Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories Infuriates Me

We take on the card game extravaganza that randomly manifested into a Playstation 2 game in 2008, and I'm not a happy camper. Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, folks!
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Sources:
Chain of Memories (GBA) - • Game Boy Advance Longp...
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Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. Chain of Memories. GBA. PS2. PS4. KingK. Review. Critique. Retrospective.

[@KingKlonoa]

REGARDING MICKEY VA: I was not under the impression that Mickey's voice actor was suffering from diabetes and was practically dying during the recording of the remake. Which makes me feel like a dick, but honestly I didn't know any better. I thought it was an entirely different actor they contracted. I truly do apologize. I'm gonna keep the video up in its current form, because I do think they probably should have just found a different voice so the complaint stands, but not toward him. That sucks. He did a good Mickey for a long time.

[@andrewkos5560]

Yeah, the first KH game that has Mickey's new (and current) VA is BBS. Mr. Allwine's last credited performance in the series was Days, though I have no idea if it's recycled audio or not.

[@8bitmagic]

OH SNAP I didn't know that either

[@MathieuLeblanc1991]

Yeah its recycled, it was just grunts from KH2

[@MathieuLeblanc1991]

They held auditions in 2009 , Nolan North came close to being the new Mickey but in the end Disney got someone from in-company rather than a freelance voice actor

[@dimentiorules]

Mathieu Leblanc Nolan North?! I'd love to see THAT!

[@totofan4ever]

About King Mickey's voice actor.... That is actually Wayne Allwine the main voice actor for Mickey at the time. But he was suffering from diabetes and this was when he was getting really sick. He died around a year later. So even though the voice is not his best, please understand this was at the time when his health was rapidly declining. Just wanted to clear the air.

[@Jdotbdots]

😔

[@OhFrittata]

Wayne Allwine was beyond the best Mickey, especially in KH. Every time I heard him say “OH BOY” in KH2 when he saves you and you get to play as him shortly, It always put a big dumb smile on my face. He obviously wasn’t the first Mickey ever, but he was the best in my opinion. I just can’t enjoy Bret Iwan’s performance as him in the slightest. No disrespect to the guy, his voice just doesn’t work compared to Allwine.

[@bogbastard4243]

@@OhFrittata "no disrespect, he just sounds awful"

[@royalpancakes7807]

not the worst tbh

[@greenessentialmystery1137]

I agree with your point, making a perfect video game is harder than it looks, especially with getting perfect voice actors. You have to work with what you got

[@jbcatz5]

Easily the best part of this game is the new story and characters. Axel makes an immediate impression and quickly becomes a fan favorite character. The other Organisation characters are memorable and have personalities instead of being generic baddies. Namine is a tragic character, who brings out a level of depth in Riku Replica.

[@glitterandcoke]

We got it memorized

[@sammowastaken]

@@glitterandcoke Commit it to memory.

[@DrippleDragon]

If only they elaborated on the human counterparts of the Organization, like they showed designs on how they wanted them to look and act in some cutscenes of other games, like Axel looks like Crow, Siax, and Xaldin look way different too but they scraped the idea I call Roxas, Xemnas, and Namine true nobodies for that reason

[@funnicabbagecop6759]

Even w/o Namine, Repliku already has depth as himself tho

[@froggwithhat8151]

@@sammowastaken Forgetnt

[@joeslickback]

"I'd enjoy this game more if it was structured like Yugioh DRAW, GOOFY CARDO DRAW, DONALD CARDO DRAW, MICKEY CARDO"

[@superluismigueL100]

Sees Somecallmejohnny reference* Ah, i see you're a man of culture

[@codyp49]

Fucking hell yes bro

[@zaxentothegreedy7816]

Oh hell yeah dude, while it wouldn't capture the gameplay of kingdom hearts, it would be infinitely more fun. At least for the bosses. If done on regular encounters though, I could see it getting old, but at least card collecting could be a good incentive, maybe the level up system would give some neat perks like more life points and active and passive abilities for use in the duel? maybe sonic blade could be something that allows your monster to attack three times, at the cost of some of your cards.

[@kdavous]

ZERO CARDU ZERO CARDU ZERO CARDU ZERO CARDU

[@Xanegoh]

@@zaxentothegreedy7816 I feel like they could do it like the Paper Mario games, where all encounters are turn-based and battles with regular enemies would be fairly quick. The card game doesn't have to be that deep either.

[@LightningCayo]

The way Chain of Memories handles memory loss is way more interesting than flat out amnesia plots we get in stories nowadays. Would be cool if more games take the Chain of Memories approach to it.

[@TheDecatonkeil]

I think amnesia used right is what you get in stories like KOTOR and Gunnm, where it's less a resource to explain to the audience what any character living in the world should know, and it's more a way to have both a backstory to unfold and a chance to be reborn through redemption as a new person or to double down on the things you did prior. I'm not sure exactly what COM does so well, to me it seemed to just repeat itself about "forgetting to remember... But then what Sora was rememebring, not at the beginning, mind you but by the last third, were false memories so... What the heck?"

[@kirbyofthestarsfan]

When I first played it this year I legit felt uneasy, with how much it reminded me of how dementia slowly attacks the memory and the like, I know a lot of people think Sora is too gullible in this game but I think it was managed really dang well. He's not falling for somebody's tricks because he's dumb enough to believe lies, it's because his memory is being replaced with something else I definitely enjoyed myself a lot with the game, the Riku route did feel like a sour note, but I honestly did like the game a lot despite its flaws

[@michelvanderlinden8363]

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories? More like Kingdom Hearts: The perpetual Gaslighting.

[@fortello7219]

I do think the gba version is the better of the two. I think most of the mechanics and card systems are really made for the semi side scroller combat of the gba game.

[@JustButton]

Fortello this

[@DjTrustNo.1]

Definately. Played the heck out of the gba version and the spreadsheets alone make nostalgia heartbreak. The ps2 version is too much KH1 looking not to be a partly clone. Gba felt authentic and less boring.

[@Jabodie]

encounters also go by quicker, which really helps

[@Maigeru]

I definitely felt this too when 90% of my strike raid sleights would completely miss because the enemy is flailing 20 feet above and around me >_< maybe I was doing it wrong but.. surely I'm not alone in this lol

[@Jabodie]

Fleer Ultra They're probably longer. KH1 and KH2 are both longer due to the size of the disc. The PS4 version has very quick load times though, since the game installs to the hard drive.

[@snugglebunnyskullcrusher]

big missed opportunity to call this a Re:trospective

[@KingKlonoa]

Gabriel Mann damn

[@candidcantaloupe]

You think sonic blade was broken? My guy, and anyone who is struggling with this game: unlock lethal frame. Use a bounty card in wonderland to get the stop card. I can't remember what the exact requirement is to use lethal frame, but essentially what it does is this: it's a long windup. But when it executes, it stops every enemy on the screen *including bosses*. This attack does so much damage to a single target, I'm talking about 1 and a half health bars. It's absolutely ridiculous

[@nousername191]

I used to love Lethal Frame! Yeah I know it was cheap and broken but it looked so cool and even at 16/17, I was such a kid on the inside!

