Square Enix have announced that a premiere launch event will be held for the North American release of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. On Saturday July 28, 2012, from 9AM to 1PM, at the Nintendo World Store in New York (10 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020), fans will have the opportunity to purchase the standard or Mark of Mastery (limited quantities) versions of the game three days before its scheduled release on July 31, 2012. Fans will also have the opportunity to write messages to the Japanese development team of the game, or take photos in a Kingdom Hearts photo both. Exciting stuff! Will you be attending the event? Let us know at our forum.
Square Enix also released the following Launch Trailer for North America along with the announcement. This is identical to the recent European Launch Trailer, but also contains a voice-over to explain some features of the game. Enjoy!
Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] is now available in Europe, as of July 20, 2012. Everyone must be very excited! North American fans still have just over 11 days to wait (until July 31, 2012), so please keep our spoiler policy in mind when posting anything on KH13. We anticipate that everyone will be buying the game ASAP, due to the amazing previews we've seen so far, but for those of you who are fortunate enough to have Kingdom Hearts 3D already, we have prepared some areas where you can discuss the game.
- Feel free to use our dedicated forum for Kingdom Hearts 3D discussion to share your own experiences with the game. We will be making sure that everyone follows our spoiler policy, which means that spoilers will be properly marked, and the forum will be a great place for everyone (both those who have the game, and those still waiting) to discuss it.
- We have set up a dedicated topic for people to discuss and share any videos, walkthroughs, playthroughs or "let's plays" of Kingdom Hearts 3D. This will keep all of the new videos in one place, making it easy for the North American fans to avoid being spoiled, while still allowing the European fans to experience the new game together!
- For those of you who are still waiting, we still have our countdown topic for Kingdom Hearts 3D, where you are able to discuss your anticipation in a spoiler-free environment, countdown the time until the game's release, and share what you will be doing in preparation. (A marathon of the past games, anyone?)
This is, of course, just a small portion of the Kingdom Hearts 3D-related fun available on KH13! Please make sure that you spend a lot of time in our Kingdom Hearts 3D forum, since this is where a majority of the action will be happening. In the interest of keeping everyone un-spoiled until they've bought the game, we will be starting our full coverage after the North American release. Stay tuned!
Siliconera have conducted an interview with Tai Yasue, the co-director of the Kingdom Hearts series, concerning Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. They have published the first half of this interview, and thanks to them, you can read it below.
Update: Siliconera have updated with the second half of the interview, and this can be read below.
-- How did you pick the worlds? You have the Hunchback of Notre Dame world; the Musketeers, which isn’t as well known; and Fantasia, which is a key film.
Tai Yasue, Director: Each world has its difference and meaning. Notre Dame had a lot of user feedback. A lot of users wanted Notre Dame to be added, so we listened to them and we put that in. For The Three Musketeers, we thought it would just be interesting that Mickey, Donald and Goofy were dressed differently. [They] were sort of themselves but in a different way. We thought that would be sort of fresh.
-- For Fantasia, we wanted players to play with the music. We have some nice classical music, so I guess a music-centric game.
I remember reading in another interview that you were originally thinking about having the original Tron world in the game, and then you decided to go for [Tron] Legacy. Sora was supposed to go to the original Tron world and Riku would go to Legacy. Can you tell us about that?
That was Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, but we also considered Tron, too. I think we wanted Tron: Legacy at the very beginning, but for Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, we were thinking about that. Sora was going to go to Fantasia and Riku was going to go to Fantasia 2000.
We wanted Sora and Riku to go to the same world but in a different way, but at the very end, we looked at a lot of music and locations in Fantasia and thought that was really rich, and we wanted to concentrate on the best locations, so we concentrated on one Fantasia.
-- A lot of fans are happy to see The World Ends With You characters in Traverse Town. It was kind of cool how you had Joshua explain what was going on between Sora and Riku.
