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Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance |OT| Sora is Everyone in Every Dimension

Maximus.

Maximus.

Member
Cannot wait for this game! Have it preordered and ready to go. I liked the controls in the demo, so I wonder if I really will use the CPP. Need to read up on kh1 and kh2 since its been forever since I last played them!
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
Do you come back to boss fights with its HP where it was when you dropped, or do you have to do the whole fight over? Don't think I like the idea of timed boss fights.
 
S

Seven Force

Banned
RPGCrazied said:
Do you come back to boss fights with its HP where it was when you dropped, or do you have to do the whole fight over? Don't think I like the idea of timed boss fights.
Click to expand...

You have to do it over. You also get fully healed, though, which wasn't the case in the Japanese version.
 
A

Aaron Strife

Banned
Seven Force said:
Lack of NPCs have been a thing since KH1, so at this point it doesn't bother me too much, but it does feel kind of weird to have these giant, almost playground-like worlds without anyone else in them. Even BBS stuck a few NPCs in a room or two to talk to once you cleared a world.
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It's more awkward in the cut scenes.

Esmeralda's execution - ONLY Frollo, Esmeralda, and Quasi? Literally? There's not like a crowd or anything? Even if they just had a couple guards and Phoebus in stocks it'd look that much better.
 
S

Seda

Member
Aaron Strife said:
It's more awkward in the cut scenes.

Esmeralda's execution - ONLY Frollo, Esmeralda, and Quasi? Literally? There's not like a crowd or anything? Even if they just had a couple guards and Phoebus in stocks it'd look that much better.
Click to expand...

Reminds of the the coliseum matches. NOBODY in the stands (except for Zack, once)
 
H

Hero of Legend

Member
Anyone in EU able to record footage of Frollo speaking fully in English? I've only heard tiny bits, his line "Gypsy Witch" in IGN's review is WICKED close to Tony Jay, didn't know Jim had it in him! :D

Edit: Saw some YT vids, and as it actually sounds, it IS Corey Burton, Jim did get replaced it seems.

Corey was the Magic Mirror in BBS, also by Tony Jay prior, so Corey may indeed, be the successor to Tony Jay!
 
G

gosox333

Member
I wonder if the command deck system is here to stay for the rest of the series. They've used it in three straight games now.

How would you guys feel if they went back to the old system for KH3?
 
Nemesis_

Nemesis_

Member
electroplankton said:
I'd say 15 minutes or so. You can make the session longer with an itam, Drop-Me-Not, or through points you accumulated during the previous session.
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Whattttt. How have I been ignoring this?

Just finished Muskateers and heading to the Sorcery of Symphony level, or whatever it's called.

Anyone got any idea how much longer to go?
 
N

Napalm_Frank

Member
I just wish they would take a long good look at KH1 disney worlds. It's like they didn't care for the past few games. Well I have only completed Hunchback and Tron so we shall see.

I'm starting to like the pokemon wibe I'm getting. Anyone have the total number of different dream eaters that can be used as party members? I'm using bat, flower with Riku and dog, lizard with Sora ^^.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Wow...I need to beat KH2 (havent played a KH game since...well...the first one) because i'm really not used to having this many forms of movement lol.

Rolling, Air dash, and now flowmotion. Its like playing Adventure Children/Dissidia with even more control. Kinda brings up the question, why even walk anywhere? :p

I mean, unless every form of movement actually comes in useful, depending on the situation. Doesn't air dashing actually sort of hurt the platforming, since it seems like you can continuously do it (at least in the demo) with no penalty. Keep in mind I haven't played 2 yet.
 
Z

ZenaxPure

Member
Teknoman said:
I mean, unless every form of movement actually comes in useful, depending on the situation. Doesn't air dashing actually sort of hurt the platforming, since it seems like you can continuously do it (at least in the demo) with no penalty. Keep in mind I haven't played 2 yet.
Click to expand...

