Well, it's finally out and I've gotten myself a first taste of it. Mm.. My first Kingdom Hearts game.
Anyway, we all know how big the KH franchise has been and if you guys know me, I'm actually quite skeptical about it. I thought the first game was innovative and the second was nothing more than pure fanservice without a point.
Let's see if this edition will change my mind, shall we?
I can't really comment on the plot for now as I can't read Japanese for the life of me and there aren't any audio cues for me to pick up so... we'll have to wait until the English edition for me to judge the plot.
For now, I'll tell you what I think of the game in terms of graphics and gameplay.
You play as Roxas, a member of Organization XIII and as a member of said Organization, you get to be Xemnas' (At least I think it was Xenmas and not Saix) errand boy and go on different missions with the rest of the Org members. Most of these missions as far as I've noticed involve taking out a certain enemy.
Graphics wise, this is a very impressive DS game. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was looking at a PSX game. Yes, PSX. Not PS2. FMVs are slightly rare after the first day and these are done with full voiceover. Said FMVs are also skippable with the start button. GOOOOD Squeenix. You learned.
During game story sequences, you find yourself with moving characters that have static faces. I still find it slightly strange when you're talking to a guy whose mouth isn't moving.
I have a slight tick with the camera though. It keeps moving around and at times, I've had Roxas slashing right at me in the heat of battle. It gets to be a bit annoying at times but at least it hasn't caused any fatalities yet.
Action happens on the top screen while on the bottom screen, you have your map, a picture of the world you're in (Or your target for the mission) and the mission gauge which tells you if you've done enough carnage for a silver or gold ranking. Also, you can swing the camera around by swiping on the touch screen. Not for the squeamish as the camera swings around REALLY FAST.
The panel system... can't really comment on it since I don't really know the extent of the items. The things you get are segregated into consumables, equips and magic making things easy enough to find when you need to do some sorting.
You're only allowed to access the menu when you're at the Castle Oblivion. Once you're on the field and on a mission, you're pretty much on your own so make sure you're done equipping those panels before leaving.
In the field, your magic is selected by pressing the X button and choosing it from the menu on the corner left. The number of times you can cast a spell depends on how many you have equipped in those panels. You can assign a shortcut to these spells and to your consumables which makes things handy in a pinch.
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So far, it looks like a pretty solid time killer but I can't really enjoy it much without knowing what the hell this is all about so I'll have to wait til the English release to give my final verdict on the matter.
It's shaping up to be a pretty fun ride though!
