News ► Drop Gauge Increased in DDDHD and 0.2 Objectives Translated!

[DarkosOverlord]

I NEVER had any in-game problem with the Drop Gauge.
I hate it because it's... completely pointless.
It has no purpose.
Strategic? Drop before a boss, re-drop, there you go, full bar. Or use the aforementioned Drop items. I don't really see any "pondering", it has the same strategic value as seeing a save point ad refull HP before moving on.

But enough about bosses and plot: the exploration.
Searching for materials and/or Secret/Special Portals. Or chests, as the maps are pretty big and places like The Grid aren't really easy to navigate and know where you are. Or, in Critical especially, farming for levels and or DE points for skills.
These are all issues where the Drop Gauge just butts in and gets on your nerves.
The Drop Gauge is nothing short of a constant time limit on your head, and there is a reason why arbitrary time limits are usually hated by players: because they're arbitrary and take away from the pleasure of exploration, putting you a constant limit to keep track on.

It's not that if you (generic you) haven't had any problems with Drop Gauge it makes it good: it's the entire concept. Being able to work around a bad design it's not to the bad design's merit. Let me rephrase that: "In the new Kingdom Hearts, you can use Sora and Riku, but are forced to switch every 10 minutes, regardless of the situation. If it's during a boss fight, you have to restart."
Does this look fair or needed? I see nothing but a bad game choice. Or trade-off, who knows.
I could've seen purpose for the story, if it always happened like the very beginning of the game, when Sora and Rku felt sleepy and they suddenly dropped. If that was a story thing (like if when the Wargoyle knocks Sora out, the game sends you to Riku) I would've really liked it. Like it is, not so much.
I am as glad as seeing the return of Drop Gauge as I am to see one of my enemies is still walking the green Earth.
Bear with me if I was a little blunt, I just woke up. I still love DDD, I am an optimist and I take the 20 minutes increase, it's better than nothing.

I still don't even know what the forecast stuff even means to be honest. I am the worst player ever, but yes, I always stayed stocked on drop-me-nots even though I never equipped them.

At least in the 3DS version the forecast showed things related to drop items (like munny), strong enemies, and more importantly the special portals needed to unlock End of Pain.
On this note I hope they fixed that already completed Portals don't show when trying to complete them all, it was really tiresome.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I NEVER had any in-game problem with the Drop Gauge.
I hate it because it's... completely pointless.
It has no purpose.

Actually, the purpose is more to do with character and story progression as opposed to "unique game play mechanics". Sure, it's a game play mechanic, but clearly it's made so that character switching is executed differently.

 

[The_Echo]

But enough about bosses and plot: the exploration.
Searching for materials and/or Secret/Special Portals. Or chests, as the maps are pretty big and places like The Grid aren't really easy to navigate and know where you are. Or, in Critical especially, farming for levels and or DE points for skills.
These are all issues where the Drop Gauge just butts in and gets on your nerves.

I can't say I experienced any trouble with the Drop mechanic and I completed DDD 100%.
Actually, the time limit was the least of my worries regarding the special Portals, which rotate per drop.

The only time I can recall having dropped during a boss was at the tail end of the Xemnas fight, the literal end of Sora's scenario. Probably no worse place to get dropped and even then, like, it was my fault for going in with a low gauge. Not like the boss came out of nowhere and I didn't have time to prepare (in fact, I'm pretty sure every boss in the game is highly telegraphed for this specific reason).

The Drop Gauge is nothing short of a constant time limit on your head, and there is a reason why arbitrary time limits are usually hated by players: because they're arbitrary and take away from the pleasure of exploration, putting you a constant limit to keep track on.

But you don't really have to keep track of it?
Just pop a Drop-Me-Not when it gets low. There's no shortage of them. The gauge even goes into a special mode to countdown the final moments, there's no way you can miss it.

"In the new Kingdom Hearts, you can use Sora and Riku, but are forced to switch every 10 minutes, regardless of the situation. If it's during a boss fight, you have to restart."

You aren't forced. And between the drop delay bonus (which, let's be real, all of us picked every single time) and DPNs, that 10-minute "time limit" could be extended to hours.

