Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee who is known for working on final fantasy vii. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between Square Enix and Disney based in a fictional universe. The main character Sora, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy journey around various Disney , Pixar and originally designed worlds.They battle the heartless and various creatures of darkness in order to save the world from the darkness. Throughout their Journey they make new friends along the way, characters from the disney world they visit and various final fantasy heroes. The series consists of thirteen games , and with the release of Kingdom hearts III in 2019 and The Remind DLC 2020, the game finaly concluded it's first saga known as the Xehanort Dark arc. After the events of the Remind DLC (2020), the game released Kingdom hearts Melody of memory which prepared th stage for the next game. In 2022 Kingdom hearts 4 was revealed alongside a new app game . The series are well received from the public although sometimes its beeing critisize for its bizzare story telling. The main issue of the series was the fact that all the games add to one story, however they re split to multiple platoforms such as Ps2,psp,ps4,Android,gba and the Ds. Square Enix though realised the mess they made and the remastered the games and released them as collections for ps4 and xbox. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including Cds with the soundtracks of the series,multiple figurines,plushies,clothing ,companion books(guides,artbooks), light novels, a collectible card game, manga series(by Akira Amano) and potentially an upcoming TV series.
Kingdom hearts Dream Drop Distance is a title that requires the player to know the events of all the past six entries of the series in order to be capable of following the plot or understand why some things are necessary. At the same time the game heavily relies on the players knowledge of certain key characters who have an important role in the game.
The game does offer the option to read a sum up story version of the prior games but reading kingdom hearts Lore. doesnt necessarily work as much as illustrated comics or game cutscenes. Nevertheless the game's cutscenes try their best to makle anybody understand what is happenning and who is who. Nevertheless Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance picks up right where
Recoded finished, with Master Yen Sid summonning both Sora and Riku in order for them to pass the Keyblade Mastery Exam, and become true Keyblade Masters. Unlike master Erigu's exam found in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep , where two keyblade wielders fought each other , Yen Sid has a different type of Exam. Yen Sid requests that both
Sora and Riku dive into the sleeping realm and reawaken worlds whose doors have been sealed keeping out both Light and Darkness. He proceeds to explain how even the heartless are unable to breach those worlds however, the sleeping worlds have their own monstrocities, going by the name of Dream Eaters. There's two types of Dream Eaters.
The game focusses on Sora and Riku as they visit various Sleeping Disney worlds in order to reawaken them. The players get Control of both Sora, a young boy who was chosen to yield the iconic Keybalde and Riku, Sora's friend who once fell into the darkness and made his way back to his friend. The game is an action role playing game which combines real-time combat,
quick commands and RPG elements that boost the status of heroes. The Kingdom hearts series have also been referred to as Hack and slash RPG games as certain difficlties are too easy(usually up to Normal) and mashing attack usually works. Kingdom Hearts 3D specifically leans more towards to the Kh2 improve battle system that requires dodging and use of abilities other than simply
tapping attacks. When the heroes visit a new world, the players are free to manuver around and explore the areas. Each map consist of various items such as power up materials and chests containning various of items. Sora and Riku are able of walking around, jump and double jump to reach higher areas and glide(after a certain point) to reach further locations.
The player's party consist of the player's hero (Sora or Riku) and up to 2 dream eaters. The dream eaters can be swapped from the main menu for new ones.
The combat of the game is fun and flashy. The player can equip their skill points to increase their combos, their damage and their overall status. Sora/Riku can hit the enemies with their keyblade and their ability to cast magic.
Close Combat is mainly achieved through the keyblade. Mashing the attack combo will allow the heroes to hit their nearby enemies. The close combat of Kingdom hearts 3D is vastly improved and feels very smooth in comparison to older entries and its 3Ds counter part. Sora's and Riku's basic combos are flashy and very cool looking. Each hero has their own unique animations and movements. The player
can equip new powers to extend the combo by spending their AP point very similar to the older games. By extending combos, Sora and riku can start attacking enemies on the ground and then launch them in the sky in order to proceed with aerial combos. The player can further these combos by adding various finishes that might knockdown Nightmares or even gather them close to him through the power of magnet
and strike them down. The game itself offers a fair amount of enemies for Sora and Riku to fightthem on ground or in air. The heroes can also use their keyblades to block upcomming attacks or roll away to avoid the hit.
For Long range attacks the heroes can use their magic abilities. Magic is slowly obtain while playing the game. They re part of the main game and thus when the time is right certain magic abilities will be given to the player directly while others will be obtain from leveling up or from the Kuppo store. The magic system of the game is directly taken from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep instead of Kh1/2.
These spells can be activated by manuvering in the command deck (bottom left). The player should manuver through the list of commands and find the one they would want to use. The spells dont require MP Bar as MP does not exiist in Kh:3D. Each time a spell is cast, the spell fades out and have a cooldown that has to run out in order to be used again. Spells may differ from eachother so do not assume that If
fire is used as projectile for Sora means that it will be a projectile for Riku. Both heroes obtain skills when leveling up and some skills are exclusive to Sora Or Riku as they both differ in their fighting styles. Some commands also have the heroes throwing their keyblades in order to attack enemies,
A new mechanic introduced to dream drop distance is the use of Flow Motion. Flow motion is an overpowered mechanic that is given to the player from the very start of the game. Flow motion is a mechanism that can be used both for exploration as well as in combat and they deal significant amount of damage. All the players need to do is use the dodgeroll ability on a wall, towards an enemy or something
in the map that flashes. Literally everywhere. When the player succesfully bounces over something, the heroes will get a pinkish aura indicating that they re currently in a flow motion status. When freelancing the player can use flow motion to go through levels in high amount of speed, jump on walls to reach higher areas and over all explore locations that could have not been reach otherwise. All the levels were design
with flow motion in mind and this is proven by the locations of certain chests and secret passages. In combat the heroes can jump on poles and start spinning around causing chain damage, leap off a wall into the air and smash the ground or leap towards an enemy to grap them and launch them on other enemies or on a wall.
