SE and Disney tried to bring the KH series to Nintendo, it almost made it, but did not make a impact like the last game.
Genre: RPG-Action
Developer: Squareenix
System: GameBoy Advance
Total Score: 81/100
Value Score: 8.1/10
• Story: 9/10
o . Sora and friends end up in a castle called Castle Oblivion after encountering a strange cloaked person after their adventures from KH1. They end up losing their memories once entering the castle, and being told that they would have to revisit each world in order to progress through the castle, doing so will make them forget their old memories and would make Sora regain some important memories that he may of lost in the past (or so the story goes). The game introduces to you the Organization members who are the main antagonists. Anyways, when you finish the main storyline with Sora, you will be given a chance to play Riku's story line, which is pretty much almost different from Sora's. Yes you will have to go through all the worlds again, but its not as tedious or long as Sora's.
• Characters: 9/10
o The characters are pretty much exactly like their KH counter parts, except for the part that there are less voice overs, that in mind, not a single disney character aside from Donald, Mickey and Goofy have voices. The Organization members have full voice overs, despite that, this game lacks the Disney voices which made KH1 so famous for. Regardless of that, the new character additions are a plus, however there are no character build up for the disney characters like they had in KH1, which is kinda of a letdown. Also they lack Tarzan due to licensing issues lol.
• GamePlay: 6/10
o Game play has changed dramatically, no longer do you get to spam the attack button doing combos, or using MP to summon or to cast magic. The gameplay is fully in control of Cards which you have to work on a deck just like if you were playing a Yu-Gi-Oh game. Yes you will spend a lot of time changing your deck in each world you go to, chances are you'll be working on your deck as much as you'll be traveling throughout a world. Though it's a bit tedious and time consuming to make the deck, a well made deck can help you out in the game overall. However nothing beats the KH1 game style, though COM does introduce to you Sleights which are skills you can use if you combine 3 cards together which is a pretty nifty feature. When it comes to Sora's storyline, gameplay is pretty much easy, but when it comes to Riku's storyline, you'll have a hard time especially when your in the Alice in wonderland world for Riku. His deck is random in each world you go to, which means you will not have a choice to change his deck. Leveling up is almost the same to the core, however you gather these orbs which give you exp, this is to replace the munny system from KH1 as munny does not exist in the game. Once you level up, you have a choice of increasing your HP or your CP (you are limited to how many cards you can carry depending on the CP you have, higher means more cards), or you can choose to learn a sleight. Also the munny system is gone from the game, so your stuck with something called Moogle points where you can trade the points to purchase cards from the moogle shop. Also when you go into a world, you use these map cards near doors to go through several rooms within the world, yes no longer are the worlds vast and full of exploring, everything is linear, you either go backwards or up. The GBA version doesn't help the fact due to graphical limitations and the fact that the button limitations make the gameplay a bit tedious for the average RPG player. More than likely due to the graphical issues, you'll probably end up making simple mistakes such as missing a target.
• Graphics: 9/10
o One of the best GBA games with good graphics, the game does include some CG but at a lower pixel rate, might not look as good as the other KH games in the series. In game graphics are well made, and are a dedication pretty much for what is in store for the future 2Dish games made by Squareenix (I.e. The World Ends with you). The Sprites are well made, each world is well made as well but due to the limitations, each world looks pretty similar in shape. Also due to the graphics being a 2D platform, it makes it annoying to play due to the fact that the gameplay style fits well with a 3D platform rather than a 2D Platform.
• Sound: 7/10
o Close to no voice overs in this game other than the simple and clean lyrics, for some reason the sound in the game is a bit too midi for its own good. Sometimes the sound seems a bit off and unrealistic compared to the other KH games but that's once again due to the limitations of the GBA.
• Music: 10/10
o The entire OST is remixed of the original KH1 and of the KH2 game as well, the OST is full of memorable tracks from various disney movies. Whether you like the fact that the quality is dumbed down or not, the OST is a good thing to get for your music collection especially if you're a fan of the disney music and of the KH series.
• Length: 8/10
o The game's length is a bit less than KH1, the main storyline should take you a bit more than 20 hours which is pretty much like KH1. You should be able to finish the game if your at least in the 60s. Riku's storyline should take you about 5-6 hours at the most, and you should be able to finish the game around lv 40.
• Replay Value: 5/10
o Not much replay value in the game other than the fact that you can go back to the old worlds and unlock the special rooms, you can do Riku's storyline and finish his storyline to unlock cards for Sora's storyline to accomplish the 100% card collection.
• Player Value: 8/10
o If you're a Nintendo fan, Squareenix fan, or a disney fan, than this game is a must get, however it falls short compared to the other KH games, regardless, this game brings out the full potential that the GBA can have. SE tried to bring KH to a Nintendo system, however it was far earlier for its time to debut on a Nintendo system.