Kingdom Hearts Coded

is an episodic puzzle video game developed and published by Square Enix, in collaboration with the Walt Disney Internet Group for mobile phones. It is an installment in the Kingdom Hearts series that is set after the events of the Kingdom Hearts II. The story focuses on a message written in Jiminy Cricket's journal. The game was announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Currently, the title is only a Japanese release; however, a remake of the game entitled Kingdom Hearts Re:coded will be released in North America, Europe and Japan on the Nintendo DS. The game consists of eight episodes, with the first episode released on June 3, 2009, the second episode on July 8, 2009, the third on August 5, 2009,  the fourth on September 17, 2009, the fifth on October 15, 2009, the sixth on November 26, 2009, the seventh on December 26, 2009, and the eighth on January 28, 2010. A pre-install episode was also made available on November 18, 2008, before the game's official release.

Gameplay
Coded is a puzzle game with action elements mixed into the gameplay. The action gameplay is similar to the action-RPG style of the previous games in the series and features a similar basic interface. Coded also includes minigame and platforming elements. The game features a mix of graphics, with three-dimensional (3D) backgrounds and two-dimensional (2D) characters. The initial trailer showcased the main character, Sora, in dungeons with floating red and black blocks. Battles feature a "debugging" mode to remove the blocks in order to progress towards enemies. Blocks are also used to solve puzzles or reach higher ground.

Setting
In coded, the player progresses through a series of levels which are virtual re-representations of worlds contained within the digitized version of Jiminy's journal which are from the first Kingdom Hearts game and are arranged according to the order in which Sora visited the worlds originally in Kingdom Hearts. These virtual worlds are based on various locales from many Disney animated films as well as original worlds: Destiny Islands, the first original world in the series; Traverse Town, another original world; Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland; Olympus Coliseum from Hercules; Agrabah from Aladdin.

Characters


Like previous Kingdom Hearts titles, coded features numerous Disney characters. Some characters include King Mickey, Pluto, Jiminy Cricket, Donald Duck, Goofy, and the Heartless. The data Sora is in the original Sora's attire from the first game because he is created from data from Jiminy's earlier journal entries. The characters referred to as "them" in the message left in Jiminy's journal refers to the main protagonists of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Other antagonists include Maleficent and some other enemies from the Nintendo DS game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

Story
The game takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts II and follows the story of Jiminy Cricket, King Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy in Disney Castle. While organizing the records in Jiminy's journal from his travels with Sora and his friends, Jiminy Cricket's curiosity about the line "thank Naminé" results in him finding a message that he did not write: "We must return to free them from their torment." To investigate this message, King Mickey digitizes the contents of the journal and goes into the simulated world to investigate, awakening a virtual Sora on the virtual Destiny Islands to carry out the contents of the journal to uncover the identity of "them".

As Sora awakens on Destiny Islands, he encounters numerous "bugs", which take the form of red and black Heartless, covering the whole world. Upon eliminating the Heartless and destroying the bugs, Sora traverses to other worlds infected with bugs to return them to normal, following a mysterious cloaked figure upon orders from King Mickey.

Meanwhile, Heartless begin appearing within Disney Castle, and everyone finds themselves trapped in the room. To their surprise, they are saved by Data Sora. Suddenly, the cloaked figure reveals himself to be Jiminy's Journal taking the form of Riku, and explains that they are no longer in the real world, but the data world. Sora is sent off by the Journal to discover his true identity, only to encounter Maleficent and Pete from the real world. Maleficent destroys Data Sora's Keyblade and summons Heartless to attack him. Mickey and the Journal arrive to save Sora, but the Journal is abducted by Maleficent, with Mickey giving chase. Sora makes his way through Hollow Bastion, aided by Donald and Goofy. They encounter Pete, who summons the Journal and takes control of him with the bugs to fight them, but Sora still manages to defeat the Journal, who falls unconscious.

