It should also be mentioned that CoM is the most invested Sora is in defeating the main antagonist. Fighting Ansem SoD, Xemnas and even Xehanort are kind of equivalent to chores to Sora, just something that would be nice of him to do, but the outright contempt in Sora’s expression when he beats Marluxia in CoM is unparalelled. This is a man that robbed him of basically everything, messed with his entire identity and fucked Sora up to an almost irreversible state, Xemnas could never.
It's funny that even fighting Saix didn't 😊get that response. With how incredibly hateful Sora was towards Nobodies as a concept in KH2, and Saix making it personal with Kairi (and unknowingly being INCREDIBLY abusive towards the Sea Salt trio), AND Roxas being in Sora... Sora should have gone absolutely mental towards Saix. Like how he beat Davy Jones with his bare hands lol
you could also see it as Sora slowly losing himself, the fact that he got angrier despite his personality really shows the effect of losing his memories.
This is what the main games lacked, or at least had so little if it had. Also, I loved Sora's interactions with Donald and Goofy here. It shows a deeper level of their friendship when the three showed anger and frustration at each other but at thw same timw also giving each other love and support as they slowly lose their memories.
@@blaze-kz7nz My absolute favorite moment is when you go up to the final floor where Donald proclaims that he is scared of what they might face. The three always promise to look out after each other but what really makes that scene for me is the fact that the fear of the unknown is truly gripping the party creating a very deep sense of terror along with the fact of the worry, concern, and silent panic amongst the party for how much they lost. That while Donald, and Goofy amongst there mythos have encountered fear it was for the most part topical this though this is not a topical fear this is a true feeling of dread of what will happen to them if they don't succeed if there is even a chance to succeed for them in there eyes. Donald is very flamboyant and outgoing, but to see him like that Ill be honest is incredibly disheartening, thankfully this promise gives a sense of certainty and faith that the party lacked. And the reward for that promise is the omnidirectional full screen non elemental nuke, known as trinity limit. This is arguably the best ally based slight in the game and that is besides just its power Donald, and Goofy are always with Sora that this slight can be used pretty much anywhere to boot.
Basically, this canonically means that Aqua invented the card system of Castle Oblivion as a method of confusing trespassers and making navigation within its halls even more impossible than it already would have been.
I remember my partner and I went to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World of Tres concert when it came to NYC, and the person they had both to give general announcements and to act as the translator for Yoko Shimomura (*yes, she was there, and she played piano in the encore, and it was amaziiiiiiiiing*) said "Kingdom of Hearts" nearly every time he had to say the name of the series. Everyone would groan or clown on him when it happened, but then at one point, he finally said "Kingdom Hearts." And all rejoiced. He did it again! Further merriment! And then finally, the final time...he got it wrong once more, but by that point no one really cared enough to knock him for it.
8:53 Pat literally describes the exact way I feel about Pokémon and Assassins Creed while I mindlessly play Pokémon and listen to his podcast style video. This is more meta than Verum Rex
18:55 Actually Kingdom Hearts Union X brings up this very point again, by saying that even though all the Dandilion's memories of the drama and rifts leading up to The Keyblade War, along with The Keyblade War itself were all erased the scars on their hearts remained.
Necro replying, buy this was also Young Xehanorts whole deal. He had to come forward in time to experience his master plan so it would remain engraved on his heart even though he lost his memories when he returned to his time.
I'm really glad CoM turned out so inversely-themed compared to the "lighter tone" Tetsuya Nomura originally had planned. The themes and moments you described, like the overarching, yet intimate air of psychological oppression hanging over Sora and company as they progress through Castle Oblivion, (where Sora, Donald and Goofy actually _talk_ more to each other), the plotting and intrigue of the Organization (Zexion is my favorite), the disturbing, emotional plight of Riku Replica coming to terms with his tumultuous existence...I love it all.
Chain Of Memories is amazing. I Love the gameplay, the story, the music, the worlds, the cards, EVERYTHING..! In my personal opinion, this game is an absolute masterpiece..! 😍
I recently started replaying CoM on my old gameboy advanced after hearing you mention it was underrated in a different video, and now I’m blown away at how I never realized that CoM has the most character interaction between Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
It really does! Even in 1, which I love, there's a steep drop off after Deep Jungle, and in 2 and 3 it's mostly just quips and inconsequential scenes, barring a few moments.
I loved this analysis, mostly because you actually took the time to consider the context we received it in! I feel like it's easy to talk down on the game while forgetting how pivotal this game was to the overarching storyline -- not only by being the first true sequel to the OG KH, but also by being the first introduction to the organization, and the first game to center Riku as a secondary protagonist (not to mention replica technology, and how serious "being connected" can be in the KH universe), all with only 10 buttons and a 3.5" screen! This made me super excited to replay this game, although I think I might give the original GBA version a spin this time, since I've only ever played ReCoM before! (Side note, it took me until watching this video to realize why Axel controls assassin nobodies -- I must've forgotten how ruthless he is in this game after playing 358 too much...)
Glad you enjoyed! Yeah I think it's such an important piece to the puzzle that gets overlooked because of the card stuff. There are some fun little differences in CoM that I totally forgot about! I recently remembered that the whole post-Lexaeus battle sequence plays out entirely differently in CoM than ReCoM.
Really well thought out video. Chain of Memories I have a soft spot for. Can't entirely blame the mediocre overall reception for it but I don't think enough people give it a chance mostly due its combat. To be fair I didn't for a while either but it eventually clicked with me.
Amazing video overall. I always appreciated CoM as one of the best storylines in the series. Things like suddenly remembering Namine are presenting in such a way that when see through the eyes of an adult feels like a repressed memory of the death of a friend. One thing not many people discuss is how com and ddd are REALLY similar in many aspects, specially how both serve as interquels to present elements for the next big installment. And in these regards, com does extremely good and ddd fails completely. Whereas ddd totally spoils out most of the plot and motivations for KH3, com introduces us with many concepts that are later expanded in KH2 and at the same time does not tell us anything of what is the organization in the first place, their goal, their members, how Namine or diz fit into everything... It would be worth a more in deep analysis of the matter.
Since Dark Road also has card combat & Eraqus technically is the "master" of the Land of Departure / Castle Oblivion, maybe he decided people who walk upon this sealed off land will have to fight with cards, to make their traversal harder?
You're so clear in how you express your thoughts on CoM and I often found myself laughing at some point ya made and agreeing to some statement because I'd never heard it expressed that way before. Such a great video; love it when you upload
I remember loving COM, but then again I really like procedurally-generated dungeons in games, especially when you have a part in constructing the world map. The story held up really well for a GBA game, and the second story was an absolute surprise and a ton of fun. I hope I can find a copy again and play through at least one more time. Edit: the “murder” is the part that was really intriguing. I played COM after KH2, so I was wondering why not all the members of OrgXIII were there. Turns out they were dead. Unfortunately, that had to all be taken away in 3D and KH3, but I’m sure that wasn’t the plan way back when Org members were assasinating one another.
@@Mqstodon idk. I’m almost done replaying COM and will get to 358/2 Days sometime this year. I just don’t recall it being address how killing OrgXIII members helps if they’re going to come back anyway. I haven’t finished BBS or KH3, so maybe I’m missing something. Still, the story still felt solid before anyone knew they’d come back.
Your intro really hit me. I vividly remember seeing that commercial and being so excited for this game. I would even reread this Disney Adventures magazine that had an article on the game daily. I recently got a copy with the box, manual and all for a great price and I’ll never let it go again 🥲
I think you're right! I played with my brother the Kingdom Hearts games, when we were kids. We both were hyped about that game. I would never forget this moment, when I exactly (well I thought it, when the other games were not released yer) knew what happened to Sora when Kingdom Hearts II came out and I thought it confused many people who didn't play Chain of Memories. That was an epic moment... It really had a good frustrating plot. You can fully enjoy that game series when you're in the situation with the plot... *sniffes about the Ending of BBS and 358/2 days even if I rewatched these scenes countless times*
I can clearly remember how it all started for me: I was 7 or 8 years old when I got my hands on Kingdom Hearts 1. It was an Easter gift from my Uncle (Who introduced me to Final Fantasy as well). I remember absolutely loving this game and being stunned by this mix of Disney characters and Final Fantasy. When I approached the end of elementary school my parents proposed a deal: "If your grades are good enough at the end of elementary school, you'll get the Kingdom Hearts CoM Gameboy Advance SP with the game". Needless to say, I was driven by the desire to get my hands on a new Kingdom Hearts game and tried my best.....But I failed. Initally my parents told me "Well, tough luck." But they were kind enough to let the whole thing stand there in the living room. Every time I had the opportunity (When they went grocery shopping or something), I'd rush to the living room, get the Gameboy out of the packaging and play CoM, with one eye watching the window to see when they returned. After a while they simply handed the gameboy to me. Kingdom Hearts changed my entire life and made it better. Some people say video games are for kids and adults have "better things to do". But remember: Time you enjoyed spending with something is not wasted. Keep on, bois.
