What I think about Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

It's just... good. On one hand, it's not mediocre. On the other hand... it isn't some sort of elite nor anything.

First, I'll make a quick intro to the game.
The start of the game takes place near the end of the first installment. Roxas, Sora's Nobody, emerges and is taken into the Organization XIII. There, he has a special task - to collect Hearts and help build the Heart of Hearts - Kingdom Hearts - and he's the only one who can do it, because of the Keyblade. But that individuality won't last for long, as another Keyblade wielder named Xion suddenly joins the Organization.
The game tells the 358/2 days of Roxas' life in the Organization, and its end is, as expected, the start of KH2.

I'll start off with the bad - repetitiveness. God, this game gets so monotonous so fast. It's not only because we'll be doing tons of missions that require us to go kill Heartless, but also because... we'll be facing the same enemies. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.... You get the picture. When you start playing, you won't bother that much, however, as the game goes on and we still have barely no variety in enemies... that's pretty bad. One thing I liked in the original was that each world had its own set of Heartless which acted in their own ways, and this game doesn't have that characteristic. In fact, it loves repeating enemies SO MUCH that it even has tons of recolours for each kind. YES! Most enemies you'll be facing in the second half of the game will be recolours of others you previously found! But wait! THERE'S MORE! Just as if that wasn't enough, you will also encounter some enemies that are the exact same thing you fought before - but bigger. Example? Shadow - Mega Shadow - Giga Shadow. I mean, come on, Square. You can be better than that.
However, that is not the biggest gripe. You see, if they were just the common enemies, I wouldn't have these many problems. But that's not the case. What happens is that, whoever designed the enemies, should reconsider his works. Why? Because something's wrong when you suddenly have that awkward feeling that you've met and dispatched one certain boss ten times before that - only with a different name, colour and just another attack. This really takes away the individuality of the bosses. The first time we encountered the Zip Slasher as an optional (and hard as hell) enemy, it was awesome. When we started finding over 15 bigger brothers of Zip Slasher in many other missions, it grows dull.

This is just the worst aspect of the game, and the only that really, but REALLY annoys me enough. f we look past the fan char... I mean, Xion, that is. Yes. You read this right. Xion sounds like a goddamned fan character. It's like... so Mary-Sue'ish... Really bothering. However, if you're not a nit-picky bastard like I am, you can easily look over this glaring flaw by the name of Xion.


Now that I had my dose of bashing the negative aspects, let me talk about the good.
First thing that you'll notice, right on the main menu - the music. Very nice, let me say. Nothing jawdropping (like Halo's One Final Effort or FFVII's Birth of a God), but still good to hear. Still had a handful of great (emphasis on "great", but not enough to reach "awesome") tracks, like Dearly Beloved III and Roxas' Theme, though.
There's also voice-acting in the cutscenes, which sounds really good.

Another thing I liked - the graphics. I know, for today's standards, they SUCK HARD. However, this is a DS game, and we have to judge it taking in account the DS's capabilities, which aren't all that high, obviously. I personally liked the graphics very much. Even if the character models are look stiff and are not wondrously animated, they're still quite good to look at. And when we get cutscenes? Well, since those are video-files, it's obvious that they're better as hell, but they still count. What can I say about those? AWESOME. Only this word can describe it. Plus, when you finish the game, you get a Theater option in the main menu, which gives you access to all cutscenes (which is rather nice).

Now, more into the gameplay.
Even if it's horribly dull, it also has its positive aspects. Like what, you ask? Panels. Every single thing we can equip on Roxas, from accessories, items and magic to weapons, skills and even LEVELS (yes, levels. More on that later) comes in the form of panels, which can be placed in the Panel Grid. I was very happy with this system. Why? Because it lets you fully customize Roxas for your playing style. Are you a heavy magic user? Then install tons of Magic panels and blast away all your enemies with Firagas and Thunders. Are you a rather unsafe player and like having many items prepared before raging into battle? Place all the potions and ethers you can and head into mission. Want your weapon to be more powerful? Just link a Power Unit to it.
Another thing that was quite interesting was that levels were panels, as well. And with that also come special panels to the which you can link LVL Panels - the LVL multipliers. Each of these have around 3 to 5 slots, in the which you can place LVL Panels, and their level will be multiplied by 2, 3 our even 4. Very good, imo.

Another thing: the story starts out slowly and has some random events popping here and there, but generally uninteresting. Near the end, you'll have your eyes glued to the screen because of its sheer "OMG-ness"

I guess I pretty much covered it. So, in short:

Graphics: DS Standard-9/10; Today's Standards-5/10

Gameplay: 6/10

Music: 8/10

Story: 7/10

Final Verdict
7/10