Okay, so let me get one thing straight; when I purchased the entire remastered Kingdom Hearts story it was so that I could get abreast of the story in the most engrossing and true-to-the-intent manner. This meant playing through the best versions of almost all the games ('KH3 Remix' obviously isn't out yet) in canonical order even if that doesn't happen to be the same order in which the titles originally released. In that way, the collections that I acquired were just about perfect, however there is one issue I was alerted to once I started 'playing' 358/2 Days, and here's how it panned out. First I sat down to play the game with my brother present as we were both curious, and we watched the beginning cutscenes whilst trying to reconcile all the new names, faces and lore. (Seriously, for the first couple of minutes, these are packed!) After about five minutes I jokingly put down the controller and remarked "Okay, I guess this is a movie then." Only to then be greeted with text over a screenshot followed by another 5 minutes of cutscenes. Slightly taken aback by this development I took to google: "Is Kingdom Hearts 358/2..." and there was autocomplete there to finish my thoughts. "... A movie?" Uh oh...
So yeah, even though Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was a Nintendo DS title released 4 years after Kingdom Hearts 2 (And yet set just before KH2 for some reason), the HD remaster is very much not a game, but an almost 3 hour long collection of that game's cutscenes into a mildly coherent movie. (Don't people do that crap on Youtube for free?) Now I have no idea what prompted this choice, perhaps the team couldn't figure out how to import the stylus-based controls to traditional controllers, or lacked the time and resources, (probably the latter) but the result is a whole game without any actual gameplay. And you wanna know the worst part? After 'Chain of Memories' I actually sort of welcome this sort of storytelling, at least this way I won't be crying in pain once the story scenes start. So well done Square, you've turned me into a movie review blog. Bully for you.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is the culmination of the 3 arc story established by Kingdom Hearts 1 (Albeit, mostly in the final few seconds) and set-up by 'Chain of Memories'. It serves as a bridge between the characters and how they appeared in the first game to the vastly different case of the second game whilst also serving as an explicit introduction to the franchise's previously obscure badguys, Organisation XIII. Honestly, I was a little surprised to see how much of that vague set-up from the true ending of KH1 was actually paid off in this story, to the point where even that 'Final Fantasy Versus 13'-looking taster reel turned out to be an actual scene from the climax of this title. They really went to put in the effort, didn't they? I mean, I can genuinely look at some of the more obscure scenes in this franchise and actually know what they were referring to now, and I honestly thought I'd never get to this point! There are still some mysteries, like why folk keep referring to Riku as "The Superiors'...(dying breath)" or where the hell Kairi actually comes from, but those are just hooks for the later chapters, the basic what why and how is laid out plain as day, and I appreciated that greatly.
The story starts off at... well, it's not actually made abundantly clear. But I think it's just after that moment in the first game where Sora sacrifices his heart in order to release Kairi's heart. (You know, just before Sora magically restores his own heart again through the power of love or something, I don't know I just work here.) We're put into the shoes of a new kid who's just been 'created' and the movie sort of blows it's load a little early by literally showing us the process by which Xemnas comes up with his name. ("Uh, shall I just call him 'Sora'? Nah, too obvious, I should probably mix it up a bit. Roas? Still kinda dumb... I know! I'll just throw an 'X' in there. Roxas. Perfect!")
Roxas is the 13th member of Organisation XIII, the group of black hood donning creeps who have taken an unhealthy liking to Sora for the past two games, however he is special amongst them as the only one who can wield a Keyblade. Most folk would be a little shocked by this due to the fact that as of so far only Sora and supreme-leader Mickey have been shown to be Keyblade chosen (and Riku, maybe) but the movie just plays it off like no big deal. This highlights one of the problems of experiencing these products in canonical order (something which my collection of the games encouraged, by-the-by) because as I said previously this title was made after KH2, and thus expects you to know of the events of that game. For me it wasn't a huge problem until I played KH2 after this and realised that I already knew all of the plotpoints they were being all coy about. (Whoops.) But I digress.
As a member of the Organisation that marks Roxas as a Nobody, which we learn to be a special type of individual who is born without a heart. Thus the organisation want to use the power of the Keyblade in order to 'complete Kingdom Hearts' under the vague impression that doing so will grant them their own hearts. (Wait, 'Complete Kingdom Hearts'? What does that mean? Why do they want Hearts? What the heck is going on?) Soon we start to meet the other members of the organisation, as well as Axel who seems to take a liking to the blank-slate which is Roxas. They even start to form a tradition of eating sea-salt ice cream at the top of Twilight Town's clocktower before a new member of the organisation is introduced in Xion.
Now, immediately upon seeing Xion you'll likely think one thing; is that a fan OC reskin of Kairi? And yes, yes she is. But she is still treated as her own person by the lore so I suppose we're all supposed to just ignore the glaring similarities in a sort of Eva from MGS3 situation. Xion is presented as sort of a mirror of Roxas, going through a similar journey of filling in her blank slate personality whilst becoming close friends with Axel and Roxas. (She's also another Keyblade wielder, but that's beside the point right now.) We see the two of them evolve from literally nobodies, with no hopes and dreams, to passionate friends who look out for each other. Likewise, Axel goes from an aloof chap intent on playing all sides within the contentious Organisation to one of the team and an absolute push over to Xion when she starts challenging his orders.
'358/2 Days' follows these three's friendship through their year working as unwitting accomplices to whatever the heck it is that Xemnas is planning. (It also goes through 359 days, but I'm not going to start splitting hairs...) As the story progresses you'll become aware of events happening in the background, like 'Chain of Memories' in which half of XIII's number is cut down and Sora is sent into a coma, or Riku growing several feet and deciding to don a blindfold 'Nier: Automata' style. (I know the movie tries to play him off as someone new, but again, no one else has hair that spiky.) The real rub of the plot comes once Xion starts to question who she is and goes looking for answers at Castle Oblivion, which highlights one of my biggest problems with this story.