Well, actually, Nomura wanted The World Ends With You added and we wanted to sort of change Traverse Town. We always use that world, so we wanted to make it fresh and new in a way that would work. The fields for example were buildings that looked sort of like Shibuya with a lot of graffiti and we had a change of look.
For previous Kingdom Hearts, we’ve used a lot of Final Fantasy characters and we wanted a departure from that for Traverse Town, so The World Ends With You was a natural selection.
-- What was it like programming the AI for all the different Dream Eaters?
We actually used a different AI system for [Kingdom Hearts] 3D. During Birth by Sleep, it was script-based, but for 3D, we used a new game flow tool. For one Dream Eater, there’s actually several “characters”. Several personalities. So if you have your mascot characters, they would do different things. We were able to have the freedom to make a wide variety of tweaks and changes for the Dream Eaters.
For the mascot Dream Eaters that you carry along with you, they actually change along the way if you pet them and stuff. So it really depends on the character. They might just sleep, they might be really useless, or they might be angry all the time and attack a lot. Overall, there was a lot more AI than Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
-- What are you going to do with all that AI for a future Kingdom Hearts game? What are you going to do with all this tech that you developed for 3D?
Well, there are a lot of ideas coming along. I’m not really in a position to talk about the next Kingdom Hearts, but I think AI is something that we really have put more power into. For the next-gen consoles like the PS3 for example, there’s a lot more things you can do compared to the 3DS, just because there’s a lot more CPU power. So, if we were to make a game for the next-gen [systems], for the PS3 for example, we would rather like to utilize that part.
-- Kingdom Hearts 3D’s combat is fun, but what drove me crazy at first was the “Drop” mechanic. In the middle of the first boss fight in Traverse Town I got “dropped,” so I tried to switch back really quickly and the boss’ health regenerated.
Tai Yasue, Director: [Laughs] Nomura wanted it to be a bit thrilling in a way, so we added a time limit. It’s a little bit different in the North American version. We tweaked it, it’s not a big difference, but Sora and Riku’s HP will become full at the beginning of the boss battle, so if you’re dying, you can start over, too.
We didn’t really want to lose the character of the game. It’s one of the parts that’s sometimes stressful. When you’re successful, when you beat the boss at the last few seconds it feels really good.
-- I got the hang of it later on and how you can use it to boost your character. That’s when I felt it worked, but at the beginning when someone doesn’t know what’s going on, it’s like, “Awww…”
[Laughs] As you go along, you earn a lot of drop bonuses, so we wanted the characters cooperating. A feel for cooperation, and we did that using the Drop system, I think.
-- While Kingdom Hearts 3D uses the deck command system, I found myself using more Flowmotion attacks. They seemed to overpower everything. You can bounce back and forth between enemies, and it negates almost all of your commands.
At the start of the game, the Flow-Motion may feel powerful, but as you progress, at the later stages, the Deck Commands are really powerful. Flowmotion is used more when you want to escape, so there’s a difference in meaning and strategy. At the very beginning, really, we wanted to introduce Flowmotion, so the Deck Commands are a little weaker, but as you progress, that balance changes.
-- I see what you mean because in the beginning I used Flowmotion a lot. One of the most interesting thing in Traverse Town, when you go underground, there’s all of those grind rails. I know you can ride those and find the correct path to the top, but I just jumped all the way, by doing an infinite wall-jump using Flowmotion. Did you plan for that?
Oh, we did. We planned for that. Kingdom Hearts isn’t a game where you have to do one single thing to clear it. We wanted options–you can go this way or that way. It’s not just one route, you can go up the wall, you can slide down a ramp. You don’t need only need to use the Deck Commands, you can use Flowmotion or you can use Reality Shift. We just wanted to provide a wider range of options and really wanted users to pick which strategy they use.
-- In some places, though, like Prankster’s Paradise, I feel like it almost “breaks” the level. Like when you flip the world upside-down. All the really good treasure chests are at the top, but you can avoid doing all the platforming by horizontal wall-jumping across.
