DDD in Famitsu's Most Wanted, Symphonic Fantasies, Hint at New Xehanort & Some Gameplay

'Sup. I was gonna do a thing about my expectations for DDD, but instead I decided to go for a recap of the miscellaneous small snippets of news that have come out over the past two weeks. Actually a fairly plentiful batch of news, if we compare it to the drought of news from January to September. Here's hoping it stays like this...

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First off, a Famitsu survey. The Japanese magazine asked their readers to list their most anticipated games, regardless of platform. Why is this relevant? Scroll down to 22...

1. Final Fantasy Type-0 (PSP)
2. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)
3. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
4. Monster Hunter 3G (3DS)
5. Dragon Quest X (Wii)
6. Dragon’s Dogma (PS3)
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
8. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
9. Persona 4: The Golden (Vita)
10. Fotokano: Picture Girlfriend (PSP)
11. New Love Plus (3DS)
12. Animal Crossing (3DS)
13. The Last Guardian (PS3)
14. Gundam Extreme Versus (PS3)
15. Metal Gear Solid Rising (PS3)
16. 7th Dragon 2020 (PSP)
17. Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS3)
18. Project Diva Extend (PSP)
19. Monster Hunter 4 (3DS)
20. Uncharted 3 (PS3)
21. One Piece: Unlimited Cruise (PS3)
22. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
23. 2nd Super Robot Wars OG (PS3)
24. Ni no Kuni (PS3)
25. Armored Core V (PS3)

Well 'hurrah' for that! I thought it might be higher, but DDD will undoubtedly climb the charts as it gets closer to release. I'll admit, I am a bit miffed that New Love Plus got so much higher, being at no.11. Really, Japan? Really? New Love Plus is basically a sequel to the (somehow) popular DS game LovePlus where you adopt a skimpily-clad Japanese school girl as your new girlfriend. Yeah. Oh, those kooky Japanese and their creepy girlfriend simulators...

MORE NEWS, I SAY.

Righty-o. So, Squeenix will be hosting their big Symphonic Fantasies concert in Tokyo from January 7th-8th. This will have music from Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross and - you guessed it - Kingdom Hearts. So far, these tracks have been announced to make an aural appearance...

• Dearly Beloved (lovely Main Menu music)

• The Other Promise (music used when serious/sad shizz is goin' down)

• Happy Holidays! (battle theme for Christmas Town in KH2: Final Mix.)

• A Fight to the Death (epic boss theme of epic)

• Hand in Hand (Traverse Town battle theme)

(Credit for vids go to RoxasMyHero and KH13. Thank you! :D) There will be more, but at the moment these are the only confirmed tracks. Here's Squeenix's symphony site and thank you to FF-Reunion, KH13 and KHInsider for the tip!

MORE THINGS!

Ok, this one is veeery interesting indeed... Keep in mind, the next coupla paragraphs will be pure specualtion on my part, so we can safely put this in the 'RUMOUR' category for now.

Anyway, someone asked Richard Epcar a question on Facebook and he gave a damn mysterious answer. Oh, Richard Epcar is the voice of Xehanort's Heartless in KH2 and Re:CoM and Terranort in BBS. (XH was voiced by Billy Zane in the first game, but we don't talk about that...) CONVERSATION TIME.

(Click to zoom-ify. And thank you to KHInsider for the screen!) See? Interesting... 'The next Xehanort'? Ok, before my brain frazzles with the infinite interpretations, Imma just talk about the boring real-world implications of this. It seems like Epcar already knows some of the future KH plot, or at least his own role. Seems like. Don't quote me. Anyway, if he means what I think he means, that means they've already started localisation, seeing as Epcar is the English VA. I hope it means they've started localisation. Less wait between Japanese and Elsewhere releases and junk. Hopefully...

Now onto in-game interpretations. Much more fun. :3 Best case scenario: Epcar is referring to a brand new Xehanort in DDD. Worst case scenario: Epcar's just assuming the next Xehanort will be awesome. Let's talk about the former first. Or, rather, let's have me type away on the matter and have you read it at a later date.

