The first boss battle (or battle period for that matter) in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance occurs only moments into the game’s run time, features Ursula from Disney’s The Little Mermaid in her giant form, and is set on a small raft in the middle of an endless ocean while a giant storm rages on. And that is just the tutorial. Whatever else can be said about the game, no one can accuse Kingdom Hearts: 3D of not going big–something that, along with a lack of scope or any real feeling of progression, has been a problem for some of the past handheld iterations of the Kingdom Hearts series. Fortunately, KH3D is a game that is, like 2010’s Birth by Sleep for PSP before it, anything but a side-story or pointless time waster.

KH3D is in many ways clearly meant to be bridge between the series past and future, and as such, a major part of the game is trying to clear up for what has gone before. While I personally have never had much trouble following Kingdom Hearts’ narrative and/or mythology, I know many people cannot say the same and clearly Square Enix has taken these complaints to heart (no pun intended). For players who count themselves among those confused by the general direction of the story in the Kingdom Hearts series, or the various terms and ideas that serve as the underlying building blocks of its universe, rest easy. Flashbacks, a dedicated glossary that outright defines some terms for the first time, and various summaries of past adventures and their principles are all included and also see regular updates throughout Dream Drop Distance. The developers did a very good job of taking some of the long implicit aspects of the series and making them explicit for the first time. Even I found that a few assumptions I had made in past games were wrong.

Which is not to say that KH3D is another Re:coded (or to a lesser extent 358/2 Days). Players need not fear another title that simply makes frustrating reuse of past assets while also regurgitating already told tales with only the most incremental of plot movements included. Very little in KH3D is recycled from past games and even the familiar aspects of the game tend to feature various tweaks and twists to help them feel like new. That being said, if Dream Drop Distance doesn’t reach the lows of Re:coded, it is also does not quite reach the highs of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep either. While also a portable game, KHBBS was for all intents and purposes Kingdom Hearts 0 in everything but name, as it matched–if not exceeded–the scope of the home console installments. The same cannot honestly be said about Kingdom Hearts 3D, but that does not mean the game should be simply regarded as filler either. Instead, it would be far more apt to compare it to another much earlier (and often overlooked) title in the KH series, Chains of Memories. Like CoM, 3D tells a story that is clearly meant to be a stage setter, an appetizer as it were, for the main adventure yet to come. Things definitely happen in this game; important ideas and characters get introduced (or in some cases reintroduced) and major events occur, but they all seem to be more in service of getting the pieces into the place they need to be for Kingdom Hearts III. In some ways the game is one giant teaser for III and while it does at least bring its own central plot and character arcs to a satisfactory stopping point, there is little in the way of real finality in the game. The exact opposite actually–if fans thought their anticipation for the long awaited KHIII was high before, by the time the last seconds of this game’s secret ending they should feel about ready to explode.

Together again for the first time. Sort of. Its complicated.

Another similarity that 3D shares with CoM is that both games are really more character pieces than the grand sweeping epics of their sister titles. This is not to say there are no moments of grandeur in the game–there are–but overall this is a story as much interested in the internal journey of its leads as their nominally external one. This makes sense considering it has been a while since the real Sora and Riku have actually been featured in any serious way in a Kingdom Hearts game and getting some time to reacquaint ourselves with the pair is no bad thing. The fact that both characters also both end up going some interesting, and at times unexpected, directions via their choices and actions does not hurt matters either. Nor are they the only series stalwarts to get some time in the sun over course of KH3D. The game spends a fair amount of time, one way or another, further developing the characters of King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, main series baddy Xehanort, and even a few other unlikely returning faces whose identities I will not spoil in this review (although anyone who has watched the trailers for the game no doubt knows exactly who I am talking about).

