Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Dream Drop Distance: First Impressions


Note: This isn't very helpful at all from a review standpoint, and is meant to be more funny then informative.  It's also spoiler free aside from talking about some basic gameplay mechanics.  It also contains ramblings on pets.  You have been warned.


Dream Drop Distance...

The intro is shiny.  It also tries to sum up the entire history of the games in about 4-5 minutes.  That works about as well as expected, as in, not really at all.  But it looks really amazing, and is a nice tribute to the series 10th birthday.

Apparently this game is about dropping asleep every few minutes and having to play as someone else.  It is...sometimes rather irritating, such as running out of time just when you found that pesky hidden chest.  On the other hand, the mechanic does do it's job of forcing you to play both Sora and Riku instead of playing one all the way through and ignoring the other one.  And it's also kind of funny, because when you are awake you can fly all around the room fighting things, and then once one more second passes and you run out of time, you collapse on the floor asleep.

Actually, the Drop mechanic has been clearly well thought out and isn't as bad as it sounds on paper, there are a lot of minor things that make it very bearable.  You also can instantly choose to "Drop" at any time, so if you want to spend time as just one of the characters, it's just a minor matter of hitting Drop every time the other one starts being played.

About the only complaint I have so far is that for a portable game, there's no "suspend game" option, and while save points are plenty, it's kind of annoying having to walk back to one if you want to play in short bursts.


I'm sure there's supposed to be a plot somewhere in here cause the intro was pretty shiny and seemed to be introducing people who I've promptly forgot about once I got my first pet in the game.  I vaguely remember this game has something to do with Sora and whatever/whoever those other Kingdom Hearts people were.

Alas, I've spent all my playtime so far just leveling up my adorable pets.  I haven't even passed the first world.  Actually, scratch that, I haven't passed the first couple of save points in the first world.  Cause I'd rather watch my two pet assistants fight the badguys in their own amazingly adorable way then go through an obvious plot continuation door.

I'm sure the plot is good, but my cute little animals need more love and care.  Always more love and care.  And MORE POWER.  And MORE LOVE.  AND MORE CARE.  AND PRETTY BUT TRIVIAL COLOR PAINT JOBS!  AND I CAN MAKE MORE OF THE PETS BY SPENDING LOOT DROPPED BY ENEMIES, SO I'LL NEVER RUN OUT OF PETS TO TAKE CARE OF!  Did I mention they are ADORABLE BEYOND ALL REASON?!?

I'm really starting to question if mixing Kingdom Hearts and what amounts to a super adorable KH team designed version of a Pokemon Pet Game was really the best idea.  Mostly because the Pet Game is too amazing, and distracting.  AND OH MY I DON'T EVEN CARE SO LONG AS THEY KEEP MAKING THOSE HAPPY CHIRPY NOISES.


BAD JOURNALISM OH NOS.