Great game which is based off of the PS2 game, has a new card battle system which can get a little frustrating at times.
The story of Kingdom Hearts is about a boy named Sora, wielder of a unique weapon called the "Keyblade". Joined by 2 of our favorite Disney characters, Donald and Goofy, they travel across various worlds searching for their friends and saving the world from the Heartless.
When we last saw Sora, he, Donald, and Goofy were running along a big field, hoping that the king wouldn't be too far away. Eventually, a mysterious man in a black jacket appears and leads them into a place called "Castle Oblivion". However, as soon as they step into the castle, they lose all of their past memories. Those of you who have beaten the game and/or played KH2 should already know this, so I'll just go ahead and get this over with. A girl named Namine has messed with their memories, and everything (as far as actions and memories go) is replaced by cards.
And speaking of cards, I think it's time for me to stop story-telling and actually start reviewing. First off, I must say that this game makes full use of the GBA's (or DS's, or GBP's, or GBA SP's) hardware. I mean, those graphics are the best I've seen on GBA to date. The sprites are absolutely great and amazingly detailed. And when you do certain moves in battle, the effects, including the Cloud Strife summon (who we all know is from the first 3D FF game, FFVII), look absolutely fantastic. Heck, there are some very high-quality cinematics (that look like the PS2 game) every now and then.
The sound in those cinematics, and everywhere else in the game, are just as amazing as the graphics. During battle, we get to here some short clips taken from the PS2 game (such as Sora's "Huh!", "Ha!", or "Here!", or Cloud's "Huh!" (followed by sword slashes)) as well as some well-done battle effects. (Sorry, no cutscene voices this time!) The music throughout the game is VERY well done, espically the theme song, "Simple and Clean", at the end credits.
The card battle system is a new system in which you use cards to battle. (You still get to move around, have a HP bar, see the enemy, etc. just like in the PS2 game.) You have 4 types of battle cards: Attack, Magic/Summon, Item, and Boss. Attack, Magic/Summon, and Items you all are familiar with. Boss cards are obtained by beating bosses, and have special effects in battle, depending on what card you use. You can also use "Sleights", which is a combo of 3 cards forming a powered-up ability (such as Ars Arcranium), summon (like Cloud's Omnislash), or spell (like Curaga.) The attacks are harder to make sleights since there are so many to make using them. However, making summons or spells are easy since they only require 3 of the same card. (Sleights are learned by leveling up, btw.)
Each card has a value, ranging from 0-9. If you and the enemy play a card at the same time, the highest value comes out on top, CardBreaking the enemy's card. If you want to get a value higher than 9, you have to make combos as I explained earlier.
You also have "Friend cards", who help you out during battle. (The friends can be Donald, Goofy, and/or a world-specific character.) They too also have effects on the battle.
Towards the end of the game, this system can be really frustrating as bosses will often CardBreak your attacks. And if you run out of cards, you can reload them in battle. However, the deck gets smaller every time you reload, which can leave you in a tight pinch at times.
Outside of battle, you get World cards and Map cards. World cards are cards that make up different worlds. (There's nothing new here, except for maybe Twilight Town. There's still Peter Pan, Haloween Town, Agrabah, etc. as well as each world's heroes and villians... (Peter Pan and Captain Hook, for example)) Map cards are used at doors leading to different areas of the world, which have different effects depending on which card you use. For example, in one room, you might have a save point, and in another, you might have lots of foes. You can swing your keyblade to open doors, chests, and hit other things (including first strike the heartless).
And yes, the 100 Acre Wood is still made up of mini-games (just 1 really).
One last thing about the card battle system. 0 is the strongest, as it can break any attack, but is also the weakest, as it can easliy be broken by the enemy.
The villians this game isn't Ansem, but a group called Orginazition XIII, which is made up of 13 members. However, you won't see all of the members until KH2. I'm guessing they want to take over all of the worlds, just like Malfiicent.
Overall, KH:COM is nicely well-done. The characters look great, and the sound rocks. It's pretty hard to complete, and has 2 stories instead of just 1. This also acts as a link between the 2 PS2 games, and I'm sure fans, wether FF, Disney, or just a plain RPG fan for that matter, will really enjoy this game. The story's well-done, too. I've said enough.