Astrofall

It was appropriate for the game definitely, but not something I'd care to see again in say KH3. I thought them throwing in the bosses was annoying, but still a nice change up from the usual objectives.

Critical at Lv 44 for Sora, and Lv 46 for Riku just recently. The first playthrough was on Proud Mode and I finished that at Lv 33 for Sora and Lv. 35 for Riku. Both were pretty challenging at the time

Really though, this is the toughest Kingdom Hearts in the series for me. Playing through on Proud and Critical Mode(Critical especially), these bosses had not only huge amounts of health, but their offense was very quick and powerful. On Critical Mode, I'm pretty sure every boss in the game had one of those on the edge(one of those OMG OMG CANT FIND CURE PANIC MODE) moments. I think though, the part that makes this harder than Birth By Sleep, is the unintended activation of flowmotion that left me vulnerable and sometimes killed me. C'mon, I'm sure we all had those moments where Flowmotion put us in a really hairy situation.

Nomura did say more Kingdom Hearts announcements were coming soon albeit smaller scale ones, so that could possibly be merchandise or perhaps an HD collection. Doubting KHIII news; but what we CAN watch closely is the status of Final Fantasy Versus VIII. Should the game be in its final stages, we know KHIII will be coming soon afterwards.

The soundtrack was great as usual, but I wouldn't say that it beats Birth By Sleep or KH2's soundtracks. There was one piece in particular that really seemed inappropriate for what was happening, and that was "Majestic Wings" playing as a boss theme and not...something else. The entire final world was earsex though.

Symphony of Sorcery was just...amazing. It not only was my favorite world in KH3D, but it is now my favorite world in the Kingdom Hearts series as a whole. The musical notes, the beautiful landscapes, the lack of a battle theme, and fighting while the orchestra raged in the background; it was all a truly compelling experience. Not to mention the arrangement of "Night on the Bare Mountain" in this game easily outclasses the version in KH1.

Ah, the emotional tugs that were few and far in between in KH3D. 1. In Traverse Town(the first go), when Joshua(oh that god) explained the fate of Neku and the others, I thought their tale was a depressing one. I never played TWEWY, but I assume it had a darker tone based on the characters disposition. 2. Tron, our dear old Space Paranoids friend! As a program, he was a complete victim to CLU's ambitions, and thus became that (ridiculously hard) Rinzler that Sora was forced to battle. The music(Rinzler Recompiled) carried a very dark undertone that illustrated quite well the emotional turmoil Sora felt fighting his best friend. The worst part was when he defended Sora at the end, but ultimately met his fate. 3. When Sora was chasing after all of those connected to him, it was clear that Sora had a hard time coming to grips with everything(or rather, everyone) that he is. I mean, who wouldn't be slightly depressed when you basically are four people in one? 4. The quote "I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care." really seemed to resonate with me because Sora really lets on about how he truly feels about weilding that oversized key until that point(or at least I didn't think it was ever obvious). 5. Anytime Riku's theme song played, things got depressing. I think that is about it with the emotional parts of Dream Drop Distance; needless to say, Birth By Sleep has it beat on sadness.

I definitely prefer Riku to Sora in this title. Riku not only felt more natural to use in combat situations, he also had the most difficult bosses in the game. Now, Sora has his own strengths when it comes to Spirit Linking( you had that much needed period of invincibility, whereas Riku was vulnerable even in his spirit linking), and Sora also fought more of the Disney based bosses, but Riku had the honor of fighting those all important battles that made up the final boss sequence. Riku also had the deeper story since, well, we all remember how much of a douche he was in Kingdom Hearts...so it was very welcome to show his growth throughout the series. Perhaps we will be able to play with good'ol Riku in KH3?