[@PlusUltraAdrian]

Never tried Lethal Frame (didn't get the stop card). I just used Strike Raid to stun the bosses and then used either Thrunder or Blizzard Raid right after.

[@I_Am_Bowi]

My farming strategy was Mega Flare (mushu fire fire) as it hits the hole room and does a good chunk of damage. This was on the GBA however so idk how effective it is in the remake

[@ducksoop.x]

Lethal Frame didn't work well on the first boss battle with Marluxia, spamming Sonic Blade was way better.

[@xplicitmike]

Sonic Blade, Lethal Frame, Blizzard Raid. Fill your deck with weak Ars Arcanum filler cards (make sure you arrange your deck around your sleights and losing the first card of each sleight etc). Lastly, stock up on a few cures and elixirs. GG EZ.

[@MovieMadness23]

actually if you pay attention to what the Chesire Cat says in wonderland he mentions that if you try to hard to remember your memory might lie to you and this is exactly what happens to Sora through out the game which I thought was a cool detail that they added

[@mann-nova9392]

Redbandit Yeah, that was a bad example of the shitty Disney story usage. The Cheshire Cat was the one time it really applied to the story a bit.

[@Rihcterwilker]

Yeah. Don't want to say that he's hating the game for no reason, but it looks like he just wanted to play the regular game, and not something with a different battle system.

[@FireTrainer92]

Richter WLK that's not the case because he enjoyed Riku's boss battles

[@Freelancer837]

@@Rihcterwilker I don't think it's a matter of not wanting a different battle system just that the battle system of CoM was bad.

[@Freelancer837]

Yeah, that's fine except it was still pointless because by that point, that was already just a retelling of "To lose is to find, and to find is to lose" or however it goes. We had already been told this kind of thing, but this was done so Alice could use it since Sora, Donald, and Goofy are too stupid to think that much. lol

[@ballistic2527]

being able to play as riku and actually using "the darkness" for a change was one of the best and most memorable kingdom hearts experiences for me ngl. having no prior knowledge, it was a very welcome surprise to come to after finishing sora's arc

[@Shushiroto]

SORA IS B E S T B O Y

[@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE]

Marluxia is B E S T V I L L A I N

[@LiamTriforce]

DetectiveEthanaterSpiritOfBobbyFulbrightGamer That's a weird way to spell Axel

[@Freelancer837]

False

[@rekkosdiary4907]

On the GBA, I actually find it fun grinding to be so strong you plow through enemies. I even make sure to beat every enemy in a room

[@Nintendotron64]

One thing I've always admired about this game's story is how it subverts the "hero's journey" formula by going out of its way to show Sora in a moment of weakness. When Sora said his friends are his power, turns out he meant it quite literally; as COM demonstrates that Sora absolutely *FALLS APART* without his friends. It's so rare to see Sora cynical and distrusting that it almost felt like he had been forcibly transformed into another person entirely. Then again, it's hard to get mad at him because this game fundamentally demonstrates that NOBODY in this series (not even the protagonists!) are above fault despite their good intentions. Ultimately, I think this speaks to the core message of the series Nomura tries so hard to get across: the idea that everyone has a light and dark side to their personality, and letting either one grow excessive is a bad thing. No one is below redemption, no one is above fault. ...It's just a shame you have to suffer through hours of recycled Disney filler and mediocre gameplay to get to it.

[@reapertsaku989]

That is actually well said, and I personally feel it is as vital as this video to keep in mind when looking at this game

[@MrH-fs5ti]

That is actually true. This is what the ending of reverse rebirth told us. When DIZ asked riku which path to take between light and darkness, he chose the middle. This must be one of my favorite scenes in the game. We all have done something bad, but that doesn't mean you are a bad person. That's why people ask for forgiveness every time they do something wrong. The ones who keep doing bad things or staying in darkness are the bad ones. That is what makes a human. It is not wrong that you can't be the kindest one of all. But you can be perfect. When the lights of a room are shut, it is your choice if you want to switch on the light or keep it dark . But that doesn't mean you will never switch off the lights again.

[@adamdavis1648]

But how could your light side grow EXCESSIVELY? If it were possible to have only a light side and no dark one, wouldn't it be a good thing?

[@daredae436]

@@adamdavis1648 think of Master eraqus as an example he was so blinded by the light that he went out of his way to try and eliminate ventus for something he had no control over and then tera for trying to protect him. Xehanort was right when he said there must be a balance between the two in birth by sleep. The fact that there was an imbalance in the worlds and he was trying to create the x-blade, shows this (Even though it was handled kind of poorly). But if written better I definitely would enjoy a story where xehanort was morally gray and his main flaw was his ambition. Like if xehanort genuinely regretted attacking his friend and splitting ven in half and by some tragedy was forced to share a body with Terra, and xehanorts ambition is what caused Terra-nort to be obsessed with his research and committing the heinous acts he did that later carried on in his heartless and nobody halfs. I know I went off on a separate tangent it's just something that came to mind when I really thought about it.

[@jvtentertainment7943]

Funny how i play for the 'disney filler' and drag trough the rest😂 like in 1, hollow bastion and end of the world felt like forever while the other worlds felt like fun, but everyone enjoys different things

[@LiamTriforce]

*I T ' S A L L B A S E D O N R N G*

[@QuintaFeira12]

This really rings wrong to me. There's no RNG in using the deck itself. There's no card draw. In fact, your power level before a fight is a very set and strict amount, and you have perfect control over what sleights you have avaiable. But oh yeah, obtaining cards is a piece of shit.

[@LiamTriforce]

I mean, I was just quoting the video lmao. I'm completely indifferent to this game

[@jonahabenhaim1223]

Is RNG really a bad Mechanic in games vs Grinding?

[@blehhg2961]

Maybe the real Chain of Memories is the friends we forgot about along they way

[@youngscarface4456]

ALWAYS HAS BEEN 👉💥

[@Finalblue1234]

Well...to explain why Mickey sounds bad, it's because his VA at the time (Wayne Allwine) had complications with diabetes and was dying of it. That was the mickey mouse VA for the past 30 years, but he was barely able to do it at that point.

[@KingKlonoa]

Well now I just feel bad

[@bladeworksmaster]

Yeah, he managed to finish through 358/2 Days before he passed, and this sadly won't be the last case of voice actor death before your retrospectives are done.

[@KingKlonoa]

bladeworksmaster I know about Nimoy so

[@MACZ2021]

So that's what Wayne Allwine died of. Took me a bit to get used to how Bret Iwan did the voice after he was given the role of Mickey Mouse, but I'm a fan of it now. I always thought it was neat how Wayne's wife, Russi Taylor, also voiced Minnie Mouse. Does anybody know if she's still doing the voice for her?

[@bladeworksmaster]

Yeah not making note of that or anything, just really blows that this series has had the misfortune of voice actor death for multiple characters, between Wayne Allwine, Leonard Nimoy and Christopher Lee. Been a sticking point in my mind lately from Dragonball Super, who lost the seiyuu for Bulma recently, as well.

