KH-Vids | Your ultimate source for Kingdom Hearts media

1UP has recently posted their interview with the talented Yoko Shimomura; Composer for the many themes, and melodies you hear in the Kingdom Hearts Series. The interview includes some of the history behind the composer's creation for Kingdom Hearts: Dream, Drop, Distance. Give it a read if you would like to know some of the facts behind the sounds of this upcoming game.

With the release of Dream, Drop, Distance close to a month away, Pre-orders, bonuses and other bargains are popping up over the internet as well as retailers. In event of the soon to be released game, I thought I would create a thread towards any good deals found in any of the North American or European game markets. If you've seen any good deals out there, feel free to post it along with which region it is available for.

Mark of Mastery Edition (Best Buy)
30% off When trading games towards buying KH3D (GameStop)

Contributors:
Krowley, axel91

Coming July 5th 2012, Walt Disney World Resort will release a brand new pin to their online store. This Pin will be the Mickey we know and love from Kingdom Hearts 2. He will be featured in his Organization Cloak attire and can be yours for the price of $7.95! Details and ordering information are available Here.

Credit to axel91 for the discovery.

Hello KH-Vids. The Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance English demo is now available on Nintendo's E-Shop. I'm sure many of you have heard? The demo is roughly 20 minutes long and contains one cutscene from Traverse Town.

I recently bought the 3DS for Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance to share as much coverage as possible. Sadly, I didn't upload any of the gameplay since it was very hard to hold my camera and the handheld console in my hands at the same time. I attempted to record footage and was able to get something decent, but it can't even compare to the quality I obtained in the video above. If you use the video, please credit both KH-Vids and KH-Recharged.

There's also a demo report below in which I share my impressions.

<blockquote>KINGDOM HEARTS DREAM DROP DISTANCE: Demo Report
The demo starts off with a cutscene from Traverse Town with Neku and Sora. As the cutscene comes to an end, Sora follows Neku (who glides off the screen). The gameplay begins in Traverse Town. The location is different from anything we've seen before and then we have the original songs that have been enhanced by Yoko Shimomura. As soon as the gameplay begins it's like a WHOLE new experience, but something memorable and familiar. If I had to describe Traverse Town; bright, fun, energetic and pleasant would come to mind. Once the gameplay begins you are equipped with two allies. We know it's not Donald and Goofy. At first I was like "wait, where are they?" and then seconds later I realized that this isn't like previous Kingdom Hearts titles. Fighting with the dream eaters was nothing different than fighting the heartless. These creatures are very colorful, but doesn't this apply for the heartless as well? My teammates as I mentioned earlier was the cat (Necho Cat) and the dog (Meow Wow). It was very easy to adjust to, but my only complaint was that I felt I was playing with Pokemon characters. I was a fan of the Pokemon series when I was younger, but I grew out of that phase awhile ago. While it was refreshing to see something different, I would rather be equipped with Disney characters on my team instead. That's what the real "KINGDOM HEARTS" is to me. In combat with the nightmares, you fight the Meow Wow, Kuma Panda and then there was also those bats, but I don't remember their names. I'm not good with these names, so bare with me.

As for the "flowmotion", I was very excited to test this out. First off, I felt that it is very easy to use. You can use it at anytime, but I recommend using it around lamp poles, railings and ally ways. When you are near tight corners and the nightmares appear - it's very easy to jump in and attack them. You use "y" to use the flowmotion command. Be careful how you use it. Hitting the button repeatedly becomes a problem at least for me. If your in the middle of the floor and there's not much to bounce off of; you'll find yourself flying everywhere. This command is very neat and is a great addition to the Kingdom Hearts series. At one point I felt like I was playing a Tony Hawk game as Sora when he was gliding the railing. There's just something magical about it. The 3D also adds a very visual affect to the flowmotion. Keep in mind that the 3D feature can give you a headache. If you level it in between, you can find it very enjoyable.

As for fighting commands, you can find "ice breaker" which I enjoyed using against the nightmares. There's also other commands such as "sparkga, ballonra, slot edge, and prism windmill". I felt that ballonra was the only weak command, so I didn't even bother using it.

Finally as I reached the end of the demo, I found myself in a quick boss battle. I believe the enemy is known as "Hockomonkey". The battle wasn't challenging, but was quite annoying. At one point you start the battle high up on a roof and then when he uses one of his commands, you'll find yourself at the bottom of the floor in district 4. Your not able to go back up on the roof until he returns. My problem was finding him. I wasn't sure if he was vanishing, but every time I turned around I couldn't find where he was. Once I got back up on my feet as Sora...I felt the battle wasn't too challenging. It was simple, yet annoying.

Overall, I'm very excited for Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. Playing the demo was enjoyable and as a Kingdom Hearts fan, I enjoyed every second. The commands, flowmotion, music, graphics and what we're able to see in 3D is seriously breathtaking. If you're a Kingdom Hearts fans, you'll love this game regardless, but maybe this is one of the most anticipated games that we've been waiting for...except kingdom Hearts III. That's another story. Let's track Nomura down (laughs)!</blockquote>

As seen from the 3DS Box below, the German Pre-order from Amazon will include the bonus of getting a few AR Cards. Which cards you get are not shown.


Many thanks to axel91 for the discovery.