I was gonna have some stuff here discussing the gameplay, but I mostly just want to talk about the story, so I'll just post some quick thoughts and then Drop into the story discussion. Short answer: I like it! Dream Eaters are cute as heck and a fun way to represent Sora and Riku growing stronger through their bonds with their friends and each other, but the system is really grindy if you want to get the best abilities. I enjoy the command deck system broadly but the actual combat still has the BBS problem where the player movements require commitment that enemy moves do not, so it often feels like you are dealing with enemies who are designed to fight a moveset 50% faster than yours. Still, I have fun with it, and I especially like how this is the first game since the original to really put a lot of thought into level and world design, with spaces that actually feel like spaces that can be explored and characterised, something that has been sorely missed in KH2 and BBS' mostly empty combat arenas. Oh, and Flowmotion is just a lot of fun. I wouldn't play it over KH1, 2, or 3, but I think it does it's own thing pretty we-

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>PRETENSION - 50DP
>OVERANALYSIS - 40DP
>GAY - 100DP

-eam Drop Distance's story is possibly the single most ridiculed of the entire series, and almost certainly marks the point in the popular consciousness where the series became a parody of itself, but sue me because I really enjoy it. The character work for Riku, in particular, is great, watching him grow more self-assured as the game progresses is truly heartwarming and it's an effective arc, especially as his feelings about Sora bubble to the surface more and more. Regardless of whether you are willing to interpret those feelings as explicitly romantic, it's very clear that throughout the series up to this point Riku has simply never been comfortable with how he feels about Sora, a discomfort that manifested as jealousy in KH1 and shame in KH2. Throughout this game, we see him work through that, and it's remarkably subtle and well-played. Seeing him talk openly about why he cares about Sora before diving in to save him at the end affected me a great deal. I still relate strongly to Riku's struggle to express his feelings with sincerity, and it's difficult to overstate the impact his scenes had on me when I first played this game.

Sora's side of the story is more concerned with the wider series plot, and is therefore, in typical series fashion, the less interesting side, but it's still extremely engaging thanks to some careful foreshadowing through the disney worlds (Prankster's Paradise and The Grid) about the loss of self and at what point one is considered "human" culminating in a series of late-game reveals that recontextualise the entire franchise in exciting and interesting ways, that manage to achieve the rare feat of introducing retcons that enhance the story rather than detract from it. Sora acknowledging Roxas' personhood, Roxas admitting that he's not sure he would do the same, Xemnas making textual that the Organisation were gaslit and emotionally manipulated, and the reveal that Xehanort became evil because his future self forced him are all fantastic turns that are sold by some of the most arresting imagery we've seen in the series. It's the Xehanort stuff that will be picked up on the most for the sequel, but it's remarkable how much 3D is willing to engage with and interrogate the series' history. Roxas chapter aside, I don't like KH2's story and find it's ending thoughtless, and I appreciate 3D's willingness to tackle the uncomfortable implications of Roxas' lack of personhood head-on. This, coupled with the barrage of spin-off suffering Sora is presented with in the endgame, reveals Dream Drop Distance to be a game that sees Continuity in a critical, almost negative way, and I find that really fascinating. It's extremely back-loaded, but if you've got far enough in the series to be playing this you're likely able to deal with that. Kingdom Hearts has changed so much since the first game that I don't think it's capable anymore of delivering a knockout narrative the same way that game did, but for what it's worth I think this game (and 358/2 Days) come the closest to it.

Ironically, Dream Drop Distance ultimately reads as a game about the act of Waking: to truths that have been staring you in the face, to things you were unaware of, to the person you are becoming, and to your own innermost feelings. It's an incredibly messy, strange, flawed game, but it's one that convinced me that Kingdom Hearts still had more to tell me about myself, and that's all I can ask of it.

KINGDOM HEARTS SEXISM WATCH: there are basically no female characters in this entire game, which considering the state of the female cast of KH3 we should probably consider a blessing