Perhaps as a consequence of this character focus however, I have to admit the overarching narrative in Dream Drop Distance is not quite as coherent as it was in say Birth; it tends to drop out for large portions of the game and only really starts to kick in the during latter half of the adventure. To be sure, most Kingdom Hearts game tend to operate this way to one degree or another, but generally there is at least a little more effort to give the individual worlds being visited stronger connective tissue to larger plot. The individual stories that drive each world do remain well told however and honestly it never stops being a joy getting to travel through the various recreations of familiar Disney locales. It is something that has always been one of the driving pleasures of the Kingdom Hearts series and it is made all the better by the fact that all of the Disney worlds visited in KH3D are completely new to the series (technically the world of Tron did appear in Kingdom Hearts II but that was actually a completely different version of the Grid than the one in KH3D so it does not count). Even Olympus Coliseum, a series staple based on Disney’s Hercules that has until now featured in one way or another in every Kingdom Hearts game released, fails to appear in Dream Drop Distance. This makes sense within the confines of the game’s story and it is nice to see that the developers chose not to shoe-horn it in anyways. It is also just one of the many little touches that ultimately make KH:3D’s narrative, for all its disjointed nature at times, an enjoyable one.

The characters from TWEWY only play a small role in the proceedings, but their presence is a welcome one all the same.

Moving onto gameplay, one area where KH3D definitely does shine over Birth is how it handles having multiple playable protagonists. Unlike Birth, where the three playable characters each had their own separate campaign that forced players to essentially start from scratch leveling and ability-wise each time, the simultaneous but separate nature of Sora and Riku’s journey in 3D is put to good use by sharing abilities and attacks that are unlocked across both characters. This helps cut down on the sense of repetition that served to mar BBS at times and when combined with the returning “Command Deck” system (which features various collectible and equip-able attacks and other abilities that, in place of MP, have a cool down period of varying length once used to avoid over exploitation) introduced in Birth, it helps make for a highly flexible and customizable system that largely lets players play the game the way they want to.

Of course, the Kingdom Hearts series has also become well known for introducing dramatically different and unique gameplay elements with each title and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is no exception. By far the biggest example of this in 3D is the Dream Eaters, and I cannot say enough good things about these adorable little critters. Dream Eaters are the latest example of the series’ signature oddball monsters and, unlike past baddies such as the Heartless or the Unknown, all feature designs based on various real world animals. Dream Eaters also come in two forms: the hostile Nightmares, who make up the majority of the opponents Sora and Riku fight in the game, and the friendly Spirits, who serve as party members and companions for our heroes in KH3D.

So. Very. Adorable!

Obviously taming enemy monsters for use in battle is hardly a new idea in the video game world (indeed Square has previously used it themselves as recently as Final Fantasy XIII-2) but there are some key aspects to KH3D’s take on the concept that help it stand out. For one thing, Dream Eaters are not captured so much as they are crafted using various elements dropped from fallen foes or purchased in shops which players can then combine via either recipes or by randomly combining ingredients (thankfully the game tells players beforehand what, if any, kind of Dream Eater will be produced by the latter method so there is no need to fear wasting ingredients). Additionally, adjusting the amount of ingredients used can dramatically change the nature and abilities of the final creature, be it a higher level, altered stats, or the different abilities the Dream Eater grants players.

This also highlights another major aspect of the Dream Eaters, namely that they serve as one of the chief ways of leveling up Sora and Riku. While the pair do still gain levels, and the various HP and other stat increases that come with this, via experience points as always, the best abilities and attacks in the game can only be obtained from the individual branching skill trees that each Dream Eater has. Once unlocked, Attack Commands (i.e. the various spells and physical attacks equipped to command deck for use in battle), Support abilities (which are special powers like being able to see enemy life bars or be incapable of having cure magic interrupted by enemy attack), and Spirit Abilities (which grant various bonuses to your Dream Eaters) are permanently added to Sora and Riku’s arsenal regardless of what their current party make-up is. Stat Abilities (essentially various offensive and defensive buffs) however are not.

The Drop mini-game is alright but at least it’s still better than the Gummy Ship in the 1st KH game.

Since Dream Eaters only gain the levels and Dream Points needed to unlock their skill trees while actively in the party, this in turn means players have to balance out the need to unlock new abilities against the various bonuses already being given by their present party. Finally, in addition to combat, players can also level up their Dream Eaters by petting, feeding, and otherwise playing with them Nintendogs-style. There are even various purchasable one-shot items that let players participate in various types of mini-games that can grant major bonuses to an entire party if successfully completely. Essentially, in practice the Dream Eaters in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance are one-part Pokémon, one-part Nintendogs, one-part crafting system, and one-part leveling system; a mixture that is as effective as it audacious. Oh, and they are also all parts adorable. It does not surprise me that Square Enix is already selling various plushies of the Dream Eaters considering how remarkably “dawwww” worthy they can be at times.

