It’s hard to separate the Kingdom Hearts series from the word “weird” because, fundamentally, it’s just yes.
You mean, there’s a whole series of games that are actually final fantasy meets disneyactually exists because of a real-life elevator pitch? How strange! Luckily, it’s both good and weird, but with 12 games already in the series, you can obviously expect some changes in there, too. Birth by Sleep lets you play as three different characters with some combat variations, Dream Drop Distance has some Pokemon-like elements, and Melody of Memory is a weird little rhythm game.
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I think even out of all 12 games, there’s still one game that’s the weirdest of them all, and it’s actually the second game to be released. No, I’m not talking about Kingdom Hearts 2 (although, I’ll forgive you for thinking that), but Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance. If you can believe it, the oft-maligned Kingdom Hearts game is already 20 years old and people may have some issues with it, but I honestly think it’s probably one of my favorite games of all time.
Let’s provide some context: Imagine you’re following in the footsteps of the original Kingdom Hearts, a game that has its own idiosyncrasies but doesn’t quite stand out like later entries. The main character, Sora, saves the world, but ends up in some strange, mysterious dimension, and you can’t help but wonder what happened to him. Two years later, the GBA releases a new Kingdom Hearts game, you pick it up and suddenly… Sora is in the castle? Some hooded figures are taunting you as you go through this, and a blonde girl who looks like Kairi from the first game makes Sora believe they’re childhood friends? You fight with…cards? Like I said, weird! But oh so compelling.
You see, most people these days are generally more familiar with Re:Chain of Memories, its asset-flipped PS2 remake. Nowadays, you can easily play 1 game thanks to the HD 1.5 Remix version of the game, but you often see people telling newbies to just watch the cutscenes and then move on to 2. I think this is a big mistake and would encourage more people than I think it should to try to go back and play the GBA original.
While it’s odd to mix real-time action combat with card-based strategy, there’s nothing quite like it. In the indie world, there were games like Friends vs Friends that combined deck building with first-person shooting, but that just made Chain of Memories far ahead of its time. It’s really fun to build a deck of cards, layer them to get unique combinations and moves, and put them into practice. There’s a level of strategy not found in later Kingdom Hearts games, creating a fairly unique gaming experience.
Honestly, while I really enjoyed Chain of Memories’ quirky gameplay, what really drew me to it was its story. “Shhh” I hear you yell “Hiss” I hear you seething, but guess what friends, sometimes, Kingdom Hearts is actually pretty good, and this is one of those times. If you didn’t know, a major theme of the game is memory, specifically the idea of how memory changes.
Sora’s memories are forcibly altered throughout the story, and he’s desperate to protect them – I can’t help but feel like this hits even harder for me, looking back on my childhood and feeling less and less aware of how I recall different events confidence. Of course, Donald Duck was there, but he was also there during my childhood, so it’s really not that silly.
The rest of Kingdom Hearts games do continue to follow these themes and explore larger (yes, sometimes confusing) themes, but deep down I really appreciate that Chain of Memories tries to do something truly different things. Hopefully Kingdom Hearts 4 will bring some magic to the table whenever it comes out.
