A lot of people have grown to dislike the Kingdom Hearts series. Be it because of its constant portable releases or its convoluted storyline, the lovable Disney and Final Fantasy cross-over just isn't as popular as it was years ago. Being a fan from the beginning, I often defend the series. However the most resent release in the in the franchise left me crushingly disappointed. In fact its the first game of the franchise that I put down at the end and thought, 'that was so dumb.' These are all the reasons why I think Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance was bad for the series.
1) Nonsense Story
The story in dream drop distance is just bad. The number one thing that stands out in my mind how Master Xehanort and co. got into Sora and Riku's dreams. Time traveling to enter someone's dreams is the most ludicrous thing I've heard in ages (not to mention the fact that time travel is just out of place in the Kingdom Hearts universe). Would have it been so wrong to say Xehanort just used dark magic to enter the dreams instead? Am I also to believe that Master Xehanort had everything planned from the beginning even though Sora was an 'unknown factor.' I really liked the idea of Master Xehanort before when he was just a villain driven out of curiosity but now he's practically an all knowing god. If I were Sora, at this point I would just give up. Xehanort knows pretty much everything ever (exaggeration, I know that anything that happens after 3D is pretty much fair game but still), how are we going to defeat him.
Dream Drop Distance also seems to change up already established ideas. For instance, wasn't the idea in BBS that the Keyblade is past down from master to apprentice, so why can Lea just all of a sudden have the ability to wield a Keyblade? What else annoys me is the who idea behind forgin the X-blade. Once again, in BBS we were told that the X-Blade could be made when a heart of pure light and one of true darkness clashed. However, right off the bat in 3D we are told that we need seven lights and thirteen darkness. This all just felt like an incredibly convenient way to make another Organization XIII for Kingdom Hearts 3. I'm I the only one that feels like this is just fan survive at this point? Fighting the members of Organization XIII was one of the more interesting parts of Kingdom Hearts 2 but reusing this same idea for Kingdom Hearts 3 just feels weak, like as if Nomura was just plain out of ideas. This also makes Master Xehanort just look like a plain idiot for even trying to make the X-blade out of one heart of light and one of darkness in BBS. True, one could say that Xehanort was just trying to rush the plan like he said in 3D but considering how pivotal the idea was in BBS I believe that Nomura just changed the idea so there could be a new organization XIII.
Not everything was bad though. Learning the truth about the Nobodys was my favorite part of the game and I'm glad I got to see so many familiar faces (even though Vanitus's inclusion was a total letdown).
2) Flowmotion, best new idea totally hindered by poor execution
Flowmotion was single most anticipated part of 3D gameplay wise for me. The idea just sounded so great. Jumping from wall to wall would surely be a blast and for the most part it was. Disappointingly though, it fell short of expactations. My biggest problem with the mechanic was its inclusion in combat. Making Flowmotion attacks as powerful as command finishes in BBS was a horrible idea. For me it totally ruined the balance of the game since flowmotion (especially with flowmotion turbo turned up) was just so powerful and spamable. Square Enix seemed to think they had the solution for this problem; make certain areas bigger so flowmotion attacks cant be spammed. While this did fix the issue to a degree in created a whole new problem. These bigger areas made flowmotion for movement impossible or just not fun because you couldn't hit a wall, rail, or pole in time. Its truly a shame as well for when flowmotion shined it shined like none other. It also helped make the area's specially made for flowmotion (like the extra districts in Travers Town) look so much more detailed. Considering one of the series consistent flaws is open and dead looking envirorments this was a very good thing. I just hope that for Kingdom Hearts 3 the idea is much better executed. Personally I would opt for flowmotion attacks to be completely removed but I could see Square Enix due it if it was like, for example, breaking gaurds and not doing damgae.
(Was anyone else annoyed by all the unnecessary rails in the Grid?)
3) Dream Links showed lack of polish
Originally I thought Riku's dream links were going to be so much more fun to use than Sora's. BBS has my favorite combat system so to see something Command Style esc make it into 3D had my excitement peaked. Unfortunately the lack of polish in Riku's links made Dream Links feel incredibly tacked on. Riku's Dream links sure enough looked cool but unlike BBS the attacks were slow, did barley any more damage than normal attacks, and more than often missed their target meaning you would have to start the combo over again. Sora on the other hand didn't have this issue. While some of his dream links got old (ex: riding selected Dream Eater) they were almost all useful. Most did lots of damage and were easy enough to connect with enemies. Best of all, Sora is invincible during his Dream Links giving a slight relief from the games new found difficulty. Speaking of difficulty...
