User:Troisnyxetienne/Re:Chain Walkthrough

Will not be joining the IRC tonight ; I will be picking up my pieces for REC. If you have MSN or Yahoo Messenger, do not hesitate to ask for my add in case you need to peek in !

Nine people have already asked me for this, and since I'm playing (or more precisely, re-playing) Re:Chain of Memories, it'd be great to start bit by bit and compare the differences between the two versions of Re:Chain. By the way, I'm not playing the single English release, but the extension to Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, so there will be some notable differences. I'll highlight those as we go along.

This walkthrough's bound to have some minor expletives. Even so, I think it's okay for everyone to get in and help... ^_^

Controls

• to attack
• to jump
• for Dodge Roll
• to Lock On. Note : I don't know why they had to change this when we were already so used to using to lock on...
• Left analog stick to move around.

And after that, gameplay's entirely up to you. You're the master of your own floor, you create the rooms as and when you please, and once you've pwned the bosses of every single level, you'll soon find your way on to the 13th floor taking down the lord of the castle himself.

Note that the attack/jump controls are reversed in the Japanese version, which I'm playing.

See Deck Setup for the deck configuration. I'll just mention it briefly here : the first deck, which I'm calling Troisnyx*, is offence-based. The second deck, Mylène (named after the first half of the terror duo, Mylène Farmer) is the deck I'm reserving for boss battles, and the third deck, Boutonnat (named after the other half of the terror duo, Laurent Boutonnat) is the magic-based deck.

For my previous save file it was Esterel (magic), Ricordel (offence) and Fonterel (boss battles).

Gist of the story

Re:Chain of Memories is a remake of the story which picks up from where we left off at Kingdom Hearts : Sora saves Kairi and successfully brings her back to Destiny Islands, while Riku and Mickey are trapped behind the Door to Darkness - the one leading to Kingdom Hearts. Sora and company set off to find Riku and the King, only to end up in Castle Oblivion no thanks to Marluxia's guidance and have their memories manipulated... yet another unlucky day in Sora's story, and I'm gonna make this entire walkthrough as spoilerific as possible. I mean, c'mon, for one whole day of misfortune, Sora has to sleep in a pod for a whole year !

Meanwhile, for some reason or other Riku ends up in the 12th basement of Castle Oblivion and he decides to get rid of his darkness. He often sees Xehanort's Heartless tormenting him, though the King comes to his aid. But later on he is told that his darkness and his light belong to him, and that he should use both to his ability. So he finally gets rid of the embodiment of Xehanort's Heartless, though a part of the villain still remains in him. Poor soul, I wonder how he even lives.

Sora's Story

Sora opens the doors to Castle Oblivion, and Donald and Goofy follow suit. I think once they enter into that wretched castle they start losing their memory... they get all sorts of weird feelings that the King and Riku are both there (well, indeed they are there, but in the wrong place). The door closes on them and is locked ; Marluxia confronts them and tells them all sorts of riddles, Donald tries using magic on him but it's no use, he can't even remember a single spell... Marluxia gives them their very first world card : Traverse Town. So now, for lack of anywhere else to go, we open the door to a very familiar place...

First steps

Sora enters in commenting on why Donald and Goofy are not there with him, and why he has ended up in Traverse Town... and that sinister music plays. During my first playthrough this thing gave me the creeps. So after a brief chat with Marluxia (which I can only read in bits and pieces) he takes you to the battle arena and teaches you how to use the card system.

Again, let me play Marluxia here and remind you how to use the card system :

• You just click (or for the Japanese version) on a card to use it.
• If you take out, say a 7 and your enemy takes out a 4, you have "broken" your enemy's card and you'll be able to perform your attack.
• Same goes if your enemy takes out a 9 and you take out a 2 - he will have broken your card and will attack you.
• If you take out a 7 and an enemy takes out a 7, the cards are both "broken", but no attack will be performed.
• The 0 card is the most usable card of them all - it can break anything from cards to sleights, even the most powerful of all sleights.
• Okay, speaking about sleights - putting two or three cards into a fold is known as a Sleight. To use a sleight, you press on three cards of your choice, and press + (or alternatively, ) to activate the sleight. If you want to remove cards from your sleight, you press . However, I have to think first before activating my sleight, because the button doesn't work for me at all !

Progressing ahead

Once the battle tutorial is under way, you'll be given the Key of Beginnings card. That's the first card you'll ever get to progress through the story. Okay, I'm not sure which one comes first, but I believe the order of the story is like this :

Key of Beginnings - Leon teaches you how to use sleights.

Key of Guidance - You speak to Leon and company in the Small House, I think.

Key to Truth - This is usually the Keycard which engages a boss battle, though other Keycards have been known to do this as well. For this level it's Guard Armor, and it's definitely no walk in the park.

I recommend you to level up to at least Level 8... or whatever level you're comfortable with - at least it's safer to defeat the Guard Armor. No, please don't go there at Level 2 and say "No, the Guard Armor pwned me again..."

The room cards I used were Black Room, Meeting Ground, Sleeping Darkness, Moment's Reprieve, Tranquil Darkness and Martial Waking. I don't know why, but I just hate Lasting Daze. I did use it once in this game, and I never used it again. I think I know which cards to submit whenever they ask me for green cards !

Guard Armor

File:Guard Armor.PNG

Okay, so once you've fought your way through hordes of Heartless it's time to take down their so-called leader. Man, he's pretty weak for a Heartless leader. I SAY DUSTFLIER RULES SUPREME ! *will shut up now*

So here are his stats :

• HP : 200
• EXP : 48
• Blizzard : 0.5
• Physical : 1.0

So obviously you wouldn't think of using Blizzard, which is the first Magic card you receive (apart from Cure) ; you'd play safe and use physical attacks.

Just load that deck with cards 5-0 - I say try finding lots of them - top it up with a Cure card and a Potion card (I think the only one you begin with is #5, but it's enough to break Guard Armor if you have the chance). Don't forget the Gimmick Card ! - using it will shatter the Guard Armor to pieces (literally... well, maybe I'm exaggerating), giving you all the room you need to attack.

After Guard Armor

Once you've taken down Guard Armor, you'll see a cutscene with Sora and the Final Fantasy VII + Leon gang. All I do know is that Aerith realises that she is a memory-based facsimile, and Sora has to come to terms with the fact that she isn't really there. Sora is saddened by this, but he slowly understands. He turns to Donald and Goofy, saying that he had just talked to Aerith, and he turns around to see if Aerith is there, but she disappeared in a flash... confirming Sora's sad notions.

Entering Castle Oblivion/Traverse Town

File:Axel Days 2.png

After you finish Traverse Town, you bump into Marluxia and another black hooded figure, who calls himself Axel. This is also the first instance where he says "Got it memorised ?". Now, note that immediately after quitting Traverse Town you'll engage into battle with Axel, so stock up the deck before entering the 1F Exit Hall. Blizzard, Potion, Cure and attack cards are a must : Blizzard because Axel uses Fire, Cure because.... well, that's self-explanatory, Potion because you might exhaust that deck of yours even before the battle is over. Do not - and I say DO NOT - stock that deck up with a single Premium Card - not yet. You risk losing that card even when you use a Potion.

Attack cards must be numbered 6-0.

I believe, with all this, you won't give Axel room to even attack ! That was the case with me - I practically thrashed him. If you feel insecure about Axel using sleights, break his sleights with sleights. Or the 0 card. Keep the 0 card for emergencies, I say.

Post-defeat

So after defeating Axel Sora and company think that he's dead and gone, but he materialises right in front of their eyes, saying he wouldn't have died oh so easily (good thinking, Axel). He offers help to Sora so that he could find what he's searching for, but Sora says he'll do it by himself. As recompense for defeating Axel you get the Fire card. Whoohoo ! Now we get to burn things !

Entering the 2nd Floor

So Sora and company recollect lots of stuff, and Goofy mangles the name Castle Oblivion (I can't help but laugh when he says Bokyokyu instead of Bokyaku no Shiro !). He also makes passing mention about how Sora sacrificed himself with the Keyblade of People's Hearts. Sadly, he forgot the name Hollow Bastion... and he was going "Hollow... Holler..." (over here it'd sound like Horo... Horouu......). He apologises, saying he can't remember...

Save the game where it is, we're now bound for the next world. You have a choice between Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Monstro and Halloween Town.

Meeting Axel/Entering the 2nd Floor

So I chose Olympus Coliseum for my second floor. I happen to have clear data for Re:Chain (Sora's story), but I chose Wonderland for the second floor back then. Well, I thought I'd go with a change. For once. I'm entering in LV8, the level I was in previously when I defeated Axel...

Upon entry Sora and friends see the board and there's a tourney going on, and they're happy to participate with the hopes of being called heroes one day. They leave the scene ; Hades comes in, ever determined to take down that pesky Hercules, and he hires the Buster Sword-wielding Cloud. Almost the same story as in the first Kingdom Hearts, though a little bit distorted due to the contortion of Sora's memory.

