This Stopped Being About You, Like, Ages Ago.
Sora: Do I know you?
Mickey: Gee, well... sort of. I'm Mickey. Let's just say I know you, Sora. And Sora knows me. We're good friends!
Sora: Oh, well, I guess that makes sense! Sort of. (pause) No, that definitely doesn't make any sense.
A warning to anyone who may be thinking of purchasing Kingdom Hearts Re:coded: it has quite possibly the worst camera system of any game I've ever played. And that's fine in some genres, but in an action RPG with platform elements (and the platform elements are more prominent than usual in this game) it is the most frustrating thing in the entire world. JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK, the game demands. JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK. JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK. I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAN'T SEE IT; JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK. OH NO, YOU MISSED IT, WHAT A SHAME.
Also frustrating (although less of an actual gameplay flaw): Re:coded has special areas called sectors. In these areas you gain points called SP, which can be exchanged for useful items when you exit the sector. On random occasions, a floor in a sector will be infected with a virus, in which case you have to complete a challenge on that floor or lose all your SP collected so far. The challenges are usually things like 'take damage fewer than seven times' or 'complete the floor in under 140 seconds'.
The challenge for the virus I got this morning? 'Play at night'.
OH, YES, KINGDOM HEARTS, I BET YOU THINK YOU'RE HILARIOUS.
I really like Castle Oblivion in Re:coded, though. I thought it was going to be the same old worlds yet again, but no: blank white rooms, with shimmery pictures of the places they're pretending to be stuck up on the walls. It's brilliantly weird and creepy.
In the Olympus Coliseum room, Hercules' response if you fail to defeat any Heartless in the test he sets you to prove you're capable amuses me.
Hercules: Not even one? Hmm... well... uhh... true strength is about more than beating up bad guys. Okay, you pass!
Also, if you pass Cloud's tests, he joins you because you've proved you're worth his time. If you fail Cloud's tests, he thinks (He really took a beating. I don't know...) and then joins you, presumably because he thinks you'll get eaten alive without him. I enjoy this. YOU CARE MORE THAN YOU LIKE TO LET ON, KINGDOM HEARTS CLOUD.
Although, come to think of it, where are Cloud and Hercules when you're fighting the Heartless Hades summoned? Nowhere, that's where. Useless allies.
I love that, despite the hooded figure telling Sora he can do anything without consequences in the illusory worlds, you can't really do anything cruel. Sora refuses to be nasty to people, even if he doesn't know them and they don't really exist!
Of course, Sora is data, so they exist as much as he does, really. I would have liked Re:coded to delve deeper into the question of how much a person constructed of data can be considered a real being, how much their existence is worth. Identity and what makes a person 'real' is already a theme in Kingdom Hearts, what with the Nobodies; Re:coded touched very briefly on the question of whether Data Sora's friendships were of any true value, but I'd have liked it to explore the idea more. It would have helped Re:coded to feel more like a story in its own right, rather than simply filler.
Overall, I'd say that Re:coded is considerably weaker than Days. Most of the story is just going back over the same ground as the first Kingdom Hearts (we've already done this, Square! In Chain of Memories, and, for that matter, in the first Kingdom Hearts itself!), and the camera problems are quite a serious blight on the gameplay. It's also fairly short (by Square standards, at least); whereas Days took me thirty-eight hours of gameplay to complete, Re:coded took a mere twenty. I enjoyed it enough to play it all the way through, and Sora is awfully lovable, and there's some delightful interaction between him and Riku, but I'd suggest waiting until the price has gone down if you're considering it.
Sudden revelation: wouldn't it be wonderful if Ash Ketchum of Pokémon met Sora of Kingdom Hearts? They're both cheerful, they both go out of their way to help people, they're both inclined to consider someone their best friend ever after five seconds' acquaintance. They would be adorable instant friends. I want a Pokémon world in the next Kingdom Hearts game, even though it wouldn't make any sense.
