Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

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Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
KHChainLogo.jpg
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories logo
Original title キ ン グ ダ ム ハ ー ツ チ ェ イ ン オ ブ メ モ リ ー ズ
transcription Kingudamu Hātsu Chein Obu Memorīzu
Studio Square Enix , Jupiter
Publisher JapanJapanSquare Enix Square Enix Nintendo
North AmericaNorth America
EuropeEurope
Senior Developer Tetsuya Nomura
Yuichi Kanemori
Erstveröffent-
lichung
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories November 11, 2004 December 7, 2004 May 6, 2005 Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories March 29, 2007 December 2, 2008
JapanJapan
North AmericaNorth America
EuropeEurope

JapanJapan
North AmericaNorth America
platform Game Boy Advance ,
PlayStation 2
genre Action RPG
Subject Fantasy
Game mode Single player , multiplayer
control Handheld - keyboard , gamepad
medium Game module , DVD-ROM
language German , English with German subtitles
Age rating
USK released from 6
PEGI recommended for ages 3+

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories ( Japanese キ ン グ ダ ム ハ ー ツ チ ェ イ ン オ ブ メ モ リ ー ズ Kingudamu Hātsu Chein Obu Memorīzu ; acronym : KH: COM) is an action role-playing game released in 2004 for the handheld console Game Boy Advance . It was the result of a collaboration between the Japanese game developers Square Enix and Jupiter . The game is a link between the two larger PlayStation 2 games in the Kingdom Hearts video game series . It was one of the first GBA games to use full motion video (FMV). In addition, like its predecessor, it is a departure from Square's other role-playing games, with the introduction of extensive action-adventure elements for the gameplay. In March 2007, the remake Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories appeared in Japan together with Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix for the PlayStation 2, which was also released in December 2008 in the USA.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is the second game in the Kingdom Hearts video game series. It's a direct sequel to Kingdom Hearts and ends a year before Kingdom Hearts II begins . As in the first game, the story revolves around the protagonist Sora, while exploring a mysterious castle in search of his friends. When Sora arrives at the top, his friend and rival, Riku, begins to explore the basement, fighting his inner darkness. The game introduces new characters and storylines that continue the storyline in the Kingdom Hearts universe, thus establishing the prerequisite for Kingdom Hearts II .

Although not as successful as the other Kingdom Hearts games, it received positive reviews and sales (1.85 million for GBA, 0.87 million for PS2). It has been recognized for its story, graphics, and FMVs. The game features a new card-based combat system that is a departure from its predecessor.

Gameplay

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a connection between a computer role-playing game and a trading card game . The main role-play aspect is an experience point system , which is used to achieve maximum health or card points (CP) on the character or to learn a new skill. The cards are used throughout the story as well as in combat. In addition to a field map, the game also offers an extra battle screen. The field map is an isometric area where the player can switch between rooms. The opponents inhabit this map and pursue the player in combat, which can be initiated by contact between the player and an enemy. Once the battle begins, the game switches to the battle screen, which uses a map-based battle system. Instead of pressing a button for an attack, the player chooses a card from his supply in the current fight, which, depending on the type, results in a simple sword attack, a special, strong attack or the summoning of a spell. The strength of an attack results from the numerical value assigned to the respective card, which ranges from zero to nine. A card can also be successfully used to fend off an attack or a combo if it is equal to or greater in value for that attack. A special case is the zero, because with this you can stab any card or combo, whereas in return the zero can also be stabbed by any card.

If an opponent's card is stabbed, the attack is immediately interrupted and the opponent cannot move or act for a short time. In addition to the normal attack and magician cards, you receive cards from defeated opponents that give the player certain abilities, ranging from improved offensive and defensive attributes to changes in the attributes of certain cards. If you put two or three cards together to form a combo, the three values ​​of the cards are added together, making them harder to stab. Certain card combinations allow the player to perform various special physical or magical attacks. When the player has used all cards, he must reload his supply. In addition, such a top-up renders those cards used first in a card combination unusable until the end of the battle.

The player navigates Sora through the locked rooms of the castle; each floor stands for a specific Disney universe. A unique aspect of this game is that before you can advance to the next room, you have to initialize it with a playing card from another designated deck. The properties of each room - including the quality of the items and the strength of the opponents - are determined by the card that the player chooses. Each card has a specific effect: red cards influence the number and type of enemies; Green cards influence the strength of the player's deck and blue cards influence the properties of the room itself, such as the possibility of treasure chests or a save point appearing.

