The next issue of V Jump magazine, which releases on February 21, 2012, will contain an article on Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance where the Tron: Legacy-based world is announced. Thanks to a post on a Japanese blog website, we now know that the Tron: Legacy world will be called The Grid. Also, the article will contain more information relating to Dream Eaters.
With the V Jump article releasing on Tuesday, and the Famitsu Weekly article releasing on Thursday, we should start to get more scans and information as early as Monday (as they are usually appear online one day before)! Please look forward to it. Thanks to bKvEBVAvUq for the tip.
Vincent Corazza, who has previously voiced Zexion in the Kingdom Hearts series, has confirmed that he will be returning to voice Zexion/Ienzo in the latest game, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. In an email with KH13 member axel91, Corazza confirmed that he had completed his voice acting for the game, "shortly after two months ago". You can see this email below.
Update: Taochan from KHInsider emailed Vincent Corazza, asking about his role in KH3D. Corazza confirmed, adding that the recording session was two weeks ago. It's great to see that Square Enix are localizing the game so soon!
A Famitsu Weekly preview has been published which shows some contents of the next issue of Famitsu Weekly, releasing on February 23, 2012. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance will be one of the featured articles in the issue, and will contain information about a "mysterious character", as well as explaining some parts of the system with which you interact with your companions. Let's look forward to it!
On another note, we're sorry about the recent downtime! Our host decided to do some upgrades to our server, regardless of the bad timing. So, on the bright site, the site should seem a bit faster! Nothing has been lost, but you may notice the site go down a bit over the next day as the website transfers to the new server. Make sure you check out our English-subbed version of the new KH3D trailer, if you haven't already.
Update 2: Both videos have been added to our trailer archive for Kingdom Hearts 3D. *fixed broken links* Update 1: The trailer below has been updated with an English subbed version. Enjoy, Happy Valentine's present, KH13!
Square Enix has updated their official website for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. It contains an update to the Characters, System and Worlds sections, and also contains a new trailer in the Special section.
Special
English subtitles thanks to goldpanner, and video editing thanks to KH13. Please credit both if you use this video.
Some interesting details:
- The song Passion is used for the trailer's theme.
- There will be a world where Ursula appears as a boss battle, so we can assume it is based on The Little Mermaid.
- Sora talks to Braig in The World That Never Was.
- Axel is shown talking to Yen Sid.
- Riku is attacked by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.
- King Mickey is talking to Master Xehanort.
Characters
Characters has been updated with two new Dream Eaters-- one Spirit and one Nightmare.
System
System has been updated with a new video showing off the Dual Link feature.
Worlds
Worlds has been updated with Symphony of Sorcery, the world based on Fantasia.
Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer's Edition, which is out now, has included a section on the "top 50 video game endings of all time". Not surprisingly, both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II have made the list! Kingdom Hearts II was awarded 31st place, and Kingdom Hearts was awarded 22nd. You can see the complete list at our forum. Thanks to Nikolasvanitas from KH13 for the tip.
A Japanese bookstore has announced that a Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance focused issue of V Jump magazine will release on March 29, 2012. This is, of course, on the release date of Kingdom Hearts 3D. The book will be available at a price of ¥1150 (approximately US$14.83). Thanks to bKvEBVAvUq for the tip.
Update 2: Even more news relating to Corti's role as Neku, again thanks to KHInsider. Corti has updated his Twitter to say that he has finished recording his lines for the game. You can see this below. With so many voice actors announcing their involvement in the English version of the game, let's hope we get a localized trailer very soon!
Update 1: Thanks again to KHInsider for the find, we now know that Jesse David Corti actually Tweeted on February 8 to say that he had done some voice acting work for Neku on that day. This makes it pretty certain that he'll be voicing for Kingdom Hearts 3D!
