[Pazuzu]

So I'm playing through the first few worlds now, and the game really does have some quirky systems.
Nomura wasn't lying, though, it feels a proper KH game rather than the crappy sidestories you usually get on Nintendo handhelds.

Ask me anything about the gameplay, the battle systems, the Drop system, AR cards, Memoirs, whatever.

(I'm going to do some writeups on in-game systems, so I'm reserving a couple of posts below.)

[Pazuzu]

General Notes

Game Engine
The engine is very similar to Birth by Sleep:
- Same control scheme (with the PSP buttons and stick mapped to 3DS).
- The deck system (blue command deck, red action deck) is the same as Birth by Sleep, minus Shotlocks.
- As with Birth by Sleep, you stock items in your command deck, so you can't use them directly from the menu.
- The ability system is similar, although you earn abilities in a different way.
- Difference: There are no selectable combo finishers - Sora/Riku just use standard finishers.

Circle Pad Pro
- The game supports this. You get asked whether you want to use it whenever you start a game, and can turn it on/off in the Config menu.
- With the Circle Pad Pro attached, you can press ZR to lock on and use the right circle pad to steer the camera.

Map
- The map appears on the bottom screen.
- It's much more detailed than usual maps, and shows you where you entered, all exits from the area, and any Link Portals in the area.
- It also shows other stuff like monsters, interactive items, etc.
- There's a magnifying glass to zoom in/out.
- You can also touch the parchment icon to bring up your current objective.

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Drop System

The Drop command is used to switch between playing as Sora and Riku.
Sora and Riku are on separate but parallel journeys, so the game switches back and forth between them on the fly.

- Much like Terra/Ventus/Aqua, Sora and Riku visit the same worlds but follow different parts of the story.
- Items, Spirits and commands are shared. Both characters can equip the same commands and Spirits without affecting the other character.


How to Drop

The first two Drops in the game are story-based. After that, you can Drop back and forth as much as you want.

The Drop command is available in:
- Pause menu (outside battle)
- Pause menu (in battle)
- Save menu

You cannot Drop:
- during cutscenes
- during an event (e.g. light cycle racing)


Drop Gauge

Along with manual Drops, the game uses the Drop Gauge to force character switching.

The Drop Gauge consists of three bars, and depletes in this order:
- Blue bar
- Yellow bar
- Pink bar
- 30 seconds bonus time

When the 30 seconds run out, you are automatically switched to the other character.

- The Drop Gauge initially depletes at a standard rate of 1.0. This rate increases if you're hit by effects such as Sleep.
- You can use items (e.g. Morning Bell) to replenish the gauge and reduce the depletion rate back to 1.0.
- Once you hit the 30 seconds bonus time, there's no going back.
- If you Drop in the middle of a boss battle (auto or manual), the boss will have full HP when you return.


Drop Points

You earn Drop Points in two ways:
- Pick up Drop Prizes
- Win them through Link Portals

Drop Prizes are analogous to BBS's D-Link balls - not all enemies drop them, but they tend to be consistent.
During the 30 seconds bonus time at the end of a character's turn, Drop Prizes appear at a dramatically increased rate, so it's best to use those 30 seconds to farm DP.


Bonus Relay

When you Drop, you can spend your accumulated Drop Points to pass bonuses on to the next character.
These bonuses can range from stat increases to new abilities (e.g. Air Recovery).

Drop Points are only valid for one Drop - any DP left over is recycled into munny.

Based on this, the most efficient way to play is to spend a balanced amount of time between each character, accruing DP until the game forces you to Drop.


Event Forecast

On the pause menu (outside battle), you can see an Event Forecast covering the next two turns.

This forecast covers:
- Special circumstances during that turn (e.g. more munny prizes, cheaper shop prices)
- Rare Dream Eater which appears during that turn (silhouette + clue)
- Lucky Item during that turn

The forecast changes depending on the world, so you can use this to plan your next turns effectively.

