[brandonh83]

Gamekult.com Import Review + sumptuous graphics + magnificent animations + grandiose musics + a lot of answers regarding the script + the incredible Tron models + a dynamic combat system - the forced characters trade system is stressful - a lot of useless options - Disney characters in the background - the feeling of repetition in the worlds crossed 6/10

4 problems with the game... 10-4 = 6/10 :p

[Kagari]

Should finally get mine today. Shipment got delayed on the supplier side since I ordered the system bundle.

[Hasemo]

Should finally get mine today. Shipment got delayed on the supplier side since I ordered the system bundle.

Speaking of the bundle, it's 14100 yen now in my local Tsutaya. I think that's cheaper than the MSRP of the 3DS itself.

[Kagari]

Speaking of the bundle, it's 14100 yen now in my local Tsutaya. I think that's cheaper than the MSRP of the 3DS itself.

Goddamnit. It price tanked really fast ;-;

Oh well...

I have it here in pristine glory:

[Kagari]

Here's some unboxing pics:















I'll be starting my playthrough tonight.

[RPGCrazied]

That's a nice 3DS you got there. Only thing that bugs me is the glossy finish the 3DS has. Fingerprint hell.

[GhostTrick]

Gamekult review = bad review.

Greg just doesn't understand how the Drop system works. He says that the fact you play the world with 2 characters is bad, while you had to make it 3 times in BBS and he said it was a cool idea. Also, he gaves 8/10 for BBS, but 6/10 for DDD.

[Kagari]

I'll be doing a review as well.

[Kagari]

First time playing a KH game in Japanese... the voices will take some getting used to since I usually wait for the English release.

Also, Neku is awesome.

[badcrumble]

<characters to mask the number> 7

I think it's great that you tried to mask this, but all numbers are just a single character in width :-P

[Hasemo]

I think it's great that you tried to mask this, but all numbers are just a single character in width :-P

There could be 10+ worlds!

[Kagari]

They weren't kidding when they said this game literally throws you right into the action.

[Dragonzord]

They weren't kidding when they said this game literally throws you right into the action.

So less talking to friends about ice cream and more combat or just better transitions? Kind of like Max Payne 3's cutscene into fight transitions they've been showing off.

[Kagari]

So less talking to friends about ice cream and more combat or just better transitions? Kind of like Max Payne 3's cutscene into fight transitions they've been showing off.

The game starts off with a "boss" fight right away and then you go directly to Traverse Town to fight some more. No real long cutscenes as of yet.

[Kagari]

Played about 3 hours into the game so far. I do like it, maybe not as much as I enjoyed BBS because of the new characters, but KH3D is still fun.

I like some of the new mechanics such as the wall jump attacks and the dream eater capturing seems decent enough.

The drop system is a bit odd, not sure if I like it yet since it will switch you over to your other character after a bit. Still in Traverse Town so I'm obviously not too far along.

[badcrumble]

There could be 10+ worlds!

I think making sure someone knows isn't that the case isn't spoiling the game so much as it's helping them not get inflated expectations of it.

[Kagari]

Well, there's new areas (I think) in Traverse Town... so maybe those can count :D

[badcrumble]

Well, there's new areas (I think) in Traverse Town... so many those can count :D

Yeah, I'm really glad Traverse Town is back. It felt like it was more multilayered and fun to navigate than Twilight Town. But KH1's always generally had the most engaging level design in the series.

[Perfect Cha0s]

Speaking of the bundle, it's 14100 yen now in my local Tsutaya. I think that's cheaper than the MSRP of the 3DS itself.

Wow. Are there any sites doing imports to the US for a decent price? Currently Ebay's lowest is $500. =/

[Kagari]

Yeah, I'm really glad Traverse Town is back. It felt like it was more multilayered and fun to navigate than Twilight Town. But KH1's always generally had the most engaging level design in the series.

Level design seems to be pretty solid. There's some interesting ways of getting around too - Sora can grind on rails in this one area and Riku can fast travel through streams or so...

[sorijealut]

I teared up looking at your KH LE pics...