[@Laenthor]

You know what sleight is more broken than sonic blade? -Tornado for normal fights -Lethal frame for boss fights

[@yourmanzstan6279]

The GBA versions will forever be the best version to me. So much nostalgia for me with the GBA version, remember coming home and playing it. The only Kingdom hearts game I’ve beaten more than once.

[@OPLOmega]

Oof, sounds like your luck was so bad that you never got a Random Joker Card, either. Those cards conform to whatever value you use them for. RNGesus must've hated you during this playthrough.

[@naruhearts1]

I usually end up with 5-10 in my runs

[@tuxedocatproductions2665]

i only got ONE random joker card, 30 hours in near the end of riku's section, so yeah, the luck in this game sucks.

[@aliceslab]

I have 9 right now, on like 1 day of gameplay. Running out of room thinking about getting rid of some.

[@tylersprouse6861]

@@tuxedocatproductions2665 Yeah the RNG can be straight garbage. I went through every room using a fair share of heartless, treasure, and Moodle map cards and still was missing well over half of the cards present in the game (a lot of them being attack cards)

[@latrodectusmactans7592]

For the Organization Battles: In the GBA version, IIRC they actually did get significantly tougher with each new battle.

[@Semudara]

All except for Vexen, as far as I remember. When I played, he was such a pushover even in his last fight. R.I.P freaky scientist man.

[@enricocano8171]

"Come out ansem i can smell you"

[@ellagage1256]

"It's the smell of darkness"

[@slickzilla12]

Chain of Memories is incredible. Nothing better than breaking opponents 27 with a 0.

[@AsadKhan-ic9qi]

Hell yeah.Makes you feel like a rich kid flexing on some peasants.

[@MrGuitarmanjustin]

I'm definitely the minority when I say that I actually enjoy 'Re:Chain of Memories' in spite of its obvious flaws

[@IsaacPurpleguy]

Yeah, I actually enjoy the game as well. I personally like the mindless grind and collecting aspects of the game lol

[@BelodyEpic]

I actually really like re:chain, it's one of my favourite KH games lol

[@MrGuitarmanjustin]

@@BelodyEpic Honestly, same. Definitely top 5

[@Coal_the_rock]

Honestly this game gets better evert time I play it

[@TimmysohnLP]

It is an great game for sure!

[@DearSis]

Chain of Memories is a gem! It is one of my favorite Kingdom Hearts game. The story of the Organization was so amazing!

[@MagicSpartan1992]

“Don’t bullshit me” I felt so much internal rage in that line

[@itsddashrock]

I loved Re: CoM because of the learning curve. Once you learn the cards it's amazing and a challenge.

[@Freelancer837]

"Learning curve" lol

[@jonahabenhaim1223]

I still find it not enjoyable and fustrating due to the fact that focusing on cards and on the battle at the same time is 10 times more complicated than leveling up spells and other attacks

[@cryguy0000]

Challenge? Ever hear of lethal frame?

[@TimmysohnLP]

I also think that it is an amazing game. People are just afraid of thinking these days when it comes to games. Hence why the debate about an easy mode in Dark Souls is always coming up once a new entry is announced...

[@Caxkj0]

@@TimmysohnLP It's not a matter of thinking, it's just that not everyone can adjust to the system a game like Re:COM demands.

[@DarkHeroCC]

2:58 Oh Ventus... Made me chuckle

[@TheShadowdemon99]

Agreed and he Almost spoiler it.

[@BlackSkarabaeus]

Wait what?

[@meathir4921]

Of all the places.... I guess Heartless are monsters too.

[@TheDeathmail]

I love how you keep on mentioning that Sora is the best boy... more people need to repeat that...

[@ThePlotInMatt]

This game gets so much flack and lord knows it was my least favorite when I was younger, but after replaying it recently about a week ago (both Sora and Riku’s stories), I found myself actually enjoying it, probably since I was able to understand it a lot clearer and better than I previously did. People hate the RNG aspect of the cards but I actually enjoyed it. And I like that rather than just being “hey, spam X and you’ll probably win”, the cards give it more of a strategic sense of battle, which I fully came to appreciate. The introduction to the Organization (well in the GBA version at least they were) was also implemented really well. I agree with the sentiment about Marluxia and that’s why he grew to be one of my favorite antagonists. Also in my opinion, the story is one of if not the best in the series. Plus I love the unique music in the game (outside of the Disney worlds of course). I really feel they actually impact the scenes and fights in such a way that they work amazing for those fights and scenes. Overall, people hate the game, but I love it and think it’s pretty great.

[@omnisel]

15:30 You also get cards from random drops when you destroy shit in rooms, and you can sell cards you don't want for more packs. So there's a _little_ more going one there.

[@leonardodeassis685]

I really love this game's combat and the mechanic of the cards you use to open the doors actually affecting what you will face beyond it, about the combat, a "action cardgame" is something really unique and fun, just the limitless possibilities of decks and the creation of sleights made eveything so good, and honestly I don't care what people say, this game will always be awesome (and underrated).

[@michaelhabbel6660]

I find the RNG comment fascinating. I've gone through Re: Chain of Memories about 3 times now, and I have NEVER had to grind. Not for necessary map cards, not for attack cards of certain values, nothing. That being said, you are absolutely correct, it IS all RNG. My point is that I find it interesting that the RNG was never a problem for me so I never thought about it that way. Now I'm curious, was I super lucky? Were you super unlucky? I was always under the impression that if you just fought most heartless in a room struck as many things as you could find for moogle points and put down one or two moogle rooms, 99% of the time you would have what you need. I'm really sorry it worked out like this and completely understand your frustration.

[@ColonelZeta]

I had to grind like a mother fucker for map cards in the GBA game

[@katobytes]

If you consistently get rid of your duplicate map cards once you reach 99 map cards, you will almost never have a map card issue.

[@tegelstenen4178]

Based on the description of how he played at 8:32, I'm pretty sure he just didn't clear out the rooms. He probably ran from one keyroom to the next avoiding as many heartless as he could until he was forced to fight them to open up new doors. Tbh this explains A LOT of his criticisms

[@DaBoweh]

He also shows footage of opening a new room and spending a treasure card late in the game, and having no treasure rooms but a stack of 0s and it's like, oh this man probably spends every treasure and moogle room as soon as he gets it. Less fights to be able to run past, and also explains why he didn't have a blue 1 at the end. I also assume that they way he describes just spamming triangle through the majority of the game and not actively participating in normal fights, he never realized the al friend card was a munny making machine if you ever need it. When he showed footage of going back to grind in hollow bastion and not agrabah, that really screams something's off.