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Other Systems


Free Flow

The Free Flow system is a dramatic new way to travel the map.

To use it, either:
- Dodge roll/air dash at a wall
- Jump on a railing

Sora/Riku will be surrounded by a pink aura. You can then press Y to dash at top speed in any direction, or B to perform a super jump.
(You can't jump twice in a row - you have to dash at least once before every jump.)

When you touch the ground, the aura disappears and you move normally again.

You can also attack while the pink aura is active.
The type of attack you do depends on what you're currently doing (dashing/jumping/spinning), but they're generally more effective than normal attacks.


Reality Shift

Reality Shift lets you interact with items/enemies in different ways, depending on the world, via the touchscreen.
When used on enemies, it deals some damage.

A pink cursor appears on an item/enemy if you can use a Reality Shift on it.
You generally need to damage the enemies a bit before they're susceptible to this.

Examples of Reality Shift:
- Sling Shot: Grab the item/enemy and slingshot it into the air. When it lands, it (and anything under it) takes damage.
- Holy Rope: Create a chain between items/enemies. This is used for quicker travel, as well as to damage multiple enemies in a row.


Dive

The first time you enter a world, and optionally afterwards, you enter Dive Mode.

In this mode, Sora/Riku falls vertically towards the world, passing through an obstacle course while aiming for the Goal Ring.
Each world has a different Dive objective, e.g. to gather stars or defeat enemies, before the Goal Ring will open.

While diving, use A to attack, Y to dodge/create a barrier, B to slow down and X to cast magic.
- You have to pick up magic orbs before you can cast any magic.

At the end of the Dive, you are ranked based on your speed and gathered loot.


Link Portals

There are two types of Link Portals:
- Battle Portal (blue): Battle another team of Spirits
- Friend Portal (pink): Another team of Spirits comes to help you out

These appear on the game map and can be triggered by approaching them and poking them on the touchscreen.

Battle Portals have a regular objective (beat all the enemies), plus a bonus objective (different for each Portal).
Beating the regular objective gets you lots of DP and an item, while the bonus objective usually nets you a rare Dream Piece.

Link Portals work with StreetPass - you can drop a Link Portal of either type anywhere you want.
This will them appear in the same spot on the map of anyone you StreetPass.


Flick Rush

Flick Rush is a minigame played with moogles.
[more info TBD]

[Pazuzu]

Dream Eaters

Dream Eaters are this game's answer to Heartless/Nobodies/Unversed, with a twist.

They are split into 2 categories:
- Spirits: The "good" version of Dream Eaters which you breed, raise and add to your party.
- Nightmares: The enemy Dream Eaters.


Breeding New Spirits

Spirits are bred using a combination of:

- Two types of Dream Pieces (e.g. Zealous Illusion, Raging Illusion)
The combination and amount of Dream Pieces determines which Spirit you spawn.

- One optional command item (e.g. Slide Dash, Fire, Potion)
The command item increases one or two specific stats permanently.


When breeding, you have the choice of following a recipe or just combining Dream Pieces to see what comes out.

Each recipe gives the minimum ingredients needed to make a Spirit.
You can use extra ingredients to supercharge your new Spirit.

Example
The recipe for a Lizsnake (Hebitokage) is:
- 3 x Raging Illusion
- 2 x Earnest Illusion

This gives you a Rank E Lizsnake.

However, if I were to increase my ingredients to 5/3, my Lizsnake would spawn at Rank D.
In the same way, 6/4 upgrades it to Rank C and 9/6 upgrades it to Rank B.
(The starting level of the Spirit also increases as you pump it with Dream Pieces.)

Note that you need to increase both types for this - even if I were to use 50 Earnest Illusions, my Lizsnake would stay at Rank E until I added some more Raging Illusions.


Raising Spirits


Dual Link


Learning Abilities

[Pazuzu]

Story

[TBD]



Secret Stuff


Credits Message

How to get it
It's there in the credits. Can't miss it.

