New footage and impressions of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD at Milan Games Week 2016

[Raxaimus 300]

At Milan Games Week 2016, held from October 14th to October 16th, attendees were able to play through the Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD demo. Two sources, GamerClick and Sora's Dream, captured a significant amount of footage from this event. This is the first time we have been able to see a great deal of footage from Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD, as

was merely thirty seconds long.

 

GamerClick's footage, which was uploaded to their Facebook page, focused on Riku, showcasing the included Dive Mode segment, cutscenes from The Grid, and the lightcycle minigame. GamerClick's footage foregoes any field or battle gameplay within any of the included environments.

 

Sora's Dream, meanwhile, captured footage of Sora in Traverse Town, Riku's aforementioned Dive Mode segment, and footage of Riku within the field of The Grid. The Reality Shift mechanic was also shown briefly during the Traverse Town footage.

 

Sora's Dream also gave their impressions of the demo. They noted that Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- was not present at the venue, unlike all previous playable demos of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. Additionally, the Drop Gauge appears to be entirely unchanged from the original version of Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance, giving a definitive answer to a question that many have had since the release of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue's TGS 2016 trailer.

 

Interestingly, Reality Shift seems to use the analog sticks to control its trajectory, rather than using the PlayStation 4's touchpad in order to mimic the design of the Nintendo 3DS version of the game. It is worth noting, however, that only one Reality Shift example (Traverse Town) is available, so it is unknown if the analog-focused design choice is applicable to the rest of the game's Reality Shifts. Finally, Flowmotion's speed, jump height, and responsiveness all seem to have been re-balanced to suit this new version of the game.

 

In addition to gameplay impressions, Sora's Dream also gave their thoughts on the game's graphical fidelity. They said that while textures have been touched up to a significant extent compared to the Nintendo 3DS version, model quality has not received the same level of treatment. Citing a poor amount of polygons, they referred to the models as "too sharp", a problem which also plagues Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD.

 

You can read the full article here, but keep in mind that Sora's Dream is an Italian Kingdom Hearts fansite, and that translation may be necessary.

 

What are your thoughts on this footage, as well as Sora's Dream's impressions of the demo? Let us know in the comments!

 

Click here to view the article

[Axeken 181]

I keep forgetting how crazy KH DDD gets in the late game 

[Moochieh32 676]

DDDHD looks so damn good. The whole game is pretty worth the $60 tbh lol.

[Ultima Spark 753]

Not sure why people thought the drop gauge would be removed, since it is a plot point.

[KairiKeybasH 851]

I hope the difficulty especially in Standard Mode is not heckish difficult.

[Mahdi Albasri 16]

well what i hope is that we could choose critical mode from the beginning

[Guest]

I hope the difficulty especially in Standard Mode is not heckish difficult.

 

I personally never found it THAT difficult. I liked the challenge in the later parts of the game on standard mode.

 

Back on topic though, I'm glad that this demo event was Dream Drop Distance HD only. 0.2 has already got more than enough spotlight. We need to be critical of Dream Drop Distance HD in order to get Square Enix to improve it for the final product.

[-Justin- 2,111]

One thing I've noticed while watching this footage, is that Sora's model actually has fingers. In BBS, BBSHD, and DDD, the characters' hands (during gameplay and certain parts of cutscenes) were just a mitten-shaped model with a texture made to look like fingers. Square's really going all out to make this game look great.

DDD:

DDDHD:

[RikuFangirl2008 1,368]

Could this mean there isn't going to be any loading screens when you're finish diving in Dive Mode? 

[Connected 978]

I'm so excited to play this on the PS4!

[Raxaimus 300]

One thing I've noticed while watching this footage, is that Sora's model actually has fingers. In BBS, BBSHD, and DDD, the characters' hands (during gameplay and certain parts of cutscenes) were just a mitten-shaped model with a texture made to look like fingers. Square's really going all out to make this game look great.

DDD: image.jpeg

DDDHD: image.jpeg

 

No more mittens! Yes!

[-Justin- 2,111]

No more mittens! Yes!

If only BBSHD would've gotten the same treatment though, it'd be perfect! Edited October 19, 2016 by -Justin-

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Eh, I will admit, I wish BBS and DDD did get more proper upscaling in terms of models and such. Still, they did do some pretty good work on the models in both games nonetheless, and thankfully DDD HD has ACTUAL FINGERS!!! I got so annoyed with those mitten hands and french-fry fingers (square looking fingers), so it's good to see that get rectified (btw, KH0.2 and KH3 fingers look beautiful, lol). Though I do wish that BbS HD got the same finger treatment. Hopefully some day they can bring these ReMIXes to the PS4 and with it they can do a better job touching up on small details like that on the other 4 playable titles.

[Merilly 438]

I personally never found it THAT difficult. I liked the challenge in the later parts of the game on standard mode.

 

Back on topic though, I'm glad that this demo event was Dream Drop Distance HD only. 0.2 has already got more than enough spotlight. We need to be critical of Dream Drop Distance HD in order to get Square Enix to improve it for the final product.

 

While I agree that 3D definitely didn't get that much spotlight, I don't see the point in providing only the HD remaster for attendees and not both. 3D was available at a lot of events and conventions too but simply did not get as much coverage due to the fact that it is not an entirely new game. Sure, the visuals improved quite a bit, but essentially it is still the same game.

I think it's great that 3D was covered to such an extent, but if I had attended the event, I would have been severely disappointed in the lack of 0.2. Spotlight or not, it's not really understandable for either demo to be missing.

[Mahdi Albasri 16]

While I agree that 3D definitely didn't get that much spotlight, I don't see the point in providing only the HD remaster for attendees and not both. 3D was available at a lot of events and conventions too but simply did not get as much coverage due to the fact that it is not an entirely new game. Sure, the visuals improved quite a bit, but essentially it is still the same game. I think it's great that 3D was covered to such an extent, but if I had attended the event, I would have been severely disappointed in the lack of 0.2. Spotlight or not, it's not really understandable for either demo to be missing.

while its true but Dream drop distance didn't get much spotlight as BBS 0.2 and many people have been asking about the drop gauge and we think that BBS 0.2 got a lot more spot light as they showed more of BBS 0.2 then DDD so i guess its why well we dont know though

[Kewin Cesar 0]

Why isn't anyone talking about the fact that the enemies are actually staggering when they get hit, this is huge, it was my biggest problem with DDD!!!!! o.O