Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Review Page 2

30 Oct 2009 at 12:41:49 by James Chalmers
Systems used to review this title: (DS)

While fans of the PS2 titles will find that 358/2 Days expands on previously introduced characters and the series' twisting plot, newcomers won't feel out of their depth. Happily, if deep storytelling isn’t your cup of tea and you just want to get on with the game itself, Square Enix has thoughtfully included the option to cut through the main plot by pausing the cutscenes and selecting skip, so there's no need to worry about sitting through a lengthy video sequence while you’re sat on the bus home.

That'd be a shame, though, as if you do watch the video sequences you get the opportunity to marvel at how great the graphics look on the humble DS. While the in-game graphics can at times be a little blocky, Square Enix has to be praised for managing to squeeze every possible pixel out of the DS, making the game a visual masterpiece. Even with numerous enemies and allies on the screen at once there are never any frame rate issues, which is shocking considering just how good it looks.

But don’t think the title has no faults. The most regular annoyance will be your party getting stuck in the terrain as you explore each level. Numerous times during the game, a party member would get stuck against a wall and, although they magically teleport back to your location after you stray a little further away, Square Enix giving them the common sense to jump over a wall would've been nice. Worse is that, as with many third person games, the camera can be a bit of a nuisance, obscuring your view with terrain or a black wall if you are in the corner. The camera can usually be fixed by quickly moving from the spot, but in a frantic battle in tight confines it gets annoying and it takes away from the magic of the title.

One of the other problems with the game comes from one of the game's triumphs - the Panels. While the general idea works well, when Roxas levels up you have to manually equip the level to change his stats. In almost every other JRPG stats automatically change when you level up, and there's no reason why this shouldn't be the case in 358/2 Days, but no. You have to equip the new level in the Panels system and if you forget you have earned enough EXP to level up should it perhaps come at a busy time, you'll find yourself fighting understrength.

That said, and despite the chances of this being a filler game until the PSP gets Birth By Sleep - what a filler game it is. Expect to sink many, many happy hours into Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days while we wait for a current-gen console version. For now, though, I think it’s time to dust off my PS2 and head over to eBay for the originals.

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