Dream Drop Distance's Dream Eaters!

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Published on November 13, 2011 @ 01:09 pm

Written by Josh

Hello everybody! I'm Souji Seta, the newest addition to KHInsider's site staff. I look forward to working hard in order to bring as much Kingdom Hearts news to you guys as I can and to better this site. Now although there hasn't been any real news lately, I hope that the following editorial I've written can renew your excitement about Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Hey, you might even learn a couple new things out of it.

Once you're finished reading, make sure to discuss this on our forums!

Out of all of the new things coming to Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, the most interesting one to be revealed so far in my opinion is the Dream Eaters. Sure, the addition of Neku Sakuraba from The World Ends With You, is pretty exciting, but unlike him the Dream Eaters are going to be part of the entire game. They pretty much play the biggest part besides Sora and Riku.

Before I even read anything about the Dream Eaters, I just happened to see pictures of two of them: the "Wondernyan" and the "Koumori Bat." When I first laid my eyes on the renders I couldn't help but say "Awe, how cute." Although mostly everybody can agree that the Dream Eaters we've seen are for the most part cute and cuddly creatures, I have been noticing some people giving negative comments about their looks. I've read in quite a few places about people's opinions that they are too immature and kid-like. While I can partially agree with their view, I'm not too sure what is wrong with that. Kingdom Hearts is not the most mature game series to begin with. The series is filled with Disney and young teenage characters. The Dream Eaters fit perfectly right beside these other characters.

After getting past their adorable looks, I read a couple interviews and news articles about their background and role in the game. The Dream Eaters reside in the Realm of Sleep. There are two types of them: Nightmares and Spirits. The Nightmares are going to be the main enemies of the game, similar to the Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed of the past titles. They even have their own emblem, just like the others. With regards to the plot, Nightmares are said to plant nightmares and eat dreams. Spirits are quite different from the Nightmares. Actually, they are more like exact opposites. Spirits eat the nightmares that are planted by the Nightmares. They help Sora and Riku by granting them abilities and helping them in battle. They also somehow enable Sora and Riku to travel to different worlds, although this hasn't been explained yet. From watching the trailers and reading information on them I can easily relate them to the summons of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, as well as D-Links from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Not only do these Dream Eaters aid you in combat, but they level up as well. This leads me to believe that the more you level them up, the more abilities they open up for Sora and Riku. Another interesting thing that I read is that you can have multiple Dream Eaters brought into battle at once. This probably means that you can mix and match their skills as well.

All Dream Eaters share a few common traits when it comes to their appearance. They all resemble animals, such as cats, bats and pandas. They also seem to resemble some past designs for Heartless. Spirits are generally brighter in colors, although it has been said that you can edit the colors of the ones that you have with you during the game. Their eyes are black with plus sign shaped pupils. Nightmares are darker in color with red eyes. This gives them a more sinister look and separates them from the more friendly looking Spirits.

Sora and Riku start the game with Wondernyan (or Wonder Meow) and Koumori Bat respectively. I feel like they were almost intentionally made for them. Wondernyan is rather large and looks awfully goofy, which corresponds to Sora's ditzy, carefree attitude. Koumori Bat, while bright in color, seems dark and very slick in style, just like Riku. Neku also seems to get a Spirit, one known as a "Neko Cat." Tetsuya Nomura, the director and character designer of the entire series has stated that there will be dozens of Dream Eaters that the characters will be able to utilize in the game. I just can't wait to see what the inspiration behind them will be as well as what animals they will look like. (I'm praying that there will be a fox Dream Eater.)

Besides their purpose in combat and the plot of the game, Square Enix seems to be taking advantage of the features of Nintendo's 3DS in order to let you interact with them. By using the augmented reality feature in it's camera you can make Dream Eaters magically come to life, allowing you to pet and play with them. This is only a minor gimmick but I think it's pretty awesome that they are using some of the 3DS's unique features.

There's just so many things that I'm loving so far about the Dream Eaters. I thought it was clever of the designers to use them as both Sora and Riku's friends and their enemies as well as how they contribute to combat. While there's still many things that I still don't know about these new creatures, I am positive that they are my favorite thing about Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.