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Originally recorded: May 20, 2025
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I'm surprised at how much of a struggle there was to get this game nominated in the first place. The usual suspects were all super-excited when I finally popped my KH cherry (KHerry?) last year and despite their eagerness to get me into the numbered sequel, there's still one major hurdle standing between me and the game that they all very much still desire: the actual second game in the series... or at least, a version of it. In the end, one user made the noble sacrifice of nominating it for this year in the first place, while another ended up putting it on the bonus list. I guess you could say it required a bit of teamwork to make that particular dream work.

Admittedly, my first impressions of the game weren't the best... but some of that was my own fault. For starters, I incorrectly assumed that the visual issues I experience while streaming the first Kingdom Hearts meant that none of the following games in that collection would follow suit. Clearly, I should've tested things before starting, but fortunately, I already knew the solution. Granted, that led to a pretty quick and dirty solution, which eventually got refined as the game continued. You might notice that my mouse cursor was on-screen for a significant portion of the stream and I'd like to apologize for that. But I realized my mistake eventually and it shouldn't be an issue moving forward. Of course, with the chat bar on the side, I've got my doubts that anyone's going to want to mine this particular stream for footage in the first place.

While playing the first Kingdom Hearts, I had enough trouble keeping track of the story, what with the stilted dialogue and the rambling exposition necessary to understand everything. I can already tell that Re:Chain of Memories is going to be equally obtuse... but to make matters worse, the gameplay itself also had a major learning curve behind it. On the plus side, I think I managed to get a decent handle on the core mechanics by the end of this first session, even if I'm clearly still far from mastering it. Oh well, at least I managed to beat two floors in this first session. Dari even tells me that Jafar was one of the more difficult bosses in the game.

Regardless of my own personal struggles, I can already understand why this game is so unpopular among the die-hard fanbase -- one of my friends even outright recommended bailing on the remake and going for the GBA original instead -- but I think the concept behind exclusively using cards for attack in an action RPG does have some merit. Of course, I also enjoyed the MegaMan Battle Network series... so that probably has something to do with it. Likewise, Kingdom Hearts' action-oriented combat already felt awkward enough to implement a card system over it. I mean, it doesn't really feel all that mechanically different from the magic menu from the first game. It just limited your ability to perform physical attacks now as well. It still feels clunky, but I feel like there was an inkling of a good idea here. It just needed way more refinement.

Dari and KI have already requested that I do Riku's campaign, which unlocks after completing the main one. Apparently, it's going to be integral to understanding KH2 itself. I wasn't really against it... but man, it's a good thing I insisted on boosting my schedule to three streams a week for this game.