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[NDS] Kingdom Hearts 358/2 - Sylar1000 (Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Spoilers)

Discussion in 'Game Reviews' started by sylar1000, Oct 10, 2009.

  1. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    Game: Kingdom Hearts 358/2
    Platform: Nintendo DS
    Release Date: 9/29/09
    Developer: h.a.n.d Inc.
    Publisher: Square-Enix
    Genre: Action Role-Playing
    Rating: Everyone

    Kingdom Hearts 358/2 is the first Kingdom Hearts game for the Nintendo DS. It takes place during Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and leads into Kingdom Hearts 2. You play as Roxas, a new Organization 13 member as he goes through his first year in Organization 13.

    Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 takes place over the course of 357 days, each day you will be given 1-4 missions, which you will have to complete to move on the story, some missions are mandatory, they are shown with a keyblade symbol next to them, while other missions are optional, they are shown without a symbol. There are plenty of missions to do during the course of the game.

    While the missions are plentiful, there aren't a lot of variety in them, which holds the game back. The mission types you will encounter are usually "Collect Hearts", "Defeat Many Heartless", or "Defeat The Giant Heartless", sadly that's pretty much all of the mission types you will be doing during the story. At the end of many of the Missions you will fight a boss Heartless, a lot of the time the bosses are usually color swaps from older bosses you fought in the game, with a new attack or two, there are also a few times where you will fight bosses from previous Kingdom Hearts games. In addition to the normal story missions, you also have Challenge Missions that you can compete to earn Crowns which you can redeem for Items and Slot Accessories in the Moogle Shop. The Challenge missons are harder then normal missions as they increase enemy difficulty and give limitations on what you can and cannot do, like jumping as little as possible during the Challenge Mission. It definitely adds a harder feel to the game. The game gives you the option of Withdrawing from Missions if you believe the enemies are too hard, or if you want to add and delete some Panels, the game also provides you with Enemy Profiles in case you want tips on killing an enemy.

    [​IMG]

    At the end of each mission you will be presented with a Mission Review, which shows you what items you collected during the missions, which items you received after the mission, Exp gain, Heart Points, and Munny.

    [​IMG]

    The Gameplay consists of using the D-pad to move around, A button swings your Keyblade, or it uses Items or Magic if you choose them. B Jumps, Y rolls and glides if you have them on your panels, and X moves down your command list. R is used to control the camera and to lock-on to nearby enemies, while L is used solely for the shortcut menu, for easy access to items and magic you set to it, you can set any item or magic to the four buttons, A,B,X,Y and use them while holding L. The controls work pretty well, although the camera can be an annoyance at times, but usually it's not a big problem. Start it used to skip cutscenes during missions and to withdraw from a mission if you choose to. Select zooms the camera in and out.

    Like i mentioned earlier, the game takes place during the first year of Roxas's time in the Organization 13, during that time you will be doing missions, only missions. Many of the missions you will be completing solo, while some of them you will be joined by another Organization 13 member. You will be visiting many of the worlds from Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 during your missions. so there aren't any area's that are completely new to the game, besides the main mission room you will venture into everyday to accept your missions. Although you will see many familiar Disney Characters like Aladdin, and Genie during your visits to the different worlds.

    The game looks and plays great. The Graphics look pretty nice on the DS. Everything fits perfectly on the two screens, It's as close to the Graphics in Kingdom Hearts 2 that it could possibly get. There are definitely no graphical complaints from me, although some of the textures do tend to get a little blurry if you are too close to them.

    Like the Graphics, a lot of the Sound also comes from the first two Kingdom Hearts games. That's not saying the sound is bad, but when the whole game consists of visiting previous locations, it gives you quite a bit of leeway when re-using music and sound. A lot of the game takes place using plain text, while the game does have some voice overs, it's only for some cut-scenes and very minimal sound effects.

    I will try to outline the story while keeping spoilers to a minimum. The game follows Roxas as he works for Organization 13, he meets Xion, a girl who is the mysterious new 14th member of the Organization, Xion and Roxas are both Keyblade users who the Organization need to collect Hearts. Organization 13 is trying to collect enough Hearts so they can reach a specific goal, i'd rather not say there goal because it starts to get even more into spoiler territory then.

    An interesting addition to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 is the panel system. In this game your Magic, Levels, Keyblade, and even what items you can use during your mission, pretty much everything is controlled by what panels you have in your Panel slots. Think of it as Tetris, usually the Panels take up one Panel Slot, but there are differently shaped ones depending on if you choose Magic, Keyblades, etc. You receive panels from Missions and by buying them at the Moogle shop, you then place those Panels into the Panel Slot menu and that allows you to gain a level, magic, etc. You get a limited number of Panels, you unlock a new space every time you get a "Slot Accessory" from missions or from the Moogle Shop. You also have items that give you double, triple, or even quadruple the levels and magic if you put your Level and Magic panels into them. Some panels are even linkable to each other to increase their usefulness, Using this system you can try to beat the game at Level 1 if you choose to.