4) Hard to unfair difficulty
I know lots of people will just tell me 'difficulty is not a bad thing, your just not good at this game' but Dream Drop Distance has to be the hardiest KH game I've ever played (yes, I've played them all, even the GBA version of Chain of Memories). This time around I went for proud mode first, having grown used to Kingdom Hearts difficulty over the years. Big mistake. Dream Eaters are the most ruthless, if not adorable, enemies in the entire series. Personally the worst part for me was the new status effects. Being an action rpg your given full control over Sora or Riku, so there's nothing worse than having that control being taken away from you in combat. Getting frozen or stunned and having to watch myself die to attacks I could see coming was the most frustrating feeling I've felt in Kingdom Hearts (well, besides unskippable cutscenes in KH1). In games like Devil May Cry, if you get trapped its very easy to brake yourself free if your skilled. In Dream Drop Distance you just sit and cry. I didn't help that some areas were so big that having to go all the way back to the beginning made my weep (I'm looking at you, Sora's The World That Never Was).
I found that flowmotion on higher difficulties was also very frustrating in combat. The spin then dive attack nearly always spelled death if I used it. Now I know this sounds like I'm contradicting what I said above but while spamming and unusable are two very different side of the spectrum, it doesn't mean that either is good.
5) Horrible Boss fights
Boss fights have always been my favorite part of the Kingdom Hearts series, which is why I was incredible saddened by the fact that the bosses in 3D were some of the worst. Bosses ranged from brain dead to unforgiving hard. Near the end of the game it also seemed as though every boss hard attacks where they could instantly kill you or leave you at one hp. Human sized bosses have always been my favorite kind of boss but in Dream Drop Distance they were some of the most dreaded. Especially Young Master Xehanort, I could hardly move during that fight.
Some bosses just had stupid gimmicks. Rinzler is a good example. His constant stage flipping forced me to stay in one place and garud and counter throughout the whole fight. It wasn't very fun.
Flowmotion also got in the way of lots of these fights. It really falls flat in Riku's Grid fight. The silly flowmotion rail around the stage made it impossible to see. At first I thought, 'I could use this,' but after I did I fell on the rail again and again. It helped a lot at first but when the boss started to fire millions of lasers and discs at me (which on proud and critical it will do, a lot) I died constantly. I doesn't help that you cant use commands while in flomotion as well.
6) Dream Eaters, Commands, and Character Growth
Command system was the best part of BBS. I should actually say it combined with the Command Style system was the best part of BBS but that's not the point. The point is that in BBS was fun because of variety, lots of that variety stemmed from all the commands you would find throughout your journey almost everywhere. That fact that commands leveled and could be melded together had me constantly switching up my command deck.
This was not the case in Dream Drop Distance.
The worst part of commands in 3D is that almost all of them are found through leveling up Dream Eaters. Gone are the days of finding new commands in treasure chest because treasure chest now are only full of items for dream eaters (and the OCCASIONAL command). Leveling up Dream Eaters took forever and only resulted in a hand full of commands. To get what would be an acceptable amount of commands your have to Level up tons of dream eaters, which the game just dosen't give you time to do. Perhaps the choice not to let players level and meld commands came from this fact. Ultimately I found that all I needed to do was find the dream eaters that gave me my favorite commands, level them, and never switch commands again.
What's worse is that all of Sora and Riku's growth abilities come through the growth of dream eaters as well. I could see this work for Donald and Goofy in the counsel Kingdom Hearts games because they're almost always with you but here it gave me the same issue I have with Pokemon. It was just too tiring to level up more than just a few.
7) The need to play all handheld KH games before KH 3
No game should have taken place between KH 2 and 3 (I'm just going to disregard re:coded, because...yeah). What I like about BBS is that it gives you that backstory of Kingdom Hearts lore and villains but ultimately wasn't entirely necessary to play. Sora and a someone who hasn't played BBS are the same in the fact that the info learned in BBS would be new information for both of them. Sure, you would have extra insight if you played BBS but for everyone else it wouldn't be so important. Now that we have Dream Drop Distance, though, all of that is changed. Sora knows almost all this stuff know meaning that in KH 3 it will be regarded as old news. Now we're going to have to same problem we had between KH 1 and 2 with COM. People who never played COM were angry that KH 2 relied so heavily on Com because it made everything so confusing for them. Well now, thanks to 3D, we're going to have lots of angry confused people again. I'm not trying to say that everything would have been explained very well anyways but I believe it would have been easier without 3D.
