Pros: Continues the story well, incredible graphics
Cons: Card point rewards aren't balanced, allies aren't always there
The bottom line: I wouldn't suppose that, after 5 years, I could be forgiven for foregoing this part?
Perhaps one of the more refreshing surprises I have had recently in video gaming was the first Kingdom Hearts for the Playstation 2. Part of what made the game click was the crisp battles. Part of it was the delightfully dour mood, bordering on sinister as the game progressed. And part of it was the near-seamless blending of the intellectual properties of two radically different companies. Sure, everyone knew (particularly by the ending) that a sequel would be coming - but who knew that the immediate sequel would be for the Game Boy Advance?

Chain of Memories begins with, appropriately enough, the ending of Kingdom Hearts, where Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy are chasing after Pluto. Pluto runs off with an envelope with Mickey Mouse's insignia, possibly a clue to rescuing Mickey and Sora's friend Riku. But after a few days of wandering grassy fields, the trio have found nothing. But one night, a dark-robed figure wakes Sora and points him towards Castle Oblivion. At this castle, the figure says, he may find what he seeks, but may lose something else. And if you can't trust mysterious figures dressed in black, or a castle with a cheery name like Castle Oblivion, who or what can you trust?

The game's conceit becomes quite interesting here - Castle Oblivion causes people to lose some memories, but discover others. It also causes people to forget some of their abilities, which is finally an actual reason for the classic Mega Man Amnesia (presumably, Sora will proceed to forget everything upon leaving the castle, providing an excuse for the next Kingdom Hearts game as well). And not only does Sora have to reremember his past and his goals, he also has to learn how combat works in this castle.

The story is an interesting turn, as it nicely sets up the game in addition to answering the problems with the persistent problem with sequels - what happened to your old powers? It's also manages to handle well the problem direct sequels tend to have - it actually connects well with the old game without getting too bogged down in flashbacks. The characters regularly talk about past events, which helps flesh out the characters as well as introduces the story points from the previous game that are important to this one.

One of the interesting points that the game does well is that it preserves many of the facets of the previous game in the characteristics. It's one thing to remember that even by the end, Sora was constantly feeling conflicted by what the truth actually was, but committed to actually performing the right actions. It's another to remember how Donald and Goofy interact constantly, which is just an extension of how they've interacted in cartoons and comics for decades. But Square managed to hit all the nuances, such as Goofy's gait, Donald's mannerisms, and even how Sora puts his hands behind his head at times when he's talking comfortably with his friends. Given the shift in system, it would have been really easy to lose track of what gave the original game its character, and Square Enix manages to preserve that.

Of course, a full 3D action RPG wouldn't be quite possible on the Game Boy Advance, particularly given how complex the controls of the original were. So, cleverly written into the story, Castle Oblivion uses an interesting battle system. Sora wanders alone on a isometric-perspective map, able to swing his trusty Keyblade (yep, still in there to make sure the violence is kept to a minimum) at wandering enemies. It isn't until you hit an enemy, or you touch one, that combat actually begins. This mechanic has been used in many role-playing games with action elements, and the nice part of it is that you can always try, if you're able, to avoid opponents. Presuming, of course, you're the kind of gamer that wants to avoid fights, which is incomprehensible to me.

The combats themselves are where things get odd. You bring along a deck of cards into each battle, and what is currently in your deck determines what you can do at the moment. If you have fifteen attack cards in the deck, you can do fifteen physical attacks. If you don't have any Thunder cards, you can't cast a single Thunder spell. The concept plays decently, as you can continuously reload cards (although each successive reload takes longer, so try to finish quickly). Adding to the game's battle system is that each card (including the ones the enemy has to use to attack you) have numerical values - and if one card is in play, no card of a lower value can take place (although if two equal cards are played, they cancel out). So building a deck involves knowing when to slip in a small card and knowing when to save your larger cards.

Of course, the game does have an inherent mechanism to keep you from going wild with just making a deck with the strongest cards: each card has a cost based on its strength and its value, and you have a maximum cost for building your deck. You can increase this cost when you gain a level, but it does keep you from just loading your deck fairly early. Perhaps it does this too well: you always gain just 25 more points when you increase your deck points, regardless of level. Late in the game, when you're collecting cards worth upwards of 50 points, these meager increases won't cut it. These increases should be scaled depending on your level and advancement through the plot.

I particularly like how you can store cards, though, and make what the game calls a Sleight. By storing three cards, you can unleash them as a combo, and possibly do a more powerful maneuver. Some are obvious, like casting a more powerful Fire spell by stocking multiple Fire cards. Others you have to learn by finding the technique, or learning one upon levelling up. This results in more strategic deck building - sure, you can shuffle through and find the other Blizzard card in your deck to form Blizzaga (yes, still using the Japanese names of the spells - might as well get used to it), but wouldn't it be easier to just stick them all next to each other for ease of access? Square Enix even builds in a mechanism to keep Sleights from going too far - you can't use the first card of a Sleight again for the rest of that battle (unless you have a certain rare card or two), so you have to judge when the best time to use a Sleight is.

One thing that will throw off fans of the original is that Donald and Goofy are not automatically with you in any battle. Due to the rules of Castle Oblivion, your friends can only join you if you find their cards and use them like any other summon. Granted, their cards are generally appearing constantly during any given battle (even fast battles will likely see two ally cards appearing from above), but part of the fun of the original Kingdom Hearts was combining with your allies (who generally had solid AI) and teaming up. This time, because your allies are cards, you don't see them often. And then, you can't act until they're gone, as you can't make another play until your previous one ends. While still useful (and I know you're all going to pray for Jack Skellington cards in Halloween Town), it loses some of the game's flavor.

