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| From: Square Enix
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $14.88
You Save: $5.11 (26%)
New (13) Used (16) Collectible (1) from $14.88
Rating:  202 reviews
Sales Rank: 1104
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5 x 5 x 1
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 90417
Model: 662248904177
UPC: 662248904177
EAN: 0662248904177
ASIN: B00068O278
Release Date: June 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: PLEASE READ: Game only, NO case or instructions. Label in great condition. Support the Little Guys, Buy From Us!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 UPDATED 12/20/04--As Someone Puts It, It's A Crazy Game. November 22, 2004
Tomogirl (NJ, USA)
18 out of 32 found this review helpful
What will Sora gain?
What will Sora loose?
To awaken those slumbering memories of his...
I've been marking down my agenda for days now. Several people have already beaten the ROM version of Japanese CoM, but as far as it goes, it's best to buy it. I pre-ordered CoM a few months ago from EB, and I have no intentions of playing the ROM at all to even spoil at visual imagery. This game got those new heartless (-one of them, strangely reminds me of a particular Poke'mon), new characters (-The Organization for one thing), some secrets to be revealed, and big re-visited worlds to explore (as a friend told me from her friend, who played the ROM version). It's enough to juice the buds off any KH fan who's following the story closely. Therefore, there's enough proof that this game is the KH 1.5 and not KH all over again in GBA format. Yes, this game will come with the stunning new technology CG movies. Nomura says it'll take at least 20 hours to play this game. For me, I'll take a good amount of time (like months) on playing CoM in order to wait for KHII to come out in September (as a certain magazine source says. Not totally sure, but it sounds likely).
12/20/05--I'm back! This time with an authentic (I-have-the-game) review. Already 7 hours and third floor into the game. The card system, like everyone else says, isn't hard at all to learn. One thing to keep in mind, please accept the card system as your friend. You may first think that it's not the best way to fight but actually, using cards is an innovated way to fight the heartless. What I find surprising is that the HP level that you start off is pretty easy to keep for quite some time as your starter deck, itself, instantly comes with a (tiny insignificant spoiler)... Heal card. If you don't use this card for some time (avoiding it at any costs) it'll leave you in a more challenging state, which I'm pleased with. ^_^
When I heard the word "repetitive" with a message board review, I began to shrink back a little. Now that I see parts of the story myself, I realized that people who've never played KH1 are going to be lost at several parts (for example: Traverse Town). Although, it isn't required to play KH1 for this game, players starting from here should play KH1 for 100% understanding in story and action. Jupiter may use some scenes from KH1, but they are brief (except, I do worry for Hundred Acre Woods). Don't let each worlds' length fool you (or their boxed-repetitive obstacles). Try not to just jump ahead to the next door for a new cut-scene. Fight as many heartless as you can (as you can re-use each room until you depleted the certain required card. USE CARDS WISELY!). It'll help with your deck, HP, CP (card power), and (new term) sleights (which can be useful at some points). Oh yes, there are hard bosses (and heartless) in this game. The first boss is just an appetizer. I've already lost a few times to Hades (and is still presently trying to find a way to kill his HP). There's no skip button in cut scenes before boss battle capturing that KH tradition (whether it's fortunate or unfortunate, I can't tell).
Edit: I have to agree with one of the reviewers here. When the characters are talking, there's this clicking sound. You do get use to it after awhile. It's just this one particular character whose sound is different from the rest that might strike the ear a little, but that character's role is brief.
Overall, Chain of Memories will make you keep coming back to your GBA over n' over trying to figure out what Sora's hidden memories are. Voted best story 2004 by IGN. Top no. 1 selling chart for GBA games in Japan. For anyone trying to follow up to the KH story...or for those who only have a GBA, this one should be on your top wishlist. ^_0 It'll keep me company for an up-coming 16 hour plane ride. See ya!