Jesse David Corti, the voice actor for Neku Sakuraba in The World That Ends With You, has hinted at returning to voice the character in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Via a comment on one of his videos on his YouTube channel, Corti suggests that "you may hear me..." in the game. Since other voice actors have already confirmed their involvement, which means voice recording for the English version has already commenced, we can probably assume that what Corti is saying is true. Thanks to believe-it-ornot from KHInsider for the find, you can see a screenshot of this hint below. (Jesse David Corti is YouTube user dreamories.)
Update 3: Not much of an update, but still interesting nonetheless. Square Enix have updated their page explaining the different editions of Kingdom Hearts 3D to include the game's boxart.
Update 2: The box cover artwork has been updated with an *even larger* version of the front cover, this time from Amazon.com and thanks to Nova_Crystallis for the tip. You can see this below. Please click to open a larger version.
Update 1: The box cover artwork has been updated with a higher quality version from Square Enix's e-STORE's Twitter. This is the same size, but slightly clearer and without the Nintendo 3DS box template.
The front cover of the Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance game box has been revealed. As usual, the front cover features artwork by Tetsuya Nomura, depicting characters from the game. It's very pretty, so we hope you like it as much as we do! Thanks to aibo_ac7 for the tip.
Every so often, we make a news post telling you what we've added to the KH13.com Gallery. This update will deal with everything we've added to the gallery since the last update, which was early October (and will only list things that weren't featured in the news). The gallery has over 10,000 Kingdom Hearts-related images, so it's a must see for any Kingdom Hearts fan! Anyway, this is what we've been adding behind the scenes:
New photos have been added to:
- Tokyo Game Show 2011
- Japan Expo 2011
- Tokyo Game Show 2008
- E3 2010
- Next Generation World Hobby 2009 Winter
- Ikspiari Tokyo Disney Resort
- DKΣ3713
Many past online articles added to:
- Famitsu.com
Magazine articles:
- Various issues of Game Informer
- Various issues of K-Zone magazine
- The November 2011 issue of Nintendo Power
- The October 2002 issue of Super GamePower
- Various issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly Brasil
- The December 31, 2011 issue of Comic Weekly
Square Enix have completely redesigned their Piano Collections Series portal website. This, of course, contains links to websites for both Piano Collections Kingdom Hearts and Piano Collections Kingdom Hearts Field & Battle. There's not much else to say, apart from that the website looks pretty, and that it's good to see Square Enix updating their portal websites. Enjoy.
Update 2: We've updated the bottom of the article with all screenshots and character boxes that appear in the game sub-sections of the portal. Enjoy.
Update 1: The translation below has been updated with a complete translation of the website's "about" section. This reveals that as of March 31, 2011, the Kingdom Hearts series had sold 17 million copies worldwide.
Square Enix's official portal website for the Kingdom Hearts series has been completely redesigned. The portal website links to all the Kingdom Hearts games' official Japanese websites, including Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, with each game having a new, pretty button to go along with it. You can see these below, in our gallery.
Two new pages have been added to the Kingdom Hearts portal website: An about page, and a chronology page. A characters page and a glossary page are said to be coming soon. Translations can be seen below, thanks to sqexgal and goldpanner.
A translation of the about page, as well as an alternate translation of the chronology page, is also below in text format, thanks to Oishii from KH13, goldpanner and the KH13 Translation Project.
About
Kingdom Hearts is series of role-playing games born from Disney and Square Enix’s dream of appearing in a work together. Since the first title ‘Kingdom Hearts’ (released on PlayStation 2) went on sale in March 2002, it has been a popular series, with six titles released so far, and a cumulative total of over 17 million copies shipped worldwide (current as of 31 March 2011).
It is the story of those who wield the legendary weapon known as the ‘Keyblade’, and their friends, as they adventure through various Disney worlds, experiencing new hellos and goodbyes, and growing along the way.
With the universal themes of darkness and light and the heart serving as the axis, a story with many hidden mysteries unfolds.
Countless numbers of charming and fascinating personalities appear, chiefly from a range of Disney works, and also including Final Fantasy and original Kingdom Hearts characters.
