The Kingdom Hearts Palace Version 4.0

You Probably Haven't Actually Seen This On Any Other Websites, But The Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Manga Is Out Now!

Chain of Memories is Kingdom Hearts "sequel" that was released only on the Game Boy Advanced and was only really created to tie up all the loose ends we were left with after Kingdom Hearts to make the pathway clear for Kingdom Hearts 2. In KHCoM a new set of characters are revealed that will also be some of the main characters in KH2, they are known as the Organization, the Unknowns or the 13th Order. This dark and mysterious group of people are said to be the KHCoM and KH2 villains.

KHCoM begins literally straight after Kingdom Hearts when you finish the game chasing after the lovable dog, Pluto.

Story

"Through the long path of the plains, he continued on. That night, he came across crossroads. Sora stood in the center of the crossroads and looked up in the sky. He remembered his friends, now apart in different worlds. And his friends he had left behind. The end of his journey is to return to the place with all his friends.

A man walks towards Sora from the shadows of a path shone by the moonlight. He says, "The thing you seek for lies beyond... But first, you must sacrifice something you hold dearly...". When the man disappeared from Sora's sight, there were only one path left in front of him.

Walking, as the path lead him, he arrives at a castle. The nothingness filled the air inside the castle. The fragment of his memories scattered as it turned into cards. A fight to connect the fragments, he climbs up the stratum of the spiral like sky...

What will Sora gain, and what will he lose....."

-Official Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Website

Information Provided By: Kingdom Hearts Extreme

Sora
Age: 14
Bio: A fourteen-year-old boy and the hero of this tale. In his last adventure, Sora was chosen as the Keyblade master and saved the world, but only at the cost of being separated from his closest friends. He now journeys to find those friends and return home with them. Although a little naive, Sora has a uncommon sense of justice.

Donald Duck
Bio: The court wizard who serves the king of Disney Castle. He is journeying with Sora and Goofy to find the king. Donald is talkative, moody, and a bit short-tempered.

Goofy
Bio: The clumsy but easygoing captain of the Disney Castle Royal Knights. Despite his position, Goofy dislikes weapons.

Riku
Age: 15
Bio: A fifteen-year-old boy who is best friends with Sora and Kairi. Mature for his age, Riku is cool and collected. To save the world, he chose to remain in the realm of darkness.

Kairi
Age: 14
Bio: A fourteen-year-old friend of Sora and Riku. She awaits their return to Destiny Islands.

The Unknown
Bio: A mysterious man who showed Sora and his companions the way to Castle Oblivion. It seems there are others like him. Surely he has his reasons for approaching Sora, but those reasons remain unclear.

In Fall 2006, rumors began to fly about on a Final Mix version of Kingdom Hearts II. The original Kingdom Hearts had a Final Mix version of itself, adding new enemies, scenes, battles and weapons to the mix. This version was never released outside of Japan. The reason being was that others countries had received the game with additions to it, so Square-Enix (Square Soft at the time) treated the Japenese fans with a better version of the game. Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix has yet, and will likely never, reach stateside.

On September 20, 2006, we finally had received some confirmation on Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ by V-Jump Magazine. However, Nomura had an extra surprise in for his fans, a completely remade version of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. This new version promised both a complete 3D version of the game with voice acting. It also would be keeping it's original gameplay, so the card system would be returning in all it's original glory. This took us completely be surprise, it even got the best of Nomura. He wasn't even planning a release of this game until it was just brought up.

At the Toyko Game Show (TGS) we got a confirmed title, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. Also revealed with the name was some marvoulously done artwork featuring the main characters of the game. All the excitement increased a notch when Reverse Rebirth was still going to be in the game. A trailer was also shown depicting various revamped scenes from the new remake of Chain of Memories. This new version was to be included with Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ on the Playstation 2.

With all this new information rising up, it showed that Kingdom Hearts was far from dead. But there was a question that was on everyone's mind, 'will this see a release outside of Japan?' Not much time passed when we got some new information for the game. The same staff that was working on the original Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Musashi, was to be working on it again. There will also be some bonuses for having a saved file of Final Mix+ on your memory card.