After that scene is over, you get the Key of Beginnings card, which is your ticket to another story.

Key of Beginnings

I believe this one takes you to Hercules and Phil, though I'm not sure of what's going on (I can only read Japanese in bits and pieces, that too, I learned by myself)... so I risk having to replay that scene over again. Not sure if this thing's included in theatre mode, but I'll try.

So right after that you get the File:Key to Guidance (card).png Key of Guidance. Now don't haste to open it just yet, because you might need to level up a little more. Hint hint.

Room Creation

The rooms I used were Black Room, Meeting Ground (for the friend cards), Strong Initiative and Premium Room. Thus far. I also made the mistake of opening a Moogle Room when in fact, I shouldn't have opened one. Because the only cards I'm ever gonna get are Fire, Blizzard, Cure, the Kingdom Key and Olympia... wait a second, I'm getting Olympia, and that's a card I used for a very long time, I say !

I haven't got a Calm Bounty yet but if I do, I'll be able to unlock Monochrome as a Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Completion Bonus. No, what am I talking about ? I believe that's Room of Rewards. Oh well...

Well, I haven't done much of the leveling up yet, but I have completed the next stage, which is...

Key of Guidance : Battle with Cloud

File:KH-Cloud journal entry-CG.jpg

Note: I used my Troisnyx deck for this.

The Key of Guidance leads you to a face-off and a boss battle with the mercenary himself, Cloud. Yes, a fight I didn't expect when I first played Re:Chain. But this time, I was actually waiting to pounce on him - and I won.

The stats for Re:Chain aren't given but I'm taking a wild guess : his HP is 300 just like in the first encounter. So I loaded my deck with cards numbered 5 - 0, preferably Olympia, two Cure cards, one Potion (well, maybe going to the Moogle Room wasn't a mistake after all because I managed to get a #8 Potion card). Only a few of my cards - the ones I thought I could afford to lose - were Premiums. My 0 card wasn't. Ironically, I didn't use my 0 card at all.

My key was + + (all sevens - Stun Impact, I presume) for at least thrice. Every time I did this Cloud would be stunned and open for an attack. So whenever he came to, I just had to keep my distance. Dodge Rolling is a must. I evaded his Omnislash (yes, Sora's actually too fast for Cloud's liking). However, I saved the Blizzard cards for the next boss battle.

Once this battle is over you obtain a Hi-Potion card #3 and the Key to Truth.

Power level

Well, the one reason why I'm putting this here is because there are two things that require mention so far :

1. I used a Calm Bounty in Traverse Town and voilà, look what it gave me ! A Hidden Dragon card as a KHIIFM completion bonus ! :D The stats, however, are the same as an Olympia card, and cost more Card Points, so I won't be using this card anytime soon. Also note that once you get this in Traverse Town, you'll get this on any of the lower floors.
2. I used another Calm Bounty in Olympus Coliseum and this time, I got + + Blizzard Raid ! Note the sequence : Strike Raid first, followed by Blizzard Raid (because Blizzard is one of your default Magic cards). I think, following this sequence are Fire Raid and Thunder Raid respectively, though I'll need to play through the entire game to confirm this.

So after that I'm going back and forth like a ping-pong ball between F1 and F2 just for the sake of levelling up and obtaining more Moogle Points. The sleights I have now (minus Magic and Friend Cards) are Strike Raid, Stun Impact, Sliding Dash and Blizzard Raid.

I also obtained Final Break + + (all fives) at Level 17.

Key to Truth : Battle with Hades

File:Hades.jpg

For this, let's switch to the boss battle deck - Mylène

This fight is not easy, even at the second floor. And it's simply because Hades is one of those enemies which won't hesitate to use sleights. He and Captain Hook are pains in the arse - both of them know how to use sleights. Anyway, let's focus on Hades. If you're at the second floor you need to be at least in LV20. If you're in any other floor, same thing : you have to power-level-up Sora before he enters this room.

So you'll definitely need cards numbered 6 - 0 - which explains the power-leveling and the Moogle Room, Blue Rhapsody and Blizzard because Hades is weak to Blizzard (and Blue Rhapsody increases the damage dealt by Blizzard attacks), two Cure cards, and a Hi-Potion card (so that you can at least reload more attack cards than usual).

I added one more card into my deck : Bouncywild. That's one card I ALWAYS have in any deck of mine. It's only 10 CP, and it brings Friend Cards and experience to your side, instead of just letting them fade away. In this case, I need the Goofy card, because Goofy Bash helps. A lot. NEVER use the Donald card for this battle because for all you know, he might accidentally cast Fire on Hades and cause him to recover. Worse if you're using the sleight Magic LV2 or Magic LV3.

The Pluto card appears from time to time, particularly when you're fresh out of cards. But grab him quick - preferably when the card comes out of Hades ! Because when you grab a friend card instantly it'll be numbered 9, and you'll be able to break Hades' normal card attacks just to get more cards onto your side. If you fail to get a number 9, at least try for a 0 - that's better. If you get any other number than that, then tough luck, I say...

He's my most hated character, to the point that I like fighting him. Even in the first game I didn't win in my first try, I decided to reset the console and try again. And when I finally whooped his arse, oh, the joy that came with it ! ^_^

Winning this battle will give you the Hades enemy card.

However, I made my SECOND mistake

I went into the battle with Hades without my boss battle deck. I was using Troisnyx all the way. No sleights, three reloads (if the reload with a Hi-Potion #9 counts). No Friend cards, even though I had the Bouncywild equipped. And I was in Level 18.

That move is pretty dangerous, I must say, and I advise you against doing this... unless you're sure of your gameplay.

After Hades

All the congratulatory messages come in, and again, Cloud is there, outside the arena. Sora approaches him and asks if he's okay, he says yeah. And it's something gotta do with finding Cloud's memories... and then Sora asks him if he'd join the party, and Cloud passes him a card. And we have the usual line of "How about a rematch sometime ?" and he flips his spiky Chocobo hair :P saying, "I think I'll pass."

Second Floor : Olympus Coliseum

Leaving the Second Floor

Sora and company enter into reflection once more. Goofy tells them about the episode where Sora stabbed his heart with the Keyblade of People's Hearts to release Kairi's heart, but Sora asks "Are you sure it happened in a castle ?" Donald thinks he remembers, and tries to recollect the name... but he can't.

Entering the Third Floor

Again, Sora and company enter into reflection. But this time, Jiminy Cricket gives them a hint of what Axel said the other time (to be honest, I actually forgot)... but all I do know is that they finally find out the meaning of the name Castle Oblivion - see the root words ? Oblivion --> oubli = forget ! They finally understand the reason behind the name, and they learn to live with it... or summat.

Entering Wonderland

So after much hesitation I finally picked Wonderland as my third floor. I decided to battle it with the man himself. Sort of a retribution for what he did to my Riku back in Reverse/Rebirth ! Now the story begins such : Sora and company spot the White Rabbit rattling out "Oh my fur and whiskers ! I'm late I'm late I'm late !" And they can't even stop him for a chat. Looks like he's headed for the Queen's Palace !

First round of gallivanting

So right after that we get the Key of Beginnings. I was pretty lazy through this level - I took out all the Heartless in the Unknown Room, then used three Calm Bounties (one of which gave me the Stop card, yay !), then entered into a Moogle Room because I had some 300-odd MP to spare. And so the bulk of the cards which I obtained were Olympia cards. Especially Premiums, this time. I needed some. I virtually didn't do any attacking, so I stayed in the same level as I was when I exited Olympus Coliseum : Level 18. Thankfully Wonderland is not as confusing as it was in the first game.

My first blunder

File:Card of Spades.jpg

Using the Key to Beginnings card will take you to the Queen's Palace, where Alice stands on trial for allegedly stealing the Queen's memory. Sora intervenes... just like he did in the first game, and the Queen of Hearts orders her Card Soldiers to attack Sora and company.

So the formation is as follows :

• Card of Spades x3. These are easy to evade as they swing their axes in a horizontal radius, and their attack radius is pretty short, so you can easily dodge them.
• Card of Hearts x2. This is where I made many unsuccessful attempts in Dodge Rolling. Since they use spears, they attack with a forward thrust, so you can't Dodge Roll with bad timing. It was no thanks to this round that I ended up with critical HP.
• Card of Hearts x2 and Card of Spades x1.