I love this game. Everything about it is what is perfect about experimentation; not everyone will be happy - but you can be damn sure people will remember your work in the future
I only played through GBA COM once and the feeling of pure wonder was only matched by the first game. This game toes the line between “fun friendly adventure” and “Watership Down death scenes” beautifuly.
I played the GBA but didn't grow to like CoM until Re:CoM. I even enjoyed the battle system; it's definitely one of those "it grows on you" type of deals. Your point about CoM being character-driven instead of plot-driven is spot on. It's why I grew to like the Organization in the first place. To the point that I wanted that Roxas game because I had thought we get _more_ of both him and CoM's Org members (a disappointment I'm still not over to this day). While Sora and Riiku's story had mostly went over my head, the more I look at it, the more the I like it. It truly shows where Nomura's strengths lie; not in the grand overarching plot, but the mystery, the characters within it and their development. He's great at weaving a tale together that is subtle and vague enough you could have different interpretations and they'd all be correct. It's a shame the games after this are bogged down by plot. We need another game like this, where the characters are the focus, not some old man's supervillain plan with a thousand backups or Disney.
I started playing through Re:CoM recently again and I think at one point in the lower floors they contextualize, indirectly, the attack abilities and Worlds being cards by those being his drawn memories pulled out by Naminé and that he needs to literally look at them to remember how to do those attacks, spells, summons, and what those worlds were like because he literally can't focus his mind due to the "amnesiac fog" that he's had since stepping into the Castle. Like, you going through a world after raising the world card up is actually just Sora doing the mental acrobatics to truly remember the details of his time in that place which is why characters don't remember their lines or certain things are much more of a slow process than they genuinely were in KH1. This is also why it would be easy to place in new memories about Naminé and worlds he's never seen. I think while Naminé has general control over Sora's memory, I don't think it's as powerful as most people think. I think she can only "unweave" memories so they don't seem as tangible which would then make your mind foggy, kind of like a moment of personal disassociation but longer-term until she weaves them back together on her own time as she does in KH2 for Roxas (and for a little while with Xion in Days but thats because her presence was overpowering Roxas as you know). So, when the memories are foggy placing in a new element by simply having someone question if they knew someone or a place would be extremely easy. Basically, the overarching premise of CoM is about how relationships can be toxic and gaslighting. Which is extremely dark to think about, especially in the context of this happy go lucky series about how the relationships you have can make you stronger against the trials of your heart and how bad it can be to follow just logic. I'm like... the only person who puts this much thought into Kingdom Hearts besides you. I honestly should make a video about my thoughts at some point.
i find it very interesting to view a positive perspective to chain of memories, most people I see dont like it, and I personally do not enjoy it, so seeing the positives has been very eye opening, great video.
playing re:com for the first time a few months ago in the hd collection was such a blast. i had ALWAYS heard bad things about it and enjoyed setting up an overpowered deck and having to build new ones to out maneuver the stupid hard bosses. it’s very enjoyable even though it’s gameplay is sorta bland lol
I played the GBA game as a kid and the story kept me going. It was a real thrill experiencing the subterfuge, deception, and plot twists. I remember enjoying the gameplay well enough but I also recall the frustration of many of the bosses like Maleficent and Vexen. I remember getting bored of Re:CoM, couldn’t bring myself to finish Castle Oblivion with Sora. Maybe just using the same sleights like tornado didn’t help as I was unwilling to experiment with my load outs, so I’m willing to give the game another shot and just enjoy the story.
I literally just finished Riku's story in Re:CoM and while the battle style could get annoying, the thing I hated the most was trying to get the next map card so that I could actually continue the story. It drove me mad
Re: Chain of Memories has actually grown on me quite a bit recently. At first, I tried the game as I went through the 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMix on PS4 and the card-based battle system just did not click with me. Because of this, I dropped the game because I thought I knew the gist of the game’s narrative from various TH-cam videos and went straight on to 358/2 Days and KHII. However, more recently as I began to play Melody of Memory I figured that I should probably finish playing Re: CoM so that the parts of MoM that focused on Re: CoM would resonate with me the way they were supposed to and in order to avoid potential spoilers. When I returned to my Re: CoM save file, the game’s battle system was still quite frustrating to me (especially regarding the Trickmaster boss). However, once I got the hang of the battle system, sleights, and got more engrossed in the game’s story and characters, the game got a lot more enjoyable for me. Because of this, I managed to play it pretty much every day that I could until I finished both story campaigns. Doing this, as you might expect, recontextualized characters like Riku and Namine for me, helping me to better appreciate those characters, their narrative arcs in the series, along with Riku’s dynamic and comradery with King Mickey in this and future games. Overall, Re: Chain of Memories really grew on me and now I consider it quite the “hidden gem” in the Kingdom Hearts series. If you haven’t gotten a chance to play/finish it, I would highly recommend doing so. Though the card battle system can be jarring at first, I found that it becomes much more enjoyable once you get the hang of it.
I played it on GBA. It was nice cause you could hit like 5 enemies at once. Couldn't do that with the 3d version. Axel was far more savage than on the later games too.
I think the mystery and intrigue in COM is also what makes 358/2 Days so impactful as an entrance to the series. When I first played the game as a child I had no clue what was going on, but neither did Roxas, so I got to feel that confusion, frustration, and terrifying realization along with him. That emotional would've been lessened if they had tried to explain things more than they did.
I remember getting this game for Christmas the year it came out. It was one my first Gameboy Advance games next to Pokemon Sapphire and Donkey Kong Country.
I’ve tried the gameplay on two occasions (once on a gba emulator and once on the PS4) and got to the point where I hit a wall as I’m not good about watching my deck, keeping track of cards and eye on the enemy. I admire the effort of the devs but I feel it would’ve been better to just make a traditional turn based RPG. Though I do plan or replaying KH1 soon and maybe I’ll give chain of memories another go after that Regardless I love the story. It cemented Riku as my favorite character. Made Sora more developed, introduced Axel and the organization. Also Namine is best girl in the franchise without hesitation
Yeah i guess im sold. I guess that game informer review way back when shaped my opinion of a game in a series tha, at the point that I read the article (like 10-13 YO),was great in game in story and game play and would have its ups and downs. But seeing as how they did the same with BBS and Im about to replay it for the 4th or 5th time rn and the fact that this video really shed enough light to give me not only a good review as us fanbois enjoy, but also left some mystery to it. This is great for me as im at an age where I value story over gameplay when it comes to KH. Im glad this channel got recommended to me. You're great RealPat.
I never even know Chain of Memories existed for YEARS and being able to play a 3D version excites me. I’m currently at the devil boss in KH1 on my playthrough of the 6 mainline-ish games
Again a man of culture. CoM has always had a special place in my heart among the KH games. Like you stated, the intrigue and character interactions are amongst the best in the series, and I was truly pulled in by the 'mythos' of Castle Oblivion. The threat was small scale, yet hit closer to home. I genuinely became scared for Sora on my first playthrough when Oogie Boogie had a psychotic breakdown after unlocking his 'true memories'. Like KH1, IMO this game really made the Disney Worlds feel relevant to the story, if only to play on the growing dread or theme of diving deeper into the castle.
One of my favorite storylines in the franchise! Your views of this game exactly echo mine! I have a fuzzy memory of whether I started CoM or KH1 first. Because I remember feeling like I was missing out on some info when I started CoM, but I think I started KH1 very soon after. So they’re kinda overlapped in my memory. But yes the organization is at its best in this game!
Maybe everything is on cards because Nomine is associated with drawing and art? Cards often have drawn representations of people and things, so it could be Nomine physically inscribing memories, abilities, equipment, ect. on cards?
Going from KH1 to CoM I was RAGING. But once I figured out how to get the rhythm down and what I needed to do, it was one of the best experiences I've had with Kingdom Heats
After 18 years I finally beat the first Kingdom Hearts game, a game I was only teased with through my entire childhood. Got to play it here and there, but never the full thing. An absolutely fantastic experience, it feels like a missing part of my childhood and brings me back to being a kid again. I was invested in the story and characters so I dived right into Re Chain of Memories, but after an hour of gameplay I've come to the conclusion that it's one of the most un-fun games I've ever played. Watched all the cutscenes on TH-cam, love the story & characters, but that gameplay just killed it for me.
