Game Story

• Chain of Memories begins where Kingdom Hearts left off.
• Sora, Donald, and Goofy are walking down a long road through endless fields.
• Suddenly they are approached by a mysterious man who tells Sora that something he needs lies ahead but to claim it you must loose something dear.
• Ahead of Sora then lies the Castle Oblivion.
• The gang fears that Riku and King Mickey may be in the castle so they set off in hopes to find them.
• However, the castle is a mysterious place that takes Sora on a trip through his memories.
• As he progresses from floor to floor, he’ll meet many of his old friends and a new foe along the way called “The Organization”
• The story is decent with a twist and a turn here and there.
• But a lot of the story becomes a summary of what happened in the first Kingdom Hearts.
• After the main story is completed another single player mode is unlocked.
• This does add more to the story.

Gameplay

• The gameplay is really the game’s weak point.
• Each world is composed of a series of rooms set in one of the Disney worlds from the first Kingdom Hearts game.
• Most rooms are filled with heartless, and some breakable objects for some small bonuses.
• The majority of the game is focused on these battles with the heartless in each room.
• The battle system is a real time card based battle system.
• This means that you and your foes will be throwing down cards as fast as you can to pull off attacks.
• Because of this, you will start to care less about what card you are using and just try to throw down your cards before your enemy.
• This leads to a lot of mashing of the “A” button.
• Sora starts the game with a small deck of cards.
• Each card has a point value associated with it as well as its abilities or special powers.
• Sora can build/rearrange his deck as long as he doesn’t exceed his maximum Card Point (CP) value.
• There are five types of cards Sora can use in his deck:
• Attack Cards
• These are keyblade cards that Sora will collect on his adventure.
• Different keyblade cards from different worlds will have different abilities such as:
• Swing speed
• Attack Power
• Recovery ability
• Magic Cards
• These cards will summon either magic spells or characters from Sora’s past with special magic abilities to aid you in the fight.
• Friend Cards
• In each world, the world’s hero can help Sora battle if their card is collected during the battles.
• These cards are only available in the world Sora is in and can not be collected to make a permanent addition to Sora’s deck.
• Item Cards
• These cards give Sora added abilities during a battle but can only be used once per battle so they will not be reloaded.
• Enemy Cards
• These cards are collected throughout the game but generally after defeating a boss character.
• They can only be used one at a time and their effects while very strong will only last a short period of time.
• There are also other cards that Sora must use on his journey when not in battle.
• World Cards
• These cards are never played but rather show Sora what worlds he has access to.
• Map Cards
• These cards are used for room synthesis.
• Each closed door in the castle must be opened with a map card which allows Sora to control what type of room he will enter.
• There is also a requirement to enter each room such as:
• An exact value of a card.
• A value greater than the one shown.
• A specific color of a card to be used.
• A specific card to use.
• The map cards fall into four different categories:
• Red – These cards effect the enemies you will face by either making them stronger, weaker, slower etc.
• Green – These cards effect Sora by making him stronger, weaker, daze longer etc.
• Blue – These cards change the room by having treasure, moogle shops save points, etc.
• Yellow – These cards are used to advance the story and can only be used on the special door that requires them.
• Sora has three separate slots to store decks, so you can prepare different decks for different types of battles (i.e. boss battles).
• The order in which you arrange your deck will be your main focus of strategy since when in battle you will just want to press the attack button without searching for the card you need.
• Another aspect that leads to boring game play is the less than stellar level design.
• Each world features a different map and the surroundings from the Disney movie that it is based off.
• But other than the surroundings, all worlds are identical which means you will be doing the same thing over and over.
• Open a door.
• Fight the heartless that appear.
• Open the next door.
• The only change from this is when you select a card that gives you a treasure or a moogle store where you won’t have to fight.
• The Moogle store will allow you to buy new card packs with Moogle points that you’ve collected during the game.
• You can also trade in unused cards that you don’t want for Moogle points.
• All the packs hold random cards so you won’t always get the cards you want, though you can buy cards according to their category (Magic, Attack, and Item).
• Eventually you will enter special rooms with story sequences and eventually face a boss character.
• The boss battles are the hardest part of the game, and provide the only true strategy and challenge.
• As you kill each heartless they will drop experience balls which you must run around and pick up before they disappear. 
• This will be very familiar to fans of the first game.
• After a few rounds of slaughtering the heartless Sora will likely advance a level.
• At this point you will be able to choose between one of three skill advancements.
• Increase your total hit points.
• Increase the total card points you can have (allows for you to add more cards to your deck).
• Learn a new “Slight”
• A slight is a special attack that is performed when you store three cards and then play them all at once.
• These moves deliver more power or add range to the attack like when Sora throws his keyblade at his enemies.
• Unfortunately this comes with a price as you will not be able to use the first card used in the slight again in that battle.
• Overall, I don’t mind a good strategy filled card game. Unfortunately Chain of Memories does not provide this.
• Instead, the cards will become a hindrance to the fast paced action that the game is trying to create.
• In the end you’ll realize that most of the gameplay is just mindless button mashing, while traveling through the same types of levels, only enhanced by a somewhat interesting story.