It is not very often that a game looks you straight in the eye and tells you it is going to lie to you. It is one thing to soften things up so as not to hurt a person’s feelings or to rearrange the words so people are not insulted. Most of the time in the gaming world, though, the lies a game tells you have to do with the story. A character lies to the protagonist and motivates him/her to exact revenge, or things are not as they seem. More important, sometimes a game doesn’t live up to its full potential. In this case, the game “has lied” about what it is supposed to be. This can happen for any number of reasons, such as lack of time, skill of the technology, lack of testing and so forth. Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories for the Playstation 2 is a liar, a braggart and a thief.

Let me make this clear: I have played through the original game. Seven years ago, the original Kingdom Hearts was one of the better games. It was exceedingly charming as it was bright and colorful. The majority of the characters were not new. Instead, they were lovingly recreated, and the various characters combined to create something of a dream for die-hard Square-Enix and Disney fans (respectively). Add in some very well-done voice acting, and it was one of the more well-presented games ever made. The main problem with it was that the hack-’n’-slash combat quickly became old (just push the X button), and maneuvering through the menus was a chore. Furthermore, the plot was highly predictable. (I groaned a lot during that time.) Kingdom Hearts is very solidly made and can humor people for hours.

Chain of Memories is a lair. It practically tells you within minutes of playing: “The memories that you play through may lie to you.” Wait. Why would they lie to you? Simple: Sora and crew followed Pluto into Castle Oblivion, where the place is entirely created by the enterer’s memories. Sora suffers from major retrograde amnesia and cannot remember a darn thing except the names of the characters. Also, he doesn’t recognize the reused plot points from the original. Oh yes, it is trying to sell you yesteryear’s plot. The words have been changed and rearranged to protect the innocent. And the craziest thing is, it admits this. By the end, “Sora will have changed,” the game claims. Well, of course he will change! He’s gone through parts of the journey known as “life.” Of course he’s a different person. The core of his being will still be the same, but parts of his behavior and thought patterns are not.

Next is the “braggart” part. Chain of Memories brags about being a strategic action card game. “Card game?” you may be wondering. You see, everything revolves around cards. Every single attack, spell, summon and item revolves around the deck you have built. The higher the value, the more likely it’ll occur. If the value is lower, it will probably be trumped. Unless you have a 0 (zero) card. It is both high and low and, if used properly, will trump higher-value cards while low-valued cards will defeat it. This makes it sound like some decent strategizing is required. Well, there isn’t. Just continue to run around and choose the proper card or string them together. Refresh your deck when cards run out. Even your opponents have to go through this process (to an extent), giving you openings to defeat them. Or you’ll just beat them to death within seconds.

Just like in any other action role-playing game, Sora will level up. Unlike most other games in the genre, you have the power to choose where you want to improve Sora. There is the ever-important HP (hit points) to improve, Card Points (CP) that allows Sora to hold more cards (and more potent cards) in his deck and “sleighs.” Sleighs are a fancy way of saying “special moves.” They are initiated by combining certain cards. I do not think they are that useful when having a larger deck, and health bars are more helpful. Anyway, all cards (except gimmick cards) are combinable and can be used to overpower enemies. The price for this is that the first card used will not return into your deck until the battle ends. However, this aspect can easily be exploited. Just begin the combo with a friend’s card (such as Goofy or Donald) and randomly select cards. Those cards are used up anyway, so why not be smart about it?

Thanks to the frequent battles, you can gather cards to unlock parts of the map. The size of the following room depends on what cards are used. And you cannot unlock certain rooms until you have a story card. This little element makes certain that you don’t break the plot. Anyway, the idea behind this to have the rooms a bit varied each time you visit them. So what is the problem with this? Simple: Yes, the palette colors and traps change from level to level, but it is essentially the same. Worse yet, it teases you with the highlights of the previous adventures. I know it’s important to reuse things to save the environment, but I do not think we were meant to go this far with the idea.

And finally, Chain of Memories is a thief. This ties in with everything else that is bothering me. It tries its best to have you sit in front of your television for hours. It does so by slowly introducing concepts. Unlike the original, once you got through Traverse Town, most aspects of the game were open to you. Sure, magic needed to be found or earned along with the other key chains. But it never locked the synthesis shop. I have played for about three hours and have yet to see it. Why collect Moogle Points if I cannot use them after the first hour? Why have random encounters every single step while have me beat the living daylights out of the scenery? Then I wonder if I actually own the item I found. Bosses are the same and require the same amount of fancy footwork as they did years ago. I know we’re supposed to be exploring a person’s memory, but couldn’t there have been something wacky or something with the bosses instead of reusing them? It makes the game feel staler than it is already.

Thankfully, not all of the “borrowing” is bad. The music is still a listening joy. For better and worse, the same tunes from the original Kingdom Hearts are heard. The peppy Traverse Town is oddly soothing. There is the new-age theme song, and the voice acting is also well-done. I’m very happy to hear Donald’s and Goofy’s voices during the major cutscenes. The downside is that you’ll only hear them in the Castle. Part of the charm of the original game was hearing all the different voices. Whether you loved them or hated them could be a topic of debate, but there was no doubt that it helped the presentation. It is odd not to hear them.

However, some items that plagued the original game have been fixed. First of all, the camera never whips around. It always stays where it is needed. Selecting the proper card using L1 and R1 buttons, while a bit tricky at times, is never much of a hassle as going through menu after menu while running around the screen. And finally, it just controls a bit better.

In conclusion, most gamers are not going to get much of out of Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. This is a game made for its (rabid) fan base and collectors. They are the ones who will get the most out of it. I’m upset that Chain of Memories feels like recycled content as I have seen this all before. If I wanted to play through the original, I would place that disc in my PS2. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great idea. It just isn’t properly done. On the plus side, it is $20. So if you need an action-card-adventure fix, you could do far worse. At the same time, there are other adventures that cost the same amount and are much more fun. My suggestion is this: If this game interests you, go rent it. If not, you are not missing out. There are much cooler castles to explore. And I’m planning on visiting them.