The Kingdom Hearts Series: KINGDOM HEARTS 4 ANNOUNCED! STAR WARS POTENTIALLY TEASED (page 175)

[BlueTidalGamer]

Just finished the game myself so here's my review on it.

Story

The story was really enjoyable. Lots of stuff happend that I didn't expect and the hype for Kingdom Hearts 3 has risen to maximum levels. It's hard to talk about it without massive spoilers but if your a fan then your gonna be pretty entertained.

9/10

Gameplay

Hands down the best gameplay in any Kingdom Hearts game. The combat of Birth By Sleep still rocks and the new addictions are some of the best ones added to the series. Flowmotion took me a while to get the hang of but now I can't imagine any future Kingdom Hearts game without it. Here's hoping it's gonna return for KH3. The Dream Spirits was my favorite new gimmick. I first saw it in the early trailers and didn't look all that intrested, then I played it and was really surprised. These guys are great for combat and some of them are just adorable (Meow Wow i'm looking at you) They make the game much more replayable than the last handheld entry and still haven't collected them all yet. The drop system also took a little bit to adapt to but after a while I grew to like it so I didn't spend to much time with one character over the other. In boss fights however I was a bit iffy with it since you felt like you had to beat the bosses really quickly. Having that during harder difficuties is even harder but once I collected enough points to slow down the drop gadge during the fights I was fine with it.

8.5/10

Presentation

Hands down the best graphics on 3DS so far. It looks just as good as Birth By Sleep if not a little better. The worlds were well represented from the films they came from and also nice and big for flowmotion. A lot of action really can affect the framerate through but thankfully it's not everywhere. The same issue of the worlds from past games is still here in that there is little to no life in them. The Hunchback world shows this the most in the first cutscene for Sora when he enters. The camera is good for most of the game but there are a few moments when it can get way to close to your character.

As with other games in the series, the music is incredible. This is the kind of game you want to play wearing headphones, it makes it so much better. Hikari Kingdom Orchestra is still my favorite and while it's reused like other tracks, it's use in this game is great. Still through I hope KH3 will have a completly original soundtrack.

Voice acting is also another job well done. All roles did a great job and there's one certian actor i'm really glad came back.

This game is one that works so well with the 3DS XL. I highly recommend this game on the bigger screens for an even better experance if your intrested in the XL at all.

8.5/10

Overall

I never thought this game would catch my intrest as much as other games in the series, but boy was I proven wrong with this one. Kingdom Hearts 3D is not only a fantastic game, it's the best game in the series right next to Birth By Sleep. All Kingdom Hearts fans should pick this up as soon as they can. It may be another title to bide more time for Kingdom Hearts 3, but this is one you don't want to miss as it's the final build up for it, and man is there gonna be a lot to look forward to.

9/10

Edited July 31, 2012 by BlueTidalGamer

[pppp]

The same issue of the worlds from past games is still here in that there is little to no life in them.

I honestly don't get why people always have this complaint. Kingdom Hearts always had little life in them. There are never any NPCs in the worlds besides the ones that contribute to the story. I think it works since this series has always been combat-driven. It's kinda the style of the series.

Not to mention this game encourages exploration. Exploring and finding big chests is a great way to get strong commands early on.

Edited August 1, 2012 by pppp

[Nix]

No Kingdom Hearts 3D,

I actually don't like it when you flip my fucking screen over and reverse some of my movement controls in the middle of a boss fight. Fuck The Grid, and fuck you Tron.

Other than that and the camera being horrendously awful during most fights, the game is pretty damn awesome.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Pinkamina

[Mega]

Oh god. That fight reminded me so much of the Trickmaster in Re:Coded, which also flipped the controls. 8|

Can I just say that Riku is really, really awesome in this game? I love how they handled his characterization. It really shows how much he's grown and makes him one of the more dynamic characters in the series; this is easily my favorite take on him since KH1 and CoM.

[KHCast]

Okay so Kingdom hearts 3D has been released in the U.S now for a couple days and I've had time to play around with the game. Keep in mind that My 3ds died at the credits so If I missed something important let me know. Okay so Here is my review!

Story

Sora and Riku after receiving the letter from mickey at the end of Kingdom hearts 2 have decided to continue on their adventure. This time it's for them to prepare for the dangers ahead, ergo Master Xehanort, the main villain of the whole series. The only way to do this according to Master Yen Sid is by taking a Mark of Mastery exam, so that they may become Keyblade Masters. they have to go through 7 new sleeping worlds to unlock a new power.

The story at times does seem to throw a lot on you to think about at once. Even as a Kingdom hearts veteran that has understood most if not all of what's going on I found it hard to follow at times. Even with it's momento mode that allows you to read up on past games history.