File:Card of Hearts.jpg

Note why I'm calling this a blunder : I should have levelled up prior to beginning this battle, and I should have switched my deck to something more useful, but AGAIN, I went and took the more dangerous way out. I entered in Level 18, used the Troisnyx deck, no sleights, only a few friend cards... you can imagine how I suffered ! And I ended the battle with critical HP, but I still managed to take them out. So here's a gist of what I used :

• An entire attack deck of Olympia cards. (Note that in the Japanese version they're called Power of Hero or something like that...) I chose not to go with Lady Luck (or, Last Resort) because as the Japanese name suggests, it's a last resort ! The stats are lower than Olympia, and I believe I can use these Olympia cards right up to the 11th floor, just like I did in my previous save file.
• Only one Fire card and one Blizzard card. Pathetic, isn't it ? I chose not to risk it by adding in more because I don't have Ether cards to start with. My Hi-Potion #9 is still there...
• Bouncywild card MUST be equipped. But at the end of it all, I equipped it just so that I could draw the experience orbs together.
• Three reloads - once using the Hi-Potion card and twice using the reload card.
• A lot of Dodge Rolling, with many unsuccessful attempts.

And I can't believe that with that, I managed to go to the next level. Having won this level, I received the Card Soldier (Heart) card. Strangely, I didn't get the Spade one. Or is it that we don't actually get the spade one in Re:Chain ? It seems that we actually do get the Card of Spades card in Re:Chain, and yet, I never did get it. In both tries I ended up getting a Card of Hearts.

Never do what I just did if you're playing Wonderland. SERIOUSLY. Because if you're not prudent enough, you risk having to start that level again.

Levelling up

So right now I'm in Level 19, and trying to level up... and the only card I've used thus far is Strong Initiative. That's the one card that makes me level up like crazy because all the Heartless in the first round have low HP. Pair that up with a Bouncywild card and we get instant experience ! Yet for some reason, I'm levelling up too slowly... I must be in at least Level 21 to get to Trickmaster. That's my target.

Once you see the next section on the Trickmaster, you'll know that I've already reached my level of choice. Here's hoping that I don't make any blunders again. I have to use the battle deck, and the only thing I know is that I'll have to stock it up with Blizzard cards.

Oh, and I also used the Key of Guidance, and let me remind you that I'm playing the Japanese version, so I can only understand about 25% of what's going on. Sora and co. are taken to the Lotus Forest, where they meet Alice and obtain hints from the Cheshire Cat. And I know the Cheshire Cat says something along the lines of "Cheshire Cat's hints" and "a hint which your eyes can trust" — those are the only parts I managed to grasp fully. Oh well, I still have the scene player, so I can at least grab the gist of the story there. I hope...

Last steps

After several uses of the Strong Initiative map card, I go up a few levels and my HP is at 200, I forget what my CP is at... The good thing about Strong Initiative is that if you manage to hit at the enemy and initiate a battle, you get to have instant experience - you knock out a horde of enemies WITH ONE HIT. That's why it's my most favourite map card. Ever.

Right, so at Level 22, I get + + (0 or 27) Zantetsuken. And I have quite a number of 9 cards in the deck, but very few 0 cards (actually, only one 0 card, and that's the Kingdom Key) and with that, in I go to take out the Trickmastah.

Trickmaster

File:Trickmaster.PNG

The Trickmaster's stats are as follows :

HP :600
AP :9
EXP : 372

Note that I did not see the need to change to my boss battle deck - I went in with my Troisnyx deck - the one I use for normal battles. It's got several Olympia and Kingdom Key cards (as I said, the sole 0 card in that deck is a Kingdom Key), two Cure cards (one of them is a Premium), one Hi-Potion card #9 (which is virtually unbreakable), one Fire card and one Blizzard card.

The Trickmaster starts the battle with his batons lit up, and since I have terrible aiming (which also explains why I scored 0 marks for the M16 target practice last year), my Blizzard didn't get him it. Its moveset is rather predictable : it

1. slams its batons onto the floor, creating a fiery shockwave, and
2. twirls them around hoping to attack Sora with at least one of them.

Now those two can be easily evaded. You have a choice of going onto the table, or remaining on the floor and jumping to evade the shockwave. If you have a card with thrust stat A (Olympia, for that matter), you'll be able to stun it within three hits, so it'll drop HP balls and give you room to attack. But within three hits, it'll be back to normal again, so keep watch !

When his HP bar is down to one, it'll start shooting fireballs at Sora. Now, I really hate that they didn't bring back the Guard ability from Kingdom Hearts back into this game, because quite a few of the fireballs hit me. Evade those - STAY AWAY FROM THE TABLE IF YOU CAN ! - and then, when it returns to its two basic attacks, repeat the same strategy.

Now, whether or not the table disappears all depends on your choice of Keyblades and/or attacks.

My Fire attack did manage to hit it, because it has homing properties (yes, Fire in Re:Chain of Memories has homing properties). Finishing the Coliseum (or alternatively, Monstro) first is a good move, because you'll have a set of cards with thrust stat A. Its HP can be depleted much faster (in the previous save file, I could only rely on Kingdom Key, Hidden Dragon and Lady Luck, all of which didn't help me much). So because the Trickmaster's HP was depleted much faster than it could attack me, the table was always up for me, and it was never destroyed.

I only reloaded twice : once using the Hi-Potion and once with the Reload Card.

Winning this battle gives you the Trickmaster card. Which I won't be using at all, but as people say, it's bragging rights we're talking about.

End of 3rd Floor

So Alice with her quick thinking resolves the chaos between the Queen of Hearts and the remaining characters, and the Queen of Hearts leaves the Bizarre Room rather satisfied. The end. :D

Third floor : Wonderland

We see Goofy and Donald remembering the scene where they found Mickey behind the Door to Darkness, and Sora is sure that the King and Riku are there. Well, they are there... just that they're not that high up. And from the fourth floor onwards, the trouble starts brewing...

Entering Monstro

Mind you, I'm still in level 22 when I'm writing about this part - I enter into the Unknown Room, take out all the Heartless and receive my first Stop and Wishing Star cards from piles of junk. The next card I use is a Calm Bounty, and I get a new sleight — + + Fire Raid. So the Raids I have right now are Strike Raid, Fire Raid and Blizzard Raid. I use a Sleeping Darkness card and several Strong Initiative cards in order to power up my level to about 25.

Note that this world is slightly different from the rest because you don't have the predictable order of beginning - middle - boss fight. Yes, the three Keycards are still there, but the story is in a different order now.

When you first begin, you see Pinnochio, who tells Sora and company that they're stuck in the big whale (kujira), Monstro - and to make the sarcasm sound more evident, they ACTUALLY USED KATAKANA FOR THAT. Instead of the kanji.

Key of Beginnings

The Key of Beginnings leads you to Monstro's mouth, where you meet Gepetto, and he tells you of how his home world got destroyed, and how he's been living in that whale for quite a while already, and that he hopes to see Pinoc turn into a real boy... wait a minute, did we not hear that story in the first Kingdom Hearts ? I know I went pretty slowly while reading the characters I could identify - and I could identify 50% of what Gepetto was saying. Immediately after that, you get the Key of Guidance.

Uh oh, Key of Guidance

This is not something I expected - I was pretty much expecting this part of the story to continue without any events, just as it happens in all other worlds. But like I said, this world is somewhat special.

Anyway, prior to activating the Key of Guidance, I get the High Jump ability, and it's depicted in an image which I SO WANNA GET FOR THE WIKI, BUT NO ONE IS HELPING ! It's the path of Sora's High Jump, with a black BG, and the image can be accessed from the Status section.

So I have a request now : Can anyone PLEASE get that image and upload it to the wiki ?

Alright, back to the Key of Guidance. You find Pinoc in Monstro's stomach (as it appears in the first Kingdom Hearts), and... wait, can't Pinoc ever stop lying ? He lied in the intro, he lies again here... So I didn't get what they were saying here. I'll rely on the gist of the story later to provide you with more information... but for now, this is all you get :

Sora and company find that the stomach wall is shaking, and they urge Pinoc to rush to safety. So he runs to the other end of the stomach, but ironically, he's running head-first into danger : the Parasite Cage gets him from right above, and poor Pinoc is trapped !

Note that this is the boss fight for Monstro. I was initially thinking, after this battle was over, that there wouldn't be a third part to the story, but read on anyway.

Parasite Cage

File:Parasite Cage.jpg

Its stats are as follows :

HP : 715
AP : 9
EXP : 512

In case you're wondering, I used virtually the same deck as the one for the Trickmaster battle, albeit with two extra Keyblade cards.

If you refer to the Parasite Cage page, you'll see a number of attacks listed under the Kingdom Hearts strategy. In this battle, however, the attacks it used were Left Tentacle, Right Tentacle, Swing and Double Swing. And as usual, I couldn't dodge them on time.

The battle takes place on four revolving platforms. The Parasite Cage either uses Left or Right Tentacle to push you onto the stomach acid, and just as in Kingdom Hearts, the acid makes you lose HP. But be warned : you lose more HP than you do in Kingdom Hearts - in Kingdom Hearts, you periodically lose 1 HP after four or five running steps on the acid ; in Re:Chain, if you have 200-odd HP, you lose one third of your HP after just three seconds on the stomach acid.

