-english-
the gameplay is underrated, is just a different style of the saga, and the combat is enjoyble with the features on the panel system, and the story is catchy as heck, the only issue that i recognize is some annoying bosses, only like 5 or 6 are worthy to beat

-spanish-
De las pocas experiencias jugables que me sacaron una lagrima por su excelente historia única en esta franquicia, espero que en un futuro mas gente lo valora y dejando de compararlo con otros juego que manejar diferentes estilos y estrategias

A slightly bitter taste left by partially confusing ending aside, this really far exceeds everything I've seen the series do thus far. The combat is definitely held back a little by being on the DS' control scheme, I played both on a DS and emulated with a controller and the latter was much more preferable, but the panels system is awesome and it manages to feel pretty close to the combat of KH 1/2. Roxas is a far better protagonist than Sora's ever been and the character development (or hell, just them having character at all) shown through the central three really is a peak for the series so far. It's also just really fun to see the events of KH1/CoM from afar and see how everything's leading into KH2.

The whole thing about putting the player in roxas' shoes by playing as a grunt doing repetitive garbage is actually a really cool idea but I honestly feel like this was just an excuse for the devs to cut corners and make playing this game feel like work. I can see someone defending this saying its an experimental work of art, with the goal not being to "entertain" you but to put you in the shoes of someone in a narrative but I think that games should at the very least make the player feel something other than apathetic bordeom for the majority of the game. I dont actually dislike the mission structure of the game but if they were going to put this game on shitty hardware they could've atleast tried something different like com instead of this boring button mashy dumbed down classic kh gameplay. Roxas' story deserved so much better

This game actually surprised me. The early game is kind of a slog, especially with the recon missions, but by late game the amount of abilities and keyblades you can use make the game really interesting.

The inventory system is really fun, almost reminding me of the Resident Evil 4 inventory style (one of my favorite game mechanics ever). Also, the limit system is really cool, encouraging players to get some hits in while on low health to deal an incredible amount of damage.

It's a shame really that nobody gives this game a chance, but I get it. It's a fucking DS game and it doesn't look all that great and Square Enix never decided to remake this game like they did with Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop, so it's kind of a hard thing to sell someone on. But as a long time Kingdom Hearts fan, I think this is my second favorite game in the series (with 2 being the best of course).

Heavily recommend playing this on MelonDS btw. You can upscale it and play it with a controller, making the experience quite a ways better.