Not the best Kingdom Hearts, but definitely one of the most addicting.
The Story is the least entertaining of the bunch. Mickey & The Gang find that there are pages missing in Jiminy's Journal and instead there are mysterious messages scattered throughout the book. They put the journal under some sort of contraption that makes every thing in the journal computerized. They send a Data Sora to go on an adventure to uncover the mysterious messages and find out who is behind all of it.
The Gameplay is as solid as it's ever been. It builds upon the Battle system that Birth By Sleep improved. Commands return to help you pack a powerful punch. There's also the enjoyable Stat Matrix which let's you strengthen up Sora. The Start Matrix looks like a a board game and sort of plays like one too. Leveling Up, completing System Sectors, and Breaking Rare Prize Blox nets you chips that vary in effect that you put in the Stat Matrix that powers up Sora.
The Bosses found in this game are much easier, no matter the difficulty, than in the other games in the series. Many of them require you to wait and then strike which isn't very exciting. This game would have definitely benefited from the reaction commands introduced in Kingdom Hearts 2 because without them the battles definitely feel stale.
Exclusive to this game are System Sectors. For System Sectors you first have to look for them, which the game will hint at if you're close to it, then you have to go in and clear Heartless from many different floors. Clearing them is mandatory for the story but at the end of them rewards are available if you completed it efficiently. For each floor there will also be challenges such as for example having to exit the floor in 60 seconds. All System Sectors vary in the floors and challenges and each get harder as you progress through the game. You will find that it definitely enhances the re-playability of the game.
The game also tries other gameplay that is unfamiliar to the Kingdom Hearts series. During the story you'll play levels that are Third-Person Shooters, Turn-Based RPG, and Platformers. I can't really say I like any of these new gameplay types, I've always been one of the people just likes to hack n slash non-stop with the Keyblade. If I had to chose one, however, I would chose the Third-Person Shooter game play since its the shortest of the bunch and it's not as tedious as the Turn-Based gameplay.
A lot of the tunes found here are recycled from the original Kingdom Hearts. The only thing different is the remixed version of Dearly Beloved that is changed a little for every Kingdom Hearts game that comes out. Now it's not a bad thing that the same music is brought back but some may wish that new tunes or even better tunes were included into the game. The voice acting is pretty good. And is done more often then in 358/2 Days(the other Kingdom Hearts ds game).
My only gripe is that since this is 14 Year-Old Sora they should have tried to find a way to put his original kid voice not his older voice. It's not a big deal but you know technology is real advanced now-a-days it should have been possible. It would've given the game that nice nostalgic touch which is needed since the series has felt too repetitive as of late.
In terms of graphics, this game has to rank among the top 5 for the NDS. You can also argue that this game looks better then 358/2 Days. The environments, characters, and keyblades look better in Re:Coded. Though the Worlds available in 358/2 Days are much nicer in terms of how lush they are.The Cut scenes are about the same as in 358/2 Days but seeing as how this game has more cut scenes, though not better ones, you can sort of saying the graphics in them are much better. Overall you should be satisfied with the graphics.
You can say that the camera is about the worst thing about the game. You will always be adjusting it and on top of that it won't always be able to get to the angle you want it. Locking on an enemy won't entirely help either. Locking on an enemy will cause the camera to always be in motion never just still looking towards the enemy.
I mentioned earlier that the main story is about 12 to 14 hours but that doesn't mean that the game doesn't have incredible replay value. When the story is done there are still Keyblades to collect, System Sectors to find and defeat, and Chips to find. The game also has it's own Achievements. Completing certain task will get you a trophy and these trophies aren't entirely useless. If you collect enough of them then you will receive a Secret Movie which is worth watching if you're a fan of the series. The game also features an Avatar Creation System. In it you get to create a little avatar and play through Avatar Sectors(same thing as System Sectors) to unlock thinks for both the main story and your avatar.
All together is game is pretty solid. Though there are humps such as the camera to get over, it still will satisfy. The core game play will definitely be the most enjoyable aspect of the game. The new game play introduced may find a nice place in your heart but chances are it'll take replaying them to fully find out if you enjoy them. This is a different Kingdom Hearts game but nonetheless it's one that you should definitely check out!