A great sequel! December 8, 2004
Linka (My house)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
The game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, is the bridging gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2. It offers a new storyline, a new battle system, and a new look at the series, including cut scenes that match the graphics of the original Kingdom Hearts.
In Chain of Memories, Sora comes across a crossroads. A dark figure in a hooded trench coat appears, and says that Sora has much to gain, but in order to gain something, he must lose something in return. Sora turns around to face the figure, but the figure vanishes, and suddenly, the figure appears, now floating above one single road, the crossroads now gone. Sora follows after the figure, coming across a disfigured castle named Castle Oblivion. Inside the castle, Goofy, Donald, and Sora meet up with the figure once more...
In Chain of Memories, Sora is reliving all of his memories, in a way. None of the characters, apart from the hooded man, Donald, and Goofy remember Sora, no matter how hard he tries to make them remember. The first world they go to is Traverse Town, where you are taught the basics of control Sora in the game, and of how the battle system works. The battle system is made up of cards. If the card has a Keyblade on it, you attack. If it has fire, a snowflake, or lightning on it, you use magic, and so on and so forth. If you get a character card, the character who is featured will attack the enemies for a short amount of time, while Sora in unable to use any of his attacks. Also, you are able to make combo attacks by combining three cards, almost always gaining you a quick victory, especially again the defensive enemies.
The storyline is not a complete remake of the original. It's entirely new, just with similar characters and areas. In the game, you must reach the top of Castle Oblivion, and defeat the boss. After you complete the game for a first time (spoiler), you can replay the game with another storyline, using Riku and King Mickey as main characters. (spoiler)
The graphics are amazing. The isometric view really makes the game a lot easier in the overworld, and the side view for the battles makes it easier to go in and attack. Also, the opening cut scene has, as I said, graphics that match the original, including a small clip of what happened at the end of the last game.
The music is awe-inspiring. The makers of the game have recreated the scores from the original Kingdom Hearts, giving it a wonderful feeling of the past. Remember "Dearly Beloved"? You can hear it again. Including new music just for the game and new areas.
This game is great, though it might take a few tries to get used to the card system, but overall, it's a great game that came out in time for Christmas. I suggest that you put it onto your lists. And parents, if your child is a RPG-freak, get them this game. They'll thank you for it.
 Fun to begin with, but gets very, very boring. December 30, 2005
The No Evil Killer (Everywhere, Anywhere, Nowhere)
17 out of 22 found this review helpful
Unless you're a fan of the original Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 then I would probably stay away from this game. You'll be totally lost and confused and won't know who the hell any of the characters are aside from the recognizable Disney ones. Plus, they are all suffering from amnesia and their long, too frequent, cut-scenes have an enigmatic feel to them so you'll still not really ever be sure what is going on no matter how far you get into the game.
I think the card-based strategy of fighting and evolving is a horrible, badly conceived misfire of an idea. This kind of thing may be fine in a Beyblade video-game but in a Disney/Final Fantasy game it's just inappropriate. The whole concept is scatterbrained and random and has no real skill involved. It takes ages to build up a decent combat deck and even when you do the fighting is endless, tedious and boring. You'll fight the same villains in every level and while in appearance the levels may look different (taking their inspiration from many different Disney films) they are essentially all the same.
The fun comes from spotting popular Disney characters and trying to get into the story that involves them. But the plot is so incomprehensible and alienating that I just didn't care after a while.
I did stick with the game for a good few months and found advancing through each level to be an exhilarating and thankless chore. Nothing changed and I never really felt like I was getting anywhere. I've played better RPGs than this and so have you. As RPGs on the GBA go, I've yet to see one that truly works.
Skip this unless you're a die-hard fan of either franchise.
Graphics A
Sound C
Gameplay C+
Lasting Appeal C+
 Pre-release review? November 28, 2004
Al Teal (Hinesville, GA USA)
15 out of 50 found this review helpful
How do you review a product that has not yet been released? Of what value is it?
