Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Review

Kingdom Hearts is back in town once again courtesy of Square Enix and Disney's creative minds, this time with Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days on the Nintendo DS. It's been quite a while since Kingdom Hearts has served up some new plotline and this time Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days pits players against the heroes whose roles they normally play, for a little change of scenery, and in true Action RPG form too. Taking advantage of the platform to boast both single player and multiplayer story modes, this is definitely not the stereotypical spinoff carbon copy.

Players take control of Roxas, the latest recruit in the diabolical Organization XIII, whom Kingdom Hearts veterans will remember controlling for the six-hour-plus tutorial phase of Kingdom Hearts II in 2006. Quite literally a newborn Nobody with nothing but a name and a severe case of amnesia, Roxas is quickly picked up by Xemnas, given his acronym-derived name, and accepted into the ranks of the Organization as number XIII. The story follows Roxas' ascent from, as partner Axel calls him, a listless "zombie" into one of their more formidable warriors. The timeline runs in the background of the events that take place at the end of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, bouncing back and forth between The World that Never Was, as well as various Disney worlds where XIII conducts investigations and missions. Long time Kingdom Hearts fans will note events, like several members' departure for Castle Oblivion, as timestamps in the pre-existing Kingdom Hearts plotline, which does a nice job of rounding out the universe. In addition, a marked twist to this story, as players will be able to tell simply from looking at the cover, is the emergence of an as-of-yet-unmentioned rank XIV in the Organization, a young woman named Xion.

Gameplay, surprisingly, is very much akin to what players have grown accustomed to from the Kingdom Hearts series, despite the jump to a portable platform. Days begin in The Grey Area, a meeting room in the Organization's castle in The World That Never Was, where players can save their game and prep for the day's mission. Non-battle actions work the same as always, with players being able to move Roxas freely about the field and interact with characters or objects he approaches. Before embarking on a mission, it's essential to equip Roxas properly, as the menu is not accessible at any point during an excursion, even when no enemies are present. The game can be saved at any time from the menu, but the unavailability of the menu during missions can be quite an annoyance from the perspective of portability. Some of the missions are quite long, so it doesn't necessarily suit quick play sessions.

A notable aspect of the battle system this time around is the use of panels for equipment, items, abilities, and levelling. Players are given a backpack with a set number of blocks, or panels, and can use the stylus or arrow keys to drag items from Roxas' inventory into his backpack. Some abilities or stat boosts take up more than one panel, however, and are sometimes odd, Tetris-like shapes that call for a bit of strategizing; for instance, more powerful level-ups take up more room. Power-ups can be placed into the various multi-slot panels as well, unlocking more advanced abilities.