Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

Official website.

Demo is available on the Nintendo eShop! Game comes out July 31st.

Eurogamer review (8/10)
Most important quote from that review: "this time the plot revolves around - and borrows from - the obscure 2008 cult RPG The World Ends With You."

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King Mickey and Yen Sid prepare for an impending threat by putting Sora and Riku through the Mark of Mastery exam. Sora and Riku are sent into the Sleeping Worlds, where they will face enemies and allies that have never been seen before. If they can successfully complete the task they are given, they will be deemed true Keyblade Masters.

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If you've played BBS you've heard of the Mark of Mastery exam. This is kind of neat! It's like they're re-opening the Jedi Academy. What really draws me to give this a try more than anything else is the link to The World Ends With You, which I think was pretty overlooked for being the best damn JRPG in years and years.

That's the barbie dress up game that tries to force you to look up with one eye while looking down with the other right?

Yes, that was the game where following local clothing trends would give you stat boosts, it was awesome. Don't forget about eating for stat bonuses, and that it took real time to digest that food before you could eat more.

For the combat, you can just bounce the light puck back and forth and concentrate on one screen at a time. Part of what makes it the best JRPG ever is that you can change the difficulty on the fly if any fight gives you trouble. The risk/reward system was great.

World is not enough ruled.

And I will be buying this on Tuesday

I really hated the top screen part of that game.

Everything else was interesting at the very least. I loved the way you could lower your level for a better shot at items. Please steal that idea, everyone.

Dick Drop Damage

TWEWY is such a great game.

I've never played a Kingdom Hearts though.

I tried to get into the first one when it came out. Couldnt stand the camera and havent bothered with any lf them since. Heard BBS was pretty good though.

Yes. TWEWY love. Approved.

I kinda want this new Kingdom Hearts game, but I think it's mostly the consumer whore in me. I should probably finish at least one of the three paths in BBS (which is good!) before I buy more of these things.

I have been feverishly playing BBS all day to try and finish all three paths before 3D.

Almost a moot gesture since I never finished KH2, or even played re:Coded and 358/2 =[

Just want to reiterate how fucking good Squenix was at making PSP games, and how badly we need Type fucking 0.

Someone lend me a 3DS to play this. I'm sure some of you aren't using yours.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

Almost a moot gesture since I never finished KH2, or even played re:Coded and 358/2 =[

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I still need to finish 358/2 as well, but STOP THINKING ABOUT RE:CODED. IT'S HORRIFIC.

Also: you're a bad person for not finishing KH2.

I'd rather destroy my 3DS than allow anyone to play Kingdom Hearts bullshit on it. In fact, if it will prevent anyone on these boards from playing Kingdom Hearts, i will smash my 3DS with a rock and post pictures.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

Also: you're a bad person for not finishing KH2.

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It makes a person worse to even have started KH2.

Thief, I have a job for you before you leave Finch. It involves procurement of an item and the mail system. Contact me for details.

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net...tmgFy4uFuNJpg_

Aww hells naw!

I'm trying to be good and finish BBS but there is still so much left!

I snuck a peek at the game. The intro is the business squared.

Own it, starting it today. If I haven't REALLY played a KH since KH2 will I not get the weaboo plotline?

They have optional flashbacks (usually Yen Sid blabbing on and on) that catch you up on the story.

Coming to this right from BBS and the screen feels tiny and crammed D=

Kingdom Hearts: Collection of Random Words

THERE'S THREE D'S, DAVE. LIKE 3DS. GOD.

The titles for these games are always horrible

I want to like this game. I was intrigued by the demo.

But I can't shake the belief that the Kingdom Hearts franchise = everything wrong with Square Enix in the past 10 years.

You're probably correct.

BTW I like the BBS title. 358/2 Days MAKES NO SENSE.

Kingdom Hearts definitely falls prey to this horrible affliction where it's eternally stuck in this middle-school era of 13 year olds trying to understand mature concepts and having their minds blown by overly flowery but ultimately mundane concepts. It's like you're stuck in Hot Topic FOREVER.

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Originally Posted by sleeve

But I can't shake the belief that the Kingdom Hearts franchise = everything wrong with Square Enix in the past 10 years.

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Originally Posted by Diff-chan

s You're probably correct.

