KH: Re coded Review
Aug 17, 2015 6:30:41 GMT -5
Post by smartagentkc on Aug 17, 2015 6:30:41 GMT -5
For a DS title that's considered just a filler story, it's actually quite fun. I love the overall computer theme of the game and the ability to replay the worlds/explore them for more goodies or just try their boss battle/Score Attack round to get a better ranking and was impressed on how they mix in some other gameplay styles (2D Platforming, 3D Rail Shooting, Turn Based RPG) along with KH's Hack and Slash style gameplay. It was decent attempts to mix things up and it worked for the most part as the sections are playable. The stat, command and gear systems are nice boosts as well
Gameplay:
Stat System: The stat system is similar to FFX sphere grid but each slot requires a chip to be inputted and once it's in, it can only be swapped out for another one which until you can get a surplus of blank chips can be annoying especially when you realize that you can double your stats by connecting two CPUs together and doubling the power of those chips. (Level ups, Lucky Strike, and high end stat chips need to go there while the elemental chips minus Cure can go elsewhere). There are also side paths that unlock field abilities like Air Slide, Glide and High Jump which when fully unlocked make the platforming a lot easier and you can float above the ground using Glide. All and all I liked the system. The cheats you unlock are interesting but aside from the difficulty cheat which is unlocked from the beginning and the loot cheat which you need for a certain sector challenge are just temptations you can avoid using during the main story (use all five of them however and you get a special trophy chip which is an all around stat boost)
Commands: Along with a standard attack and combo. You have different commands you can build ranging from attack moves and their elemental counterparts to different magics my favorite being the Storm Series which Sora acts like a sawblade and slashes through opponents but my favorite magic being the Triple Pursuit which is Blizzard Magic fired as three Icicle Missiles that pierce through walls and enemies and turns and pursues them dealing up to 6 Ice hits on a single enemy and 9 hits on a group of enemies and of course Cure and Cura are my best friends on the healing department and if you charge your Clock gauge to maximum you can unleash one of several finale attack my favorite being the Megaflare which is pretty much an area nuke.
Keyblades: Different ones have special overclock abilities that activate when you reach a certain level in clock gauge (it increases as you deal damage to enemies or destroy blocks but drains as time goes on). My favorite being the Undo ability which is more or less protection against all status conditions (yeah KH has status conditions and they freaking suck when you get them and they aren't that good when you deal them. Freezing okay but that's about it) thankfully my favorite keyblade the Oathkeeper has it as it's base clock ability which means as long as it's equipped I can't be hit by status conditions and let me tell you an enemy called the eliminator is a killer because of the status conditions and Undo saved my behind more then once.
Accessories: You also get access to accessories that can either boost your stats at low health, boost your field abilities, make sure you don't die from a fatal hit, or protect you from statuses. At first the status protection was good but when I got Undo, I made sure to open my slots for other things
System Sectors and Challenges: These areas are quite interesting and can be tricky to beat properly. Your goal is to get Sector Points to trade for goodies (all of which are needed to have good things,) money and extra EXP at the end of the system and in later areas you can bet 10%, 30%, or 50% of your current total for a challenge and multiplier reward if you beat that challenge. The challenges range from easy (play at night) to super tough (no basic attacks, don't get hit more then X times.) and one screw up can ruin a guy's day (it took me three attempts on an extra dungeon to get it right both mess up were due the game saying screw you here's an eliminator to fight now die and let me have all your SP you just earned this past hour.)
