of Nobodies and matching black coats

- nerd alert -

four words. or, maybe it's actually six. no, wait it's eight. it's eight. anyway.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days.


so, this game actually came out ages and ages ago (it was actually only two years ago), but i previously did not own a Nintendo DS, which is the only system the game is for. i recently acquired one and began playing the game, and after finishing it i just had to write a review, even if the game is a bit old.

358/2 is entirely about Organization XIII, a group of Nobodies trying to attain Kingdom Hearts. Nobodies are beings that don't have hearts, and with Kingdom Hearts, they can attain those hearts that they were born without. it's never entirely established whether they are "bad" or "good", but they are by far one of the most interesting parts of the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

i can think of three things that really made the game for me, and a couple of points that made it a little less than enjoyable at times. i'll start with the positive ones.

pros:
• the trio of main characters was by far the most endearing out of all the games.
• the ending was pure genius.
• and the overall progression of the story was mind-blowing.

 every Kingdom Hearts game focuses on different trios of main characters. the main trio that comes up in all the games is made up of a boy named Sora, and Donald and Goofy (trademark Disney). there is another trio (that i wrote about in a previous post) in the game Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, with the names Aqua, Ventus, and Terra. this game focused on the characters Axel, Roxas, and Xion, all of them Nobodies that work for the Organization. the game centers around their relationship and a clock tower in Twilight Town, where they meet up for sea-salt ice cream every day after work. it is odd for them to all be together as "best friends", because as Nobodies, they don't have hearts and therefore cannot feel. there are plenty of simple scenes where you just see the three of them sitting together eating their ice cream. sometimes Axel will offer a goofy comment, to which Roxas will reply with some lame insult, and Xion will just look on and laugh. i like the dynamic that this particular part of the game offers. it's progressive, and before the player even knows it, they have come to care for the main characters and the parts they play in the story. this was a very smart move made by the game makers, in my opinion.

the ending of the game. GAH, the ending of the game. i can't even coherently write how incredible it was. it ended so fantastically perfectly. Roxas comes up in a game previous to this one, in Kingdom Hearts II, and you don't know very much about him or his situation. this game explains everything that happened previous to his introduction in KH II, and the ending leads right up to the beginning of KH II. it was a great way to end the game.

the story was wonderfully done. the game itself was actually a bit of a hassle to play, but the story was what ultimately kept me going. it was exciting, adventurous, and just a tad suspenseful. overall, fantastic.

now, onto the bad points.

cons:
• the graphics kind of sucked.
• and the actual gameplay itself was a little frustrating.

the graphics for Kingdom Hearts games are generally good. but the ones for this game were a little less than excellent. most of it can be blamed on the system, because Nintendo DS's don't have the best screens. however, it was kind of distracting and just a tad annoying.

the gameplay could get a little repetitive at times. the whole game consists of you going out on "missions" to "collect hearts" by killing creatures called Heartless. you play the game by going through each "day" until you reach Day 358 (thus the name). each day equals one mission, and that's how you get through the game. it was kind of frustrating at times, because i just wanted to get through it, but if i was stuck on a particularly hard mission, i couldn't move on in the game at all, because that was all there was to do. but that was pretty much it.

overall, this game was actually a lot of fun to play, and it's imperfections made it more interesting, in my opinion.

so i think that everybody that'll read this probably won't even care, but whatever. i just had to share it.

in other news, i got a haircut. oooooh. aaaaaah. haha.

Mel, over&out!