and you will run out of cards (and not be able to reload them) if you don't plan out your deck and work combos into it. Blitz for example is quite a nice sleight I use which requires 3 different key attack cards that total to 10-15 and I have it set up where I can do it 3 times in a row and basically kill all the heartless without having to reload. I really don't argue the point in the game cashing in on KH franchise as the story is really well quite pointless to the game, but I guess it is just a way for Square to move a few more units. Anyway it is up too you as to weither you want to feel like you let your $35 go to waste on this one :D but I would suggest unless you just totally hate it, to give it a few more hours. :P

[Gadfly2317]

I'm not interested in this particular game, but I liked your post and the detailed description of how it could be improved by the DS.

Most types of gaming could be improved on the DS. . .even a traditional game with traditional controls (that doesn't use the touch screen at all) like a racing game, could still use the bottom screen as a rear-window, letting you see in full size the cars coming up behind you. And if they want to incorporate touch screen in such a traditional game, they don't have to do it by adding an analog steering wheel on the touch screen. I still like the idea using the shoulder button for gas so you can reach over with your right thumb and actually target and shoot at racers coming up behind you.

I hope developers are thinking of these things, or at least ripping off ideas from this DS forum.

[Glockstar]

I'm not interested in this particular game, but I liked your post and the detailed description of how it could be improved by the DS.


Ehh... the controls could be improved by the DS, but not the game.

The only positive effect that would've come from it being a DS game is that it would've made controlling the action easier. The two screens, the touchpad/stylus, the two extra buttons... they wouldn't have had any effect on the story or the combat, which is where this game fails.

And this is what I'm talking about when I express skepticism regarding the innovations that you are hoping to see. I just don't see it happening. Oh sure, once in a while I'll bet there'll be something really neat and new - but we get that every once in awhile stuff now. I really don't think it's going to happen in any greater frequency, just because the machine will allow it.

The developers have to make it happen. And a lot of them really don't seem to care about the innovation and originality that you seek. Especially the Japanese developers. And especially not when it comes to their RPGs.

[Gadfly2317]

Ehh... the controls could be improved by the DS, but not the game.

The only positive effect that would've come from it being a DS game is that it would've made controlling the action easier. The two screens, the touchpad/stylus, the two extra buttons... they wouldn't have had any effect on the story or the combat, which is where this game fails.

And this is what I'm talking about when I express skepticism regarding the innovations that you are hoping to see. I just don't see it happening. Oh sure, once in a while I'll bet there'll be something really neat and new - but we get that every once in awhile stuff now. I really don't think it's going to happen in any greater frequency, just because the machine will allow it.

The developers have to make it happen. And a lot of them really don't seem to care about the innovation and originality that you seek. Especially the Japanese developers. And especially not when it comes to their RPGs.

Oh, I agree, a crappy game is a crappy game. And I've never expected even a majority of the games to be really innovative. You guys that talk about developers "shoe-horning" games on to the system are right. You can see it happening. But I don't buy most games for most systems. Seriously, like you said "once in awhile we'll see something really neat and new. Even if it's only six games in 3 years, I will be impressed. That's about all I really have on the Ps2 that I love and consider truly original.

Over the course of the GBA lifespan, and I've had it since before the SP came out, I've only purchased a handful of games, that I can think of right off, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem (this week), Zelda LttP, Mario 2, Contra: Alien Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Metroid Zero and Metroid Fusion. I still want to play Golden Sun, Castlevania, WarioWare (more than just demoing it) and Mario and Luigi Allstar Saga (the 90+ reviewed RPG that's supposed to have a superb sense of humor.) Oh yeah, and the Mana game. There's probably other good stuff, I just haven't paid much attention to handheld or read reviews, aside from when Mario and Luigi got a GotM award.

I played Advance Wars 1 & 2 almost a year off and on. I found it that deep. With the DS there is already more WILL BUY software announced than I ever would have bought for the GBA, and its a mix of sequels, ports of stuff I've never heard of, and I'm certain there are new things I will get, I just don't know about them because they are new and have no info out, thus I don't know anything about them (like the Atlus RPG--the one that's not a version of their Ps2 demon game.) I know you hate Animal Crossing, but I can't think of a game more perfectly suited to the DS. This is the game that will probably force me to pick up a second DS for my wife. There was very much a subculture of older gamers and adults into this game. Since I never played the first Warioware, I'm holding out for the DS version in march, because I've discovered the DS is the most kick ass minigame system ever.

Anyway, besides knowing there will be a handful of original game experiences (and Feel the Magic has already been one, cool as hell if also imperfect) + a total improvement for some of my favorite types of portable games--that's all I could ask of the system.

I've got to say, I have ZERO interest in racing games or 3d action games for handheld, even on PsP. Better graphics or not, bigger screen or not, that's still a pretty small screen, and with any draw distance at all in a 3d game, you are talking miniscule objects. Tiny targets in FPS unless you're right up close. Dude, those games are ALL WAY better on a console. . . why would I waste time and money playing handheld versions of Metal Gear, GTA Mario Kart etc? To me that's the whole point of playing handhelds, is to do something different, and also to do it on the go. Take Phantom Brave. I got that Nippon Ichi game for the Ps2 (I still haven't found Disgaea) and truthfully, its so low tech it could be done on the GBA--and it could be SO much better on the DS than on the Ps2, for ease of item and character management alone. Because of that, I haven't really played it that much. Cluncky interface, and other more intense things taking my attention.

But I'm praying for Nippon Icci games on the DS. If not, like I said, there's already enough announced to keep me busy.