When the Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance trailer came out, I was very excited. It continues after Re:Coded, which retells previous Kingdom Hearts events. The Nobodies will be returning and another keyblade war may be happening soon. Now Sora and Riku have to train and be ready by taking the Mark of Mastery.

It’s been awhile since we got a new Kingdom Hearts game (Coded came out last year). I don’t mind the side titles, since they add more back story and a better build up. I can deal with the remake/retake titles, but the main story is what I want to get into. And while the game is still about two months away, I finally got to play the first English demo of the game (mind you, it’s been hard for me to avoid YouTube and get some spoilers since the Japanese version of Dream Drop Distance has been out for awhile).

The demo starts you off as either Riku or Sora and places you in The Three Musketeers world. Each character has to deal with a different situation and area. With Sora, he appears in front of Mickey, Donald and Goofy, who are on a mission. He joins in on their mission that leads them meeting the Musketeers. There are quite a few interesting battles that include a protection mission against a large monster, fighting against Pete and the evil robbers, and tons of dream eaters. Riku, on the other hand, appears at another location and ends up saving Princess Minnie and Sora from a danger he wasn’t aware of. While the two never interact, they will help each indirectly by their actions.

A new addition is the Dream Drop. What this does is allows you to change between Sora and Riku at certain points in the game or when you pause the game. Doing this will help you build dream points, which play a very large role in the game.

Controls haven’t changed if you played 358/2 Days. In the demo I had control of many of the characters’ skills, and I do mean a lot of. Some techniques are dependent on your character’s current actions, and they are pretty devastating (These haven’t been seen yet in any Kingdom Hearts game). Both Sora and Riku have their own set of skills, which some are reflected off of the previous KH games. Donald and Goofy won’t be supporting Sora and Rku this time, instead you team up with Dream Eaters, who have different abilities and double team techniques. Dream Drop Distance is easy to jump into with its similar control scheme. It might be hard if you haven’t picked up a title since Kingdom Hearts 2 or Birth by Sleep.

It seems like Sony is getting all the main Kingdom Hearts storyline, while Nintendo gets the side stories. Dream Drop Distance is actually a main story title, so what will happen with Kingdom Hearts 3? Well, either way, I am very excited about the release of the full version of the game and just want to sit back, take a few days off work *cough cough*, and enjoy a Dream Drop Distance marathon.

Oh and also don’t forget about the Mark of Mastery Edition that was announced last week.

Chris Del Castillo

Growing up Chris watched a lot of the original Saturday morning cartoons and developed a love for arts and animation. Growing up he tried his hand at animation and eventually script writing, but even more his love of video games, anime and technology grew.

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