The Japanese Dengeki Magazine along with Famitsu Magazine released a hoard of new information on the future of the Kingdom Hearts series. New cards, bonuses and scenes were promised to be seen. The reaction command was also said to be making a return in the game, adding more of an action element to the gameplay. Disney worlds were to contain no voice acting, only the scenes taking place in Castle Oblivion were supposed to have the voice acting. Sadly, no release date and region confirmation on the game had been revealed.

Quite of bit of time has passed since we got some useful confirmed information on the game. We received tidbits of news, some you may or may not have considered useful. But we did get more information on how Reverse Rebirth will be playing out, and more about the battle system and story. Zexion will be doing battles with Riku in two parts, but we are not yet sure if the part where Zexion took the form of Sora will be included. Battles will also be taking place on a seperate screen, so you can expect it to work a lot like how Chain of Memories worked. Stocks will be making a welcome return, and will be much greater than before. We were also promised harder, trickier enemies that will need strategy.

What could be better with all this verbal confirmation of the game? Perhaps some visual confirmation as well. Not only have breath-taking scans have been uploaded on KHInsider.com, but they also have confirmed some things that haven't been stated yet.

Sora's health will be much more longer then his GBA counterpart. Card breaks have also been seen to show a comeback in the game. We've also seen scenes from Chain of Memories that have been remade entirely in 3D! With no surprise, there will be returning battles from the game as well. So you can go back and trump Cloud with your cards in 3D. The map cards come back and have the same primary use that they originally had. Not only that, but the 'rooms' in each world will be set up the same as they were in Chain of Memories.

So we get to see some of our favorite battles remade and the same tactics we used to get by will be the same possibly. So what's new that the team is planning to bring to the game?

We got to see some never before seen fights. A Riku versus Zexion fight has been seen in many scans, this was also mentioned earlier. Zexion was seen carrying a Souleater, the same sword that Riku has. However, keep in mind that Zexion has the power of illusion, and the Souleater had a blue glow around it in all the scans released. We also have seen scenes of the organization, doing what they do best. Marluxia holding Namine captive, Larxene taunting Sora, Axel scheming away, and just them conversing at times.

There is a picture of Sora around some heartless, that appear to be sleeping. So you might suspect that you can see a heartless in a room, strike it, which takes you to a different screen and see some heartless dazed like in the original. The leveling up system seems somewhat the same, and Riku's dark mode has been seen in action against Zexion. We get a view of Sora about to do a reaction command on Hades, but we have yet to see what he actually does against the lord of the underworld.

Near the end of January we received some detailed demo reports on Sora and Riku's gameplay. Sora's demo started off in Halloween Town. In the beginning of the level Sora starts off in a strange room. The objects in the Town Square are all interactive. The guillotine and fountains all have a reaction when striked. The Moogle Points appear to have come out along with the HP balls. A new map called was seen in the demo called "The Bottemless Dark". It takes you to a pitch black room when used. Sora, Donald and Goofy all retain their Halloween Town clothes.

Now comes onto Riku's battle with Vexen. The cutscenes involved all contain voice acting. It's been reported thatthe conversation is entirely the same as the GBA version of the battle. It seems that Riku didn't have any sleights available. There might be a reaction command or attack called "Slide Hit", where a large icicle is form and used as a sword. It's been said that Vexen is difficult, due to lack of being able to block. But it's overcome-able.

Aside from the battle information, new abilities have been revealed. Raging Storm: Tornado of fire engulfs Sora for a limited time, combine 2 fires and aero. Freeze: Encase enemy in ice for a short time (similar to Vexen's attack), combine 2 blizzards and stop. Wild Crasher: Sora and Donald swing Goofy across the field, crashing into people. Goofy Smash: Sora and Goofy co-op by throwing Goofy in the air, combine 2 attack card and Goofy. A new minigame will also be added in Pooh's world. It involves Sora hitting rolling cabbages, and it has a great prize.

That is all for now, expect the release of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories release in Japan in the Spring. As for others countries: there are rumors of a fall release for the US, but nothing can be confirmed until we get some news from Square-Enix themselves. Here's to hoping, expect this section to grow more as time goes by.