This is a MelonMixMod review, for those who don't know, there's a mod for the DS version of this game that provides a lot of QOL improvements, and this review will cover that.
Obviously, you need your very own original copy of the game for it to work, you can learn more by looking at TheGamer'sJoint channel.
The original DS game was really rough, to nowadays standards it's almost unplayable given how strange the button works (and of course, the touch screen) but this mod really fixes that by making you link touch screen to your controller analogues (if you chose to play with a controller that is) on top of making the D-pad control the command menu instead of using one of the buttons to go down the menu, which is already a huge improvement.
On top of it, there's a lot of scaling to improve the textures and many other features that makes the game far more presentable, it is not by any means perfect, but it makes the game playable and far more fun than it originally was, and from being a clunky mess, it behaves similarly as good as Kingdom Hearts 1 (the Final Mix version)
As for the game itself, it was fun revisiting the game that kickstarted my love for Kingdom Hearts back in the day, however, the game itself is still very basic and simple, which is not a bad thing (we like it simple and clean after all) but it can get a little tedious and grindy at times.
For the first half of the game, it goes pretty well, but on the second half, the game start adding heartless sponges and overall very boring missions (I have a love/hate relationship with neverland) The biggest offender would be the Emerald Senerade heartless enemy, which is an enemy that has a fixed path and it's generally annoying to deal with, unless you count with either Blizzard or Aero Magic, which makes the thing stop for you to land some attacks, but it's generally a time consuming mission that gives more trouble than it's worth.
Some other enemies have an inconsistent hitbox which makes some fights kinda annoying, like the tentacle enemies on Halloween Town, or generally any small target, which is kinda sad as most of the strongest keyblades have strong air attacks and very slow ground combos.
The feeling of repetition and tediousness increases with the game's Challenges and Mission modes, that lets you challenge already completed stages with certain goals, like, Time attack, filling up the gauge, collecting hearts, munny, or preventing you from doing too many attacks, jumps, or having no magic at all, while making enemies way stronger. Mission mode is fairly more annoying as enemies tank hits a little bit too much, it can make some missions a chore to deal with due to how long it takes to kill heartless on this mode, of course, it's made to be that way since it's a multiplayer mode, but it should have been different for the solo version, but it is what it is, the rewards are generally nice, especially early on.
As for the story, it's a roller coaster of emotions that is generally far more fulfilling to watch the HD Remake Movie, but for the DS this was solid. It's a nice backstory that happens between the events of Chain of Memories and c onnects directly to the start of Kingdom Hearts 2, not all days are great unfortunately, but it's good enough to give it a try with the MelonModMix.
Square will probably never remake this game, but at least the community gives us nice things, like this and the Nobody may cry mod.
I give Emerald Senerade/10
Obviously, you need your very own original copy of the game for it to work, you can learn more by looking at TheGamer'sJoint channel.
The original DS game was really rough, to nowadays standards it's almost unplayable given how strange the button works (and of course, the touch screen) but this mod really fixes that by making you link touch screen to your controller analogues (if you chose to play with a controller that is) on top of making the D-pad control the command menu instead of using one of the buttons to go down the menu, which is already a huge improvement.
On top of it, there's a lot of scaling to improve the textures and many other features that makes the game far more presentable, it is not by any means perfect, but it makes the game playable and far more fun than it originally was, and from being a clunky mess, it behaves similarly as good as Kingdom Hearts 1 (the Final Mix version)
As for the game itself, it was fun revisiting the game that kickstarted my love for Kingdom Hearts back in the day, however, the game itself is still very basic and simple, which is not a bad thing (we like it simple and clean after all) but it can get a little tedious and grindy at times.
For the first half of the game, it goes pretty well, but on the second half, the game start adding heartless sponges and overall very boring missions (I have a love/hate relationship with neverland) The biggest offender would be the Emerald Senerade heartless enemy, which is an enemy that has a fixed path and it's generally annoying to deal with, unless you count with either Blizzard or Aero Magic, which makes the thing stop for you to land some attacks, but it's generally a time consuming mission that gives more trouble than it's worth.
Some other enemies have an inconsistent hitbox which makes some fights kinda annoying, like the tentacle enemies on Halloween Town, or generally any small target, which is kinda sad as most of the strongest keyblades have strong air attacks and very slow ground combos.
The feeling of repetition and tediousness increases with the game's Challenges and Mission modes, that lets you challenge already completed stages with certain goals, like, Time attack, filling up the gauge, collecting hearts, munny, or preventing you from doing too many attacks, jumps, or having no magic at all, while making enemies way stronger. Mission mode is fairly more annoying as enemies tank hits a little bit too much, it can make some missions a chore to deal with due to how long it takes to kill heartless on this mode, of course, it's made to be that way since it's a multiplayer mode, but it should have been different for the solo version, but it is what it is, the rewards are generally nice, especially early on.
As for the story, it's a roller coaster of emotions that is generally far more fulfilling to watch the HD Remake Movie, but for the DS this was solid. It's a nice backstory that happens between the events of Chain of Memories and c onnects directly to the start of Kingdom Hearts 2, not all days are great unfortunately, but it's good enough to give it a try with the MelonModMix.
Square will probably never remake this game, but at least the community gives us nice things, like this and the Nobody may cry mod.
I give Emerald Senerade/10