Back in 2008 anyone living in Japan was lucky enough to play Kingdom Hearts Coded for his or her cell phone; here in the states we were completely left out. Couple of years later it was announced that the game would be remade for the DS called Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. I’m still asking myself why Square Enix didn’t make it for the DS and release it out here in the first place.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts II. Jiminy Cricket has discovered a message in his journal. He shows it to King Mickey to analyze and in the process bugs started to corrupt the worlds. There’s only one person to call to help restore these data worlds and that would be our lovable Sora. With a data Sora at your disposal you travel worlds from the original Kingdom Hearts and try to find the main culprit who’s infecting the datascape.
In order to fix the glitches in the worlds you must find the backdoor into a special area known as the system sector. In here you need to debug it by defeating corrupted Heartless to restore the area. Also you gain sector points upon defeating enemies or breaking certain boxes that go towards rewards at the end. As you advance to other worlds, you’ll get challenges at the beginning upon entering to take on and you can gain a lot more points by completing the challenge. One cool thing about Re:coded is some of the worlds bring you a different game-play style. You see Sora in a 2D side-scrolling platformer, a classic RPG turn-based battle style, and a 3D shoot-em-up and of course the actual Kingdom Hearts gameplay.
Like other games in the series you have your command deck to assign attacks and magic to. You may earn your commands by either breaking certain boxes, enemies or use your sector points to use towards them. Also you may convert two commands to make a stronger one when they are fully leveled. The leveling up system is a little different compare to others in the series. Your experiences, strength, magic boost, etc come in the form of a chip. You place the chips on your Stat Matrix board by placing them next to CPUs and working outwards towards other special abilities on the board like an Air Glide or Scan.
If you were thinking maybe this game would have a decent multiplayer game-play, you’re wrong. The Avatar Menu unlocks after a point and here is where you can customize your avatar and send friends challenges to complete. Making your own avatar can be fun with the many different clothing but the only way to get more accessories is by your friends. Instead of competing against one another you're sending them challenges that they complete by themselves. Where is the fun in that?
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded may just be another filler in the series but its still enjoyable even for us hardcore fans that you really won’t want to pass up. The camera is bad as usual and here’s a hint. Change the Chase Cam to on and it will be a little less frustrating. I was even tired of defeating Jafar for like the millionth time but with at that said, going back to an adventure with Sora was fun with the slightly new gameplay and it just may have fed my hunger while waiting patiently for the next installment to the main series.
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Graphics |
9.0 |
Variety of poses and expressions characters have while talking keeps you entertained. |
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Audio |
9.0 |
Most music has been reused but the new sounds are cool. |
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Single Player
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8.0 |
Main story can be short but you can revisit the worlds for more challenges. |
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Multiplayer |
6.5 |
Lacks a good competition with friends. |
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Replay |
7.0 |
Weak story compared to others in the series but still enjoyable. |
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Overall |
8.0 |
Different game-play was fun and finally we get to have an adventure with Sora again. |