The basic elements that make up Kingdom hearts plots are there. A great cast of new disney characters, The talk of friendship and what makes up a heart,etc. And when the games story shines boy does it shine! I teared up at certain times actually. Sora and Riku have their different takes on the disney worlds and their stories. Sometimes Sora will follow the original plot of a movie while Riku gets something original and the same way around. Both imaginings of the worlds are amazing and surprisingly follow the plots of their original movies very well. (especially in The Grid.)Plus they got freakin TWEWY characters!

PRESENTATION

I will say this. THE GAME IS GORGEOUS. I kidyou not when I say that. Next to RE:Revelations, this game is the best looking on the system. It captures the atmosphere of each world very well. How they re-did Traverse town was amazing. So colorful, vibrant and cheerful. All the worlds look gorgeous. From the old renaissance looking City of bells, to the Techno filled streets Of the Grid this game is brimming with creativness. You'll feel like your in the movies! Although the game is plagued by empty rooms. common thing you'll find in KH games. But with how amazing the levels are and feel, I can forgive them. Not to mention some NPC's will show up.once or twice though....

The voice acting is superb, the music is amazing(put the music genius behind TWEWY's soundtrack with the KH genius and what do you get?), and references to past games make me smile.(Umm the Olympus colosseum music remix anyone?) A few technical issues like lag when to many enemies are on the screen, but it's a small thing to think of in the Grand scheme of things.

Gameplay

Gameplay has changed quite a lot since KH1 hasn't it? Birth by sleep set a new standard for the way a Kingdom hearts game should be played. Re:Coded tried to use that same formula but became a jumbled mess added with tedious uninspiring broken platforming. 3d....Actually to me beats Birth by sleep. It's formula will be familiar to anyone that has played BBS or Re:Coded. Although some tweaks have been made. It's far more accessible and understandable to newcomers for one. moves can be shared between both Sora and Riku, meaning you won't have to spend hours on, finding one thing that your other character has.

A few new gameplay features have been added. One would be the inclusion of Dream eaters. These replace party members essentially. They actually are pretty helpful in your journey. You can create new dream eaters by finding recipes. destroying Nightmares.(the evil version of the Dream eaters) will reward you with many items including materials needed to create certain dream eaters. At first I thought it was going to be just like FF13-2's mechanic with their party system, but I was wrong. This is pretty different. You can raise your dream eaters and make them stronger in so many ways! Be it combat,petting and feeding them or playing games with them. You'll boost their stats. There's also a BBS inspired board game like thing for each dream eater you have which you can use to unlock new abilities for Sora and Riku as you level up your Dream eaters.

Platforming is great although simple at times. But I found myself coming back for so much more than just leveling up. It was just...fun. Clunky platforming is near dead at this point actually.(unless your cornered. but that's rare.) This is the best I must say the series has been, in terms of gameplay.

The Verdict

Kingdom Hearts 3D is not a perfect game. It suffers from many issues, be it Story or Gameplay, But when it succeeds, it does with Flying Colors! There's just so much good that it extinguishes the bad for me. I can say safely, that this is my favorite KH game to date. It's a great time passer as KH3 draws near.PLUS FREAKIN WORLD END WITH YOU CHARACTERS!

9/10

Edited August 3, 2012 by Sora

[Ekaje]

I must be doing something really wrong with this game. I'm in the hunchback world, and I keep trying to beat this special mission thing where I have to fight some elephants and rhinos while trying to block three times. Nearly every hit makes me go into critical health, and when I actually start hitting something another enemy comes and hits me while I'm attacking. And if I get an elephant down to low health and it turns red, it's able to oneshot me.

EDIT: The last KH games I played were KH2 on my friend's PS2, which was really easy, and a rental on re:Coded, which I was able to beat on Proud with several of the handicaps on (like reducing my health significantly most of the time), so I'm surprised how relatively difficult this game is.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Ekaje

[Conando]

Those are rare Nightmares, they're very dangerous but give out rare dream material rewards. When it shows the enemy information (in the world information) it will also denote difficulty by number of stars. 3 star Rare Nightmares will tear you apart if you're not high level.

[Ekaje]

Ha. This one is one star, so I'd hate to imagine how badly three-stars would wreck me, might not even get an attack in . So I'm just going to ignore this one for now and come back later (but man, looking it up going after Special Links rather than coming across them looks like a pain).

Edited August 5, 2012 by Ekaje

[Mega]

Protip: You don't need to do the bonus objectives. The prizes are generally mediocre.

