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What in the world am I playing?!



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SHADOWSTRIKE1

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Ok guys... I just don't get it with this game. I loved all the other KH games... But this one... I feel like I'm forcing myself to play it. All I kept hearing was great things and how this title tool the series in a great direction and whatnot... But I'm sitting here and just not even sure what I'm playing...

Granted, in still in Traverse Town... But I just don't like what is going on so far. Why are all the enemies pink fuzzy bunnies and crap? Why do I have this little sidekick thing? What does it even do? It's hard to focus on a goal when I keep switching between sora and riku for some unknown reason. And why am I spinning around things and bouncing off of walls?? I feel like this is so sidetracked from what makes the KH series great...

Is there something im missing here? Does this get better? Can someone encourage me to keep going?
 

Sephiroth0812

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The enemies are called Nightmare Dream Eaters and are there because you are in a different realm. A Realm Heartless or Nobodies cannot reach.

There are some more tough Nightmare's along the way though and depending on what difficulty you play, even normal enemies will be able to kill you later on.
While Dream Eaters are generally very colorful, there are certainly not only pink fuzzy bunnies, as later you run in things like Zombie-T Rexes who can breathe a freezing mist at you for example:
Skelterwild_%28Nightmare%29_KH3D.png


This "little sidekick thing" is a Spirit Dream Eater, the good versions of the above mentioned Nightmare's and you'll get eventually hundreds of them as they are your party members in this title.
You practically collect them like Pokemon, train them and when that's done, they'll help you more and more in battle.
For example, the Meow Wow (Sora's starting critter) can heal you and eventually make you invisible.

Switching between characters has story reasons, but it is also a new mechanic to folllow the story from several character's perspectives like in Birth by Sleep, only that this time you do not have to switch save files.
Dropping to another character is inevitable to move on with the story, but there exist items you can consume to prolong the phase of playing with one character before switching to the other.

The spinning and bouncing is flowmotion, a new concept that enables you to attack enemies in different ways and also move around much more freely.
You'll see that the maps of the worlds are much bigger than before and to get some treasure chests (and explore areas outisde the gorund) you'll need to use flowmotion.

The story itself is quite interesting as it brings all the previous games together and reveals the true objective and background of the whole series, although as usual there are some things quite difficult to grasp at first notice.
Notice though that most worlds reveal only bits and pieces of the puzzle (including mementos and chronicles of past events and titles) while the biggest "whams" are reserved for the last world.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Ok guys... I just don't get it with this game. I loved all the other KH games... But this one... I feel like I'm forcing myself to play it. All I kept hearing was great things and how this title tool the series in a great direction and whatnot... But I'm sitting here and just not even sure what I'm playing...

Well...

Granted, in still in Traverse Town...

That's the first problem. You've barely even started.

But I just don't like what is going on so far. Why are all the enemies pink fuzzy bunnies and crap?

Dream Eaters, and they don't stay pink and "fuzzy".

Why do I have this little sidekick thing? What does it even do?

Story-wise, they eat Nightmares to create Dreams, and they are teaching Sora & Riku how to navigate the Realm of Sleep and how to use their Keyblade's power properly.

Gameplay-wise, your Dream Eaters are tied to your growth. They are your source of skills and commands so you can't really ignore them unless you want to suck.

It's hard to focus on a goal when I keep switching between sora and riku for some unknown reason.

You are switching over between the two because Riku fell into Sora's dream instinctually (and on accident) so they are tied to each other. Sora is in the world's dream, Riku is in Sora's dreams of said worlds (which is why events are similar but different) Joshua explains it at some point.

1) Plan what to do before you run out of time. You can generally get the gist of when you're about to run into a major battle so you need to learn how to time manage.

2) If you're about to hit a boss battle and your drop meter is low, you should probably drop. You can use the other character to gain bonuses and items for when you switch over to make yourself more powerful when entering a boss fight.

3) You cannot progress story-wise until you finish everything available to you with both characters. At some point the game will halt your progress so don't get any ideas about always dropping to a character because you like one better than the other.

4) Drop-Me-Nots are must-buys.

5) LEARN HOW TO UTILIZE THE DROPPING MECHANICS. You will save yourself a lot of pain if you do so.

And why am I spinning around things and bouncing off of walls?? I feel like this is so sidetracked from what makes the KH series great...