Boss Battles/Score Attacks
Normal: The different bosses you face normally are fun to play against but some of them are pain in the behinds especially Sora's Heartless 3rd stage
2D Platforming with Auto Scroll: It was alright but darn it man I hate bottomless pits and being crushed off the screen! (at least it's not instant kill but it does reset your player back on screen at the cost of some health and your currently wielded powerup) (the commands are disabled leaving only your movement abilities) The bosses (Guard Armor and Dragon) are push overs
3D Rail Shooting: Not as good as the Gummi Ship sections of KH2 and I just hate crashing into things that just refuse to get out of my way! (bonks forehead against a block as he traveling) I swear these blocks are giving me a headache. Bosses Trickmaster and Invisible are easy to fight but still the type of gameplay is poor
Turn Based RPG: Now this one was done the best. Your commands could be fused/compiled into different power moves (although I wish they would give you information on the different combos/moves so that you can design a deck that is good but with a little pre-planning you can figure out that commands that hit in a circle in hack and slash are spread shots that chained together clear out the grid of enemies.) and Sora has an ultimate move called Boiling Point that is a berserk attack against the enemies. It was fun to have Sora, Hercules and Cloud all working together but the other two only get a regular attack that can be chained (with timing) into a three attack combo and a ultimate move (Zero to Hero for Hercules, which goes down a row of enemies and Omnislash for Cloud which deals 6 hits randomly)
The bosses were interesting to play against in an RPG style but for the most part all you needed to do was have plenty of licenses on hand (Regen, Auto-Block, Auto-Life) and stick to basic attacks as the three hit combos timed right did more damage then the other commands. You get to play against Cerberus and Hades the first go through and in later replays you can play against the Rock Titan, A behemoth, and the Ice Titan (which if you're overleveled like I was are pushovers)
Story:
Some may say KH Re:coded got bad storyline because it doesn't really add to the overall plot of the real world because all you're doing is exploring worlds inside the journal and playing alternate episodes that get erased when the Journal resets itself. The truth is however The story reveals that extra soul data exists inside Sora's heart however there is a great amount of pain connected with that data and if Sora isn't strong enough to purify it and heal the pain it could destroy him from within which is the basis of the letter that Mickey wrote Sora Kairi and Riku at the end of the KH2.
The extra secret scene however set the basis of Dream Drop Distance
The super secret scene in the HD remix has Maleficent talking about how the Datascape (or Date Escape as Maleficent in her non-tech way says it) reminds her about an anicent book that could create a world with people powers that had yet to be. If a journal could be turned into data and create worlds inside a contained system then maybe the ancient book of things that tell real events could be controlling the real system and if she had control of that book she would be unstoppable (pretty much hinting that everything that's happened in the KH world has been prewritten in a book.)
All and All worth the $23.00 ($20 plus tax) I paid for it.
Gameplay:
Stat System: The stat system is similar to FFX sphere grid but each slot requires a chip to be inputted and once it's in, it can only be swapped out for another one which until you can get a surplus of blank chips can be annoying especially when you realize that you can double your stats by connecting two CPUs together and doubling the power of those chips. (Level ups, Lucky Strike, and high end stat chips need to go there while the elemental chips minus Cure can go elsewhere). There are also side paths that unlock field abilities like Air Slide, Glide and High Jump which when fully unlocked make the platforming a lot easier and you can float above the ground using Glide. All and all I liked the system. The cheats you unlock are interesting but aside from the difficulty cheat which is unlocked from the beginning and the loot cheat which you need for a certain sector challenge are just temptations you can avoid using during the main story (use all five of them however and you get a special trophy chip which is an all around stat boost)
Commands: Along with a standard attack and combo. You have different commands you can build ranging from attack moves and their elemental counterparts to different magics my favorite being the Storm Series which Sora acts like a sawblade and slashes through opponents but my favorite magic being the Triple Pursuit which is Blizzard Magic fired as three Icicle Missiles that pierce through walls and enemies and turns and pursues them dealing up to 6 Ice hits on a single enemy and 9 hits on a group of enemies and of course Cure and Cura are my best friends on the healing department and if you charge your Clock gauge to maximum you can unleash one of several finale attack my favorite being the Megaflare which is pretty much an area nuke.