FIVE STAR PORTALS... are nightmares, by the way. I just spent a few hours farming for a Ryu Dragon. It was very rage inducing.

[KHCast]

Anyone know how to earn Brilliant fantasies? I'm trying to create that frog dream eater with the sword.

[Mega]

You need to clear the special portals in The World That Never Was. Beat the first two (Pegaslick and Aura Lion), and you'll be able to access the third: Tyranto Rex. It will always give you a Brilliant Fantasy, but it's a very hard fight.

If you want Wild fantasies, you can use Sora's Tyranto Rex portal.

[Conando]

You can get Brilliant Fantasies from Riku's Special Portals in the final world, and in his final (6th) special portal in Symphony of Sorcery. You could also actually get them if you get a Street Pass Battle portal containing a Kab Kannon or Lord Kyroo.

Here's a tip about synthesizing in general: You'll want to create the harder to get Spirits in a World under Risky Winds, it automatically bumps their rank up by one, making it far easier to make a B or A rank Spirit. That's also the only day you can make a Star Rank but, it's over kill and costs about 5x the required materials to do so.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Crow T. Robot

[KHCast]

Ah okay. I've got some now. I'm like a LV 45 Riku right now so this is pretty simple. I can finally make Lord Kyroo!

[Conando]

Don't forget to synthesize him when Risky Winds are in effect for the easy Rank boost! I somehow didn't even notice that was an effect until much later in the game.

[KHCast]

Okay now that I've beaten the game i guess It's discussion time.

So I'm willing to bet that Terra-Xehanort will be one of the returning Xehanorts along with Xehanort the apprentice. I'm also willing to bet Vanitas returns, either during the time when he had a body or when he was merged with Ven.

Also The message in the credits seems to imply KH3 is definitely the next installment. The letters in the credits spell "This leads to Kingdom Hearts" and then shows three characters two times. Diz,Xion and Roxas along with Ven,Aqua and Terra(supposedly the ones that need to be saved.)

That's what I think at least. What are your thoughts?

Edit:Also this

Is making me think. Why does Roxas have golden yellow eyes? Xehanort perhaps?

Edited August 6, 2012 by Hedgehogs Boost

[Autosaver]

Where did that image come from? Was it originally one of the KH2 teasers? If it was, a lot of the stuff was just teasing.

[Teoskaven]

More importantly, what about the secret message at the end?

The past will be reawakened

as a new number

in never-before-seen detail

Prepare yourself for the awakening

of the next number

The first statement to me is a hint to an HD Collection, and the second to KHIII. I hope something will be revealed at this year's TGS.

[KHCast]

Where did that image come from? Was it originally one of the KH2 teasers? If it was, a lot of the stuff was just teasing.

It was the extended version of another side. Pretty sure in the KH final mix. A lot of what was in that was shown in KH2. All the quotes I'm pretty sure were in the game. And the fact that Square seemed to know about roxas being connected to sora and Other events in the series, I don't think It was accidental that Roxas had Gold yellow eyes.

[Nix]

I just started the Final World in KH:3D as Sora.

My brain hurts.

A lot.

[Conando]

So yeah, that secret message was pretty hamfisted

The past will be reawakened as a new number

In never-before-seen detail

Prepare yourself for the awakening of the next number

Herp a derp, I wonder what that means. Kingdom Hearts HD collection leading into Kingdom Hearts III, which will be the first HD installment of the series? I DUNNO, MAN.

[KHCast]

KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 REMIX!!!!

http://www.square-en...p/kingdom/khhd/

Comes with KH1 final mix, Re:COM and 359/2 days and will be for PS3.(A little disappointed about no multiplatform but oh well. Ps3 aren't that expensive anyways!) So gettin this! also looks like there will be a part 2 to this that will come with KH2, Coded and BBS. Wonder if something will be unlocked if you play and complete both this and the next HD collection. SO HYPED!!358/2 days with online please.

Now to wait for some video footage.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Pepsiman

[Komodin]

Sweet. Now, what are the chances of this actually being released outside of Japan...?

[KHCast]

Sweet. Now, what are the chances of this actually being released outside of Japan...?

I'd say pretty high actually. KH has a huge fanbase outside of japan. And this is a HD collection. They'd be crazy not to do so.

[Sami]

Wait, wait, wait.

...

You mean to tell me that in an HD collection for PS3... 358/2 Days made the cut, but Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep are being saved for a second collection? ... Really?

[Autosaver]

An HD Collection was hinted in KH:3D.

Also PepsiMan, some of the stuff you were saying is entirely speculation (Part 2, Online) and I don't think it was clear that you were predicting it. I posted some of the stuff you said but I didn't find info on it and people told me they were rumors.