When Kingdom Hearts Re:coded came out, I was in the latter peak in my Kingdom Hearts high school fandom. It was a bit waning, but I still wanted to play each entry. I remember playing Re:coded in a newly moved into house with fond memories still today. This series has meant a lot to me as I age throughout years, no matter how many spurts of a break I have had.
First off, the story does make sense in the grand scheme of things if you try to understand it in a simpler way. A book is corrupted leaving mysterious messages and Sora needs to go fix it. Through that lens, the game's story mixed in with a loose retelling of Kingdom Hearts 1, is mostly a breeze of sorts.
BUT! When you get to Castle Oblivion, the story culminates in some good thematic questions posed to this digital version of Sora. Even if he is just a digital incarnation of Sora. Would Sora be willing to carry a substantial amount of a hurt in his heart? Which, connects well to the original corrupted message. "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it." Sets up some grand moments in the future of the series.
The story can be confusing at some points, but it is a decent story to setup the series moving forward. Now, that could also be a negative. This spin-off is just a story that can be glossed over since some could assume that Sora would be willing to do anything for people he's connected with, but this added context for Mickey and Sora is really grand!
Unlike 358/2 Days, the gameplay is good too! Though to get this out of the way, performance does get framey when there are lots of enemies in one area at once. The Stat Matrix is a grand mix of strategy since you can adjust what difficulty you play on in a breeze, you can adjust enemy item drop rates but at the cost of Sora's health, and a few others in here, while still leveling up and getting stronger. This entire circuit board motif makes you choose where you put certain chips you obtain, so that if they are connected by two Main CPU-like things, that certain chip's effect will double! It's a great type of puzzle-reward building!
Another gameplay element is the Command Matrix which is spun-off from Birth by Sleep. I do really love this style of commands compared to 358/2 Days direction. You get more experimentation with varying abilities making you try out different things you normally wouldn't try.
Overall gameplay does have some of the same feelings of 358/2 Days: hit, dodge, block, and fight some more. But at least in Re:coded, the developers did experiment with different genres in the game like 2D platforming, turn-based RPG, and some stealth inspired portions as well. So that is definitely a welcome addition! But really, who doesn't love hitting things with a Keyblade?!
The worlds are essentially all taken from Kingdom Hearts 1, minus Castle Oblivion. Which in this case, would be the fourth time playing some of these exact areas. So that isn't great at all. Some of them do offer different things compared to previous games, but it still is roughly the same area that you explored. In 358/2 Days, Neverland's trip is based off the surrounding Isles and not just Captain Hook's ship. However, in Re:coded there isn't much like that this time around. So that is a knock against that area of the game.
As a whole, Re:coded is a good time. The story isn't as substantial as 358/2 Days, or Chain of Memories, but it still offers some nice context. The gameplay is quite good, especially for a DS game! I do wish the worlds were more diverse from the series' history, but it does make sense in regards to being in Jiminy's Journal from the first game. If you are a new Kingdom Hearts fan, I'm not sure if this would be for you at first, but I do recommend it!
First off, the story does make sense in the grand scheme of things if you try to understand it in a simpler way. A book is corrupted leaving mysterious messages and Sora needs to go fix it. Through that lens, the game's story mixed in with a loose retelling of Kingdom Hearts 1, is mostly a breeze of sorts.
BUT! When you get to Castle Oblivion, the story culminates in some good thematic questions posed to this digital version of Sora. Even if he is just a digital incarnation of Sora. Would Sora be willing to carry a substantial amount of a hurt in his heart? Which, connects well to the original corrupted message. "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it." Sets up some grand moments in the future of the series.
The story can be confusing at some points, but it is a decent story to setup the series moving forward. Now, that could also be a negative. This spin-off is just a story that can be glossed over since some could assume that Sora would be willing to do anything for people he's connected with, but this added context for Mickey and Sora is really grand!
Unlike 358/2 Days, the gameplay is good too! Though to get this out of the way, performance does get framey when there are lots of enemies in one area at once. The Stat Matrix is a grand mix of strategy since you can adjust what difficulty you play on in a breeze, you can adjust enemy item drop rates but at the cost of Sora's health, and a few others in here, while still leveling up and getting stronger. This entire circuit board motif makes you choose where you put certain chips you obtain, so that if they are connected by two Main CPU-like things, that certain chip's effect will double! It's a great type of puzzle-reward building!
Another gameplay element is the Command Matrix which is spun-off from Birth by Sleep. I do really love this style of commands compared to 358/2 Days direction. You get more experimentation with varying abilities making you try out different things you normally wouldn't try.
Overall gameplay does have some of the same feelings of 358/2 Days: hit, dodge, block, and fight some more. But at least in Re:coded, the developers did experiment with different genres in the game like 2D platforming, turn-based RPG, and some stealth inspired portions as well. So that is definitely a welcome addition! But really, who doesn't love hitting things with a Keyblade?!
The worlds are essentially all taken from Kingdom Hearts 1, minus Castle Oblivion. Which in this case, would be the fourth time playing some of these exact areas. So that isn't great at all. Some of them do offer different things compared to previous games, but it still is roughly the same area that you explored. In 358/2 Days, Neverland's trip is based off the surrounding Isles and not just Captain Hook's ship. However, in Re:coded there isn't much like that this time around. So that is a knock against that area of the game.
As a whole, Re:coded is a good time. The story isn't as substantial as 358/2 Days, or Chain of Memories, but it still offers some nice context. The gameplay is quite good, especially for a DS game! I do wish the worlds were more diverse from the series' history, but it does make sense in regards to being in Jiminy's Journal from the first game. If you are a new Kingdom Hearts fan, I'm not sure if this would be for you at first, but I do recommend it!