Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • The Riku Replica.
  • Vexen. Sora hated the guy for what (he thought) he did to Riku, and even he was horrified by the cruel way Axel dispatches him (while he's begging for mercy, no less!). Not helping matters is the fact that he was trying to warn Sora about the trap he was walking into, shortly before Axel showed up.
  • Lexaeus

"Forgive me, Zexion... This was a fight I should not have started."

• • Zexion. Possibly the most brutal death of all the Organization members. Everyone else just died (some were more vicious than others; here's looking at you, Vexen). Zexion? He was strangled to death, his life force slowly sucked out of his body as he lost consciousness. What makes this sad is that Zexion showed himself to be highly devoted to the Organization's cause, even up to his final moments, where he's absolutely mortified by the prospect of his death. That doesn't excuse his actions, mind you, but when you put him in comparison to the behind-the-scenes backstabbing game of hot potato that approximately half of the remaining members played, it's a bit depressing.
  • Larxene.

"I'm...fading? No, this isn't the way I...I won't ALLOW..!" (Especially sad when delivered by Yuko Miyamura.)

• Awesome Music: The utterly majestic Lord of the Castle from Re:Chain of Memories. Forgotten Challenge on the Game Boy Advance is also a very nice use of the Game Boy Advance's limited sound capability.
• Badass Decay: Riku in Reverse/Rebirth until the last two stages and fights against Riku Replica and Ansem.
  • And against Zexion in Re:Chain of Memories.
• Boring but Practical: Sleights can easily trivialize several bosses, especially Sonic Blade in the remake.
  • Exploiting the double-jump glitch.
  • Attack Bracer and Overdrive.
  • Dark Firaga on Riku. It's just a firaga that's blue... but it can really hurt some enemies, especially Lexaeus.
• Game Breaker: The duel system in Re:Chain of Memories, especially Barrage. This attack always hit and always do 1 bar damage. It's possible to beat Ansem easily without dark mode because of this.
  • Certain sleights can be this too, if you build your deck right. With enough 0s, you can't be canceled, and a ton of Sonic Rush + Elixir = Win.
  • The Tornado Sleight (Aero + Gravity + Summon card) is absolutely unfair in both versions of the game: it creates a large funnel cloud that the player can control, which sucks up and immobilizes all Heartless it touches while dealing massive damage.
  • The Oogie Boogie card quickly becomes one of the best buff cards, especially against tough bosses.
  • The Lethal Flame sleight (Stop + Attack + Attack) stops time and allows Sora to quickly deliver a bunch of hits. When time starts again, the enemy starts taking damage and can't act for a few moments, allowing you to set up another one. Long strings of these can deal massive damage in boss fights.
  • Combined with Awesome Yet Practical for bosses: Simply using 0's to Card Break your opponent's deck. Every card you break with 0 can't be reshuffled by the boss, while you can recharge your deck indefinitely. After awhile, the boss will simply begin to run out of cards to make combos with, making him easy prey.
• Genius Bonus: In the manga adaptation of COM, Larxene is seen reading a book about French writer Marquis De Sade. We'll let you do the math.
• Goddamned Bats: Any enemy you have to attack from behind in the Game Boy Advance game. This is remedied a bit in the Playstation2 version, because you're able to attack from more angles - in the Game Boy Advance, it's roughly 2D so you have to be right behind them. Defenders are easily the most annoying mooks in the game.
  • The Creeper Plants have a terrible tendency to break your cards.
  • Neoshadows. They also have a tendency to turn two-dimensional and avoid everything you throw at them. This is especially annoying because they seem to wait right until you use a sleight.
• Jerkass Woobie: When one considers Zexion's life, from his childhood in Birth by Sleep to when he meets his end in Chain of Memories, he sorta becomes this.
  • Larxene also counts, mainly due to her death, which is played tragically. bonus points in the Japanese version due to being voiced by Yuko Miyamura.
• Love to Hate: Marluxia, Larxene, and Axel are so deliciously evil. Vexen counts too for being such a pompous Jerkass.
• Magnificent Bastard/Manipulative Bastard: Axel and Marluxia shine as this, in contrast with Smug Snakes Vexen and Zexion.
• Memetic Molester: Xehanort's Heartless. Taken to truly unnecessary levels in Reverse/Rebirth.
  • Larxene is this for some. She apparently has no concept of personal space for both genders, and is shown to be a sadist.
• Memetic Mutation: Xehanort's Heartless, again. "DARKNESS!"
• Replacement Scrappy: Naminé, until it turned out she actually was Kairi, just a missing part of her. Confused? Then see Kingdom Hearts II for explanations, if you can pinpoint them.
  • Very subjective, as there are some who find Naminé to be better than Kairi, citing more clearly defined character growth and actually having a presence in the final stages of the game's story as reasons why.
• Tear Jerker: Closing scene, after defeating Marluxia. Although, it being a subjective trope, YMMV.
• That One Boss:
  • The final battle against the Riku Replica (in both Sora AND Riku's modes.), so freaking much. Also, Ursula, but really only in Riku's story.
  • Note that the spoiler is pretty easy if you rush-spam, and make sure he can't 0-cancel.
  • The final Repliku fight on Riku - You have only one method of healing during this fight, which is the Oogie Boogie Card. And did we mention that he's just as strong as he was when Sora fought him last?
  • Any time you fight Vexen in the Game Boy Advance. You have to attack him from behind - This is harder in the Game Boy Advance version than it is on the Playstation2. He also has a tendency to turn right around and attack you when you try to hit him.
    • That isn't to say that Re:CoM Vexen is easy. His attacks are pretty hard to dodge and can stunlock, he still can't be attacked from the front and his deck is stacked with high-numbered attack-cards. He also has Elixirs and Hi-Ethers with him, making the strategy of breaking all his good cards hard to execute - especially in the rematch, in which he also owns a card that prevents breaking items.
  • Captain Hook. His Geo Effects screw up your summon cards, his dodge rate is insane, he can throw bombs seemingly without end, and his sword attack is extremely difficult to dodge. Better bring your zeroes and your cures - you're gonna NEED it all. This review says it all:

You may think that all the bosses before Captain Hook might have been annoying but otherwise easy. You might have thought that the rest of the game would go along like this. Even if that wasn't the case, even if you thought that there would be at least one tough boss along the way, Nothing could prepare you for the brokenness that is Captain Hook.

• What an Idiot!: All Jiminy writes in his Journal at the end of Chain of Memories is "Thank Naminé." with no explanation whatsoever. Cue the mass confusion for Sora & co. at the beginning of II.
  • To be fair, they probably expected to get woken up by Naminé herself and that she would explain the situation to them. On the other hand, is it really that hard for Jiminy to write more then just one sentence? He even says it's going to be a "big note"!
• The Woobie: Oh, Naminé...