 Either you like it, or you don't. August 3, 2005
ngblade017
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Introduction/Note
Ah, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the long awaited sequel that links Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II's stories together. Is the game worth the money? Does it live up to the hype? Relax, that's what I'm here to tell you.
Story
The story of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is an interesting one. The game begins with a cut-scene with some ending footage from Kingdom Hearts 1 and then continues from there. Sora, Donald, and Goofy run down the same path as in Kingdom Hearts and eventually stop at a cross-road. While there, Sora (Donald and Goofy vanish without a trace) is greeted by a mysterious man in a black coat. The man speaks the following: "Ahead lies something you need, but to claim it, you must lose something dear." After that, the man vanishes and all of the roads form into one, leading to the equally mysterious Castle Oblivion.
In this castle, the story picks up, and as you proceed through the game, you will uncover a plot of mystery, deception, and depression (I bet some will argue with me on that last part, though) as you travel to worlds you visited in Kingdom Hearts to find Sora's lost memories. (I'd tell you what's that all about, but I'm going borderline spoilers here)
The story unfolds like so: You go to a world, solve the problems of the people living there, fight a boss or two, and leave. When you leave, the main story of the game continues. Since you only have a few scenes in-between every world, you will more than likely want to just skip over worlds to get to the next story bit.
In the worlds, other then the first and final three, all have the same story that they did in Kingdom Hearts. Now, I understand that you are trying to collect Sora's lost memories, but if I wanted to have the stories from Kingdom Hearts, I would just play Kingdom Hearts. The first world, while similar to what I just described, has a bit more than that, so I left it out.
The final three worlds, however, are strictly for developing the game's main story. Thankfully, it is enough to make you not mind that the story is a repeat of Kingdom Hearts everywhere else. In these final three worlds, which I will not name to prevent spoilers, all of the characters either make themselves known, or sink into the background and fade away. By fade away, I do not mean that they had a story bit and were forgotten about after that. =) You'll see what I mean when you reach these worlds.
The story itself, while complex and interesting, is not very hard to follow. If you read the text carefully and go back to read Jiminy's journal entries once in a while, you should understand the game completely, but some may still have trouble comprehending it.
8/10
Good Points:
-Original Story is very well developed
-Plot reminds me of FFT, which is a good thing for those who haven't played FFT
-Introduction of new characters, as well as development of others
Bad Points:
-The story for most worlds is the same as Kingdom Hearts
-The worlds seem just there to play as a way to give you more gameplay rather than story
-Story may be too hard to follow for som
Gameplay
The gameplay of Chain of Memories is rather unique. It uses cards, but doesn't play similar to something like Pokemon Trading Card Game. The cards are your attacks, magic, and summons. Everything you do in the game revolves around these cards.
While roaming around a world, you fight enemies to gain Map Cards, which are used to unlock doors that allow you to venture further into the world. The Map Cards are separated into colors, names, and level.
While it seems like a simple and easy concept, it gets VERY tedious after a small amount of time. Sometimes you must have something like a Red Level 7 card. If you don't have that Red Level 7 Card, you have to fight until you get it. The searching could take anywhere from five minutes to an hour or two. The latter times are more frequent in the later worlds.
During battles, you have attack cards (keyblades), magic cards, and summons. Each of these are separated by level as well. You have things like Level 1 Kingdom Key and Level 9 Oblivion for attack cards, Level 0 Fire or Level 6 Ice for magic, or Level 3 Dumbo and Level 4 Cloud cards (yes, I said Cloud) for summons. You cycle through your cards with the L and R buttons and use the A button to use a card. Level 0 being the weakest and level 9 being the strongest.
That's not all though. You can combine cards by hitting L and R at the same time while on a card. So, say you have three Cloud cards left. You would hit L+R over while on each card, and they will combine into things called sleights. You learn new sleights by levelling up. Now, back to the three Cloud cards example, if you have the three Cloud cards ready to be used, you hit L and R again and Cloud will use an Omnislash. However you can also use two card sleights. So, if you only had two Cloud cards, he would use Cross Slash instead of Omnislash. Naturally, the more cards you have, the more powerful the effect will be. You can also combine things like Cloud, Fire, and Kingdom Key cards for three separate attacks, but in a quicker pace then using them separately.
