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Kingdom Hearts 3D Import |OT| - JEFF BRIDGES APPROVED

MechaX

Member
It just amazes me how deeper the rabbit hole can go for this series. I thought they got their fill of crazy back in KHII.

The people who are going to jump straight in from 2 to a possible 3 are going to be in for the mind fuck of a life-time.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
I've literally spent 4+ hours on one boss yesterday. It was the 3rd one counting from the end. Last 2 to go...
 

zroid

Banned
KH3D Iwata Asks is up

Anoop is posting a translated summary of the interview with Nomura

some choice morsels:

[Origin of Kingdom Hearts]

- Shinji Hashimoto and Sakaguchi were discussing the Disney collaboration, and Nomura joined in. He didn't think a "Mickey game" would work and he didn't want to make one.

- Nomura first interested because of Super Mario 64. He was working on FF7 at the time and wanted to do something like that. However, he was told then that the game was possible because of Mario and they wouldn't be able to achieve success with a new character. Enter the Disney brand...
 
Ahhh you guys have kinda scared me off this game now! :lol
I thought I may be able to get into the gist of what's going on after hearing this game has in-game recaps of the previous chapters of the series but I guess not...?
 

Gregorn

Member
Ahhh you guys have kinda scared me off this game now! :lol
I thought I may be able to get into the gist of what's going on after hearing this game has in-game recaps of the previous chapters of the series but I guess not...?

I don't think it matters, the story is far from the main reason most people play the games.
 
I don't think it matters, the story is far from the main reason most people play the games.

Yep my simple take on the story of the series as a whole is:
Sora wants to get Kairi back and does. May or may not go all the way and hold hands in KH3. Also some crazy shit happens.

Then you just point in the right direction and enjoy the ride killing things.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Just finished the game, took me around 32 hours on Proud, but I've spent 4 fighting with one of the bosses (using retry) and I don't know if it adds to the clock.

Sadly I failed at
the 3 questions asked at the island after Riku's final boss battle
and didn't really want to fight the last bosses again just to be able to watched it, so I used the link posted in this thread.

Here are the secret ending requirements for all interested:
Get a minimum of 5 trophies on Proud/7 on Normal
Get the secret message - just hit the gold letters during the credits, you can try again using the theater mode
Answer the 3 questions after the last battle properly, that is:
大切なものを失うのが If I had lost something important
大切な親友だ An important friend
大切なものを取り戻したい To take back what is important
If you fail the last one, you have to repeat the last... 2? boss fights

My overall impressions on the game are positive, although the battles were a bit too chaotic, mainly because of a big number of enemies you usually face at once.

Free flow actions are a nice addition - they're useful during both battle and exploration, but render the objects made with platforming in thought basically useless. You can just freeflow into a wall and go higher and higher etc.

Reality shifts were hit or miss - loved some, found some boring. Nice touch though.

What I didn't like, aside from the level of clusterfuckedness the story has reached and the above problem with battles is the Dream Eater system. Hell, I didn't like them at all - both enemies and friendly spirits looked totally out of place during the whole course of the game.
My main gripe though was having to play with those damn things using the same minigame over and over, as it was by far the quickest way to unlock link points needed for unlocking the skills.
In total, those 3 minigames got boring after 5+ tries and petting the Spirits for intimacy/exp/link points quickly became tedious, because of the small boosts it gave.
Not only the system as a whole could've used some more work, but also the Dream Eaters following you had an annoying habit of popping out behind you when they were too far. Trust me, running long distances with a pink pop covering 1/3-1/4 of the screen pretty often quickly got annoying.

All in all, I think it was a good game and didn't feel like a cheap tie-in with features cut just so it can fit the portable system.

If you have any questions, fire away, but please -don't ask about the story because I have no idea what the hell happened.
So I don't want any spoilers but can anyone tell me if this is as good as BBS?

Thanks in advance.
Yeah, it's as fast and colorful as in BBS, maybe faster with addition of freeflow actions. The new way of getting attacks isn't as fun as fusing them, as you have to play with your pets to unlock them.
 
It hurts my soul to know that I picked Proud mode cause I thought it'd be less work for the secret ending.

Fuckles.

