Not as good as the games that came before or after, but not a bad game by any means. In a lot of ways this game pushes the series foward. It brings back platforming through flowmotion which is a new a central mechanic to this game that I like very much. This mechanic not only expands the ways in which you interact with the world, but also the ways in which you fight you enemies. This addition along with the more open areas and unique gimmicks make the worlds in DDD feel more unique and interesting when compared to the hallways in KH2 and in BBS. The biggest problem with this game are the boss fights. It really has the worst bosses in the series by a huge mile and a lot of the enemies feel very samey. Which is a shame for an otherwise very creative game. Even when the game fails at executing a mechanic you can still appreciate the concept at some level. I guess I'm more forgiving towards this game both story and gameplay wise because I know what came afterwards and I like it very much. It's still a good game like most KH games. It just has couple annoying problems.

I really don’t mind this game too much. Let’s get the worst out of the way first - the writing for Sora sucks and he comes across as a complete idiot #notmysora. However, Riku is good and this is the title that finally made me forgive him for kicking my ass in KH1 over and over again when I was 10 years old. I think this is the side game with the combat I find the least offensive, though it is very easy until the final boss rush. The command deck moves feel snappier to execute than in Birth By Sleep and I like the dream eaters! They’re fun! I remember flowmotion being excruciatingly annoying to control on the 3DS but it’s not so bad in the HD version, though I agree with the take that the way it’s implemented makes a lot of the level design pointless.

not hugely fond of the gameplay in this one. dream eaters never really clicked for me as a mechanic, which is unfortunate considering that you can't easily access certain spells, abilities and passives without investing into it. also the drop mechanic is pretty bad and given how easy it is to straight up ignore I have to ask why it even exists. the combat feels less stiff than BBS but I found it less interesting to explore.

the story kinda flew over my head in some aspects, but I was surprised by how Riku-centric it ended up being toward the end, and Lea has quickly become one of my favorite characters. Definitely feels like its putting all the pieces into place for KH3, which I'm excited to see.

brownie points for using the TWEWY gang I love to see it.

The only KH game I had never completed until now. I looked up the story cutscenes before 3 came out originally, but I never fully played it. I got it for 3DS when it originally came out and dropped off about halfway in. At the time I felt like the series was far past what I had invested into it.

Playing it again was nice! It’s definitely in the same tier as the other handheld games - though it is for sure my least favorite story compared to BBS and 358/2. It’s not bad but it is almost exclusively a build up for KH3. It still has some great qualities though. It’s Riku’s game really. He develops the most here and it’s great to see him taking on a role that sora usually has. The gameplay is snappy if a bit slippery at times. It’s fun though! It plays better than BBS but the story is a fraction as interesting to me. It has plenty of wonderful and creative moments though. There’s a lot of “buts” here. Every praise comes with a criticism. I keep in mind that it was a 3DS game originally, and for that it’s pretty cool. I love seeing traverse town again and the levels are big and vast (and empty) and it’s fun to blast through!

Overall I liked it though. If we exclude re:coded for now - I’d rank the handheld games as
358/2 days > Birth By Sleep > Dream Drop Distance.

I know people slam the series for making these so critical to the overall franchise, but seriously it’s not like they’re a chore to play. They’re all very fun and easily accessible on one console now. Yes KH3 seems convoluted because it provides closure for all these games, but playing those games are pretty simple experiences in isolation. No YouTube essay will catch you up in the same way as playing them yourself. It was totally worth playing them all before my replay of 3. It’s not only helping the story make complete sense to me, it’s giving me the intended emotional investment and reframing KH3 as an incredible game for me. I was fairly disappointed on my first playthrough. I turned around on it a lot for my second and loved it. My third playthrough could end with me seeing it as a near masterpiece. Like my review on the FF13 series, I’m glad I took the time to reevaluate and invest myself in these. I’ve exchanged a disappointing experience for a completely satisfying one. In these regards I love admitting when I’m wrong.

Feels really good to play with Riku in a full game, and see his character development.

I really liked the gameplay and how the new areas are very vertical and big to allow explorations with the new movement system. Even on worlds visited before, everything is quite fun to explore. And the combat is the usual command system, but without merging them. It works.