Also, Neku is awesome.

friggin' yeah

How's CPP controls? I'm glad mine will finally have use :D

[StreetsAhead]

I've never played a KH game before, finally got this last week. Was starting to get the hang of it after a few hours (3 or so) but Fire Emblem has taken up all my time since Thursday. Still in Traverse Town and not a single Disney character in the 'present'. It is fun, though, although the forced switching can be stressful if you're in the middle of doing something.

[Seven Force]

I learned to start carrying around a bunch of the items that restore a bar of the Drop Meter (Morning Bell is the name, I believe...?) so the forced character switching became less of an issue. I can't remember when the Moogle shop starts selling those, though.

Going to probably start a Level 1 run sometime this week.

[Kagari]

I teared up looking at your KH LE pics... friggin' yeah How's CPP controls? I'm glad mine will finally have use :D

I don't have the CCP. Normal controls took some getting used to.

[Demoncarnotaur]

I seriously can't wait for the NA release of this game.

I assume since it is coming out fairly quickly after the Japanese release that it will not have any new content?

[Hasemo]

Level design seems to be pretty solid. There's some interesting ways of getting around too - Sora can grind on rails in this one area and Riku can fast travel through streams or so...

They both have the same free flow actions afair.
Plus, as much fun as they are, they basically render half of the level design useless. Why jump on platforms and try hard to reach chests if you can bounce of the wall 3 times and basically fly through the whole area.

[RyougaSaotome]

Well, there's new areas (I think) in Traverse Town... so maybe those can count :D

Given the new sections of Traverse Town, it's pretty much a brand new experience.

TWEWY <3.

The free movement renders a lot of platforming useless, but it did allow for much larger areas which are very, very cool. Definitely some of the biggest in the franchise if not the biggest period.

[toleoring]

They both have the same free flow actions afair. Plus, as much fun as they are, they basically render half of the level design useless. Why jump on platforms and try hard to reach chests if you can bounce of the wall 3 times and basically fly through the whole area.

Thank you for mentioning this!

KH3D is a good game but clearly they've compromised a lot for free flow and pet system.

1. Exactly like you said, free flow makes double jump and high jump useless.

2. No NPC what so ever beside cutscenes. No party members when they are supposed to follow you in the context. They just disappear after cutscene and re-appear in next.

Also,

3. I don't know if there is any story related to this (I am in the middle of the last world, and still haven't seen any yet - or maybe I missed something), but why are Sora and Riku kid-looking? I thought there were plot element in the begining, but in the last world there was a scene where Sora was KH2 form in the cutscene but switched back to child mode when cutscene ended . This made me think if Nomura did this just because 3DS screen is small... same reason for the 3DS miku game.

[toleoring]

sorry for the double post

[Dragonzord]

How much stylus action is involved in this title? I intend on getting a circle pad pro when they restock in July, so I guess keep that in mind. I'm left handed, so I tend to avoid ds/3ds titles with too much touch screen focus in addition to the typical controls.

[Hasemo]

How much stylus action is involved in this title? I intend on getting a circle pad pro when they restock in July, so I guess keep that in mind. I'm left handed, so I tend to avoid ds/3ds titles with too much touch screen focus in addition to the typical controls.

Only stylus actions I remember were portals (no rush needed) on fields, actions during fights (which stop time anyway) and Dream Eater minigames.
I'm left handed as well and believe me, CPP isn't necessary.

[BowieZ]

OMG I'm so slow... only JUST got the significance of the subtitle being D.D.D. lollololl

[warpaint]

I so need that 3DS if only it was not region locked

[cw_sasuke]

SE will release an eShop demo next week

http://andriasang.com/con0v2/kh3d_demo/

[Bebpo]

I started playing this seriously last night and finished the first world with both characters. I have a couple of questions before I refer to the instruction manual:

-You can equip 3 party members, but only use two. What's the point of the 3rd one? Do you get any of its skills? Does it earn link points/xp?

-SKILLS. Your pets have them and you grab them with ability points. Is there a way to permanently learn the skill so when you change pet you still keep the skills they had?

-What does the heart thing under your pet info mean? Like 2/3 hearts.