After the first game the focus of the series has been on combat and skill systems. Platforming, puzzle solving, etc. was all removed in the second game and outside of Days (which is crap) it hasn't ever really returned (An argument could be made for re:coded, I guess, but that is more of a special case). I haven't played the full version of 3D yet but based on the direction the series has went I doubt there is any sort of real platforming per se.

Would be interesting to see a KH game with the combat of a current KH game except with some of the world designs of the first game, but I don't think that is going to happen.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
ZenaxPure said:
After the first game the focus of the series has been on combat and skill systems. Platforming, puzzle solving, etc. was all removed in the second game and outside of Days (which is crap) it hasn't ever really returned (An argument could be made for re:coded, I guess, but that is more of a special case). I haven't played the full version of 3D yet but based on the direction the series has went I doubt there is any sort of real platforming per se.

Would be interesting to see a KH game with the combat of a current KH game except with some of the world designs of the first game, but I don't think that is going to happen.
Click to expand...

Aw...well that kind of took the wind out of my sails. I'll keep an eye on it though...especially since it has TWEWY cameos.
 
P

Perfect Cha0s

Member
gosox333 said:
I wonder if the command deck system is here to stay for the rest of the series. They've used it in three straight games now.

How would you guys feel if they went back to the old system for KH3?
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking about this after getting back into KH2: Final Mix a couple of days ago.

While I like the command deck, more than the KH1/2 command menu, I think it would feel out of place in a KH3.

While I really do love the command deck system, I think it makes the game harder to balance. One thing that I love about KH2:FM is that, in my humble opinion, on Critical Mode, it is the most finely tuned and balanced KH game, hands down. The game is hard without feeling cheap, something that I felt BBS struggled with.

Keeping the tradition of the console games having the command menu, while coming up with a new, more flexible shortcut system that makes it easier to get to the items/spells/abilities you need on the fly would be my ideal. I'm sure it would be fun either way, though.
 
Z

ZenaxPure

Member
Teknoman said:
Aw...well that kind of took the wind out of my sails. I'll keep an eye on it though...especially since it has TWEWY cameos.
Click to expand...

Well, don't take that in a negative anyway. The combat alone makes it worth it, it's been truly amazing since Birth By Sleep. Again I can't speak for 3D but you really don't feel like you're missing much with BBS since just the combat alone offers a vast amount of variety in skills/abilities/magic for you to experiment with. The skill melding system was designed for you to be cycling in/leveling new skills/abilities/magic so often that combat could feel completely different at the end of a world than when you started it. I will just plug my own post explaining it in more detail. None of that stuff was available until recent KH games and it's made them awesome.

Based on the info in this thread the melding system was ditched for 3D but I assume there are some other hooks in there to keep you switching out abilities and keeping everything fresh.

You should totally play it, though, will be a blast!

Not so stealth edit:

Perfect Cha0s said:
Keeping the tradition of the console games having the command menu, while coming up with a new, more flexible shortcut system that makes it easier to get to the items/spells/abilities you need on the fly would be my ideal. I'm sure it would be fun either way, though.
Click to expand...

This is something I think about as well, but I do not think bringing back the command menu in any form is the right solution. It would completely kill the melee combat they've built up over the past few games.

The big thing for me is the moment to moment actions and thought process in the melee combat. The problem with earlier Kingdom Hearts games is that there is simply no nuance to what you are actually doing with the controller. You simply hit attack until either a) the combo ends, at which point you simply repeat. or b) an enemy prepares to attack so you end your combo yourself and roll away to dodge/block. The problem with that is it really is just button mashing when you get down to it. There is no thought in what you should be doing outside of just spamming your one combo and avoiding attacks.

