This Phantom Promise just keeps hurting…

In this episode, Sam makes a comment that if Sora went off and took a beach vacation somewhere, it’s possible that the Organization would end up killing itself without his help. There’s more truth to that than we’d be able to get into with Chain of Memories. It’s something I’ll be waiting to talk about later.


Now that Sora’s side of the story is done, we can finally move on to topics that are both more interesting and easier to understand. It’s weird to that despite how many themes, concepts, and ideas are introduced in this game, not much actually happens. A plot to control Sora is enacted, then stopped. Aside from Axel and Namine, everyone involved in the plot lies dead at the end, and Sora forgets about the whole damn thing.

The context it provides for Axel and Namine are interesting, but since Chain of Memories only introduces stuff like the Organization, without going into much detail, I can’t really talk about it here. Not until we start digging into Kingdom Hearts 2.

So yeah, stuff happened.

Today, we wrap up “The Ex-Dictator”

In the previous episode, we spent most of the time answering the question of “How are we going to approach the target without being detected?”. Now that the question’s been answered, two new ones open up:

“How do I kill these two?” and “How will I get out once the deed is done?”

Since killing one of them means that I cannot restart the mission any longer, the wisest course of action is to eliminate them both either at the same time or with every little time between both kills, as it minimizes the risks involved.

If you remember, I was nervous about using the Remote Explosive Duck again after bungling “The Fixer” with it. And while I did have a repeat of the same fiasco, I still had the option to retry because neither target was eliminated yet. This gave me the opportunity to roll the saving throw that I just didn’t have in “The Fixer”.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken the chance to see where they start from and what their routine is en route to the restaurant. I haven’t see it, but I get the impression that better opportunities await in that window.

Next time, Japan…

Do you constantly find yourself staring at your friends back, wondering exactly what knife would be best suited for plunging into it? If so, call your doctor right away, as you might have Chronic Backstabbing Syndrome.

It’s amusing to watch Sam ask all these questions as we go through the series. It’s not the exact same as a newcomer going through the series with fresh eyes, since he has played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 before. But he played them so long ago, and never touched any of the other games in the franchise, so it’s close enough to serve as a good facsimile.


I’ve followed this series close enough and for so long that none of this even phases me. So not only would I have never done this series without Sam (because it was his idea), but I honestly couldn’t. He’s become my reference for what the “average player” knows about Kingdom Hearts.

While there a lot of questions that I did anticipate having to answer, like which side is Axel actually on and what the hell is a Nobody. But there are others than I didn’t totally anticipate, like who Zexion is. As a fan, I know the most common sources of confusion, but I forget all those less common, but still important, minor details that still need to be explained. This is something I just could not do without Sam.

We’re done with the filler part of this game. From here on out it should be all story all the time.

This room looks familiar…

Kingdom Hearts has this problem of building up a ton of cool premises that could lead into really fascinating philosophical and sociological musings… and then dropping them like lead weights before they’ve really had time to develop. Worse, they often just refuse to capitalize on them.

This game is one of the first examples of that, particularly with Namine. As Sam noted in the episode, if you never saw or played Chain of Memories until this point, you’d have no real idea how tragic a backstory Namine has.

There’s also the moral and ethical discussions pertaining to rewriting and manipulating other people’s memories. This is the only game where this conversation could even possibly come up, because the whole concept gets swept under the rug in every future game.

I understand that this game only exists to setup Kingdom Hearts 2 and to explain why Sora is at level 1 at the start of it. In that sense, I shouldn’t be surprised we don’t indulge in this conversation. At the same time, this is a intriguing enough premise to spin that debate off from, that it’s immensely frustrating when the game chooses not to.

Another Elusive Target: “The Ex-Dictator”

This Elusive Target is noteworthy for two reasons.

  1. This Elusive Target is the very first target to take place in the hotel in Bangkok
  2. It is also the first one to have two targets.
Since players can no longer retry an Elusive Target once any one objective has been complete (in this case, if either of the two targets is eliminated), the most obvious way to minimize risk was to eliminate both targets at the same time. That way, there is no time where I cannot retry while a target is still on the loose.
But before we can even think about that, the very first step was to find a way to get into the restaurant undetected, or to find some other opportunity to take care of them. Unlike Paris, I have a limited experience working in Bangkok, so I didn’t have quite the map knowledge that I’m used to when dealing with these targets.
Thankfully, since players can still retry up until the point where an objective is complete, I had the chance to look around, scout the area, and take my time in cooking up my approach. While the Elusive Targets will severely punish failure, and players need to attempt them within the allotted window, the contacts themselves are by no means unfair. Players still have the ability to take their time, think, and come up with a method that works for them.
Like an good puzzle, a Hitman contract is posing a question to the player, and expecting them to come up with an answer. In this contact, these questions are:
  1. How will you (the player) approach the target without setting off an alarms?
  2. Once you get your approach nailed down, how will you perform the kill while giving yourself enough of an opening to escape?
I found my answer to question 1 this episode. Next episode, we’ll answer the second question.

