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Hey hey hey, it's Michi here once again for another entry in the Kingdom Hearts: The Convolutedly Complex Series.

Let's get to it!



So you're probably wondering why I'm doing another double review, and this one is actually as easily explained as the previous one, and no it's not because one was a rehash/incredibly basic to line a full review with.  On the contrary, both games in this review are actually pretty well done in their own way, and actually deserve some kudos to be perfectly honest.

The reason I'm doing another double review is that while Dream Drop Distance is a full game, Birth By Sleep 0.2 (or a Fragmentary Passage) is actually a glorified tech demo for Kingdom Hearts 3.  But despite it being a tech demo, it's still a very welcomed one as it gives a bit of insight to what's going on with one of the characters that we haven't heard from since the first game, and even finds a way to link up with the first game very thinly.

On top of that, both games changed up the gameplay just enough to where both are worth talking about in that category.  Finally, both were just phenomenally gorgeous games, Dream Drop Distance looked to be a similar quality as Birth By Sleep if not slightly better despite being on the 3DS, and like BBS looked just as beautiful when it was remastered onto the console.  Likewise, Birth By Sleep 0.2 was to show off not only KH3 type gameplay, but also the new engine that KH3 would be using...which means the graphics alone were pumped up immensely, so that's also worth talking about.

Story
Dream Drop Distance: Sora and Riku both are ready to take their Mark of Mastery exam, as they're sent into the sleeping worlds to investigate.  But what starts off as a simple test is complicated when some of the Xehanorts including Young Xehanort find their way into the test and meddle with their own agenda in mind.  Sora and Riku must overcome this new obstacle in their way and become Keyblade Masters, while also figuring out the true agenda of Young Xehanort and his cohorts.

Birth By Sleep 0.2: Aqua is still trapped in the Realm of Darkness, wandering aimlessly trying to figure out how to escape.  Along the way, she sees the light of her friends, as if guiding her.  Making her way through once familiar territory, Aqua must find out the reason for these sudden apparitions, while wondering if she even deserves to be saved from this realm of darkness and despair.

So, at the start you're probably thinking "Man, those actually sound like pretty simple stories" And they both are and aren't.  First let me start by saying that Dream Drop Distance arguably has one of my favorite intros of the Kingdom Hearts games (the 3DS version had Sorcerer/Conductor Mickey on the bottom screen and the intro at the top).  It was a lovely quick summary of the games leading up, and I thought having Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey at the bottom moving along with it was a nice touch.  But along the way of Dream Drop Distance's story, it actually grows to be less and less simple than it was originally intended for the characters.  There's a few plot twists, including a surprising parallel to Birth by Sleep with one of the characters that I didn't see coming.  On top of that, the different world stories were also engaging enough to where I found myself invested, even when the drop mechanic would force me to switch between characters when I may not have wanted it to.

Likewise, Birth By Sleep 0.2 actually greatly surprised me in this area.  First off, I wouldn't have known this was a demo at first, because once again it had a really awesome intro that made me think it was going to be a full sequel to the original Birth By Sleep in Aqua's perspective.  While it was unfortunately not (clocking in normally between 2 1/2 to 5 hours at most for completionists), it was still a very intriguing story.  While nothing groundbreaking plotwise and simple by nature, it really gave a lot of insight to Aqua as a character.  While she was already one of my all time favorites, this game just sealed that for me since you see a lot of what she deals with deep down, always fighting that fine line between duty and friends and ultimately paying the price for choosing the latter.  Aside from Riku, she's possibly one of the more emotionally complex characters written in the series, and this "demo" just really emphasized that for me.

Gameplay
Dream Drop Distance: So most of the old fighting mechanics once again came back, however there's some monumental upgrades and changes this time around.