One final thing to note is that you get to build each level yourself. The level comes with a basic skeletal structure, and plot rooms are fixed. But you get to choose what specific rooms open up between you and your goal by using room cards that you earn from battle. You can choose from many different types of rooms, from ones teeming with foes to rooms that simply contain treasure to rooms where you have a bonus during your fights. You can even "write over" old rooms to find new enemies and treasure. This helps to ensure a different experience through each level, vastly increasing the replayability of the game.

Overall, the game's controls are pretty responsive, and you can easily keep from moving where you don't want to go. It's also fairly easy to perform the one move Sora retained from his previous adventure: the barrel roll, which allows you to evade all sorts of attacks. One thing that can be frustrating is that it can be difficult to get out of being cornered if a few enemies go crazy with attacks while you're surrounded. But so long as you don't have that happen repeatedly (not too difficult), then you can generally handle whatever is thrown at you easily. One nice touch that is actually tactically important: you can scroll through your deck at any time. This way, you can prepare by going to the next cards you wish to use while performing one of the longer Sleights. Keep that in mind; it helps alot during later battles.

Graphically, this is probably the best you'll ever see out of the Game Boy Advance. Seriously, the game's opening is a nearly totally perfect rendering of Kingdom Hearts' ending. I'm probably not the only one who thought that they'd never be able to render graphics that well on the Game Boy Advance. Yes, I realize that it's completely pre-rendered and just a clip originally played on superior hardware. It's still more clear and detailed than I ever thought possible. Kudos belongs to Square Enix simply for pushing the Game Boy Advance beyond the limits I thought the machine had.

Of course, the game couldn't continue with graphics that sweet (or it would be ten minutes long, tops). But it does switch to an incredibly clean pixelated interpretation of the original graphics. The sprites are sizeable, but they don't dominate the screen to the detriment of the rest of the action. The characters are faithful renderings of the original concept art, and you can easily see the details for the characters, from the mousehead keychain on the Keyblade to the zipper running around Donald's hat. They are animated well (smoothly would be a bad choice of words; some have deliberately clumsy movements). Even the enemies, most of which are returning from the first game, are animated well. The only one that doesn't seem to work well is, oddly, the basic Shadow, which moves more stilted than feels correct.

The game's backgrounds, though, are less than inspiring. While it tries to echo the Playstation 2 as well as the designs, it is quite obvious that the programmers focused more effort on the moving sprites than the backgrounds. While they are colorful and vaguely evocative of the Playstation 2 levels (as well as the original movies the games are pulling from), they have nowhere near the detail of the old levels. However, you'll likely be too focused on the moving sprites (where the programmers focused their attention) to really notice.

The game's music is difficult to judge on the Game Boy Advance, as its built-in speaker is still as reliable as last week's aluminum foil. However, should you use headphones or play on the Game Boy Player, you will hear Square Enix tried their best with the tools available. The game's music consists of simplified versions of the same levels from the original game, which in turn were remakes of the original movie tunes. While obviously a step down in quality from those sources, the music is superb for the portable medium. You can quite clearly tell which songs are which, and Disney fans will clearly enjoy listening to their favorites more.

The sound effects, though, suffer greatly. Beyond a few stock quick clips (like Sora shouting for Goofy or Donald), no voice work is in this game. Even then, the voice work is culled from the work that Haley Joel Osment did in the previous game. Most of the effects are rather dull, although the game certainly gets docked for having a chirping sound play when text scrolls on screen. Given that it's always high pitched and it always bothers both the player and anyone nearby, why do designers insist on having a random sound chirp with each letter of text that appears? If you are one to keep the sound on during play, you might want to turn it down during scenes with text (basically, all the plot points).

I must discuss the story's tone overall. Now, as any veteran of the previous game can tell you, Kingdom Hearts was not a particularly joyous game. You start off by watching Sora's home, Destiny Island, become consumed by the sinister beings known as The Heartless. It recovers from this to be cheerful if touched by melancholy for much of the game, but turns dark by the end, finishing on a partial resolution. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is even more willing than its predecessor to delve into the difficult and darker topics stories often touch upon. It regularly questions how strongly emotion and memory are tied (particularly as Sora starts to remember a girl that he knew from Destiny Island that never came up in the previous game - possibly the story's only weak link and obvious Deus Ex Machina), and suggests that even what Sora's fighting for are lies born of his deepest desires. Great for older gamers, but I'd want to be there for a child to discuss some of the game's themes.

On the other hand, it's refreshing to see a game so willing to delve into such themes. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has a slightly awkward battle system (slightly hindered by partly negating what made the original so much fun), but is more than made up for by the cerebral and bittersweet plot. Delving into the game is easy, and it flows well from the first game and sets up nicely for the next installment (which shall be another Playstation 2 game). I can easily see Playstation 2 owners getting a GBA just for this game. Followed shortly by GBA owners getting a PS2 so they can know what unfolds before and after Chain of Memories. Undoubtedly, Nintendo will be begging Square Enix and Disney to release the other two games for Gamecube, while Sony will be on their knees to get Chain of Memories for the PSP. Until that happens, though, Square Enix and Disney have managed to spread a solid tale through two comapnies' systems. If you enjoyed the first, or simply like seeing the darker side of fairy tales, you'll get a kick out of this one.