Another new mechanic introduced in Kh:3d is Reality Shifts. Basically while fighting of enemies or while free lancing in the maps, a yellow pink symbol will flash indicating that the player can use realirty shift. The player has to press the combination of two buttons in order to interact with it. Some are instant while other have a small simple mini game that needs to be completed. Some reality shifts are basic,
some are rerquired in order to progress certain level parts while others are required in order to finish off a certain encounter. Each reality shift minigame differs from world to world depending on the location. In some worlds the heroes ride Bubbles, in other the enemies are used as slingshot that causes AoE and in others, theres a cinematic where the player has to press the button at the perfect time to cause a big attack.
Reality shifts commands are free to use and do not charge the player for anything.
As the story suggested, the heroes are not alone in their adventures as they re acompanied by the Spirit Dream eaters. These dreameaters are here to help the heroes during combat by providing healling, buffs,attacking enemies and blocking enemy attacks. Dream eaters are also capable of getting more item/ability drops for the player to use. Some of them are even capable of combinning their attacks with the heroes in order to create
bigger and devastating blows. They act very similar to Donald and Goofy where they re simply there and act based on their own Ai. However unlike Donald and Goofy the player can interact with them for better results. To elaborate, A Dreameater can level up by absorbing experience dropped by the enemies or when the player plays with them in the spirit menu. Other than playing with them, the player can open their skill board where they can spent
LP(link points) that re dropped during Combat. The boards of each dreameater differs and have various of effects that some are temporary while others are permanent. The player can also train the dreameaters by playing minigames with them. Each dreameater have their own Link points and their own Link boards. Dreameaters can be obtain by creating them with materials, given that the player has the right recipes. If a Dreameaters falls,
the player can ressurect them by approaching them, otherwise they ll be permanently erased. The death of an eater means their overall deletion leaving behind single items for the player to collect.
The final new mechanic of the game is the Drop system. Unlike birth by sleep and chain of memories where the player had the option to choose which hero's tale they want to embark or having the second heroes tale take place once the story of the other had finished, 3D forces the player to play the game with both hero at the same time. Next to the player'savatar, there is a bar called the drrop gauge that has a timer constantly
reduced. Once the timer reaches zero, the player currently used by the player will fall alseep and the player will get control of the other. The game doesnt care if the player is in combat or simply freelancing, once the timer is zero the controlled hero swap. the player should keep in mind of their objective or the direction they were going before the sleep. The player can use items in order to delay their drop. Last but not least every save
point gives the option to the player to swap inbetween heroes. This is a clever way to play the full tale of a hero and then the other. In order to unlock a new world, the player has to complete a world with both heroes.
As mentioned above the game focuses on Sora and Riku as they move in around the cosmos visiting worlds one after another. Some of the worlds are originally designed by Square Enix themselves while the others were designed by Square Enix however, they re based on their Disney movie counter parts. For example, Traverse Town is an original area designed by SqE but worlds like Nootre Dame and Disney Three Musketeers are based
on their movies (the Three Musketeers & the Hunchback of Notre Dame). The worlds of Kingdom hearts are small sandboxes that combine each part with another. The maps make it clear as to where to go and so it's easy to know where to go. Each map has a minimap given to the player, with red lines indicating a door that connects to another area. Locations with "???????" indicate that the player has yet to reach the area.
Each time the player visits an area they have their appearance change in order to look as if they re of this world and not outsiders, in order to protect the world order. For example, in HTraverse Town the heroes look like themselves however when visiting a world like Cyberspace (Drons), Sora and Riku wear a certain armor. The levels themselves have also their own unique design and gameplay elements. All the worlds have
plenty of checkpoints (Save clouds) that the player can use to save their progress. Save spot is where the player will respawn or acess when teleporting back in the map. There are also plenty of locations where hidden chests are and the player can only reach them using flow motion. Some require a small puzzle to be solved while others require the player's
observation skills.
The game has a few collectables for the player to collect. . These are:
Overall Kingdom hearts Dream Drop Distance was game that came up with possitive reviews with the only 2 complains beeing that it was originally for the Nintendo 3ds, and that it complicated the story for some. The game was heavily improved from past kindom hearts entires by introducing new mechanicks and new concepts while also improving on its combat system. Some of the game's new mechanics made it into Kingdom hearts III. Seing the game ported to the ps4 and other consoles indicates that the game definetely surpassed the test of time as people still talk about the game and people still play the game till this day(10 years as of the writting of this.) The story of kingdom hearts 3D is very interesting with amazing character moments that became iconic for the series, character development from heroes that were not expected and a few reckonns for plot conveniece. Furthermore, the game set the stage for Kingdom hearts III seing how Yen Sid is now gathering his warriors of light to clash with Xehanort whose plans became obvious. The combat of the game was very polished, simple and vastly different from the original one as the new mechanicks and spells found in the game made for a fun experience. The Dive mode gameplay feels very different than the gummi ships and is a fun minigame. The graphics and music are absolutely on point with alot of iconic disney and orginal songs such as dearly beloved that people remember and love. The maps are very well design with unique locations everywhere that made usage of flow motion at its maximum.The game is mainly voice acted. The upgrades that Sora and Riku receive are usefull and the players can always choose where to spent their AP points. The boss battles are challenging and requires alot of attention to detail in order to survive. The game has a Secret message for the player to discover. during credits the player is in dive mode with names commintg towards the player. Some of them include gold letters that the player should smash. These letters form "Secret Message unlocked" wich showcases a certain after credit scene.