The game has three types of gameplay. The first two are the story mode where either Sora or Riku is available, and the third is a two player battle mode. While only Sora's journey is available at the beginning of the game, the "Reverse / Rebirth" mode will be activated after this is completed. "Reverse / Rebirth" allows the player to play a second journey with Riku and his fight against the darkness within him. It has also activated a link mode in which players can fight other players with the help of a Game Link Cable. While as Sora you can exchange your stock of cards at any time with the help of defeated opponents or through Mog shops, as Rikus you have a stock of cards adapted to the respective world visited and cannot otherwise change it.

content

Location

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories takes place right after the first game, Kingdom Hearts, ends . The action takes place almost exclusively in the Castle of Oblivion, a mysterious castle managed by Lord Marluxia. Sora and his teammates are told that the castle would rob visitors of their memories if they entered. The lobby and the areas between the floors are white with flower-like decorations, but each floor can lead to a different world from the first Kingdom Hearts game, using so-called "world maps", cards created by Sora's memories got to. As before, many of the worlds are based on Disney films, while the rest of the worlds were created by Square Enix.

In contrast to the first game, the worlds were created through Sora's memories. As such, many of the experienced events from Kingdom Hearts are repeated in this game. Sora encounters the memories-based versions of Disney characters he has met before - with the exception of the Deep Jungle, which is based on Tarzan . The individual storylines differ from those in the original game and revolve around the theme of memory. Just as there had been multiple worlds in Kingdom Hearts specially created for this game, Chain of Memories introduces Twilight Town as a world made from memories from the other side of Sora's heart, in addition to the original Kingdom Hearts worlds .

characters

Sora returns as the protagonist of the game, while Donald and Goofy also appear but are less involved in the gameplay and the story. Like the first game, Chain of Memories contains a large number of characters from the Final Fantasy series as well as from the Disney films . As a direct sequel, many of the characters from the first Kingdom Hearts reappear here . Since every world and the characters associated with it come from Sora's memories, they act as if they had never met Sora. Chain of Memories also introduces a handful of new characters. Several members of the mysterious organization. Other new characters are Naminé, a young girl who is able to manipulate memories, and DiZ, a mysterious man whose face is hidden by red robes and bandages. Riku is also available as a playable character in the second story mode. After falling behind in the realm of darkness at the end of Kingdom Hearts , Riku appears in the basement of Castle Oblivion. During his trip, he is supported by King Mickey and DiZ.

Six members of the organization serve as the main antagonists in the game , with four appearing in Sora's Journey and the rest in Riku's Journey. Among the four are Marluxia, the main antagonist and lord of the Castle of Oblivion; Larxene, a female member, supports Marluxia in its plan; Axel, a double agent whose loyalty remains hidden; and Vexen, an involuntary participant in Marluxia's plan. Zexion and Lexaeus, allies of Vexen, appear alone in Riku's journey. Ansem also appears in Riku's story as an existence within Riku, trying to gain control over him. Many of the Disney villains are also returning. Although they are based only on memories like the rest of the Disney characters, they have different motivations compared to their Kingdom Hearts counterparts.

history

Sora and his friends Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy Cricket are following a winding path when a mysterious man clad in a black hooded cloak appears and leads Sora towards a massive fortress called the Castle of Oblivion. When Sora enters, he meets the mysterious person again, who explains that you lost all your skills when you entered the castle. He makes a supply of cards from Sora's memories and those of his friends and tells them that everything they encounter in this castle will be based on their memories. The higher you get, the more memories you will lose through the lock process.

Sora climbs up in the castle and stands on the way against members of a mysterious group that controls the castle, called "Organization". As Sora begins to lose his memories, he gradually seems to remember a girl named Naminé as an old friend and learns from organization member Larxene that she is being held in the castle. He also collides with a replica of Riku, where both Sora and the replica believe he is the real Riku, created and controlled by another member of the organization, Vexen. Axel, a double agent for the organization, frees Naminé and allows her to meet Sora. Sora realizes that it is Naminé who is manipulating his memories after he was forced to do so by Marluxia, lord of the Castle Oblivion, as part of his plan with Larxene to overthrow the rest of the organization. Sora reaches the top of the tower and defeats Marluxia and the other members of the organization. Afterwards, Naminé puts Sora and his friends in pod-like machines to regain the memories they lost in the castle, thereby forgetting all the events that happened in the castle. Before they go to sleep, Sora and Naminé promise to meet again as real friends. Sora firmly believes that his memories of her and the castle will stay in his heart, despite being forgotten.