The bad attitudes surrounding Drop feel so irrational to me. It's far from a stressful time-management system like Dead Rising or attempting a complete Persona playthrough.
I'd even go as far as to say that it's a complete non-issue.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

Actually, the purpose is more to do with character and story progression as opposed to "unique game play mechanics". Sure, it's a game play mechanic, but clearly it's made so that character switching is executed differently.

As I said later in the post, even that didn't feel like it was done as well as they could.

I can't say I experienced any trouble with the Drop mechanic and I completed DDD 100%.
Actually, the time limit was the least of my worries regarding the special Portals, which rotate per drop.

I did too.
As I said: I don't need to personally experience terrible issues to realize something is not needed.

The only time I can recall having dropped during a boss was at the tail end of the Xemnas fight, the literal end of Sora's scenario. Probably no worse place to get dropped and even then, like, it was my fault for going in with a low gauge. Not like the boss came out of nowhere and I didn't have time to prepare (in fact, I'm pretty sure every boss in the game is highly telegraphed for this specific reason).

You can't be at fault for going at a low gauge if the gauge wasn't even there to begin with!
What good does the gauge brings? What bonus, and I'm not talking about the drop bonuses, I'm talking about what benefit does having the gauge brings?
None? Then even having it it's a malus.

But you don't really have to keep track of it?
Just pop a Drop-Me-Not when it gets low. There's no shortage of them. The gauge even goes into a special mode to countdown the final moments, there's no way you can miss it.

As I said: working around something doesn't erase the thing. Pop an item which still takes at least a command slot does not make me forget I'm doing this to fill an already useless bar.

You aren't forced. And between the drop delay bonus (which, let's be real, all of us picked every single time) and DPNs, that 10-minute "time limit" could be extended to hours.

Pretty sure I can't just keep battling if I want to. Therefore I am forced.

The bad attitudes surrounding Drop feel so irrational to me. It's far from a stressful time-management system like Dead Rising or attempting a complete Persona playthrough.
I'd even go as far as to say that it's a complete non-issue.

Again: going around an obstacle and the presence of bigger ostacles don't make the original obstacle disappear.
It's a construct of human mentality that is sadly always present. "This thing doesn't create me any great issues especially compared to others, this thing is not an issue."
I can make literally everything awful or awesome by comparison, but that's not how it works. The Drop Gauge doesn't bring a single plus on the table, except maybe one which was obviously built around the thing itself.
At this point, even the slightest fault tilts the scales. And something that has more flaws than merits, by definition, it's not a good choice.

 

[The_Echo]

You can't be at fault for going at a low gauge if the gauge wasn't even there to begin with!

What? It is there to begin with.

What good does the gauge brings? What bonus, and I'm not talking about the drop bonuses, I'm talking about what benefit does having the gauge brings?
None? Then even having it it's a malus.

It doesn't have to be a bonus. It's the conceit of the game, the general framework by which it is constructed and other mechanics are informed. Drop isn't like Drive or Focus, the gauge isn't there for player function, it's a structure.

It's like... I guess a recent example could be nighttime in FFXV. Daemons come out at night and for the early game, at least, they're pretty fierce and it's best to avoid them. However, you have all the power as the player to avoid nighttime. Campsites are everywhere, there's a clock on the HUD so you always know what time it is and how close it is to night.

They present a time-based obstacle and give the player all the tools necessary to avoid or mitigate the problem as much or as little as they see fit. It cannot possibly be the game's fault if you're stuck outside at night, because you have every opportunity to make sure it doesn't happen.

As I said: working around something doesn't erase the thing. Pop an item which still takes at least a command slot does not make me forget I'm doing this to fill an already useless bar.

OK? But you can just swap the item in, pop it, swap it out, so it isn't really taking up a slot if you don't want it to.

Pretty sure I can't just keep battling if I want to. Therefore I am forced.

What, like, you drop mid-battle? Well considering you have all the power and opportunity to restore your Drop, drop at will, and decrease the gauge speed, I would say that it's your fault if you somehow drop in the middle of battle.

Forced would be like the story drops in Traverse Town. You have absolutely no input or control over those drops. That is forced.