Flowmotion. It's essentially what Nomura has wanted for the series for years (freedom of fluid movements, interaction with physical objects in combat) Essentially the best thing introduced to the series in years outside of the command deck (in my opinion)

Is there something im missing here? Does this get better? Can someone encourage me to keep going?

Uh, well I think KH3D is fantastic so...Keep playing. It's a fun game. I'm not sure what you were expecting when going into it, but it feels like a natural progression of the series to me.
 

Solo

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The little sidekicks are your party members; specifically, Dream Eaters. More specifically, Spirits, as opposed to Nightmares, their malevolent counterparts that you get to destroy. In time, you can have these Spirits learn skills that they can use in battle or commands and abilities you yourself can equip. I suggest you put some effort in raising them because that's the only way you can gain abilities and commands (although you can obtain a few commands from treasure chests and the moogle shop in Traverse Town); you can only get neat ones like HP Boost, Second Chance, and Once More by managing them.

There will be a few forced switches at the start of the game, but after that, you can decide when to switch characters. You'll switch, or drop as it is referred in the game, when the drop gauge reaches zero. If you don't want to switch (though eventually you will need to in order to advance the story), invest in Drop-Me-Nots as they refill your drop gauge by half its maximum capacity.

The free-running-like system, Flowmotion, is a new addition that allows you to navigate the map quickly. Use this to your advantage because some bosses are highly mobile and maps are often really huge. In addition to navigational purposes, what's quite neat about this system is that you can chain lots and lots of combo attacks to keep the offensive momentum on your foes.

As for whether it gets better, the plot does thicken and get complex the further you get into the game, but probably that's something you need to experience yourself so that you can judge whether or not it's good or bad according to your opinion. In my own, even though it's complex, it's quite decent especially with a big, groundbreaking reveal at the climax of the game, but it's not without its flaws.

 

FudgemintGuardian

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???
These are...weird questions. You...do watch the cutscenes and read the tutorials...right? Because you would know about the Dream Eaters and Flowmotion and everything else if you do...
 

Antifa Lockhart

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???
These are...weird questions. You...do watch the cutscenes and read the tutorials...right? Because you would know about the Dream Eaters and Flowmotion and everything else if you do...

Yeah, I highly recommend you go through and pay careful attention to the cutscenes and tutorials. This isn't a game you can just run through and hope to understand. You definitely get what you give with this game.
 

Blackdrazon

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I feel like this is so sidetracked from what makes the KH series great...

I think there's a misunderstanding here of what Shadowstrike is actually saying, though forgive me if I'm wrong. I don't think he's actually asking what Dream Eaters are, I think they're just upset that things are different. I don't know how we're expected to reply to that, maybe they hoped they'd find more people that hated the changes, or maybe for an "it gets better" but... Kingdom Hearts DDD is in a lot of top games list here on the forums, I don't think you're going to find a lot of people angry at the game even at the start for not having purple-black enemies and for having flowmotion. Give it a longer try, if you still don't like it... well you don't like it. You don't have to like 'em all. You don't really have to like any of them.

For me, it's a matter of familiarity with the series. I say things have been different in every Kingdom Hearts game, and I don't feel DDD really varies off that curve as much as I feel is being implied. Hell, flowmotion has sort of been in the series since Deep Dive, certainly since Kingdom Hearts 2 had Sora and Riku ping-ponging off buildings, and Birth by sleep (the secret video in 2:FM) showed TAV practically flying.

That all said, yes it is distracting how the game jumps between Sora and Riku all the time. I feel it's a remnant of an older game idea that didn't work but was already in the trailers so they felt they couldn't bail on it. But it does get better outside of Traverse Town, and the techniques posted here will minimize that.
 
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Antifa Lockhart

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Even if you look at it like that: yes, this game is totally different from the rest of the series in a lot of ways.

There is a reason for that: this game is the last chance Nomura and team have/had to experiment before the long awaited III. It's the most out there of the series, and the one that takes the most chances because its setting forgives it. You're in a totally different dimension with different rules. The tone of the game is off, but that's because it's supposed to feel like the calm before the storm.

The best of this game will be implemented in III. You see Sora interacting more with his environment, I'm sure the worlds will be huge like they are in 3D. And still, we've gone back to donald and Goofy. We have magic. We have new systems that aren't quite like what we've had before.

So, it's going to be okay. Just don't try to hold this game to the rest of the series' rules.
 

