KH3D *Minor Spoilers* Review of Kingdom Hearts:Dream Drop Distance

[King of all Hearts 11]

Hey there! King of all Hearts here. I may be new to the forum, but that doesn't belittle the fact that I am an avid KH fan. Heck, I got the PSP just to get Kingdom Hearts BBS! That being said, my love for the series won't blind me from the several flaws this game has as I write this review. So without furthur ado, I present to you my review of Kingdom Hearts 3D since I was lucky enough to obtain one from the Nintendo World Event on Saturday and have played it till the end. (Just finished it an hour ago)

 

Story

What is there to say about Kingdom Hearts' story? For one thing it has been able to blend Final Fantasy elements and Disney elements almost flawlessly, while telling a very intricate plot. But the intricate plot is where KH can falter. Kingdom Hearts 3D starts where Re: coded left off, where Master Yen Sid asks Sora and Riku to take the Mark of Mastery exam in order to combat the return of Master Xehanort now that both his Heartless and Nobody have been vanquished. Now unlinke the test back in BBS, Sora and Riku must go through seven different sleeping worlds that haven't been freed since Kingdom Hearts I. If they can get back alive while unlocking the seven keyholes, then they can be considered full fledged Keyblade Masters. There journey will take them through the old yet new Traverse Town, and Disney worlds based on the Hunchback of Notre Dome and Tron Legacy among others. Before I get to the negatives of the plot, lets go through the positives. First, the mix of the best of both worlds is still in full display and each world follows its story well. Usually, Sora follows the movie while Riku follows an alternate reality of sorts (The sole exception being the Tron Legacy world) The second positve is that the story on display here will turn the Kingdom Hearts world on its head and brings forth the most shocking of revelations near the end. Now this is where the problems come in. The story is very convoluted as it tries to bring all plot points from previous games together and yes, this does lead to several retcons along the way. Without spoiling too much, there is time travel added to the mix, so even your vast knowledge of all things Kingdom Hearts can't save you here. It is by no means as complicated as say, Metal Gear Solid's story, but it shows. Secondly, you need to understand everything about all the other games (Not as much for Recoded, but it does help) in order to fully appreciate everything. The memento system introduced helps soften the blow, but there are some points still missing.

 

Gameplay

What is there to say about the gameplay that hasn't been already said. Yes, there is a camera problem and lock ons can sometimes lock on to the wrong thing. Yes, most of the worlds are lifeless and dull. And yes, there is alot of button mashing. However, there are several gameplay mechanics added here that help brighten the experience. First is the Flowmotion system, which is argulably the greatest gamplay mechanic to every be introduced period! Using flowmotion, you can bounce of of walls, swirl around poles and throw big baddies, all the while doing major damage to enemies. This along with the Command system from BBS returning, makes the problem with the button mashing non-existant. It does not however, fix the lock on problem nor does it help the camera problem (Although it could have been much worse) All in all flowmotion makes gameplay fun and not repetitive, while making the lifeless worlds not a lifeless. You also must go between worlds in a area called Dive Mode, where you fall down a long path while dodging obstacles and gathering items needed to get the next world. There's even a few boss battles here. Then there are the Dream Eaters. See, becuase these worlds are sleeping, Heartless and Nobodies can't reach them, but new threat in the form of Dream Eaters called Nightmares appear. However, there are also good Dream Eaters called Spirits that fill in your party members. You can have two out at a time and a third in reserve. By defeating enemies, you can gains parts to make new and more powerful Dream Eaters and by using a BBS Command Board style minigame and another Chain of Memories card like minigame known as Flick Rush, you can level up Dream Eaters and subsequently yourself. You can also pet them in a Nintendogs-esque way thanks to the Augmented Reality system. Sora and Riku can also combine with these Spirits when the pink bar under them is filled. Sora will go ontop of them and bash through enemies while Riku combines with them to make powerful Command style like combos. This makes gameplay even more fun. But that's not all, there is also Reality Shift, where by performing a certain action, near a certain place at a certain time, you can do more damage. (Ie. Traverse Town allows you to take barrels and fling them at enemies while a world based on the not well known Three Musketeers shows you a comic where you must do something your asked of) And then there's the drop gauge. Basically in order for you to keep track of two different stories, you will switch between Sora and Riku after a certain amount of time. There is no avoiding this and there isn't much time to react when it is whittling away. There are some items to stop this, but that's it. Now this sounds good in theory, but not in execution. There are times where you can drop when you're in a mission and when you come back you may forget what that mission was. You can switch back immediately, but you are rewarded for staying all the way, so doing so is ill advised, especially when you get to the last few bosses. Speaking of bosses, the drop gauge works there too, so you may find yourself dropping at a boss battle just when you are about to beat the boss and when you come back, his HP is all the way up. (Oh, the anxiety it caused during Sora's last boss battle! Aghhhhhhhh!)

 

Graphics

Here is the part of the game that is flawless. While it won't make your jaw drop, all the worlds are full of color and alot of the facial expression are fluid and crisp (Even more so then previous games). This says alot considering this is a handheld system. All the Dream Eaters are very colorful and feel like you are part of a colorful painting. Even the lifeless worlds have enough background as to not be a distraction. The 3D is also used perfectly with some of the Boss attacks jumping out of the screen and some of the first person viewing on some cutscenes as well as the Dive mode showing real depth.

 

Audio

The Audio, as with most Kingdom Hearts games, is excellent. Composed by Yoko Shimomura and BBS' Takeharu Ishimoto and Square's Tsuyoshi Sekito, it continues to awe and inspire with songs that always fit the mood, whether it is the situation at hand or the world you are in. There are alot of old themes in here, but there are plenty of new ones and you'll be happy to know, the old songs are the best songs. Then there is the voice acting which is pretty incredible considering its a handheld game too. You'll be happy to know that most of the original character reprise their roles here. There are also the characters from The World Ends with You (Suberashi Sekai in Japan) added into the game that replace the usual Final Fantasy ones. Most of the voice actors that did their characters return as well (The exception being Rhyme, but her new one sounds earily similar to Kate Higgens, think Sakura from Naruto and Saber from Fate/Stay Night). While all actors perform there roles well, Joshua's actor is the odd ball. Its not that his voice sounds bad, its just he has alot of sarcastic dialouge and his actor doesn't sound sarcastic. For the new disney charcters, some of their original actors return, but many are replaced by new ones (This is especially true for Tron Legacy for the same reason the Pirates of the Carribean actors couldn't reprise their roles in Kingdom Hearts II). As for their replacements, (This includes all characters) they all sound very much like the originals. (You'd be surprised that Frollo's actor is dead and that he is voiced by someone diferent) Finally, there also comes a time where dialouge can seem blocky, (Pauses are taken where they shouldn't be) but those are few and far between.

 

Conclusion

Wow! That was one long review! Overall, Kingdom Hearts 3D is an excellent addition to the Kingdom Hearts mythos and one that will keep you wanting the inevitable Kingdom Hearts III. Despite the usual problems: convoluted story and some bad gameplay choices and some new ones: the Drop Gauge, there are enough positives to outweigh the negatives and you won't find a better 3DS game. Take a look on the KH Wiki if you need clarification and if you want, I can make reviews on the other Kingdom Hearts game and others.

 

Story: 7/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Graphics: 10/10

Audio: 10/10

 

Overall: 8.75 (That's what you get when you add all together and get the percent. I'm not rounding to 9.0. Deal with it!)

[Jim 2,990]

Very honest, descriptive, and non-fanboyish review. Good job!

[SquareSora 133]

yea great review!! very Honest!!