The Parasite Cage can cause a platform to disappear, or it can cause all platforms to disappear and new ones to arise. Get the Gimmick Card and instead of a large platform appearing at the centre (as per Reverse/Rebirth), the entire ground is a purple platform, and the stomach acid just disappears. So in short, it's one big circle, and the Parasite Cage is just running distance ahead - not staggering distance ahead.

The same trick as in the Trickmaster battle works wonders here : if you have a Keyblade card with thrust stat A ( Olympia or Wishing Star), then you can stun it after three hits. And that's exactly what I did. When stunned, every hit you inflict upon it releases HP orbs. If you are playing Reverse/Rebirth, see what I did for the Parasite Cage below and you'll understand why I managed to obtain HP orbs with every hit.

Winning this battle gives you the Parasite Cage card - again, another card which I wouldn't consider using.

Aftermath of the Parasite Cage battle

Pinoc regains conscience, jumps a few times in his cage to force it open, and those are the final blows which kill the Parasite Cage. Yes, not even Sora's Keyblade of badassity could defeat it.

And with this, you get the Key to Truth. I began to wonder why I'd get the Key to Truth after the boss battle, but there's a reason for it - which I realised immediately when I got the Key to Truth. Read on.

Key to Truth : Monstro's Belly Brawl

Yes, the Key to Truth was for a minigame. Now, this actually takes place in Monstro's throat and not the belly if we refer to Kingdom Hearts canon. Sora somehow can sense the presence of Heartless, and decides that the only way to get out of Monstro is to kill the Heartless and make Monstro give a great big sneeze...

The mini-game can only be played once, and serves as a progression to the story.

Now, all the Heartless you face here are Shadows. Regardless of whether you fill the gauge up or not, as long as you get it above half, you're good to go. Oh, and you MUST defeat ALL the Heartless within two minutes. That was a cinch, but my Monstro gauge was barely above half.

Regardless, Sora and company were thrown out and land in Monstro's mouth again... where another cutscene ensues, but this time I hurried through it all.

So on to Conqueror's Respite (this Conqueror's Respite has NOTHING in it at all !), and on to the fifth floor.

Fourth Floor : Monstro

Considering Olympia is a strong weapon which can be used all the way to the 11th floor (no, seriously, I'm not kidding), I wouldn't prepare much, but I'll do basic levelling up.

So anyway, Sora and co. leave the fourth floor and the trouble sets in : Sora looks at Kairi's Lucky Charm and remembers Kairi's face, but Naminé appears behind him, and Sora doesn't have a clue as to who she is. Then immediately after that we see Naminé drawing a picture of Sora, Riku, Kairi and herself in the room where she is, and Sora starts "remembering" that there were four friends back in his home Destiny Islands, and not three.

So I save, and open the gates to Agrabah...

Introduction

Sora and company enter into the Main Street (I'm not sure which part of the Main Street it is, though I know that's the place which has two pillars which you can climb to reach Aladdin's house in Kingdom Hearts). And then we go through something which we're sick and tired of already.

This introduction is WAY TOO FAMILIAR - seriously, it's appeared in the first Kingdom Hearts if I remember correctly, then something similar appears in Kingdom Hearts II - but here's the pitch : in every introduction to Agrabah you just have to defeat several waves of Heartless before you realise that there are just too many for you to handle. Another cliché (which appears immediately after that) is Aladdin summonning the Genie. In Kingdom Hearts, Aladdin asked the Genie to defeat all the Heartless ; in Kingdom Hearts II, Aladdin asked the Genie to wipe out the sandstorm in the Desert Ruins.

Now, which cliché do you think would be used here ? The one from Kingdom Hearts, of course ! Poof ! The Genie appears, says something along the lines of "Give me a challenge the next time, Al !" and wipes out the five Shadows around Aladdin and company. So one wish gone ; that leaves two. What a waste, Al !

Immediately after that clichéd episode, you obtain the Key of Beginnings.

Exploration

If you see my "More tips and tricks" section below, you'll realise that Agrabah is THE place to go for Moogle Points. Seriously. It's the one place where you can not only gain an abundance of Moogle Points by defeating heaps of junk, pots and unmanned stalls ; every successful hit Aladdin lands with the Sandstorm attack gives you 12 Moogle Points. The maximum number of hits Aladdin can land is five, which makes that a whopping 60 Moogle Points. And, if you're lucky enough to use the Aladdin card thrice during a battle, you'd be having heavy pockets by the time the battle ends.

The cards I obtained from the Calm Bounties were Three Wishes (which has the same stats as a Hidden Dragon card, ironically) and the Gravity card. Now I hardly use Gravity, but I know I'll be needing it for my magic-based deck Boutonnat later, when it's time for me to set it up.

And then, I went to the Moogle Room, where I managed to gain some good attack cards and some redundant Potion cards, and since my play time has ended for the day, I saved.

I'm now in Level 25 (or 26, I'm not sure), my HP is still at 200 because I've been beefing up my CP. I've been getting a lot of my favourite card - Strong Initiative. And believe it or not, I have that in #9 and #0 ! ^_^ So I'm hoping to use that and attempt to gain some instant experience. Oh, I think I know my catchphrase for the day : Instant EXP : Just add Strong Initiative.

More levelling up

So the cards I used for this session were Strong Initiative (as usual), Premium Room (I had the need to start premiumising my cards - if that is even a word :P) and Meeting Ground, just to get Aladdin's card to carry out Sandstorm and get more Moogle Points. And on a side note, I've finally learnt how to pronounce the Japanese names for Meeting Ground and Sleeping Darkness (I learned the latter first - nemuri no yami, and that came after I suddenly remembered the intro to the TGS trailer - the one where Ansem speaks at the beginning).

Alright, so I went into Level 27 during this period and I learned Sonic Rave Sonic Blade. Sonic Blade. I really mean Sonic Blade - + + (20-23). This is the Sleight I'd be using quite often, given that the values of my cards vary from 5 up to 0. Then I went on to 28 - again, I decided to beef up my CP instead of my HP (wrong move to do at that point in time ; read on). So that makes HP, 200 ; CP, 600.

With that, I used the Key of Beginnings.

Key of Begnnings

Using the Key of Beginnings takes you to the Plaza (the place near the Desert in Kingdom Hearts). So Aladdin and company talk about Jafar and how he's after the lamp. Genie makes mention of Jasmine and they rush into the desert. With this, you obtain the Key of Guidance.

Key of Guidance

Considering that I thrashed the Parasite Cage and the Trickmaster with only 200 HP, I thought I could do the same with relative ease for any fight, since I seemed to pull through quite well for normal battles. So I didn't level up - I used the Key of Guidance straightaway.

Now for some reason, Aladdin and company end up in the Bazaar and are shocked to see Jasmine lying on the floor unconscious, surrounded by Shadows. Again, the Genie wipes them out... I think that's his second wish, because I know that in this scene, Sora tells Aladdin that he only has one more wish left. Anyway, immediately after Genie wipes them out, be prepared : you're about to fight several waves of Heartless, and they're ALL THE HEARTLESS YOU CAN EVER FIND IN AGRABAH.

And this is no easy task if you're just like me - that is to say, if you haven't taken the prudence to level up. My usual battles would take one reload with the Hi-Potion ; this one made me reload twice.

Winning this battle gives you the Ether card.

After the battle, Aladdin soon discovers that the lamp is missing ! The poor boy searches his pants but can't find a thing ! Jafar and Iago appear on the upper level of the Bazaar to taunt them, now that Jafar has the lamp. The poor big blue lump is now Jafar's slave and ends up taking Jasmine away, albeit with great reluctance.

With this, you get the Key to Truth.

MOAR levelling up

With one Strong Initiative card in hand, I went to Level 29 and decided to beef up my HP a little bit. So now my HP is 215, my CP is 600. Also, I've discovered that you start getting Random Jokers here.

I had two, so I decided to use one, and that took me to...

Looming Darkness.

The description says "A room where Heartless attack relentlessly". The French description suits it MUCH better : Salle aux Sans-cœur déchaînés ! Now when I say déchaîné, it literally means "unchained" - try to imagine Heartless having broken free of their shackles. They don't just attack relentlessly ; they move like, SUPER FAST. It's like they have this certain excitement to just move !

Key to Truth : Attempt #1

The Key to Truth takes you to the Kingdom Hearts version of the Palace Gates, where Sora and his friends face Jafar and Iago. Now, you know the pitch : Jafar asks the Genie to turn him into an all-powerful Genie, and the blue Genie does that rather reluctlantly. So the Jafar we know is Jafar (Genie) as we know him in the first Kingdom Hearts, and you're expected to hit the lamp to deplete his HP ; though a well-aimed Blizzard spell can be aimed towards Jafar.

File:Genie Jafar1.jpg

So his stats are as follows :

HP : 700
AP : 13
EXP : 651

But anyway, as I have bad aiming AND bad timing, I was KO'ed. So it's official : if you're not a -masher like me, you can't go to battle against Jafar at Level 29.