The spirits are quite cute, though I thought that taking care of them was too much work (I did it anyway). I don't hate the fact that abilities are locked to them. But that also makes them dying a real pain (and a questionable decision imo), specially against post-game bosses.

The story is very confusing and with a handful of retcons. I did not like it much, specially with all the implications it has. Still, some of the elements presented here are necessary for the story of KHUX, which in turn I really enjoyed and made me quite excited to see what comes next. Because of that I consider the messy story presented here a more or less necessary evil.

I used to be waaaaay more cold on this game quite honestly.

I played it all the way back on the 3DS and could not finish it cause it caused really bad hand cramps for me (do your wrist stretches everybody) to the point where I could play it in fairly small bursts until I eventually gave up because I just wasn't enjoying myself all that much with it.

So I waited for a remaster or cutscene compilation given the remasters steadily coming out at the time, plus 0.2 cause like hot DAMN that shit is fire I cannot wait to write about that one.

So eventually I picked up the 2.8 collection but didn't really finally get around to it until KH3 was almost out which in hindsight was kind of a stupid decision. I was rushing the first real playthrough of this game so that I'd be ready and prepped for 3. I feel like I wasn't quite the most charitable to this game in my excitement and overall more direct want of 3 which sucks but sometimes ya get caught up in the moment ya know!

Something about this game didn't really click into place for me at the time, everything with Sora annoyed me initially, I had at the time felt like the game meandered a bit too much, I didn't really love the worlds, the one thing I DID majorly love was the ending mainly because of how much it goes about setting up for 3.

So going into this I had my worries and concerns about it given the last time though I was still open to trying to really give it that second look and I'm really glad I did especially after playing 3+ReMind.

Dream Drop Distance is such an improvement over Birth By Sleep from a gameplay standpoint that it's kinda fuckin wild that this is seemingly from the same team. They clearly learned a loooot of really good lessons from developing that game and its systems. The movement and feel of the game feels a lot faster and looser, the addition of flowmotion as a system has ya bouncing and zooming around levels like nobodies business, the way it flows into the combat and meshes with how you tangibly interact with the game even brings back a tiny bit of that 1 style exploration and curiosity of its landscapes in my eyes though not to the full degree it could. Honestly I think 3 does that better but again still not to the 3D platformer experimental way that 1 specifically did it.

Dream Eaters are such a good choice for both allies and enemies here. They cute, they hunger, they attack, they heal, they defend. They're really cool and I like them! I like that you can name them whatever ya want and really make them your own. KhimarisSon was a real one and got me through many a battle by the end.

The level scaling this time works pretty well as the game goes on, at no point did I ever feel like I was behind after finishing a location, I felt like the game gave me more than enough in each world to do in terms of battles that by the end I felt properly leveled and ready for whatever was going to pop up next.

The real only gameplay downsides are that some bosses still have the Birth By Sleep problem of just not being able to get hitstunned or any kind of real major knockback at points, making you essentially wait for your turn to do anything before waiting 5 minutes for your next swing which is a bit lame! I know this problem is fixed in 3 at least but it was still pretty annoying to deal with and I feel like this problem more-so only majorly popped up near the end but it was absolutely still there in a way that annoyed.

As for the narrative, I dig the dual split drop in style of the entire thing. This dual perspective seemingly parallel world perspective of both Sora and Riku's adventure. I remember the first time I played through this I was confused on how exactly the world split stuff works even though the game quite literally tells you multiple times so that was on me!

I also used to think that they made Sora WAY too dumb in this game for his own good and to at least be fair to that, he still kinda is for like the first half of the game. I feel like while Sora has always been a real one who takes to other people really easily, there are multiple times here where he almost feels like a parody of himself at points. Maybe that's supposed to play into something of the dream logic kinda weird vibes going on but idk it felt too off in a way that felt wrong at points. Tron onwards though I feel like that problem goes away for the most part at least which I was thankful for.

Sora is dealing with an insecurity about his connections with others that has been deep in there but hasn't really been dug out until now. This tends to be reflected within all the worlds in some capacity ESPECIALLY TRON but especially given that most of the worlds are about some kind of outcast trying their best to connect with others in some kinda way, trying to get some kinda recognition or some kind of value. The pain that others in his life are facing and how much he wants to help them from having to feel any of that pain or despair. It's real good!

