Ranking The Games & Movies Of Kingdom Hearts: All-in-One Package Worst To Best

In terms of story and atmosphere you could call this the Majora’s Mask of Kingdom Hearts games. It’s darker, weirder, and aesthetically more-or-less just an asset flip of characters and environments from the first Kingdom Hearts.

In terms of gameplay, it does something wildly new and different by introducing deck commands. This system would become the heart of the Kingdom Hearts handheld games from here on out, and for a first attempt it’s a noble effort.

While there are definite kinks in the system, the blending of cards to knock out enemies with higher powered cards becomes addictive. Everything from your Keyblade, summons, to even your party members have now become cards of varying power levels. With battles happening in real time, you have to think fast not just about what you want to use for attacks, but what you want to blend.

Though the deck system is fun, an aspect that starts to strain the patience are the repetition of the rooms. While adding something of a choice-based dungeon crawler element where you choose via decks what your next room will be is a novel idea, the end result is a lot of repeating wallpapers and looping enemies.

Chain of Memories was an honorable first attempt at a system that would be refined to perfection in games we will (spoiler alert) see very soon on this list. As a freshman card system, it’s an addictive playthrough at its best moments, and this PlayStation 2 remake is a good way to experience it.