Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days is the fifth title of the series set between Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II (but starts about 3/4 of the way through the first Kingdom Hearts), during Roxas' time in Organization XIII. You control Roxas, Sora's “nobody” a person with no heart, as he attempts to find out the truth about himself, Xion and the Organization.
Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days starts off with a great looking cut scene which explains each character in the organization, their names and powers. The music in Kingdom Hearts is great, each world includes good background music that changes when you encounter a heartless which really puts you in the mood. The worlds look fantastic though are limited. The game only includes 8 worlds which unfortunately you can't explore without being on a mission and even then you still are excluded from certain areas. The lack of worlds is disappointing but understandable considered that the whole game is in full 3D and has some fantastic cut scenes as mentioned.
The start of the game is fairly confusing and that pretty much continues through the game. It begins with Day 255 and after a short cut scene the game transports you back to Day 7 when Xion, a new female character, is introduced. On Day 8 you start your first mission and team up with Axel. During the game you team up with some members of the Organization including Axel, Xion, Demyx and Xigbar. The missions range from eliminating Heartless and Giant Heartless, the game's mini bosses, to breaking jars and collecting emblems.
Missions can become repetitive and the game doesn't have an option to save during them so fighting Giant Heartless can be annoying on the go. Doing the same basic type of mission gets very tedious but the game allows you to skip them and advance the story.
The combat system is simple button mashing with magic, which can be set to short cut keys, but is quite enjoyable. The camera style can get quite annoying but the game offers options to change that. You can also change whether your partner attacks the same heartless you are locked on to or attacks one that you're not or just not attack enemies at all. You may also choose them to focus more on attacking and only using magic or recovery items when necessary or focus more on healing and will only use attack magic only when needed and you can even choose them to not help you at all.
The magic seems a lot stronger than your weapon, a keyblade of course, but is limited in use due to the panel system. The panel system means you have a limited amount of slots which can be expanded by completing missions or by buying them from the Moogle shop. Every consumable item, weapon, ability, magic, and even level takes up a slot which was a very annoying feature. Some panels take up more than one square making it even more difficult to include all the items, abilities or what have you, you may want. You can also customize your keyblade, making it look very different and become more powerful, give you longer combos or boosts your magic. The abilities range from dodge rolls, blocks, glide, higher jumps and treasure magnets. This makes the game more interesting but is spoiled due to the fact that you have to have free spots for your level panels and item panels so unfortunately, you can't have all the abilities you desire. You must pick and choose.
Aside from Story Mode, you may also replay any missions you have unlocked again in Mission Mode. By completing the missions again you get Challenge Sigils and Mission Crowns which you can redeem at the Moogle Shop for ability panels and more. Mission Mode allows you to choose a different character to play with but lets you keep the abilities and items in your panels. Aside from characters in the Organization you can also play as Goofy, Donald, Micky and Sora. Playing with different characters weapons are enjoyable and a nice addition to the game. You may also embark on missions with friends though you cannot use the Nintendo Wi-Fi to do this thus you cannot play with people over the world which is disappointing.
The panel system can be annoying but has it's upsides. The graphics are great though the worlds are limited. It seems like they concentrated more on story rather than the game play. The combat system is good but it feels like the game is lacking something. One of the great things is revisiting the worlds of the movies you watched as a kid. In Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days that's not completely there. Though overall, Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days is a good game and a great edition to anyone's Nintendo DS library.
Thanks for reading! Doc... ON THE MOON!
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