Riku's story is a continuation of his arc from the other games, his insecurities around falling to the darkness and the fear it inspires, his want to keep distance out of fear but others not letting him, him learning to rely on others and especially the one he looks up to the most, him choosing to fight on despite the deepest despair he could possibly fall into, seeing others fall prey to similar situations that ailed him and going out of his way to stop them from going through the same. This game has him really look in a mirror again and really dig through a lot of what he's done and was manipulated to do again and really find that groove within himself.

There's a really good moment near the end that's a callback to 1's beginning questionnaire with him and I really think it's a perfect tail end to his entire story within this game and all the games that led up to this point. I think Riku's half of the story is the best part of the game and that while Sora's half is also very important, he's the real protagonist of this particular story with everything that it's doing by the end especially.

If I had any major story complaint, it's that some of the world's (MAINLY TRON) sometimes don't give Riku much of anything which is a bit strange. Tron especially feeling like Riku's section gives more to the movie while Riku kinda hangs around which is a bummer and a bit of a problem with 1 or 2 worlds in 3's case.

Also I just wanna say, the end of this game is absolutely fuckin BONKERS dude, like you've probably seen some shit floating around from it at this point, the reveals, the setup for 3, mickey mouse getting slammed against a pillar like a DBZ fight, it's all here.

Things setup all the way in the first game are reintegrated in order to be paid off or used in a completely new way, characters reveal themselves, new mysteries are setup, seeds are planted, it's so fuckin cool, I genuinely think the end of this game narratively is up there with KH2's in just how much it throws at you and how much it pays off by the end. It's fuckin rad as hell.

Also we wanna talk banger fuckin music. Holy F U C K they brought it hard yet again. That fuckin violin man. An absolute treat of the senses from beginning to end, I really gotta make an OST ranking list for this series on here at some point. 2, 3, DDD and BBS are all a bit tied though so I dunno lol.

This is my constant reminder that I finally need to play The World Ends With You sometime I love the cast here.

Eu amo Kingdom Hearts com todas as forças, amo de paixão, esse é o jogo que eu menos gosto sem ser o 1 e é simplesmente por conta do jeito que builds funcionam nesse jogo, junto com BbS ele tenta inovar e trazer mais customização, mas diferentemente do outro, esse traz da pior forma possível, um sistema que necessita de muita muita pesquisa por fora e grind e o difficulty spike da reta final não ajuda em nada. Fora isso eu amo esse jogo, os mundos são bacanas o sistema de drop n me irritou tanto, os boneco de TWEWY no inicio me pegam sempre, dps de farmar os bosses finais são muito divertidos e o jogo é MUITO GAY adoro isso.

For all the things I enjoy about this game, the music, the later worlds, and the idea behind Spirits, everything for me just ended up feeling unsatisfying. The combat never felt great, there's not as much incentive to experiment with commands as there is in Birth by Sleep, and the story while I didn't outright dislike I felt didn't explore the idea's it introduced and made the journey feel like a slog until the end. I like the idea of Spirits, but they never had a major impact as party members, and basic combat skills being locked behind certain fusions means I was just never going to have the combat flow I wanted unless I went out of my way to grind. The Drop gauge is another cool concept on paper but it should of been used as a narrative tool more than a random 30 minute timer. The world's you visit didn't last long enough to leave an impression, which wasn't helped by the back and forth of the drop gauge meaning I was doing each world twice at almost the same time. The latter worlds in the game I felt did this better, but by then I was pretty burnt out. Don't think I want to revisit this one.

a historia desse jogo é basicamente o sora fumando maconha pela primeira vez, que história viajada da porra mas apesar de tudo "da pra pegar" o raciocínio do nomura nesse roteiro. embora a história seja boa e hype mt pro kh3 a gameplay é extremamente frustrante e na minha opinião piorou em relação ao birth by sleep e re:coded (que apesar de so ter visto video me parece melhor). o sistema de comandos sem ter como criar magias e habilidades como no bbs, prendendo vc a essa coisa chata de dream eater foi uma ideia terrível e nada me tira da cabeça q foi estratégia pra vender no 3ds com essa mecânica chata de pokemon vai tomar no cu. no geral o jogo é mediano com uma história boa, uma gameplay mais ou menos e um sistema de "progressão" péssimo q você upa mas não progride vai entender né, é kingdom hearts no final das contas.