Kingdom Hearts Re:coded is the latest entry in Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts series, released exclusively for the Nintendo DS. Re:coded is the first story to take place after the events of Kingdom Hearts II, essentially continuing where that game left off. While Re:coded offers plenty of gameplay innovations that make it radically unique from other games in the series, it is presented through yet another slog of the worlds of the original Kingdom Hearts. Is it worth the purchase? Read on to learn more.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded kicks off with a peculiar message Jiminy Cricket finds in his journal. No, not "Thank Naminé," but another, more obscure message that he never wrote at all. Concerned, he takes the journal to King Mickey, who digitizes it only to find that the message is corrupting the data within. A digital version of Sora is created to destroy the bugs and decipher the meaning of the message, which brings us to the core premise of the game: Sora must run through digital versions of the worlds from the first Kingdom Hearts title, searching for the source of the problem. Every world has bugged/glitched areas called "backdoors," which are filled with destroyable and interactive blocks as well as hostile opponents. Players must explore the Disney worlds to find these cyber-rooms and get rid of the bugs within, which almost always boils down to combat.
From a story perspective, Re:coded is little more than a wild goose chase; the characters are searching for clues to an enigmatic message that is deliberately cryptic for no real reason. Why the message is corrupting the journal, or the fact that a physical journal can become "bugged" in the first place is never explained, either. To make matters worse, the story in Re:coded does little to propel the story of the series forward, making the game feel redundant on top of being nonsensical.
The gameplay is where the game truly shines. Re:coded takes all of the fun and engaging aspects of previous titles and adds plenty of new gameplay twists and improvements that, as mentioned earlier, make the game stand out radically from any other entry in the series.
- The battle system in particular is a refined version of the Birth By Sleep battle system, in which players have a basic ground and aerial combo, as well as a deck of commands (special attacks, magic spells and so forth), which they can pre-set and cycle through during combat.
- Weapons have had unique properties since the very first Kingdom Hearts title, but Re:coded takes it to a new level completely. Utilizing what the game calls "clock abilities," each weapon has a large and unique list of perks (like Protect, or Auto-Potion) that activate as players fight. The more a player fights the more clock abilities become active.
- The leveling system is also very unique in Re:coded, utilizing what is called the Stat Matrix. Resembling a cross between the panel system of 358/2 Days and Final Fantasy X's Sphere Grid, the Stat Matrix is a colorful computer motherboard that allows players to place chips (earned through combat) to learn new abilities, increase in level, improve stats, and more.
As if the improvements to the battle system weren't enough, Square-Enix also introduces a variety of gimmicks to break up the monotony of exploration in the game. Yes, you will be slogging though the same worlds you've seen in Kingdom Hearts, fighting the same enemies you've fought countless times before, but each world has a very unique, genre-breaking spin, which drastically changes how the game plays. Traverse Town for instance, shifts into a side-scrolling 2D brawler/beat-'em up during the latter half of the world. Olympus Coliseum features Super Mario RPG-styled turn-based combat. Wonderland has stealth missions and a Space Harrier-esque rail shooting section. This breathes new life into what would have been another tedious grind through the same old stuff.
In the end however, Re:coded feels like a filler episode in the series. It throws some fantastic and innovative gameplay into the mix, but the story it presents feels unnecessary. One wonders why the same attention to engaging gameplay wasn't given to the story elements of Re:coded. If Kingdom Hearts fans are looking for polished combat and gameplay variety to enjoy on their Nintendo DS, Re:coded offers it up in spades. If fans are looking for a proper continuation of the story however, they may want to looks elsewhere.
Game details:
- Genre: Action RPG
- Developer: Square-Enix
- Website: http://na.square-enix.com/khrecoded/
- Platforms: Nintendo DS
- Release: January 11, 2011
- ESRB rating: E10+