First and foremost is the Drop System.  In this game, you play both Sora and Riku as they're taking their respective exams separately from each other.  Like Birth By Sleep they visit the same worlds, but they may get access to different parts of those worlds that the other can't touch.  However, unlike BBS or COM where you have to play through a character's story completely to be able to play the next character, that's where the Drop system comes in.  You'll have a meter known as the Drop meter, that basically acts like a countdown.  Once that countdown hits 0, your current character will suddenly fall into sleep regardless of what they're doing, and the game will switch over to the other character.  You can initiate the drop early yourself if you're in a good place to do so, or you can use an item known as Drop-Me-Not to prolong the countdown a bit...either way, this can happen at ANY time.  Dialogue, enemy fights, boss fights, during mini games, there's really nothing that will halt the timer.  And once that drop happens, what you were doing with the previous character resets if it was a boss/enemy fight.

It's a pretty interesting system because you have to really think on your feet a bit to get what you need done before the game forcefully drops you to the other character, otherwise you risk having to start a possible mission again because you hit the countdown right in the middle.

The second most important one is the Dream Eater system.  In this game, your companions are various monsters known as Spirits that are basically a class of Dream Eaters.  Likewise, your enemies are the bad versions known as Nightmares.  Now...this is probably one of the weakest areas of the game in my personal opinion.  Dream Eaters are basically created by combining different ingredients (aside from the initial one Sora and Riku get)...basically another mix and match type of system like the Command Meld and Command Matrix, except this time it's with your companions.

Once you have Spirits, you can level up their abilities/stats using what's called the Link Board, by spending Link Points.  How do you get Link Points? Well...

That's where the part I consider weak comes in.  The game takes a Tamagatchi/digital pet method and has you pet your Dream Eater, feed it treats, and play games with it to earn link points and combat efficiency.  It's both tedious and silly, and you'll more than likely be spending a lot of time in this area since you'll want strong companions to help you out.  There's 50 total different types of Dream Eaters each with their own perks and weaknesses, but yeah...it's probably one of my least favorite aspects of this game.

The third most important system is the Flowmotion system.  This is a huge aesthetics change in the game because along with running, you can now bounce off of walls, swing around polls, and other parkour type of moves at quick speed which is not just for quicker travel...but will also let you pull off different tricks for higher damage in battles.  On top of that there is also something called "Reality shifts" which, when triggered, will produce some interesting results in battle again for some possible added damage (such as tossing a barrel to break something or stun an enemy).  Overall, the system is pretty unique and makes battles a bit more interesting.

World Wise, there's a noticeable difference in size compared to previous games.  Worlds like Traverse Town are expanded greatly and have quite a bit more open area to roam, which was both surprising but also refreshing.  But there's still a lot to do in most worlds to where it's quite entertaining going through them.   It's actually funny because I criticized Coded a bit for having roughly 7 worlds...but Dream Drop Distance also has 7 and I'm okay with that.  Part of that might be because 5 of the worlds are completely new (even the one "familiar" one from KH2 is completely different since it's "The Grid" and based off of the new Tron as opposed to OG Tron), and the two returning worlds are greatly expanded on in different ways with the other five being pretty large as well...so they make up for the number easily.  Heck, technically you might as well say 8 worlds since Traverse Town has you visiting a second time later on.

Throughout the game there are also different portals known as Link Portals.  They will either grant you the use of certain Dream Eaters for a temporary period of time, or for battling enemies common and rare...and possibly even stronger version of bosses once you've beaten the game once.  Each will merit rewards such as a unique keyblade.

There's also the Flick Rush Colosseum which unfortunately I found to be dull.  It's basically numbers against numbers like a watered down version of CoM's gameplay, where higher values will get damage and can be canceled out by higher numbers.  You're mainly fighting spirit against spirit, and can switch out spirits while your cards reload (and they reload somewhat slowly usually).  It's a mini game, but it's not my favorite.

Finally, there's the other drop system...in other words literally dropping and falling.  Whenever you enter a different world, you "drop" through it in a sort of "tackle or avoid obstacles and grab items" type of way.  Sometimes the objective is to get a set number of points before you reach the end to open the gateway, some require you defeating a boss creature, and so on.  It's pretty fun mainly because I usually enjoy the music and the fun style since the surrounding area gives you an idea of what you'll see in the world you're going to.  However, it's also a somewhat forgettable mechanic as well.

Outside of that, battle wise is very reminiscent of Birth By Sleep minus the obvious new alterations mentioned above.

