Although fairly unfamiliar with the series, I had the chance to briefly play the single-player mode of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for Nintendo DS at Square Enix’s booth. And while it looks promising, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disoriented.

The DS game continues the series’ action-RPG sword/key combat, which, frankly, I found a bit disorienting and monotonous in the demo. Pushing A to attack is usually enough to defeat an enemy—you’ll even jump automatically if necessary to reach a flying enemy. Moving around with the D-pad feels decent, though digital controls in a fully 3-D environment predictably feels slightly awkward. The enemies are clever enough to require more sophisticated dodging at times, and I clearly didn’t grasp everything about the combat, as I died very quickly when I fought against a fire plant monster tormenting Aladdin’s Agrabah.

The level design was a tad confusing in the first mission I played mission, in which you must infiltrate a building and take out a particular enemy referred to as the Guardian. Hallways looked very similar, it was unclear where I must go to progress, and the map on the bottom screen was not adequate for me to get my bearings. Part of the problem was the camera (controlled by the touch screen), which seemed to require some babysitting. I wound up walking past switches without realizing it.

Based on my short time with the game, its presentation is beautiful. The cut-scenes are especially impressive, with smooth animations and lots of voice-acting. Enemies look distinct, and, although I didn’t see many characters in the playable demo, the trailers show off a wide cast of Disney personalities. That said, in the 358/2 days single-player demo I played as a young Roxas, who was accompanied by an older, more seasoned members of Organization XIII in one of the missions.

It’s hard to say how good the final game will be from two missions I was not able to complete. I wasn’t floored by what I played, but Square Enix clearly cares about this release, so I’m not ready to make a judgment.

UPDATE: Jared Rosenberg and I played a little bit of the cooperative multiplayer mode at the Square Enix booth this afternoon. Using two DS cards, you can embark on full-fledged missions together, even wandering independently of each other in separate rooms. That said, the demo did not clearly leverage the cooperative nature of the game mode in its switch puzzles, and since you can hurt other players with your attacks, it is difficult to work together during combat to gang up on enemies. Just as with the single-player mode, I found myself unimpressed with what was shown but hopeful that the full game will have more interesting things to do.