DS Review: Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded

Kingdom Hearts is by far one of the most beloved RPG series of recent years. How does the Nintendo DS title, Re:Coded shape up against the others?

Story

Following on from KH2, Jiminy Cricket, who kept a detailed journal of all the events, realises that there are now strange entries which he doesn’t remember making. Mickey and Co. digitise the contents of the journal which reveals a world filled with bugs and strange coloured boxes all over the landscape. This is where Sora comes into it as he traverses the virtual lands to eliminate the bugs, restore peace and harmony to the worls and unravel the mystery of these strange happenings.

Graphics

Wow…these are some of the best seen on the DS…colourful and with fine detail and not just in the cut scenes but in the gameplay, there’s some really sharp coding going on behind the scenes. Battles looks fantastic with great lighting effects and magic particles hanging about in the air when you do a finishing move. It’s really great to see the Square Enix developers really squeezing every last drop of digitised sweat out of the handheld. The aforementioned cutscenes are brilliant with tons of detail and characters on screen at the same time, makes it really stand out from some of the other titles trying to get your attention in the shop shelves.

Sound

Accurately rendered background effects are a must for any game and this one pulls it off in spades. Some times the developers work so hard on what is currently holding the gamer’s attention that the smaller things get overlooked. Not so here, from the opening beach scene to Traverse Town, there’s always a sense that you’re really immersed in the world with people going about their everyday business. The musical score is so far sublime…I’m really loving this soundtrack. So much so that’s it’s made my shopping list. It’s a must get for me personally. Great fanfare when battling really pumps you up amd gets you into the battle mood while just wondering about will play lighter music while never getting annoying, really well done.

Gameplay

The game neatly introduces to the different abilities, command decks and the various matrix available to your character. These enable different ways to upgrade Sora therefore granting different abilities him. With every first couple of battles, the game pauses to explain things that may have just happened or pickups that you may have…picked up after the fight. It then proceeds to describe what they’re for and they go in the command deck, gear matrix or otherwise. It may sound confusing but it does a really great job of holding your hand during the early stages while you’re still finding your feet and learning the controls and what different things do. So good to see an in game tutorial done right. Sora and friends move with a great fluidity to them never looking stiff no matter how many characters on screen or how many enemies he may be fighting, very smooth, Square Enix.

Replay Value

Games of this genre, the player normally wants to get from point A to point B and then to the end. It isn’t until the end however that you have a look at the various worlds you’ve traipsed through and realise just how much you’ve missed. This is one of those games. There’s so much initial colour and movement that the player is kind of swept away by it all and it isn’t until you have a moment to catch your breath that you can see what exactly you’ve left behind and what’s left to nab that elusive 100% completion score that will put a smile on your face.

Conclusion

This latest entry slots in nicely to the existing KH canon and fans will be dying to play the latest installment that awaits Sora and friends. I will go on record and say that I enjoyed this title more than Birth By Sleep and that’s saying something. Easy to get into and challenging to master, this game will attract the faithful and new converts alike. Square Enix have once again hit the mark with this one. Highly recommended.