This game has to be one of the 3D Graphics Heavy games I've seen on the DS, apart from Super Mario 64.
Kingdom hearts 358/2 Days takes place during/after Chain of memories, and before Kingdom Hearts II.
For those of you who don't know what Kingdom Hearts is:
SPOILERYou've have had their heads in the sand It is a real time RPG based on the Final Fantasy and Disney universes, Kingdom Hearts I and II were both released for the PS2. The previous three games left you wandering around oyur sdesired world, doing whatever it is that happens as you explore the world. This game focuses on the missions roxas performs whilst he's with the organisation.
There are seven worlds in 358/2 Days: Twilight Town, Agrabah, Neverland, Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Beast's castle, Halloween Town and the World that Never Was. These areas are unlocked as the player progresses through the game's missions.
Actual Spiel:The beautiful thing about this kingdom hearts is it introduces a new equipment/ability customisation method called slot panels. These slots can be used to equip Roxas with a different keyblade, and certain panels can be linked with others to increase an abilities properties. For example, everytime you level up, you don't actually level up roxas, you recieve this little panel which increases his level by 1 with every panel.
These panels are in short supply at the beginning of the game, and players will often find themselves fiddling with their layout in order to squeeze the last ounce of power out of their panels.
There are three difficulties in this game; Beginner, Standard and Proud mode beginner and standard are meh, but proud mode can leave you frustrated when trying to completely clear a mission
One thing I can say about this game is the surprising amount of detail that has been put into it. Fair enough, it's square enix; but jeez, The enemy list is amazing, introducing both new and old heartless alike, whilst introducing two of the nobody enemies from Kingdom Hearts II. Diferent attack styles are used with different keybaldes are equipped, which is a great touch, not to mention most of the keyblades and attacks look damned cool.
Limit Breaks are in this game, so Final Fantasy players, rejoice. When Roxas is hurt to a certain degree, he can unleash his Limit Break, at which point he proceeds to go completely and utterly crazy at which ever heartless (plural) he sees fit to screw up!
Multiplayer to this degree is a first for the Kingdom Hearts series. Up to Four people can select an organisation XIII member and carry out most story missions that have been unlocked. It's an interesting point to note that you can play Multiplayer alone, so if you feel like using Axel or, say...
A certain other 6 unlockable characters, you can go right ahead and do so.
It's a shame that touch screen support was only limited to camera control which is largely unrequired (R puts the camera behind roxas) however, All in all, this game is great It has a great storyline when you get into it (and ignore the million and a half ice cream scenes) and the features in it are a must for any RPG fan.
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, is coming out in Australia and North America on September 29th. A European release is scheduled for October 9th. the Japanese release was released May 30th (which is where I got it)
Just a random thread encouraging people who own a DS to look this game up and check it out! and look forward to it, hopefully
-Out
EDIT: For those of you who want difficulty, there is a certain ring (
Extreme) which locks your hp at 1. In return, you get double EXP. it doesn't seem fair. but it's challenging