BTW I like the BBS title.

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KH2 and BBS are some of the best games Square Enix has ever put out, so I don't think that's very true at all. If anything look to FFX or FFXIII for what they've been doing wrong.

I'll probably end up getting this today. Fuck that Mark of Mastery edition though.

Yeah I saw the contents of the SE and I was like what? Cards? And like...pencil boards or whatever? Why does your box have to be ginormous for that shit?

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Originally Posted by TrialSword

Kingdom Hearts definitely falls prey to this horrible affliction where it's eternally stuck in this middle-school era of 13 year olds trying to understand mature concepts and having their minds blown by overly flowery but ultimately mundane concepts. It's like you're stuck in Hot Topic FOREVER.

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New sig!

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Originally Posted by Mzo

KH2 and BBS are some of the best games Square Enix has ever put out, so I don't think that's very true at all. If anything look to FFX or FFXIII for what they've been doing wrong.

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Holy shit, fuck no Mzo. If you're counting those as some of the best games, then we might as well include The Bouncer in that bunch.
Nomura is Everything wrong with Square.

OH MAN IS IT TIME TO DISCUSS THE BOUNCER?

Click for full size

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Originally Posted by Finch

Holy shit, fuck no Mzo. If you're counting those as some of the best games, then we might as well include The Bouncer in that bunch.
Nomura is Everything wrong with Square.

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As always, Serious Finch speaks the truth.

My 11-year-old stepdaughter thinks the characters in those games "look kinda gay".

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8...xylwo1_500.jpg

LOOK AT IT.

GOD, JUST LOOK AT IT. One day, i would love to punch Tetsuya Nomura in the face.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7...lnnzo1_250.png

His face just BEGS to be punched.

I'm surprised he resisted the urge to give him an earring. Every character he draws (male or female) looks exactly the same. Only the impossible spiky hairstyles differ.

Seeing all those gorgeous Amano characters in Dissidia rendered in Nomura's "style" made me want to cry.

Nomura is one of those guys who's fine, sometimes even really good, when he's given some kind of oversight, when there's someone saying "This is what we want, no, not that, more like this."
When he's given COMPLETE CONTROL, like with Kingdom Hearts, that's when his garbage starts to stink.

Attachment 66545

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Originally Posted by No One

Seeing all those gorgeous Amano characters in Dissidia rendered in Nomura's "style" made me want to cry.

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Back when making KH2 Nomura has stated he doesn't like redoing characters that he didn't design in the first place. I think it definitely shows, as the stuff of his own that he updated in that game (Cloud, Squall) looks a million times better than the stuff that he didn't (Vivi).

Although I'm not entirely sure how you can say all his characters look exactly the same and then point to Amano, as if Amano has a weak point it's that most of his characters (male and female) have the same face. Well, sometimes there's more eyeshadow than usual, but still.

I'm not up for arguing which artist draws more similar faces. Because they're both pretty close. If you want to get down to it, most character designers and funny-book artists in general tend to have a certain way about faces. Let's talk about Akira Toriyama.

It'd be neat to see a current or next generation title with an attempt to make the characters actually look like Amano designs though, with little orbs and stray lines everywhere.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1343857408

If someone made an engine that used 3D to really convey 2D (vaguely similar to the SF4 openings) for Amano's work it would be cool.

Yeah see, Nomura came into the scene when we were able to actually translate character designs to the actual end product. Having a game that would make use of all the pale lanky people in Amano's art WOULD be kind of neat.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

Back when making KH2 Nomura has stated he doesn't like redoing characters that he didn't design in the first place. I think it definitely shows, as the stuff of his own that he updated in that game (Cloud, Squall) looks a million times better than the stuff that he didn't (Vivi).

Although I'm not entirely sure how you can say all his characters look exactly the same and then point to Amano, as if Amano has a weak point it's that most of his characters (male and female) have the same face. Well, sometimes there's more eyeshadow than usual, but still.

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Fair enough, although I'd still argue that Amano's designs show more variety. I just find it more distracting with Nomura's stuff (Amano's elegance vs. Nomura's garish bucklefests).

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Originally Posted by Finch

I'm not up for arguing which artist draws more similar faces. Because they're both pretty close. If you want to get down to it, most character designers and funny-book artists in general tend to have a certain way about faces. Let's talk about Akira Toriyama.