-Is there any sort of magic fusion like in BBS? That was my favorite system in BBS, making new magics from combining various ones and leveling the magics. Was sad it wasn't brought over to Re:Coded and it doesn't appear to be here. Is the only place you get magic and attacks from enemy/boss drops and treasures?


Otherwise, seems cool; the combat itself is freaking great and smooth, like the free run system, like the dive mini-game, the pet stuff is alright, like all the pet link attacks, camera seems balls on boss fights, don't like the forced DROP system structure at all. Feels like playing two character runs in BBS at the same time while being forced to keep switching between them every 5-10 mins. Also it makes the stories in the worlds confusing as hell because it's hard to figure out the chronological timeline of the events taking place. I'm assuming Sora's stories come before Riku's stories in a world?

Been switching back and forth between the analog slider, I actually find it worse for combat than just L/R camera rotation (faster than analog camera), but it's much nicer for visually looking at the set pieces. Also don't like how it makes it tough to reach over and hit start to bring up the menu.

[Fimbulvetr]

I started playing this seriously last night and finished the first world with both characters. I have a couple of questions before I refer to the instruction manual: -You can equip 3 party members, but only use two. What's the point of the 3rd one? Do you get any of its skills? Does it earn link points/xp? -SKILLS. Your pets have them and you grab them with ability points. Is there a way to permanently learn the skill so when you change pet you still keep the skills they had? -What does the heart thing under your pet info mean? Like 2/3 hearts. -Is there any sort of magic fusion like in BBS? That was my favorite system in BBS, making new magics from combining various ones and leveling the magics. Was sad it wasn't brought over to Re:Coded and it doesn't appear to be here. Is the only place you get magic and attacks from enemy/boss drops and treasures? Otherwise, seems cool; the combat itself is freaking great and smooth, like the free run system, like the dive mini-game, the pet stuff is alright, like all the pet link attacks, camera seems balls on boss fights, don't like the forced DROP system structure at all. Feels like playing two character runs in BBS at the same time while being forced to keep switching between them every 5-10 mins. Also it makes the stories in the worlds confusing as hell because it's hard to figure out the chronological timeline of the events taking place. I'm assuming Sora's stories come before Riku's stories in a world? Been switching back and forth between the analog slider, I actually find it worse for combat than just L/R camera rotation (faster than analog camera), but it's much nicer for visually looking at the set pieces. Also don't like how it makes it tough to reach over and hit start to bring up the menu.

Spoilers on the chronology of events: Everything is happeneing at the same time, Sora and Riku are just in alternate dimensions so most of the events they see in Worlds are almost entirely seperated from one another. I.E. the stuff sora does in Notre Dame won't effect what Riku does in Notre Dame. Travese Town and the final world are the only exceptions.

[Good Job Bob]

Is their a direct feed of the intro out there yet?

[Seven Force]

-You can equip 3 party members, but only use two. What's the point of the 3rd one? Do you get any of its skills? Does it earn link points/xp?

You can switch it with any of the two active dream eaters with the touch screen. Just drag it to the one you want to switch out. Kind of like switching party members in KH2. They get AP/EXP in battle too, although I'm not sure if they get as much.

-SKILLS. Your pets have them and you grab them with ability points. Is there a way to permanently learn the skill so when you change pet you still keep the skills they had?

Nope. The skills labeled with the Dream Eater emblem are tied to the dream eaters only, unfortunately, so there's no way to permanently attach them to Sora/Riku.

-What does the heart thing under your pet info mean? Like 2/3 hearts.

I *think* that's it's affection rating. When it's low, they aren't really much help in battle because they'll be irritated or something.

-Is there any sort of magic fusion like in BBS? That was my favorite system in BBS, making new magics from combining various ones and leveling the magics. Was sad it wasn't brought over to Re:Coded and it doesn't appear to be here. Is the only place you get magic and attacks from enemy/boss drops and treasures?

No command leveling/melding, sadly. Which is really disappointing coming off of Birth by Sleep.