Also, the battle, enjoyed through simple button input, is innundatingly refreshing and exhilarating, and throughout the series has received a favourable reputation.
Chronology
Keyblade War Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep begins
- Terra, Ventus, and Aqua travel to other worlds to search for the cause of a strange phenomenon
- At battle’s end, Terra, Ventus, and Aqua disappear from the realm of light. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep finishes Kingdom Hearts begins
- Sora wakes up a Keyblade wielder. Sora, Riku, and Kairi are separated.
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy meet, and set off to search for Kairi, Riku, and the King.
- Sora and Kairi reunite, but Sora temporarily becomes a heartless. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days begins
- Roxas is born. He becomes No. 13 in Organization XIII.
- Together, Sora and his friends battle and win against Ansem.
- Sora, Donald and Goofy are finally reunited with Riku and the King. However, to close the door to darkness, the two stay in the realm of darkness.
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy once again set off to find Riku and the King. Kingdom Hearts finishes Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories begins
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive at Castle Oblivion.
- Riku arrives at Castle Oblivion.
- Sora and Riku each fight the Organization XIII members in Castle Oblivion, and triumph.
- To regain the memories that they lost, Sora, Donald, and Goofy fall asleep inside pods. To fight against the darkness inside him, Riku sets off together with the king. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories finishes
- Roxas abandons Organization XIII, and is captured by DIZ. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days finishes Kingdom Hearts II begins
- After having a 7 day vacation, Roxas falls asleep.
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy wake up from their sleep, and once more venture off.
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy are once again reunited with Riku and the King.
- Sora and his friends face off with Organization XIII in one final battle, and win. Kingdom Hearts II finishes Kingdom Hearts coded begins
- The King, Donald, and Goofy perform and analysis on the strange occurence in Jimminy’s Journal.
- A letter arrives to Sora from the King. Kingdom Hearts coded finishes Kingdom Hearts 3D begins
- To be continued.
Lastly, the portal contains a sub-section for each game in the Kingdom Hearts series. These sections contain a brief summary of the game (basically what you'd find on the back of the game box), and also some neat screenshots and character boxes. You can see these below, in our gallery.
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Kingdom Hearts
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Chain of Memories
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Kingdom Hearts II
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → coded
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → 358/2 Days
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Birth by Sleep
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Re:coded
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts series, Japanese website → Birth by Sleep Final Mix
As you would know, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance releases on March 29, 2012. On the same day, a Kingdom Hearts 3D-themed Nintendo 3DS will release with the game in a bundle, and the 10th Anniversary 3D+Days+Re:coded Box will release. Various stores have started offering pre-orders for the Nintendo 3DS bundle, and the bundle has sold out extremely fast!
Amazon.com posted that "reservations started at approximately 17:30, and in 10 minutes they sold out about 1,200 copies". Square Enix's e-STORE, who opened reservations to "Ultimate" Square Enix Members on January 30, said that "we reached the expected number of sales in 4 hours". As you can see, the bundle is already proving to be quite popular! Thanks to aibo_ac7 for the news, and Oishii from KH13 for translating the statements.
Hey everyone! Just a short update for you today. We've been adding some minor features and improvements to the website, and we just wanted to let you know about them so you can check them out for yourselves. Over the next few weeks, we'll be working very hard and adding lots of new things, in preparation for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. We hope you look forward to it, but, for today:
- Our interview archive has been updated with heaps of new interviews! There are 84 interviews about the Kingdom Hearts series in total, dating all the way back to 2002. We believe this is the largest collection of KH interviews anywhere, so please check it out, and feel free to contact us if we're missing one.
- We've greatly improved our comments feature. As you've probably seen, most pages on the site have a comments section at the end (click here for an example). This is now a lot more visually pleasing, and allows you to reply directly to other people's comments, and have yours appear below. Why not leave a comment on the KH3D video that appeared yesterday?