You might as well say other KH1 forced you to leave the world when the boss was defeated. Like, nah man, it's up to you.

Again: going around an obstacle and the presence of bigger ostacles don't make the original obstacle disappear.

I never said it did.
It's funny that you paint it in a bad light as an obstacle, when video games are literally a series of obstacles for the player to solve or otherwise overcome.

I dunno what's got your jimmies so rustled over this mechanic if you didn't even have any problems with it. If it produced no trouble, then it isn't a troublesome mechanic, surely.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

Holds any purpose? Not really.
Proves to be any sort of challenge to overcome? Like, it tests any of your skills, like defeating a boss tests your combat skills? No, it depletes, you can either fill it by wasting an item or let it deplete. Videogames are, or should be, challenges you can overcome by using your skills. But videogames are plenty of "challenges" that are just sudden spikes, time-wasting tasks, or things out of your influence scope. We usually refer to them as bad/poor game choices.

In Dragon's Dogma, fast travel... for the sake of brevity let's just say fast travel is awful and nonexistant, making you walk dozens of minutes in already-seen places. Now, I can just pop out my mp3 and listen to songs while doing this, and I'll eventually reach destination just as planned.
That doesn't change the fact that the mechanic in itself is awful, unnecessary and doesn't test any of my skills outseid mu patience. Hence, in order to avoid this, most well-praised games have fast travel.
I could go on with a list of ill-thought game mechanics that are such even without being game-breaking issues, but I'm fairly confident we're all familiar with them.

About me hating the Drop Gauge even if it doesn't affect my own gaming experience... I also really like KH1's combat system over KH2, just because it's my taste. But, I am then capable to see how the latter is objectively more balanced and offers more well-implemented options, even if it doesn't resonate with me. The fact that I can deal with the L2/R2 camera issue doesn't mean a lot of people won't have trouble with it or that is a bad choice.

I summarized my position on this. Clearly it's not the world's, but I'm deeply convinced the Gauge doesn't really benefit to the game and is instead pretty bad, and I've yet to hear a for me convincing counterpoint.
Then, to each their own. I mean, we are stuck with it, so. Victory is yours, Drop Gauge-fans.
*tips hat*

 

[SORA619]

Enough time to finish a boss fight without changing and boss's hp bar getting reset. I'm glad they are fixing original's issues..

 

[Alpha Sonix]

I didn't mind the Drop Gauge for the most part though I would have preferred if they just made it so that you couldn't drop during boss fights. Still, twenty minutes is more than enough to work with so I'm happy.

 

[catcake]

The drop gauge is fine, but I don't mind them making it slower either. Whatever. The only time it ever even mattered to me was one boss fight where I forgot to check it before starting and it got suuuuper close, but it was just exciting, trying to beat the boss as fast as possible. It was the mole one that keeps disappearing and appearing out of the ground too so it was fun times. And by fun I mean it was stressful as heck but so satisfying when I managed to do it.

 

[Precursor Mar]

Lol at the people defending the drop gauge.

"It's strategic!"

Yeah, pal? What's the strategy? Guessing how much time you're gonna waste on a pointless and arbitrary time limit?

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Lol at the people defending the drop gauge.

"It's strategic!"

Yeah, pal? What's the strategy? Guessing how much time you're gonna waste on a pointless and arbitrary time limit?

No time? Because no matter what you are moving forward in somebody's story.

 

[Hirokey123]

Cool news none the less so the lv3 gauge probably takes us to about several hours now then.

Went and did some testing/looked at videos of 3DS DDD.

3 bars, each takes roughly 6 minutes to empty at a multiplier x1.0 which is the standard multiplier.
So the base gauge will give you around 18 minutes before it completely emptied + 30 seconds (which seem to be slowed down by a half second compared to real seconds) before the drop. So all and all round the base to gauge to already giving you close to 20 minutes. This could be extended to well over an hour with the lv3 drop gauge slow down bonus.

I'm going to assume this means that what they are actually saying is each individual gauge bar now takes 20 minutes standard which means the full base gauge is an hour in length. So level 3 drop decelerator will likely give you several hours of playtime before you'd even have to think of restoring it.

