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Kingdom Hearts:3D Review




Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: July 31, 2012 (US)
Price: $29.99 - $39.99

 
What is it?
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop distance or, KH3D (for short) is the 7th game of the series and is speculated to be the prequel to the long awaited Kingdom hearts III. The game focuses on the protagonists Sora and Riku while they take their “Mark of Mastery Exams”, if they pass they will become true Keyblade Masters. Instead of having Donald and Goofy (or any other Disney / Square Enix characters) as party members, this time around you will have Dream Eaters (Pokémon-ish characters that have special abilities, that you forge from items you find) in you party. The main Antagonist Xehanort is back and you can be sure that he has some devious plan up his sleeves that will interfere with Sora and Riku plans.

The good:
-          Graphics
-          Storyline
-          Music
-          Voice Acting
-          Gameplay / Battle System
-          “The World Ends With You” cast is a welcome addition (hope to see more Square Enix franchises make cameos in future games.)
-          Flick Rush is a nice addition (think Pokémon battles with dream eaters)

The Bad:
-          No Multiplayer over the internet (only local area)
-          Storyline can be really confusing for new comers
-          Some of the boss battles are frustratingly difficult
-          Drop System (or Drop Death Clock, is what I like to call it)

Graphics:
If there is one thing that Square Enix knows how to do it is produce beautiful graphics, KH3D is no different. The graphics rival that of the PlayStation 2, in a lot of cases, they are better. Square also showed how 3D can work without being gimmicky (it gives you a huge sense so depth that you normally don’t experience). Their new FlowMotion animations are fluid and make the characters move slightly more lifelike.  The overall presentation of the game is what you would expect from Square by now, or even Disney for that matter, it’s just superb.  

Audio:
Once again when it comes to the sound department, nobody does it like Square Enix. The music is just fantastic. Unlike the previous games KH3D musical score is more of a calibration effort by; Yoko Shimomura (known for her compositions for Street Fighter II and all of the KH games), Takeharu Ishimoto (He did the compositions for “The World Ends With You”), Tsuyoshi Sekito (known for doing compositions for the Final Fantasy Series). The orchestral arrangements were done for Kaoru Wada. You won’t be disappointed with the voice cast either (unless you were expecting Christopher Lee to reprise the voice of Ansem the wise), because the cast is very authentic. 


Gameplay:
If you have played Kingdom Hearts: Birth by sleep you should feel very at home here. The game uses the same command deck setup. Dream Eaters are new but easy to get used to. The flick rush mini game is also pretty easy to get used to. I don’t really care to much to the “Drop Gauge” system (when the meter runs out you automatically switch into the other character. You will have to start over whatever you were doing before you dropped when you switch back.), but you will get used to it after a while. The FlowMotion mechanics (FlowMotion allows you to interact with the environment around you to; jump off walls grind rails, or swing around poles, to attack enemies, etc.) are a plus but at times you can feel kind of invincible especially if you are close to walls.  

       

Closing Thoughts:
Kingdom Hearts: 3D is an excellent game on the Nintendo 3DS. For the most part it fully uses the capabilities of the 3DS which in my opinion makes for a better game on the system. I which that they had made this games online where you can do missions like you did in kingdom Hearts: 358/2Days, but here to wishing for KH3. I recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the series, Disney, or Square Enix, or all of the above.

Graphics: 5
Audio: 5
Gameplay: 4
Replay: 4
GameRanking {as of 11/10/12): 3.75

Score:
21.75 / 25
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