So what are your thoughts? I did do a lot of bashing but 3D did have some novel ideas. Was Dream Drop Dristance good or bad for the series and why?
1) Nonsense Story
The story in dream drop distance is just bad. The number one thing that stands out in my mind how Master Xehanort and co. got into Sora and Riku's dreams. Time traveling to enter someone's dreams is the most ludicrous thing I've heard in ages (not to mention the fact that time travel is just out of place in the Kingdom Hearts universe). Would have it been so wrong to say Xehanort just used dark magic to enter the dreams instead? Am I also to believe that Master Xehanort had everything planned from the beginning even though Sora was an 'unknown factor.' I really liked the idea of Master Xehanort before when he was just a villain driven out of curiosity but now he's practically an all knowing god. If I were Sora, at this point I would just give up. Xehanort knows pretty much everything ever (exaggeration, I know that anything that happens after 3D is pretty much fair game but still), how are we going to defeat him.
Dream Drop Distance also seems to change up already established ideas. For instance, wasn't the idea in BBS that the Keyblade is past down from master to apprentice, so why can Lea just all of a sudden have the ability to wield a Keyblade? What else annoys me is the who idea behind forgin the X-blade. Once again, in BBS we were told that the X-Blade could be made when a heart of pure light and one of true darkness clashed. However, right off the bat in 3D we are told that we need seven lights and thirteen darkness. This all just felt like an incredibly convenient way to make another Organization XIII for Kingdom Hearts 3. I'm I the only one that feels like this is just fan survive at this point? Fighting the members of Organization XIII was one of the more interesting parts of Kingdom Hearts 2 but reusing this same idea for Kingdom Hearts 3 just feels weak, like as if Nomura was just plain out of ideas. This also makes Master Xehanort just look like a plain idiot for even trying to make the X-blade out of one heart of light and one of darkness in BBS. True, one could say that Xehanort was just trying to rush the plan like he said in 3D but considering how pivotal the idea was in BBS I believe that Nomura just changed the idea so there could be a new organization XIII.
Not everything was bad though. Learning the truth about the Nobodys was my favorite part of the game and I'm glad I got to see so many familiar faces (even though Vanitus's inclusion was a total letdown).
2) Flowmotion, best new idea totally hindered by poor execution
Flowmotion was single most anticipated part of 3D gameplay wise for me. The idea just sounded so great. Jumping from wall to wall would surely be a blast and for the most part it was. Disappointingly though, it fell short of expactations. My biggest problem with the mechanic was its inclusion in combat. Making Flowmotion attacks as powerful as command finishes in BBS was a horrible idea. For me it totally ruined the balance of the game since flowmotion (especially with flowmotion turbo turned up) was just so powerful and spamable. Square Enix seemed to think they had the solution for this problem; make certain areas bigger so flowmotion attacks cant be spammed. While this did fix the issue to a degree in created a whole new problem. These bigger areas made flowmotion for movement impossible or just not fun because you couldn't hit a wall, rail, or pole in time. Its truly a shame as well for when flowmotion shined it shined like none other. It also helped make the area's specially made for flowmotion (like the extra districts in Travers Town) look so much more detailed. Considering one of the series consistent flaws is open and dead looking envirorments this was a very good thing. I just hope that for Kingdom Hearts 3 the idea is much better executed. Personally I would opt for flowmotion attacks to be completely removed but I could see Square Enix due it if it was like, for example, breaking gaurds and not doing damgae.
(Was anyone else annoyed by all the unnecessary rails in the Grid?)
3) Dream Links showed lack of polish
Originally I thought Riku's dream links were going to be so much more fun to use than Sora's. BBS has my favorite combat system so to see something Command Style esc make it into 3D had my excitement peaked. Unfortunately the lack of polish in Riku's links made Dream Links feel incredibly tacked on. Riku's Dream links sure enough looked cool but unlike BBS the attacks were slow, did barley any more damage than normal attacks, and more than often missed their target meaning you would have to start the combo over again. Sora on the other hand didn't have this issue. While some of his dream links got old (ex: riding selected Dream Eater) they were almost all useful. Most did lots of damage and were easy enough to connect with enemies. Best of all, Sora is invincible during his Dream Links giving a slight relief from the games new found difficulty. Speaking of difficulty...