What it says

Spoiler

This leads to KINGDOM HEARTS

(There's some controversy over whether the ensuing images show a "III" or not.)

Secret Message

How to get it
Part of the credits is done in Dive style, with Sora flying through them.
Collect the yellow glowing letters to spell out "Secret Message Unlocked". It will then be added to the Report.

What it says

Spoiler

The past will be reawakened as a new number
In never-before-seen detail
Prepare yourself for the awakening of the next number

Secret Ending

How to get it
Three requirements:
- Collect a certain amount of trophies depending on the difficulty level
- Answer the three questions with the 大切な options
- Unlock the Secret Message

It will then be added to the Theater after finishing the game.

What it says
YouTube is your friend.

[nova]

WILL YOU WALK ME THROUGH THE DROP SYSTEM PLEASE

Is there a gauge that you can see? I had problems finding it but then again, crappy livestreaming system going on with the 3DS. I could only really notice it when it was ready to force you to drop.

Does how long you have before a drop increase over time? You can drop purposely from a save, right? Is there anyway to deplete the drop more quickly without going to a save? What about prolonging it??

When you die does your drop increase to what it was when you entered the room (or wherever else you revive from), or is it at where you were when you die?

What about the save files. Everyone was using two, one for Sora, one for Riku, but they could save over either one with the other character. Is two save files necessary? I don't even see the point in having two unless you anticipate wanting to replay the previous scene or something. Is there some other benefit?

Sora and Riku can fly all over the friggin place, seriously, they like, CAN'T BE TAMED. Is there any storyline exactly that backs this up? (Um, with spoiling as less as possible I guess.) I.E. "you are in dream world so logic does not apply" or "since your last endevours super leveled you up you can now do x, y, and z"
what is that like.

most of the streams didn't do things like box collecting, is it easy to find them? do you literally have to be MAGIC to find them since with your now super CANT BE TAMED powers the maps have the option of being multi dimensional?

also DO YOU LOVE IT
also I LOVE YOU thank you for doing this ♥

[Baks]

I know that this game uses streetpass and spotpass? So how does this exactly work for this game? Ditto with the AR cards.

Also quick question game about length, just exatly how far you into the game play time wise and are you trying to 100% it? By that I mean completing all the sidequests and minigames besides the main game.

[Pazuzu]

nova, on 03 April 2012 - 07:47 AM, said:

WILL YOU WALK ME THROUGH THE DROP SYSTEM PLEASE

Is there a gauge that you can see? I had problems finding it but then again, crappy livestreaming system going on with the 3DS. I could only really notice it when it was ready to force you to drop.

Does how long you have before a drop increase over time? You can drop purposely from a save, right? Is there anyway to deplete the drop more quickly without going to a save? What about prolonging it??

When you die does your drop increase to what it was when you entered the room (or wherever else you revive from), or is it at where you were when you die?

There are two ways to Drop - manually and automatically.

Manually, you can Drop whenever the hell you want. Wandering, battling, world map, saving, whenever.
The only times you can't Drop are a) cutscenes and b ) events, like light cycle racing.
However, the game does encourage you to spend time between Drops via a Drop Point system. I'll explain that when I write up the Drop system.

Automatically is based on the Drop Gauge. It's on the bottom, where the Drive gauge is in KH2.
The Drop Gauge has three bars - blue, yellow, pink - and they empty as time passes. When the pink one runs out, you get 30 seconds of bonus time before you automatically Drop.
The depletion rate is 1.0 initially. When you get hit with effects such as Sleep, it increases and the gauge depletes faster. There are items you can use to restore bits of the gauge and go back to a 1.0 rate.

nova, on 03 April 2012 - 07:47 AM, said:

What about the save files. Everyone was using two, one for Sora, one for Riku, but they could save over either one with the other character. Is two save files necessary? I don't even see the point in having two unless you anticipate wanting to replay the previous scene or something. Is there some other benefit?

