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Despite the fact that the story isn't happy at all.
It gets REEEALLLY disjointed because of that. Take an early example. In the Enchanted Dominion Terra is tricked into thinking he stole Aurora's heart. That fits, because at the start of KH she has already had her heart taken... except they NEEDED the world to have a 'happy' ending, so Aurora's heart is freed and Maleficent is defeated.
Uh... yay?
All of Terra's Disney missions after Enchanted Dominion deal with him accepting, fighting or otherwise triumphing over the darkness. And we all know how that turns out. I hear people say this is an attempt at contrast or irony, but it really just makes Terra's fall come more out of nowhere. Meanwhile, all of Aqua's missions have her following after Terra, most which end with her noticing he did something good and being reassured he won't fall to the darkness... so why is she so accusatory when they meet up?
All in all BBS is a sad story, but somewhere along the line half the script was switched out for a normal KH game. The end result is a ridiculously schizophrenic tone.

I was waiting for some pictures to get developed at Wal Mart, so I deiced to have a look at their gaming section.
I don't think it's been updated in a year.
A full section is dedicated to Assassin's Creed 3. Half the section was a 'limited time' special edition.
There are two sections dedicated to Glory of Heracles, a 2008 DS RPG. It still costs 40 dollars
The middle of the xbox 360 section has a bunch of LEGO DS games
Meanwhile, off in a corner half obscured by the tiny PC game/bargain bin games... is the new arkham games, alongside the original lego batman.
Also they didn't have pokemon x or y, but they had a bunch of guide books for them, next to the old DS ones and a single copy of Black 2

I was legitimately searching just in case they had some really old and rare game just lying around somewhere
And like, you'd think they would care about their gaming section because literally every TV in the store was showing trailers for new games

Been thinking about Chain of Memories quite a bit recently, because of KH1.5. It really is the peak of the KH series, but it took me until now to realize this. I'm going to try to break it down:

Coherence:
Chain of Memories is a fairly straight forward games, especially by modern KH standards. Sora is given a definitive goal: climb as high as he can in Castle Oblivion. The reason mutates as the plot progresses but remains clear. It starts with a mysterious feeling, then recovering memories, then discovering Namine, and ultimately rescuing Namine. The machinations of the Organization are kept to the background, but never get obtuse. We've got a mastermind in Marluxia, his dragon Larxene. Wild card Axel, and a supporting cast in the basement dwelling Org members. It's a fairly simple plot, and that works in its favour.

Theming:
Most KH games have some sort of major theme, but none of them commit to it like Chain of Memories. The Disney worlds get an extra level of coherence by being tied together with the memory theme. While none of the Disney elements REALLY tie into the story, they often deal with different elements of memory and even bring up some interesting ideas, such as the value of fear. The story delves into some mature elements by KH standards as well, Sora thinking the about how the grownups probably knew why Namine left, for example.

Characterization:
Look at the emotional range of Sora. Before CoM his emotions vary from wonderment, mild annoyance and deep, but short lived sorrow. After CoM his range is... cocky, confused, annoyed or sad. But in Chain of Memories, we see a fair bit more nuance. Sora jokes with his friends, fights with them. He shows explicit hatred towards his enemies. He deals with confusion over his memories as well as the supposed return of Riku. And by the end of the game, he has squared out exactly what his views on the value of memories. We also see I believe the most interaction between villains in KH history, and while none of the Org members are particularly deep, they present enough nuance to be thoroughly enjoyable. Personally I think the writing in the original CoM is the best the series has to offer besides perhaps Re:CoM.

Gameplay:
This is a HUGE one. Because it's generally the most hated part of the series. But the deck of cards offers by far the most versatile system in KH. Far beyond the 'freedom' the Command Deck offers. This is the ONLY game in the entire series where it's perfectly okay to have an entirely magic based offense. Or use nothing but flashy moves. Flashy moves are made more viable as well, because they can only be canceled by a higher value card or a zero which means you don't have to worry about stray attacks. You could also set up a deck based around a huge variety of special effect cards, or a deck based around summons. All of this is viable, and what's more, not consumable. You don't have to worry about using an elixer in a battle, or using trinity limit, or whatever. No matter what you do, you can use it again next battle.
The bosses are far more distinct as well. All variations on existing bosses bar the Organization fights, but generally presented in a more tactile way. Mickey cards give you a huge advantage for strategic card breaks, and card breaking in itself means that touch attacks can be dealt with simply. Finally, the leveling system isn't automated which allows you to grow a character as you see fit.

All in all, Chain of Memories is a fairly impressive package. It might take a little extra effort, but if you really look at it, it offers a LOT that KH simply doesn't anywhere else.