Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - DS 3/5 Stars

Does the DS iteration of the popular Disney/Square crossover live up to it's full scale predecessors?

Marrying classic Disney characters and design from a Final Fantasy veteran, the Kingdom Hearts series was always an interesting experiment. With characters instantly recognisable to most people, the series allowed the exploration of fantastic universes, and a chance for players to interact with some of the most beloved cartoon characters in a new way, and also introduce them to classic Final Fantasy characters and mechanics. No wonder then, that with such an outlandish idea some great games were born.

The Kingdom Hearts series has shown up on handheld devices before, both on mobiles and on the Game Boy Advance, in cut down varieties, retaining the characters and feel of the main games but opting for simpler interfaces and mechanics. Whilst these games were enjoyable, they cut out features and adapted the game to the smaller medium. In 358/2 Days, the creators have attempted to perform more of a straight port of the action from the full size games, to preserve the gameplay.

The plot of the game lies parallel to certain events in other games, and initially you will need some knowledge of previous titles to get full understanding of the relevance of the story. Playing as Roxas, a counterpart to the main character of the other Kingdom Hearts titles, who is mysteriously linked to him, you work for a shadowy organisation performing missions and battling enemies to collect magical hearts. This allows for you to work alongside a varied cast of characters to get the missions done, whom are gradually unlocked for use in the game's multiplayer mode. This mode allows you to perform missions with friends wirelessly, all working towards the same goal in the mission. Completing missions in the mode also confers bonuses across to the main game, a nice touch which encourages people to play the mission mode.

Whilst the game shares a lot of similarities with the full console games, including enemies and boss characters, certain gameplay elements have been toned down and simplified. A lot of fights, even wih bosses, turn into repeatedly tapping the attack button. You have no real influence over your party as you work with a range of characters, and the graphics and interactivity of the world have been toned down, made all the more noticable because the majority of the scenrios are lifted from the main games. The graphics are done well for a DS game however, and the system handles multiple enemies and large bosses well. The story suffers from the mission based gameplay, which stops and starts, affecting the flow of the game, and new scenes playing out only after certain missions have been completed. I found the story a little lacking, and many characters have so little screen time they don't develop any personality. The decision to base this game on missions rather than a continuous story though is probably partly informed by the fact that it is on a handheld, and the mission structure optimises the gameplay for a quick go on the train or elsewhere, rather than having to play long stretches.

Overall then, this is a decent action RPG. If you have played any of the main Kingdom Hearts games you will probably be interested in the story, and as a curiosity, this game works well. However you will also realise the losses this game has taken in comparison to its big brothers, which may put some people off.
Newcomers however may find themselves rather lost in the twisting storyline. In its own right, this is a reasonable game, and the multiplayer aspect is a great idea, however it is let down by the many cuts and repetitive and recycled gameplay.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game and the review, leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading! Andrew