I guess, but if you want the treasure chests, you have to actually switch it over. One of the concepts for Flowmotion is a lot of freedom. And when we say “freedom,” we wanted the player to feel free to do what they want to do. You could use a lot of map gimmicks, but if you don’t want to you can use Flowmotion too.
-- What other tweaks did you make to the North American version, other than to the Drop mechanic?
I think that’s just the major change; we haven’t changed that much. We wanted the Japanese version and North American version to be pretty similar. I think there’s a Drop bonus that was added. I think it’s called “Drop Speed Down” in Japanese, but I don’t know what the English name is. We added the drop bonus and that’s about it. Not a lot of major changes.
-- Going back to Prankster’s Paradise when you’re playing as Riku, all the time, there’s this wall of text that tries to explain Chain of Memories. Kingdom Hearts started with a very simple mythology that’s gotten more complicated over time. What’s your view on how to make the mythology more accessible?
I really think it depends on the player. Some really want to know everything. For [Kingdom Hearts] 3D, you’ve got the Mementos, and you don’t have to see them if you don’t want to. You can skip it. At the same time, if you want to read it, you can go in and see it.
We developed the game so that hardcore players who want to understand it can do that, and people that just want to play lightly—who play all the Disney worlds, experience the Disney story–they don’t really have to see all the deep stuff.
-- There have been 10 years of Kingdom Hearts and kids who started playing the series when they were 10 are 20 now. Since we’re still focusing on the same characters, how are you going to make the Kingdom Hearts story follow an audience growing up with the franchise.
In 3D, we introduced the Memento system to cover that. In future titles, we’re going to really have to think about that.
I think for Kingdom Hearts you can really enjoy the lighter aspects. It’s about coming to terms with Riku’s darkness. It’s about friends. There are a lot of easy themes too and when you go to a Disney world each one has a story that is really accessible. If you want to understand everything it might be a little complex, but if you want to play lightly I think that’s possible too. Obviously, we want new players to access the game in a way so we’re going to have to think about that. I can’t really talk about our new titles yet, but for 3D we tried to do that with the Memento system.
-- Do you have any other plans for the 10th anniversary?
Not at the moment, no. [Kingdom Hearts] 3D is definitely our 10th anniversary title.
-- Without spoiling it, can we talk about the ending a bit?
I would just like to say that, this time the game is more centered on Riku and how he comes to terms with the darkness. Kingdom Hearts 3D really connects to the next Kingdom Hearts–Kingdom Hearts 3. And in a way, I think you’ll be able to see a glimpse of the future by playing Kingdom Hearts 3D.
IGN have published their final review for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. The interview contains both a video portion and a text review, and awards the game an impressive score: 8.5/10, "Great". You can see the review below, created by Audrey Drake of IGN. The video is particularly interesting, since it contains new English footage of the game.
Disney and Final Fantasy - it's the mash-up we never knew we always wanted. Now Kingdom Hearts, the franchise that seemed like such a stretch when it first debuted for PlayStation 2 in 2002, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Commemorating the occasion is the release of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for Nintendo 3DS, a fitting culmination of 10 years of keyblade action.
Read More >>
Update: IGN have posted an IGN_Strategize guide covering Flowmotion. It tells you all about Flowmotion whilst showing high quailty English gameplay that we haven't seen before. You can watch it below in HD 720p.
FFDream.com have conducted an interview with Julien Merceron, the worldwide director of technology within Square Enix. The majority of this interview discusses their new "Luminous Engine", which was previewed at E3 2012, however, the interviewer asked about Kingdom Hearts III and if it will use the Luminous Engine, and Julien gave his answer.
It seems to suggest that some work has already been done with Kingdom Hearts on the Crystal Tools engine (the engine that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is built on), however, it could just mean that this is still in the planning stages, or it could simply be Julien's opinion. We'll let you draw your own conclusion from the interview extract below, which was translated from French to English by TheApprenticeofKingMickey from KH13.
