Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories review

About two weeks ago I ordered Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I had been thinking of ordering it for a long time, because it was supposed to have a wonderful story and great graphics. Unfortunetly, it was set between two other video games that I don't have, so I had decided not to order it.
About two months ago, my younger brohter found the comic book version of it, and he suggested it to me. I read it, and was intrigued by the characters and the world. I then started watching parts of the other two Kingdom Hearts games on Youtube and I finally decided to get Chain of Memories.
It came in the mail about a week ago, and I immediately started to play it. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it, because it had several negative reviews on Amazon, but I needn't have worried. It had great music, great graphics, great characters, and the gameplay was fun. I was hooked.
The premise of the story is that Sora, the main character, and his two friends, Donald and Goofy, are looking for their lost friends, The King (Mickey Mouse) and Riku. One night, while they're sleeping, Sora wakes up, to see a mysterious robed figure, who says, ""Ahead lies something you need. But to claim it, you must lose something dear." Sora and his friends come to a large castle the next day, and they go into it, in hope of finding their lost friends. Once inside, the mysterious figure appears again, and tells them that, "To find is to lose, and to lose is to find". Sora and his friends start forgetting some things, and remembering others. The figure gives Sora some cards, which will allow him to go to different worlds, created from his memories of them. Sora and his friends set off through the castle, hoping to find their lost friends and memories.
One of the unusual things about this game series is that it combines Disney and Final Fantasy characters and worlds together, so you end interacting with characters like Ariel, from the Little Mermaid, and Cloud, from Final Fantasy VII. It's a lot of fun to meet your favorite Disney characters, and, in some cases, fight them.
The grpahics are unusual for a Gameboy game, because instead of little pixel graphics with no shading, or computer generated graphics, all the graphics are fully pixel shaded, and the characters are pixel sprites, and they're extremely well done. Being a pixel artist myself, I spend a lot of the game going, "Oh, wow! Look at those lovely folds!", or, "That hair is very nicely pixeled!"
The music is by far the best music I've ever heard from a video game. The theme you hear in the castle floors is very pretty, and the music in the title screen is gorgeous. The music in the Disney worlds is great, too, becuase they all have music that reflects the world, and in some cases, is from the movies. I especially love the music for Atlantica, because it's a version of "Under the Sea".
I was worried about the battle system, because people either really loved it, or really hated it. It's actually turned out to be one of my favorite things about the game so far.It's very unusual, in that it combines cards and the typical run around and bash things system that most games use. There are many different things you can do with the cards, and a lot of strategy, and it's really fun.
The characters are so much fun! Hades was particularly well written, and I could hear James Woods (who does Hades voice in Hercules) saying all the lines. The original characters, like Sora, and Axel, are very interesting and funny. They did really well with writing all the Disney characters, who all seem very realistic, and a lot like they do in the movies.
Overall, it's been a really fun game so far. At the moment I'm stuck on Captain Hook (I have decided that I hate Captain Hook. Except when he's played by Jason Isaacs). I would definetly recommend this game to people.

Rainy story

This is just a little thing I wrote for the sake of writing something. It takes place on Pellistair.
Cassandra is a Ring Tailed Lemur, Kringo is a Raccoon, and Malig is a Muskrat.

"It was raining again. The new mail box had floated away. 'Another one?' Cassandra asked. 'That's the third one this month!'
'At least the chimney hasn't fallen off yet', Kringo said. "And the roof only has a few leaks in it."
There was a knock at the door. Kringo opened it. 'The Duplents house floated away', Malig said, standing in the rain with water dripping off his whiskers.
'Again?' Cassandra asked."

Pellistair

I'm going to be posting parts of stories I've written. All of these stories take place on Pellistair, which is a planet I came up with last summer. This is an introduction to Pellistair, which was written by my brother, Moose.

"In a galaxy far, far away (no, not that one. A different one), there is a planet called Pellistair. It's a small and obscure planet, a peaceful little place most people in the galaxy haven't heard of. A quiet, unassuming planet. However, Pellistair's inhabitants - and any visitors that stay for long - know that it is different from any other planet in the galaxy. Pellistair... changes people.

All different kinds of people visit Pellistair. It's a small planet, but the galaxy is a large one. Humans visit, drawn by the quiet peace and beauty of the small world, and so do many other kinds of creatures. Those that only stay for a day or two don't notice the changes. Anyone who stays longer, though, can't help but notice.

For instance, say a human or other creature visited Pellistair. It would seem normal enough at first, a peaceful place inhabited by a wide variety of different species. Over time, though, the visitor would start to change. If they headed in a reptilian direction, scales and a tail might grow, if the alien didn't have them already. Warm sunlight would seem much more comfortable than before.

The changes vary from person to person. Some visitors would start spending more time in the water, perhaps become better at holding their breaths. Others would grow furrier and start resembling cats, dogs, armadillos, et cetera. Some grow wings and become more like birds or bats, though that takes longer than more minor changes. People can end up resembling any animal in existence - or out of it.

The speed of the changes also varies depending on the person. Some people take years to develop claws or proper fur. Others only stay a few days before they're flying through the trees or learning how to use extra limbs. No one can tell until the changes start.

No one on Pellistair ever completely changes. There are no birds or fish that used to be human. The inhabitants generally look like humanoid animals who can fly, or swim, or breathe underwater. They live fairly normal lives otherwise. The world is a happy, peaceful one. That's what all the inhabitants say, at least. Any visitors to Pellistair will be assured by everyone they ask that it is a peaceful world, that all the people on it love each other equally, regardless of species. Nevertheless, there are subtle tensions here and there. Dog-like and cat-like inhabitants of Pellistair are polite to each other, but rarely do much together.

The deer can never completely relax around the pumas. Some of the horses might - very discreetly - look down their long noses at the donkeys. The tensions between species are never mentioned, never acknowledged, but they exist deep under the surface. The inhabitants all agree on one thing, though - no outsiders are EVER going to find anything but peace and happiness on Pellistair.

There is also another tension, this one much less subtle. Every so often, two people of different species will marry each other. ("Species" is a looser term on Pellistair than it is on Earth, so that's possible here.) Their children are almost always unusual, more so if the parents are dramatically different from each other. A mouse and an alligator are bound to have interesting children. These hybrids are not treated with the same equality as everyone else. To the inhabitants of Pellistair, there is just... something WRONG with a creature that can't seem to decide what species it is. The hybrids are outcasts from the rest of society.

If discovered, they are almost always insulted, beaten up, arrested, banished, or worse. This is the one part of Pellistair's society that is NOT so peaceful. Because of this, the hybrids often try to hide the fact that they are hybrids, keeping their scales or gills or long ears carefully covered.

Not many people leave Pellistair, as it is (for the most part) so peaceful and happy. Those who do, though, change in the other direction. They lose their scales, or fur, or tails, reverting to the forms they - or their ancestors - had before they arrived.

The animal traits only stay if they seem to be needed. For instance, dedicated swimmers might manage to keep their gills - but only if they spent a lot of time underwater every day. It's possible to keep the changes Pellistair gives them, but it's hard work."