Fans of the series will get the most out of Re Coded. But it's not for everyone who owns a DS and are into RPG games.
However the newest instalment in the Kingdom Hearts series is Re Coded which is not KH3 but it's actually a remake of the Mobile phone version which was only released in Japan around 2008 with only 8 episodes for Coded. Around during E3 2010 it was announced as a remake for the Nintendo DS with some new features and surprised added in.
The story however may be a little confusing for some people out there, but this is more of game for those who hardcore fan or have been following the series. Story takes places just after the events of Kingdom Hearts II, where it follows Jimmy Cricket, King Mickey, Donald and Goofy.
There were two journals one of them was based on Sora's adventure and the other was an empty journal with a mysterious message saying "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it", Mickey tries in uncovering the truth about the hidden message and enters the data world in the journal. But however it gets corrupted and overrun by bugs, so to the Data version of Sora who was inside the journal getting ridding those bugs and find out the truth about the message.
Gameplay: If you've played the series before you should have no problem playing your way through Re Coded, one the plus side is that players will be able to play as Sora once again who is almost everyone's favourite character, unlike past Kingdom Hearts games like 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep you were playing as different charcters. If you have played the first Kingdom Hearts you'll be travelling though same worlds that were in KH1 like Traverse Town, Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum and Hollow Bastion. The battle system however is a little similar to Birth by Sleep's battle system where can create your own commend deck and level up your attacks and magic skills.
You can also mix abilities and attacks together to create new commands, quite a clever idea because I really liked the battle system that was used in Birth by Sleep. Another new feature to Re Coded is the Stat Matrix where you can add micro chips to the board to make Sora stronger and have better defences and attacks; however the Stat Matrix board looks a little similar to the Licence/scrabble board which was used in Final Fantasy XII.
But however you can even unlock cheats which can increase or lower the difficulty for better items to drop, and increase your chances to gaining decent prizes which could become handy.
During your progress in Re Coded you'll be tacking bugs and finding glitches within each world, once you've found the source of the glitches you'll be able to go through it's glitch world and take out the bugs that are cause the problem. There are also challenges in the glitch worlds where you can gain more SP points if you beat the challenges, you'll earn more SP points; if you don't you can still earn them and exchange them for various items or microchips.
Also during each world you'll be thrown into different types of gameplay before reaching the end boss you could be in a 2D side-scrolling platforming or the gameplay is turned into a 2D style battle system a little similar to the old Final Fantasy games on retro consoles.
Graphics and Sound: Graphics are well detailed and look a little similar to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days which was released around 2009; all cutscenes that were in past Kingdom Hearts games are all the same footage you would see on the Playstation 2. Most dialog cutscenes are a little similar to what we've seen in the World Ends with you but without the funky anime art and stunning visuals.
Most of it graphics are highly well detailed from the Glitches Data worlds, to its original worlds that were in the first Kingdom Hearts. But however I would say that there were one or two problems with in Re Coded, one of them was re-visiting the same worlds over and over again and do feel a little smaller than they were used to be. And I would say that its fans may get a little sick re-visiting the same worlds again why can't we have new worlds instead.
But your biggest problem which you'll find really annoying is the camera control, which can be really annoying at times especially around boss fights which the camera can go a little crazy. You can use the R button to view your surroundings or use the touch screen to control the camera; the target-lock however doesn't really help you that much it could make the camera go even more crazy if you're having problems against a boss.
Voicing does a great job too for Re Coded you've still got the same charcters who have the voicing for Sora and Riku; and of course you've still got the same voices for most of the Disney charcters like Donald and Goofy. The soundtrack has a few touches but that's only for the Glitch world which you'll be entering at random times, but if you've been a fan of the series you'll be hearing some classic theme tunes and battle music once again.
But however the Theme song Simple and Clean returns again which I think is getting a little repetitive and would have been nice if there was a new Theme song for the series instead of re-using the old ones over and over.
Overall: If you're new to the series I wouldn't suggest Re Coded because the story itself can be a little confusing and may get totally lost along the way. If you've been a fan of the series you are most likely be getting the most out of this game and of course playing as Sora once again. Beating the main story can take you up to 15 hours or less pending on how much you want to get out of Re Coded then again you can easily change the difficulty at any time.
Almost forgot to mention that there's another feature which has been added to the DS and was used in the Mobile version is the Avatar menu. Where you can create your own Kingdom Hearts avatars and share them with your friends who have a copy of this game, if you do know anyone that has a copy of this game you can share your avatars and receive messages to get scratch cards by scratching a 2 charcters to gain rewards. Tag mode is used for floor codes with other players and going through various floor challenges in the glitch worlds.
But overall with Re Coded being sort of a sequel to Kingdom Hearts II there are a few surprises and hints to the next Kingdom Hearts game which is however Kingdom Hearts 3DS and of course it's hidden ending has a surprise up its sleeves.