Editing Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

|image=[[File:Kingdom Hearts ReChain of Memories Logo KHRECOM.png|318px]]

|developer={{w|Square Enix}}

|release=[[File:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] March 29, 2007<br>[[File:Flag of the United States.png|20px|United States]]/[[File:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] December 2, 2008

|ratings= {{w|CERO}}:A<br>ESRB: E10+

|platforms= {{w|PlayStation 2}}

'''''Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories''''' is a full remake of ''[[Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories]]'', released on the PlayStation 2. In Japan, it is part of the ''[[Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+]]'' compilation and has connectivity features with ''[[Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix]]''. As there were no plans to release ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' internationally, these features were modified for the North American release.

 

==Development==

Due to the original Game Boy Advance release being on a different platform than the other mainline games and selling worse than the first game, many ''Kingdom Hearts'' fans skipped that entry and waited until ''Kingdom Hearts II''. This caused issues with the coherency of this next game, as playing ''Chain of Memories'' was crucial to understand the plot. The opening movie of ''Kingdom Hearts II'' offered a very brief recap of the previous two games, but many were still met with confusion over the plot of the game. Due to these complaints, a remake of this game was decided to be made for PlayStation 2 so the entire series would be on one system.{{fact}}

 

''Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories'' was a total redesign of the game into a three-dimensional computer-rendered game for the PlayStation 2, in the same style as the other released entries in the series, ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Kingdom Hearts II''. This revamp included changing the battle arenas from two dimensional screens without "height" into full three-dimensional arenas, allowing enemies to rise out of the player's range.

The game now has fully voice-acted full motion videos and the use of voice-acting within gameplay. While the dialogue for the game was recorded using the voice actors used in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', the voicing and sound effects within gameplay relied largely on existing clips. In some cases, such as the Sora's invocation of the [[Stop]] spell, these clips were only available using the ''Kingdom Hearts'' voice-actors. As the scenes were now fully rendered, rather than being acted out with sprites, the violence within the game was more apparent, and the game's rating was raised from E to E10+, for Fantasy Violence.

The game's card system and overall plot remained the same as the original ''Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories'', and "[[Simple and Clean]]" is the game's theme song. However, there were many small tweaks to the storyline, as well as the addition of new {{c|Cards|com}}, [[Sleight]]s, [[:Category: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories bosses|bosses]], and a Theater Mode to re-watch the game's full-motion videos.

 

==Changes==

===New features===

*Sora can now collect [[Moogle Point]]s during battle.

*New Sleights: [[Magnet Spiral]], [[Lethal Frame]], {{c|Freeze|ability}}, [[Firaga Burst]], [[Raging Storm]], [[Stardust Blitz]], [[Goofy Tornado Lv2]], [[Goofy Smash]], [[Wild Crush]], [[Furious Volley]], and [[Lucky Bounty]].

**Keyblades: [[Hidden Dragon]], [[Follow the Wind]], [[Monochrome]], [[Photon Debugger]], [[Bond of Flame]], and [[Star Seeker]].

***In ''Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix'', the first four of the Keyblades listed above were replaced with [[Maverick Flare]], [[Midnight Roar]], [[Total Eclipse]], and [[Two Become One]], respectively.

***Sora can no longer obtain the [[Darkball]] Enemy Card, due to its new effect revolving around Riku's newly introduced Card Duel system.

**Friend: [[Pluto]]

**Map: [[Bottomless Darkness]], [[Roulette Room]], and [[Random Joker]]

***Riku can now obtain the [[Black Room]], [[Martial Waking]], and [[Meeting Ground]] Map Cards.

*The various color categories of map cards have a small symbol ("R", "B", "G", or "!") indicating their color.

*Jiminy's Journal and the D-Report now includes journal entries on world cards. In addition, the D-Report also now includes entries on Map and Item cards.

*Riku cannot level up his DP before he acquires Dark Mode from [[Ansem, Seeker of Darkness|Ansem]] (unless he has obtained all HP bonuses).

*The music is updated to utilize the PlayStation 2's synthesizer, and three new tracks have been added: "[[Dash-A-Long]]", "[[March-A-Long]]", and "[[Lord of the Castle]]".

*The enemies that appear in the overworld are now more various.

 

*In the Japanese version, having a cleared ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' save file on the memory card will allow Sora to obtain a second set of treasures from the [[Room of Rewards]] on each floor, plus some extra Bounties on some floors.