Wonderful video as always! CoM gets a lot of flack for its gameplay, and rightfully so at times. But I think what tends to influence a lot of discourse over the card system is personal player burnout, or at least that's what it was for me. My experience with Re:CoM was mostly positive through Sora's campaign, but then tanked in Riku's. But for the most part, it's not CoM's fault? It does what it should do in a NG+ and throws in new mechanics to keep you engaged, and Riku's premade decks are meant to be puzzled out on a world-by-world basis to keep things interesting. But as someone whose strategy it was to pop a Jafar card and then just whale on things, I found myself trying to brute force everything and then get upset when it didn't work. That's more on me than the game, though the barren Disney worlds certainly didn't make me want to take my time and not rush past them. Which, getting back to the main point of this video, makes me surprised that nobody talks about the Disney worlds in Sora's side. Everybody says that they're filler and skippable, but like you said, they're tied in to the story via their themes. You'd think that having actual Disney filler in the second playthrough would make that clearer, but I guess a lot of it really only comes into perspective on a replay. (Much like KH3's Disney worlds) And given the previously mentioned burnout, a lot of people probably didn't bother. That's really funny about it being meant to be "lighter than KH2", though. I wonder if there was some disconnect between thinking that if it doesn't involve the fate of the worlds meaning that it's lighter. CoM's story and especially its conflict is closely tied to its characters, one of the most so of the KH games. Or maybe being light was the original intent, but as the story developed, the characters took on a life of their own and the narrative transformed along with it. Idk. But whatever happened, I'm glad the story turned out the way it did. :)
Yeah the one thing I did like in Riku's campaign was the duel system, I think it can spice things up a bit, but that also just results in spamming cards, since that was always quicker than shuffling around and finding a high card. Great point about the KH3 Disney worlds too, a lot of these things are better served by a second playthrough. I am also glad they failed spectacularly at making this a light and care-free KH experience lmao
Tbh I think that could be a translation error or poor wording by Nomura. By “lighter story” I think he probably meant a smaller scale, more self contained story and not lighter in tone (I could be wrong, I’m just speculating but it would make more sense).
GBA CoM was my first KH game, so the repeat of disney worlds didnt matter to me. Also blizzard raid is just so satisfying to hit compared to RECoM. I played CoM so much I noticed they changed some of the dialogue, particularly where Axel says "It's about time you gave me one hell of a show" in CoM, they remove the curse word in RECoM. Totally agreed that the organization was super interesting here, this game and days together have some of the more captivating story to me just because it gives a clear picture of the entire organization. As opposed to II where half of them are dead off screen. Also playing as Riku was amazing and I wish we could in a mainline game for more than 5 mins. Good vid, keep it up!
Man I never really thought about CoM this way but it really was written so well. I like what you said about it being so enclosed that it forces everyone to talk to each other, it's something the other games don't get a chance to take advantage of but this really sells well. It's a case where I think the limitations worked out well; being limited to the GBA meant they had to do most of the story telling with just characters talking. As a kid it went over my head but now it's something I can really appreciate. Great video!
I have never been a fan of the gameplay of Re:CoM (never played the GBA version), but even as a child I was fascinated with the story. I remember when I finally beat both campaigns in my youth, I would occasionally go back to it and just binge the theater mode. I’d always go back to actually play Riku’s campaign because not having to think about organizing your deck was a relief, but I think it’s crazy how the story was much more thought provoking and was still able to really connect with us as dumb kids.
I’ve been replaying The kingdom hearts series as of late and I actually just finished chain of memories gba. I played the game as a kid and playing it again reminded me just how much I love the game. I think the gameplay is super fun and extremely unique, no other game out there tries to even come close. The fourth Riku fight feels a little bit cheap in my opinion and it was pretty shitty but other than that I enjoyed the game wholeheartedly. To be honest a couple of level ups really made even that fight easier.
@@RegularPat same I remember as a kid being stuck on that fight for an ENTIRE YEAR then I realized the only way to win was to spam zeroes when he about to do his dark aura move...this game really made kids strategize lol
I haven't seen much conversation on how good CoM was both as a GBA game and a narrative experience, so this was a fun video to see in my recommendations. In addition, it's just nice to hear someone mention how good the Organization was in this game. All the backstabbing and politicking made them the most compelling group of villains in the entire series, in my opinion, and gave them an proactive role in the plot. The KH2 members were fun bosses but they felt largely disconnected from what Sora was doing - people that just turned up to summon a heartless or occasionally fight. The twist related to defeating heartless benefiting them was cool, but it also gave the writers an excuse to just have the organisation as a whole sit back for most of the game when it came to what Sora was doing. Marluxia on the other hand was actively using Sora's journey against him, continuously gaslighting him more and more.
Okay, two details about Re:CoM that you may find interesting. 1. It was not originally intended to be released as a standalone title at all. It was included with the original KH2FM that was Japan-exclusive at the time. So, naturally they cut corners on that, since it was considered side-content. 2. When it was released states-side in 2008, it was released at $30. I bought it new at the time. It also included the extra cards that would have required you to beat KH2FM in Japan.
If they ever decide to introduce Triple Triad into Kingdom Hearts, Aqua should be the one to teach you. It would be such a cute character detail and add (for this series) a surprising amount of depth if she's a hobbyist card player.
Really appreciate this video. I started playing KH much later than most, at the age of 18. (When the 1.5 Final Mix collection was ported to the PS3) Really fell in love with the game, but story-wise, the first Kingdom Hearts didn’t do as much for me as it had for my girlfriend who grew up with these games. I was told CoM was “the annoying card game” and thus ignored it, instead opting to dust off the old PS2 and play KH2. Enjoyed KH2 and by this time I was also getting much more invested in the overall story. But I felt so much was missing in the interactions with Axel and the rest of the organization. (Especially since I wasn’t playing the final mix with all of its extra content) One day, both out of boredom and curiosity I booted up CoM and honestly, I think this game’s story hit the perfect sweet spot for me. The repetitive gameplay could get tiresome, but it was so incredibly worth it to reach the end of the stage for the boss battles and Organization cutscenes. And when you reach the final floor, the Castle Oblivion soundtrack is so hauntingly beautiful. Overall the story strikes this perfectly bleak existential tone that completely resonated with the person I was at that age. I felt so much closer to all of the characters in this game than I ever felt in the other games. this was really the game that solidified my love for the KH series as a whole and 8 years later I refuse to ever skip it again on subsequent play throughs. Other KH titles may have much better gameplay and world design. But Chain of Memories is my favorite KH story, bar none.
I didn't see any ads for it as a kid but I had a similar experience discovering COM. Happened to be in an Ebgames that I got all my games from and didn't get to very often. Saw it on a shelf, read the box and lost my shit as I realized I was not holding a shitty GBA version, I was technically holding Kingdom Hearts 2. I knew it obviously wasn't going to be the actual sequel (when it actually was and what an important one after all these years...damn it Nomura) and would just set up 2. But it still didn't matter when the existence of this shiny GBA box meant that Kingdom Hearts was now only part 1. That Part 2 wasn't just a far off dream (remember when 3 years felt like a long time for a numbered sequel? Good times) anymore. I had no idea how few questions would be answered and how many raised. After all, one who knows nothing can understand nothing. I played this game so many times waiting for 2. I 100% agree about the intrigue and mystery. COM managed to one up the original, though I feel it loses a lot of that in translation to 3d. RE:COM had 2's vibe, COM had 1's turned up to 11. COM Sora was my favorite version of him. Because that kid lost his fucking shit in COM and he had every reason to. Sora forgiving Namine showed why he's the big hero. Sora felt like a person here, not the bag of tropes he was in 2 and 3d (I love 2 but Roxas for Sora was big downgrade with how the two are written as main character in 2). 3 Sora though feels like he recaptured COM Sora's reality and believability, along with his goofy nature in 2. The best of both worlds. Riku mode...I don't care how much I dislike COM gameplay in 3d, worth it just to get his new Duel system. But it can't touch how utterly hype it was getting to use Riku's Dark mode in COM on Gba. Seeing Riku grow as a character, my biggest gripe with 3 Riku is that every character trait he had from this game (defining him from here til 3's start) is dropped. But yet COM Riku literally returns in a sense...twice...damn it Nomura. I could ramble about this game all day but you've done a far more cohesive and coherent job than I could already. So big agree.
Yo!!!! What a perfect sneaky ending line! I see what you did there. In the gba version, after freeing Namine, Axel muses about all the chaos he just caused and drops this line: "Hm hmm... Ha ha haaa! Now THIS should be good. All the actors are in place. Now, Sora! Naminé! Riku! Marluxia! Larxene! It's about time you gave me one hell of a show!"
On the note of Re:CoM's pricing when it was released. Re:CoM when it was released was packaged alongside the Final Mix for KH2 in Japan. When it hit the stores in NA however, it didn't retail at the full 60, but rather a still high 39.99 (40$). So while there was some acknowledgement that it wasn't as up to par with the other KH games, it was still a bit overpriced back then. Though 11-12 year old me was still making grabby hands at it anyway despite having played the GBA version because: "Oh wow they upgraded the GBA game to 3D! It must be better!"
I have a wonderful case of Stockholm Syndrome with the Combat in Chain of Memories. I have reached a point in my Kingdom Hearts lifetime, which is only slightly shorter than my regular lifetime, that I have played through the entirety of Re:COM maybe 4 or 5 times at this point? And i really do feel like it's really the kind of system that you can only enjoy once you've mastered it? it becomes a roadblock in trying to get other people fully invested in the series, and I literally told my partner when they arrived fresh off the KH1 ending that "if you can't get behind the sudden gameplay shift, we can just watch the cutscenes or I can just tell you everything, and we can just move on to KH2." no surprise what they chose.
