Review - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)

Hearts—it’s all about the hearts. The title refers to hearts; the characters are on a quest to get hearts. Welcome to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, an action RPG for the Nintendo DS. You’ve probably learned by know that the Kingdom Hearts series is well-liked to say they least. The first two PlayStation 2 games sold for a combined 9.2 million copies or so, while the new DS release is moving almost a million units as of this writing, and it’s not even out for over a month yet.

So what’s the deal with Kingdom Hearts? Why is it insanely popular? Two things: Final Fantasy and Disney. But is the underlying game in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as prodigious as its commercial success? We find out.

If you hated the card-based battle system  in Chain of Memories on the GBA, then great news: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days uses a real-time combat system similar to the PS2 original. Most of the time, your hands stay on the buttons as it should be. I said “most” because the stylus is used as a secondary option to move the camera around. The main means to operate the camera is through the shoulder buttons. There are a couple of camera settings, but they’re both badly implemented. The R serves two purposes: move the camera and lock-on the enemy. In the heat of battle, pressing R would yield varying results. There’s an auto-aim function, but it doesn’t work as well as the manual lock-on, especially when many enemies are swarming around you.

The main problem with the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days combat is its simplicity. It’s all a matter of targeting an enemy, approaching it, and continuously pressing attack until it’s down. For variety, you can use spells or add new moves as you progress through the game. However, these little tweaks do nothing to keep the fights interesting.

Like any Square Enix game, the customization in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a game unto itself. You’ll have to tailor-fit panels that Roxas, the main character, carries around with him. These panels serve as slots to fit abilities, spells, and items that you can change in between missions. A certain level of planning is needed to fit everything in, but you eventually get more space as Roxas levels up.

If you haven’t played a Kingdom Hearts game before, then you might not understand or even appreciate what happens in the story. The characters are boring; all they do during story sequences is mull over their hearts to a sickening degree. Square Enix might call this “characterization,” but there is utterly nothing compelling that would keep you hooked. It certainly doesn’t help that Roxas is just a mere shadow of the droll and colorful character we saw in Kingdom Hearts II. Because of this, the overall progression is agonizingly slow and boring. The pace may pick up ever so slightly when you reach the latter parts, but good luck staying that long.

Fortunately (or unfortunately if you can’t stand the story and/or combat), the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days adventure lasts for up to 30 hours. This of course would depend on the effort you exert on completing missions and optional levels. You can add even more hours with the local multiplayer, but it doesn’t really help because the combat is tedious to begin with. Whether you choose cooperative or competitive, the multiplayer is as unrewarding as the story mode.

While its visuals are obviously inferior to the original PS2 games, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is quite the looker. The levels may look somewhat familiar (i.e. reused), but that’s what makes them remarkable—this is a portable game we’re talking about after all. Hyperbole aside, the quality of the cutscenes gives the PS2 versions a run for their money. The music is pretty much the same as well, and it’s actually a good thing because they’re likable. Voice acting is limited but when you hear them, they’re excellent.

So what good is an action RPG if the action part is mind-numbing and the story is dull? Nothing much. From the ground up, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is intended for fans, and perhaps that’s how it should stay. Alas, no amount of cutting-edge DS visuals, Final Fantasy lore, or Disney characters is going to save this game. If you’re not an aficionado, then maybe you should stay away from this Kingdom Hearts installment because it won’t spark your interest for the franchise.

6/10

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