[@Poefred]

@@DaBoweh I guess the thing is that while it *is* rng dependent and one could argue softlocking yourself into grinding for potential hours just to open a door is an issue, that's also kind of the appeal. The levels themselves are pretty repetitive, most enjoyment comes from smart use of your cards. I got stuck on a few of the later boss fights for quite a while, playing the game on the hardest difficulty while also going for the *no continues* achievement. I rarely even bought moogle packs. Over the course of the whole game I used maybe 3 moogle rooms, cleaned out the shop twice. Didn't get anything particularly crazy I thought. Later on I ended up having to grind as I was stuck on one of the final riku bosses, but frankly it was my fault as I had realized I didn't use the treasure rooms at all and filled up an entire world with nothing but treasures and got underleveled and under-equipped. Besides that I still struggled on some bosses but never really had to grind, just threw different strategies I came up with until something started to give. I never really bothered with the sleights, really I almost wished I could turn some of them off even. Idk, just seems like it's a game you need to meet halfway I guess. It's easy to try and take an easy way out and then get annoyed when a tough boss stops your repetitive gameplay and forces you to actually learn and engage with the mechanics. Personally it ended up being one of the most engaging and satisfying combat systems to learn. Sure I could have just grinded for better cards and more hp but unless you let yourself fall far behind I don't think it's as necessary as this video portrays. I don't mean to try to discredit the whole video with a "git gud" argument but I feel there is more nuance to it than *You have to grind for rng drops or else you get nowhere. Also side note do people actually find the final boss hard? As someone that struggled with a good chunk of the end game bosses I shredded the final boss pretty much first try without using any sleights whatsoever.

[@brainslushie666]

I think the most compelling aspect of CoM (My experience is solely /w the GBA version btw) is the really cool approach to dungeon-crawling (since, in essence, every level is a dungeon crawl). The ability to strategically use certain cards to unlock doors and control what lies ahead is really cool, and I'd love to see another (better) game build on that idea.

[@PaxtheDreamer]

KingK, my good man, I love your videos. I find that you do a good job articulating what I already feel about a game and on that level I connect. You put great effort into the videos and it shows. I look forward to any of your videos because content from you is just a joy. ...that said, halfway through the video I wanted to grab you by the shoulders and shake you while screaming “IT’S PRONOUNCED ‘SLIGHT’ FOR FUCK’S SAKE, NOT ‘SLATE’!”

[@DarkAuraLord]

I blame English. Can't blame people for pronouncing it "slate" when the spelling of the word literally has "eight" in it.

[@nickh7681]

I spammed a deck with exclusively low values. I used the enemy/boss card that prevents your sleights from being broken and then used that one really powerful sleight that is for the sum 1-3 (I think). Then, after my first run through the deck, I used the enemy card that flips the scale so that my 1-3 cards are 7-9s. It got me through all of Sora's campaign.

[@TylireousGaming]

That's actually super smart, I would not have thought to do that.

[@Forteoverload]

Genius

[@vestal3430]

After playing 2 and 3, it's so strange coming back to a time where Sora used his sword once in 2 hours

[@masonwilliams6089]

2:56 "at this point sora had 4 *cough* uh 3 wait did I say 3 I mean 2 hearts."

[@unlimitedhearts]

"Yes I've played 358 Days..." Oh no. That's my favourite game.

[@Emetemem]

As someone who's beaten Re:COM like 10 times in the last 3 years, Here are some ways I've found to make this (admittedly flawed) game more fun 1. SKIP EVERY DISNEY CUTSCENE I really have no disagreements with you here. The Disney stories in COM add almost nothing to the overall game, so once you start skipping them, the game becomes a much smoother experience in general. 2. NEVER LEVEL UP YOUR HP OR YOUR SLEIGHTS. I started doing this because I hated how I couldn't really control when different sleights were activated, but it also completely removes the Sonic Blade cheese and forces you to learn how to beat bosses without it. You might be surprised how well designed some of the boss fights are if it wasn't for that one sleight attack. Doing this also keeps you constantly engaged even in the heartless fights because enemies like the Defenders and the neo shadows can one hit you if you're not careful. 3. MANAGE YOUR MAP CARDS/STOCK UP ON MOOGLE AND ROULETTE ROOMS While I agree that the RNG for this game can be awful at times, it' doesn't have to be as bad as you make it sound. Consistently using roulette rooms and making sure you have as close to a complete range of map cards in every value as possible is how you avoid being forced to back track for specific values in specific colors. using at least 1 moogle room per world should also get you attack cards in every value. 4. GET ALL OF THE ITEMS IN EACH ROOM This is the only unavoidable annoying part of Re:COM. Emptying out every room you enter for all the possible rewards. Fight EVERY heartless, Hit EVERYTHING that rewards you with items. This might get a little repetitive, but its WAAAAYYY better than having to continually backtrack before the boss fights of each world. It sounds like you have no interest in replaying this game, and based on what you went through I don't blame you lol. But if you do ever try playing Re:COM again, I think you might actually enjoy yourself at least a little bit more if you do these things. Thanks for the dope video.

[@jinkisaragi874]

JWR I only played the gba version so i have to ask why should you never level HP? I get that it makes the game harder but i think in the later parts it wouldn't be hard , just frustrating .

[@Emetemem]

Like I said in my first post, this game is unfortunately flawed and it becomes way too easy in later levels if you know how to play and your HP is too high. You'll basically never die past level 40. 1 of KingK's biggest complaints (and 1 I definitely agree with) is that the heartless battles have little to no excitement because they're too easy. They become the most boring and monotonous aspect of the game. Keeping your HP as low as possible forces you to stay on your toes in every battle, and thus, makes the game more engaging throughout. Certain boss fights may make you want to pull your hair out if you play the game this way, but that challenge forced me to learn the patterns and mechanics of each boss fight and it made me respect the game a lot more than i did before.

[@TylireousGaming]

you basically summed up my second run of this game, minus the not using sleights thing. I used sleights but intentionally didn't use Sonic Blade because of how fugging OP it is.

[@NabsterHax]

Agree with this comment. I really, really struggled to get into Re:CoM at first, but when you get the hang of it you can easily enjoy the good parts and greatly minimise the bad. It's a shame that Riku's story is locked behind Sora's because IMO it does a much better job of showcasing how the card system was designed to work without sleight spamming or excessive grinding. You learn how to use the deck you're given surprisingly fast and suddenly the concept of reacting to enemies' cards and your own deck state doesn't seem like a pipe dream. And it feels great spinning that card wheel to break enemy attacks and set up on the fly sleights to well and truly outplay an opponent. I can't say I've ever run into a problem with map cards either, though I hear a lot of complaints about them. The game gives you a bunch of tools to fulfil specific requirements and with the smallest amount of planning you can ensure you are well stocked with everything you need without relying on farming RNG drops. (Though maybe if you don't realise roulette cards are NOT random - you can time them - you'd have more trouble.)