This game is just filler.

One thing that we point out in this episode is just how strange the script sounds when delivered by these voice actors.

I don’t fault the actors themselves, or even the voice direction. The actual performances aren’t bad at all. When you hear them in other games, with better scripts, it’s even easier to take notice. But this script just doesn’t read very well.

I think a lot of this comes down to the fact that this script was originally made of the Game Boy Advance. Since voice acting, animation, and visuals weren’t really a strong suit of that old platform. For that reason, the script basically had to perform all of the work in terms of storytelling.

And that worked for the GBA, when these lines remained unspoken. Then they remastered these scenes for the HD re-release of Chain of Memories, with 3D cutscenes and voice acting. But when you do that to a script not suited for 3D animation and vocals, it just comes off as stilted and awkward.

It really sucks, but I don’t think there’s much that could’ve been done about it.

Today, we undertake a new Elusive Target: “The Identity Thief”

With all the Elusive Targets, I have noticed that a very large percentage of them take place in the Paris map. To a degree, that makes a lot of sense. Paris is the first map they released, and it comes with the Intro Pack, which otherwise only includes the tutorial. This means that if all a player purchased was the intro pack, then they still have a chance to wet their feet with a Elusive Target or two before they drop money on the rest of the experience.

It’s also a very large map with a ton of moving parts. Not as big as Sapienza or Marrakesh, but there’s a noticeable size to the Paris map. And with the fashion show, the auction, and all the many people gathered here, it’s easy to both think of some story justification for why the target is in Paris and a good routine for them to enact once they’re in the level.

On the other hand, this makes Paris a strange focal point for a lot of the content added to the game. For people like me, who have played the game so much, Paris is almost like a second home. I have nearly memorized the Paris map after all of the many times I have played contacts and Elusive Targets in it and/or seen others do the same. Sapienza also gets this treatment, but to no where near the same degree as Paris.

This leaves me conflicted. I understand why Paris gets so much love, and I appreciate IO going out of their way to keep sticking their noses out for newcomers. At the same time, I wish the other maps got a little more love. I want to have more reasons to go to Bangkok or Colorado or Japan aside from just killing some time.

Today, we rediscover how much filler is in this goddamn game.

Since we don’t have much to say regarding the events of the story, I’m going to instead talk about why I personally don’t care that AtRiley didn’t include any of the individual world’s storylines.


Not only are they filler, but they follow the exact same story of their Kingdom Hearts 1 incarnations, just replacing any mentions of “Hearts” with “Memories”. The kind of edits you can perform with Ctrl + F. And that’s just Sora’s path. Riku doesn’t even get filler stories. He just fights the bosses and moves on.

Considering how much of this game’s main plot is filler, going through all that additional filler would just be painful. As this Primer series goes on, you’ll gradually see Sam and I lose our minds to how much content isn’t related to the main story.

Ignoring some of that in Chain of Memories may have merely delayed the inevitable descent into madness, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Welcome back to the Kingdom Hearts Primer. This time, we’ve moved on to Chain of Memories.

Thanks again to AtRiley for allowing us to use his cut for our purposes.

There’s not much to say about the overall story yet, because even in a story that’s largely build-up to Kingdom Hearts 2, most of the first half of Chain of Memories is just build-up to the plot twists in the second half.

Also, Sam and I apologize for even suggesting the Kingdom Hearts drinking game. We love you guys, and we would very much like for you to not die of blood alcohol poisoning.

If the title of this episode has you confused, my attempt at “The Fixer” was… less than ideal.

I’ll be honest with you, I was really bummed that I bungled that mission at the end.

But in hindsight, it’s good that I was able to capture that on camera, to demonstrate the true finality of these Elusive Targets. Because of my failure, I will never be able to succeed at “The Fixer”, even though I know exactly what I did wrong and how I can correct my mistake if I could have a second chance.

Yet, despite my failure here, I still think that these Elusive Targets are an awesome addition to the game. This story I’m telling through my experience here is completely unique to me. No other person will be able to replicate what happened in these last two episodes.

There’s something inherently unique about video games in that even if two players have similar stories, going only similar beats, no two players will ever have the exact same experience. These Elusive Targets capitalize on that, even if the one-attempt clause can lead to frustration. The benefit of giving each player a single, unique story of how they either cleverly found their own path or failed in some spectacular, tense, and exciting manner, is worth that frustration born from hindsight.

It’s something I look forward to every time an Elusive Target is announced.
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