Square Enix North America have redesigned their official website for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. This website links to a variety of relevant Square Enix pages, links to many places where you can pre-order the game for North America, and features the E3 2012 trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3D. We have linked to the website, and embedded the trailer below, for your convenience.
Last week, we started a competition where the winner would receive a free pre-order for Kingdom Hearts 3D! We have now selected the winner of this competition, Ashlee on Facebook! Congratulations! But for now, a surprise...
We're going to run a second competition! Yes, we had so much fun running the first that we're going to give away a second free pre-order for Kingdom Hearts 3D! The rules this time will be different. In order to enter the competition, you must make posts on our forum. The more you post, the better the chance you have of winning! Here's the exact proceedure:
1. At the end of each day, everyone in the top 10 of the list of the day's top posters will receive 1 entry in the competition.
2. You can receive many entries in the competition! If you're on the top posters list on multiple days, then you will receive multiple entries in the competition. We'll keep a detailed list of entries here. Remember, the more days you appear on the list, the higher your chance of winning! Also, please be aware that the Roleplaying, Forum Games, Random and Comments forums are not included, and that we will disqualify anyone who makes "spammy" posts.
3. Two weeks from now, on Friday the 15th of June, 2012 (at 12PM EST time), we'll pick a random winner from the list of entries and contact them. Good luck!
Square Enix have released the E3 2012 trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. The trailer is, of course, in English, and has been uploaded to YouTube below! You can also see Square Enix's description of the trailer underneath. We've also updated our archive of English trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3D with the video, and linked to this below.
E3 2012 in the archive of English trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3D
Square Enix's E3 2012 trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3D blog post
Featuring some of Kingdom Hearts 3D's opening cinematic, this special edition E3 trailer is sure to get you flustered with excitement and anticipation. All you favourite characters as well as some brand new additions are featured including, Pinocchio, Quasimodo, Mickey, Donald and Goofy as the Musketeers.
With a wealth of great new gameplay footage, this video will give you a great insight into the mini-games, the Dreameaters, and the new wall-jump move. If that wasn't enough there's an awesome scene of Riku riding a lightcycle, in The Grid (from the TRON universe)!
Square Enix have released more English screenshots for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], and confirmed many of the major voice actors that will be present in the title. This information was all released in a press release by Square Enix Europe, and can be seen below.
· Leonard Nimoy– Best known for his role as Spock on Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy reprises his role as Master Xehanort, the main antagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series and archenemy of Sora and Riku.
· Haley Joel Osment– Known for his role in the critically acclaimed The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment returns to play Sora, the main protagonist in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, working to complete the Mark of Mastery exam and become a true Keyblade Master.
· David Gallagher– Remembered for his work on 7 th Heaven, David Gallagher joins the cast again as Riku, struggling to become a true Keyblade Master alongside his best friend, Sora.
· Hayden Panettiere– Noted for her performance on Heroes, Hayden Panettiere returns to voice Xion, a 14th member of Organization XIII, an organization that stands against Sora and his friends.
· Jesse McCartney– Recording artist Jesse McCartney reprises his roles as the heroes, Roxas and Ventus.
· Quinton Flynn– Known best for his voice acting on Robot Chicken, Quinton Flynn returns as Axel / Lea, another member of Organization XIII.
Square Enix Members Japan have released two new official wallpapers for the Kingdom Hearts series, serving as calendars for June 2012. One wallpaper is based on Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, while the other is based on Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. You can see both of these wallpapers below (available in various different sizes), thanks to aibo_ac7 for the tip.
Nintendo of Europe have created a page for the earlier Tetsuya Nomura interview with Nintendo of Japan, where he discusses the Kingdom Hearts series and the release of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. This interview has been completely translated into English by Nintendo, and can be read below. Nintendo have also added many screenshots to their Kingdom Hearts 3D page. These can also be seen below. Thanks to Terranort9406 from KH13 for the find.
Tetsuya Nomura interview with Iwata Asks (Nintendo Japan)
Volume 3 of the Kingdom Hearts manga series has finally been announced for a release in France! Thanks to a page on Amazon.fr, we know that the volume is now set for a July 4, 2012 release date in the country. While this may not be relevant for a lot of you, it is nice to see Square Enix taking a strong effort with Kingdom Hearts merchandise recently! Thanks to KHDestiny for the tip.
USK (the official computer game rating group for Germany) have created a page for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], which received a rating of "Restricted for those below the age of 6". The page also states that the game will be English language in Germany (but may possibly receive German subtitles, similar to French subtitles for the French version). Kingdom Hearts 3D previously received ratings of A by CERO (Japan), E10+ by the ESRB (North America), 12+ by PEGI (Europe) and PG by the OFLC (Australia & New Zealand).
Square Enix have updated their official goods online shop with a page for an upcoming piece of official Kingdom Hearts merchandise-- a Kingdom Hearts mug. The mug will be available in "late June", for a price of ¥1,600 (approximately US$20.16). You can see a picture of this mug below.
The London MCM Expo is a gaming event held in London, running this year from May 25 to May 27, 2012. Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] will be appearing with a playable demo in English. This demo is playable by the public, so we definitely recommend that you attend the event if possible! You could be one of the first people to play the game in English!
Update 1: Thanks to a post by jennypen on Tumblr, we have the first photo of the Kingdom Hearts 3D demo at the event. It's not much, but it's still nice to see! Thanks to Terranort9406 from KH13 for the find.
Update 2: The Official Nintendo Magazine's website have provided demo impressions of the Kingdom Hearts 3D demo at the MCM Expo. Thanks to KHUltimania for the find, you can read these demo impressions below.
As you can probably imagine, I was literally bursting with excitement while waiting in the queue for Kingdom Hearts 3D as this is a game I've been waiting a long long time for. I'd also been avoiding any videos on the internet so that when I finally got to play the demo at MCM, this really would be the first time I got to see it.
There were two demos to choose from. You could either play as Riku or Sora, Obviously, I picked Sora as he is the original keyblade hero. Then, the demo started and I was in the Country of the Musketeers. For people, who haven't actually seen this Disney rendition of the Three Musketeers, the musketeers are played by Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse. A cutscene began and I sat back to enjoy the 3D. I was totally enthralled by what I saw - it does look absolutely beautiful.
Then the fighting started and I had to take on tons of Nightmare Dream Eaters. Although Sora has new moves - he can now jump and glide - my prior Kingdom Hearts knowledge helped in these battles and I soon managed to work out the controls and take out the Dream Eaters. I also had some help from my Spirit Dream Eaters - a Meow Wow and a Necho Cat, both of whom are pretty cute!
Upon defeating the Nightmare Dream Eaters, I had to defend Princess Minnie from a gigantic 'dinosaur' Dream Eater called a Boukun Rex. Turned out it was a boss!
The game looks great. I really don't want to give too much away but I loved being able to play Kingdom Hearts 3DS at MCM Expo and I cannot wait till the game's release date on July 20th
Square Enix France have revealed that the latest issue of Role Playing Game, a French magazine, has included an article on Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. The article has not yet appeared online, however, Square Enix France have uploaded the cover of the issue, and this can be seen below.
Thanks to KHDestiny, we know that the article does not contain any screenshots of the international version of the game-- instead, the screenshots in the article are in Japanese.
Square Enix have updated their online store with the cover art of the first Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] novel, called Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] Side Sora. You can see this cover below.