Unrelated, but every time I see the TWEWY characters, I'm always struck by how good their character models look and animate.
 
A question about the worlds... How are they compared to those in BBS? Bigger? More various?

Kei can correct me on this, but it feels like there are a lot more large areas that are a bit more intricately designed. Some of them are just open, but many times there's lots of things inside to platform across/Free Flow around.
 
Just finished the game, took me around 32 hours on Proud, but I've spent 4 fighting with one of the bosses (using retry) and I don't know if it adds to the clock.

Thanks for the impressions.

How do you feel about the controls? Circle pad pro? BBS and 365/2 'worked' but I always felt like I was fighting with it, especially the DS game. Is it natural or still a bit clunky to do anything tricky?
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Kei can correct me on this, but it feels like there are a lot more large areas that are a bit more intricately designed. Some of them are just open, but many times there's lots of things inside to platform across/Free Flow around.
Yeah, the areas feel much larger than the BBS ones. More like in the "proper" titles.
Thanks for the impressions.

How do you feel about the controls? Circle pad pro? BBS and 365/2 'worked' but I always felt like I was fighting with it, especially the DS game. Is it natural or still a bit clunky to do anything tricky?
No CPP and I had no problems (chaos aside) with the camera. L/R were enough for me and because of playing a lot of MH-clones lately I didn't even lock on enemies aside from boss battles. No complaints here, really.
 
Yeah, the areas feel much larger than the BBS ones. More like in the "proper" titles.

There were definitely some areas in the first world early on that threw me off guard. BBS did a good job of hiding the fact that most of the 'rooms' were small, but 3D immediately tosses that out of the window.

Slight location spoilers:
The post office underneath Traverse Town was kind of a big 'wat'.

Also, I totally agree about the Dream Eaters. They feel really out of place, save for a few of the bosses which I think work fine aesthetically. It's a shame considering I've always really dug the enemy design in KH. 3D falls short on that.

I'm just around half way through and I'm also happy to report that this feels like a proper title in the same ways that BBS did. It doesn't make the same mistake as the DS titles.
 

jimmypython

Member
Got the game yesterday. Oh man the first world is huge! Biggest in the series I would say.

I can see that most of the area is a big dungeon like KH games always do, but why
even the safe zones don't have NPCs (beside moogle store)? So far, the TWEWY guys only appear in the cutscenes..
I don't know if this will change in the later worlds..
 
Got the game yesterday. Oh man the first world is huge! Biggest in the series I would say.

I can see that most of the area is a big dungeon like KH games always do, but why
even the safe zones don't have NPCs (beside moogle store)? So far, the TWEWY guys only appear in the cutscenes..
I don't know if this will change in the later worlds..

From what I've seen, no.

But KH has always had an astounding lack of NPCs.
 

jimmypython

Member
Got the game yesterday.

Oh man the first world is huge! Biggest in the series I would say.

I'm only 2 hrs in. The game is absolutely gorgeous when 3D is on. Loving it so far...

I can see that most of the area is a big dungeon like KH games always do, but why
even the safe zones don't have NPCs (beside moogle store)? So far, the TWEWY guys only appear in the cutscenes..
I don't know if this will change in the later worlds..

With 3D off, I will say the graphic is at the same level of BbS. But the scale is way bigger than BbS.
The first boss battle area has multiple levels like Dead or Alive. I think it is the first time a KH game does this.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Oh yeah, totally forgot about this - there aren't any Final Fantasy characters in this one. :(
 

Daft_Cat

Member
So, in all honesty, I feel like one of Birth By Sleep's greatest strengths was its story. In going back and doing a prequel, they cut out all the excessive density of the previous games narratives. They told a pretty clear, concise, and well structured story. Sure, it shed some light on certain things from the previous games, and offered up a couple more directions of its own..but it was probably the least convoluted installment.

What about Dream Drop? My fear, since this is basically Kingdom Hearts 3 in terms of its position on the timeline, is that it will get caught up in some of the franchise's typical craziness.
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
Man, I knew the Dream Eaters sounded lame. Couldn't they just make the freeflow system and keep the command styles, combining, and boards? Or at least give us other Disney characters as partners!
 