**In ''Kingdom HD 1.5 Remix'', these were unlocked upon watching the collection's scenes and viewing all Journal-based entries from ''Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days''.

*The [[High Jump]], [[Glide]], and [[Superglide]] support abilities are available for Sora.

*The Swing Speed stat for Sora's Attack Cards have been removed.

*The effects of several Sleights were modified such as Cloud's Omnislash, several of Sora's Keyblade Sleights (Blitz, Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanum), and several Friend Card sleights (Spiral Wave, Hummingbird) to where {{button|t}} prompts appear in order for them to be fully used, akin to [[Reaction Command]]s.<!--which?-->

*Many new props feature throughout the field, such as flowers in Wonderland which block doors and projectile-firing obstacles. They can inflict damage on the player character, inflict Confuse on them, cast Stop on enemies, or stun them depending on the prop.

**[[Props]] are no longer reset when re-entering the same room. The room needs to be recreated consequently.

**Due to this new feature, the first battle in ''Sora's Story'' will now take place before he uses his first Map Card as a result of the tutorial.

*[[Zantetsuken]] and [[Sonic Blade]] are now available to learn at levels 22 and 27 respectively (the reverse was true previously). [[Ars Arcanum]], [[Tornado]], [[Holy]], [[Ragnarok]], and [[Mega Flare]] are now available to learn at 5 levels higher than before at levels 37, 42, 47, 52, and 57, respectively, due to the new sleight [[Lethal Frame]] being learned at level 32.

*Riku's battle mechanics now include the [[Duel]] system and its Sleights, and now have the [[Holy Burst]] and [[Inverse Burst]] Friend Sleights.

*Due to the removal of Link Mode, the effect of the [[Darkball]] has been modified. In addition, as it is now designed to work with Riku's Duel system, it is no longer available in Sora's Story, and has been added to Riku's deck as a secondary regular Enemy Card for the Atlantica floor other than Sea Neon.

*The Hidden Chamber which is accessed with the Key to Rewards card has been renamed as the Room of Rewards. In addition when viewed on the map, it is now counted as a special room instead of a regular room.

**A Room of Rewards has been added for the Castle Oblivion floor, unlike the original, which was the only floor that did not have a Hidden Chamber.

*The special rooms when viewed on the map now glow white to identify which one to open, making it easier to know which one to go to in worlds that use multiple Keycards. Also, when Sora has a Key to Rewards card in his possession, the Room of Rewards location is revealed by a blue glow.

*The attack and magic cards played by [[Axel]], [[Larxene]], [[Vexen]], [[Marluxia]], [[Lexaeus]], [[Zexion]], [[Captain Hook]], [[Hades]], [[Cloud]], Ansem, and the [[Riku Replica]] depict different facial expressions, depending on their type.

*During his final battles with both Sora and Riku, the Riku Replica's left hand is immersed in an orb of darkness.

*When transforming into Dark Mode, Riku now says "Darkness" instead of simply screaming.

*The health bar the enemies use has been altered to resemble the one from ''Kingdom Hearts II''.

*There have been changes in the musics.

**The piece "The 13th Floor", played outside of Worlds, is melodically different. Instead of handbells playing an ascending interval, chimes now play a descending interval.

**The piece "[[Go for It!]]" plays when Sora battles against Cloud, instead of "Face It", and the piece "[[Face It!]]" plays when Riku battles against Ursula, instead of "[[The Fight for my Friends]]".

*[[Level]] Ups now restore HP only if the HP Bonus is selected, instead of any bonus.

*Changes related to [[Prizes]]:

**The cards acquired from a boss battle only appear after the other prizes had been collected, as they now appear automatically to be grabbed.

**Prizes no longer keep bouncing all over the area, and stay still after bouncing a few times before becoming collectable afterwards.<!--Meaning you have to wait for a few seconds after a prize is dropped before they're collected-->

====Battle====

*The final Marluxia battle has been split into two sub-battles. The first is generally the same as the original final battle, albeit on a standard circular arena instead of in a sub-space-esque field, while the second is set entirely on top of Marluxia's Specter, and features him as much more aggressive, with several powerful Sleights.

*Lexaeus can enter a temporary state of invulnerability and increased strength via his Charge technique.

*Riku now confronts Zexion in a boss battle. During this battle, Zexion can steal Riku's cards, and Riku remains within Dark Mode for the duration of the fight.