Keyblades: Different ones have special overclock abilities that activate when you reach a certain level in clock gauge (it increases as you deal damage to enemies or destroy blocks but drains as time goes on). My favorite being the Undo ability which is more or less protection against all status conditions (yeah KH has status conditions and they freaking suck when you get them and they aren't that good when you deal them. Freezing okay but that's about it) thankfully my favorite keyblade the Oathkeeper has it as it's base clock ability which means as long as it's equipped I can't be hit by status conditions and let me tell you an enemy called the eliminator is a killer because of the status conditions and Undo saved my behind more then once.
Accessories: You also get access to accessories that can either boost your stats at low health, boost your field abilities, make sure you don't die from a fatal hit, or protect you from statuses. At first the status protection was good but when I got Undo, I made sure to open my slots for other things
System Sectors and Challenges: These areas are quite interesting and can be tricky to beat properly. Your goal is to get Sector Points to trade for goodies (all of which are needed to have good things,) money and extra EXP at the end of the system and in later areas you can bet 10%, 30%, or 50% of your current total for a challenge and multiplier reward if you beat that challenge. The challenges range from easy (play at night) to super tough (no basic attacks, don't get hit more then X times.) and one screw up can ruin a guy's day (it took me three attempts on an extra dungeon to get it right both mess up were due the game saying screw you here's an eliminator to fight now die and let me have all your SP you just earned this past hour.)
Boss Battles/Score Attacks
Normal: The different bosses you face normally are fun to play against but some of them are pain in the behinds especially Sora's Heartless 3rd stage
2D Platforming with Auto Scroll: It was alright but darn it man I hate bottomless pits and being crushed off the screen! (at least it's not instant kill but it does reset your player back on screen at the cost of some health and your currently wielded powerup) (the commands are disabled leaving only your movement abilities) The bosses (Guard Armor and Dragon) are push overs
3D Rail Shooting: Not as good as the Gummi Ship sections of KH2 and I just hate crashing into things that just refuse to get out of my way! (bonks forehead against a block as he traveling) I swear these blocks are giving me a headache. Bosses Trickmaster and Invisible are easy to fight but still the type of gameplay is poor
Turn Based RPG: Now this one was done the best. Your commands could be fused/compiled into different power moves (although I wish they would give you information on the different combos/moves so that you can design a deck that is good but with a little pre-planning you can figure out that commands that hit in a circle in hack and slash are spread shots that chained together clear out the grid of enemies.) and Sora has an ultimate move called Boiling Point that is a berserk attack against the enemies. It was fun to have Sora, Hercules and Cloud all working together but the other two only get a regular attack that can be chained (with timing) into a three attack combo and a ultimate move (Zero to Hero for Hercules, which goes down a row of enemies and Omnislash for Cloud which deals 6 hits randomly)
The bosses were interesting to play against in an RPG style but for the most part all you needed to do was have plenty of licenses on hand (Regen, Auto-Block, Auto-Life) and stick to basic attacks as the three hit combos timed right did more damage then the other commands. You get to play against Cerberus and Hades the first go through and in later replays you can play against the Rock Titan, A behemoth, and the Ice Titan (which if you're overleveled like I was are pushovers)
Story:
Some may say KH Re:coded got bad storyline because it doesn't really add to the overall plot of the real world because all you're doing is exploring worlds inside the journal and playing alternate episodes that get erased when the Journal resets itself. The truth is however The story reveals that extra soul data exists inside Sora's heart however there is a great amount of pain connected with that data and if Sora isn't strong enough to purify it and heal the pain it could destroy him from within which is the basis of the letter that Mickey wrote Sora Kairi and Riku at the end of the KH2.
The extra secret scene however set the basis of Dream Drop Distance
The super secret scene in the HD remix has Maleficent talking about how the Datascape (or Date Escape as Maleficent in her non-tech way says it) reminds her about an anicent book that could create a world with people powers that had yet to be. If a journal could be turned into data and create worlds inside a contained system then maybe the ancient book of things that tell real events could be controlling the real system and if she had control of that book she would be unstoppable (pretty much hinting that everything that's happened in the KH world has been prewritten in a book.)
All and All worth the $23.00 ($20 plus tax) I paid for it.
