In any case, I have decided to do a quick analysis of the DDD trailer from way back in January. This basically just means I have another chance to fangasm all over the awesome-itude of that kickass video yet again and squee for a good while before making some incoherent comments on it. So let's go!
Gawd, how many times have I seen this trailer now... Anywho, starts off with the Disney and Square Enix names and with the scene at the end of KHII. Riku asks Sora if his mind's made up and Sora says yes. Splendid. Not much to say about this bit. I assume this is just chucked in to remind people that this game is, in fact, set after KHII, despite Sora and Riku's KHI clothing, as Tetsuya Nomura (game director/general overlord) has stated before. (Can't be bothered to look for a quote right now, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :P)
Next up is a bit of the secret ending in Re:coded, so, spoiler if you haven't seen that yet, I guess... Yen Sid asks Mickey to summon Sora and Riku. When Mickey asks why, Yen Sid says it's to show them the Mark of Mastery. Again, nothing too splendiforous here. We've known for a while from Nomura that this game will include Sora and Riku taking the Mark of Mastery exam that was introduced in Birth By Sleep (basically just a test to make you a Keyblade Master). Now, Nomura has also confirmed that the exam won't span the entire game, but rather just a portion. Personally, I think it's gonna be something like Sora and Riku arrive to take the exam, something bad happens, exam is interrupted while they kick some ass elsewhere and only continue the exam at the end of the game when sufficient ass has been kicked. Then the SHOCKING ENDING will happen-ify and the player will be left thoroughly mind-screwed. Thoughts?
Anywho, back to the trailer. Now, THIS bit is confusing. KHI Sora and Riku are gazing out to sea. Sora asks how far a raft can take them. Riku says he doesn't know, but if they have to, they'll think of something else. Now, this conversation is in KHI at the very beginning (at the end of the first day, I believe) but it's in a completely different setting. Wait, gimme a second...
Skip to 00:30. See? This time, it's late, they're on the paopu fruit tree and, oh yeah, Kairi's there. I have no idea why they changed it so much in the DDD trailer... I mean, it's the exact same script, just everything else is different. I doubt Sora and Riku had the exact same conversation the next day without Kairi, or something... Hmm. The last two scenes in the trailer are very important; the first one establishes the timeline while the second establishes the basic premise of the game. So why is this altered scene chosen to be as important? I bet it's not at all and I'm just looking too much into it, but...still. Ugh, less than a minute into the trailer and I'm already hopelessly confused... The game takes place after KHII, so it can't be something like 'What if Kairi never came to Destiny Islands?'. Also, Kairi was the one that inspired Riku to think of sailing away to other worlds in a clearly unsafe homemade raft, so they wouldn't be having that conversation if they never met Kairi... Argh. My brain hurts. :C But, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Moving swiftly on, the first 'D' appears: 'Dream'. I always knew this game would have something to do with dreams! Before we knew the actual title and just knew that '3D' was the subtitle, I figured it'd be '3 Dreams'. I wasn't THAT far off the mark... Now, I think this is why Sora and Riku are in their KHI gear; it's a dream. Simple as. However, Nomura said that the reason they're in their KHI clothes is for some very important, undisclosed reason. I've no idea why simply 'they're dreaming' would be a very important reason, but... It's all I got. Deal. So, yeah. Methinks the majority of this game will be in a dream.
Onwards to Riku being surrounded by Shadow Heartless in the Second District of Traverse Town. He's freakin' out, until he sees a star twinkle in a Team Rocket-esque fashion that turns out to be a falling Sora. It then zooms in on Riku's 'AW, JEEZ!' reaction before showing the next 'D': 'Drop'. This action is carried out by many, many, MANY unconcious falling glowing Soras. ...Yeeaahh. I really don't have much to say about this other then '...whut?'. Ugh, this entire game is just gonna be one long trippy mind screw, ain't it? This is shaping up to be one darn confusing game, even by KH standards. Anywho, one of the Soras lands on his feet in the middle of a swarm of Heartless in front of the fountain. Yay.
It then shows the word 'Distance' and sh** gets real. Just...wow. Any negative comments I had about this game so far, I take back. I take it all back because...aw, wow. Just look at it! Sooo pretty...
Ahem. You see Sora in all his golden light glory sliding down the roofs of the Second District, doing multiple flips in the air, jumping 12 feet at a time as he goes roof to roof... Wow. Also, I just want to point out that the camera seems fairly...good, at this stage, in stark contrast to quite a few KH games so far (re-playing KHI at the moment. *shudders at memory of camera*). Hopefully they've got that mess sorted out. Fingers crossed yet again! So, in conlusion, *drools*
Next, it says 'Sleep & Waking'. Another reference to dreaming, perhaps? Maybe it means that their dreams will kind of be integrated into the real world, as well as in their heads. Y'know, like their 'dream' selves will be in the real world, or something... I dunno.
