Kai Arcos Jiménez

Thoughts

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was actually the first game I ever played from the Kingdom Hearts series, back when I was 13. Naturally, my first playthrough was extremely confusing, but having played Kingdom Hearts II I had more context to properly understand it this time around. Or at least, try to.

This is potentially the most character-focused and endearing story in the series so far. As opposed to the established friendship between Sora, Riku, and Kairi, the relationship between this new trio progresses through the game. That means we are given space to form our own opinions about their connection, which will impact how much we care about its evolution. Lore-wise, 358/2 Days gives insight into the workings of Organization XIII and the mysterious nobody born from Sora, Roxas. Its narrative ties nicely into both Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, allowing us to understand some of the events that take place a lot better.

Now, I am biased towards having a positive opinion of this game for a few reasons, one of them being that it was the first ever video game to make me emotional to the point of shedding tears. There are a couple of cutscenes in this one that are practically etched into my brain, and a few lines of dialogue that I’ve practically memorised at this point. Perhaps, it is one of those pieces of art that found me at the right time.

Unfortunately, gameplay is not the strong point of this entry. It follows a mission-based approach to progression that becomes repetitive rather quickly. I found it interesting that this didn’t seem to be an issue at all for my younger self, as I didn’t remember it being such a tiring experience. In fact, I recall having fun with it, and was pretty surprised when I found my present self switching to just watching the cutscenes out of impatience…