Key to Truth : Attempt #2

So prior to retrying the battle with Jafar, I levelled up a bit more with the usual favourite - Strong Initiative. I'm now in Level 31, with my HP at 230 and my CP at 625. Quite a few of my cards have been Premium-ised to make room for more cards. I replaced all my Blizzard cards with Fire cards because they have homing properties, and I doubt I'd ever be able to make a Blizzard spell aim properly on Jafar, let alone on the lamp !

I didn't change my deck ; I used the Troisnyx deck as always.

So, a little bit more on the Jafar battle, for those of you who don't remember how it went : it takes place in the area below the Lamp Chamber of Kingdom Hearts. It's the same place where you fought Jafar (Genie) in the first game. But there's one difference : in the first game, the pedestals were many in number, and they were sort of a puzzle where they moved left and right, up and down, and if one pedestal moved into its hollow, you could still grasp onto it. In Re:Chain, there are pedestals in groups of three - I saw six up at first - and then they only move up and down. If one goes way down and the other goes way up, it'd be too high for you to grasp, even with High Jump.

So my first move was, as you might guess : aim for the lamp with Fire. I succesfully hit twice ! ^_^

After that, the rest depends on good aim. It's difficult to move the camera around especially when Iago is at one end of the arena and Jafar is at the other side throwing a fireball at you... Thus, for the most part, the camera is hovering at one side above you, and it's also quite difficult to manually turn the camera AND evade when Jafar attacks.

Jafar has two main attacks :

1. He throws a fireball at you. This can be easily evaded if you're at the lower levels, or if you successfully break his card. The card he generally uses for this is numbered 6, though this can vary.
2. He fires a laser-like thing onto the ground, and it follows Sora wherever he goes.

Truth be told, this is the attack which KO'ed me in the first attempt. I couldn't evade because I was in the lower level. So there are two ways to get past this attack - if you have the Gimmick Card, USE IT. And break his card.

This was what happened in my battle : I had the Gimmick Card, and I used it, and all the six top platforms went up, and then Jafar fired his laser thing. It's much easier to evade if Jafar aims at you when all the platforms are up.

As for how to get to the lamp, you have to see if Iago is hovering above you or close to the ground. You're bound to miss it if you aim wrongly. I had several wasted cards, and I reloaded once with the Hi-Potion and once with the Reload Card.

Winning this battle will give you the Jafar card. Another card which I wouldn't consider using.

Aftermath

So the story of Agrabah ends at the Palace Gates, and Aladdin uses his last wish to give freedom to the Genie. And after that, Aladdin rushes out of the Palace Gates - I'm not sure if it's to find Jasmine, because I rushed through the story, but I do know that the Genie gives him his card.

Fifth Floor : Agrabah

Entering the Sixth Floor

Sora starts to remember things that he didn't remember before : he recounts a story of how Sora and Riku fought on the Destiny Islands, and Naminé would draw. But one day, she disappeared. That spells trouble...

Once that scene is over, I walk to the huge white door and I realise that I only have one World Card left : Halloween Town. So in I go...

Introduction

You enter into the Guillotine Plaza as it looks in Kingdom Hearts, and Sora, Donald and Goofy approach the well and poof ! Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King appears and gives Donald a fright — and welcomes Sora and company to Halloween Town. But before we go any further....... several Heartless appear around Sora and company, and you and I know just what to do : FIGHT.

So the mix is as follows : Shadows, Wight Knights, Gargoyles and Creeper Plants.

Once that's over, you get the Key of Beginnings.

Also, I attained Level 32 during that battle, which gives me the sleight Lethal Frame - my favourite sleight EVER ! + +

Also, I got another sleight, which has the exact same Kana as Terra : Terror ! + +
Simba + Mushu + Any item card

Key of Beginnings

The Key of Beginnings takes you to Dr. Finkelstein's lab, where Jack, Sora and friends gather. Dr. Finkelstein says he's working on a memory potion, which he would perhaps use to help Jack and co. regain their lost memories. He summons Sally but doesn't get a response - so Sora and company leave for the Graveyard, where they are to meet her. End of Key of Beginnings - you get the Key of Guidance.

Levelling up

I noticed that you get A LOT of Bottomless Darkness cards from the Heartless in this level.

That aside - I used one or more of the following cards - Premium Room, Strong Initiative (as usual :D), Random Joker (which led to a False Bounty), one and one Moment's Reprieve.

I did enough levelling up to hit Level 36, and in all occasions, I beefed up my CP. My HP still remained at 200.

So now, we use the Key of Guidance, and...

Key of Guidance

Since stories have to be divided in three parts, you can imagine the ennui that comes along with them. They've become oh-so-predictable (repeat slowly after me : oh-so predictable).

So here's what happens in the Key of Guidance : Sora and company rush in to meet Sally, who gives them the memory potion, but a huge talk bubble with spikes and an EXTRA LARGE FONT appears. Everyone is startled.

OH NOES ! D: It's Oogie Boogie ! He's out to take the memory potion for himself ! Now, this is SO NOT fair play. He has an extremely big stature, and he pushes the more svelte Sally aside, onto the ground and grabs the memory potion for himself. I mean, come on ! What a brute ! And you can imagine what happens after that : a confrontation ensues between the protagonists and Oogie, and Oogie runs off with the potion. Sora and company give chase, and you get the Key to Truth.

Now, I'm not gonna go at length to describe how I went to that room, because immediately after the Key of Guidance, I felt ready to take on Oogie, so let's go straight to the last part of this episode.

Key to Truth

Sora and friends enter into the Torture Chamber as it looks like in Kingdom Hearts, only that it's been slightly altered. Jack orders Oogie to give back the memory potion, but Oogie does the exact opposite - he consumes the potion. And he starts losing his memory........

Regardless, we enter into battle, and these are Oogie's stats. Since this is the 6th floor, and the last card in the first set, expect his stats to be really beefed up.

File:OogieBoogie.png

HP : 750
AP : 15
EXP : 791

It's a rather repetitive battle, and Oogie Boogie's battle is defined by a few simple points :

1. The battle takes place in just one isolated section of the Torture Chamber, instead of the whole thing. Oogie is on the upper level, and you're separated from him by an iron fence. The key to taking the fence down is to break all of Oogie's cards.
2. Oogie's main attack is to throw flaming dice at you, or brick-red dice which can be attacked. For this, the card which he uses is often numbered 7, so be sure to break it with a 7, 8, 9 or 0. Or a sleight, if you don't have any of the above, though this move is risky. As you break the cards, the fence comes slowly down, and once it comes down altogether, you're ready to get up there.
3. The brick-red dice can be attacked to release the Gimmick Card, which brings the fence down entirely if used.
4. Once you're up there, use attacks and/or sleights which are HP-consuming. Recommended attacks included + + (0 or 27) Zantetsuken, + + Lethal Frame and + at least Fira. I used all of the above, and I used Lethal Frame twice.
5. The entire sequence of attacks repeats itself, so repeat all the above steps and you're on your way to victory.

Note : I used my Troisnyx deck for this battle.

So I leave this place at Level 37, and I obtain the + +
Gravity + Simba + Any magic card Tornado sleight. Which I doubt I'm ever gonna use.

Aftermath

So the potion can't be retrieved. Sora and friends gather in Dr. Finkelstein's lab, and Sora voices his concerns over losing his memories - something which Axel apparently told him about on the second floor. I didn't really pay attention because we have another battle to prepare for, soon after the end...

So off I go to the Conqueror's Respite ; I save and reform my deck, and stay tuned for the next section to find out who I'm battling this time.

Sixth Floor : Halloween Town

Lar-Lar's got a way with words and expressions, and she's too bitchy to be a Nobody. Yes, it's in this place that the Lucky Charm changes its shape - it's now a yellow star akin to the shape of a Paopu Fruit, and it's also in this scene that Sora mentions Naminé's name for the first time - after a great deal of extorsion on Larxene's part. Now, we know that she'd do anything to hurt Sora's morals - even destroy the Lucky Charm. But Sora isn't going to give up without a fight......

With the same stats as in the Oogie Boogie battle - 200 HP and some 700 CP - I run headlong into this battle with the Troisnyx deck.

Larxene : First Encounter

File:Larxene Days.png

Her stats are as follows :

HP : 1120
AP : 5 (significantly less than Oogie himself, and I wonder why...)
EXP : 2325

Now, here's my deck setup :

• Several Olympia, Wishing Star, Three Wishes and Pumpkinhead cards numbered from 5 to 0. Half of them are Premium Cards. Of all the attack cards I have, three of them are numbered 0.
• One Hi-Potion card numbered 9.
• Two Cure cards numbered 7 and 9 respectively. The 9 is a Premium Card.
• Two Fire cards numbered 7 and 9 respectively. I'm keeping it for its homing properties. The 9 is a Premium Card.
• Two Stop cards for the Lethal Frame sleight, numbered 4 and 1 respectively.
• One Bouncywild card.