It'd be neat to see a current or next generation title with an attempt to make the characters actually look like Amano designs though, with little orbs and stray lines everywhere.

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I've been wishing Square would do this with Final Fantasy for years now, and not just with the characters. I want an entire game that looks like his paintings.

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Originally Posted by Finch

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8...xylwo1_500.jpg

LOOK AT IT.

GOD, JUST LOOK AT IT. One day, i would love to punch Tetsuya Nomura in the face.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7...lnnzo1_250.png

His face just BEGS to be punched.

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Um, don't you love the balls-to-the-wall gayathon FFX?

And I don't see any big problem with Sora's design. The worst thing you could say is it's uninspired.

It looks like a fan character for fan fiction based on the worst cross-over fan art ever. It looks like Sora the Hedgehog turns into a human. It is inspired, it's inspired by Nomura's dead plastic heart.

Tidus is pretty terrible too. Yuna is uninspired, but whatever.

The entire cast is shit (save maybe Rikku). And you loved them.

Have fun living with that for the rest of your life.

NO. Everyone else was AWESOME and i LOVED them. Your heart of hate is perfect for the simple and clean sterilization of Kingdom Hearts.

I thought KH1 was okay. 2 had better combat, but holy shit did the already-complicated story decide to get more ridiculous. I haven't played any of the others since (even though KH fans SWEAR Birth by Sleep "recaptures the magic of the original")

BBS plays like a much-improved Crisis Core sequel and has a total Star Wars ripoff story that I really liked.

It's goooooood.

Kingdom Hearts: Bears, Beets, Battlestar Gallactica

Deuce Drop David

358/2 Daves

Kingdom Hearts re: David

Kingdom hearts: chain of daves

Busted out 358/2 again. Turns out I had played about 10 hours before, but for some reason I thought I had only put in like one or two. I'm starting over either way since I don't really remember what was going on.

Also got the English translation patch for KH2FM, and as a double bonus that means I'm playing through on an emulator this time instead of the JPS2 I no longer own. This game still looks pretty great since most of the textures are high resolution and there's a more simple look going on, so cranking up the screen multiplier gives an incredibly sharp image.

You should visit a certain Vet club thread to tell me more details about this patch and about PS2 emulation in general

Really liking Kingdom Hearts 3D so far, having just completed Traverse Town with both characters. Dare I say this game is surprisingly great, although that may partly be because what passes for a story in this franchise has been kept at more of a minimum thus far.

I should probably first mention that before KH 3D, I've only played the original Kingdom Hearts game. Liked it a good deal, as I vaguely recall.

Anyways, combat's so fun in this imo. I believe this may have been implemented in BBS, but regardless, it's a great idea to completely do away with MP in favor of your customized deck of command actions (special attacks/spells/items), each with their own cooldown period upon use. Flowmotion is a fantastic addition, love using it and think it suits the game very well given: (1) its contribution to the aforementioned combat being fun; (2) the expansive environments, at least early on; and (3) the limited time nature of the drop system.

I'm actually digging the Spirits system, so much so that I'm utilizing the Nintendogs feature now and then to further advance in each Spirit's equivalent to a License board. Have only played the first two tournaments, but Flick Rush looks like an excellent mini-game too.

Visuals and audio are great, probably the best in the series, as well as among the best on the 3DS. Hopefully the rest of the game can stay strong; if nothing else, it would be an excellent way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this franchise.

Also I think it should be said, great job by Square Enix for producing the demo of this. I know for myself, for a game I was rather leery about, that really made a difference.

I'm going to play the demo and i'll try to like it... for Mzo.

That is all we can ask

I hope this game and Theatrhythm sell a trillion copies so we can all keep talking about how we can't figure out why every new game is a port or reboot or sequel or remake or a music game where every song is a remix of a remix from an enhanced portable version of a sequel of a remake of a Tales game and the backgrounds are Namco's best loading screens as voted on by the fans.

Well, that's certainly something that we were talking about.

It's what you should be taking about.

People who hate Theatrhythm have bad hearts. The worst hearts.

You live in Florida for 24 years and you can't stomach any more goddamn Disney.

Fuck this shit forever.

