AnimeHat
Humming Swordsman
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2012
- Location
- Arkansas, US
Before I start, I just want to say that this is not a review of the game. These are my impressions after playing the game for a couple of days.
I pre-ordered KH Dream Drop Distance and I was so excited to play it, I opened the box and started playing it right there in the car on the way home. I watched the opening cutscene (beautiful visuals and music, by the way) and went straight to playing the game. I'll be addressing the game in the order I went through it.
So far, I've completed four out of seven worlds. The first world is Traverse Town. If you've played most of the KH games, then you would probably let out a moan at hearing that you have to go to Traverse Town again. But I was nicely surprised by the changes brought to it, all for the good. You won't find any of the characters included in previous versions of TT (with the exception of Moogle). They've all been replaced with The World Ends With You characters, a refreshing change. The map has also been revamped. You still have your three main districts of the town, but completely new areas have been added as well. New structural elements have also been added to old areas to compensate for Flowmotion.
I absolutely loved the combat in this game. They took everything gamers loved about Birth By Sleep and put it into this game, with some extra abilities included. Your good old command prompt is back (I mean like the reload deck, not the stupid "attack" "magic" "item" list), but the deck styles ("fever rush," "fire storm," etc.) are no longer there. Friendly Dream Eaters called Spirits fight alongside you. Surprisingly, Spirits are a lot like Pokemon. You can nurture them and they grow in level when you take them into combat. When you link with them, they will aid you in battle (in Sora's case) or enhance the strength of your attacks for a short period of time (in Riku's case).
Flowmotion is a completely new way to navigate the environment, and it works sort of like parkour. You can grind on rails, jump of walls, spin around street lamps, and even attack enemies right as you jump off of a wall. The best thing is that each map is designed to work with it, making it even better. If previous KH games had flowmotion, they would be awesome.
The Drop Gauge seems awkward at first, but it actually falls a lot slower than I expected it to. Of course, the rate at which it falls can be lowered or increased. You might be unlucky and Drop in the middle of a boss battle, whereas you will have to start the battle over again when you Drop. Fortunately, there are items you can pick up or buy throughout the game called "Drop-me-not"s that will restore your gauge and reset the Drop rate. You get use to it after awhile. You can even use the Drop points you pick up by defeating enemies on one side to give you bonuses on the other side such as attack/defense/magic enhancement or slow down the Drop rate. You can even get munny and treasure.
And this is all from experiencing Traverse Town. In between now and then I have also completed La Cite Des Cloches (Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Grid (Tron Legacy), and Prankster's Paradise (Pinocchio). I'm currently in the Country of Musketeers as both Sora and Riku. I found the boss battles to be challenging, but not difficult. The only one I had trouble with was Rinzler (The Grid). It's both hard and frustrating, and I was only playing on Standard. I was glad to have that battle over with.
So far, I think it's an excellent game. I can't wait to finish it. If you have also played the game, share your thoughts here.
EDIT: FINAL IMPRESSIONS
(The following may contain spoilers)
I really loved the game. I've beaten it on Standard and I've just started Proud Mode. I think the gameplay and creative storytelling (which we had big expectations for, seeing as how it would fill in some of the "blank points" in the series thus far) were awesome. I also think that it's one of the most difficult games in the series. Some people say the bosses were easy. Well, yeah, for the first four worlds. But after that, it got pretty brutal. I had lots of trouble with Spellican, Xemnas, and don't even get me started on Ansem.
I also like how this game showed a darker side to Sora, one that we thought would never be exposed. I mean, by the end of the game, Sora is still his usual, cheerful self, but during the game (especially in the world that never was), Sora is bombarded by some pretty dark influences. His heart is even submerged in darkness for a short time and Riku has to bail him out. I also thought that this game would give Ventus, Terra, and Aqua some closure, but I guess that'll wait until KH III. Speaking of which, Number III has also been confirmed. If you unlocked the secret message, it pretty much spells out that the next game will be KH III, what we've been waiting for.