Let's also not forget that Axel is not only the star of this show, but his counterpart is one of the funniest characters in the series, by far. I really did get him memorized...
It kinda makes me sad that people who get into the series nowadays will never know the true amazement of seeing that chain of memories commercial and realizing there was a new Kingdom Hearts game.
The story is amazing, but the game play is a desired taste that I just don't have enough to love, but just enough to still play, simply for being Kingdom Hearts, whenever I want to do the series, even if its still like pulling teeth.
GBA CoM was my first KH game. It was the newest at the time and I had zero clue wtf Kingdom Hearts was. So while I was very confused about all of the plot references to KH and the characters, I was absolutely enamored by the plot and the game as the whole. I fricking loved it and most of all, I loved Riku! The first time I saw him I was like "omg his darkness attacks are so cool and I want to be him!". His final boss fight was so hard for me, it took me so many attempts (I was 10 years old in 2004) and I'm pretty sure the GBA version is harder than ReCoM right? I haven't played it in so long. Anyways I beat the game, I freaking loved Marluxia too, I thought his pink scythe and long, pink hair was so cool. So I beat the final boss, feel a mystical euphoria listening to Simple and Clean and think "that was an amazing game!". And then I reload back to the main menu and... What's this... I CAN PLAY AN ENTIRE DIFFERENT STORYLINE AS RIKU???. I was amazed. I was so happy. I understand why a lot of fans look down on this game, but it will always be my favorite. The memory plot, the organization, Namine's theme, freaking RIKU MODE, etc. I will always cherish it.
ive always hated com, ive always struggled with this kind of gameplay, and ive never been that good at handling so many little different things all at once in real time battles, 2d or otherwise. i did try to play the original com ((on an emulator cause unfortunately zelda held my ass for the majority of my childhood)) and i did try to play recom, but i could never bring myself to make it past wonderland. it was frustrating, not what i was used to after playing so many other kh games, and i didnt have the energy to play it fully. that being said, i recently watched a full playthrough of recom and honestly? i vibe a lot with what youve said. the gameplay is different which isnt bad but i vastly prefer the bbs command deck style gameplay, and com is super overlooked, but watching these happy-go-lucky disney characters ascend through the castle and fight with such human problems and emotions really resonated with me. it made me uncomfortable at times ((in a really good way like a well written way)) and i was always on the edge of my seat when the organization appeared on screen. it was so mysterious and thrilling and engaging story that, maybe once im done with my kh streams, i might try out streaming recom again, and watching this video while winding down after work and after watching recom, its just been a really good time. anyways this is just a long winded way to say hey i vibed with your video and i liked it lots lmao
One addendum I would mention to this about the Organization is that, other than maybe Lexaeus, CoM does a better job characterizing it's cast than 2 does for their organization members. Even Zexion, who has probably the least screen time out of the six (especially in the GBA version) we can tell that he's meant to be a mirror of Marluxia. Smart, perspective, and delved in mystery, but instead of meticulously setting up events he allows his allies to test their own ideas and then goes for a pretty severe gut punch manipulation of his own. Compare this with II, and we don't get that with it's org members. We learn a lot about Axel, Roxas, and a surprising amount about Demyx as characters, but not so much with the others. Saix is a bit of a nothing character in II, Xemnas's third cutscenes he appears in is "You fool, I've been lying about everything" with little set up, Xigbar pretty much just existed to set up for future games, and we still barely know anything about Xaldin as a person. Now granted, II's Org members are no doubt much more memorable, but I believe that because of CoM's narrative design and more cerebral nature it allows it's villains more room to grow and develop than II's.
Man seeing axel after reno was so absent from ff7 rebirth, just makes it seem even more of a shame. He's such a great character definitely missed him in rebirth. And axel is essentially the same character just in kingdom hearts and he's just as great in kh.
The problem i have with CoM is it's too much. It asks for me to look for a card, while also being aware of my surroundings. and that is too much for me. Too many things for my tiny, smooth brain to pay attention to; The enemies hit me because im looking for a card, and my card wiffs because the enemy is not in range by the time i find it.
I'm still a little Salty that Looking Back at the KH Fanfiction History (i.e. Fanfics Released Around the time of CoM's Release and when it was out) NOBODY embraced that Game and Constantly Had labels on their Fics that Said "No CoM" its Sad...
I actually played recom like last year and i actually really like on my first play through. Probably cause i did it on easy but on the first riku playthrough i did it on proud and still liked iit lol
I remember as a kid getting stuck on my gameboy advance. Didnt have a lvl 9 key card in hallow bastion. Grinded for an hour or two then gave up. Played re:chain of memories 1.5/2.5 ps4 version. And...I likes it. I only played it on normal cause nothing to unlock at the end. I could see going back on proud CoM
Chain of Memories was the first kingdom hearts game I owned and beat, having only played kh1 in bits and pieces at friends' houses. And it spoiled the series for me, because CoM is a psychological horror in a kids' game's skin. Gaslighting, memory erasure, memory rewriting, identity crises, people being used as pawns, backstabbing, assassination, plots of treason. This was a game with nuance.
I still have a soft spot for this game mainly because I did enjoy the card based combat but also that this is the last game where boss battles gave out EXP
This is excellent. My first experience with Kingdom Hearts was the og COM, I had no idea what KH was and found the game inside my game pouch one day looking for something new. I have *no fucking idea* when or how I got it, I'd be playing PMD RRT and Sapphire for the past year straight, a bit of Spyro on the side, so finding Donald Duck, Goofy, and chris keyhole thorndyke in this giant church-gone-cult amnesia castle with spooky robe people and disney rewritten, the search for KING Mickey and Riku, the intrigue and insanity n the game itself were so cool!! I think the closest thing to Sora I knew was Goku at the time, shit was nuts to my nine year old self. Then he mentions he became a Heartless on the fifth floor conversation, and now I'm 21 replaying the series for the 2nd? time in full now on the switch.
To this day I still wish we'd get another KH game that used sprites like CoM. The aesthetic has always been one of my favorite things about the game, and it was something that I missed in Re:CoM. I admittedly also "ruined" the experience of the game, as I bought a used copy that already had Riku's story unlocked. So naturally, I was overcome with an urge to play as him so badly that I had the "Riku's just a replica" twist spoiled for me, and didn't even know enemy cards were a thing while playing it. Oops.
I never played the GBA very much my older brother never wanted to share. When Re:COM came out on PS2 I got it for like $25 at Walmart, but I still couldn't wrap my head around it. I didn't finish Re:COM until the week before KH3 came out. Once I wrapped my head around it I loved the combat and destroyed the game. I had already loved the story for COM because I love its manga!
wasnt te reason for the cards being inuniverse for the memory aspect, about how is memories are being taken and whatnot, and how how he will gradually get them back ?, also nice video
"Me, Riku...
...And Namine."
That was a very powerful moment for young me, especially because Sora says it with a total smile on his face.
Yep, it's a chilling moment
It should also be mentioned that CoM is the most invested Sora is in defeating the main antagonist. Fighting Ansem SoD, Xemnas and even Xehanort are kind of equivalent to chores to Sora, just something that would be nice of him to do, but the outright contempt in Sora’s expression when he beats Marluxia in CoM is unparalelled. This is a man that robbed him of basically everything, messed with his entire identity and fucked Sora up to an almost irreversible state, Xemnas could never.
In terms of story and Soras Characterisation its all downhill from there
It's funny that even fighting Saix didn't 😊get that response.
With how incredibly hateful Sora was towards Nobodies as a concept in KH2, and Saix making it personal with Kairi (and unknowingly being INCREDIBLY abusive towards the Sea Salt trio), AND Roxas being in Sora... Sora should have gone absolutely mental towards Saix.
Like how he beat Davy Jones with his bare hands lol
@@zachanikwano I forgot about the Davy Jones scene, now I'm on the floor rolling!
I like that Sora got pissed off and frustrated as the story progressed, it makes him more human.
I always liked that the game ends with Sora just straight up killing a dude
you could also see it as Sora slowly losing himself, the fact that he got angrier despite his personality really shows the effect of losing his memories.
This is what the main games lacked, or at least had so little if it had. Also, I loved Sora's interactions with Donald and Goofy here. It shows a deeper level of their friendship when the three showed anger and frustration at each other but at thw same timw also giving each other love and support as they slowly lose their memories.
@@blaze-kz7nz My absolute favorite moment is when you go up to the final floor where Donald proclaims that he is scared of what they might face. The three always promise to look out after each other but what really makes that scene for me is the fact that the fear of the unknown is truly gripping the party creating a very deep sense of terror along with the fact of the worry, concern, and silent panic amongst the party for how much they lost.