There's just two save files, period. They're not split by character or anything, since you swap characters so often. It's like any other KH, except they're not unlimited.

nova, on 03 April 2012 - 07:47 AM, said:

Sora and Riku can fly all over the friggin place, seriously, they like, CAN'T BE TAMED. Is there any storyline exactly that backs this up? (Um, with spoiling as less as possible I guess.) I.E. "you are in dream world so logic does not apply" or "since your last endevours super leveled you up you can now do x, y, and z"
what is that like.

That's the free flow system. You dodge roll or air slide into a wall, or grab on to a pole/railing, and you're covered in a pink aura and can do all that funky fly-around-like-a-loon stuff.

I don't recall there being a story explanation. You just see

Spoiler

Neku

whizzing around when you first arrive at Traverse Town, and Sora's all OMG HOW DO I DO THAT.

nova, on 03 April 2012 - 07:47 AM, said:

most of the streams didn't do things like box collecting, is it easy to find them? do you literally have to be MAGIC to find them since with your now super CANT BE TAMED powers the maps have the option of being multi dimensional?

Like treasure boxes? It takes more exploration to find them now that you have to check on roofs and stuff, but they're not ridiculously difficult to find.

nova, on 03 April 2012 - 07:47 AM, said:

also DO YOU LOVE IT
also I LOVE YOU thank you for doing this ♥

I LOVE IT AND I LOVE YOU.

Baks, on 03 April 2012 - 10:09 AM, said:

I know that this game uses streetpass and spotpass? So how does this exactly work for this game? Ditto with the AR cards.

StreetPass uses the Link Portal system.
Basically, you create something called a Link Portal wherever you want. When you StreetPass someone, it spawns that Link Portal in the same place within their game - when they visit it, they get to fight your team.
There are already Link Portals scattered around the worlds, so it's not a StreetPass-only affair.

There's no SpotPass in the game.

There are two types of AR Cards:
- Regular card: This is used like the AR Markers for Pokedex 3D, in that you can sit one of your Spirits on it and take awesome pictures. This one comes with the game.
- Character card: This spawns a one-time-only rare Spirit. One comes with the game, and it gave me two different Spirits for my two save files.

(Spirits, by the way, are the good versions of Dream Eaters which you breed using Dream Pieces. Basically, your other party members.)

Baks, on 03 April 2012 - 10:09 AM, said:

Also quick question game about length, just exatly how far you into the game play time wise and are you trying to 100% it? By that I mean completing all the sidequests and minigames besides the main game.

I'm at almost 4 hours, and I'm on the third world. Don't take my time as a benchmark, though, I'm a very slow player.

I am planning to 100% it - I'm playing on Beginner Mode for my first playthrough, so it's much more convenient to do secret bosses etc. when I'm not getting one-hit KO'd.

[Grassy]

Nice!

Pazuzu, on 03 April 2012 - 07:39 AM, said:

Circle Pad Pro
- The game supports this. You get asked whether you want to use it whenever you start a game, and can turn it on/off in the Config menu.
- With the Circle Pad Pro attached, you can press ZR to lock on and use the right circle pad to steer the camera.

I'm interested in the feel of this, and whether or not you would recommend it over the regular controls.

Also, since you're on Beginner mode, I don't suppose you could say much on the difficulty.
As for playtime, 4 hours on the 3rd world doesn't sound that slow tbh. There's only 7 worlds, so you're probably on course to beat it in like, I dunno 12-14 hours, which is a pretty short playtime. Let's hope there's lots of other stuff to do to pad it out!

And then what about the environments. Do you think they cater well to all the free flow stuff?

[Pazuzu]

Grassy, on 03 April 2012 - 09:06 PM, said:

[CP Pro stuff]

I'm interested in the feel of this, and whether or not you would recommend it over the regular controls.

I don't use it that much, but that's just because I play the game a lot while commuting, so I want to carry a smaller system around. I'm also quite used to the BBS controls, so the loss of a second stick doesn't bother me.