One thing that really irks me about this game (and Birth by Sleep, too) is that you can't raise your stats outside of leveling up and equipping keychains. It's not that big of a deal, but part of the reason that Level 1 critical mode was so great in KH2FM and Re:Coded was because you could synthesize Strength, Magic and Defense boosts. Level 1 runs in BBS and 3D basically boil down to equipping commands that do fixed damage and spending 15 minutes to an hour on boss fights.

[Bebpo]

Hmm, yeah shame you can't make an ultimate character by absorbing skills into Sora/Riku and stuff. Everything is just equipment/pets besides base level stats.

I have no idea why the spell/attack melding disappeared off the map after BBS. It was a GOOD system and the point of KH games is to keep taking the best systems and building on top of them. Weird. I hope KH3 brings it back.

Thanks for the info!

[Bebpo]

I'm a little confused about missables. If you want to get 100% treasure, how do you deal with boss areas that you can't access afterwards?

For instance, in Notre Dame with Sora the boss area is a modified version of the start area. How do you get back to the boss version of it to get the treasures? Can you re-fight the bosses?

[BlackJace]

Aww man that 3DS is really nice. Enjoy your play-through Kagari!

[Seven Force]

Can you re-fight the bosses?

Yeah. (Most of them, anyway.) Only after beating the game, though.

[Bebpo]

Is that how you're supposed to get the treasures you've missed in boss areas?

[Seven Force]

I assume so. I honestly wasn't even aware that the treasures were different during boss fights.

I'm fairly sure that Traverse Town and Notre Dame are the only worlds where treasure chests are present during boss fights, though.

[Seven Force]

There's a patch out for the game that fixes some of the glitches that's downloadable from the eShop.

This QR code takes you straight to the patch download page:



The size is 22 blocks.

[Hasemo]

Ah, that's the one they were talking about during the last Nintendo Direct, right?
Fixing that game breaking Riku glitch among other things.

[Bebpo]

The patch works if your mid-game right? I'm about 15 hours in and only have 2 worlds left so I don't want the patch to mess anything up.

Also, is there a quick way to build up link points with your creature? Because it goes really slow for me and I probably only get about 200-300 per world run and since there's like DOZENS of these creatures and it costs 1000s of link points to max them out and get their best spells/skills...I would assume there has to be a way to grind link points quickly to get the support skills and attacks you want.

[Hasemo]

The patch works if your mid-game right? I'm about 15 hours in and only have 2 worlds left so I don't want the patch to mess anything up. Also, is there a quick way to build up link points with your creature? Because it goes really slow for me and I probably only get about 200-300 per world run and since there's like DOZENS of these creatures and it costs 1000s of link points to max them out and get their best spells/skills...I would assume there has to be a way to grind link points quickly to get the support skills and attacks you want.

That water barrel minigame is probably the fastest way to farm link points. You don't even have to do anything, because from what I've seen, the score doesn't affect the amount of link points received.
The item for that minigame is quite cheap, so money is not really a problem.

As for the patch, I have no idea, but if it didn't work SE would probably release some statement about it.

[Seven Force]

The patch works if your mid-game right? I'm about 15 hours in and only have 2 worlds left so I don't want the patch to mess anything up.

Yeah, it works mid-game. It's probably best to have it especially since the two big glitches (both involving Riku) happen pretty close to the point you're at.

[Bebpo]

Ok, Riku's boss rush at the end is ridiculous. Sora's final boss was so easy. But I'm getting destroyed right off the bat by Ansem. His comet dash thing is a pain to keep dodging (it's really annoying that you're floating so you can't do blocks and counters) and he's always far away so I can't hit him with my physical attacks and I don't have any magic equipped. Don't want to change my command deck because I'm guessing that means I have to re-fight the black coat guy as well and that was an annoying battle too.

I think part of my problem is I feel like Riku sucks compared to Sora. Sora's link attacks with the animals are GREAT and a lot of them do major damage and you're invincible during them. Riku's link attacks all seem terrible. They don't do much damage and you can still get hit and killed during them. Plus most of the good attacks like Sonic Rush are Sora's attacks. I feel like Riku is a waaaay underpowered character compared to Sora, yet Riku is the one that gets a 4 boss rush in the end :|

*edit, nm beat it on the next try.