I'm going against the strategy stated in Larxene (Boss) for obvious reasons : I never believe in stocking up any other enemy card except Bouncywild. That one card, if I have to remind you over again, draws experience orbs and Friend Cards together, so that at least you'd always have something to fall back on.

Now, Larxene's attacks are pretty simple in this battle, but take note that in this battle, whenever she casts Thunder, she does so with a 9 card. I didn't get to see her sleights because I broke them with relative ease with the 0 cards. I admit it was difficult to break the Thunder spell, considering that most of my cards are numbered less than 9... but Lethal Frame ( + + ) worked wonders in this battle.

I didn't receive any Donald cards, but if you do, DO NOT USE THEM. Donald runs the risk of casting Thunder and healing Larxene. I got Goofy instead, but it was broken.

Nevertheless, I took her down with relative ease. And to top it all up, I only reloaded once (with the Hi-Potion, of course).

Also note that this is my opening move : cast Fire, then cast Fire again.

Alright, I've had enough of Larxene's pitiful "Ikazuchiyo" ! On to the aftermath. Speaking about "relative ease", I totally neglected the Cure cards, and after the battle and the scenes were over, I discovered that Larxene managed to cut away one half of my HP bar. O____O

Post-defeat

So I reckon you'd know what Larxene would do after losing : she stays behind to taunt Sora, and she hands him a few World Cards as "presents". Those of you playing the English version would recognise this scene as the one where Larxene calls Sora a baby. Nevertheless, Sora gets four new World Cards - File:Atlantica 2 (card).png Atlantica, File:100 Acre Wood 2 (card).png 100 Acre Wood, File:Hollow Bastion 2 (card).png Hollow Bastion and File:Neverland 2 (card).png Neverland.

I'm aware that I'll be in for a fight one floor from now, but I'm picking my card, and it's...

Meeting Larxene

Deep in the 100 Acre Wood, where Christopher Roooooobin plaaaaaaaayyyys, you'll find the enchanted neiiiiighboooouuuurhoooood, of Christopher's chiiiildhood daaaaaayyyys..... ^_^

Yes, I actually sing to that BGM. :D

This is the only world where you don't have the Keycards, and the only world which retains all of the places as seen in the first Kingdom Hearts. Time to take a breather from fighting - here's some family-friendly fun.

Pooh's House

Gist of the story : Sora meets Pooh and together, they seek out to find Pooh's friends.

Now, the layout is pretty much the same as in Kingdom Hearts, except that you can't climb on the rooftop like in the first game. Also, you can now smash things - and the clock in Pooh's house is a Stop spell generator. Who'd need one of those in the 100 Acre Wood anyway ?

Note also that Pooh will be following you... wherever you may go. There isn't an ocean too deeeeeeeep, a mountain so high that can keeeeeep, keep me awaaaaaaayyyyyyy ! :D

Rabbit's House

I always had a fascination for Rabbit's House in the first Kingdom Hearts. Well, you could pull up cabbages and pumpkins and find items hidden inside. You can't do that now, though, but the misspelt signs - CABEGE, KERITS, PUNKINS ? - add to the charm of this place. There are lots of pots and vases in front of Rabbit's House that can be smashed for HP orbs and/or Moogle Points (you're most likely to find the latter ^_^), but you can't enter into Rabbit's House.

Lead Pooh towards the end of Rabbit's House, the path behind it, and a scene will be played - poor Pooh just got flung onto the ground by a pumpkin hurtling down the path !

Rabbit meets Pooh and Sora, and tells them what he's up to. Speak to him and you'll begin a new mini-game : Veggie Panic.

Veggie Panic

Goal : Get 30 points.
Rules : Separate cabbages and pumpkins. Cabbages go to the left, so you have to use to hit them. Pumpkins go to the right, so for those, you use .
Reward : Cross-slash+ + + .

My personal score was some 100+ points ; I forget what my exact score is. On to the next stop !

Balloon Glider

Sora and Pooh end up in front of the Hunny Tree, where they see three balloons tied to a log. And if you take the balloons, the mini-game begins.

Goal : Scale the Hunny Tree unscathed - meaning that you have to have at least one balloon when you reach the top.
Rules : You start with two balloons. You can only have a maximum of three and a minimum of one. Collect Hunny orbs as you scale the tree, but beware of the bees. Lose all balloons and the mini-game ends.
Reward : Firaga Burst + + . I don't know why, but it's shown in my save file as + + . Regardless...

I was aiming for a perfect score but I was already on the verge of losing - I made it to the top with only one balloon left.

When you reach the top, you'll get to meet Owl, who speaks to Sora for a while - but I didn't get the least bit of what they were saying.

Pass this stop and you'll meet Tigger, whom you should speak to for the next mini-game :

Tigger's Jump-A-Thon

Goal : Score 25 points.
Rules : There are four tree stumps, marked with , , and respectively, just as the buttons on the controller. Hit the controller buttons according to the direction in which Tigger is jumping to score more points. The mini-game ends if you miss.
Reward : Paradise Stamp Idyll Romp + + .

I scored 30 points, but deliberately missed the next steps because I just wanted to get this level over with.

This is the exact same area where the Giant Pot used to be, and also the same area where you could go searching for Rare Nuts in Kingdom Hearts. However, in Re:Chain of Memories, you can't access the upper levels, except for the treasure chest in one corner of this place - which houses the Spellbinder card. You'll need at least Glide to get there - High Jump just isn't enough.

Pooh's Muddy Path

Moving on... This is the place I hated the most in Kingdom Hearts because I took too long to find everybody.

You can access two mini-games here, which I will explain as we go along. This place has lower and upper levels. In the lower level, you'd be able to find Roo, whilst in the upper level, you'll be able to find Eeyore - who has lost his tail again. >_>

Whirlwind Plundge

You activate this mini-game by jumping on the well and riding on the air currents. That cutscene plays every time you jump over the well.

Goal : Clear the damn course. :D
Rules : Collect as many Hunny orbs as possible. Hitting an obstacle will separate you from Pooh, and you'll need to come near him and hit to get him back. Whilst you're away from Pooh, you can't collect Hunny orbs.
Reward : Mega-Ether card.

Bumble-Rumble

The whole idea for the mini-game is to find Eeyore's tail, and Pooh believes it's hidden in a tree hole... but he's shocked to find more bees coming and attacking him !

Goal : Destroy all the bees.
Rules : You have three cards : Keyblade, Wind and Honey. The Keyblade card is for attack purposes ; Wind functions like the Aero spell in that it blows both the bees AND Pooh away. The Honey card functions similarly to the Cure spell, in that it heals Pooh. There are some 21 swarms of bees, if I remember correctly, and you have to defeat every last one of them. Reward : Elixir card.

Note : Sleights are NOT recommended for this mini-game.

Once this mini-game is over, Pooh will run headlong into a tree... ouch ! And lo and behold, we see Eeyore's tail falling from high up a tree.

Aftermath

Completing the level will grant you the Bambi card.

Seventh Floor : 100 Acre Wood

What a brainwreck. Sora and Riku ? Fighting over a girl called Naminé ? This is SO NOT the Riku that Sora knows. In the meantime, we know that Axel, Larxene and Vexen are plotting at the upper levels...... Hint hint.

So you're practically forced into battle. Since there are no fights in the 100 Acre Wood, I have the same cards and same stats as in my Larxene battle.

Riku Replica : First Encounter

File:Riku Replicagood.jpg

His stats are as follows —— oh wait, the HP hasn't been noted down in the strategy page.

Nevertheless, note that he has some 4+ bars of HP at his disposition. Like Larxene, this guy managed to cut off one half of my HP bar - now at this point it's seriously ringing alarm bells - I should go and train when I have the opportunity.

Copied and pasted from the Riku Replica (Boss) strategy page - this is a part I wrote :

Stock up cards numbered 7-9, an Elixir and a Hi-Potion at least, two or three Stop cards (for the Lethal Frame sleight), two or three Cure cards and some 0 cards at the end of the deck (to break the Replica's attacks). You might want to insert some Premium Cards in to save CP.

Use sleights when possible; sleights are an effective way to cause great damage to the Replica (depending on which sleights are used). Keep bashing the Replica with Sleights, reload (using an Item Card) and heal when necessary.

Another tactic is to have a Bouncywild card in hand: it only costs 10 CP, and it draws your Goofy and Donald cards together (while you keep yourself occupied with the Replica), giving you the chance to use Trinity Limit.

Scrap the part on Trinity Limit, now - that's too far-fetched. You need the Bouncywild card nonetheless, so keep it in. And yes, I did use sleights - I opened with two Fires, used Lethal Frame ( + + ) twice and Sonic Blade a few times.

Post-defeat

Riku runs away, leaving behind a distraught Sora. In the prelude to the next floor we see Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy feeling a little more optimistic - hey, it's Castle Oblivion, isn't it ? People are bound to lose their memories, so perhaps Riku has lost his memories too.