 

[SkeithTheTerror]

Cool news none the less so the lv3 gauge probably takes us to about several hours now then.

So level 3 drop decelerator will likely give you several hours of playtime before you'd even have to think of restoring it.

Several hours seems like it would be far too much, at that point what would even be the point of the drop gauge?

 

[Hirokey123]

Well pretty much the same point there always was?

To let Sora and Riku help one another out despite not directly being alongside one another via drop bonuses (which are really powerful especially at lv3) while also allowing the story to have a much better flow than BBS's fragmentation? I mean those were there reasons the drop gauge existed in the first place, it never was truly intended to be much of an actual time limit. They played with the idea of it being a time limit during development but didn't like that which is why they added the "drop" button and thus rendered the actual time limit idea null. Likewise it was supposed to be an alternative way to "lose" to bosses in DDD since their whole shtick is keeping dreams going eternally so you get locked into this dream until you can win, that required some minor tweaking since in the Japanese version your health didn't restore after a drop but the bosses did which was pretty BS. The result in the English version was actually pretty nice since it still punishes you for playing poorly/slowly but not so harsh since you'll get your HP back to.

However it would make giving dream eater bosses the ability to up your drop meter multiplier kind of pointless so they might just remove those attacks if it's the case.

 

[Zul]

This.

To be honest I never understood the wailing in regards to the Drop Gauge, as it added some strategic element to the whole experience requiring players to plan ahead and actually weigh if one should take on a level's boss or not (if you don't reset the gauge via item).

But then again, I also never understood the "hate" and complaints about CoM's card system which in my personal view has a wonderful strategic and planning component to it.

Impatience.

There are masses of gamers out there that favor heavily streamlined gameplay and shun any kind of RPG element involving preparation or using lateral thinking to come up with a strategy.

I'm rather surprised myself, the drop gauge and card system are incredibly tame compared to the stuff you find in classic RPGs.

 

[Elysium]

Occasionally I would drop at inconvenient times in my first playthrough, but I never felt like it was unfair. The game gave me this rule and it's on me to work with it. That said, I welcome a more forgiving Drop gauge.

Same. The mechanic was annoying to some degree, because I'd be into what I was doing at the time in one story or the other and didn't want to take a break. That said, I usually dropped before bosses if the gauge looked like it might not last through the fight. I never really paid attention to the forecast or use Drop-Me-Not's, tbh.

I didn't want them to change the game or get rid of the Drop Gauge, but still I'm glad they extended the time.

 

[DefiantHeart]

Lol at the people defending the drop gauge.

"It's strategic!"

Yeah, pal? What's the strategy? Guessing how much time you're gonna waste on a pointless and arbitrary time limit?

Ikr? XD If I wanted a time-based strategy game, I'd play something like Pikmin, where ish a core game mechanic, and not something just slapped on to annoy the player. Honestly, I feel they were like, " hey, Zelda: Majora's Mask did well with an added time mechanic, lesh add on a time mechanic to Kingdom Hearts and see what happens." XD

Ish really just pointless, but whatever. I feel they added in flowmotion just to counter having such a horrible mechanic to begin with.

 

[Grizzly]

This.

To be honest I never understood the wailing in regards to the Drop Gauge, as it added some strategic element to the whole experience requiring players to plan ahead and actually weigh if one should take on a level's boss or not (if you don't reset the gauge via item).

But then again, I also never understood the "hate" and complaints about CoM's card system which in my personal view has a wonderful strategic and planning component to it.

I couldn't agree more. I thought the Drop mechanic was totally fine and had an easy work around. I thought it made sense narratively for DDD, as well as mechanically in adding that strategic layer that normally isn't seen in KH in that sense. I never had a problem with the Drop system, although the extended time is nice, I don't feel it was necessary. I'm glad it wasn't removed.

 

[Launchpad]

I think the mechanic is dumb but that's all it is.

 

[Zephyr]

I think the Drop mechanic was introduced so it would allow equal pacing between the two characters as opposed to BBS's three characters. It isn't particularly bad if you use Drop-Me-Nots or if you drop and then drop back.