    Here is a picture of the Panel System:

    [​IMG]

    The magic system has also been redone from the previous titles. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 you don't have any MP, (Magic Points), your magic is decided based on what Panels you put into the Panel Slots, If you put two Fira panels into the Panel Slots, then you will be able to use Fira two times during your missions, It all amounts to what Panels you will decide to put into your Panel Slots.

    The Moogle shop is a shop in the game where you can spend the Heart Points you get from enemies. You can Synthesize items and redeem your crowns and Challenge Sigils for different items. The items you can purchase at the shop is dependent on your rank. During the Story Mode, you will be given a new rank at certain times during the story, the rank's range from Rookie to Legend.

    The biggest addition to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 is Mission Mode, a mode where you can can complete missions as one of the many Kingdom Hearts characters, from the Organization 13 Members, to others like Donald and Goofy. You can even do the complete the missions with a friend using Mutliplayer or compete against them. The moogle shop also stock's a few items in Mission Mode that you cannot buy during the Story Mode.

    Note that because of the size of the image, the graphics look worse in the image then they do in-game.

    Multiplayer:

    [​IMG]

    Graphics: 8/10 - The graphics are very good for the Nintendo DS, The Worlds, textures, and models don't suffer at all from the conversion to the handheld.

    Sound: 8/10 - Many of the sounds and music are reused from previous titles, While there isn't really anything new in terms of sounds and music, it doesn't hinder the game.

    Gameplay:7/10 - While the variety in missions during Story Mode is definitely lackluster, the addition of the Multiplayer mode, and Challenge Missions all but makes of for it.

    Presentation: 8/10 - Both of the Graphics, and the music are re-used from previous titles in the series, together they go hand in hand to make a fun overall experience.

    Replay-ability: 10/10 - From the Challenge Missions, unlocking characters for mission mode, and the inclusion of Multiplayer, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 definitely will keep you busy for awhile.

    Final Rating: 43/50

    This is my first review here, i would appreciate it if you look it over and give me some suggestions on how i could make it better, thank you.
     
  2. I liked your review also if you have betten it read this spoiler SPOILER ALERT:The ending where Roxas wakes up is confusing me
    about the storyline and if you know how did it get the /2 part in its name is it the days that he dreams the story.
     
  3. kamuikurou

    kamuikurou Well-Known Member

    Uhm I've heard somewhere that 358/2 Days is read "three hundred fifty-eight days over two" or something like that. Does this ring any bell for you?
    Anyway, nice review! Me, myself don't find the replayability deserves a 10 though, but I agree to the most of the rest. :) I'm looking forward to more of your reviews. :D
     
  4. hahahahaha

    hahahahaha Well-Known Member

    Great review, it really explains the game. My suggestion would be putting in a picture from a cutscene to show how cool the cutscenes are(like whenever Axel summons his chakrams,too cool).
     
  5. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    Thank you, the ending of the game is the start of the kingdom hearts 2, 358 is how many days in the game, i assume that's how the /2 got there, since it leads into kingdom hearts 2 game, that may or may not be the reason.

    Thank you kamu :). I look forward to writing more reviews.

    Thank you, sure thing, i will find a cutscene pic.
     
  6. manolisgoku

    manolisgoku Well-Known Member

    finally a kh review
    i have been waiting for this
     
  7. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    I'm glad my review could be helpful :)

    thank you.
     
  8. manolisgoku

    manolisgoku Well-Known Member

    but try to replace the japanese picture to the american one
     
  9. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    Sorry, i got the pictures from IGN, didn't see any English pictures.
     
  10. g@l1h

    g@l1h Well-Known Member

    Good review, pretty much what I think about this game :)
     
  11. hahahahaha

    hahahahaha Well-Known Member

    The first picture isnt working, might want to check it.
     
  12. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    Thank you :)

    Thanks for letting me know :), i fixed the image link, it should work fine now.
     
  13. anandjones

    anandjones Well-Known Member

    Great review mate.
     
  14. teserut

    teserut Guest

    358 days is the time sora is asleep, it's over 2 because he is half of himself thus the over 2.

    sorry to go off topic, pretty nice review but theres not a single game on the ds that has better graphics than this, it deserves a 10 in that area
     
  15. hahahahaha

    hahahahaha Well-Known Member

    Agreed, I love the graphics, proves how good DS graphics can be.
     
  16. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    Thank you Anandjones

    Ah, thank you for correcting me on that teserut, i didn't realize that was how long Sora was asleep for.
     
  17. Natewlie

    Natewlie A bag of tricks

    Good review, nothing really bad to say other than tl;dr.

    Good job.
     
  18. meeshelly

    meeshelly Well-Known Member

    good review :) <3 Kingdom Hearts
     
  19. sylar1000

    sylar1000 Well-Known Member

    Thanks :)

    Thanks, i also love Kingdom Hearts.