Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Review

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (pronounced 358 days over 2) for the DS is the newest installment of the extremely popular series that combines Final Fantasy and Disney characters in the same universe. This game, taking place between the second and third installments attempts to clear up the history of some of the lesser known but still crucial characters, and fill in the 358 day gap that was missing in the now continuous story line. This Kingdom Hearts, like every other game before it contains the basic concepts of the series but introduces aspects that make it unique in it's own way.

Returning aspects are the battle system, item collection, and multiple worlds you'll visit in your game. The game is still at heart, the same. You'll run through with your keyblade, bringing down any heartless you see in order to achieve your goal in the game. The fighting starts out pretty slow, but as you progress you will get new abilities that will both make you stronger and improve the overall fighting experience. Things like being able to jump higher, glide, air dash, upgraded magic, and better combos are among these upgrades. The overall progression of the game, which has been the same in every game, has the player going from world to world, interacting with the characters, and completing an objective. The sad thing is that although this may be fun for people who are rather new to the series, veterans may find this a bit redundant because no new worlds are added to this game and there's only so many times you can talk with the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland without wanting to strike him down with your all powerful weapon. The concept of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" may be a useful philosophy but updating the lineup of worlds you can visit isn't the same as fixing. Item collection also makes a triumphant return and is still a welcome addition to the game play. The beauty of the Kingdom Hearts series and most Square-Enix games for that matter is that there are multiple incentives to just run around fighting more bad guys. Since it is a role-playing game fighting helps you level up but it also gives you items or money (spelled munny in the Kingdom Hearts franchise) that are necessary to power up your character even further. It adds more depth to the game which helps take away from having to do the same routine, different world throughout all 30 hours of the game.

Some brand new features that were added to the game include the leveling up system, upgrading magic, missions, and multiplayer which is a first for the series. The most prominent of these additions is the mission aspect of the game. Because you will be playing a different character for the first time in the series, the way you go about the levels isn't entirely the same. Roxas, the main character, works for an organization in the game and because of this he is given missions to complete every day. For 93 missions straight almost all you'll be doing is waking up into a common area that acts as headquarters where you can take care of any customization, receiving you mission, completing your mission, and then repeating the same thing over and over again. It's basically like having a job, and even though killing heartless and taking names may be the coolest job in the world, it is still a job in which you do the same general task every day. I personally would've liked to see some adversity in the sense of these missions but there are some features that take away from this somewhat negative aspect. Instead of just fighting until you get level ups and leveling up until you get new abilities, there is a panel system which almost acts like a distant relative of Tetris. Every level up, ability, magic, weapon, and equipment all contain there specifically shaped blocks that must be arranged and fitted into this grid in order to use them during battle. There are also various panels that level up your abilities, magic, and weapons which can be linked to the corresponding slot in order to upgrade them even further. While this may seem as a last minute addition to the game that is more annoying than helpful, I found this to take up the perfect amount of time from game play and actually helped by breaking up the repetitiveness of the game. Because of this system, the magic upgrades are also different. Instead of blizzard turning into blizzara, then into blizzaga, each is there own panel which can be leveled up and by doing this, each tier of magic has its own effects. One may just be a blast of that element, one may be a radial spell that hits everyone in the area, and one may be a mine in which you place for your enemies to run into. This adds even more customization to a game that already contains a plethora of it. The last big change brought to the series is multiplayer which no one can logically complain about. You play through the exact same missions as you would in story mode, but with up to three other friends and nineteen playable characters. The group can either work together to complete a mission and receive points that go towards unlockable items in the main story or you can concentrate on competing against each other to see who gets the most points in the mission. Either way, multiplayer plays extremely well and is a must for any fan of the series.

The main thing to know about this game, and the reason that this review didn't focus on regular topics touched upon in a review such as graphics and re-playability, is because this is not a game for newcomers. If you're playing this game then you should know most if not all of the Kingdom Hearts story up until this point. There is no introduction, no brief summary, and no exposition. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is not the opportune game to jump in the Kingdom Hearts series, period. Square-Enix expects you to have played the other games and so for the sake of this review, so do I. To put to rest any remaining questions though, the graphics are very impressive for a DS. Some of the cinema scenes are on the same level of some from the original game, and the re-playability is at a very acceptable level with multiplayer and unlockables. The only thing keeping this game from receiving a perfect score is it's repetitiveness. Even being a long time, die-hard fan of the series, I had to force myself through some of the missions so I could finish the story. All in all though, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a great game that both clears up a lot of unanswered questions about the series and brings an abundant amount of exciting new features to the series. I'm giving it 4 stars out of 5.