In "Reverse / Rebirth" Riku was transported from the realm of darkness and fights his inner darkness as he fights his way up from the basement of the Castle of Oblivion. Vexen fights Riku to create his data for his replica, opposing Marluxia's plan. Ansem, who had previously taken over Riku's body, tries to regain control of Riku, but this is constantly thwarted with King Mickey's support. On the way there, fight and defeat Riku Lexaeus, a member of the Organization and an ally of Vexen, only to be drawn back into the realm of darkness. However, he is saved by King Mickey when Ansem almost manages to win Riku's body as his own. Since Marluxia is history by this point, another of Vexen's allies, Zexion, tries to drown Riku in light. Riku is rescued by Naminé, who disguised himself as Kairi, who helps him to control his darkness, with which he finally defeats Zexion. A little later, Riku meets DIZ, an enigmatic person who is interested in Riku and sends him on a search for Naminé. Riku's replica, which has since learned from her changed memories and is now trying to justify its existence, fights against Riku only to be destroyed by him. When Naminé gave Riku the choice of closing the darkness in his heart together with the memories of it forever, Riku decided to fight Ansem, for which he received a card from DIZ with which he can lure Ansem out of himself. So Riku finally defeats Ansem and he then embarks on a journey with King Micky as his companion, in which he uses both his darkness and his light.

Development and marketing

The idea for an intertitle was developed after director Tetsuya Nomura and his team had already started to develop ideas for the second Kingdom Hearts game, which was to be played a year after the original. Originally devised under the title Kingdom Hearts: Lost Memories , Nomura changed the title to match the general outline of the story while still reflecting the theme of the memories. Chain of Memories is designed to bridge the gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II . Like most sequels, Kingdom Hearts II was planned so that the characters should start again from the beginning, without having any skills. To explain the loss of skills gained in the previous game, Nomura made up the story of Sora's memories, which initially got mixed up, and implemented the card battle system to symbolize Sora's various memories.

Nomura was reluctant to develop a Kingdom Hearts game for the Game Boy Advance because he felt that the 3D graphics of the original game would not translate well into 2D. But after hearing that the kids would like to play a Kingdom Hearts game for the GBA, he changed his mind. After the initial ideas for the gameplay, he felt that a Kingdom Hearts game in 2D was possible and that it would still feel and play exactly the same as the original. In the meantime, Nomura wanted to give the game a "lighter tone" than the PlayStation 2 games.

Chain of Memories was announced along with Kingdom Hearts II at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2003 . The first details included the implementation of the 2D graphics, the use of a map to attack and also how compressed films were used in some cutscenes . The animated cutscene were doing with the graphics engine of the PlayStation 2 rendered Iteration and then for the Game Boy Advance by using a technology that was developed by the Japanese company AM3, decoded. A first playable demo was available at the Jump Festa 2003 in Japan. This and subsequent demos had the card-based combat system as the main theme. Aside from a few images from the opening sequence, most of the details about the game's story were kept secret until it was released.

Chain of Memories' map-based combat system later served as the inspiration for the gameplay for Jupiter's next game, The World Ends with You . The development team had originally planned a similar card game-based system on the lower screen of the Nintendo DS , but eventually expanded it into a combat system on both screens, with the combat on the upper screen following a card game scheme.

New edition and merchandising

As with its predecessor, a lot of merchandise was produced in advance of the game's release. Square Enix also released two products on the same day as the game. The first was a special limited edition bundle released only in Japan that consisted of the game, a gray Game Boy Advance SP with the Kingdom Hearts logo, and a shoulder strap. The second was a Kingdom Hearts - Trading Card Game by Takara Tomy , which consisted of starter decks, play mats and booster packs. Fantasy Flight Games later acquired the rights to distribute it in English-speaking countries. In 2007, a remake of the game for the PlayStation 2 was published under the title Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories , which was available in Japan together with the game Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix in a package. A manga series based on the game has been released in Japan and the United States. A three-part novel series based on the game was also published, the first two dealing with Sora's journey and the last one with Riku's journey. Similar to the Final Fantasy games or the first Kingdom Hearts game, Square published an Ultimania book, something like a solution book , for the game. In the USA, Brady Games published a solution book for the game, which among other things contains a comprehensive complete solution.

