The Kingdom Hearts series is a series very close to my heart, I loved watching Disney cartoons as a kid while my favorite games have always been of the JRPG genre namely the Final Fantasy series. So when I heard about the game about a decade ago, I just couldn’t pass it up, I begged my Mom for a whole week before she finally bought me the game and as soon as I put the game in I was hooked. Kingdom Hearts is the ultimate nostalgia trip for gamers like me which make it one of my favorite series of all time.
Now onto the game I’ll be reviewing today, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance – boy that’s a mouthful. Kingdom Hearts 3D is the seventh game in the series and by the looks of what I’ve played is going to be the last game before Kingdom Hearts 3 although Nomura-san and his team are really unpredictable at this point.
Kingdom Hearts 3D takes place after the events of Coded or after RE: Coded if you’ve played the remake. Sora and Riku make a visit to Yen Sid who informs them about the return of Master Xehanort, and they only stand a chance of defeating him if they become Keyblade masters. Our heroes are then sent to take the Mark of Mastery exam where they have to visit seven sleeping worlds and awake them using their Keyblades like previous games. The game has two protagonists (Sora and Riku) like Birth by Sleep had three (Aqua, Ventus and Terra) with each of their campaigns being parallel to each other. Storywise the game satisfied me a lot, it even had a few cameos from the The World Ends With You so fans of that game are in for a treat.
Lets get one thing out of the way first, Kingdom Hearts 3D looks and sounds great. The graphics are undoubtedly the best I’ve seen on the 3DS, the environments and character models are highly detailed although sometimes the frame rate did tend to drop a bit in high traffic areas. For KH 3D, series music producer Yoko Shimomura are joined by Takeharu Ishimoto (The World Ends With You) and Tsuyoshi Sekito (Brave Fencer Musashi) to compose the score. I know I’m not the only one who thinks the Kingdom Hearts series has one of the best OSTs of all time and Kingdom Hearts 3D proves my point.
The gameplay at its core is just like any other Kingdom Hearts game. You have to hack and slash your way to victory in quick seamless battles and if you succeed you’ll be awarded with experience, money, health and even items. Just like any other RPG you have to level up to gain new abilities and upgrade your stats. The fights are a bit faster though thanks to the brand new Flowmotion system. The Flowmotion system basically allows you to jump off walls and rails and parkour your way to a stylish flurry of combos. Some enemies can be really weak to Flowmotion attacks and the attack can help quickly dispatch enemies, but that’s all its really good for. Although I liked using Flowmotion you can complete avoid it if you want, its completely optional.
Another addition to the battle system is the inclusion of Reality Shifts. Reality Shifts are special attacks which can be triggered when you’ve applied enough damage to your enemy. These attacks change depending on the world you’re in and are pivotal to boss fights who can only be defeated by using a Reality Shift.
Another addition to Kingdom Hearts 3D is the inclusion of Dream Eaters which will serve as both the primary enemies and party members. There are two different kind of Dream Eaters, the good kind called Spirits who will join you in battle as party members while the evil ones are called Nightmares and will serve as the main enemies like Shadows, Nobodys and Unversed did in the previous games. So no, Goofy or Donald won’t be present to help you out when the going gets tough, these Pokemon-ish creatures are all you’ve got.
Unlike Pokemon though these Dream Eaters are created with parts dropped from defeated enemies. You can have up to two Dream Eaters in your party and one in stand by if anything goes wrong. Square Enix has introduced a Nintendogs-esque system for the Dream Eaters where you have to give regular attention to your neon colored friends to make them perform better in battle. Just like in real life these pets too are effected by morale and require you to play with them (via the touch screen of course). You can level up your Dream Eaters in a variety of ways namely by giving them treats, playing minigames and the standard XP gaining.
The most annoying part of the game are the boss battles, they are just so frickin’ hard. After a few hours into the game each boss starts taking quite some time to defeat, they aren’t even that difficult but their life bars seem to go on for days. Towards the end you’ll start facing bosses with 7-9 health bars which require some grinding to get through.
The other although less annoying part of the game is the Drop system. Unlike Birth By Sleep which allowed you to play all three campaigns one at a time, Dream Drop Distance’s campaigns run in parallel motion. The Drop system basically switches you back and forth between Sora and Riku as the Drop gauge or meter runs out. This can be really rage inducing during lengthy boss battles as if you drop between a boss battle you’ll have to start it all over again when you drop back.
This also makes completing challenges harder which if completed award you Dream Points which are used to gain buffs and earn the Drop Decelerators which as the name suggests slows down the Drop Meter.
You may have been wondering before reading the review if 3D is just a cash-in side story or a game really worth your time. Luckily it falls in to the latter category. 3D is one of the best games I’ve played generation and is a must buy for all 3DS owners. So go out and get it!
TechDeville awards Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance 4.5/5 stars.