TGS Day 1 Wrap-Up!

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Published on September 15, 2011 @ 07:22 pm

Written by Callum

Hello again, everyone!

We had a big first day of the Tokyo Game Show, with plenty of new material and information regarding Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance! Please find all footnotes and original article links at the bottom of this post~

First of all, we caught a great glimpse of the latest Nomura artwork for KH3D, which featured Sora and Riku in their new-look clothes, as well as their pet companions, Wandanyan the dog-like creature, and Koumori Bat, the... well, bat! The most interesting point that a lot of you seemed to notice was that Riku now has substantially shorter hair than in Kingdom Hearts II! In addition to this, the poster gave us an even better piece of information... A release date! That's right! Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance will be releasing in Japan in Spring 2012!

After this, we caught wind of another great piece of info... the main protagonist from hit DS game The World Ends With You, Neku Sakuraba, is going to be appearing in KH3D! At first we didn't have much, but later on from a few sources, we found out that Neku is in Traverse Town looking for a partner in the Reapers' Game, a deadly game that he had to play in his original game! Apparently he decides against asking Sora to be his partner, due to finding him a little bit "weird".

Shortly after, we had a bit of a trailer description from NeoGAF , which told us about KH3D focusing on Sora and Riku during their Mark of Mastery exams. Apparently this partially takes place in a world buried in sleep. The new enemies that we see are aptly named Dream Eaters, and we also get pet companions who follow Sora and Riku around (Wandanyan and Koumori Bat, respectively)! Apparently Wandanyan (possibly Koumori Bat, too) have Augmented Reality interactive functions, using the dual cameras on the front of the 3DS. The trailer ended seemingly from Xehanort's point-of-view, seeing Braig approach and talk to him, asking if his memories had returned.

Later on, we found a rather extensive impression from 1up.com about the KH3D demo at TGS. Apparently there were demos of both Sora and Riku's stories, being featured in Traverse Town and Le Cité des Cloches (City of Bells) respectively. Sora, as we know, encounters Neku, who is caught in the Reapers' Game, and is looking for a partner before his timer (seen on the palm of his left hand) runs out. He subsequently makes his way elsewhere while Sora pursues, but eventually runs into a boss fight.

Riku's gameplay demo takes place in The City of Bells, as previously said. He interacts with Quasimodo (the "Hunchback"). Thanks to our own krexia for the following information on Riku's scenario, by the way. Quasimodo is seen carrying Esmerelda towards the cathedral in Le Cité des Cloches, and apparently Riku is helping to defend them. The enemy battles take place inside the cathedral. Upon reaching the top of the cathedral, Riku's fight begins against a winged, flying enemy. Riku also has flight enabled for this fight, meaning it would be very intense to play through! Overall, it has a similar setting to Sora's gameplay; meeting someone new, having a few encounters with enemies and possibly other NPCs, and then a boss fight.

At this point, we're told breilfy about some of the gameplay and button controls, as well as individual character features. First off, Riku is said to have a Double Jump feature, whereas Sora does not. Secondly, both characters have a Magic set featuring such spells as Blizzaga and Cura. The "X" button acts as the Freeflow button; the catalyst for all these insane jumps we see between walls and other objects. During this time, you are still able to attack with the regular attack button, and this in turn relies on where you are and/or what stage you are in your Freeflow. The camera doesn't keep up quite as well as it could, but hopefully that will be improved upon the final release! A D-Link-reminiscent system also returns, enabling you to have allies assist you in battle at will. In turn, it uses the touch screen to use something called a "Holy Rope", which enables you to block off enemies while you attack.

After all this brilliant information, we got a picture featuring the new-look Neku interacting with Sora in a few screenshots! The largest of these images features Neku showing Sora the timer on his left hand, displaying 43:10 remaining of his timer. Another of these screens shows Sora battling some Dream Eaters, and Wandanyan also being seen during this time.

We then had a translation of a Famitsu article about the trailer, courtesy of SQEX Gal, which was basically a more fluent recap on former information. It started with Yen Sid talking about Sora and Riku becoming Keyblade Masters, and also their journey in the "world submerged in sleep". This then went on to talk about Sora and Neku, the former of which states "The Noise are horrible", making reference to the enemies in The World Ends With You. He also seems to be caught in the Reapers' Game, as we know, and is in need of a partner. Perhaps Shiki, Beat or Yoshiya (Joshua) will also show up at some point?

Wandanyan aptly appears, rolling around in a rather carefree way, allowing you to rub/scratch his belly using the touch screen. Sora is also seen to be riding on it during battle.

Not too long after, we had a great new scan come forth, which clearly showed the in-game images of both Sora and Riku in their new outfits and looks, along with Wandanyan and Koumori Bat! We can see that Riku's outfit seems to be reminiscent of that which we see him wearing in Kingdom Hearts II, and Sora's is somewhat of a combination of both his own Limit Form from Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix + and Ventus' outfit in Birth by Sleep. In addition to this, a collection of screenshots featuring both Sora and Riku mid-battle, as well as some more interactions with Neku appeared.

We then got to see a nice menu of all the button controls for KH3D, as well as the 3DSes on display for playing the demo of the game, courtesy of our own Sign finding these from site Gamerabbit!

So overall, we have a very VERY big first day of TGS, with plenty of news to discuss and speculate upon, as well as some killer images to ooh and aah over! In the meantime, you guys know what to do, right? Come discuss with us! We have a series of threads on our forums!

And a note from our own brilliant Site Staff member Sign:

Wow, what a rush we had these past few days, don't you think? It feels like we've been getting nonstop Kingdom Hearts news, and no doubt there's certainly going to be more to come! We realize that it may be difficult to keep track of what's new, what's old, and everything in between, and have compiled everything that took place so far for your convenience below!

We'll continue to update this as the days go by so you'll have an easy way to search for TGS 2011 news you want exactly when you want it!

Thanks again for your commitment to the KH series everyone, and a special thankyou for choosing us, KHInsider, the best news source for Kingdom Hearts around! Don't forget to visit our sister site, FinalFantasy.net for all the info on upcoming Final Fantasy titles!

Sources:

Nintendo 3DS Conference:
KH3D Footage at Nintendo Conference + Compatibility!
N3DS Conference KH3D Analysis
Check out Sora's New Duds!
KH3D Will Have 3DS Slide Pad Compatibility!

Tokyo Game Show 2011 - Day 1:
KH3D Poster Image from TGS+Release date!
The World Ends with You in KH3D?!
Larger KH3D Poster!
New 3D Artwork! (Better Quality)
KH3D Trailer Description!
Another description of KH3D gameplay!
Neku and Sora together?!
Famitsu KH3D Article Translation!
More Neku, Sora and Riku images!
Images From the Show Floor!
TGS KH3D Demo Report