Level One: Lost Kingdoms

Format: Nintendo Gamecube
Year of Release: 2002
Hours played so far: 6
Cards Collected: ???

If you were to travel back in time and find me 12 years ago, you would still find me as video game and TCG enthusiast, so naturally when I flicked open a copy of Cube Solutions and saw a guide for Lost Kingdoms... I thought nothing of it, because I had absolutely no idea what the hell it was. Fast forward 5 years, and you'll catch me reading these same Cube solution magazines again. Why? because I think that video game strategy guides are the best kinds of reading material out there. I even bought the Sonic '06 (Piece of Shit Be Upon It) guide book because it was actually a guide and not the result of a teenage girl's strange OCxSonic fanfiction.

But to be fair all that detail is pretty negligible, what matters is that when I realized what the game was. I needed it. But I never ever saw it anywhere... until I was at a convention the other day. One copy, and the price - £12. Exactly the amount I had on me. I will never ever forget, that on that very day, I met my destiny.

Anyway enough of that, Lost Kingdoms is an Action RPG in which you play a young princess whose mission is to drive back a kind of black fog that is enveloping the world and summoning monsters that destroy everything and kill people, you know, typical black fog stuff. The monsters can only be defeated by someone with the power of the cards bestowed upon them by a Runestone (looks like all the kings have one #gatherthecolouredstonescliche) annndddd.... that's about as deep as the story goes to be honest, as far as I've seen at least.

This is the Capture Circle mechanic in action.... I still don't know how to use it

Gameplay-wise Lost Kingdoms is loosely similar to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, you have a deck of cards (monsters) which you use for the mission; in battle you can summon these creatures with the A, B, X or Y button when the card is available, and you can cycle through cards if you don't want to use any of them by discarding to draw a new one. The cards come in different types, similar to KH, Weapon monsters allow you to attack quickly at melee range, Summon monsters are pretty self explanatory,and Magic Monsters summon for a period of temporary invulnerability while a powerful ability smites your enemies. There's also a pretty standard elemental affinity cycle, and its importance is actually bigger than I expected to the point where the game basically says "That's a card you'll never get back, idiot"

THE CARDS! THEY BURN!

Lost Kingdoms brings a feature the differentiates it dramatically from KH: CoM though and this mechanic is what makes the game so frustrating and difficult, yet so very fulfilling.When a card in your deck is used up, it doesn't come back. Seriously, the only time you'll see that card again is when it goes back into your deck after the mission. Used your big-ass 5* rarity monster on some shitty enemies at the start of the mission? Enjoy not having it for the boss fight. This may seem relatively fine at first but it adds a huge strategy element to the game, knowing the power of your cards relative to the enemy as well as which types you've got left, not to mention your health which will drain if you use a card that costs too many gems, the list goes on and on, perhaps we can assume the protagonist of the game is a princess and not a prince because of all the multitasking? Wasting cards becomes a huge price to pay in battle; especially given the huge length of some of the missions and that the random encounters that don't have a 'grace' period so if you're really unlucky you can be out and straight back in to an even worse fight! Oh and did I mention that running out of cards is game over? Technically it's not, but the princess doesn't have the ability to attack without the cards, it's like she's not a real princess at all. That big boss you've been struggling on? 1HP? But no cards left? Well you can't kill it because apparently your princess didn't learn how to bitch slap like all the true princesses out there.

I won't lie this is one of the hardest games I've played in a while, the first run of a mission is extremely difficult as you have to run around figuring out where to go so you use more cards up in random battles and it can be very easy to run out unless you're really lucky, this is balanced out by the fact that cards you find in chests can be temporarily added to your deck for the remainder of this mission, sure this balances it out a bit, but it still keeps the 2nd and onwards run of a mission just as hard, because sure you'll know where to go but the chests don't respawn so there'll be no cards for you to add back in, so you have to make those 30 cards you take with you count, and that can be difficult, especially with how easy it is to miss with your weapon monsters and how retarded AI is for the summoned ones.

The multiplier's actually pretty good as well, at least now you don't have to give the AI the satisfaction of causing that pissed look on your face

All in all though I do really enjoy this game so far, though whether you complete a mission does seem to be down as much to trial and error as it is actual skill Lost Kingdoms seems to be a unique and fun experience worth playing if you can get your hands on it, and providing you can deal with the frustration that comes from failing a mission over and over again, I promise you'll enjoy it. if you're a fan of Kingdom Hearts: CoM and are desperate for a more challenging experience even though it's not a KH game, I assure you you'll love this.

TL;DR: Super frustrating and super difficult, Lost Kingdoms is the abusive father of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Deal with it.