[@Emetemem]

NabsterHax Yeah I feel like the people who hate this game just didn't get the complexities of it during their first play through. Even though I wouldn't say it's a great game, it's definitely much better than a lot of people think it is. Definitely better than 358 Days lol

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

Honestly I think there's a fundamental flaw with the card mechanic in battle in the first place, and it is this: it is a finite resource that can be easily rendered useless. I'm not talking about breaks. I'm talking about flying enemies and other such misses. Sora's ability to do any sort of aerial damage is worse in this game than in any other Kingdom Hearts game, but the enemy design did not compensate for that. He can't even really do an aerial combo and has to jump for every card he wants to use in air. This makes dark balls, wyverns, and musical heartless to be royal pains. And the end game is absolutely in love with all three of these. If we consider a normal card game (i'll use magic), the expending of resources ALWAYS results in its intended action. You play a card, the card plays out. The ONLY way that this doesn't happen is by interference from the opponent. THEY have to expend a resource to make your card fall flat. This, however, is not the case in CoM, where your card can fail to play out simply due to the enemy being a bit too high. Instead of Sora instantly jumping to be able to hit the enemy with his attack, he remains firmly planted on the ground. Something that doesn't even happen in other Kingdom Hearts games. In KH2, Sora will automatically do a rising attack if he attacks an airborne enemy. Not so in CoM. This is probably my biggest gripe with the combat system in the game.

[@Zirouz]

xD I love your editing when it comes to the same background music over and over, great video dude, love your retrospectives :)

[@KahuLobo]

Looks like you didn't learn about the shortcut button. Can't wait to see the rest of your KH vids tho

[@CrokeyHigati]

I'm glad you stuck with this game despite the struggle. I know you were dying with this game for awhile, and even tho I do enjoy this game I agree that a lot of these elements make for a frustrating game. I hope some of my advice was helpful in the end.

[@TheSlammurai]

Honestly, I was just so done with CoM by the time I finished Sora's story that I didn't even start Riku's. The game completely wore me out and broke me down that I just about cried when I beat it just out of relief moreso than anything sad actually happening. Not very many games get me to that point. The only other game that destroyed me the way CoM did was Bloodborne.

[@sasscastle5584]

Upon replaying the HD remix of RE:CoM, I found it much more enjoyable than the GBA. But maybe that's because I wasn't a 12 year old mashing out my cards. I think one major issue the game faces is that we've been playing a button masher from 1-2.8. Even BBS just added a triangle command that was 90% variants of Balloonra. This game isn't about mashing, but more strategy. Once I started REACTING to bosses instead of running at them, it was such a better experience. Instead of swinging at them, I'd let them swing at me. I'd wait for their sleights and counter with 0s and such. The game also comes with a built in "easy mode" if you abuse special command sleights, one of the main ones, like you said, being Sonic Blade (3 different attack cards for a total of 20-23). If you build your deck with these sleights in mind, it makes the game infinitely easier and rewards players for putting extra thought in to their decks, IE building a deck with totals of 20-23 with the cards arranged in such a way that you have a X, Y, Z card to trigger that sleight. I still think it's the black sheep of the series, and it can be said that this drastic departure was too far off the path, but I enjoyed the game for what it was.

[@litboy6917]

I know this is old but this is my exact take on the game, while it may be my least favorite still, I actually enjoy the game now since I'm not literally just attacking at random

[@destroyermcw626]

@@litboy6917 Gotta stop them big moves with a 0

[@litboy6917]

@@destroyermcw626 yeah, but I never have enough and when I do have them they usually are broken immediately

[@destroyermcw626]

@@litboy6917 I just keep five 0s

[@tylersprouse6861]

@@destroyermcw626 There is something I learned is that once you use a 0, you can be staggered with a card break because it’s a 0.

[@ds90seph]

The original GBA Chain of Memories is the definitive version of the game. There are many reasons why, but for me personally it had a uniquely odd and even creepy atmosphere.

[@andrewkos5560]

28:27 I've never really gotten why people think that Sora's playthrough is a 20+ Hour romp. On my most recent playthrough (on Proud), I clocked in at about 13 Hours, 1 of those hours was grinding for the last Castle Oblivion Door. Yes, the Door issue is a thing, but in the 3+ runs of done of this game, it's never a huge issue until the end as long as you fight a decent amount of battles along the way. Like, I don't think this game is great, but I don't think it's bad either (I still think Days is the worst KH has to offer)

[@KingKlonoa]

Andrew Kos because that's what my total runtime was

[@mann-nova9392]

Andrew Kos At least for me, I ended up with 22 hours because I run through every room in every world regardless of my level and cards. Don't know if that makes a large difference but 15 - 20 hours sounds about average to me (especially if you're not just breaking the game).

[@andrewkos5560]

Oh it does, trust me. The best way to tackle areas like Twilight Town and Castle Oblivion is to just use Blue Cards to skip the stupidly buff enemies

[@OneRandomVictory]

That’s probably because you’ve played it before. Nobody wants to rush through a game on their first playthrough.

[@alexmagneispokkenchannel7332]

I'm kind of split down the middle with this, I have a relatively strong attachment to this game because of nostalgia as well as the fact that the card based gameplay is somewhat fun and exciting if you don't rely on the obviously broken tactic of spamming Sonic Blade. I'm just going to say it now, there's tons of games with exploits, granted some of them are not quite so easily abuseable. On the subject of grinding, though its not a complete fix and that honestly bugs me, the Roulette Room was such a great addition. Once you have it, your room card grinding troubles are over, since you can obtain Roulette Room cards FROM Roulette Rooms. Alongside that, I don't know if you're aware or just forgot about it, but Aladdin can be used to grind Moogle Points SO much quicker than the original's jump/attack everything and hope for the best. When both are combined, so long as the luck of the battle cards earned smiles upon you, you can have a really positive time. I kinda like how this is the one Kingdom Hearts game where difficulty isn't necessarily based on level either, if you had the correct cards in your deck you could take on Marluxia at level 1 and STILL win. Granted other Kingdom Hearts games have the zero EXP bonus, but that's more a challenge for hardcore players, since though your attack power increases based on the enemy's power, your defense doesn't and its still way too easy to get killed. Chain of Memories' card break system means that you don't have to rely on dodging incredibly difficult attacks in order to stand a chance. Because of this, I enjoy how fast I can get through the game, through my own skill without feeling overly frustrated. Also it does bug me how you only mention Riku's story RIGHT at the end. I can see you hate this game but it does bug me that you were obviously dedicated right from the word go to tear into it viciously. I can understand with games that were poorly designed in every single aspect such as Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and games with no intention other than making money such as Battlefront 2, but the anger feels unwarranted when there was no malicious intent and at least some fun aspects of the game, again Riku's story. I can agree that it is a pain that Riku's story is hidden behind Sora's story, and the one thing they SHOULD have done was allowed you to choose either the straightforward and better designed Riku's story or the more open and sandbox oriented Sora story. I feel as though fans should be allowed to choose either, and the dedication to making things mandatory to unlock significant parts of a game does damage the overall quality of a lot of games, for example Sonic Adventure's forcing players to play as Big the Cat in order to see the story's conclusion. The biggest issues with a lot of games could be solved simply by making certain styles of play optional rather than mandatory and its very unfortunate that a lot of games, particularly those with multiple stories, REQUIRE players to be on board with all of them rather than being able to pick one and still have a complete experience. I think that's all I needed to say, I'm sorry if this comes across as rude and I'm definitely not used to defending games against the rants of others, I just wanted to make my own opinions known. As for which Kingdom Hearts game is my least favorite, yeah its Days. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories may be broken, but at least if you avoid relying on broken techniques and take the game on as you choose to, there's some fun to be had with it. Days on the other hand as far as I can see is a real slog regardless of how you choose to play it. And at least the bosses, even the broken ones in Chain of Memories, don't have HP bars comparable to Yiazmat from Final Fantasy 12 and take well over 30 minutes to beat even IF you know what you're doing. I hope I've at least made some valid points here, and would be interested to know what you think to what I brought up.