Overall, there were some welcome additions, some "meh" ones and some such as the Flick Rush and Dream Eater Care system which I found personally dull and not exciting.  But the great additions really made those pretty minimal.

Birth By Sleep 0.2 Despite being a demo, this was meant to really show off some refined KH gameplay to prepare for KH3, and boy did it deliver on those promises.

By far, Birth By Sleep had some of the most refined mechanics out of all of the games, and I'd even argue that it did some things better than KH3.  Everything was just so smoothly handled that this was just a powerhouse type of game that showed what Kingdom Hearts could be like when the experimental aspects were realized.

Firstly, Shotlock commands are back, although there's only the one type that you start with since this was meant to be a demo.  Just like Birth By Sleep, you'd hold the appropriate button down and target enemies while your focus gauge decreases, and then release to shoot at them.

Secondly, they reverted to KH1/2 style battle systems once more, which was great.  The HP/MP bar as well as magic functions like it did in the numbered titles, so there's less having to level up and shift around commands since this was meant to be a game to prepare people for III.

Flowmotion makes a re-appearance when you're sliding on rail areas, which will come up a few instances but not often. 

Most importantly, this demo introduced the more important KHIII mechanic known as Situation Commands.  Similar to how finishers in Birth By Sleep worked, Situation commands are activated by smacking an enemy enough times or using the appropriate spell, introducing either a style change, powerful finisher, or more powerful version of the spell that you used.  Like BBS, you'd trigger this change by doing the above mentioned thing and then hitting Triangle as you would for a reaction command, and you'd initiate it.  There are slight differences, but in general Situation commands are the refined and more perfected version of Form Changes.

Aqua's movements are also more fluid in battle, making them quite a bit nicer than I'm normally used to.  She still retains her parry and block mechanic, though there's no altering them in this game since it's meant to be a demo.

Likewise, the places you visit are once again pretty large, meant to give you an idea for how KH3 would be with its worlds, introducing new layers of height to give it a bigger sense of size, and some little tweaks here and there to general gameplay such as an upside down type of area just to really show things off and get players hyped.

There's also over 51 objectives sprinkled throughout the demo.  For each one you complete, you unlock a new costume accessory so you can change Aqua's look in some way...whether it be that she has wings, or something of that sort.  There's also a post-clearing sidequest that appears that has you hunting down relics to unlock a special area for a boss rush of 5 rounds that ends with a pretty difficult fight.

Overall, I was pretty impressed playing through this as it presented a pretty great idea of what KHIII was going to be like.  Movement and battles were much more fluid, and I just really liked seeing some of my more favorite past game mechanics much more refined.

Graphics
Dream Drop Distance: As I said, this was a pretty game.  For 3DS it looked nice, and for consoles it looked better.  I actually loved how gorgeous some of the worlds looked, especially seeing a different side to Traverse Town compared to previous games.  Everything just once again looked fantastic, though I will say as much as I liked the look of the Dream Eaters...I found their lack of creativity between the Nightmares and Spirits outside of a palette swap (outside of the bosses) to be pretty disappointing.  Overall, everything looked very nice...although I will say much like Port Royal from KH2, there was some unsettling factor in models from The Grid.






Birth By Sleep 0.2: This was the first Kingdom Hearts to be made on Unreal Engine 4, and god does it look gorgeous.  As I said earlier this is a demo where the graphics quality was upped immensely to take advantage of the new engine, and it looks fantastic.  Character models look nice, the worlds themselves are both bleak and gorgeous at the same time...overall everything just looks amazing.  It was definitely a great precursor to prepare us for the new game.

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Music
Dream Drop Distance: Once again, Dream Drop Distance altered the main theme of Dearly Beloved, although this one was a bit more upbeat.  It's nice because it started with a nice Orchestra opening, but right away you hear a bit of an "oomph" to it compared to some of the previous titles.  What's really nice is that unlike, say, Birth by Sleep with its lead up to a sad violin...Dream Drop Distance built up to a more whimsical and fun type of section to really build on that "oomph."  Again in a way I greatly appreciated it because it kinda foreshadows that this is going to be a game that, sure it'll still have a somewhat intense story at points...but it's also going to have a bit of a fun and lighter element to it (what with the Spirit Dream Eaters and whatnot).  So while it's not my favorite version, I found myself appreciating it quite a bit for how it once again was a unique foreshadow of the overall feel of the game.

