Kingdom Hearts Unchained X Review

<p>Mobile games are typically what I try to avoid&period; To me&comma; they lack in-depth gameplay&comma; story&comma; and the touch interface gets in the way of any fun that I can have&period; However&comma; <em>Kingdom Hearts Unchained X<&sol;em> may have changed my whole perspective on mobile gaming&period; Sure&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a game from one of my favorite series&comma; but Square Enix have been able to replicate the formula of the series effectively while also bringing in a cool&comma; almost <em>Destiny<&sol;em>-like social element&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Set before Sora&&num;8217&semi;s adventures and the Keyblade War&comma; you take on the role of a novice keyblade wielder chosen by the Lost Masters and try to solve the problems of the worlds&period; Not much of a story is provided&period; There are basic sub-plots in the various worlds&comma; but nothing is really explained about your role in the world&comma; The Lost Masters&comma; or where you are&period; The plot has promise&comma; however&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you are a fan of the series&comma; the world selection may be disappointing to you&period; Yet again&comma; Square Enix and Disney have repeated the same worlds from the original game&colon; Agrabah&comma; Wonderland&comma; and Olympus Coliseum&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s kind of getting old&period; There is also the Dwarf Woodlands&comma; which was previously in <em>Birth By Sleep<&sol;em>&comma; and the only new world in the game&comma; Daybreak Town&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ve seen this happen with <em>Chain of Memories<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Re&colon; Coded<&sol;em>&comma; and <em>358&sol;2 Days<&sol;em> so why&comma; again&comma; do we have to step on familiar ground&quest; The magic of Kingdom Hearts is to explore new lands&comma; battle each foe&comma; and solve each world&&num;8217&semi;s problems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What might be cool is to give us a little teaser of Tangled&&num;8217&semi;s world and San Fransokyo from Kingdom Hearts 3&comma; but alas&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re stuck with the same worlds we know like the back of our hands for over a decade&period; However&comma; the one world I would forgive this for is a visit to Atlantica&comma; so we can find out why King Triton mistrusts the keyblade wielders&period; A contradicting factor of the game is that you are saving and helping people from other worlds&comma; but in the original <em>Kingdom Hearts<&sol;em>&comma; King Triton told Sora&comma; &&num;8220&semi;As the key bearer&comma; you must already know one must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds&period;&&num;8221&semi; He also says&comma; &&num;8220&semi;The key bearer shatters peace and brings ruin&period;&&num;8221&semi; It would be interesting if Square Enix explains why this is the case and what happened in <em>Unchained X<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106102" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106102" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-106102 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03174719&sol;Kingdom-Hearts-Unchained-X-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Kingdom Hearts Unchained X &lpar;2&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"541" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106102" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Deja vu&quest; &lpar;<em>Kingdom Hearts Unchained X<&sol;em>&comma; Square Enix and Disney&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay is fairly simple&period; In a similar way to <em>Chain of Memorie<&sol;em>s&comma; you have a deck of 3-5 cards&comma; depending on how far your keyblade has leveled&period; Each card has a corresponding color&colon; blue&comma; green&comma; and red&period; Blue is weak to green&comma; green is weak to red&comma; and red is weak to blue&comma; in a similar way to <em>Pokemon<&sol;em>&period; In addition&comma; they also have a special ability that is attached which costs AP&period; The ability could be healing&comma; a combo of attacks on one enemy&comma; or a widespread blast that hits everything&period; The combat isn&&num;8217&semi;t as in-depth as the console games&comma; but it is still more complex than most of the mobile games out there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Something I have noticed in the mobile games that I have recently played &lpar;and <em>Kingdom Hearts Unchained X<&sol;em> follows this too&rpar; is that there is a friend system&period; This system allows people to help others by adding their favorite character to another&&num;8217&semi;s team&period; When a skill is activated from one of the helpers&&num;8217&semi; cards&comma; their specific avatar appears to help you in the fight&period; However&comma; this aspect of the game breaks its challenge as you can get an overpowered card to help you 95&percnt; of the time with an instant wipe of the board&period;  In addition&comma; guilds are present in <em>Kingdom Hearts Unchained X<&sol;em>&comma; and you can get help or assist another player in defeating a raid boss&comma; which appears every so often&period; These raid bosses range from the Behemoth to the Darkside Heartless&period;  This is a cool aspect&comma; but once again&comma; due to the overpowered assists&comma; you can take on one of these raid bosses easily&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; it is addicting to collect these cards when you level up and find them within packs&period; Square Enix is generous with its in-game currency&comma; unlike many other mobile games&period; With every 5 levels completed&comma; you get 150 jewels as well as a login bonus every day&comma; of varying quantity&period; Square Enix also have daily events&comma; in the form of levels&comma; that allow you to get bonus cards &lpar;for using in battle&comma; evolving your battle card&comma; or selling for Munny&rpar; or possibly jewels&comma; which occurred for the first time over the past week&period; However&comma; after a month of playing the game&comma; I have grown tired of the formula&period; This might be due to replaying the levels twice because of switching to a tablet while not knowing you can transfer your save through Facebook or the cloud&comma; but it lacks the strategy that the original games have&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fun for small sittings&comma; but not for hours upon hours&period; The same areas appear over and over again&comma; and I must bring up again that this can be fixed with a larger variety of worlds that we are not familiar with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite this being a mobile title&comma; <em>Kingdom Hearts Unchained X<&sol;em> continues the high production values that the series is known for&period; When booting into the game&comma; you are greeted by another orchestral version of Dearly Beloved to a stunning backdrop of Daybreak Town&period; With a hand-drawn style&comma; the game is charming on a phone or tablet&period; The visual effects during the cutscenes are great and the raid bosses are animated well&period; What Square Enix has been successful at&comma; especially with the Kingdom Hearts series&comma; is that they make the best of the platform they decide to release their games on&period; The touch controls are fluid&comma; the music is top notch&comma; and the social media-esque system of having friends joining in battle&comma; for example&comma; is well implemented&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"ras838NFpno" title&equals;"KINGDOM HEARTS UNCHAINED χ LAUNCH TRAILER &lpar;North America&rpar;"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;ras838NFpno"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;ras838NFpno&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"KINGDOM HEARTS UNCHAINED χ LAUNCH TRAILER &lpar;North America&rpar;"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Kingdom Hearts Unchained X<&sol;em> is a must-download free-to-play title&period; With a lot of promise from its mobile stand out battle system&comma; wonderful visual art style&comma; and consistent updates&comma; the game is worth a try&comma; especially if you are a fan of the series&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just a bit too easy and repetitive at this point&comma; but hey&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a good option for those who are waiting for <em>Kingdom Hearts HD II&period;8 Final Chapter Prologue<&sol;em> and <em>Kingdom Hearts III<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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