Remake

Logo of the remake

To Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was titled Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories is developing a remake for the PlayStation. 2 In Japan the game was released on March 29, 2007 together with the final mix game for Kingdom Hearts II in one package, and in the USA on December 2, 2008 as a single game. It was not released in Europe or Australia at first, but since September 2013 it has been available in the KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 ReMIX collection for the PlayStation 3 . The game has been re-designed for this in 3D computer graphics with voice output and music and contains the same graphics for the worlds as in Kingdom Hearts . While it incorporates the same card combat system, some new stuff, like the action commands from Kingdom Hearts II , has been added. Scenes with dubbing only appear in Castle Oblivion, the Isle of Fate and Twilight Town. The remake also includes new cutscenes and battles.

Manga

Like the first Kingdom Hearts game, Chain of Memories was also adapted as a manga by Shiro Amano . The story follows the plot of the game. In Japan it was published in two parts by Gangan Comics, while in the US it was published by Tokyopop . The first part was released in Japan on October 22, 2005 and in the USA on October 10, 2006. The subsequent game, Kingdom Hearts II , was also adapted as a manga.

Web links

Individual evidence

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  3. ^ G4 - Feature - Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Review . In: G4TV.com . Archived from the original on January 4, 2006. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
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  13. Zexion: "That was Marluxia, master of this castle." Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  14. a b Donald: “Let's see what effect my magic has on him. Lightning! Huh? Strange. Lightning! Lightning! Uh ... fire! Ice? I do not understand that. Why don't my spells work? "; Marluxia: “That’s obvious. When you entered the castle, you forgot every spell and ability. But forgetting is not just limited to that. Here to find means to lose and to find to lose. This is the divide here in the Castle of Oblivion. “ Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  15. Marluxia: “This is not the reality. This city is just an illusion that comes from your memories in this map. ” Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  16. Vexen: "When we fought, I went deep into your memories ... ... and look what I found. This is a card from the memories on the back of your heart. " Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  17. Craig Harris: Square-Enix continues its Disney-based adventure on the GBA . In: IGN.com . October 3, 2003. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  18. Marluxia: “Go, Sora. To lose and find again, or to find only to lose again. ” Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  19. Sora: "What is ... that? Is that mine? "; Larxene: “Ts, ts. You've been wearing that the whole time, forgot? No how could you. The memory is burned into your heart. Think, Sora. What could the trailer be about? Who gave it to you? ”Sora:“ Well… well… mi…? ”; Larxene: “That's good! Free the memory from your heart! ”Sora:“ Nami… Naminé ” Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  20. Axel: “Right, your big plan. Naminé gradually plants new memories into Sora, turning him into her puppet. Then you and Larxene use Naminé and Sora to take over the organization. I'm right? So YOU ​​are the traitor, Marluxia, and not me. ”Marluxia:“ Since when have you been suspicious of us? ”; Axel: “Does any of us even have the heart to believe someone?” Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  21. Donald: "Do we have to sleep in here to get our memories back?"; Naminé: “You can do it. It may take a while, but I'll take care of you. ”; Goofy: "But when we wake up we don't remember you ..." Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  22. Sora: “When I wake up again, I'll look for you. And then there won't be any lies. We'll be real friends then. Promise me, Naminé. "; Naminé: “But you will forget your promise.”; Sora: “If the chain of memories breaks, the pieces will still be there, right? So the memory of our promise will still be there somewhere. I am sure."; Naminé: “Yes, you are right. Okay, it's a promise. " Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  23. Riku: "Uhhh ... Where ... where am I." [...] Riku: "The King! Where is he? Together we closed the door to darkness and then ... “ Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  24. Ansem: “You are weak. You need the darkness. Submit to the darkness and bow to me! ”; Riku: “Out of the question.”; Ansem: "Only the darkness can help you now."; Micky: "You're wrong!" Riku: "That voice ...! Your Majesty, is it you? ”; Micky: "Of course! Riku, you are not alone. Listen to me now, Riku. The light will never give up on you. You will always find it, even in the deepest darkness. ” Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  25. DIZ: “You are something special. You exist between light and shadow, in the semi-darkness. I want you to meet Naminé and then make up your mind. ” Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  26. Micky: "Your darkness is yours. Just like your light. Until now, I always thought that darkness was just bad. But through my time with you I see it differently now. You chose a path I never thought of. Light and shadow, back to back. You mix them together. I want to see where this is going. And if you agree, I want to go this way with you. ” Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
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  33. Jump Festa 2003 Report . 1UP.com. Archived from the original on February 12, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 21, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.1up.com
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  40. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Official Strategy Guide . In: Brady Games . Archived from the original on April 14, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 21, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bradygames.com
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  45. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix + - RE: Chain of Memories ( Japanese ) Retrieved April 21, 2012.
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