I also have to say that this game has my favorite version of Traverse Town, despite it not being played in a jazzy style like previous games.  This game gave it a much lighter sound, and it sounded absolutely gorgeous in this new rendition.  I also really loved how Symphony of Sorcery used the actual versions of some of the songs used in its Fantasia-based areas rather than watering it down.  I remember disliking Night on Bald Mountain in KH1 because it was basically a lower quality version of the original song.  Well, you get to hear that good quality in this game along with the good quality of some of the other favorites, and god was I grateful for that.

Birth By Sleep 0.2: As you might expect, this isn't going to have a huge soundtrack since it's a tech demo by all means.  However, I will say that this was the first game in a long while since 2 to use a different remixed version of a song for the opening.  Up to this point, it's always been an already existing version of Simple and Clean/Sanctuary, whether it be the techno or orchestrated version.  This game, while still using Simple and Clean, did a new unique remix which was surprisingly welcomed.

Admittedly, BBS 0.2 uses the original BBS version of Dearly Beloved for its title menu, but that's okay.  Considering it's a semi-sequel to BBS (and BBS is my favorite version), I was okay with them using it again.

Overall though, most of the music is taken from previous games, but There are six new songs specifically for this game, and they're not bad.

Sound/Voices
As always, I had no issues with sound in either game, and actually liked some of the updates for BBS 0.2.

Voice wise, both games did well.  In reality there were only 3 voices for most of BBS 0.2, though at the end it did build up to III, so some other familiar voices were heard and again done well.

Dream Drop Distance had a few of the original/current VAs return once again, and they all did fine.  I can't honestly think of one voice that stuck out as bad, and even the World Ends With You characters had some nice voice work.  However, let's all have a moment of silence for this being Leonard Nimoy's last game before he passed away.

Replayability
Surprisingly, both games have replayability value to them.  Dream Drop Distance has some side areas such as the various portals, the Flick Rush Colosseum, and the end-game portals for bosses to unlock a new keyblade.  Likewise, there's 50 Dream Eater Spirits to collect and train, so that's another thing as well.

Likewise, Birth By Sleep 0.2 has 51 objectives to beat to unlock different accessories for Aqua.  On top of that, there are 12 relics you can collect once you've cleared the game once to unlock a 5 round boss rush including a more difficult version of one of the difficult bosses in the game.

On top of that, both games once again have various difficulty modes.  Was it easy on normal? Try Proud Mode.  Still a breeze? Critical is more up your alley then.

Overall, there's a bit to do in both games to keep you busy, although obviously DDD will take more hours compared to BBS 0.2

Overall
Dream Drop Distance: Despite the arguably dull Flick Rush Colosseum and annoying reliance on "Caring" for your Dream Eaters, this is a pretty solidly made game.  The story can get pretty intense despite the premise being simple, the characters are all interesting, the music as usual is great, gameplay mechanics for the most part are phenomenal, and it's just a nice entry.  It looks pretty, sounds pretty, and plays nicely overall.  It's also a wonderful bridge to KH3, so I definitely recommend it before going from 2 to 3 since you will miss a bit (including some once again great Leonard Nimoy voice acting) if you skip this title.

Birth By Sleep 0.2: This was made as a demo to show what KH3 would be like on some levels, and boy did it build up my hype.  I remember playing the demo of this at PAX one year (a demo of a demo, haha), and I was ecstatic for 3 once I played it.  The story is short and simple but really gives a lot of insight to Aqua as a character, as well as builds up even more into what KH3 will be like both gameplay wise and bridging story wise.  The new music including the new remix of Simple and Clean was very welcomed, and I can't stress enough how gorgeous this game looks overall.  Once again, it's a game I absolutely recommend, and if you don't have Kingdom Hearts 2.8, get it.  Because this, DDD, and Unchained Key Backcover Movie are all excellent entries.