Don't forget that there are enemy cards too. If you defeat a boss, or sometimes a random enemy, you will get a card based on them. Some will give you things like faster running speeds, while others will give you abilities like Auto-Life.
There is also a feature called Card Breaks. If your opponent uses a sleight, you can use a level 0 card to break their sleight, and make them lose the attack and a card. Your opponent can also do card breaks to you.
Level 0 cards are not the only way to break sleights or attacks. If you create a sleight that has more total points than your opponents, then you will break their sleight and your's will be used. Or if they use a level 5 card, you could use a level 6-9 or 0 card to break it. If both of your cards have the same total points, all cards used would be broken and no one would get a turn.
Since it would be too much to just throw any and all cards in your deck, you have a CP (Card Points) limit. Higher level cards require more CP than lower level cards, so you can't stack your deck with all powerful cards.
Another addition is Premium Cards. These cards require no CP to use, but after used once, can't be reloaded back into your deck. So if you try and use all premium cards, you will run out of cards by the time you have to reload your deck. Not a very good thing.
In terms of difficulty, Chain of Memories is nothing extremely tough. Some bosses will cause you frustration, but it is usually because your deck of cards is unorganized, underpowered, or a combination of both. Like I said earlier, it's all in the cards. All you have to do is change around your deck and you can most likely win.
While exploring the worlds, you will probably notice that every world is the same. All the rooms have the same set up and patterns, with the only difference being the floor tiles and walls. It gets very boring running through the same course over and over again.
7/10
Good Points:
-Very innovative idea
-Bosses require strategy and not senseless button mashing
-Can be fun
Bad Points:
-Very tedious after a while
-Can take hours just to find a single card
-Levels repeat over and over again
Graphics
The graphics in Chain of Memories are outstanding. Quite possibly the best I have seen for the GBA. A nice feature of the game is the adding of PS2 quality cut-scenes. That's right, ps2 quality. You know the graphics that the original Kingdom Hearts had(bar FMV)? Well that's the cut-scene graphics for Chain of Memories.
The attacks and such are smoothly animated, and look really cool, but if there is too much going on at the same time, the game will slow down until everything causing the slow down finishes. I only came across this slowdown two times the entire game, so don't worry about it.
9/10
Good Points:
-Great GBA graphics
-PS2 quality cut-scenes
-Smooth animations
Bad Points:
-Occasional Slow down
Sound
The sound in Chain of Memories is pretty damn good. The battle cries are the exactly the same as they were in Kingdom Hearts, and the same goes for attacks and magic.
The music, while nothing to be frowned upon, repeats throughout the game from start to end, While I enjoy the music, I don't like hearing the same track from the start of the game to the end of the game.
Square did manage, however, to port all the music from the world in Kingdom Hearts over to Chain of Memories, and it sounds pretty good.
They also managed to get the song "Simple and Clean" over to the cart as well, voice and all. Very nice indeed.
9/10
Good Points:
-Sound quality very high
-Themes ported over from Kingdom Hearts
-Simple and Clean
Bad Points:
-Songs repeat the entire game
Replay, Length, and Rent or Buy
This game will provide a couple play throughs, I'm sure. Two times is the minimum, if you want to get the full story experience, since there are two different modes, each with their own story. I'm pretty sure you'd want to play through each mode at least twice.
The game provided me with about 12 hours and change of fun. I got it on Christmas, and have already beat Sora's Story, but I hogged the GBA most of the time ^_^.
Rent or Buy? Buy of course. You could probably beat both modes within the five days given, if you rushed, but no one wants to rush a game through just to say you beat it.
Replay: 10/10
Length: 8/10
Rent or Buy: Buy
Overall Score:9
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