- Lastly, a couple of community projects. You'll notice that the first box underneath the site's header now counts down the amount of days left until KH3D. If you click that, you can see that we've set up a countdown topic which explains the different editions of the game, and where you can pre-order each one if you live outside of Japan. Secondly, we've set up a Translation Project forum in preparation for the KH3D release.
So, that's it for today. We'll probably have more improvements for you in a couple days. Is there anything you want us to do on the website? Feel free to let us know at our forum.
Square Enix have updated their official website for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. This update includes additions to the Characters, System and Worlds sections. The update for Characters is the new Dream Eaters, Pierrot Clown and Handsome Pegasus. In Worlds, we have been treated to a new section about Traverse Town. Lastly, in System, we have a new video featuring the "Reality Shift". Everything can be seen below, in our gallery, and the video can be downloaded from our video archive. Thanks to Nikolasvanitas from KH13 for the find.
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts 3D, Japanese website → Characters
Screenshots → Kingdom Hearts 3D, Japanese website → Traverse Town
Update: The new information has been translated, thanks to goldpanner from KHInsider.
Handsome Pegasus *Spirit
Commands
>Sparkga
>Icebreaker
>Thoroughbred Ride
Dream Eater that attacks by gathering the wind.
Defenceless while gathering wind.
------------
Ghost Pierrot *Nightmare
Commands
>Rainbow Wind
>Final Break
>Attack
A Dream Eater that loves prizes.
They do things such as turn into prizes, and steal them too.
------------
REALITY SHIFT 1/4
When the pink marker has come up
[drag down ↓ on the bottom screen] or [X + A button]
When the pink marker has appeared over the target,
you can execute Reality Shift.
--------------
REALITY SHIFT 2/4
Slingshot (Traverse Town)
While touching an object on the bottom screen, pull and adjust the point of impact.
Let go and it will launch, exploding at the point of impact and damaging nearby enemies.
---------
REALITY SHIFT 3/4
Holy Rope (La Cité des Cloches)
On the bottom screen, connect sparkling points with a line.
Where the connecting line was on the bottom screen, a rope will appear,
damaging enemies that pass over it.
--------------
REALITY SHIFT 4/4
Wonder Comic (Country of the Musketeers)
Trap enemies in a comic book world, which you control by following directions to touch the bottom screen.
Keep control until the very end and it will explode, catching nearby enemies.
-----------
Traverse Town
The town where those who have lost their way gather, Traverse Town. Sora and Riku meet Neku and the others, who have come from a different world. They were participating in a "Reapers' Game" with their partners, but it seems they were separated when they came to this world.
--------------
Neku
A young boy who always has his headphones on, behaving like he rejects everyone. (Protagonist of 'The World Ends With You')
Joshua
A friend of Neku and the others. It seems he knows about this world in detail.
Rhyme
Because she has lost her memories, she doesn't know why she's in Traverse Town.
Shiki
Neku's partner. A bright and energetic girl. She always carries a black stuffed cat wherever she goes.
Beat
He is wandering Traverse Town, looking for his partner Rhyme. A passionate young man who hates to lose.
Update: If you want to buy the special edition Nintendo 3DS, you can purchase it on Play-Asia.com.
Square Enix have updated their official website for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and this update reveals details about the 10th Anniversary Box. To see for yourself, please click the link and visit the "SPEC" section. However, if you want the details in English, read on to see what we know about the box. You can also see its official logo on the right.
- Officially called the "Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary 3D+Days+Re:coded Box"
- Releases on March 29, 2012
- Available for ￥15,000 (approximately US$193.88)
Contents of the box
- Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (Nintendo 3DS)
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS)
- Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (Nintendo DS)
- 12 piece card set showing the visual history of the series
- Protective cover (original design) for Nintendo 3DS
Square Enix have updated the page detailing each edition of the game, and have also added the 10th Anniversary 3D+Days+Re:coded Box to their e-STORE. The website update also revealed that the special edition Kingdom Hearts 3D-themed Nintendo 3DS will be available for ￥21,090 (approximately US$272.59).
Thanks to aibo_ac7 for the tip.