4) Hard to unfair difficulty
I know lots of people will just tell me 'difficulty is not a bad thing, your just not good at this game' but Dream Drop Distance has to be the hardiest KH game I've ever played (yes, I've played them all, even the GBA version of Chain of Memories). This time around I went for proud mode first, having grown used to Kingdom Hearts difficulty over the years. Big mistake. Dream Eaters are the most ruthless, if not adorable, enemies in the entire series. Personally the worst part for me was the new status effects. Being an action rpg your given full control over Sora or Riku, so there's nothing worse than having that control being taken away from you in combat. Getting frozen or stunned and having to watch myself die to attacks I could see coming was the most frustrating feeling I've felt in Kingdom Hearts (well, besides unskippable cutscenes in KH1). In games like Devil May Cry, if you get trapped its very easy to brake yourself free if your skilled. In Dream Drop Distance you just sit and cry. I didn't help that some areas were so big that having to go all the way back to the beginning made my weep (I'm looking at you, Sora's The World That Never Was).
I found that flowmotion on higher difficulties was also very frustrating in combat. The spin then dive attack nearly always spelled death if I used it. Now I know this sounds like I'm contradicting what I said above but while spamming and unusable are two very different side of the spectrum, it doesn't mean that either is good.
5) Horrible Boss fights
Boss fights have always been my favorite part of the Kingdom Hearts series, which is why I was incredible saddened by the fact that the bosses in 3D were some of the worst. Bosses ranged from brain dead to unforgiving hard. Near the end of the game it also seemed as though every boss hard attacks where they could instantly kill you or leave you at one hp. Human sized bosses have always been my favorite kind of boss but in Dream Drop Distance they were some of the most dreaded. Especially Young Master Xehanort, I could hardly move during that fight.
Some bosses just had stupid gimmicks. Rinzler is a good example. His constant stage flipping forced me to stay in one place and garud and counter throughout the whole fight. It wasn't very fun.
Flowmotion also got in the way of lots of these fights. It really falls flat in Riku's Grid fight. The silly flowmotion rail around the stage made it impossible to see. At first I thought, 'I could use this,' but after I did I fell on the rail again and again. It helped a lot at first but when the boss started to fire millions of lasers and discs at me (which on proud and critical it will do, a lot) I died constantly. I doesn't help that you cant use commands while in flomotion as well.
6) Dream Eaters, Commands, and Character Growth
Command system was the best part of BBS. I should actually say it combined with the Command Style system was the best part of BBS but that's not the point. The point is that in BBS was fun because of variety, lots of that variety stemmed from all the commands you would find throughout your journey almost everywhere. That fact that commands leveled and could be melded together had me constantly switching up my command deck.
This was not the case in Dream Drop Distance.
The worst part of commands in 3D is that almost all of them are found through leveling up Dream Eaters. Gone are the days of finding new commands in treasure chest because treasure chest now are only full of items for dream eaters (and the OCCASIONAL command). Leveling up Dream Eaters took forever and only resulted in a hand full of commands. To get what would be an acceptable amount of commands your have to Level up tons of dream eaters, which the game just dosen't give you time to do. Perhaps the choice not to let players level and meld commands came from this fact. Ultimately I found that all I needed to do was find the dream eaters that gave me my favorite commands, level them, and never switch commands again.
What's worse is that all of Sora and Riku's growth abilities come through the growth of dream eaters as well. I could see this work for Donald and Goofy in the counsel Kingdom Hearts games because they're almost always with you but here it gave me the same issue I have with Pokemon. It was just too tiring to level up more than just a few.
7) The need to play all handheld KH games before KH 3
No game should have taken place between KH 2 and 3 (I'm just going to disregard re:coded, because...yeah). What I like about BBS is that it gives you that backstory of Kingdom Hearts lore and villains but ultimately wasn't entirely necessary to play. Sora and a someone who hasn't played BBS are the same in the fact that the info learned in BBS would be new information for both of them. Sure, you would have extra insight if you played BBS but for everyone else it wouldn't be so important. Now that we have Dream Drop Distance, though, all of that is changed. Sora knows almost all this stuff know meaning that in KH 3 it will be regarded as old news. Now we're going to have to same problem we had between KH 1 and 2 with COM. People who never played COM were angry that KH 2 relied so heavily on Com because it made everything so confusing for them. Well now, thanks to 3D, we're going to have lots of angry confused people again. I'm not trying to say that everything would have been explained very well anyways but I believe it would have been easier without 3D.
So what are your thoughts? I did do a lot of bashing but 3D did have some novel ideas. Was Dream Drop Dristance good or bad for the series and why?
I'm almost done with Demon's Souls and I'm looking forward to getting that soon. But that's off-topic!