The only thing left to do is bide our time and wait for KH III. Square Enix, you've made an absolutely awesome Kingdom Hearts game. I salute you.
I pre-ordered KH Dream Drop Distance and I was so excited to play it, I opened the box and started playing it right there in the car on the way home. I watched the opening cutscene (beautiful visuals and music, by the way) and went straight to playing the game. I'll be addressing the game in the order I went through it.
So far, I've completed four out of seven worlds. The first world is Traverse Town. If you've played most of the KH games, then you would probably let out a moan at hearing that you have to go to Traverse Town again. But I was nicely surprised by the changes brought to it, all for the good. You won't find any of the characters included in previous versions of TT (with the exception of Moogle). They've all been replaced with The World Ends With You characters, a refreshing change. The map has also been revamped. You still have your three main districts of the town, but completely new areas have been added as well. New structural elements have also been added to old areas to compensate for Flowmotion.
I absolutely loved the combat in this game. They took everything gamers loved about Birth By Sleep and put it into this game, with some extra abilities included. Your good old command prompt is back (I mean like the reload deck, not the stupid "attack" "magic" "item" list), but the deck styles ("fever rush," "fire storm," etc.) are no longer there. Friendly Dream Eaters called Spirits fight alongside you. Surprisingly, Spirits are a lot like Pokemon. You can nurture them and they grow in level when you take them into combat. When you link with them, they will aid you in battle (in Sora's case) or enhance the strength of your attacks for a short period of time (in Riku's case).
Flowmotion is a completely new way to navigate the environment, and it works sort of like parkour. You can grind on rails, jump of walls, spin around street lamps, and even attack enemies right as you jump off of a wall. The best thing is that each map is designed to work with it, making it even better. If previous KH games had flowmotion, they would be awesome.
The Drop Gauge seems awkward at first, but it actually falls a lot slower than I expected it to. Of course, the rate at which it falls can be lowered or increased. You might be unlucky and Drop in the middle of a boss battle, whereas you will have to start the battle over again when you Drop. Fortunately, there are items you can pick up or buy throughout the game called "Drop-me-not"s that will restore your gauge and reset the Drop rate. You get use to it after awhile. You can even use the Drop points you pick up by defeating enemies on one side to give you bonuses on the other side such as attack/defense/magic enhancement or slow down the Drop rate. You can even get munny and treasure.
And this is all from experiencing Traverse Town. In between now and then I have also completed La Cite Des Cloches (Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Grid (Tron Legacy), and Prankster's Paradise (Pinocchio). I'm currently in the Country of Musketeers as both Sora and Riku. I found the boss battles to be challenging, but not difficult. The only one I had trouble with was Rinzler (The Grid). It's both hard and frustrating, and I was only playing on Standard. I was glad to have that battle over with.
So far, I think it's an excellent game. I can't wait to finish it. If you have also played the game, share your thoughts here.
EDIT: FINAL IMPRESSIONS
(The following may contain spoilers)
I really loved the game. I've beaten it on Standard and I've just started Proud Mode. I think the gameplay and creative storytelling (which we had big expectations for, seeing as how it would fill in some of the "blank points" in the series thus far) were awesome. I also think that it's one of the most difficult games in the series. Some people say the bosses were easy. Well, yeah, for the first four worlds. But after that, it got pretty brutal. I had lots of trouble with Spellican, Xemnas, and don't even get me started on Ansem.
I also like how this game showed a darker side to Sora, one that we thought would never be exposed. I mean, by the end of the game, Sora is still his usual, cheerful self, but during the game (especially in the world that never was), Sora is bombarded by some pretty dark influences. His heart is even submerged in darkness for a short time and Riku has to bail him out. I also thought that this game would give Ventus, Terra, and Aqua some closure, but I guess that'll wait until KH III. Speaking of which, Number III has also been confirmed. If you unlocked the secret message, it pretty much spells out that the next game will be KH III, what we've been waiting for.
The only thing left to do is bide our time and wait for KH III. Square Enix, you've made an absolutely awesome Kingdom Hearts game. I salute you.
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