Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for 3DS

         The Kingdom Hearts franchise is not a franchise a gamer can avoid hearing or seeing. It's had games exclusively for the PS2, Gameboy Advance, PSP, and now the Nintendo 3DS. The franchise is known for it's outstanding graphics and story. It is a mix of Disney and Final Fantasy that creates a whole new story of itself.  Many of the beloved characters of both companies have recurring appearances including Cloud Strife, Squall Leonheart, Sephiroth, Hercules, Beast, Ariel, Winnie the Pooh, and plenty more. The series has sold over 17 million units worldwide, and still counting :).

     Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance comes out at the end of this month 7/31/12 for those in the United States and Australia, and 11 days earlier in Europe(7/20/12). Join Riku and Sora as they are put to the test through the Mark of Mastery Exam. If they pass they will become official Keyblade Masters and obtain even more power. There are a new type of enemies called Nightmares. This time they are aided by new types of partners or friends called Spirits. Over 50 Spirits may be added to your team. Both Nightmares and Spirits are classified as Dream Eaters. Heartless and Nobodies are likely to appear too. Unlike the first portable Kingdom Hearts game, this one introduces you to new worlds. Explore New Worlds such as the La Cité des Cloches from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and “The Grid” from TRON: Legacy and Fantasia. Play as Riku for the first time as he has been left out of the story a lot lately. 

Riku and Jeff Bridges join forces.

     

    Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance is the franchise's first installment on the 3DS. Although I don't think the first Kingdom Hearts gamefor a Nintendo handheld (Chain of Memories for Gameboy Advance) contributed much to the story, later portables revealed and involved more of the storyline. Birth By Sleep far exceeded my expectations in story and relatedness to Sora and gang. 358/2 Days is still on my must play list, as I felt Roxas' story was taken out of Kingdom Hearts 2 and placed into 358/2. This made KH2 feel feel incomplete, vague, and less polished compared to KH1 except for the fighting mechanics of course. Some changes from KH1 to KH2 that I disliked were the change of the appearance of Squall Leonheart (Leon). His updated look for Kingdom Hearts 1 was award winning and cool looking and was voiced by David Boreanaz. Boreanaz played Angel who like Leon, was trying to get redemption for his past. Cloud's change was acceptable as his Advent Children outfit also looked great. However the mix of him and Vincent Valentine in part one was also really cool and interesting looking(although less official). I never did like the concept of the Nobodies, being emotionless but having hate and so much emotion in their quest for wanting hearts, along with personalities. This may be because since they retained their bodies, they might had retained some emotions as well. Plus Riku's involvement was lackluster in Part 2. Plus a lot of the games story after Kingdom Hearts 1 is difficult for me to understand without Wikipedia.

                            Meet Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Gargoyles included.

 Kingdom Hearts allows you to re-experience unforgettable Disney moments in 3D. The cutscenes and characters come to life, and not just look like 3D models trying to reenact scenes. No change in angles from the animated version, nor HD, is necessary to look good in 3 Dimension.

 Meet Neku Sakuraba, the first character introduced into Kingdom Hearts that was from another game or movie that isn't from Disney or a Final Fantasy game. He's from The World Ends with You for the DS. Created by the same group of Square Enix people who created Kingdom Hearts and worked on Chain of Memores. I noticed right away that he had similarities with Sora. What role will he play?

 Just in case you didn't know, The wonderful cast of Voice Actors and Actresses  for KH 3D include:

  Haley Joel Osment - the boy from The Sixth Sense as Sora, the main protagonist of the series so far.

  David Gallagher - Matt from the television show 7th Heaven as Riku. 
  Hayden Panettiere - Voices Kairi, Riku and Sora's close childhood friend when this all started. She also voices Xion, the latest and 14th member of Organization XIII.
  Jesse McCartney - singer of "Beautiful Soul" and voice of Roxas and Ventus.
  Leonard Nimoy - played Spock in many Star Trek projects, voices Master Xehanort, the main bad guy.

Who is this guy? Seriously I don't know. Not a fan of spoilers. Looks like a cross between Sephiroth and Tera.

The connection of the name Dream Drop Distance to the name of the handheld console 3DS is a clever relation.  That's 3 "D"'s or 3 D's or 3xD or the 3D of the 3DS. (Kingdom Hearts like to leave a lot of vagueness in the games after the first.) 

Now go out there and save some worlds that you know and love.