Next next, it shows Riku bouncing of the walls like it's nothin', flipping in the air and doing some fancy sword-work before finally landing with extreme finesse, if I do say so myself, and a silver lightshow accompanying him the entire time.
*recommences salivating* OHMAIGAWDITSSOAMAZINGCHRISTIWANTITNOW -
*recomposes self* Ahem. Back in January, a week after this trailer came out I believe, Nomura said that the wall-jumping was extremely tricky and only the programmer who actually made it could do it. I assume that they're gonna make it easier by the time it hits shelves, if not already. ...Well, that's enough analysis. *continues gawking in awe*
Next up, it says 'Goodwill & Malice'. Interesting. Will this game have stuff to do with Sora/Riku doing something they think is out of goodwill, but is actually out of malice, making them question their very being? I predict a lot of self-conflict and character development in this game. Hurrah!
The next bit is so friggin' fast, I don't even know where to start. So, we have Sora sliding down one of the wires in the Third District (at this bit, you can see not only his golden light show, but also electricity from the wire. DETAILS!! :D ) followed by a mini wall-jump to fling himself to a lamp post where he begins SWINGING AROUND BY THE TEETH OF HIS KEYBLADE. *vomits from excitement* He then swings to another and DOES IT AGAIN *faints from awesome*, jumps to the electricity box thing in the corner to get charged up (INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS RETURN! *dies from epicostiy*) to form an almost 'light drill' through the air (the best way I can describe it) to DIVE TO THE CENTRE OF THE HEARTLESS SWARM IN A FLURRY OF STARS AND AWESOME BEFORE BACK-FLIPPING FOR THE HELL OF IT. *is reborn from amazingness of it all*
Sorry for the excessive amount of Caps Lock there, but this trailer really deserves it. Not much to say other than WOW and I'm probably gonna suck at this game. A lot. I don't really do 'fast games', per se. I like to take my time, stroll along, check every last nook and cranny... To summarise, I'm very boring and I fear this game is a lot cooler than I am. Oh dear.
Next it says 'Sora & Riku'. Veeery interesting indeed. The last two have been exact opposites of one another, so are they saying that Sora and Riku are exact opposites as well? Yes, Sora uses light and Riku uses (mostly) darkness, but is there more being implied here? Curiouser and curiouser...
Now we get the first confirmed world; Sora is seen running through the bell tower of Notre Dame. YES. Aw, brilliant... I can already imagine flying around the flying buttresses and arches of the cathedral with DDD's frantic gameplay... Oh, yes please! Sora then jumps into the square below, a scene that will undoubtedly be phenomenal in 3D. (...God, I'm such a tool...)
I'm really looking forward to having Hunchback in DDD, especially if my prediction is correct and we're gonna be having Sora and Riku learning a lot about themselves in this one. On the DDD website, the tagline is something like 'When light and darkness stand next to each other, light fades to darkness'. I dunno, something like that... It's in Japanese, so... (http://www.square-enix.co.jp/kingdom/3d/ - should you wish to see) Therefore, I think light and darkness is also gonna be big. A lesson that Sora really needs to learn that Riku pretty much kinda already knows is that light =/= good. I think that Sora is still of the disposition that darkness is definitely always bad and light will forever be good and magical because, y'know, no ones's told him any differently. He needs to learn that it's not so black and white and I think the perfect Disney villain to exemplify that light isn't always good is Frollo. I can imagine Sora landing in the world and hearing Frollo rabbitting on about how he follows the light (they could very easily exchange 'God' with 'light') and eradicates creatures of darkness. Sora joins him on his quest but soon realises that Frollo is FRIGGIN' INSANE. And blam. Sora now knows that light can blind you as easily as darkness can engulf you, and therefore Sora has learnt a valuable lesson. Huzzah! Again, thoughts would be appreciated at this point.
Next is a very interesting scene indeed. Riku runs into the Second District and draws his Soul Eater upon seeing Ansem Seeker of Darkness on top of the fountain (side note: Riku's sword makes a clanking sound as if being pulled from a sheath even though it's being pulled from thin air...?). It zooms in to Ansem SoD and you can kinda sorta see a transparent Xemnas standing behind him. Next comes Sora, doing the exact same except this time he's facing Xemnas and Ansem SoD is behind him. Some dramatic camera angles happen and the logo shows up, thus ending one of the most EPIC. TRAILERS. EVER.
