Kingdom Hearts: Recoded Log I

I didn’t want to pass quick judgement on Kingdom Hearts: Recoded (like I did with Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll) since Recoded didn’t exactly impress me on first sight. It’s actually the mobile game– Kingdom Hearts: Coded that was released over a period of time in Japan, but SE later made it into a DS game. It’s Kingdom Hearts 1 alright, and I mean literally Kingdom Hearts 1.

I’m finishing up with Traverse Town right now, but the beginning, the story, and the gameplay is essentially Kingdom Hearts I. You won’t understand this game if you haven’t played KH1 either, which is a strange part.

Essentially, there’s a strange entry in Jimminy Cricket’s journal that he doesn’t recognize. So King Mickey and company decide to recreate the journal into some virtual world and you try to figure out what that entry means by playing as the “virtual” Sora (aka, the KHI Sora). (KH:Recoded takes place after KH:II, and the opening is KH:II’s ending.)

So you start at Destiny Islands, the exact place in KHI, but without KH1’s storyline. You choose your path in the exact same way in KHI in the beginning, and you basically hop on to worlds in KHI’s chronological order to figure out the “bugs” in the virtual world.

The only difference between the environment in Recoded and KHI is that in Recoded, there are “blox”– weird black and red blocks that represent the bugs in the virtual world. You can go break them if you want. It’s completely unnecessary.

On that note, if you really enjoyed KHI and actually remembered it (which I don’t) then this game will bring back some sweet memories. Problem though, is that the DS has some handicaps. For one, you don’t have two analog sticks, not to mention a lost set of L2 and R2. Controlling camera angle is the worst in this game. The camera automatically shifts so that you’ll always see in front of you when you attack, but move backwards, and the camera doesn’t shift along with you.

Remember those Heavy heartlesses? The big fat ones that you had to attack from the back?

Yeah, things get a little complicated when you have to attack using X/Y, while move with the directional buttons, along with adjusting the camera angle with your stylus on the bottom screen.

I don’t know about you, but I’m erratic with camera angle. Thumbs always on both analog sticks with my Dualshock controller so when I move, the camera moves too.

Also, it’d be nice if you remember KH’s overall storyline. (The latest installment I played was KHII, and I never touched it again after I finished it, so… it’s like I’m re-educating myself with KH lore).