FFDream: We presume, of course that this technology will be put to use in future productions coming from Square Enix. Do you believe Tetsuya Nomura could perhaps make use of this technology in Kingdom Hearts III?
Julien: It's already evident that we're using Luminous Engine on various franchises other than just Final Fantasy. However, Crystal Tools, as I was talking about earlier, is employed exclusively on Final Fantasy, only for now. Since the next Dragon Quest X uses Crystal Tools, as well as internal projects such as Kingdom Hearts which also utilize Crystal Tools, it's evident that Luminous Engine will cover a large spectrum of gaming franchises and I hope it will be taken advantage of by other teams, but we still have a lot of work to do.
Update: FFDream have done their own English translation of the interview, and this alternate translation can be read below.
FFDream: We imagine that this technology will be used for the next Square Enix productions. Do you think that Tetsuya Nomura could use it for the next Kingdom Hearts III?
Julien Merceron: We will use the Luminous Engine for a lot of games, not only Final Fantasy. By the way, currently, Final Fantasy uses the Crystal Tools, but also the news Dragon Quest X and other projects such as Kingdom Hearts. Luminous Engine will thus be used for a large range of games and, I hope, by a lot of teams, but we still have a lot of work to do.
Square Enix have released 29 new screenshots from the English version of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. These screenshots show various parts of the game, and are in great quality. The screenshots from the opening scenes, in particular, are quite large. We definitely recommend you check them out! You can see them below, in our gallery.
Square Enix have released a new promotional video for the English version of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], focusing on the new worlds present in the game. This video contains a lot of new English gameplay footage, is 2 minutes long, and available in 720p. You can watch it below, or download it from our video archive.
A television commercial for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has begun showing in Germany, advertising the European release of the game on July 20, 2012. Although the commercial is only 5 seconds long, it is good to see that Kingdom Hearts 3D is getting large amounts of exposure. Thanks to chrisn1211 who uploaded the commercial (and contacted us about it), you can watch it below.
Update 1: The video below has been updated with a better quality version.
Update 2: A new Kingdom Hearts 3D commercial has begun showing in Germany. Thanks to SaveDisneyShowsDE for the upload, you can see this below.
zouiguipopo has received an early copy of the French version of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], and uploaded an unboxing video and video of the game's early footage to YouTube. From the unboxing video, we can see that unlike the Japanese version, the international version of Kingdom Hearts 3D will contain a full instruction booklet! The exclusive AR cards and other items in the box are also shown, along with the tutorial level of the game. You can watch this video below. Thanks to Terranort9406 from KH13 for the find.
The final boxart for the English version of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has appeared in GAME stores in the United Kingdom. Xalaru from KH13 managed to take some photos of this box, and thanks to him, you can see both the front and back covers of the game below. This is the first time that we've seen the final version of the back cover of the English version of the game.
Nintendo Show 3D is a regular video series by Nintendo, available to watch on the Nintendo 3DS' eShop. The July 12, 2012 episode of this show has featured Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. This feature contains new English footage, as well as an overview of the game. Thanks to Terranort9406 from KH13 for the find, you can watch this footage below, or download it from our video archive.
San Diego Comic Con 2012 is an event running from July 12 to July 15, 2012. Square Enix is attending the event, and they are set to show off Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], as well as various Kingdom Hearts merchandise. We will regularly update this post with news as it appears.
Day 3 (Saturday July 14, 2012)
4:00PM EST: Churro has uploaded photos showing the Kingdom Hearts 3D card given out at the Square Enix booth. It advertises the demo now available on the Nintendo eShop and has the AR code for easy access. You can view them below.
Day 2 (Friday July 13, 2012)
6:30PM EST: NintendoCultureClub have shown some footage of the Kingdom Hearts 3D demo being played on the Nintendo 3DS XL. You can watch this below.
Day 1 (Thursday July 12, 2012)
6:10PM EST: Emily, Assistant PR Manager at Square Enix America has uploaded a photo showing a comparison of Kingdom Hearts 3D on the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo 3DS XL. You can view it below.
