Sora, Riku and Kairi, with their idyllic beginnings on Destiny
Islands. Aqua, Ventus and Terra, true Keyblade masters. Roxas, Axel
and Xion, with their sea-salt flavoured ice-creams. The Heartless,
the Nobodies, Naminé and the enigmatic Organisation XIII. If
you are confused at this point, might be best you step off, and go
buy Kingdom Hearts 1.

 

Donald and Goofy are sadly absent from your party in DDD. To
make up for this, you will learn how to create Dream Eaters. These
lovable, sometimes dorky little Pokémon… er, Spirits
not only help you in combat, but give you access to their skills.
Spirits can provide you with anything from a passive health boost
up to the Final Fantasy staple, Zantetsuken.

 

Sora and Riku get sent on their Mark of Mastery exam, which
will involve them helping worlds that are trapped in a dream state,
while relearning the powers of a Keyblade. Sadly, they get
separated, ending up in alternate versions of the same
world’s dreams. The game makes use of a drop timer, which
runs out as you quest. Killing monsters can help slow down the
process, but it will draw inexorably nearer. When you run out of
time, the character you are controlling will succumb to the dream
themselves. At this point, you will switch to your other character
and try to solve the issues of that version of the sleeping world.
Sometimes, the tasks done in one world will have an effect on the
other, so are they truly apart?

 

Besides recruiting Dream Eaters, Sora and Riku have learnt
much better ways to get around, in and out of combat. The
Flowmotion system allows them to use walls, streetlights and rails
to jump higher and move faster than normal, giving the exploration
a bit more freedom while making it feel like less of a chore.
Flowmotion also allows the use of powered up attacks, making it
useful not only for evasion, but a critical part of combat
too.

 

After KH 1 and 2, seeing the other games, all of which were on
handhelds, filled me with vitriol. I wanted the sequel now and they
looked like pointless cash-ins, in a climate where making a quick
buck has become the norm. The portable renditions of Kingdom
Hearts, however, were not just cheap, quick clones. Dream Drop
Distance ties the story together into one massive quilt, story arcs
and characters locking together in such a way that several times I
had to pause for a while to consider the massive amount of planning
that went into these titles. The attention to detail and the
revelations and conclusions are staggering, with one of them making
sense of something that happens in the first few minutes of Kingdom
Hearts 1. While avoiding spoilers, let me say this: Play all of the
Kingdom Heart games before you play this one. I cannot overstate
this. The sheer volume of content you will miss out on will
definitely detract from your overall experience.

 

The game does provide useful chronicles, tiny summaries of
previous games at relevant points in the narrative. These are great
to jog your memory, but don’t provide the emotion or
intricacies that playing the game would provide. If the games are
forever out of your reach, due to whatever reason, check out
Wikipedia and YouTube, or find a good friend and invest some time
in this wonderful realm.

 

Along with the chronicles, the game makes use of flashbacks to
flesh out the story even further. These sequences allow you to see
parts of the story that the protagonist wouldn’t be able to
witness, as well as providing extra information for the current
scenario.

 

Instead of using characters from the Final Fantasy series this
time around, DDD features some characters from The World Ends With
You, a Square Enix DS-based RPG. While it isn’t required in
any way to have played this game first, there is definitely
something special about seeing some of your old characters in a new
place.

 

Pushing the machine

 

The graphics in this title are amazing. Confused, because
it’s all cartoons? Wait until you reach Tron Legacy’s
world and you meet Flynn. You will not believe that Jeff Bridges is
inside your 3DS. Also, despite my complete hatred of 3D technology,
I used it for (brief) periods in DDD, as it was done extremely
well. The graphics really push the 3DS, with lag visible in some
scenes when playing in power saving mode.

 

Portable?

While I love being able to grind while in a queue, or when I
attend to my bowels, I find it hard to understand the motivation.
This game is long, which is the hallmark of RPGs and the reason I
love them so, but it is on a device that battles to last three
hours. While I understand not everyone is prone to long gaming
sessions, I found myself attached to a wall socket, a mockery of
the idea of portable gaming. I would also appreciate the game a lot
more on my home television. Hopefully the next title will finally
be on current-gen consoles.

 

Better with Circle Pad Pro

Not only does the right stick take control of your camera
movement, but the game is programmed to automatically use zR to
lock onto a target, something which normally requires pressing L+R.
Just remember to take your stylus out beforehand, as the game does
need some stylus input.

 

But isn’t this is a kiddies game? I mean, look,
there’s Mickey Mouse!

 

 

This could not be further from the truth. While wrapped in the
innocent trappings of Disney characters and cartoon styled
graphics, make no mistake: the story is more intricate and involved
than you might imagine at first glance. If, however, your child can
understand time travel, the splitting of people into multiple
beings based on their psyche and the literal and metaphysical power
of the heart, and dealing with the darkness within, then be my
guest! Kingdom Hearts has grown much in the 10 years since
KH1.

 

At the same time though, the Dream Eaters system seems rather
childish. Using AR cards, petting them, playing games and giving
them names and coats of paint all feel slightly out of place. While
they definitely do grow on you, some might be aversive to how damn
cute they are.

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