It's ridiculously useful for quick camera manoeuvring and quick lock-ons, just like in the PS2 games.
The only disadvantage I can see is that you still need to hit L/R twice to centre the camera. It would have been nice if they'd mapped that to ZL, but alas, that isn't the case.

Grassy, on 03 April 2012 - 09:06 PM, said:

Also, since you're on Beginner mode, I don't suppose you could say much on the difficulty.
As for playtime, 4 hours on the 3rd world doesn't sound that slow tbh. There's only 7 worlds, so you're probably on course to beat it in like, I dunno 12-14 hours, which is a pretty short playtime. Let's hope there's lots of other stuff to do to pad it out!

I actually started in Proud Mode, but it took me ages to hack away at enemies' HP, so I got frustrated and switched out to Beginner.
The difficulty curve is standard KH fare in that it increases enemy HP and lowers your damage tolerance. I didn't play long enough to see whether it increased enemy intelligence.

I'm hoping there's other stuff too. There seems to be craploads of treasure boxes, so filling out the Report will be an adventure in itself.
It's been quite linear so far, so I guess the game will assign me more sidequests as I progress.

Grassy, on 03 April 2012 - 09:06 PM, said:

And then what about the environments. Do you think they cater well to all the free flow stuff?

Absolutely, at least in the worlds I've visited so far. They've filled the areas with buildings for you to ricochet off and made the paths somewhat narrower, so it really lends itself to free flowing.
Also, some treasure boxes and Link Portals are up on roofs, so it encourages you to explore around the place.

[Baks]

How does the game play without the second circle pad add on? Is it comfortable for you or not? I personally am not gonna buy the second circle pad add on until NInty announces a new revision of the 3DS that includes the second circle pad incorporated in the new design.

Also another question about the AR cards. Is the situation similiar to that of Kid Icarus's? By that I mean only or two of the AR cards that people got with KI, where the same - all the other AR cards you got for Kid Icarus where different from what I have read about. So I am wondering if its the same for KH3D's AR cards too.

[Pazuzu]

Baks, on 04 April 2012 - 08:45 AM, said:

How does the game play without the second circle pad add on? Is it comfortable for you or not?

Yeah, it's perfectly playable without it. I tried using it again a couple of times, but I found I was just more used to using L+R for camera controls. I guess YMMV depending on whether you recently played KH2 or BBS.

Baks, on 04 April 2012 - 08:45 AM, said:

I personally am not gonna buy the second circle pad add on until NInty announces a new revision of the 3DS that includes the second circle pad incorporated in the new design.

Totally not happening.

Baks, on 04 April 2012 - 08:45 AM, said:

Also another question about the AR cards. Is the situation similiar to that of Kid Icarus's? By that I mean only or two of the AR cards that people got with KI, where the same - all the other AR cards you got for Kid Icarus where different from what I have read about. So I am wondering if its the same for KH3D's AR cards too.

As far as I can tell, everyone gets the same set of two cards. The one that spawns a Dream Eater, though, can spawn any one of three different ones.
They're putting out some promo ones with books and, presumably, at events too.

[Pazuzu]

Added an extra bit about bosses and Drop.
Added Secret Stuff.

[Baks]

Quick question about Donald and Goofy - are they still as useless and inept as ever? I personally didn't find them to be helpful at all in KH1 and 2 to be honest.

[Pazuzu]

Baks, on 08 April 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

Quick question about Donald and Goofy - are they still as useless and inept as ever? I personally didn't find them to be helpful at all in KH1 and 2 to be honest.

Yup. Just like in Coded, they're not in your party and get relatively little screen time. They're pretty much just cheerleaders.

(Still, they look like geniuses compared to some of your Dream Eater allies...)

[Toteka]

Square-Enix EU has tweeted this:

"Exciting news! KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance] is coming to Europe and PAL territories on the 20th July! (NA on 31st July)"

For once we get something early!

[sakuchan]

About how much time do you spend as one character before you automatically drop?

Who do you like using more? Riku or Sora?