Mickey arrives and informs Sora that unless the bugs are destroyed, the Journal will never awaken. Sora decides to find a way to awaken the Journal, and enters Riku's data world, losing his abilities in the process. The two visit various worlds from the Data Riku's memory and find their way back to Hollow Bastion, where they fight and defeat Maleficent. Meanwhile, King Mickey discovers that he will be returning soon to the real world, but the Journal, once completed, will have to be erased, which will mean the end of Data Sora's memories. When the time comes, Sora requests more time in order to save Pete and Maleficent, who are still in the data world. Sora finds them fighting Sora's Heartless, but Pete and Maleficent are erased before he can intervene. Sora defeats Sora's Heartless, the cause of the bugs, and Mickey returns to the real world, erasing the Journal. A new message appears claiming that a new door to a new world has been opened, which is the data of the data world added into the Journal. Mickey, realizing that this quest may be too dangerous for Data Sora as he has no memory of it, requests to be taken into the Data World once again.

Finding Data Sora in Traverse Town, Mickey takes him to Castle Oblivion where Data Sora is confronted by a young man wearing a black coat. He tells Sora that if he wants to know the truth, he must move forward on his own through the previous worlds he visited destroying bugs. During this time, he realizes that even if he doesn't remember someone he's met, there's still the sadness of having forgotten them which the figure attempts to warn not to let it consume him. Sora disregards this message and fights the figure, revealed to be Roxas. After losing to Sora, Roxas gives him a card as Mickey appears. Sora opens the next door to find Naminé, who reveals the bugs to have been an unintentional side effect of her attempt to restore Sora's memories. She then reveals Sora's nature as the "Key that connects everything" through his ties with herself, Roxas, Xion, and Axel. Furthermore, Naminé tells Data Sora about three figures also tied to Sora's heart who are the ones referred to in the message and need his help. Mickey bids farewell to the Data Sora and promises Naminé that he will inform the real Sora of this.

In the final scene, Mickey sends Sora a bottled letter, which Sora reads with Riku and Kairi.

Development
coded was directed by Tetsuya Nomura and co-directed by Hajime Tabata, and is the first collaboration between Square Enix and the Disney Internet Group. It was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 2007, where a trailer was shown in a photo-prohibited theater. New trailers were shown at the 2008 Jump Festa in December 2007 and the DKΣ3713 Private party in August 2008. Playable demonstrations, as well as new trailers, were available at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show in October 2008 and the 2009 Jump Festa in December 2008. Early trailers highlighted coded's gameplay, while later ones focused more on the game's story, which would reveal some plotholes behind the first Kingdom Hearts game.

In mid-2007, Nomura mentioned a desire to create a spin-off Kingdom Hearts game on a mobile platform and wanted it to play slightly different than other titles in the series. The game's concept was devised by Nomura who wanted to make the game like a playground for fans. Tabata originally thought the initial plan was terrible, but still interesting. The development team plans to make use of phone technology to facilitate interaction between players. coded was developed with 3D and 2D graphics to have the game available on a range of cellphones for distribution overseas. Early screenshots showed the game in a wide screen format, based on the idea that more future models will feature a swivel screen.

coded was first released pre-installed on the Docomo PRIME Series "P-01A" mobile phone. Because many mobile games in the market offer free content, Nomura planned to release the game via a new business model, one the industry had not seen yet, to lower barriers to entry. Included in the model is an online cell phone portal called Kingdom Hearts Mobile which will allow users to create avatars and play minigames.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
In May 2010, the new English voice actor for Jiminy Cricket, Phil Snyder, who took over the role after the passing of Jiminy's former voice actor Eddie Carroll, wrote on his official website that he was recording his first voice work for the game Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, a remake and English version of Kingdom Hearts coded for the Nintendo DS in the same way Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories brought Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to the PlayStation 2. Re:coded, among other titles, was presented at E3 2010. The game will play like a mix of Birth by Sleep, 358/2 Days, and the original coded, although the game also makes use of the leveling system from 358/2 Days; however, the system has been simplified to be more appealing to the "light gamer". The story of the game also is not being changed, although more scenes will be added, including a new secret movie and a few hints at Kingdom Hearts 3D. As of June 2010, the game is 80% complete. The game will be released in Japan on October 7, 2010 and Nomura said that it should be releasing in other territories shortly after the Japanese release.

Reception
Prior to coded's release, Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com praised the game's graphics and scope. He stated the graphics were comparable to those of the PlayStation Portable and commented that coded was a sign of mobile games turning into "full-fledged" games. 1UP.com's Vernon Hastings commented that the game deserved the attention of video game enthusiasts, and praised its features: the themes and the online cell phone portal.