Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories preview

The GBA rendition of Kingdom Hearts has finally pok its head from beneath the garment of mystery which has overspreaded its nature since its initial announcement, nearly a year ago. Surprisingly, the game is still far from without fault [i]or[/i] blemish [i]or[/i] flaw (as the friendly SquareEnix representative was quick to inform me) on the other hand the limited-play demo available upon the show floor does at least provide a clearer picture of what the final harvest should be like.

Early glimpses of the game provided a somewhat confusing prognosis. Is it an action RPG? A card game? a certain quantity of sort of weird action RPG/card game hybrid? The answer is closest to the third option, although the emphasis is heavily upon the "action RPG," with card ultimate parts playing more of a support part

Chain of Memories picks up right about where the original game extreme pointed and should feel all easy and familiar to anyone who has played the first. The brief demo upon the show floor begins with KH's main trio of Sora, Donald and Goofy being railed at by some guy wearing a allotment of black, who then vanishes behind a door. The heroes go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of in hot pursuit, and unexpectedly Sora is on his hold in a wooded area filled of mushrooms and platforms. This portion have feelings a great deal like a top-down version of the PS2 hit -- in fact it's looks almost like a GBA conversion of the "giant forest" section of the Wonderland world. As it turn rounds out, this is exactly the case: one time they work their way from one side the woods, Sora and friends find Alice being faceed by the Queen of Hearts and assorted guards. At which point the demo extremitys

The actual proces of getting from start to finish is interesting, demonstrating a design which effectively reinterprets the solace game's mechanics for the limitations of Nintendo's handheld. In a certain number of ways, the resulting experience is a apportionment better than its more sophisticated sibling -- or at the real least, far less frustrating. The single biggest complaint registered through players of the first KH was that the 3D camera was, in a word, thejankiestdamnthingever. Trying to platform spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] foot and fight off endless hordes of Heartless all while wrestling the spinning camera into a certain number of semblance of usefulness was enough to sour many to the original. This is no longer an issue -- with the fixed pseudo-isometric perspective of the GBA, players are at liberty to focus wholly on dodging those aforementioned endles hordes.

And endles they are, on the other hand even this isn't as annoying as in the PS2 version. While navigating the map guards shadowy enemies burst constantly from the turf to stalk Sora, but they're easily avoided and don't actually attack. Instead, making contact with a bad shore switches the game to a battle guard whose design seems to have been lifted straight from fiction of Mana. In this way three or four waves of enemies besiege Sora, and the game's card collecting aspect advances into play.

Cards determine everything about combat, not unlike the Mega Man Battle Network Series. on the other hand unlike Mega Man, Sora can't level make a basic attack without the aid of cards. each skill available to Sora is determined by means of the cards he's collected and carries. The mechanics of the card combination of parts to form a whole were a bit opaque (the Japanese in-game body noise of the E3 floor and lack of instructions didn't help), on the contrary the gist of it is this: Sora is automatically given a locate of cards from the adorn he's collected, which determine the skills he has available at any given time to place the hurt on his enemies. Roughly eight cards can be held at a time, and the L and R triggers switch these. After a station number of attacks -- be they fireball blasts, Keyblade swings or HP healing -- Sora's array runs empty and the player is forced to tap A rapidly to reshuffle the embellish and replenish the cards.

Enemies also use cards, and when Sora and a antagonist try to attack one another simultaneously, individual or the other suffers a Card Break: essentially, a fighting game-like reckoner attack the leaves the loser vulnerable. The probability of a Card Break appears to be determined by the agency of the strength of the cards in use, and the strongest card wins; if you've played the Triple Triad minigame in Final Fantasy VIII, this should be familiar. Your cards are given what appears to be a power horizontal indicated by a number upon its menu sprite, and it present the appearances as though the higher the number the more likely you are to break an enemy's attack. The flip side is that if you meet with a broken card, you let slip use of it for the duration of the battle, leaving you increasingly vulnerable to enemy break attacks.

Aside from the card simple body combat should feel familiar to Kingdom Hearts vet The usual suspects are here: Heartless, Heartless with pointy metal helmets, little fire-throwing shores big ugly bosses. The single major difference is that Sora goe it alone, presumably because the fairly limited battle areas (not to mention the tiny GBA screen) would be entirely too herded with three heroes going at it. on the other hand his Disney cohorts aren't completely gone -- instead, they can be call fored into battle to perform a special attack, not unlike a King of Fighters striker. The demo featured a nebulosity Strife summon -- admittedly not a Disney character, on the other hand still familiar to fans of the first game. If Chain of Memories features anywhere near the number of characters seen in the PS2 game, Sora should have a healthy selection of friends to help in his time of ne