Ok, back to analysis. Some people are theorising that Ansem SoD and Xemnas are just hologram-things designed to make Sora and Riku fight each other with all they've got for the Mark of Mastery exam, kinda like Roxas and Xion in Days when thay saw each other as that...Heartless...guy... The strong one with the orange chainsaw, or something... Anyway, I'm not entirely crazy about this theory. I mean, way back in BBS (SPOILER), Aqua and Terra didn't need no stinkin' holographic projections or whatever to make them fight one another at full strength. The only reason they would hold back is if only one could become a Master, which isn't true. Eraqus told them that it didn't matter who won or who lost; all that mattered was their strength of heart or whatever. Therefore, either could become a Keyblade Master without endangering the chances of the other. (/SPOILER) This is most probably the same as with Sora and Riku; doesn't matter about the actual outcome of the fight as long as their hearts are strong enough. If both can become Masters, neither would need to hold back to let the other win or anything, making the whole 'Making Sora/Riku look like Anem SoD/Xemnas to get them to fight for realz' rather pointless. Also, it looks like Ansem SoD/Xemnas might be the main antaganists this time round, meaning they would be a part of the entire game, really. If the MoM exam is supposed to only span part of the game, then Ansem SoD/Xemnas can't be anything to do with it. My two cents, anyway...
I have a small theory as to what's going on, but it's not perfect, by any means. Anyway, in the Re:coded secret ending, (I would say 'SPOILER', but that would kind of make this entire paragraph 'SPOILER', so...) Yen Sid basically tells Mickey that by destroying the Heartless and the Nobody, Xehanort will return. (I love how he knew this but still told Sora to kill Xemnas in KHII... -.-") However, he wasn't very specific on the details. I think that something went wrong in the fusion process, leaving Ansem SoD and Xemnas in the same body, but not quite...'merged', I guess. As in, they each still have their own sense of self and their own minds which are in conflict in the one body. This, I think, would lead to his appearance changing from Ansem SoD to Xemnas depending on the relationship he has with whoever is looking at him. ...Wow, that was complicated... Basically, Riku is more connected to Ansem SoD, so he sees Ansem SoD. Sora has a greater connection to Xemnas (due to Roxas being inside him, I'm guessing), so he sees Xemnas. And so Sora/Riku must kick some ass, I guess. I dunno. Of course, this theory doesn't really explain why Ansem SoD/Xemnas hybrid-guy would be inside Riku/Sora's dream thing or whatever, or why Sora/Riku are in KHI gear... *shrugs*
I should probably talk about the Command menu and all that jazz now. Sorry, I was too distracted earlier by the pretty colours of the gameplay to pay it that much heed... Both Sora and Riku's menus say 'A' for 'Attack' and 'B' for a Command (I'm not sure what the order is, but they both have Fire, Blizzard and Thunder). I hope the 'B' is changed to 'X' at some stage to be closer to Re:coded and so 'Jump' can be moved to 'B', where it belongs. So far, it's looking like the Command system from BBS and Re:coded is staying. I like Commands, so huzzah. I wonder though, is this gonna be a permanant thing? Will every KH game have Commands now? Hmm... I certainly wouldn't mind it.
Onwards to the more mysterious 'Drop' gauge under the HP bar. Veeery curious. Both Sora and Riku's gauges have a 1.5 underneath and three grey arrows pointing right. It looks like something you build up, like the Drive gauge from KHII. How do you build it up, though, I wonder? And when you reach the top of the bar, what happens? Do you enter super fast light show mode when you fill it? Or do you swap to the next character? Nomura said that throughout the game, the player will be forcibly switched between Sora and Riku. It won't just be at special cutscenes, or anything, but can happen when you're walking down the road or in the middle of a battle. Nomura also said to think of there being something like a countdown always in play to swap you around. Maybe this gauge is that countdown? Oh, the possibilities!
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Geez, that was a lot. Anywho, hopefully I didn't completely bore you, though I know I did.
tl;dr: I'm uber excited, the scene with Sora and Riku talking about the raft is confusing, I think the game will be in a dream, the gameplay looks AMAZING, a world based on Hunchback of Notre Dame will undoubtedly be amazing, I think Ansem SoD/Xemnas are there to show that Xehanort has kind of reformed but kind of not and the Drop gauge is mysterious.
So, yeah. They're my thoughts on the DDD trailer thus far. Do with them what you will. Please comment; that'd be awesome. :P
First post is DONE. Huzzah! Laters.
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