Meeting Riku

Sora, Donald and Goofy end up in one of the chambers with no way out, and they suddenly come across Tinker Bell, who leads them out. You get the Key of Beginnings... and the story begins.

Levelling up

I'm gonna summarise my entire experience of levelling up in this section, because I did some reasonable levelling up until I reached Level 42 and got Ars Arcanum ( + + (6)). And that took a long time. I remember when I first entered into that place I could hardly survive without two reloads ; now I only need one like in all my previous battles.

So, still using the Troisnyx deck, these are the cards are used (in no particular order) :

• Sleeping Darkness.
• Strong Initiative. I must repeat myself here : this is my favourite Map Card. Ever.
• Premium Room.
• White Room. Since I finally have Fire, Blizzard and Thunder, I can survive pretty well in a White Room, since in Re:Chain of Memories, the only spells required by White Mushrooms are Fire, Blizzard and Thunder. The rest... I don't know why they didn't make the cut, but still... Oh, and I had to do deck-switching. Earlier in the walkthrough I indicated that I have a magic-based deck, which I nicknamed Boutonnat (the last T is not pronounced), so every time I enter into a White Room, I make sure I switch to that deck, because all the magic cards required for the White Room are there. The Boutonnat deck has a decent amount of attack cards, so if I have to Premium-ise any attack cards, I'd do it on the spot. Oh, and sometimes I forget to switch back to my normal deck...... the consequences of this are adverse, believe me.
• Black Room. I don't know why I used it ; the Black Fungi don't give much experience. Oh, and speaking about Black Fungi... I must write a separate section for the card numbers used by regular Heartless. I'll do that towards the end.
• Roulette Room. Simply because I was searching for Strong Initiative. Instead, they had my most hated card, Lasting Daze. -__-
• Martial Waking. Simply because I didn't want to waste my Strong Initiative cards. I'd need them for the upper levels.
• Meeting Ground.
• Stagnant Space.
• Guarded Trove.
• Calm Bounty.
• Moment's Reprieve (definitely).
• Moogle Room. Note that starting from the 7th floor, you gain access to better card packs. In the previous levels, attack card packs were all priced at 100 Moogle Points ; here we have packs costing 200 and 300 Moogle Points. And I'm not gonna go at length to describe the Item Cards and/or Magic Cards, because... I recommend you to check it out for yourselves. One thing's for sure : Earlier, I used to have enough Moogle Points to obtain all the card packs in the Moogle Shop ; now, even 2,000+ points aren't enough.
• Key to Rewards. I managed to get two of these cards during my levelling up, and so I used one in Neverland. Since I have a clear Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix save file (note : my Reverse/Rebirth save file is only at 40-something %), both treasures appear in the Room of Rewards. *opens* I got Follow the Wind and Thunder Raid ( + + ) !

Key of Beginnings

The story is pretty much predictable : you meet Peter Pan for the first time (Tink leads you to him), and it's just outside the Hold of the ship as in the first Kingdom Hearts. So he explains about the treacherous Captain Hook, and how he's trying to get at Peter Pan's friend Wendy... He is just as brash as he is in the first Kingdom Hearts, only willing to be part of Sora's team until he finds Wendy.

With that, you get the Key of Guidance.

Key of Guidance

The Key of Guidance features a refreshing change of story from the first episode : Wendy expresses her sadness over not being able to stay in Neverland for long. She tells Peter Pan that she has to return to London. Peter gets all pissed off and leaves the room in a huff after a dispute between them. Sora and company speak to a distraught Wendy and wonder what's up with this dastardly Peter Pan (hint : change a consonant).

And with that, you get the Key to Truth.

Key to Truth

Sora and friends meet Captain Hook for the first and last time in the whole story, and they wonder what kind of person he is... until they see... *gasp* OH NOES ! D: Wendy at the far edge of the plank ! And worse, our knight in shining armour hero in green rags isn't there to save him... or is he ?

Peter Pan steals the show and takes Wendy off the plank and to a safe place. Hook is furious, and attempts to chase after Wendy, but almost loses his balance. (He'd better be thankful for not losing his balance, because the Tick Tock Croc is waiting in the sea right below the plank !) From the edge of that plank, he pulls out his épée and I can already imagine him saying "Come, sir, your passado... no, wait, he is a pirate.

Which brings me back to this favourite line echoed by several KHWiki members over the IRC, which was pilfered from LazyTown :

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free ! You are a pirate !
Or, in the original language of pirates, Fais c’qui te plaît, vivre en pirate c’est ça ! Tu es un pirate !

Yes, for this battle with Captain Hook, I AM A PIRATE. :D

File:Captain Hook.png

Fukku senchou's stats are as follows :

HP : 680
AP : 11
EXP : 1990

Now, he is one of the few Disney bosses to use sleights. The other one I know who uses sleights is Hades. If he stacks three cards into a sleight, be warned : he can do one of these two attacks —

1. Send barrels of gunpowder flying into the air, either from the poop-deck (behind) or from the hold (front). I could only evade this attack in Reverse/Rebirth, because I dared not use sleights for that battle, and I obviously didn't have enough 0 cards.
2. Perform a combo attack with his épée. That, too, can be broken or evaded.

His other attack includes throwing explosive gift boxes at you.

So here's my deck setup for Troisnyx :

• Attack cards Olympia, Fairy Harp and Wishing Star numbered 6 to 0. Half of these cards are Premium cards.
• One Hi-Potion card #9 and one Elixir card #6.
• Two Fire cards numbered 7 and 9 respectively.
• Two Cure cards numbered 7 and 9 respectively. The 9 is a Premium Card.
• Two Stop cards numbered 1 and 4 respectively, for the Lethal Frame sleight.
• One Bouncywild card, to gather Friend Cards together.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Aftermath

All's well that ends well - Wendy is taken back to London in Peter Pan's arms, and Tink returns to Sora and company and gives them a gift - her summon card.

Now, I've saved in the Conqueror's Respite, but I'm only in Level 42 and most of my cards are Premiums - not a stable position indeed. I'll have to spoil one of the hints for you - Riku Replica is waiting at the other side of the door, and if I get to him now, I'll die. Surely.

Since I have one more Key to Rewards card in hand, I'll be revisiting the previous worlds. So let's begin with... Traverse Town !

Eighth Floor : Neverland

Okay, now all the enemies in Traverse Town can be defeated with a maximum of three hits. The Red Nocturnes and Blue Rhapsodies there can be defeated with one hit. That, my friends, explains the benefits of levelling up.

So for navigation, I used these cards :

• Calm Bounty.
• Sleeping Darkness.
• White Room.
• Martial Waking.
• Moment's Reprieve, just outside the Room of Rewards.

And in the Room of Rewards... *checks* both chests are there, again, because I have a clear Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix save file. So let's see what we get :

Lionheart and Saïx !

Now, the Lionheart is Fire-powered, so I have to be careful not to use it against Red Nocturnes and Wizards. Nevertheless, in my previous save file, I took the Lionheart card all the way to the 13th floor with me. It shows just how powerful it is.

I also revisited the Coliseum on the second floor, but that was mainly to get Olympia cards more than anything else.

Revisit : Traverse Town

I revisited Agrabah simply because I was fresh out of Moogle Points, and I was lucky enough blessed indeed ! I got the Aladdin card four times during a battle, and at all times it was numbered 7 and above.

But the main reason why I visited Agrabah was because I had a Key to Rewards, which I thought I could put to good use by revisiting one of the worlds. I had no idea which world to visit, so whilst levelling up, I revisited Agrabah...... for teh lulz.

So, in no particular order, these are the Map Cards I used.

• Sleeping Darkness.
• Meeting Ground.
• Martial Waking.
• Roulette Room.
• Moment's Reprieve, just outside the Room of Rewards.

And now, *opens the two chests in front of her* I have...

+ + Warp and Luxord. Now, I won't be using the Luxord card that much, but I'm trying to score 100% for this walkthrough.

So I'm now in Level 43 (I think), and I'm trying to beef up my CP and make sure there are enough cards stocked up before my battle with Neo Riku Riku Replica.

Revisit : Agrabah

So alright. After getting a sufficient amount of levels and experience, I finally decided to get into that 8th Floor Exit Hall and take Riku out. There is a serious change of cards in my deck, and I am aware that I'll have to humour the Riku Replica for a very, very, VERY long time.

The whole change was proposed by Gael42 of Kingdom Hearts Francophone Wiki - he has the GBA version of Chain (he obviously doesn't have the remake), and for ideas on how Re:Chain would go, he's been constantly watching video footage. Since Chain is the only Kingdom Hearts installment he finished at 100%, I thought, okay, why not give that strategy of his a try in this level ?