ZenaxPure

Member
Oh god what? They actually liked KH2FM the most? And story > battle?

D:

I'll be honest, the story was the only reason I continued playing KH2 back in the day. Every fiber of my being hated how the gameplay was just mashing attack (and occasionally triangle) over and over again. At least the first game had platforming and puzzle solving to mix things up which were lacking greatly in the second game. Yet I found the story compelling enough to finish and am glad I did.

I'd say until BBS the main reason I came to the series was for the story/characters and never had trouble following it, but I also own every game, even RE:Coded. I find the consistency and massive scope of the character interactions/plot across the various games rather fascinating since there is not really any other game series out there doing something like this for this stretch of time. The fact that it can all make sense to me outside of
Kingdom Hearts itself at the end of the first game
over the course of 10 years is just awesome. Certainly not newcomer friendly but still compelling to me nonetheless.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
It's going to be hilarious when KH3 finally comes out and everyone who was too stubborn to just suck it up and play BBS and KH3D is totally lost. No sympathy from me.

You're delusional if you think it's going to play into 3 in any major way. How lost was anyone who went to 2 without playing the GBA game? How many people do you think is chasing Kingdom Hearts around on 6 different platforms playing all the games? At best there would be a summary of what happened in all the different games since 2, but I hope it all gets ignored anyway. It looks like a bunch of convoluted garbage.
 

Mario007

Member
You're delusional if you think it's going to play into 3 in any major way. How lost was anyone who went to 2 without playing the GBA game? How many people do you think is chasing Kingdom Hearts around on 6 different platforms playing all the games? At best there would be a summary of what happened in all the different games since 2, but I hope it all gets ignored anyway. It looks like a bunch of convoluted garbage.

I played KH2 without even knowing about CoM and I was pretty damn lost for ages, especially at the start
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
You're delusional if you think it's going to play into 3 in any major way. How lost was anyone who went to 2 without playing the GBA game? How many people do you think is chasing Kingdom Hearts around on 6 different platforms playing all the games? At best there would be a summary of what happened in all the different games since 2, but I hope it all gets ignored anyway. It looks like a bunch of convoluted garbage.
I, personally, was pretty lost at the beginning, despite reading a summary of CoM's story (played about half of Sora's story in that one).
KH3D also has a "story summary" but it really doesn't help.
 
You were supposed to be lost in KH2. You only had as much information as Sora and Roxas did if you were coming into it from only playing the first game.
 
You're delusional if you think it's going to play into 3 in any major way. How lost was anyone who went to 2 without playing the GBA game? How many people do you think is chasing Kingdom Hearts around on 6 different platforms playing all the games? At best there would be a summary of what happened in all the different games since 2, but I hope it all gets ignored anyway. It looks like a bunch of convoluted garbage.

I know quite a few people who were immensely confused with how KH2 started due to missing out on Chain of Memories. It's certainly not rare as far as I can tell.

As for BBS and 3D, considering they both introduce and develop brand new characters that form the crux of what KH3 is about, I can see pretty much everyone who hasn't played them being extremely confused.

Who the hell is the old guy? Who the hell are these three keyblade wielders? Why are they important? What the hell is the X-Blade, what's all this keyblade master business? Why are
Axel and all of Organization XIII still alive
?

And that's just the 'superficial' stuff. Never mind everything else.

And believe me, I highly doubt Nomura and co plan to explain all of that stuff all over again. It's why they took two separate games to do so in the first place.

Even if they did, the Chain of Memories comparison isn't accurate because CoM hardly went into detail about any of the new characters, save for introducing them all kind of briefly.

I can see this totally being a problem for the passive fans who don't wiki every character and game. The summaries in 3D are actually hilarious because they really don't go into much detail at all despite trying to.
 
I know quite a few people who were immensely confused with how KH2 started due to missing out on Chain of Memories. It's certainly not rare as far as I can tell.

I'll agree with this. I sure was. I felt like I had missed out a game in the series or something that explained what was going on. Which was fair enough... because I did. Mind you later playing CoM didn't exactly help a lot anyway.

And believe me, I highly doubt Nomura and co plan to explain all of that stuff all over again. It's why they took two separate games to do so in the first place.