That while Donald, and Goofy amongst there mythos have encountered fear it was for the most part topical this though this is not a topical fear this is a true feeling of dread of what will happen to them if they don't succeed if there is even a chance to succeed for them in there eyes. Donald is very flamboyant and outgoing, but to see him like that Ill be honest is incredibly disheartening, thankfully this promise gives a sense of certainty and faith that the party lacked. And the reward for that promise is the omnidirectional full screen non elemental nuke, known as trinity limit. This is arguably the best ally based slight in the game and that is besides just its power Donald, and Goofy are always with Sora that this slight can be used pretty much anywhere to boot.
Sora seeing a guy be murdered: what are you people!?
Sora 5 minutes later: all the other kids with pumped up kicks
Basically, this canonically means that Aqua invented the card system of Castle Oblivion as a method of confusing trespassers and making navigation within its halls even more impossible than it already would have been.
Hey, whatever keeps Ven safe.
"What the heck is a Kingdom of Hearts?!" Haha! My dad would always call it "Kingdom of Hearts"
I remember my partner and I went to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World of Tres concert when it came to NYC, and the person they had both to give general announcements and to act as the translator for Yoko Shimomura (*yes, she was there, and she played piano in the encore, and it was amaziiiiiiiiing*) said "Kingdom of Hearts" nearly every time he had to say the name of the series. Everyone would groan or clown on him when it happened, but then at one point, he finally said "Kingdom Hearts." And all rejoiced. He did it again! Further merriment! And then finally, the final time...he got it wrong once more, but by that point no one really cared enough to knock him for it.
My sister also calls it “Kingdom of Hearts”
Same my mom did the same thing!
All of these people must be dysfunctional at spelling then. Lol
@Bau Cap. I remember that scene lol, then Goku goes super keyblade master and kills 1000 heartless
8:53 Pat literally describes the exact way I feel about Pokémon and Assassins Creed while I mindlessly play Pokémon and listen to his podcast style video. This is more meta than Verum Rex
this game is just organization xiii gaslighting sora and its great
18:55 Actually Kingdom Hearts Union X brings up this very point again, by saying that even though all the Dandilion's memories of the drama and rifts leading up to The Keyblade War, along with The Keyblade War itself were all erased the scars on their hearts remained.
That's interesting! I have a very fuzzy sense of awareness when it comes to Union X so thank you for sharing that!
Necro replying, buy this was also Young Xehanorts whole deal. He had to come forward in time to experience his master plan so it would remain engraved on his heart even though he lost his memories when he returned to his time.
I'm really glad CoM turned out so inversely-themed compared to the "lighter tone" Tetsuya Nomura originally had planned.
The themes and moments you described, like the overarching, yet intimate air of psychological oppression hanging over Sora and company as they progress through Castle Oblivion, (where Sora, Donald and Goofy actually _talk_ more to each other), the plotting and intrigue of the Organization (Zexion is my favorite), the disturbing, emotional plight of Riku Replica coming to terms with his tumultuous existence...I love it all.
Chain Of Memories is amazing.
I Love the gameplay, the story, the music, the worlds, the cards, EVERYTHING..!
In my personal opinion, this game is an absolute masterpiece..! 😍
I recently started replaying CoM on my old gameboy advanced after hearing you mention it was underrated in a different video, and now I’m blown away at how I never realized that CoM has the most character interaction between Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
It really does! Even in 1, which I love, there's a steep drop off after Deep Jungle, and in 2 and 3 it's mostly just quips and inconsequential scenes, barring a few moments.
thank you for helping sustain my kingdom hearts hyperfixation.
I loved this analysis, mostly because you actually took the time to consider the context we received it in! I feel like it's easy to talk down on the game while forgetting how pivotal this game was to the overarching storyline -- not only by being the first true sequel to the OG KH, but also by being the first introduction to the organization, and the first game to center Riku as a secondary protagonist (not to mention replica technology, and how serious "being connected" can be in the KH universe), all with only 10 buttons and a 3.5" screen! This made me super excited to replay this game, although I think I might give the original GBA version a spin this time, since I've only ever played ReCoM before!
(Side note, it took me until watching this video to realize why Axel controls assassin nobodies -- I must've forgotten how ruthless he is in this game after playing 358 too much...)
Glad you enjoyed! Yeah I think it's such an important piece to the puzzle that gets overlooked because of the card stuff.
There are some fun little differences in CoM that I totally forgot about! I recently remembered that the whole post-Lexaeus battle sequence plays out entirely differently in CoM than ReCoM.
"Kingdom of Hearts Chain Memories? Wut that?"
-Your dad, not mine
Really well thought out video. Chain of Memories I have a soft spot for. Can't entirely blame the mediocre overall reception for it but I don't think enough people give it a chance mostly due its combat. To be fair I didn't for a while either but it eventually clicked with me.
Amazing video overall. I always appreciated CoM as one of the best storylines in the series. Things like suddenly remembering Namine are presenting in such a way that when see through the eyes of an adult feels like a repressed memory of the death of a friend.
One thing not many people discuss is how com and ddd are REALLY similar in many aspects, specially how both serve as interquels to present elements for the next big installment. And in these regards, com does extremely good and ddd fails completely. Whereas ddd totally spoils out most of the plot and motivations for KH3, com introduces us with many concepts that are later expanded in KH2 and at the same time does not tell us anything of what is the organization in the first place, their goal, their members, how Namine or diz fit into everything... It would be worth a more in deep analysis of the matter.
Great point about CoM and DDD, they're the true bridge games of the series and both attempt that mysterious atmosphere...to varying results lol
Since Dark Road also has card combat & Eraqus technically is the "master" of the Land of Departure / Castle Oblivion, maybe he decided people who walk upon this sealed off land will have to fight with cards, to make their traversal harder?
You're so clear in how you express your thoughts on CoM and I often found myself laughing at some point ya made and agreeing to some statement because I'd never heard it expressed that way before. Such a great video; love it when you upload
I remember loving COM, but then again I really like procedurally-generated dungeons in games, especially when you have a part in constructing the world map. The story held up really well for a GBA game, and the second story was an absolute surprise and a ton of fun. I hope I can find a copy again and play through at least one more time.
Edit: the “murder” is the part that was really intriguing. I played COM after KH2, so I was wondering why not all the members of OrgXIII were there. Turns out they were dead. Unfortunately, that had to all be taken away in 3D and KH3, but I’m sure that wasn’t the plan way back when Org members were assasinating one another.
I mean why not? It was saïx that wanted to get them killed, so it makes sense xemnas or xehanort would bring them back instead
@@Mqstodon idk. I’m almost done replaying COM and will get to 358/2 Days sometime this year. I just don’t recall it being address how killing OrgXIII members helps if they’re going to come back anyway. I haven’t finished BBS or KH3, so maybe I’m missing something. Still, the story still felt solid before anyone knew they’d come back.
Your intro really hit me. I vividly remember seeing that commercial and being so excited for this game. I would even reread this Disney Adventures magazine that had an article on the game daily. I recently got a copy with the box, manual and all for a great price and I’ll never let it go again 🥲
"It's one hell of a show" coupled with that background footage - I see what you did there
I think you're right!
I played with my brother the Kingdom Hearts games, when we were kids. We both were hyped about that game.
I would never forget this moment, when I exactly (well I thought it, when the other games were not released yer) knew what happened to Sora when Kingdom Hearts II came out and I thought it confused many people who didn't play Chain of Memories.
That was an epic moment... It really had a good frustrating plot. You can fully enjoy that game series when you're in the situation with the plot... *sniffes about the Ending of BBS and 358/2 days even if I rewatched these scenes countless times*
The ReChain of Memories version of Scherzo Di Notte is FIRE!
I feel like it's the basis for the versions in the HD 1FM and 2FM.
I can clearly remember how it all started for me:
I was 7 or 8 years old when I got my hands on Kingdom Hearts 1. It was an Easter gift from my Uncle (Who introduced me to Final Fantasy as well). I remember absolutely loving this game and being stunned by this mix of Disney characters and Final Fantasy. When I approached the end of elementary school my parents proposed a deal: "If your grades are good enough at the end of elementary school, you'll get the Kingdom Hearts CoM Gameboy Advance SP with the game".
Needless to say, I was driven by the desire to get my hands on a new Kingdom Hearts game and tried my best.....But I failed. Initally my parents told me "Well, tough luck." But they were kind enough to let the whole thing stand there in the living room. Every time I had the opportunity (When they went grocery shopping or something), I'd rush to the living room, get the Gameboy out of the packaging and play CoM, with one eye watching the window to see when they returned.
After a while they simply handed the gameboy to me.
Kingdom Hearts changed my entire life and made it better. Some people say video games are for kids and adults have "better things to do". But remember: Time you enjoyed spending with something is not wasted.
Keep on, bois.
I love this game. Everything about it is what is perfect about experimentation; not everyone will be happy - but you can be damn sure people will remember your work in the future
I only played through GBA COM once and the feeling of pure wonder was only matched by the first game.
This game toes the line between “fun friendly adventure” and “Watership Down death scenes” beautifuly.