Throughout the tale all three of the protagonists, Xion, Roxas and Axel, go through journeys, but Roxas is probably the person who evolves the least, yet he is our focal point throughout it all. And yes, having completed the prologue of KH2 I know this is because his big moment had to be preserved for that game, but it does mean there's several points in the story where you're just standing around whilst other people do interesting stuff. Heck, the story even has to shift perspective to the other two every now and then because Roxas' daily going-ons is just so dry by comparison. Personally I think Xion would have made a much better main character, as her journey was one of the most heart-wrenching in the entire franchise. She starts off as a emotionless husk who develops feelings, friends and an unquenchable love for life. Then she learns the truth about what she is and realises something horrible, everything she's taken for granted is at the cost of someone's else life and love; so should she continue to be in the knowledge that she's hurting someone else or give up her happiness for someone that she'll never meet? It's truly grippingly emotional stuff.
Okay, so I'm about to spoil the rest of it in these next few paragraphs, so skip to the verdict if you wanna watch this 3 hour movie instead. Through a whole lot of sleuth work, sideways cutscenes, and a endgame surprise appearance from Naminé, we learn the truth that Roxas is the Nobody that belonged to Sora, created when he gave up his heart for Kairi. (Which explains why Roxas can wield the Keyblade) whilst for Xion things are a bit more complicated. Xion is, and forgive me if I'm off base here, a physical manifestation of Sora's feelings for Kairi that was channelled through Roxas and given sentience by... The Organisation? (And I used to think Metal Gear was peak convoluted storytelling...) This presents a problem as Naminé promised to put Sora's memories back together at the end of 'Chain of Memories', but she can't do that whilst those memories are running around with in goth get-up calling themselves Xion, so a sacrifice has to be made. In order to successfully wake up Sora, Xion needs to be destroyed so that Naminé can weave those memories back into Sora's mind. (You still with me? Good.)
Honestly, this all builds upon 'Chain of Memories' relevance a lot more than I ever considered at the time. I thought CoM was just a silly little story that completely invalidated itself at the end with a 'We're just going to erase all your memories about this adventure' ending, but now I'm learning that it contained a super pivotal plot point that pushed the entire franchise forward by a whole year. (Now I could almost look at Chain of Memories with a whole new respect, if the gameplay wasn't complete and total trash.) It set's up CoM as the middle act to a three act tale about the ascension of the Keyblade master, in a manner that vaguely mirrors the 10 year sleep of Noctis in Final Fantasy 15. Did Tetsuya Nomura literally make FF15 to be a remake of Kingdom Hearts? (Big if true...)
Ultimately Xion has to make a terrible choice for the good of a person she doesn't even, and will never, know. In order to wake up Sora she has to give up her existence. That's more than just dying, that's erasing every single trace that she ever existed along with the memories of her inside of her friend's heads. What a terrible way to go for someone who had just learned how to love! Xion ends up making that choice and the rest of the game is just dedicated to the movie quickly speeding through events so that everything lines up to the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2. ("Uhh- Riku has to give into his Ansem form for vague reasons... Roxas has to get captured by Riku/Ansem despite winning the fight. Axel has to decide to bring his friends back to the organisation against their wishes in a vague desire to put things back to the way they were so that it makes sense for him to be slightly homicidal towards Roxas in KH2.") And at the end of the day Xion is eliminated and everything is ready for Sora to finally wake and continue his magical journey through the cosmos. Except for Roxas still being alive and kicking, but they can worry about that in KH2. No need to even bring that up now.
Verdict
So, in terms of story I have to say that I really did love 'Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days' a lot more than I though I would. It bought a lot of ancillary characters to the forefront and made them relatable and interesting in a way I wasn't expecting, putting a lot of weight behind their former and later actions. It also nailed consequence and pathos, at least for every character who wasn't named Roxas. My only nagging desire by the end of it was that I wish I could have played through this story, as that seemed like it would have been the ideal vector. The whole 'string all the cutscenes' together approach seems to work fine enough in order to convey the relationships, but some of the impact of the big battles are lost when all we see are the starts and finishes of these fights. In normal Kingdom Hearts battles that wouldn't have been too much of a loss, but KH2 has shown me that the team learnt how to tell a story within those fights, so I feel like I'm missing out on a layer of the storytelling. Plus, this presentation does mean that some smaller plotpoints go completely unexplained. (What the hell is a Dusk and why is Xion at danger of being turned into one? Is that giant heart shaped moon in the sky Kingdom Hearts? Why does Roxas not have the same hair as Sora? Explain, movie! EXPLAIN!)
But in terms of satisfaction I will say that I came away from '358/2 Days' feeling like a great deal of the first game's mysteries had been solved, prepping for a whole smattering of new ones. (There are a total of 5 games between Kingdom Hearts 2 and 3, I'm expecting a freakin' opera's worth of tales) Whilst I still love Kingdom Hearts 1 the most (You know, because it was an actual game) I'm willing to concede that this story has shown me that the franchise has more legs than that title, and I want to see where those legs will take it. (Already having jumped into KH2 I'm beyond impressed, so things are looking good so far.) In summary, I think that I would recommend watching through '358/2 Days' and I now understand why the team felt the need to present it even if they couldn't translate the gameplay through. Although, that isn't to say that one couldn't just play the main entry Kingdom Hearts games and get a decent sense of what's going on, the games are written like that fortunately. But if you're unfortunate enough to have thrown yourself through 'Chain of Memories' then trust me, you need '358/2 Days' as a palette cleanser, if nothing else...
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