[@thatsprettymint1942]

Sonic Blade isn't the most viable option actually. It's the *easiest* option but not the most viable. The most viable options are Red Nocturne (enemy card that buffs fire spells) + Firaga spam and Blue Rhapsody (enemy card that buffs ice spells) + Blue Rhapsody spam. Firaga can clear any boss apart from Axel who is immune to fire damage. Blizzaga can clear heartless insanely quickly, especially more so than Sonic Blade, and is still a pretty solid choice for bosses. The spells are very cost effective and are easy to come by. You can attain the enemy cards mentioned in Traverse Town as well - the first world in the game. Sonic Blade is still a very useful Sleight throughout the game (even against Marluxia), but the damage it deals starts to wane by the time you get to the first Vexen fight.

[@Ninja0666]

I really like this game. The card mechanic is fun to me and I love the story development that connects the two main games.

[@clonerstive]

"Sonic blade breaks the game" Mega Flare would like a word as well. As soon as I discovered that one. Life was good. I was an unstoppable GOD. Good times

[@jaredwalley5692]

Lethal Frame, Tornado... Granted, I play Re:Chain more than the original at this point.

[@TyrannoJack]

I never played re:com, but as a kid I absolutely loved chain of memories. it was one of my all time favourite GBA games. I was completely blown away by portable kingdom hearts and the amazing pixel art (which I still believe to be the pinnacle of GBA graphics). I agree for the most part with all of your criticisms, but I think something about the old pixel art offsets it? it is so magical being in this world with this art and these characters that I'm able to look past it and enjoy it for what it is. I love chain of memories and I'd pop that fucker in any day.

[@dexblaset9105]

I really like your videos :) The past couple of days i have watched most of the Zelda and Kh videos. I Like how elaborate they are and how you portray the good and the bad stuff in each game. Keep it up!

[@InciteFire]

I've been consuming these retrospective videos one by one over the last couple of weeks, and I can say with certainty that it is not Sora, but KingK, who is the best boy. Thanks for putting together such well rounded, thought-provoking, investigations of some of my favorite games! I can't wait to see your videos for DDD and BBS.

[@blazehjh]

I love how at 5:58 Riku is literally laying on the floor in the background with his eyes and mouth wide open

[@Quietpower99]

One of my fondest memories is of me and a friend rushing through this game from beginning to end in a night. It was bullshit and I have never been more mad at a game than then. You are right that this game is broken, the only reason it exists is because its the glue between 1 and 2

[@HeavyEyed]

I'm so glad you're doing this retrospective series because there's no way in hell I'm replaying all the KH games but I wanna remember them and how they actually stand up, and it's kinda disheartening to know CoM sucks a bit now cause I loved it at the time but damn looking at it now does it have some problems.

[@Fedrone]

HeavyEyed that's because he completely forgot to mention about the enemy card effects mechanic which basically allows Sora to effortlessly beating every bosses, you don't need sonic blade to win this game, all you need are enemy cards such as Jafar or Hades, item, attack, magic cards and it's done. He just plain sucks at this game ( specifically in Sora's story ) the game gives you plenty of resources to effortlessly make your way to the top, and such resources are the enemy cards.

[@TheJasoncash83]

he also compares this shit to complicated games today. This game is fucking great.

[@MichaelPhillips-jw4bj]

yeah I hate to admit fred is kind of right. especially if you watch no slight +no damage runs you ll see the mechanics are great if you know it

[@alteregoreview]

I disagree. It's not that hard

[@Justin-ym4pm]

Man, I have to entirely disagree. Ive never ran into a situation where my deck was so bad that I needed to do extra grinding. Theres a lot of options to pick from besides just sonic blade. I barely saw you use any magic sleights or summons, and you can shortcut to your 0. Why were you putting your 0 into sleights while complaining about not being able to break Vexen's attacks?

[@veezopolis]

He does this a lot, doesn't change strategies or his playstyle just gets pissed at the game for not letting him win

[@eldritchautomaton]

This was a pretty good, well thought out video my man. I disagree with almost virtually everything you said, but hey, everyone has their own valid opinions! I am almost shocked out of all the things to gripe about, you didn't go into the utterly bland and lifeless map/room designs of the game. That is easily one of the biggest complaints I have about this title.

[@Fedrone]

+KingK dude I agree on almost everything you said but we can all agree that this review you made is not complete at all, you completely and totally forgot to mention the enemy card effects mechanic, which I hope you know are a mechanic of this game that can easily allow you to get the upper hand on every single bosses, for example Attack Bracer prevents your opponent to break ANY of your cards, 0 cards will NOT have any effects on you provided this enemy card effect is still in play. Also, using these enemy cards effects will allow you to effortlessly beating the game without using sonic blade a single time. YOU CANNOT MAKE A KH RETROSPECTIVE VIDEO AND FORGET TO TALK ABOUT THE MOST INTERESTING MECHANICS IN THE WHOLE GAME, GET YO SHIT TOGETHER DUDE.

[@mthsdcs]

28:51 he didn't forget about enemy cards when playing the game. His criticism about the combat still stands tho, I don't think the enemy cards make the system better in any meaningful way.

[@Rihcterwilker]

Chain of memories is my favorite. Much more deep than your usual "hit x 3 times/repeat".

[@jaleelkhaleeq]

dont stop making these videos i love em!

[@DerrickUltima]

Okay, I'm going to say something and I'm going to come across as a jerk, but I don't mean to be. It's just how it is. You are clearly very bad at Chain of Memories. The complaints about the cards from the Moogle packs can be fixed as easy as saving beforehand. But maybe you think that's cheating? Very well then. The complaint at the end about spending over an hour for one specific Map Card blew my mind. It's as easy as using a roulette map card from the beginning and selecting the proper card. Would take five fights at the absolute maximum. Again, not trying to be a jerk, but it seems to me that most of your issues with the game were due primarily to a lack of thinking on your part. If you just walk through the game and take everything exactly as it comes to you without any sort of plan, then yeah the game is absolutely terrible.

[@TylireousGaming]

My thoughts exactly. This video isn't a traditional retrospective, it's more of a video expressing his opinion on the game (mostly in a negative light based on his clearly blind 1st playthrough.)

[@Sleetysleetman]

Yeah I agree it's pretty obvious he's mediocre at the title.

[@TylireousGaming]

Vlander There's nothing inherently wrong with save scumming, if it makes the game easier I say go for it.

[@DerrickUltima]

Vlander I even mentioned people who think that's cheating. You could just as a easily farm moogle points in Agrabah. Also, saying that you have to do that to make it "bearable" is dramatic and greatly exaggerating what I said. Twisting my point doesn't discredit it. Just because you're bad at the game doesn't mean your complaints are credible.

[@Kingdom850]

okay, the game can still be easily broken.

