The first Kingdom Hearts for the Nintendo DS is set between Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 and after (and during) Chain of Memories on the Gameboy advance. The story follows Roxas (who starts the game in Kingdom Hearts 2) from his first day as he joins the Organization XIII. As you play you will watch his story unfold and learn more about him and what the Organization represents. 358/2 Days introduces a new character Xion but I cannot go into much about her without giving some secrets away and you see Axel who makes his introduction in Chain of Memories and also in KH2 play a bigger role.The battle system is strange at first but after a couple of (game) days into 358/2 Days you will get used to it. There will also be a chance to change the way you rotate the camera after a while which I would advise you do as soon as you get the option.The cut scenes are very good as you progress through the story, showing flashbacks to KH1 and COM for those of you who have played them also adding in some new ones. The battle system is pretty much the same as KH1/2 although you do get a panel system. The panel system is used to hold all your items and potions also level up’s and extra moves. There are also "Link Panels" with which multiple panels can be combined to form new, stronger abilities.
The game is in 3D and for the DS this looks absolutely fantastic although the game makes minimal use of the system's touch screen functionality.

Every day you get set missions by the Organization which can be anything from collecting heats from heatless to taking out boss characters. You will visit some Disney worlds from the previous games and they all have their own recognizable music.

The only cons I have with this game is that some of the bosses have to much HP, once you have worked out how to avoid their attacks some of the bosses become really simple but you end up fighting some of them for 10 minutes plus just to whittle down their HP and this becomes tedious and boring. Some of the missions as you go through the game are the same and feel repetitive, like they have been added just to fill time. Also as the DS relies on its touch screen to play games and this game uses the Dpad I found the game uncomfortable to play for long periods.
My biggest drawback is not with the game itself but the fact it was released on the Nintendo DS. KH 1 & 2 came out for the PS2, then COM came out on the Gameboy and in Japan only on a special edition PS2 game as an add on. This meant that fans of the series have to buy a new console if they did not have it. Now this one is released on the Nintendo DS and another game Birth by Sleep will also be released for the PSP which means anyone who does not own these Hand Held’s will be missing out. I wait to see which system KH3 will be released on.
All in all this game is really good despite the small drawbacks and they are small. You can tell that a lot of time and effort have been made by the developers. One for fans of the series, but you won’t have needed to have played the others in order to enjoy it but those who have would understand it a lot more.