Unfortunately, the cards don't work quite as well in combat. The card-based battle system was one of the most frustrating parts of Chain of Memories on the GBA, and it's one of the most frustrating parts in the remake. There are three categories of cards - basic attack cards, magic and item cards, and summon cards - and every card has a value from 0 to 9. If you and an enemy both play cards at the same time, whoever has the higher value card will win, stunning the loser for a brief moment. You can also load three cards to play at once, either for a powerful combo or for a special attack called a Sleight, which have various requirements to use (for example, three cards of the same type with a combined value between 10 and 15).
On the positive side, the system is pretty balanced and actually rather intricate and flexible: Sora's deck is limited by his maximum Card Points (CP), and higher-value cards use more CP than others; loading your deck with only high-value cards to prevent a Card Break means that you'll run out more quickly than someone with a more balanced mix, and re-shuffling your deck takes longer and longer every time you do it. It's important to choose carefully when constructing your deck, something that appealed to my inner strategist.
The system's major flaw is that, like the other KH games, combat is in real time, and there is nothing you can do without playing a card other than jumping, dodging, and running the hell away. With the jump to 3D comes the less-than-stellar camera of the first Kingdom Hearts, and between wrestling with the camera and dodging your opponents' attacks, there's really no time to think about the action or to strategize: y'know, the things that actually make card-based gameplay entertaining in the first place. Finding the right cards to unleash a Sleight, or frantically flipping to a high-value card to counter an opponent's attack is annoying and cumbersome above all else.
To be fair, Re: Chain of Memories does improve on the GBA's combat. Not only are the cards larger and easier to see, but there are simply more buttons available on the PS2 controller. Reaction Commands return from KH2, opening up special attacks and actions in specific situations, so combat is slightly more varied than it was before. None of this addresses the simple fact that combat in Chain of Memories essentially comes down to mashing "X" as in both other Kingdom Hearts titles - except this time around, you'll randomly have your abilities interrupted when someone plays a higher-level card than you.
It's not all bad. The production values are still pretty solid (though the loading times start to grate on you after a while), the music and voice acting are largely pleasant to listen to, and for a last-generation title it looks pretty decent. I've always liked the series' stylized, dreamlike aesthetic, and that hasn't gone anywhere. If the card system weren't in hectic real time, the game might actually have turned out to be pretty awesome; instead it's more of a chore than anything else.
In the end, Re: Chain of Memories feels oddly self-defeating. The only reason to really play the game is for the story bridging Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, and anyone who hasn't played those games A.) won't understand the story and B.) won't care one bit. By definition, the game is aimed at fans of the series - the people who have played the games that do everything that Re: Chain of Memories attempts, only they do it better.
If you're interested in Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories, you already have a PlayStation 2. Go play (or re-play) either of the two main games in the series, because you'll get the same type of experience, except it won't be frustrating. Well ... as frustrating, that is.
Bottom Line: Good production values, a wonderful aesthetic and the oddly compelling blend of Disney and Square that made the other KH games good, crippled by a sounds-good-in-theory system of card-based gameplay that could have been awesome if it weren't entirely in real-time.
Recommendation: If you're a die-hard fan of the series who must have Chain of Memories in voice-acted 3D ... well, you've probably already bought it. Otherwise, just play Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts II instead. If you must see the redone cutscenes, YouTube them or something and save yourself the headache.
John Funk is going to have the Traverse Town theme song stuck in his head for at least another two weeks.
