Thoughts on Re:coded
At 2 A.M. this morning, I finished Re:coded.
"Really, Sephy? That fast?" you may be thinking, "But it just released on Tuesday!"
Wanna know something funny?
Because of the big ice storm that pretty much completely halted ATL and the surrounding areas, I wasn't able to get it until Wednesday morning.
Yes, I tear through KH games like a ravenous beast. =3
I figured I'd post my thoughts and opinions on this awesome game. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, and I'll warn if there's a big one. But as long as you've seen the trailers and stuff like that, you should be okay.
First off: is this game worth playing? Um... YES! It's a lot of fun. The story isn't as deep and angsty as others *cough*Days*cough*, so it almost feels like a nice 'break' of sorts. A lot of people think it's not worth playing, but I truly think it'll be important to the future games. It'll probably be to 3D what CoM was to KHII - you'll be confused if you don't have a knowledge of what happened. It finally gives some closure on one of KHII's biggest mysteries - what Mickey's letter at the end said.
Gameplay-wise, it's very much a mix between Days and BbS. I really liked the Stat Matrix, which surpasses Days's Panel System immensely. It was an absolute joy to play, and while it had its frustrating moments, never made me want to smash my already-weak DS into a wall. In some of the worlds, a new gameplay element is added. For example, in Olympus Coliseum, battles are done in a Final Fantasy-style turn-based RPG way.
The story, as stated before, is a nice breather from the other recent games. It can get confusing, but not too much. I wish there had been a few more voiced cutscenes; it only has about 30 minutes worth. Most scenes are TWEWY-style text-and-pictures. Whoever wrote the script gave the characters, especially Sora, interesting dialogue. *Mild spoiler* There's a text scene between Data-Sora and Data-Riku that really made me smile. I can't remember word-for-word, but after Sora made some statement, Riku said something along the lines of 'a little flowery, but it'll do, half-pint', to which D-S responds 'hey! I'll remember that when I'm taller than you!'. Riku laughs and says 'I look forward to that'. It may not have been the real ones, but it gave a bit of insight on what a casual conversation between the two would be like. It was adorable. <3 *End spoiler*
The Avatar Mode is pretty cute. I doubt I'll actually find anyone with Tag Mode, but it seems to have CPU-based Avatars that come anyways, so that makes up for it. You can make a really twisted-looking character, I imagine! My default character outfit was Ansem, but I've read where other people have gotten different characters.
Overall, this is a really good game. I'd certainly recommend it!
Thanks for reading!
- Sephy