Which is pretty much why the melee abilities were absolutely genius in BBS. Now, instead of simply mashing the attack button mindlessly you were given abilities that allowed (I won't say "forced" since the game wasn't that difficult) you to change your fighting style depending on the situation, which, is all about the minor things. Things like killing an enemy mid combo then using a dash ability to go straight to another enemy and finishing up the same combo you were in on him, or, just the simple ability to use cleave/aoe attacks when in the middle of a group of foes allowed you to actually think about things like enemy positioning and keeping track of how many attacks you were at in the current combo. Nothing like that exists in the earlier games and I think it would be a pretty horrible loss to get rid of it.

To be fair I haven't had the pleasure(?) of playing KH2 FM, so maybe those problems were addressed, but I wouldn't know.

I guess the short version of my post is that it's impossible to bring the command menu back while also keeping melee combat thoughtful, and, adding a good shortcut menu for abilities nullifies any use of said command menu. IMO they should just go for a Dragon's Dogma type thing where hitting L1/R1 modifies the face buttons, turning them into abilities as long as the button is held down, and ditch any sort of menu showing up in the corner of the screen altogether.
 
E

electroplankton

Banned
bigjimmystyle said:
I never played a KH game before. Is this a good place to start?
Click to expand...

Gameplay-wise, it's the best one. But story has really gone far from the first one so my advice is to play at least the first two on PS2 before 3D, and then Birth by Sleep. If you don't care about the plot (which in the last part took a quite big part of the game) then you can play only relying on recaps and summaries you can find in the game itself.
 
W

weredog

Neo Member
_I never played a KH game before. Is this a good place to start?_

I'm in the same position and I would say that, yes, it's a good start. It's full of "flash back" cutscenes and documents from previous games to explain what you've missed out on.

Seriously though, I'm loving this game. Easily one of the most fun, flowing RPG's of recent years.
 
M

Mario007

Member
Ok just finished the game and I'm disappointed as hell. After BBS this is a huge letdown and a game that should have been great but somehow managed not to be. Here's my breakdown:

Graphics- Honestly, the level of graphics, while one of the best on the 3DS, is comparable to BBS. There are a few minor improvements
Aqua's
hair is much better for example. However there are some VERY noticable frame drops when there are many enemies around.

Level Design- it was quite refreshing to see vast areas in KH game again. However, the problem with these and the lack of anyone in them made the world feel very empty. BBS suffers from the same problem but manages to conceal it with smarter level design as the areas are smaller and sot he emptiness is not as noticable. However, in 3DS it really feels as though you're playing through a hack-and-slash game with RPG elements rather than ARPG.

Combat- HUGE letdown after BBS. The command deck was perfect in its form in BBS and Re:Coded. Merging and leveling commands was fun. Also the commands you got throughout the game just felt strong and gave you a huge incentive to use them as opposed to your regular attack. The way the commands work in 3DS is really dumbed down. You no longer level your commands. The only way to get better commands is through leveling your dream-eater and a-staring the dive sections. The combat also doesn't look as fluid as it did in BBS (probably due to the removal of the combos and chains).
Dream Eaters are a nice little addition but I much preferred D-Links with various Disney and KH characters.
Flowmotion, however, that is something I can get behind 100%. It really made the game fun when moving around and trying to avoid attacks while preparing for your own great attacks.

Story- Now, before getting into super spoilery stuff, I want to say it was a completely stupid decision to leave the explaining of the whole purpose of the game to skippable flashbacks. The pacing was also quite awful. In previous KH titles it was acceptable to get a goal at the start, go through half of the game's Disney worlds and lock some keyholes, go back to your hub world, get more explanation on your goal, finish off the Disney worlds and the keyholes and let the story really start in the final KH world. BBS did away with this as the interaction of Ven, Terra and Aqua with the Disney worlds around them mattered and they weren't there just to lock some keyholes. In DDD we're back to the former mechanic and, honestly, not only is it stale but thanks to BBS you can see how lame it is to have story unravel this way.
now, mind you, DDD does some good with a cutscene everytime you finish the world, but it's nothing stellar
.
For the super-spoilery stuff
I felt this game did nothing to advance the story at all. Xehanort is back, which we all knew about. He wants the X-Blade, which we all knew about. They do give us some new insights like the Organisation's true goals or the upcoming keyblade war but that's hardly something we needed a new game for. All in all, the game could have been shrunk in a few cutscenes at the start of KH3 rather than having a separate game for it. In fact, the game in this manner felt much more like Re:Coded rather than BBS in terms of importance.