5:40PM EST: Churro has uploaded photos showing the Kingdom Hearts 3D demo being played on the new Nintendo 3DS XL. And it's looking pretty good. You can view them below.
5:30PM EST: Churro has uploaded another photo from the event. This photo shows the Kingdom Hearts 3D booth. You can view it below.
12:30PM EST: Square Enix are currently livestreaming coverage of Comic Con. You can watch this below. The livestream is currently over, but they are set to return at 12:00PM PST.
Day 0 (Wednesday July 11, 2012)
9:45PM EST: Square Enix have uploaded eleven photos to their official Flickr account, showing their new Kingdom Hearts 3D Play Arts. You can view them below.
7:37PM EST: Churro has uploaded another photo showing the Kingdom Hearts Four Piece Resin Set. You can view it below.
6:02PM EST: Churro has uploaded more photos from the event. They show the Kingdom Hearts 3D wall scroll, the Kingdom Hearts Four Piece Resin Set and and the games' booth. You can view them below.
6:00PM EST: Thanks to Churro from KHUltimania, we now know that the Kingdom Hearts 3D demo at the San Diego Comic Con is the same one as the one from E3 2012 (a demo based in Country of the Musketeers).
5:50PM EST: Churro from Kingdom Hearts Ultimania has uploaded photos showing the new Kingdom Hearts 3D Play Arts. The two new figurines are of Sora and Riku in their outfits from The Grid.
The official North American website for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has been updated. The website has six sections, with only four currently available. The sections are "About", "Gameplay", "Characters", "Media", "Worlds" and "Downloads". A description of the website, as well as all screenshots from the website, can be seen below. Thanks to Terranort9406 from KH13 for informing us about the update.
Official North American Kingdom Hearts 3D website
The about section includes a description or summary of the game, a link to pre-order the game and also The Kingdom Hearts North American Timeline which lists all the games released in North America. The characters section currently has three charatcers. They are Sora, Riku and King Mickey. Each character has a short description, renders of the character and a Dream Eater along with screenshots.
Under media there are two sub-sections one titled "Trailers" and and the other titled "Screenshots". Trailers contains three previously released trailers which can already be watched and downloaded in our trailer archive, while the screenshots sub-section contains screenshots previously seen. Lastly, the worlds section contains two worlds currently available. They are Traverse Town and Country of the Musketeers. Under each is a description of the world, a list of all the characters that appear in that world alongside renders and descriptions of each character. Screenshots are also available.
Update 1: Placeholders for the gameplay and downloads sections are up, accessible at http://na.square-enix.com/kh3d/gameplay.php and http://na.square-enix.com/kh3d/downloads.php. These sections are unfinished, but they do give us a hint at what we can expect to see there-- downloads is set to contain wallpapers, Facebook covers and icon packs; and gameplay is set to contain 12 videos explaining features of Kingdom Hearts 3D.
Update 2: The official European website for Kingdom Hearts 3D has also been updated with these changes. For the first time ever the North American and European websites are identical. Even The Kingdom Hearts Timeline is identical despite Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories not being released in Europe or Australia.
Characters
Media
Traverse Town
Country of the Musketeers
Square Enix have announced that they will be livestreaming coverage of San Diego Comic Con 2012 on their official Ustream account. Their coverage will be starting on July 11 at 8:00PM PST. A follow up Tweet said that they will be "showing content from the show floor and hosting some live giveaways". With Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] confirmed to appear at the event, it is likely that this livestream will show us footage of the game's playable demo.
A television commercial for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has begun showing in France, advertising the European release of the game on July 20, 2012. The commercial is 15 seconds long, and thanks to KHDestiny who uploaded the commercial, you can watch it below.
Update: MusiqueDePubs have uploaded a direct HD 1080p version of the video, and we have replaced the video below with this version. Thanks to Terranort9406 from KH13 for the find.