I played the GBA but didn't grow to like CoM until Re:CoM. I even enjoyed the battle system; it's definitely one of those "it grows on you" type of deals.
Your point about CoM being character-driven instead of plot-driven is spot on. It's why I grew to like the Organization in the first place. To the point that I wanted that Roxas game because I had thought we get _more_ of both him and CoM's Org members (a disappointment I'm still not over to this day). While Sora and Riiku's story had mostly went over my head, the more I look at it, the more the I like it. It truly shows where Nomura's strengths lie; not in the grand overarching plot, but the mystery, the characters within it and their development. He's great at weaving a tale together that is subtle and vague enough you could have different interpretations and they'd all be correct.
It's a shame the games after this are bogged down by plot. We need another game like this, where the characters are the focus, not some old man's supervillain plan with a thousand backups or Disney.
I started playing through Re:CoM recently again and I think at one point in the lower floors they contextualize, indirectly, the attack abilities and Worlds being cards by those being his drawn memories pulled out by Naminé and that he needs to literally look at them to remember how to do those attacks, spells, summons, and what those worlds were like because he literally can't focus his mind due to the "amnesiac fog" that he's had since stepping into the Castle. Like, you going through a world after raising the world card up is actually just Sora doing the mental acrobatics to truly remember the details of his time in that place which is why characters don't remember their lines or certain things are much more of a slow process than they genuinely were in KH1. This is also why it would be easy to place in new memories about Naminé and worlds he's never seen. I think while Naminé has general control over Sora's memory, I don't think it's as powerful as most people think. I think she can only "unweave" memories so they don't seem as tangible which would then make your mind foggy, kind of like a moment of personal disassociation but longer-term until she weaves them back together on her own time as she does in KH2 for Roxas (and for a little while with Xion in Days but thats because her presence was overpowering Roxas as you know). So, when the memories are foggy placing in a new element by simply having someone question if they knew someone or a place would be extremely easy. Basically, the overarching premise of CoM is about how relationships can be toxic and gaslighting. Which is extremely dark to think about, especially in the context of this happy go lucky series about how the relationships you have can make you stronger against the trials of your heart and how bad it can be to follow just logic.
I'm like... the only person who puts this much thought into Kingdom Hearts besides you. I honestly should make a video about my thoughts at some point.
i find it very interesting to view a positive perspective to chain of memories, most people I see dont like it, and I personally do not enjoy it, so seeing the positives has been very eye opening, great video.
playing re:com for the first time a few months ago in the hd collection was such a blast.
i had ALWAYS heard bad things about it and enjoyed setting up an overpowered deck and having to build new ones to out maneuver the stupid hard bosses. it’s very enjoyable even though it’s gameplay is sorta bland lol
every interaction with the organization and its so enjoyable to just,,, watch them exist and talk it’s so charming
I played the GBA game as a kid and the story kept me going. It was a real thrill experiencing the subterfuge, deception, and plot twists. I remember enjoying the gameplay well enough but I also recall the frustration of many of the bosses like Maleficent and Vexen.
I remember getting bored of Re:CoM, couldn’t bring myself to finish Castle Oblivion with Sora. Maybe just using the same sleights like tornado didn’t help as I was unwilling to experiment with my load outs, so I’m willing to give the game another shot and just enjoy the story.
I literally just finished Riku's story in Re:CoM and while the battle style could get annoying, the thing I hated the most was trying to get the next map card so that I could actually continue the story. It drove me mad
Re: Chain of Memories has actually grown on me quite a bit recently. At first, I tried the game as I went through the 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMix on PS4 and the card-based battle system just did not click with me. Because of this, I dropped the game because I thought I knew the gist of the game’s narrative from various TH-cam videos and went straight on to 358/2 Days and KHII. However, more recently as I began to play Melody of Memory I figured that I should probably finish playing Re: CoM so that the parts of MoM that focused on Re: CoM would resonate with me the way they were supposed to and in order to avoid potential spoilers. When I returned to my Re: CoM save file, the game’s battle system was still quite frustrating to me (especially regarding the Trickmaster boss). However, once I got the hang of the battle system, sleights, and got more engrossed in the game’s story and characters, the game got a lot more enjoyable for me. Because of this, I managed to play it pretty much every day that I could until I finished both story campaigns. Doing this, as you might expect, recontextualized characters like Riku and Namine for me, helping me to better appreciate those characters, their narrative arcs in the series, along with Riku’s dynamic and comradery with King Mickey in this and future games. Overall, Re: Chain of Memories really grew on me and now I consider it quite the “hidden gem” in the Kingdom Hearts series. If you haven’t gotten a chance to play/finish it, I would highly recommend doing so. Though the card battle system can be jarring at first, I found that it becomes much more enjoyable once you get the hang of it.
I played it on GBA. It was nice cause you could hit like 5 enemies at once. Couldn't do that with the 3d version.
Axel was far more savage than on the later games too.
I think the mystery and intrigue in COM is also what makes 358/2 Days so impactful as an entrance to the series. When I first played the game as a child I had no clue what was going on, but neither did Roxas, so I got to feel that confusion, frustration, and terrifying realization along with him. That emotional would've been lessened if they had tried to explain things more than they did.
I remember getting this game for Christmas the year it came out. It was one my first Gameboy Advance games next to Pokemon Sapphire and Donkey Kong Country.
I’ve tried the gameplay on two occasions (once on a gba emulator and once on the PS4) and got to the point where I hit a wall as I’m not good about watching my deck, keeping track of cards and eye on the enemy. I admire the effort of the devs but I feel it would’ve been better to just make a traditional turn based RPG. Though I do plan or replaying KH1 soon and maybe I’ll give chain of memories another go after that
Regardless I love the story. It cemented Riku as my favorite character. Made Sora more developed, introduced Axel and the organization. Also Namine is best girl in the franchise without hesitation
Yeah i guess im sold. I guess that game informer review way back when shaped my opinion of a game in a series tha, at the point that I read the article (like 10-13 YO),was great in game in story and game play and would have its ups and downs. But seeing as how they did the same with BBS and Im about to replay it for the 4th or 5th time rn and the fact that this video really shed enough light to give me not only a good review as us fanbois enjoy, but also left some mystery to it. This is great for me as im at an age where I value story over gameplay when it comes to KH. Im glad this channel got recommended to me. You're great RealPat.
I never even know Chain of Memories existed for YEARS and being able to play a 3D version excites me. I’m currently at the devil boss in KH1 on my playthrough of the 6 mainline-ish games
Again a man of culture. CoM has always had a special place in my heart among the KH games. Like you stated, the intrigue and character interactions are amongst the best in the series, and I was truly pulled in by the 'mythos' of Castle Oblivion. The threat was small scale, yet hit closer to home. I genuinely became scared for Sora on my first playthrough when Oogie Boogie had a psychotic breakdown after unlocking his 'true memories'. Like KH1, IMO this game really made the Disney Worlds feel relevant to the story, if only to play on the growing dread or theme of diving deeper into the castle.
One of my favorite storylines in the franchise! Your views of this game exactly echo mine! I have a fuzzy memory of whether I started CoM or KH1 first. Because I remember feeling like I was missing out on some info when I started CoM, but I think I started KH1 very soon after. So they’re kinda overlapped in my memory. But yes the organization is at its best in this game!
Maybe everything is on cards because Nomine is associated with drawing and art? Cards often have drawn representations of people and things, so it could be Nomine physically inscribing memories, abilities, equipment, ect. on cards?
Going from KH1 to CoM I was RAGING. But once I figured out how to get the rhythm down and what I needed to do, it was one of the best experiences I've had with Kingdom Heats
Fax
After 18 years I finally beat the first Kingdom Hearts game, a game I was only teased with through my entire childhood. Got to play it here and there, but never the full thing. An absolutely fantastic experience, it feels like a missing part of my childhood and brings me back to being a kid again. I was invested in the story and characters so I dived right into Re Chain of Memories, but after an hour of gameplay I've come to the conclusion that it's one of the most un-fun games I've ever played. Watched all the cutscenes on TH-cam, love the story & characters, but that gameplay just killed it for me.
“Thankfully it was just a phase that would only last 18 years.”
My favorite quote atm 😂😂
Wonderful video as always! CoM gets a lot of flack for its gameplay, and rightfully so at times. But I think what tends to influence a lot of discourse over the card system is personal player burnout, or at least that's what it was for me. My experience with Re:CoM was mostly positive through Sora's campaign, but then tanked in Riku's. But for the most part, it's not CoM's fault? It does what it should do in a NG+ and throws in new mechanics to keep you engaged, and Riku's premade decks are meant to be puzzled out on a world-by-world basis to keep things interesting. But as someone whose strategy it was to pop a Jafar card and then just whale on things, I found myself trying to brute force everything and then get upset when it didn't work. That's more on me than the game, though the barren Disney worlds certainly didn't make me want to take my time and not rush past them.