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Originally Posted by icarusfall

You live in Florida for 24 years and you can't stomach any more goddamn Disney.

Fuck this shit forever.

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I can appreciate this. There are a few theme parks near me and I laugh at people who come to them from across a few states.

Me too, because i would have never heard of Disney if i never went to Florida. No one in any other state ever talks about Walt Disney or Disney World or Disney Cartoons. We know Don Knotts from Andy Griffith, not from Mr. Limpet.

I promise you it's worse.

I even lived in Orlando for awhile.

Feels bad man.

I don't know why anyone would ever choose to live in Orlando.

Masochism.

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Originally Posted by Geo

Also I think it should be said, great job by Square Enix for producing the demo of this. I know for myself, for a game I was rather leery about, that really made a difference.

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The demo was an affront to the senses. Pass.

Sorry Mzo. I won't complain about it anymore.


Rhythm Thief demo, though. That one was fun. I'm going to spend dollars on it one day.

I tried the demo of this game. Yea, no.

If you didn't take a liking to the combat and use of flowmotion (and stringing the two together) in the Traverse Town portion of the demo, passing on the game is the way to go. I doubt the rest of the game would entertain you enough, God knows the story isn't going to grab you and not let go.

Obviously I'm enjoying it a heck of a lot, starting to make my way through the Hunchback of Notre Dame world with both characters.

I like that it doesn't take very long at all to acquire some pretty cool attacks and spells.

I took Mzo's advice and started playing Birth By Sleep first. It's actually very addicting from a gameplay perspective. Building decks and melding commands into new ones feels a nice way to liven up the KH experience.

Unfortunately its also rife with the dumb animu story that KH has saddled itself with. Is 3D the same way? Fun to play but holy shit, skip cutscenes? Does it carry over any of the great gameplay ideas Birth by Sleep introduced? Or was the demo the extent of combat complexity, and the wannabe pokemon carry the rest?

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Originally Posted by Diff-chan

I tried the demo of this game. Yea, no.

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I made it maybe 30 seconds into the opening conversation and had had enough.

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Originally Posted by Hero

I took Mzo's advice and started playing Birth By Sleep first. It's actually very addicting from a gameplay perspective. Building decks and melding commands into new ones feels a nice way to liven up the KH experience.

Unfortunately its also rife with the dumb animu story that KH has saddled itself with. Is 3D the same way? Fun to play but holy shit, skip cutscenes? Does it carry over any of the great gameplay ideas Birth by Sleep introduced? Or was the demo the extent of combat complexity, and the wannabe pokemon carry the rest?

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Yeah, I'm not even going to try and defend the usual Kingdom Hearts storyline, but I thought BBS was hilarious because it's KH Star Wars. You have Emperor Xehanort and Darth Vanitas trying to seduce Terra Skywalker to the dark side.

The gameplay is a mix of Kingdom Hearts and Crisis Core, which is where the melding aspect comes from, and it's really a lot of fun.

All these games have some glaring flaws but for some reason I'm super into them right now so you're gonna have to hear all about how they're the best games ever. Sorry.

The only real problem I have with the KH storyline (beyond it being standard anime crap) is that in their attempts to retcon shit while they make up new stuff we've gotten so many versions of Ansem and Xehanort. We have Xehanort, who then becomes Terra-Xehanort, who then loses his memories and becomes a totally different Xehanort who's Ansem's apprentice, who then takes on Ansem's name and splits into Ansem and Xemnas, who then runs into the real Ansem who looks nothing like the fake Ansem, and it turns out the real Ansem was working alongside a fake Ansem that was actually Riku in a different form. ASSHOLES.

lol!

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Originally Posted by epmode

I really hated the top screen part of that game.

Everything else was interesting at the very least. I loved the way you could lower your level for a better shot at items. Please steal that idea, everyone. My friend recommended me a mmorpg Wings of Destiny, I found this game is wasting my money. It is free to play, but I still paied for much money to finish the quest.

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I LOVE Kingdom Hearts, only wish I could stand playing games on the DS (it's just too small).

._.

Mzo has heard that his entire post pubescent life and he's sick of it!

You can't even tell the length or girth of Mzo's penis by looking at it. The thing is just covered in hair. It's like trying to guess the shape of a labradoodle

Wax that carrot.