Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

A technical marvel considering the hardware it runs on, and far and away the best writing and character development in the series. That's where i'm giving it points because it flops hard on the gameplay front. The DS simply wasn't made for 3D Action RPGs and no matter how impressive it is, it shows. The controls are a mess, the game ranges from mindnumbingly easy to tortorous, usually due to the aformentioned control issues. Certainly worth watching the cutscenes in one of the collected editions, but don't feel like you need to actually play this thing, it's simply not very good on that front.

Yeah, yeah, everybody knows the gameplay on this one is boring, repetitive, clunky, and features nothing interesting or new (aside from maybe the versus mode). It was originally just a humble Nintendo DS game. But who has ever played Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days for that anyway? This entry features some of the best writing and drama in the entire series (perfect for the emo kids at a middle school near you). The amazing aesthetics of the cult-like Organization XIII are put front and center. It would be neat if there was also a page on GlitchWave for the version of this featured in Kingdom Hearts 1.5, because transforming this into something like a visual novel was just what it needed to make what's great about 358/2 Days shine through. And also, the Disney crap has less prominence in this one than in pretty much any other Kingdom Hearts game; the various worlds are more or less a background for the much more interesting original characters.

So why is the writing and drama so good in 358/2 Days? The player character is Roxas, the most interesting character in the series. He's something like a doppelganger for Sora, the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts. Created when Sora nearly died, Roxas is Sora's nobody; a shadow self that's leftover from when a person loses his or her heart (essentially a soul in the metaphysics of the game, uniquely created by Kingdom Hearts, the source of all hearts, which is a placeholder for God). So called "heartless" are actually beings made from corrupted hearts and "nobodies" are actually somebodies without hearts--go figure.

Roxas is taken in by Organization XIII, a group of thirteen powerful nobodies working to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts to grant themselves hearts. Given the unique abilities he inherited from Sora, Roxas is just what the Organization needs to bring this about. The plot, themes, and aesthetics surrounding Organization XIII is basically just a (very well done) Evangelion ripoff. From the repetitively used, striking, crucifix like emblem for the Organization to its sci-fi/religious goals like those of SEELE, everything about it screams Eva.

For as much as friendship is a major theme of the series, too often we're told what it is and not shown what it is (lame callbacks to other Disney products don't count). Not here though. As the game progresses we get to see authentic friendship between Roxas, Axel, and Xion blossom in the cold, inhuman Organization XIII and later see the tragedy of it being crushed so the "protagonist" Sora can come back. The ending is actually really sad, moving, and memorable. One of the best of any Kingdom Hearts game . . . and completely undone by Kingdom Hearts III so the series can "reboot" into an even bigger train wreck than it already is.

The visual novel like adaptation for consoles removes most of the garbage gameplay, so play that if you're interested in this game for a faster, more direct but less immersive experience, unless you're a total weirdo (like me).

this game is kinda hard i just want to see the funny ice cream scene ):

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days applied the Kingdom Hearts aesthetic to a mission-based format while documenting the bridge of events between KH1 and KH2. The game is as dull as the concept.

For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this entry in the series. The mission system makes it clear that this was meant to be played in short bursts, but in terms of carrying the kind of experience from the mainline games over to the DS, it does a pretty damn good job. And even if it ends up just adding more fuel to the fire known as the series' narrative with things like Xion, I ended up being quite fond of this as a side-story.

With that being said, there are two big elephants in the room for me in regards to this:
1. Whoever thought that the level-up system in this game was a good idea needs to be fired (or at least get demoted to being a janitor).
2. The Emerald Serenade might be the worst enemy I've encountered in any game period. Or if not the worst, at least the most obnoxious. If you've played any of the later Wonderland missions, you know what I'm talking about.

Other than that, it's good. Though I also have a giant soft spot for Chain of Memories, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt if you never liked that.