Which, getting back to the main point of this video, makes me surprised that nobody talks about the Disney worlds in Sora's side. Everybody says that they're filler and skippable, but like you said, they're tied in to the story via their themes. You'd think that having actual Disney filler in the second playthrough would make that clearer, but I guess a lot of it really only comes into perspective on a replay. (Much like KH3's Disney worlds) And given the previously mentioned burnout, a lot of people probably didn't bother.
That's really funny about it being meant to be "lighter than KH2", though. I wonder if there was some disconnect between thinking that if it doesn't involve the fate of the worlds meaning that it's lighter. CoM's story and especially its conflict is closely tied to its characters, one of the most so of the KH games. Or maybe being light was the original intent, but as the story developed, the characters took on a life of their own and the narrative transformed along with it. Idk. But whatever happened, I'm glad the story turned out the way it did. :)
Yeah the one thing I did like in Riku's campaign was the duel system, I think it can spice things up a bit, but that also just results in spamming cards, since that was always quicker than shuffling around and finding a high card. Great point about the KH3 Disney worlds too, a lot of these things are better served by a second playthrough.
I am also glad they failed spectacularly at making this a light and care-free KH experience lmao
Tbh I think that could be a translation error or poor wording by Nomura. By “lighter story” I think he probably meant a smaller scale, more self contained story and not lighter in tone (I could be wrong, I’m just speculating but it would make more sense).
GBA CoM was my first KH game, so the repeat of disney worlds didnt matter to me. Also blizzard raid is just so satisfying to hit compared to RECoM. I played CoM so much I noticed they changed some of the dialogue, particularly where Axel says "It's about time you gave me one hell of a show" in CoM, they remove the curse word in RECoM. Totally agreed that the organization was super interesting here, this game and days together have some of the more captivating story to me just because it gives a clear picture of the entire organization. As opposed to II where half of them are dead off screen. Also playing as Riku was amazing and I wish we could in a mainline game for more than 5 mins. Good vid, keep it up!
Man I never really thought about CoM this way but it really was written so well. I like what you said about it being so enclosed that it forces everyone to talk to each other, it's something the other games don't get a chance to take advantage of but this really sells well. It's a case where I think the limitations worked out well; being limited to the GBA meant they had to do most of the story telling with just characters talking. As a kid it went over my head but now it's something I can really appreciate. Great video!
I have never been a fan of the gameplay of Re:CoM (never played the GBA version), but even as a child I was fascinated with the story. I remember when I finally beat both campaigns in my youth, I would occasionally go back to it and just binge the theater mode. I’d always go back to actually play Riku’s campaign because not having to think about organizing your deck was a relief, but I think it’s crazy how the story was much more thought provoking and was still able to really connect with us as dumb kids.
I’ve been replaying The kingdom hearts series as of late and I actually just finished chain of memories gba. I played the game as a kid and playing it again reminded me just how much I love the game. I think the gameplay is super fun and extremely unique, no other game out there tries to even come close. The fourth Riku fight feels a little bit cheap in my opinion and it was pretty shitty but other than that I enjoyed the game wholeheartedly. To be honest a couple of level ups really made even that fight easier.
Riku IV was absolute hell for me as a kid. I still remember the day that I beat it, I was ecstatic lol
@@RegularPat same I remember as a kid being stuck on that fight for an ENTIRE YEAR then I realized the only way to win was to spam zeroes when he about to do his dark aura move...this game really made kids strategize lol
I haven't seen much conversation on how good CoM was both as a GBA game and a narrative experience, so this was a fun video to see in my recommendations. In addition, it's just nice to hear someone mention how good the Organization was in this game. All the backstabbing and politicking made them the most compelling group of villains in the entire series, in my opinion, and gave them an proactive role in the plot. The KH2 members were fun bosses but they felt largely disconnected from what Sora was doing - people that just turned up to summon a heartless or occasionally fight. The twist related to defeating heartless benefiting them was cool, but it also gave the writers an excuse to just have the organisation as a whole sit back for most of the game when it came to what Sora was doing. Marluxia on the other hand was actively using Sora's journey against him, continuously gaslighting him more and more.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Okay, two details about Re:CoM that you may find interesting.
1. It was not originally intended to be released as a standalone title at all. It was included with the original KH2FM that was Japan-exclusive at the time. So, naturally they cut corners on that, since it was considered side-content.
2. When it was released states-side in 2008, it was released at $30. I bought it new at the time. It also included the extra cards that would have required you to beat KH2FM in Japan.
If they ever decide to introduce Triple Triad into Kingdom Hearts, Aqua should be the one to teach you. It would be such a cute character detail and add (for this series) a surprising amount of depth if she's a hobbyist card player.
Really appreciate this video.
I started playing KH much later than most, at the age of 18. (When the 1.5 Final Mix collection was ported to the PS3) Really fell in love with the game, but story-wise, the first Kingdom Hearts didn’t do as much for me as it had for my girlfriend who grew up with these games. I was told CoM was “the annoying card game” and thus ignored it, instead opting to dust off the old PS2 and play KH2. Enjoyed KH2 and by this time I was also getting much more invested in the overall story. But I felt so much was missing in the interactions with Axel and the rest of the organization. (Especially since I wasn’t playing the final mix with all of its extra content)
One day, both out of boredom and curiosity I booted up CoM and honestly, I think this game’s story hit the perfect sweet spot for me.
The repetitive gameplay could get tiresome, but it was so incredibly worth it to reach the end of the stage for the boss battles and Organization cutscenes. And when you reach the final floor, the Castle Oblivion soundtrack is so hauntingly beautiful.
Overall the story strikes this perfectly bleak existential tone that completely resonated with the person I was at that age. I felt so much closer to all of the characters in this game than I ever felt in the other games. this was really the game that solidified my love for the KH series as a whole and 8 years later I refuse to ever skip it again on subsequent play throughs.
Other KH titles may have much better gameplay and world design. But Chain of Memories is my favorite KH story, bar none.
IIRC, the game was sold for $20 on the PS2 over here in North America.
I didn't see any ads for it as a kid but I had a similar experience discovering COM. Happened to be in an Ebgames that I got all my games from and didn't get to very often.
Saw it on a shelf, read the box and lost my shit as I realized I was not holding a shitty GBA version, I was technically holding Kingdom Hearts 2.
I knew it obviously wasn't going to be the actual sequel (when it actually was and what an important one after all these years...damn it Nomura) and would just set up 2. But it still didn't matter when the existence of this shiny GBA box meant that Kingdom Hearts was now only part 1. That Part 2 wasn't just a far off dream (remember when 3 years felt like a long time for a numbered sequel? Good times) anymore. I had no idea how few questions would be answered and how many raised. After all, one who knows nothing can understand nothing.
I played this game so many times waiting for 2. I 100% agree about the intrigue and mystery. COM managed to one up the original, though I feel it loses a lot of that in translation to 3d. RE:COM had 2's vibe, COM had 1's turned up to 11.
COM Sora was my favorite version of him. Because that kid lost his fucking shit in COM and he had every reason to. Sora forgiving Namine showed why he's the big hero. Sora felt like a person here, not the bag of tropes he was in 2 and 3d (I love 2 but Roxas for Sora was big downgrade with how the two are written as main character in 2). 3 Sora though feels like he recaptured COM Sora's reality and believability, along with his goofy nature in 2. The best of both worlds.
Riku mode...I don't care how much I dislike COM gameplay in 3d, worth it just to get his new Duel system. But it can't touch how utterly hype it was getting to use Riku's Dark mode in COM on Gba.
Seeing Riku grow as a character, my biggest gripe with 3 Riku is that every character trait he had from this game (defining him from here til 3's start) is dropped. But yet COM Riku literally returns in a sense...twice...damn it Nomura.
I could ramble about this game all day but you've done a far more cohesive and coherent job than I could already. So big agree.
Ur intro was my childhood ❤️🥺
Chain of Memories has “Dash-a-long”
One of the most joyful Yoko Shimomura
compositions!
Perfect for 100 acre woods minigames!!!
Yo!!!! What a perfect sneaky ending line! I see what you did there.
In the gba version, after freeing Namine, Axel muses about all the chaos he just caused and drops this line:
"Hm hmm... Ha ha haaa! Now THIS should be good. All the actors are in place. Now, Sora! Naminé! Riku! Marluxia! Larxene! It's about time you gave me one hell of a show!"
On the note of Re:CoM's pricing when it was released. Re:CoM when it was released was packaged alongside the Final Mix for KH2 in Japan. When it hit the stores in NA however, it didn't retail at the full 60, but rather a still high 39.99 (40$). So while there was some acknowledgement that it wasn't as up to par with the other KH games, it was still a bit overpriced back then. Though 11-12 year old me was still making grabby hands at it anyway despite having played the GBA version because: "Oh wow they upgraded the GBA game to 3D! It must be better!"