True, but I expect re-releases of the portable games in some sort of collection. They do need another project after all so they don't have to work on KH3.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
It goes crazy as usual, but it's way better than that one part in BBS when you're in Sleeping Beauty's world and attacking the castle. That was absolutely terrible.

Tbh. I don't remember that part in BBS but some of the last world battles are really awful performance-wise. I mean normal enemies, not the bosses. Skills flying all around and FPS taking a dive.
 

Marlowe89

Member
Question about the forced Drop mechanic: when you're kicked out of a boss fight, will you pick up right where you left off when you play the character again? Or do you seriously have to START THE ENTIRE BOSS FIGHT OVER?

Also, any reports in the game? Some splainin' needs to be done.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Question about the forced Drop mechanic: when you're kicked out of a boss fight, will you pick up right where you left off when you play the character again? Or do you seriously have to START THE ENTIRE BOSS FIGHT OVER?

Also, any reports in the game? Some splainin' needs to be done.
As for the Drop mechanic - you're kicked to the beginning of the fight.
If you're exploring a zone, I'm pretty sure you're kicked to the beginning of it, UNLESS you're in a fight. So when my Drop gauge was running low while running around, I always looked for a fight, so I can drop back straight to it later.
It is annoying, but you can roughly estimate how long it's until the drop, so if you think you won't be able to defeat a boss, just drop at the beginning of the fight and come back to it later.

Also, there's a glossary in the game (all those weird words like Organization, Keyblades) plus "chronicles", which are written summaries of the stories of the previous games.
 
despite not having played bbs, days, com, or any of the non-numbered games, i am excited for kh3, oddly. it's the type of convoluted, poorly-written melodrama that i like for some reason.

I don't think it is poorly-written at all. They are just pain-stakingly setting the scene for the MMORPG kingdom hearts.

When you have thousands of identical Soras and Kairis all running around and it still makes perfect sense in the context of the series you will understand the brilliance.
 

B.K.

Member

Nomura says the next game, but maybe he means the next console game. There may be another three or four handheld games before the next main game in the series.

How much you want to bet it comes out before Versus 13?

It can't come out before Versus XIII. The main Kingdom Hearts team is stuck on it.
 

Marlowe89

Member
As for the Drop mechanic - you're kicked to the beginning of the fight.
If you're exploring a zone, I'm pretty sure you're kicked to the beginning of it, UNLESS you're in a fight. So when my Drop gauge was running low while running around, I always looked for a fight, so I can drop back straight to it later.
It is annoying, but you can roughly estimate how long it's until the drop, so if you think you won't be able to defeat a boss, just drop at the beginning of the fight and come back to it later.

Also, there's a glossary in the game (all those weird words like Organization, Keyblades) plus "chronicles", which are written summaries of the stories of the previous games.

That's pretty unfortunate. I'm totally unsure how Sora and Riku's health meters work with the drop mechanic, so if I don't have full health when I'm dropped back into a boss battle that's regained all of its health, I'll feel pretty jipped. I suppose it's not too big of a deal, though (considering cure and all) and I still like the idea of playing as two characters in two different locations.

Aw, no Xehanort reports? Bummer. Nomura needs to make sense of how
Ansem SoD had to give up his body to time travel, yet this little junior bastard here can somehow just do it WITHOUT those prerequisites.
 
It goes crazy as usual, but it's way better than that one part in BBS when you're in Sleeping Beauty's world and attacking the castle. That was absolutely terrible.

I got slowdown in the carnival portion of Prankster's Paradise that was noticeably worse than anything I've experienced in BBS. (Including the mentioned instance in the Sleeping Beauty world) The framerate pretty much tanks just by walking around the main carnival area for me.
 
I got slowdown in the carnival portion of Prankster's Paradise that was noticeably worse than anything I've experienced in BBS. (Including the mentioned instance in the Sleeping Beauty world) The framerate pretty much tanks just by walking around the main carnival area for me.

Woh, weird. I can honestly say that the frame rate never took a huge dive in that area for me. The trampolines though? That was another story entirely.

Also, definitely play the Fantasia world with headphones. Unnngghhhh.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
How does this game stack up to 358/2, BbS, KH1, and KH2?
 
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