SHADOWSTRIKE1

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Alright... I guess my post could have been a bit confusing... Mostly it was like 3am and I was frustrated and looking for encouragement. I started the game about 7 months ago or so and didn't like what was going on with the dream pet thing so I stopped playing it, at which time I picked up BBS:FM (which I absolutely 100% loved). I beat BBS and stuff, and then just didn't move back to 3D for a while just because I remembered not liking it too much. Finally, I figured I'd pick it back up and try again. I remember I wasn't too far into the game, but I was passed the tutorials which I didn't feel like going through again so I just continued my game...

i think ink I can work with the drop system... I'm just confused what will happen if I need to continue with another character but I'm on the other one. That's been my trouble so far. I was in TT wandering around as sora and not knowing what I was supposed to do, then finally I was forced to drop, became Riku, and the story continued...

The enemies... They're going to take a bit to get used to... I like fighting enemies that appear scary and threatening, like Shadows and NeoShadows and such. So far I feel like I'm fighting big-eyed bunnies.

As for flow motion, I've been mostly using it to travel around the map. I used it a couple times to launch out of a barrel but I didn't see the point in it. My biggest gripe with it was that it seemed to make things easier, as I could just spin around on a pole and attack, then spin around on the pole and attack again, etc. and then it lead me to think that maybe I'm just not good at it, and it made me worry that I would have to be good at using it later in the game to defeat certain bosses.
 

Solo

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Past Traverse Town, the game will no longer force you to drop between characters. There will be times that you need to, though, to advance the story; you can't progress yet if you have cleared a set of worlds with only one character, and you will need to switch to the other and clear the worlds with him before you can move on to the next set.

You might not like fighting pastel-coloured bunnies, but design sometimes belies capability. Near the end of the game, even bunnies can get really annoying, especially when they appear together with formidable pegasi, falcons, dragons, and dinosaurs. I'm not trying to change your opinion, I'm just inviting you to look beyond the superficial appearance of the enemies.

Flowmotion isn't a necessity; it's an option. You don't have to use them if you don't want to, just stay away from the walls and poles or don't go Dodge-Rolling into them. For extra measures, you can also unequip the Flowmotion commands to deactivate most of them. There isn't a boss that you can't defeat with Flowmotion (save for a certain chase segment), especially if you have just the right commands.
 

Blackdrazon

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i think ink I can work with the drop system... I'm just confused what will happen if I need to continue with another character but I'm on the other one. That's been my trouble so far. I was in TT wandering around as sora and not knowing what I was supposed to do, then finally I was forced to drop, became Riku, and the story continued...

Yeah, if you haven't been playing sessions near one another I can see how this would really sting. After Traverse Town and until the end of the game, Riku and Sora are essentially both playing their own games, not interfering with one another. To reach the end of the game, you'll have to beat both. Yes, you will have to keep track of what they're both doing - if one of them is in a different world, you' even jump there. It's disorienting but there should be reminders of what to do lying around, if nothing else the journal.

One thing you do want to be aware of is that if you Drop during a fight, when you get back to that character, the fight will restart. This can be infuriating the first time it happens (or if you're really having a bad time at it, like I once had with Sora and a pack of those Mardi Gras T-Rexes posted up the thread) Unless you recently Dropped, I find it to be a good idea to manually Drop before a boss fight. With the advice above, or even without, you can get into a good pattern of clearing most of a world for both characters in two goes each (or even one!), and then going for the boss. You get into a rhythm: Sora first half of a world, Riku first half a world, Sora rest of the world, Riku rest of the world, Sora boss, Riku boss.


As for flow motion, I've been mostly using it to travel around the map. I used it a couple times to launch out of a barrel but I didn't see the point in it. My biggest gripe with it was that it seemed to make things easier, as I could just spin around on a pole and attack, then spin around on the pole and attack again, etc. and then it lead me to think that maybe I'm just not good at it, and it made me worry that I would have to be good at using it later in the game to defeat certain bosses.

Flowmotion is used to chase bosses, I suppose you could say, but rarely if ever to attack them (except incidentally. Easier to start your combo with a flowmotion attack than to stop dead and hope the boss hasn't darted across the arena already). I managed to beat the game without even getting the Trophy for killing enemies with flowmotion attacks (in fact, I was so far away I never bothered to get it!) so you'll be fine. I can understand that frustration, I hate to feel I can't play a game the way it seems to want to be played. The trouble is that Flowmotion gets weaker as an attack as you go through the game, until I really start to feel it is just for running around and the attacks are just a bonus (the whole not having to stop dead to attack thing, above), so you're not doing anything wrong!
 
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