I have a wonderful case of Stockholm Syndrome with the Combat in Chain of Memories. I have reached a point in my Kingdom Hearts lifetime, which is only slightly shorter than my regular lifetime, that I have played through the entirety of Re:COM maybe 4 or 5 times at this point? And i really do feel like it's really the kind of system that you can only enjoy once you've mastered it? it becomes a roadblock in trying to get other people fully invested in the series, and I literally told my partner when they arrived fresh off the KH1 ending that "if you can't get behind the sudden gameplay shift, we can just watch the cutscenes or I can just tell you everything, and we can just move on to KH2." no surprise what they chose.
Let's also not forget that Axel is not only the star of this show, but his counterpart is one of the funniest characters in the series, by far. I really did get him memorized...
It kinda makes me sad that people who get into the series nowadays will never know the true amazement of seeing that chain of memories commercial and realizing there was a new Kingdom Hearts game.
Glad I'm not the only one who didn't understand Namine's name pronunciation. Thought it was "Nah-meen" as a kid.
Well, you've just about summed up everything I love about this game.
I only wish a game would come that could generate as much intrigue as COM did.
The story is amazing, but the game play is a desired taste that I just don't have enough to love, but just enough to still play, simply for being Kingdom Hearts, whenever I want to do the series, even if its still like pulling teeth.
GBA CoM was my first KH game. It was the newest at the time and I had zero clue wtf Kingdom Hearts was.
So while I was very confused about all of the plot references to KH and the characters, I was absolutely enamored by the plot and the game as the whole. I fricking loved it and most of all, I loved Riku! The first time I saw him I was like "omg his darkness attacks are so cool and I want to be him!".
His final boss fight was so hard for me, it took me so many attempts (I was 10 years old in 2004) and I'm pretty sure the GBA version is harder than ReCoM right? I haven't played it in so long.
Anyways I beat the game, I freaking loved Marluxia too, I thought his pink scythe and long, pink hair was so cool.
So I beat the final boss, feel a mystical euphoria listening to Simple and Clean and think "that was an amazing game!".
And then I reload back to the main menu and... What's this... I CAN PLAY AN ENTIRE DIFFERENT STORYLINE AS RIKU???. I was amazed. I was so happy.
I understand why a lot of fans look down on this game, but it will always be my favorite. The memory plot, the organization, Namine's theme, freaking RIKU MODE, etc. I will always cherish it.
ive always hated com, ive always struggled with this kind of gameplay, and ive never been that good at handling so many little different things all at once in real time battles, 2d or otherwise. i did try to play the original com ((on an emulator cause unfortunately zelda held my ass for the majority of my childhood)) and i did try to play recom, but i could never bring myself to make it past wonderland. it was frustrating, not what i was used to after playing so many other kh games, and i didnt have the energy to play it fully. that being said, i recently watched a full playthrough of recom and honestly? i vibe a lot with what youve said. the gameplay is different which isnt bad but i vastly prefer the bbs command deck style gameplay, and com is super overlooked, but watching these happy-go-lucky disney characters ascend through the castle and fight with such human problems and emotions really resonated with me. it made me uncomfortable at times ((in a really good way like a well written way)) and i was always on the edge of my seat when the organization appeared on screen. it was so mysterious and thrilling and engaging story that, maybe once im done with my kh streams, i might try out streaming recom again, and watching this video while winding down after work and after watching recom, its just been a really good time. anyways this is just a long winded way to say hey i vibed with your video and i liked it lots lmao
Good stuff as always, Pat. Love your essays.
I was born a couple years after kh1 came out but yes, it was I having these memories.
this video made me turn around on com a little. well done man.
One addendum I would mention to this about the Organization is that, other than maybe Lexaeus, CoM does a better job characterizing it's cast than 2 does for their organization members. Even Zexion, who has probably the least screen time out of the six (especially in the GBA version) we can tell that he's meant to be a mirror of Marluxia. Smart, perspective, and delved in mystery, but instead of meticulously setting up events he allows his allies to test their own ideas and then goes for a pretty severe gut punch manipulation of his own.
Compare this with II, and we don't get that with it's org members. We learn a lot about Axel, Roxas, and a surprising amount about Demyx as characters, but not so much with the others. Saix is a bit of a nothing character in II, Xemnas's third cutscenes he appears in is "You fool, I've been lying about everything" with little set up, Xigbar pretty much just existed to set up for future games, and we still barely know anything about Xaldin as a person.
Now granted, II's Org members are no doubt much more memorable, but I believe that because of CoM's narrative design and more cerebral nature it allows it's villains more room to grow and develop than II's.
Man seeing axel after reno was so absent from ff7 rebirth, just makes it seem even more of a shame.
He's such a great character definitely missed him in rebirth.
And axel is essentially the same character just in kingdom hearts and he's just as great in kh.
The problem i have with CoM is it's too much. It asks for me to look for a card, while also being aware of my surroundings. and that is too much for me.
Too many things for my tiny, smooth brain to pay attention to; The enemies hit me because im looking for a card, and my card wiffs because the enemy is not in range by the time i find it.
I'm still a little Salty that Looking Back at the KH Fanfiction History (i.e. Fanfics Released Around the time of CoM's Release and when it was out) NOBODY embraced that Game and Constantly Had labels on their Fics that Said "No CoM" its Sad...
CoM is my third favourite Kingdom Hearts game after 1 in first and 2 in second
RECOM was not released in my region until 1.5.
The VS Mode is a lot of fun. Grab a pal and Parsec! Oh, yes on a GBA.
Great video.
I actually played recom like last year and i actually really like on my first play through. Probably cause i did it on easy but on the first riku playthrough i did it on proud and still liked iit lol
I love recom on standard mode it keeps me thinking like mad 🤩
I’ve been playing through RE:COM again and it’s wild how many times they say the word DIE in this Disney game.
Fantastic video, was entertained the whole way through :)
I remember as a kid getting stuck on my gameboy advance. Didnt have a lvl 9 key card in hallow bastion. Grinded for an hour or two then gave up.
Played re:chain of memories 1.5/2.5 ps4 version. And...I likes it. I only played it on normal cause nothing to unlock at the end. I could see going back on proud CoM
Chain of Memories was the first kingdom hearts game I owned and beat, having only played kh1 in bits and pieces at friends' houses.
And it spoiled the series for me, because CoM is a psychological horror in a kids' game's skin.
Gaslighting, memory erasure, memory rewriting, identity crises, people being used as pawns, backstabbing, assassination, plots of treason. This was a game with nuance.
I'm pretty sure Re:CoM was packaged with final mix originally, then released as part of 1.5, so thankfully wasn't a full price game
I don’t remember how much Re:CoM was at launch but I got it brand new a few months later for $20, so there’s that
I still have a soft spot for this game mainly because I did enjoy the card based combat but also that this is the last game where boss battles gave out EXP
CoM really is the darkest. I still wish KH III had made better use of Repliku, but he at least has some of the best stand out moments in this game.
This is excellent. My first experience with Kingdom Hearts was the og COM, I had no idea what KH was and found the game inside my game pouch one day looking for something new. I have *no fucking idea* when or how I got it, I'd be playing PMD RRT and Sapphire for the past year straight, a bit of Spyro on the side, so finding Donald Duck, Goofy, and chris keyhole thorndyke in this giant church-gone-cult amnesia castle with spooky robe people and disney rewritten, the search for KING Mickey and Riku, the intrigue and insanity n the game itself were so cool!! I think the closest thing to Sora I knew was Goku at the time, shit was nuts to my nine year old self.
Then he mentions he became a Heartless on the fifth floor conversation, and now I'm 21 replaying the series for the 2nd? time in full now on the switch.
thanks for the video
As a mtg player... this is my favorite game of the series...(translator note: MTG stands for Magic The Gathering)
To this day I still wish we'd get another KH game that used sprites like CoM. The aesthetic has always been one of my favorite things about the game, and it was something that I missed in Re:CoM. I admittedly also "ruined" the experience of the game, as I bought a used copy that already had Riku's story unlocked. So naturally, I was overcome with an urge to play as him so badly that I had the "Riku's just a replica" twist spoiled for me, and didn't even know enemy cards were a thing while playing it. Oops.
I never played the GBA very much my older brother never wanted to share. When Re:COM came out on PS2 I got it for like $25 at Walmart, but I still couldn't wrap my head around it. I didn't finish Re:COM until the week before KH3 came out. Once I wrapped my head around it I loved the combat and destroyed the game. I had already loved the story for COM because I love its manga!
wasnt te reason for the cards being inuniverse for the memory aspect, about how is memories are being taken and whatnot, and how how he will gradually get them back ?, also nice video
mi primer Kingdom Hearts.......y el único que e jugado que nunca termine
Joke's on you, I wasn't a kid that was trash at gaming...
I was a highschooler that was trash at gaming!
Spittin bars the whole video
Thinking about it. What would days or coded be like if they got the re:com treatment instead of the cliffnotes treatment
CoM Reverse Rikus journey , is a good game on my opinion . Let’s you play as Riku , tactically based gameplay and the story’s less confusing