Moving on to other aspects of Dream Drop Distance‘s gameplay, the levels in the game feature strong designs and layouts with notably far less of the annoying platforming segments that have held back past games at times. Further helping in this regards is the newly introduced Flowmotion system that allows players to effortlessly bounce off walls, grind rails, and pretty much maneuver around locations in the game with equal parts ease and cinematic flair. Flowmotion is also useful in battle–almost too much so early on in the game–but things start balance out better by the latter portions of the game. Bosses in particular are rarely push overs and players will need every edge they can get to triumph during these often intense encounters. Length-wise, Kingdom Hearts: 3D features an around fifteen to twenty hour long campaign, while various mini-games and a nearly metric ton of hidden chests further rounding out the experience. Players can even create and share various special combat challenges via the street pass for even more to do.

Confession: Hunchback might just be my favorite animated Disney movie of all-time.

While fairly linear in the manner of most Kingdom Hearts games, KH3D does at least try to give players more to do than just the standard “beat up a number of foes to progress” approach. Each world also tends to have any number of unique sequences (such as light-cycle riding while in The Grid, hunting down specific foes within a time limit across a vast expanse of Paris in La Cité des Cloches, or a boss battle on the back of a moving carriage in the Country of the Musketeers) to further break up the action. The controls in KH3D are also extremely solid and I played the entire game without using the Circle Pad (a necessity since I do not own that particular accessory) with little in the way of problems. I can honestly say there were at most two or three times where I really even noticed the lack of a second circle pad. Finally, the game features perhaps the best camera in the series to date. It is not perfect by any means, but it is definitely a step up from past efforts.

Graphically, Kingdom Hearts: 3D is quite simply one of the best looking games I have yet to play on the 3DS. Levels in the game are as breathtaking and gorgeous as they are varied and unique. Each individual world is brought to delightful life in a manner consistent with its original incarnation while featuring just enough tweaks and changes to make them feel of a piece with the larger universe of Kingdom Hearts. Admittedly, many of the locations do feel empty at times (something especially noticeable in the portion of the game set in what should be crowded urban cityscape of La Cité des Cloches ) but this is a problem that has plagued the series from its first incarnation and is especially understandable considering the technical limitations of the 3DS. That being said, when characters are present in KH3D they look phenomenal, with the artists at Square Enix once again doing a masterful job translating figures who often started out as 2D creations into the realm of 3D. Speaking of 3D, Dream Drop Distance also does a terrific job of implementing the other meaning of that term, and this is one of the few games on the 3DS that I actually bothered playing with the 3D turned on more often than not. Aurally, this might just be the best soundtrack featured in the series yet, with far less reliance on the looping remixed compositions from the movies each world in the game is originally based on than previously seen in past titles. Voice acting is also as top notch as it has ever been with the various newcomers and longtime actors all doing an equally skilled job.

Keyblade Vs. Identity Disc. The fight you never knew you wanted to see.

Like the creative works of Disney itself, Dream Drop Distance features enough magic and wonder to call its own to make any flaws present mostly negligible. While the game never quite reaches the heights of say Kingdom Hearts II or Birth by Sleep, this is still one of the best games currently available on the 3DS. It should go without saying that this is an absolute must-play for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the series or even the genre; do not avoid this game thinking it is just another Re:coded. Lapsed fans will also find a game that does a good job of getting them up to speed and ready for the eventual release of Kingdom Hearts III. While KH3D is unlikely to change the minds of players who have long despised the series, those who give it a chance will find an engaging, if at times somewhat scattershot, experience that brings the best of both Disney and Square Enix to the table. Overall, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is a very worthy and highly enjoyable addition to the series that all 3DS owners should give serious consideration towards purchasing.

A review copy of the game was provided by the publisher on 3DS. The reviewer spent approximately 22 hours playing the game and completed its main campaign.

Also, please feel free to follow me on Twitter @bigred_13 if you feel so inclined.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance Review

By Shaun K.

Is the latest Kingdom Hearts game a dream come true or just another nightmare in the making?