[@A_Cuppa_Joey]

Absolutely fantastic retrospective, but the pronunciation of "sleight" killed me a little more on the inside every time I heard it lol

[@GregLeVine1984]

You made me rethink my feelings on Chain of Memories. I remember loving the GBA version when it first came out. A lot of that was just getting to see Sora and his friends in a "new" adventure while waiting for Kingdom Hearts 2. But part of it was a feeling that I really loved the combat system. I still contend that a 2D Kingdom Hearts game with full action mechanics instead of the card system would be a lot of fun if anyone made 2D action games anymore. But when the remake came out, I bounced off it pretty quickly. At the time I felt like I couldn't wrap my head around the card system in a 3D setting as well as I had on the Game Boy. But now I'm wondering if I'd just lucked out with my deck to the point where the games systems broke themselves for me originally, and without that luck the 2nd time I was left with frustration. BTW I've really been enjoying these videos, great work.

[@masteroflag]

Honestly never knew you could just sleight through the heartless fights. Granted it took forever to get a decent hi potion or elixir and the CP for it so I’d chance it.

[@D2FFDK]

Despite agreeing with most every point I will say I absolutely loved experimenting with the sleights and loved (finally) piecing together the story elements between KH1 and KH2 when I realised this game existed. Also I quite enjoyed the voice acted scenes with the organisation members.

[@backe39]

As always, the amount of effort you put into this video is amazing. Keep the good job buddy

[@barbieburnanator1738]

I found this video to be incredibly entertaining and well thought out. Chain of memories was actually my first kingdom hearts game, and while I finished KH2 before coming back to finish this one, it still holds a special place in my heart. But I understand a lot better why I had such a difficult time with it, being a 12 year old trying to understand THAT game play was hard. No wonder I didn't finish it until years later. I think what I loved most about it was having it on the go and just that I could play a kingdom hearts game in general (we didn't own a ps2 until almost the ps3 came out.) It's not my favorite of the kingdom hearts series, but it'll always have a soft spot for me. Thanks so much for sharing your viewpoint and thoughts, it was wonderful!

[@BlueEye096]

Great video! I really loved this game, it's as hard or as easy as you make it if you understand the card system. Find a powerful AoE spell allows you to clear mobs quickly (not Sonic Blade) to grind, against bosses sure you can spam Sonic Blade but you can also look at the stats of each keyblade and set them in the right spot so that you do silly damage with each strike, attack faster andrecover instantly, much easier and quicker than Sonic Blade spamming (add in Roxas enemy card to kill him in 3 basic combos I shit you not). Also put a 0 card on the bottom of your deck, you're most likely gonna be on the right side of the reload button 99% of the time so when you see and attack you need to break all you do is rotate your deck left twice and boom, or press the shortcut button. Also I personally have never had problems with map cards or finding good cards from the Moogle shop and I've beaten the game (GBA and remake) 4 times.

[@MichaelPhillips-jw4bj]

while I didnt enjoy alot of the retreading of old martial its worth it for all those great org13 battles and story. Pretty much all the original assets made for this game are really good, namine and all that, Im pretty sure this is where the 13th struggle song first appeared from and that makes the soundtrack sooo good for a gba game

[@cky0444]

Your content is so rad, so glad I found your channel!

[@dduuddeechil]

just when I thought my day was looking crummy, KingK gotta make me crack a stupid smile. Thanks for all the great content dude

[@challengerjakku1943]

Ill be honest the game picked up for me when I got to rikus story, soras story I didnt like much but Reverse rebirth changed the way I viewed Rechain for the better. Oh god I never noticed mickeys voice untill you pointed it out...

[@unclebenjamin9825]

That last Riku Replica boss tho...

[@skeleman5883]

"Why would you not just spam Sonic blade?" Because I'm too busy spamming Lethal Frame

[@Agument]

Hey I'm new to this channel and love listening on your videos while working or other stuff and a lot of em is really interesting thoughts giving a lot of nostalgia. Keep up the good work! Just a thing though, I might have missed it, but during the Vexen fight or in the game overall you can bind a directional button to a card so you can easily access that card. I noticed you had like four "0" beside each other and binding the directional button to a card close to it makes the breaking A LOT easier, but the game don't really explain this which is at fault.

[@Rada_Rada138]

Can't wait for kingdom hearts 2 retrospective!

[@lloydirving6209]

"oh hey it's the cheshire cat! he spouts cryptic meaningless bullshit to you then disappears" literally 90% of the dialogue in the kingdom hearts series lmao

[@c3rberus04]

hearing Vexen screaming in agony when sonic blading him for 3 minutes straight makes the hole shenanigans worth it every single time!

[@ethendorreviews975]

You’re Retrospectives are so entertaining that even someone like who hasn’t even played Kingdom Hearts can have a great time watching

[@Ursmoov]

this game made so angry when i was little and growing up always thought I was just a dumb little kid that didn't know how to play back then and that's why I got stuck at a certain point and never beat the game lmao. After watching this I strongly believe that I was still a dumb kid buttttt also this game is bullshit lmao

[@ImpossibleAsymptote]

I wonder if SE realized how off-putting Chain of Memories and its fellow spinoffs are. It took me aaaaaaaages to try a KH game because of it. When you hear: -You have to play the spinoffs to make sense of the main plot, and the plots are polarizing -The spinoffs feature weird mechanics that are frustrating and unlike the main games, with a lot of rehashing and filler -You need a GBA, DS, 3DS, and PSP to play them all My reaction wasn't "Hmm, I'll investigate more on this and make a decision". It was "oh, that sounds terrible, I can write this whole franchise off". Only after the PS3 bundles and many quality KZbin creators evangelizing the series, made me take a second look.

[@Chelaxim]

Edelweiss I find the spin offs besides the mobile game and 358/2 Days to have better gameplay than the main games. You actually have to strategize in the spin-offs instead of spamming attacks.

[@TylireousGaming]

You can play all of them (excluding 358/2 Days and Re:Coded) on PS4 with Kingdom Hearts 1.5 & 2.5 ($50) and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue ($60). Then just wait for Kingdom Hearts 3.

[@nousername191]

that was the pain of being a KH fan back in those days. Until I got my hands in emulators before the bundles, I only played I, II, Chain of Memories (for a bit) and the Re fully.

[@Nintendotron64]

I...kinda see where you're coming from. I started the franchise with Chain of Memories because I only owned Nintendo consoles at the time. Needless to say, it only took a few hours to realize how unwise of a decision that was. Eventually, I was introduced to the franchise "properly" with KH2, and saw what all the fuss was about.

[@lennychurch]

28:10 My own approach to Ansem also involved learning the deck layout, but it wasn’t so much through dueling as getting rid of weak cards through ineffective sleights so that the 9s would be closer together once I entered Dark mode.

[@theonewhowrotethis5681]

20:20 There's a shortcut button that allows you to jump to a card that you designate as the shortcut card. Once you designate the card as a shortcut, you can just press Down on the DPad to instantly jump to it. The game tells you this in the tutorials and controls. I do agree that Riku's mode is better than Sora's though. He's much more fun to play as (even though I got lucky with RNG in Sora's story).