Lastly, I'm kinda hating the choice of the system for this one and it feels more and more like Nintendo made some sort of an agreement with SE for the game (as evidenced with the publishing agreement in Europe). It's obvious that a system with more power could have made the areas feel much better and that the team seemed to have designed these with this in mind. Also because of DDD another game that Nomura originally intended to release after BBS was cancelled as stated in the Ultimania interview. And when you add to that the importance of DDD's plot to the overarching KH story, it really is a let down.
 
T

toddhunter

Member
Mario007 said:
Ok just finished the game and I'm disappointed as hell. After BBS this is a huge letdown and a game that should have been great but somehow managed not to be.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the impressions, seems about what I would have expected. Given what you wrote, would you still recommend it? Based on what you have said, I'm thinking yes, but people playing it should have the hype down a bit and just enjoy it for what it is?
 
M

Mario007

Member
toddhunter said:
Thanks for the impressions, seems about what I would have expected. Given what you wrote, would you still recommend it? Based on what you have said, I'm thinking yes, but people playing it should have the hype down a bit and just enjoy it for what it is?
Click to expand...

Yeah definitely put the hype down. It's still a great and very enjoyable game, but treat it as a as not-really-a-full-fledged-game as BBS but rather somewhere between Re:Coded and BBS in terms of scope and importance.
If you're not too hyped over it and all, I'd wait a month so you don't have to pay 45 euro for it (although you'll get around 28 hours from just speed-playing through the game which is worth the money, to be honest).
 
N

Napalm_Frank

Member
I still have not finished the game but it seems the consensus is correct. This is the least good of the main games but better than the spinoffs.

I hate how every friggin enemy seems to have long range attacks. Most of my deaths have been some stupid missile coming at me outside screen. Camera is too close to the player and it feels super hard sometimes to keep track of enemies. Also the chest hunting in this one is pretty lame since pretty much every chest has some lame ingredient or potion. In BBS you could find new abilities and stuff all the time.

I think for KH3 oldschool command menu would be ok but they need to take the superior cooldown system from new games and make every spell have a shortcut.

Given what you wrote, would you still recommend it?
Click to expand...
I would recommend it especially if you are KH fan. It's pretty good, just not as good as other main games.
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

Member
I felt I didn't really need the CPP. I used it though as I much prefer the triggers to the shoulder buttons on the 3DS and you can use the ZL to do the reality shift attacks (no clue if using normal L triggers them without the CPP). The camera is pretty good with the lock on most of the time (and the times the camera is bad is due to the lock on anyway).
 
G

Gradivus

Member
I'm guessing the higher ranked Dream Eaters (A rank) just end up with better stats than the lower rank ones (E rank). I take it that there are no other differences between the ranks?
 
U

Ultratech

Member
Seda said:
Reminds of the the coliseum matches. NOBODY in the stands (except for Zack, once)
Click to expand...

Yeah, the coliseum is bizarre that way. Hell, it's even more so in BBS when you hear the crowd cheering and throwing confetti only to have no idea where all that's coming from (above maybe???).
 
N

Napalm_Frank

Member
Ultratech said:
Yeah, the coliseum is bizarre that way. Hell, it's even more so in BBS when you hear the crowd cheering and throwing confetti only to have no idea where all that's coming from (above maybe???).
Click to expand...

Best one was the ball in Cinderella world. People really must hate that prince lol.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
Cool. Just saw a commercial on FOX channel. During Big Bang Theory. Really short though, but I'm sure this isn't exactly cheap advertising.
 
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