As you guys know, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was released today, the action RPG follow-up to the PS2 classics. Did anyone get it yet?  I haven't gotten it and won't till I finish Scribblenauts and Mario and Luigi.

It does look good, though.  Anyone have impressions of the game?

I'm playing it.  So far it's okay.  I'm about 3 or 4 hours in.  I've got a love/hate relationship with Kingdom Hearts.  I love the idea behind it, and most of the gameplay, but at times I've felt the story just goes out of its way to make no sense.  I got this game in hopes of it ironing out a lot of the details that were not adequately explained in KH2.  

Combat is pretty much standard Kingdom Hearts.  They've included a panel system this time around that determines what abilities and items you have access to in battles.  Nothing real original about it, but it gets the job done.

Story is exactly what I was hoping for.  More detail into Roxas and Organization XIII without bothering with other details.  Unfortunately they're still not giving a real linear explanation of whats going on at all times.  Too early to tell if this is a good or bad thing, but I will say that the characters thus far are interesting and it's moving at a decent pace.  

The game is broken down into missions instead of one long uninterrupted story.  Probably due to hardware limitations if I had to guess.  It works well enough in the confines of this story so it doesn't really create a problem like interrupted storytelling like this often does.

The one major flaw is the camera.  The camera is horrible.  Really I can't say enough bad things about it. It's handling like something out of the PS1 era.  Makes the camera work in the original Kingdom Hearts look just about perfect.  And unfortunately it does create problems in combat.  Nothing that's caused me to die, but I've lost sight of the enemies on several occasions already, and has put me in danger.  Worst part is there's not even real good camera correction buttons.  The L button shifts it a little but it doesn't always help.  The stylus does a good job correcting it, but holding the stylus while pushing buttons in the middle of a battle doesn't really work you know?

Anyway after the little time I've spent I can pretty much say that Kingdom Hearts fans will enjoy it, but if you don't care for the series, this game won't make you change your mind.

aspro said:

darthhomer said:

Nope, because it's not out locally.

I got sick of the GBA KH after about 16 hours of play. Not sure I'm anxious to get this one.

 Travo said it best. If there's even a HINT of cards being used as the main game, I refuse to touch it.

That mechanic practically ruined Chain of Memories.

robio said:

I'm playing it. ...

Anyway after the little time I've spent I can pretty much say that Kingdom Hearts fans will enjoy it, but if you don't care for the series, this game won't make you change your mind.

Can you tell if this is using an existing Square DS engine (like the one I hate so much), or is this a while new thing. Being that you control hte camera it sounds like a new take.

robio said:

aspro said:

robio said:

I'm playing it. ...

Can you tell if this is using an existing Square DS engine?

No this is not an existing Square DS engine.  This game looks and plays like Kingdom Hearts.  It's rougher than its console counter parts, but the gameplay is pure Kingdom Hearts.  

And the game even forces the story to go even slower due to the "Hologram Mode" where you replay levels you finished with new challenges (beat the boss without jumping, beat a time limit, etc.)  

Thanks for the summary. The card system did not bug me as much as it did Jamie, 'cause I knew it was from the same people who did The World Ends With You (which did much the same thing with fashion pins in the place of cards).

What killed CoM for me was the inexorably slow pace of the game.  What you said above is enough to make me steer clear. I'll get it eventually to complete my franchise set, but not to play.

travo said:

That's not cool at all.

I suspect it's how they decided to expand the play-time due to the cartridge constraints.  Personally I think it's unnecessary.  It took me 4 hours to get through all the content in the first world (Twilight Town), with about an hour of that devoted to replaying levels.  If each world gave 2 to 3 hours of play time, and there's 5 or 6 worlds or more that's plenty for me. I don't think handheld games need to deliver more than 15 hours of gameplay...  but I have a feeling SE wanted to stretch it into the 30 to 40 hour realm.

aspro said:

I'm actually digging the original Kingdom Hearts. It's fairly arcane in some sections (in terms of what to do next), but overall it's an enjoyable playthrough.

The whole jumping-from-platform-to-platform-when-you-cannot-move-the-camera-to-see-where-you-are-jumping thing is getting old.

Did you never play the original? I loved it. The camera got a little bit irritating, but overall I didn't have any complaints and I do consider it one of my favorite games of the generation. One of my favorite things about it was that it felt like what a combat version of old school Final Fantasies should be. You can go straight through the stories or at virtually any time you can access some sidequests that truly are optional and don't penalize you if you decide to ignore them. Lots of things to find and collect, lots of optional mega-boss battles (particularly in the end game), and great rewards for doing it, but in the end if you chose to ignore it the main story never felt harder for it.

Yeah the entire world is ready for KH3 or at least they were for a while and gave up. Interest in the series is pretty low right now. Dream Drop Distance is the best reviewed KH game since KH2, but in Japan its had the lowest sales of any game in the series (with the exception of that mobile one whose name I can't remember). I get why they kept doing side-stories instead of going to KH3, but it's caused damage to the franchise. No question about it. God, S-E could write a book on how to mismanage a franchise. They do it better than any company.