Chain of Memories-- A Pointless Buy, or Worthwhile Game?

Out of all of the Kingdom Hearts games in the series, Kingdom Hearts; Chain of Memories was the best one out of the series for me. The characters had very nice development through it, the villains were new and not your everyday bad guy, and the plots were rather decent. However, I have to ask myself at the end of Sora's story if it was really worth it, and some of you will know why. 

Chain of Memories picks up right from where Kingdom Hearts I left off-- Sora is traveling with Donald and Goofy and stumble upon a castle called Castle Oblivion. Inside this castle, Sora meets with members of Organization XIII, and becomes Marluxia's pawn to help take over the Organization, with the help of Larxene. Organization XIII is a group of Nobodies-- beings without hearts. Marluxia uses Naminé, a fellow Nobody but not part of the Organization, to manipulate Sora's memories so he can be easily controlled. However, this plan does not work in the end because of betrayals inside of the Organization, namely by a member named Axel, and Sora ends up defeating Marluxia at the end of it all. 

This doesn't sound too bad now does it? It gets even better when you consider that Sora's character gradually changed as his memories were warped and the Organization is a new kind of villian. Sora develops quite nicely, going from naive in the beginning to less naive and determined. Yet guess what? It's all dropped! Sora ends up having his memories of Castle Oblivion erased, losing all of this character development and not gaining much after-- his character develops minimally in Kingdom Hearts II, becoming more of an emo in my general opinion. 

Now this raises the question I was pointing at earlier-- if Sora forgets everything that happens in Chain of Memories, what's the point? Well, I have a few reasons why this game is still worth the buy and definitely should be played. 

The first reason is the strategy of it-- the use of the cards. Not everyone liked this in the Kingdom Hearts games, since this game, unlike the other two, didn't allow you to button-mash as much. Instead, you had to put together a certain deck that you could beat your opponents with, unless you fight in Riku's story where you are given your deck, and your strategy changes almost all the time. I found this to add another really cool aspect to the game as well as make it more challenging. 

Another reason is for continuity's sake-- you get to know about the characters that were put as "eliminated" in Kingdom Hearts II and figure out why. It also shows Naminé's abilities being used, which helps you understand the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II as well. Another thing is that it hints at Roxas when Sora is in Twilight Town-- in short, Chain of Memories helps you understand Kingdom Hearts II better.

What I found to be the coolest part is that you get to play as Riku, who goes through his own story and gets a decent amount of character development. Unlike Sora, his stays with him and you see many hints of it in Kingdom Hearts II. He fights much differently than Sora-- faster and stronger-- and the decks they give you challenge you. You also encounter two Nobodies that weren't in Sora's story, Lexaeus and Zexion. The reason I find those two characters important is because they counter Marluxia's plot with the Riku Replica, which you don't necessarily understand completely if you play only Sora's story. Basically, you get a different perspective of what's going on and if you get the PS2 version of the game, you get to fight Zexion, who was not featured as a fight in the original GBA version. 

The last reason sort of goes with continuity, but it also helps you understand the character of Axel more. In Sora's story of Chain of Memories, Axel acts as a double-agent to expose Marluxia's plot. He gets rid of Vexen to show his loyalty, and when Vexen was about to tell Sora about Roxas, which they didn't want him to know yet. He double-crosses Marluxia and ends up helping Sora get rid of him, "getting rid of the traitor in the Organization".

However, his treacherous side is shown when he kills off Zexion, the ending quote when Zexion dying along the lines of "You know too much" (Re:CoM). Zexion was the last remaining member of the castle who knew of everything in the castle, and could possibly get Axel in trouble with the Superior for killing another member. Axel then proceeds to betray the Organization in Kingdom Hearts II. For those of us who played Chain of Memories, his behavior was already shown and we weren't too surprised by it. For those who didn't, it kind of made them raise an eyebrow.

All right, to wrap up this dissertation with the answer to the question "Should I buy Chain of Memories even though Sora forgets everything?", here's my answer. If you're a plot junky like me and want a clearer understanding of Kingdom Hearts II, and you like a bit of a challenge that the game-play brings, it's definitely worth your time. I recommend it for the decent plot, game-play, and characters, all of which I saw less of in Kingdom Hearts II. It's your call ladies and gentlemen.