Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

While the collaboration of one of the biggest role playing developers and one of cartoon's biggest production studios may seem like a strange get together, the resulting series has been anything but strange. Since its inaugural release on the Playstation 2, the Kingdom Hearts series has gained significant momentum and gained a solid and loyal fan base and while a third title in the main story line may be a bit off yet, Square Enix are happy to fill in the blanks between the games so as to answer any unanswered questions. As a result, Kingdom Hearts makes its return to Nintendo's handheld consoles to do just that with Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Is this one worthy of the admiration of the series' fans?

Gameplay

The story of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days revolves around Roxas, one of the main protagonists from Kingdom Hearts 2, coming about as a result of lead character Sora turning the Keyblade on himself to save Kairi, and the story bridges the gap between the two Kingdom Hearts games. After being approached by a shady character offering to give Roxas answers to whom and what he is, Roxas is initiated into Organisation XIII, a group of so called Nobodies who don't possess hearts. Once in the Organisation, Roxas is put to work gather hearts with the only information as to what they are for being the words 'Kingdom Hearts' and vague information from other members about it potentially gifting them the hearts they need to be a somebody. The induction of a fourteenth member into the Organisation results in a like minded character befriending Roxas as they both begin to look for clues as to what the Organisation is really up to and what happened to their past.

The plot borrows heavily from the prior games and while the game is easily enjoyed without any knowledge of the preceding events, some knowledge is useful to fully understand the story as many instances and subtleties, such as why the characters meet for ice cream at a clock tower after every mission, will be lost on those with no prior experience with the series. But, as already mentioned, the nature of the story and how it develops to engross you mean it is something which can be experienced without any of that knowledge.

The game is set over a succession of days where you'll wake up and be given missions to undertake to progress the story and complete each day. Your initial days in the Organisation take the form of a tutorial that proceeds to explain every minor detail to you at length. This means that some will find the tutorial going on for too long. But after the slow start, the game really begins to pick up speed and soon, you'll be heading off to missions either on your own or with a randomly assigned partner to collect Intel on a specific area, collect hearts or defeat specific Heartless. While not carrying much variety throughout the length of the game, these mission types are given sparingly and at intervals to keep the experience as fresh as possible but you will notice them begin to drag near the end which is a disappointment. The addition of challenges set by some of the other members in the communal area of the Castle is a nice touch and adds some depth to the missions, allowing you to get your hands on new items or indeed new missions.

Gameplay takes the form of an action RPG, with all combat taking place in real time. While there is the occasional rehash of enemy models, there is enough variety to change the gameplay. Some missions will give you an insight into the enemy types you can expect to find in them and so managing your inventory, now in the form of an easily accessible panel system, is key to completing some of the more difficult missions. While you can go so far with the basic panel set up, you will need to adapt your weapon and magic spells to account for different enemies as combat is not strictly ground based, sometime taking place in mid-air or while flying. Likewise, while the game encourages you to get stuck into your enemies, you'll also have to employ a solid defence otherwise you won't last long against the game's tough bosses. The combat therefore has enough depth to excite even the most veteran of RPG player and certainly makes for an enjoyable experience.

Clocking in at over the 20 hour mark just to complete the basics of the main story, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a lengthy and enjoyable game and the addition of challenge rooms, which let you unlock new items, and a cooperative and competitive multiplayer option mean the game has substantial legs.

Controls

Sticking strictly to traditional button based controls, the game plays and controls well but there is an initial awkwardness that you need to get over. You have a single button for attacking, with multiple presses resulting in creating a combo, a button for jumping, another for dodging and one for navigating the in game menus. All of these are placed on the face buttons and all but the last are easily grasped. Navigating the in game menus requires you to use the X button to move down the options in the midst of gameplay and as you can only move through them in one way, if you miss the item or magic spell you wish to use you have to cycle through the entirety again before you can get back to it. The ability to hot link your items and spells to a press of the L button and a corresponding face button helps but it isn't the best mechanic for the midst of some of the more difficult battles, with some use of the touch screen here perhaps being a better option.

The game includes a lock on feature that you'll need to use to keep track of enemies while in battle. The manual camera controls don't lend themselves well enough to the task and so making use of this is key. If you don't use it, battles and just generally walking about the levels can be difficult due to poor camera controls and while you can change the settings, the improvements are minimal. It hampers the otherwise fluid nature of the controls and the gameplay.

Graphics

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days supports some spectacular graphics on the DS, easily making it one of the best looking titles on the console. Character models are extremely well made, with all the characters from previous games being recreated faithfully and to an extremely high standard with fluid animation. This of course crosses over to the Disney characters who pop up from time to time in the game, with these again being recreated faithfully from their original source materials and never feeling out of place when they appear. Enemies come in a wide variety of guises, from simplistic looking bell shaped monsters to some truly massive and grotesque creations that take cues from the likes of Tim Burton.

The levels which you'll encounter are all themed on various Disney properties and just as their respective characters have been brought to the game with care, so to have the environments. While they're not being large in scale, more sectioned off into smaller transitional areas to allow the DS to cope with what is coming up on screen, the attention to detail is impressive, as is the general construction of each of the locales with everything from the prior games being present here exactly as it should be. Some may be upset that the game borrows all of the environments and characters from previous games but when the source material is so good and this game is trying to fill in the story, it's forgivable. It's an incredibly impressive looking title when characters and environments meet and you'll constantly be looking forward to the next new area to see how it holds up. Yet, occasionally the game does drop in the frame rate department when things get a little hectic on screen, especially in some of the bigger boss battles, but it's almost always short lived and easily manageable.

Sound

Like the graphics, the music is equally impressive but fans of the series will instantly recognise the music from prior Kingdom Hearts games, especially the opening track which has been carried over from Kingdom Hearts 2. It is a shame that this DS iteration hasn't seen some new pieces of music it can call its own but what is here is well presented and of a high quality and fits the game and its action extremely well, changing in tone and tempo when the action requires it or where the story meets a particularly emotional road block, making for some pleasant listen.

While most of the game is presented with in game cutscenes, all of which are text based for their conversations, there are some instances of voice work in some of the full motion video cutscenes and it is done extremely well, with the voices suiting the characters' attitudes and dispositions perfectly. It's understandable why there is so little voice work but it would have been nice to occasionally hear something other than a chuckle from the characters.

Dual screen

Apart from showing a map, the touch screen isn't used for anything other than some optional touch screen management of your panels should you choose it, but the traditional controls work well enough to keep the stylus docked. Even with the minimal use though, the game makes good use of the screens in the correct way for an action RPG.

Final comments

The DS' extensive RPG library continues to grow and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a fantastic addition. It manages to recreate the feel and atmosphere that fans craved and loved in the original games, remaining true to the legacy of its forbearers, and provides some fantastic and robust gameplay that will last for an extremely long time, even longer with the multiplayer component. The story is engaging, and will tug at your heart strings the more it progresses, and the visuals and audio are impressive and extremely polished for the console. Although the controls can be a little troublesome and some of the missions become a little tedious, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is definitely a role playing game that is worthy of your attention if you're a fan of the series or if you're a newcomer.

Pro: Impressive visuals, truly engaging story, fluid and robust gameplay, cooperative and competitive multiplayer options
Con: A lot of the material is recycled from previous games, camera can be an issue, later missions begin to drag due to lack of variety
Final score: 8.6

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