So now, I'm using my Troisnyx deck, and these are the cards you'd find :

• Olympia, Lionheart, Wishing Star and Fairy Harp attack cards. Most of them are numbered 6 to 0, except for the Lionheart which is numbered 2.
• Two Stop cards numbered 1 and 4 for Lethal Frame. (Which reminds me, I'll have to change this number very soon...
• The Bouncywild card is now replaced with the Gargoyle card, which has the trait of Invisibility. And it lasts through only one reload. Which means, if I use even an Item Card, it's all over. Now, I was given orders to perform my sleights and/or special attacks while Riku is reloading - which means for the most part of this battle, I'll have to do a lot of Dodge Rolling/Gliding.

Second encounter with Riku : A tried and tested strategy

Differences between the Final Mix attachment and the English version (or, oddities that I've noticed)

• If you have a Final Mix+ save file you get all treasures in the Room of Rewards at once.
• Wild Crush, which is usually activated with + + , can also be activated with + + . I use the latter more often.
• There is a possibility of obtaining One-Winged Angel and Diamond Dust in Moogle Rooms. Not Calm Bounties, don't get me wrong. It's either because you have Final Mix save data or Reverse/Rebirth save data. But for me, I'm only halfway through R/R so I'm basing it on the fact that I have already completed KHIIFM up to 95%.
• Not sure if this happens in the English version as well, but once I managed to collect all the Keyblade cards (with the exception of Ultima Weapon - for that I need a clear R/R save file), no cards came out of Bounty rooms. At all. There was always an error message (I'm yet to figure it out). And also, for struck items, the only cards that ever came out were Kingdom Key cards.
• On F13 - Castle Oblivion, in any Moogle Room, the Moogle always prompts you to surrender some cards for synthesis. If you fail to surrender any, there'll be no synthesis done. I thought it was influenced by some kind of threshold (like 1800 MP or less) but there's no threshold whatsoever.

I need more Moogle Points !

• Go to Agrabah. Seriously. Using Aladdin's Sandstorm attack will enable you to get 12MP per hit. Better still if you're using more than one card.
• Enter every level from the back (the Conqueror's Respite rooms). There's always a chance of you striking items for lots of Moogle Points.
• Strike everything you see in your way.
• Go to Neverland ; there's a possibility that using the Peter Pan friend card might help you gain some more Moogle Points.
• Visit the 100 Acre Wood. Regularly. There's always a high possibility of landing lots and lots of Moogle Points by just smashing the pots and vases in Pooh's and Rabbit's houses. Since that's the only world without a Conqueror's Respite, you have to enter from the front.
• Do not slip on the bananas left by Bouncywild Heartless. They make you lose your MP. Unless you have a Bouncywild card equipped ; it won't make any difference whether you fall or not because you're bound to get your MP back.

Deck setup

There are three decks which you can use. My deck setup is such that :

• the main deck is always for offence. This is the normal deck that I use when I enter into almost every room, since I’m into mêlée fighting a lot. I mean A LOT. Almost all of the cards in the deck are attack cards. You can occasionally insert the Stop card for the Lethal Frame sleight, if you wish.
• the second deck is always magic-based. Exclusively for White Rooms, Sorcerous Waking and areas where I know I'm going to use magic a lot. Of course, I insert at least 12 attack cards at the end just for emergencies but the bulk of it comprises Fire, Blizzard and Thunder cards.
• and the last deck is a balance of both, only for use during boss battles.

This strategy is best used if you have managed to get a substantial amount of attack cards, Stop, Thunder, Fire, Blizzard and Cure.

And for me, no deck is complete without a Bouncywild card. As I said earlier, it's only 10 CP, I can get it early in the game, it draws EXP and Friend Cards together, and once I've leveled up enough to obtain Trinity Limit, I can practically finish off an entire horde of Heartless within five seconds by simply drawing Donald's and Goofy's cards together.

More tips and tricks

Reverse/Rebirth

Again, you instantly get the Key to Beginnings, which, if used, will immediately take you to the boss battle.

This level's love. I don't know, but for some reason, I just love this level in Re:Chain. Even if it's Riku's story we're talking about.

Fighting Jafar

File:Genie Jafar1.jpg

Fighting Jafar is... EASY. Well, not quite, because you still have those moving walls and those walls can actually give you a lot of trouble. But if you happen to shield yourself with these walls, that's a good thing !

If not, dodge Jafar's fireballs, and break all of Jafar's cards. It's highly possible for you to enter into Dark Mode with the cards you have at present, and you can use Dark Firaga to your advantage, especially if you're near the lamp. Getting the Gimmick Card is a plus, because that card will raise all the walls to their highest point, getting the lamp within reach. No, I won't call it a plus - do not miss the Gimmick Card, otherwise this battle's gonna take longer than you wish it to be.

Win this battle and you get the Jafar Genie card. Which I hardly use, but well, it's what you call "bragging rights".

Basement Eight : Agrabah

Again, you instantly get the Key to Beginnings, which, if used, will immediately take you to the boss battle.

I cleared this level in just ten minutes, beat that. Maybe it had something got to do with my extra leveling-up just to confront Vexen, I don't know... So, I hardly got around much. Just two or three random Map Cards, one Moment's Reprieve, and off to fight the Parasite Cage.

Monstro

File:Parasite Cage.jpg

Pretty easy boss, especially when it comes to breaking cards. Successfully breaking his cards over and over again will fill your DP gauge up to 30, which triggers Dark Mode. Attack with all you've got - single attacks, sleights, Holy Burst, Inverse Burst... Also note that whilst you're in Dark Mode, it's easier to stun the Parasite Cage, and every hit of yours will make him drop HP orbs.

It'd be better to have the Gimmick Card in hand : if in the arena there are four platforms on digestive acid, using the Gimmick Card will make the four platforms disappear and a large one appear in the centre. And it's very close to the Parasite Cage, so I obviously wouldn't get it if with all that preparation, you lose.

Winning this battle will give you the Parasite Cage card.

Basement Seven : Monstro

Again, you instantly get the Key to Beginnings, which, if used, will immediately take you to the boss battle.

Room Creation and Leveling Up

Coming soon...

Basement Six : Halloween Town

I pretty much thought that this'd be a cinch. That's because Heartless bosses don't use sleights ; they only use single cards. But I was wrong.

Instead of the 30-something cards that I once had, I was now reduced to seventeen freaking cards - all the enemy cards and cards numbered 1-5 ! Like most other floors you instantly get the Key of Beginnings, which, if used, will immediately take you to the boss battle.

Getting Around

The best way to get around this level will be to duel. Card Duel, yes. If you haven't been using it all this while, dust those cards and get cracking ! The enemies in Wonderland generally duel with 3 cards, numbered 3, 4 and 5 (in any sequence). Sucessfully breaking these cards will allow you to use Impulse, which has the potential of actually killing ALL enemies in the field, even if they appear after your first strike. That's the power of the shockwave, and you might have to use that Duel sleight throughout the level.

Trickmaster

File:Trickmaster.PNG

As I suggested on the Trickmaster strategy page, this boss is a really pesky one. The Trickmaster has the added advantage of having his batons lighted automatically when the battle begins, and because you don't have Blizzard, they're gonna remain lighted throughout the battle. And you have the added disadvantage of only having cards numbered 1-5... screw you ! If you're lucky to get an occasional card numbered 6 - 0, it'll be in the form of a King Mickey friend card.

For this you need to be in LV50 or above. The best way to get around this is by several Card Duels. Note that most Duel Sleights involve breaking cards numbered 3, 4 and 5 (particularly Impulse). If you successfully transform into Dark Mode, this is a plus. Dodge the Trickmaster as much as you can, and if you do not have enough cards to parry the Trickmaster's attacks, do not stand on the table. If you have finished the Halloween Town episode before Wonderland, save the Oogie Boogie card for emergencies only.

Winning this battle will give you the Trickmaster card.

Basement Five : Wonderland

List of Heartless attack card numbers

As I said in Sora's story, I'm setting up this section primarily because Heartless have a certain pattern of attack cards, or even a certain range. So with this section, I trust you can prepare your cards well. I will be updating this section from time to time, but first I'll have to watch the moveset of every Heartless closely.

Note that this is for all other rooms except Feeble Darkness and Almighty Darkness. If you are using these two room cards, prepare at your own risk.

• Barrel Spider : #4 (to self-destruct, of course). Fire does not set it off, unlike in Kingdom Hearts.
• Black Fungus : #7
• Shadow :
• Darkball : : #2, #5 and #6 (charging chomp attack)
• Neoshadow : #8
• White Mushroom : No card played
• Red Nocturne : #1, #2 and #4.
• Blue Rhapsody : #1, #2 and #4.
• Yellow Opera : #1, #2 and #4.
• Green Requiem : #1
• Wyvern :
• Powerwild :
• Bouncywild : #1, #2 and #4.
• Wight Knight :
• Gargoyle : #4
• Crescendo : #5
• Tornado Step :
• Aquatank :
• Sea Neon :
• Screwdiver :