*Bosses with vulnerability to stun remain stunned for much longer.

*If any regular hit from an Attack Card within a card stack gets blocked, the entire card stack is cancelled, wasting the subsequent cards of the stack.

*The player's deck now displays four cards instead of three, making the currently selected card, the second, and third cards visible for the player for sleights.

*Riku's decks in each world have been altered.

====Storyline====

<!--cleanup and organize chronologically!-->

*Flashbacks from the first ''Kingdom Hearts'' are included in cutscenes.

*The scene from ''[[Kingdom Hearts Final Mix]]'' that involves [[Sora]] fighting [[Xemnas]] as the Unknown is put into the opening cutscene.

*[[Axel]] finishes off Vexen by immolating him with a snap of his fingers.

*Goofy throws his shield at [[Larxene]] to temporarily distract her when she attacks Sora.

*When Sora was attacked by Larxene, Donald uses Curaga to heal him.

*During the climax of Sora's story, when Axel attempt to execute Marluxia for his betrayal, they have a brief fight before Marluxia uses Naminé as a shield. Marluxia also never leaves the room until the end of the fight.

*Riku is defeated and about to be destroyed by [[Lexaeus]], using his final strength, only to be possessed by [[Ansem, Seeker of Darkness]] and defeat him.

*When Zexion's disguise as Sora is revealed, he directly battles Riku but is defeated and, fearful for his life, teleports away.

*An extended scene of [[Roxas]] is shown along with [[Hayner]], [[Pence]], and [[Olette]] at the ending of the game.

*In the post-credit scene of Sora's Story, a scene of the Organization's unseen members is shown.

*Axel no longer says, "...give me a hell of a show!", as he did in ''[[Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories]]''. Instead, he says, "Try and make it enjoyable, Sora."

*DIZ on BF2 Exit Hall, giving Mickey and Riku their Organization cloaks and explaining its purpose.

===Changes in worlds===

*All worlds have additional rewards unlocked by completing ''[[Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix]]'' in the original Japanese release, completing both Sora and Riku's stories in the international release, or finishing the ''[[Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days]]'' movie in ''[[Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX]]''.

*[[Traverse Town]] changes:

**New Bounty available as a reward containing either [[Hidden Dragon]] or [[Maverick Flare]]{{KHHD}}.

**[[Saïx]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

*[[Olympus Coliseum]] Changes:

**[[Monochrome]] or [[Total Eclipse]]{{KHHD}} is available in the Room of Rewards.

*[[Agrabah]] changes:

**[[Luxord]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

**[[Xemnas]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

*[[Monstro]] changes:

**The final battle in [[Monstro]] is now recorded within the Journal as a minigame and the Shadows defeated during it drop EXP.

**[[Xaldin]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

*[[Halloween Town]] changes:

**[[Jack Skellington]]'s Friend Card is now available from the first battle in Halloween Town.

**[[Bind]] is now available in the Halloween Town Room of Rewards instead of [[Gravity Raid]].

**[[Bond of Flame]] is available in the Room of Rewards.

*[[Atlantica]] changes:

**[[Demyx]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

**[[Darkball]] has been added as a second Enemy Card for Riku.

**[[Follow the Wind]] or [[Midnight Roar]]{{KHHD}} is available in the Room of Rewards.

**[[Reflect Raid]] is now the world's sole Bounty.

**[[Xaldin]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

**[[Idyll Romp]] is now available as a reward for clearing [[Tigger's Jump-a-Thon]].

**[[Spellbinder]] is now found in a chest in Tigger's Playground.

**[[Warpinator]] is now a Twilight Town Bounty instead of [[Firaga Break]].

**The new sleight [[Stardust Blitz]] replaces Warp in the Room of Rewards.

**[[Roxas]]'s Enemy Card is available in the Room of Rewards.

**The [[Ansem, Seeker of Darkness]] card is now a Twilight Town Bounty instead of a Castle Oblivion one, becoming available after defeating Marluxia once and clearing Reverse/Rebirth.

*[[Castle Oblivion]] changes:

**A Room of Rewards has been added containing [[Super Glide]].

**[[Star Seeker]] is available in the Room of Rewards.

*Other changes:

**Defeating Riku-Replica in the [[8F Exit Hall]] yields the new sleight [[Magnet Spiral]] instead of [[Warpinator]].

*[http://na.square-enix.com/khrecom/ Official NA Site]

[[Category:Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories| ]]