Mickey: Gee, well... sort of. I'm Mickey. Let's just say I know you, Sora. And Sora knows me. We're good friends!
Sora: Oh, well, I guess that makes sense! Sort of. (pause) No, that definitely doesn't make any sense.
A warning to anyone who may be thinking of purchasing Kingdom Hearts Re:coded: it has quite possibly the worst camera system of any game I've ever played. And that's fine in some genres, but in an action RPG with platform elements (and the platform elements are more prominent than usual in this game) it is the most frustrating thing in the entire world. JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK, the game demands. JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK. JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK. I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAN'T SEE IT; JUMP ONTO THE BLOCK. OH NO, YOU MISSED IT, WHAT A SHAME.
Also frustrating (although less of an actual gameplay flaw): Re:coded has special areas called sectors. In these areas you gain points called SP, which can be exchanged for useful items when you exit the sector. On random occasions, a floor in a sector will be infected with a virus, in which case you have to complete a challenge on that floor or lose all your SP collected so far. The challenges are usually things like 'take damage fewer than seven times' or 'complete the floor in under 140 seconds'.
The challenge for the virus I got this morning? 'Play at night'.
OH, YES, KINGDOM HEARTS, I BET YOU THINK YOU'RE HILARIOUS.
I really like Castle Oblivion in Re:coded, though. I thought it was going to be the same old worlds yet again, but no: blank white rooms, with shimmery pictures of the places they're pretending to be stuck up on the walls. It's brilliantly weird and creepy.
In the Olympus Coliseum room, Hercules' response if you fail to defeat any Heartless in the test he sets you to prove you're capable amuses me.
Hercules: Not even one? Hmm... well... uhh... true strength is about more than beating up bad guys. Okay, you pass!
Also, if you pass Cloud's tests, he joins you because you've proved you're worth his time. If you fail Cloud's tests, he thinks (He really took a beating. I don't know...) and then joins you, presumably because he thinks you'll get eaten alive without him. I enjoy this. YOU CARE MORE THAN YOU LIKE TO LET ON, KINGDOM HEARTS CLOUD.
Although, come to think of it, where are Cloud and Hercules when you're fighting the Heartless Hades summoned? Nowhere, that's where. Useless allies.
I love that, despite the hooded figure telling Sora he can do anything without consequences in the illusory worlds, you can't really do anything cruel. Sora refuses to be nasty to people, even if he doesn't know them and they don't really exist!
Of course, Sora is data, so they exist as much as he does, really. I would have liked Re:coded to delve deeper into the question of how much a person constructed of data can be considered a real being, how much their existence is worth. Identity and what makes a person 'real' is already a theme in Kingdom Hearts, what with the Nobodies; Re:coded touched very briefly on the question of whether Data Sora's friendships were of any true value, but I'd have liked it to explore the idea more. It would have helped Re:coded to feel more like a story in its own right, rather than simply filler.
Overall, I'd say that Re:coded is considerably weaker than Days. Most of the story is just going back over the same ground as the first Kingdom Hearts (we've already done this, Square! In Chain of Memories, and, for that matter, in the first Kingdom Hearts itself!), and the camera problems are quite a serious blight on the gameplay. It's also fairly short (by Square standards, at least); whereas Days took me thirty-eight hours of gameplay to complete, Re:coded took a mere twenty. I enjoyed it enough to play it all the way through, and Sora is awfully lovable, and there's some delightful interaction between him and Riku, but I'd suggest waiting until the price has gone down if you're considering it.
Sudden revelation: wouldn't it be wonderful if Ash Ketchum of Pokémon met Sora of Kingdom Hearts? They're both cheerful, they both go out of their way to help people, they're both inclined to consider someone their best friend ever after five seconds' acquaintance. They would be adorable instant friends. I want a Pokémon world in the next Kingdom Hearts game, even though it wouldn't make any sense.