He makes his way through the castle with the assistance of King Mickey Mouse, while fending off the temptations of Ansem, who has left a piece of himself within Riku's heart and wants Riku to return to being his host, as well as repelling attacks from Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, and their Riku Replica, who want to use Riku as a weapon to counter Marluxia's use of Sora. Meanwhile, Riku chooses to reject the peaceful sleep of the Realm of Darkness and is pulled through a Corridor of Darkness to the basement of the castle. As he makes his way to the peak of the castle, Sora slays the Organization members Larxene and Vexen, as well as defeating the Riku Replica created by Vexen and similarly reprogammed by Naminé to be loyal to her. By piecing together their distorted memories, they eventually discover that a Nobody, Naminé, has been reorganizing their memories at the orders of Marluxia, the Nobody who led them to the castle, in order to put herself in Kairi's place within Sora's memories and thus make him more compliant to the control of the Nobodies. Sora fends him off and is given more World Cards, and as Sora, Donald, and Goofy go through each floor, they relive their memories, all of which are somehow distorted in a different way, and begin to lose their original memories. The cloaked man from before appears once more after they arrive on the next floor, but a second cloaked man also appears and introduces himself as Axel, challenging Sora to battle. After Leon gives Sora a tutorial on fighting and gives Sora a summon card, they leave Traverse Town. Strangely, though, they remember Sora, Donald, and Goofy's names, with Yuffie even mentioning that her heart still holds memories of them, even if her head doesn't. The first world they go to is Traverse Town, where they discover that Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and Cid have forgotten all about them. They use the card to proceed through the castle. The cloaked man appears as they enter the castle and gives them a card. The path becomes one and it leads them to Castle Oblivion. While deciding which path to take, a mysterious man in a black cloak approaches Sora and speaks to him, but at that moment his words are incomprehensible. Sora, Donald, and Goofy walk down a long path that seemingly goes nowhere.
It received a 3D remake called Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, available for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. The original 2D version of the game is exclusive to the Game Boy Advance. Aspects of the storyline are essential to understanding Kingdom Hearts II and also later entries in the series. The game focuses on Sora, Donald and Goofy making their way through a mysterious castle and reliving their memories of Kingdom Hearts, but with a card-based battle system. It was published by Square Enix and developed by Jupiter, and was released in 2004.Ĭhronologically, it is the eighth story in the timeline after Kingdom Hearts χ, Kingdom Hearts Union χ, Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover, Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, and Kingdom Hearts, and takes place during Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories is the second game in the Kingdom Hearts series.