Written on: 08/05/26

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

I don't remember why I decided to commit to playing this game through to the end a month ago so I shall assume it was on a whim. I played this game when I was younger, but I never finished it and mostly messed around with the multiplayer mode. I've been aware of the story of the game for ages but never bothered to try and beat it due to the gameplay being kinda bad form what I remembered.
Now that I've played it through to the end though, my opinion of days have become a lot more positive overall.


I'll start with the gameplay since it's what people consider to be the barrier to entry with this game. I think days' mission format is fine and the panel system is amazing but the actual feel of the combat itself could be a lot better, though I think it's more so limited by the fact that it's on the ds. I played on my 3ds and I think the circle pad makes movement feel a little bit better but there still remains the combat which tends to water down to jumping and spamming the a button and managing our resources, that being your items and magic, which in this game is not tied to any mp gauge or refill timer like other KH games.
I think the way magic works in days is fine and is complimented well by the panel system but the keyblade combat gets very repetitive with its only saving grace being that the various keyblades you can equip have their own unique set of strings and combos which I think is neat, but doesn't improve the overall feel of the game. The panel system in my opinion is what really saves the gameplay of days from feeling outright bad. I cannot describe how much I enjoyed customizing and arranging the panels to match exactly what I needed, eespecially in the late game where you have multiple pages of slots to work with.
As I said earlier, the functionality of magic and the panel system go hand in hand considering how the missions in days may require you to go to a world or defeat a particular heartless where some magic won't be of any use. This allows you to max pick and choose you manage your loadout for each mission. For example, in a mission that has a lot of heartless weak to fire, you may want to exclusively bring fire spells instead of wasting slots on other magic. Or perhaps you don't wanna bother specializing and making a new deck for a particular scenario, instead going for an all rounder deck that has a little bit of everything and can be have changes made to it when you need them.
The freedom given to you within the panel system, especially later on, is really cool to me and I haven't seen anything quite like in other games. Overall I just think the panel system is amazing and it derive great satisfaction from messing around with it. It feels like picking at a brain.
The mission format I found to be fine, I don't have much to say on it. It was indeed repetitive at times but never overly so. I only really felt it was a slog near the end of the game due to wanting to see what happens next in the story and whenever I went to world I didn't like exploring. I did a couple of the challenges and I think thy're decent fun. Completely optional but could be nice to go back and do at some point if I have the desire too. Of course in 2026 I can't get anyone to play multiplayer with me like I could back then but I think it's safe to say it'd be a fun time. Maybe someday I'll find a ds user in the wild and play with 'em, if I'm lucky.

Next up is the presentation of the game. Days is pretty good looking for a ds game. I have no qualms with the in game 3d models, they look fine enough, especially since this is a ds game. The ps2 engine cutscenes will never not impress me whenever I see them. They look good and the only problem they have is the black border but it doesnt't bother me much at all. The environments and worlds are all pretty good actually. Initially I though they were kinda small but as more missions gave access to deeper areas I found them to be surprisingly expansive. My favourite world is probably neverland at night or twilight town. The music is good, which kinda goes with out saying for this series. Favourite tracks are the organization theme, neverland world theme, Xion's theme and the song that plays in the grey room which I affectionately call the panel management theme. Another thing I almost forgot to mention, is the use of the DS' dual screens in the game. I absolutely love how they use the bottom screen to show the parallel between what Roxas is doing and past events involving Sora in the various worlds. The same is done for showing Xion disappearing from the collective memory of everyone during one of the last cutscenes.

Finally, the story days is probably the most well rounded out of any KH games, by that I mean, I have very little bad to say about it. Seeing Roxas start off in an almost vegetative state as he eventually comes into his own, through his friendship with Axel and Xion, is pleasant to witness and conveyed really well. The monotonous day by day tasks done in the gameplay goes great with his character development since you practically see every gradual step of it. The sea salt trio truly feel like friends thanks to this and it's something that the modern cutscene remaster misses out on due to not having any gameplay. As mundane as it can be at times, seeing Roxas, Axel aand Xion spend time together and shoot the shit on top of clock tower holds so much significance after seeing it so many times, even more so when the 3 of them spend less and less time there as a group near the end of the story.
Moreover, seeing their friendship tested and fall apart as Xion discovers the nature of her existence and Axel continues to effectively side with the organization by hiding things from Roxas, really tugged at my heart waaaaay more than I thought it would. It's genuinely painful seeing them struggle with their priorities and what they believe to be the right thing to do. In regards to that Axel, stands out the most, as he is firmly sticking with the organization whilst wanting to do the best for Xion and Roxas. I found it interesting how Axel, somewhat reluctantly, sticks to orders and wants the best for Roxas and Xion, despite his idea of what is best for them not being what those two want.
Ultimately, Days is an incredibly bittersweet story, even more so considering what happens to Roxas in KH2. I never to fail to feel pity for Roxas when thinking about his story. In the case of Xion, she was able to die on her own terms and believed it to be a good thing at the end of the day, since she is derivative of Sora. But with Roxas, I never felt that same closure until the very very very end of 2 with the ending cutscene and it's still rather sad. Unlike Xion, Roxas persists and continues to fight, to try and prove that he is his own person, even after returning to Sora, he keeps on fighting back for his indiviuality. That constant struggle he battles against, before finally accepting his place as a part of Sora, is what makes his tale so satisfying yet bittersweet. I wonder how it would have gone down if Ventus wasn't occupying Sora's heart. Due to Roxas would resemble Sora in that scenario, I feel some of the drama may be lost since they are identical, even if they grew to be different individuals.
Last thing I wanna say for this section is the ending cutscene shakes my soul to the very core. The contrast between what is literally being protrayed on screen and the actual context behind it is soul crushing and hearing the ending song makes me cry.

I would have liked to use the screenshots I took in this review but the vast majority of them somehow got corrupted so I got nothing of note to display, but anyways, that's about all I have to say about Days. I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would. If he wasn't already, this game definitely cemented Roxas as my favourite KH character.