[@Grannit666]

I also replayed re:Chain somewhat recently and while I see where you're coming from in terms of the card mechanics being broken, I never had that experience. I never felt like I solved the game (It never occurred to me to spam Sonic Blade), and I never got stuck so hard on a boss that I felt as though I needed to grind for several days. I'm not denying your experience of the game, but I'm saying that your experience may be more a result of bad RNG than a fundamental flaw in how the card mechanics work. Of course, a better designed game would have it so that getting consistently bad RNG to the extent that you did would be impossible, if that flaw didn't exist, you may have had a more balanced experience. All that said, the card system certainly isn't perfect, I just don't think it's quite as broken as you stated.

[@derekhogan9685]

I love its story but it began that handheld/console spread... Spinning titles off a series is fine but dont make shit crucial.

[@Jghost11]

In my playthroughs I mixed different combos in different parts of the deck, switched up which magic to use in which worlds, and would try to keep multiples of each number card just in case. But what was really a clue trick that I figured out when I was a kid was to keep 0s at the end of the deck (or beginning depending on combos) so I could be a few taps away from a card break if I needed it. I also used Platinum cards to start most of my combos late game, and would plan out a follow up combo by lining up all the cards in the right sequence.

[@EduardoTorelly]

8:06 i have to say that the way Vexen's battle unfolded in this game helped me to shape my fellings on the character, and the rest of his appearences in the series sustained that way i saw him so it gave a fairly good impression of what the character would be in the rest of the series.

[@viewtifulboy]

It's interesting how every single last thing in this video has me responding with "but I like that..." I like the RNG that makes every playthrough unique, I like the bosses making you stop and think and punishing you if you brute forced the game, I like Vexen, I like the cutscene music (and the rest of it), I like the card system that requires timing and thinking ahead, I like rematches with characters where it's obvious they've stopped holding back, I like the simple progression. Even with unlucky card draws, Vexen is not that hard. I don't say this a lot, but git gud. Also that's a lot of premium cards there. You can only use those once so stacking a deck full of them is a good way to force yourself to reload constantly. I only put 3 tops in my deck.

[@viewtifulboy]

@@zero1zerolast393 Knowing when to use those wild cards so you have them for stuff like the final door helps.

[@Chelaxim]

To be fair for the people who complain about the game's RNG you do realize that in most jrpgs that item drops are always random. Hell look at Final Fantasy IV there are people who have played every single version of that game 1991 and they'll look in a study guide and find that there are items in the game that they didn't even know existed. For example how many people know about the pink tail in Final Fantasy IV and how many of y'all actually got the pink tail? The Zodiac spear from Final Fantasy XII have nothing on the pink tail. How many people have gotten the bomb, Goblin or cockatrice summons in Final Fantasy IV? How many people have gotten the 8-inch cannon in Final Fantasy VII? How many people even know about the existence of the earth Mallet in Final Fantasy VII? It's on a single screen of an entire non- revisitable location and the enemy that you have to fight the gigas has a 12.5% chance of giving it to you.

[@1992holycrap]

@@BlueAizu_ It's stuff like this that makes me stand by my firm belief that CoM, whatever form it may take, is broken as hell and borderline unbeatable(and not even as a conscious design choice by the developer(s), either). Seriously, as soon as I got as far as Vexen in Twilight Town on the GBA version, my playthrough came to a grinding halt for literal months until I just rage-quit and never bothered ever touching the game again.

[@tsukinoakuma]

I think the Disney worlds have stories to foreshadow the actual plot of the game. For example, Alice tricks the Queen of Hearts by making her remember something that didn’t happen, which is something Naminé is doing to Sora on behalf of Organization XIII. They’re not just the same worlds all over again, Naminé is subtly trying to warn Sora about what’s happening to him.

[@Toxin__0]

It's finny, Soras boss fight were by far my favorite. Getting to learn a bosses moves and weaknesses and building a custom deck around that was a blast. Having to react to their sleights and pull out one of mine or a zero card was so engaging for me, where as Rikus were the ones that felt mindless. Taking away the deck customization made the game feel like a bore, I had lost almost all of my interactions with the fights. Duals were more spammy than anything else, and every wild encounter had the same 2 sleights. This game is one of my favorites because it still feels like the most strategic KH game, even if there are some easy exploits.

[@Hazearil]

GBA Chain of Memories is still my favourite Kingdom Hearts game, change my mind.

[@CommanderShepard-wq3wo]

Why would anyone bother to? Clearly you made up your mind about it and it’s your own opinion. Someone coming along and try changing your mind on it sounds like a complete waste of time

[@DADA-yt1pt]

​@@CommanderShepard-wq3wo I'm pretty late to this, but amen to this. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Re:Chain of Memories. Gameplay wise, it's my least favorite of the series. It's not because it has a card value system, I just found it kind of boring. The worlds felt uninteresting to travel through, and combat scenarios felt samey after a certain point, even with using different techniques and slights. I do like the boss fights and the story, though. I started out really enjoying it, but it slowly got worse and worse overtime. I do understand that it was originally a GBA game, but the experience for me just wasn't the best regardless. But I'm not going to mock others and say that they have shit taste just because they feel differently to me.

[@ghostanderson2400]

I don't know why but this is truly my favorite Kingdom Hearts game maybe it's just because I'm a card fanatic but I thought it was so fun

[@StrangeSunset7]

im not even interested in card games (i’ve only played a little bit of yugioh and pokemon tcg) and i absolutely love this game. its super fun once you learn the mechanics and when to use your high number cards to break the opponent’s cards.

[@andrewnichols9408]

Based on my understanding of coded, chain's story exists the way it does for a second reason beyond the "KH on mobile." The second explanation is Namine stepped through Sora's memory to break him for Marluxia (hence the "memories" changes) so he has to walk through them as well, then in coded, you walk through them again undoing all of her changes. I have no excuse for Riku's story, other than "Look at all the friends you don't have"

[@clippy6417]

Yo thanks for the video, subscribed because I'm loving the series!

[@AeoTheAwesome]

I remember liking the GBA version quite a lot. But that in the days where getting a game was a commitment. As in, once every month or 2, I got to pick out a game to get and hope it was fun enough to pass time. I definitely don't plan on revisiting it anytime soon.

[@donkeynuts9096]

Chain of Memories is like one of my favorite spin-off games of all time

[@eldritchautomaton]

same

[@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE]

"Spin off" *Triggered*

[@mechashadow]

DetectiveEthanaterSpiritOfBobbyFulbrightGamer Nomura said that's what non numbered games are..get over it.

[@shadokurosu]

Same here

[@jinkisaragi874]

mechashadow He might have said that but if you wan't to call something a spin off , it might be a good idea to don't put like 70% of the series story in it.

[@IamMullet]

You hit the nail square on the head with this video Ive been trying to put into words the issues with this game but I had problems properly laying it out. This expresses it better than I could. Thank you.

[@bswift1991]

instantly clicking the sub button when you mention you're a zero escape fan. Have you done a retrospective on that series? Now they're some games worth shouting about xD