Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance review

[Dogg Thang]

Kingdom Hearts 3DS. With all the power of a whole extra D. So how is it? Well the truth is I have only played the first KH game (which I enjoyed) and some of GBA CoM (which I really didn't like) so I can't compare it to the more recent KH games. So far though, we have the same main characters in Sora and Riku and Traverse Town, so it already feels quite familiar to me.

The game looks pretty lovely on 3DS and sounds lovely too. As for the gameplay, well, so far it seems to have plenty of potential. It's very rich in that there seem to be loads of features and abilities in the play system, with some interesting things like flowmotion (basically shooting around the environments by spinning and jumping on things) and like the ability to shift to the lower screen to launch items into the air and the addition of an almost pokemon like creature collecting feature. But so far it's all potential as I haven't yet found much of a use for most of these features. Hopefully all that will develop.

I'm quite early in the game and it is still throwing tutorials at me - there are a lot of these and I imagine I haven't paid anywhere near as much attention as I should have. Still, the game seems to play well except for a godawful camera. The game does support the circle pad pro but I haven't yet tried it.

So that's it so far, except to say that it has a gorgeous intro sequence, still using a versions of Simple and Clean from the original.

[Rep]

Be interesting to hear how you get on with this, with you having only played KH1. As someone who's played six KH games, I still struggle to follow what's going on, the overall story has so many complex layers, that I wonder how they can be introduced to new players.

The tutorial in Kingdom Hearts 2 is a whooping three hours long too

Birth by Sleep is going to be hard to top though, the previous DS entries were pretty pants.

[Dogg Thang]

Well I'm into the meat of the game now and really enjoying it. Admittedly I found Traverse Town a bit of a chore and I was wondering if I'd get into it but it clicked once I got out into the other worlds. The first world is § from Disney's Hunchback § and I groaned a little thinking that the 3DS game got the dregs but it actually turned out to be pretty good. I really enjoyed playing through it and the location is pretty varied and interesting.

As far as the story goes, so far it has been pretty simple in that there is a bad guy and his bad friend, who I take it was in other KH games. The thing is, even if I'm missing the layers there (likely), the main stories in the worlds carry me through and are interesting.

Currently in § Tron Legacy's Grid § and loving it, having loved the movie. It looks great and they did a really good job representing the characters. My only gripe there is no § Daft Punk § soundtrack. I would have hoped for at least KH versions but no, nothing I recognise. A shame given how much the music really made the movie.

So yes, generally really liking this. Combat is a but relentless but they've made it interesting enough not to become frustrating. Kind of wishing I had played the others now.

[Rep]

Also enjoying it so far, even up to the end of § La Cite § there's alot going on. Liked the scene with § Axel/Lea and company waking up, can't wait to see where that's going to go. Since I don't think we ever found out what Lea and Isa were doing in Radiant Garden originally. § Didn't realise that each pet has it's own skill tree and separate set of points to upgrade skills, that was a nice surprise.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah I had no idea who those people were. It did give me text summaries of Birth By Sleep and one of the DS ones but it was a real case of tldr.

[Rep]

The drop system is starting to irritate me now, how the hell they thought it was a good idea I'll never know. It breaks the flow of the game up too much. Apart from that I'm really enjoying it though.

[Dogg Thang]

I don't know. I kind of like the drop system. While I don't know most of the other games to compare, I kind of like that time limit and trying to get as much from the bonus time as possible. I have made it through the first batch of worlds now and looking forward to what's next. So far, I'm enjoying it massively. The worlds have been excellent, with the exception of Traverse Town which I find really dead and dull.

Really wishing I had played the others now, especially KH2 knowing it had a more classic Tron world. Hoping they do a HD collection that makes it to Vita or something.

[Rep]

Oh Man, § Symphony of Sorcery § best Kingdom Hearts world since "that one" in KH2, also a nice twist on § Mickey's Keyblade Training §.

Kingdom Hearts 1 is definitely in need of a remake, the game itself isn't that great, it's not until 2 it becomes something special. Playing KH 1 > 2 > Birth by Sleep and 358 days should bring you upto speed, 2 and BBS are amazing, 358 not so much.

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, that world is gorgeous and has loads of variety. It's really nice. I'm in what I take to be the last world now and, because it's now about story elements from other games, it's losing me a little. Probably just because I haven't played those others but the non-Disney elements come across as a huge weakness because we go from these fun and varied worlds to all these black-coated guys all looking like a minor variation of each other and all spouting long speeches. Sora and Riku themselves seem much more fun and interesting and even the World Ends With You Characters were fun so it's weird to me that these Cloudalikes drag it down so much and yet they're apparently the main meat of the Kingdom Hearts story. Doesn't seem to be playing to the strengths of the concept, as far as I can see.

Still, I'm totally loving this game. Are we the only ones playing it?

[Rep]

Completed Sora now, getting destroyed by § Third Form Ansem § with Riku though. There's a serious amount of Kingdom Hearts lore going on in § The World that Never Was § It's also dropped more bombshells than I can count, which Is a shame because there's some really good stuff going on here.

abigsmurf was heavily into Kingdom Hearts, but he's not posted in ages. Here's hoping they keep Flowmotion for Kingdom Hearts 3 too.