Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories: Difference between revisions

''Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories'' follows a totally new battle system as well as gameplay. The battle system now revolves around Sora's memories, represented as cards. Using these cards is the only way to attack. Map Cards are used to create rooms on each floor of the castle. What appears in each room depends on what card was used to generate that room. To obtain a map card you must defeat [[Heartless]]. Some map cards can only be obtained after getting further into the story for each of the different worlds.

*[[Attack card]]s - The most common way to attack, as the name suggests. These are depicted by different types of [[Keyblades]] and have red borders.

*[[Magic card]]s - Unleashes magic spells, such as [[Fire]], [[Ice]], [[Thunder]], [[Cure]], and [[Gravity]]. These have blue borders.

*[[Item card]]s - Used to restore attack cards or magic cards with [[Potion]]s or [[Ether]]s, respectively. These can only be used once per battle, and have green borders.

There are three types of cards that are different from the other cards in battle:

*[[Friend card]]s - Appear in the battlefield at certain times for pickup and can summon an ally to help fight. These have green borders, like Item cards.

*[[Gimmick Card]]s - Gimmick cards only appear during certain boss battles. Unique attributes of these cards is that they are always green, the card value is always 0, and the picture on the card is a green [[Mickey Mouse]] insignia, like the [[keychain]] attached to the Keyblade. When used, the colors on the screen inverse, and the boss is either stunned, or the battle area changes allowing you to gain the upper hand. Due to their card value, they always break the enemy's attacks, and their effect prevents the boss from attacking until it is completed.

Each card has a number from 0 to 9. This is known as Card Value. When a card is played against the enemy's card, the card with the lower value "Breaks" and is discarded. This leaves enemies vulnerable for a few seconds. Cards with a value of 0 can break any attack, but can be broken by any card if played too early.

Some of these sleights did not appear in ''Kingdom Hearts'', such as Fire (Blizzard, Thunder) Raid, Homing Fira (Blizzara, Thundara), etc., as well as some friend sleights, such as Blazing Donald. Further sleights were added to ''Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories'' as well.

Cards can be combined into sets of three, not only creating a higher value combo that is more difficult to break, but is also essential in activating sleights. The cost of combining cards is that the first card used in the combo cannot be reloaded when the deck is reloaded, although certain items, such as [[Elixir]] and [[Megalixir]], can reload any unreloadable cards.

Sora can use any available card to create up to three decks as long as there is at least one attack card in his deck and the player doesn't exceed his Card Point (CP) limit. During Level Up's Sora can increase his CP, in addition to obtaining more HP and new sleights at certain times. Other than using Attack, Magic/Summon, and Items cards, Sora can also use Premium cards, which are special Attack or Magic cards. These cards do not require as much CP to equip although they can become unreloadable cards when used, with the minor exception as the second or third card in a combo. Other than using Moogle shops to obtain additional cards, Sora can also collect cards by smashing or jumping on objects, occasionally making a random card appear. There are certain cases where Sora has to earn the card through the storyline first before it becomes available in a Moogle Shop.

There are cards throughout the game that are used to open doors to different rooms once entering a certain world. They are in the same colors as the magic, item, and attack cards, except they are usually only gained at the end of a battle, and they generally only are used to open doors within worlds. They may have names such as Roulette Room, Tranquil Darkness, Feeble Darkness, Calm Bounty, Martial Waking, and even special room cards called Key to Rewards and many more. They are needed to open all doors throughout Castle Oblivion.

After completing the game as Sora, a new challenge arises. Reverse/Rebirth mode follows Riku as he climbs the basements of Castle Oblivion. Riku gets a World Card for each of the worlds Sora goes through except [[100 Acre Wood]]. Riku's deck cannot be changed; however, it changes automatically as time goes on. Riku does not need as much time to reload his deck. Certain enemy cards are only available to Riku, and then unlocked for Sora after completing the game with Riku. Riku can only keep the enemy cards that are based on the bosses after winning them during battle, the others are available in one world only.

Instead of leveling up HP, CP or sleights, when Riku levels up, he can increase HP, AP (Attack Power), or DP (Dark Points). After Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (who is still alive) tempers the darkness in Riku's heart, Riku can use his dark powers during battle. These powers are triggered by taking damage or breaking his opponent's cards; when the Dark Points reach 30 or more, Riku will automatically go into Dark Mode. In Dark Mode, Riku can use 3 powerful sleights exclusive to his Dark Mode: [[Dark Aura]], Dark Firaga, and Dark Break (these attacks were used by the Riku Replica in Sora's story). How long Dark Mode lasts depends on how much DP he has, and taking damage as well as being card broken reduces the amount of DP Riku has left in a given battle. When the DP counter reaches zero, Riku turns back into his original form. Dark mode can be achieved any number of times in a given battle.

Riku does not have access to any of the friend cards that Sora had. Instead, he has King Mickey as his only friend card. Using Mickey heals Riku, reloads the deck, and stuns enemies for a few seconds. Using more Mickey cards at once increases the power of this attack. Because of his inability of using magic cards, Riku cannot heal as easily during battle, limiting it to the Oogie Boogie and Search Ghost enemy cards in addition to Mickey Mouse. Bosses exclusive to Riku's story are: Zexion (''[[Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories]]'' only), Lexaeus, and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

With the use of a {{w|Game Link Cable}}, an additional multiplayer mode can be played, where two players battle each other. Decks are loaded from save files of Sora's story. The player controls Sora while the opponent is depicted as [[AntiSora]], although the difference between the two is only cosmetic. Different worlds can be chosen to determine the arena's background. Both players can see each other's battle cards to some extent, though this effect can be blocked with the [[Darkball]] enemy card.

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File:Link Mode 02 KHCOM.png|Two players in a duel.

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==Worlds and characters==

*[http://www.square-enix.co.jp/games/gba/khcom/ Official Japanese website]

*[https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Game-Boy-Advance/Kingdom-Hearts-Chain-of-Memories-266881.html Official Nintendo UK website]

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