Continuing. If it's a new Xehanort, my money's on a dream/imprint/whatever lurking in the Realm of Sleep. We don't know the full process that goes into reforming a Somebody after they have been split into Heartless and Nobody. Sure, we know that if you slay the Heartless and then the Nobody in that order, the Somebody can come back. But maybe it's not that easy? We don't know how long it takes, if there's any extra steps, etc. But we do know that the Somebody must be transported elsewhere, seeing as how Nobodies and Heartless always disappear after you slay them. If the Somebodies didn't sprout up elsewhere, then Sora and riku would have had a much harder boss battle on their hands at the end of KHII with fighting Xehanort straight after Xemnas.


My hypothesis at the moment is that the Somebody gets transported to the Realm of Sleep. I mean, when worlds are restored from dakness, some of them end up in the RoS.

The “World Submerged in Sleep” is a complex story, but there were worlds other than those that Sora restored in KH1, some that were not submerged in darkness. Like the worlds of the princesses and Dumbo’s, etc. In the end of KH1 it was established that some of those worlds were restored, but not all of them. Those that were neither in light nor in darkness, but those that were submerged in sleep.

Since those worlds are essential[ly] asleep, the dreams of those worlds become the setting.

Sora and Riku will travel to those worlds to awaken them from their sleep.

When a world is awoken from it’s sleep, it will be restored to it’s original form.

(This is from the Famitsu interview with Tetsuya Nomura (game director by day/super hero by night) after TGS last month.) Maybe the same thing has happened with Xehanort, as in he is now 'asleep' and his 'dream self' is in the RoS? Definitely a possibility at this point. Xehanort could be orchestrating the entire plot of DDD, making sure Sora and Riku reach the Keyhole of Sleep, becuase as Yen Sid explained in the trailer at TGS...

Yen Sid: Opening the keyhole of sleep, along with finding a new power, the power locked in sleep will become revealed as well.

Maybe Xehanort has copped that the only way he can reawaken and be all badass in the Realm of...Waking is by Sora and Riku findin ghtis Keyhole and restoring all the worlds and junk. Then the 'surprising ending' would be Xehanort fully awake and rampaging across the RoW all "Thanks for saving me, guys, gonna go destroy the universe now, kthxbaii." Maybe he traps Sora and Riku in the RoW, or incapacitate them in some way, ending the game on a COMPLETE bombshell and leaving the player all "O_o ................Crap." Calling it now~

That's what I think is most likely, and to be perfectly honest I can't be bothered going on about any other theory.  Not that I have another one, mind... I suck at theorising. :c

LAST BIT OF NEWS!

And this is probably the most exciting. Behold! Some new footage! (This came from Nintendo's recent 3DS conference on October 21st.)

Thank you KH13, for 720p HD loveliness! Now, not a whole lotta newness, but still exciting nonetheless. ANALYSIS TIME!

Starts off with Neku and Sora meeting in Traverse Town, a scene we have already seen before thanks to Famitsu back at TGS. However, this time there aren't editors cackling over the conversation, meaning we can actually hear what they're saying. Hurrah! In case you forgot...

Neku, showing Sora the scarlet mark on his hand: This is from the Game. All the participants have it engraved upon them. I can’t afford to lose this Game!
Sora: I don’t really get ‘the Game’, but maybe I can lend a hand?

(Translation of TGS trailer from SQEX GAL, whom I cannot thank enough.) I've already ranted about this scene numerous times before now, so forgive me for not doing so at this moment. I'm just very uberly excited for Sora and Neku forming a badass pact of epic and being partners in the Reapers' Game~

Anyway. In the background, you can hear Twister playing (a TWEWY song). The weird thing? It's in English. As opposed to Japanese. Huh. Why would they purposefully pick the English one when the rest of the footage is in Japanese? Confusing... Though probably completely unimportant.

But Twister in KH gives hope for more TWEWY tracks appearing at some point. I is excite. TWEWY had one amazing soundtrack, it has to be said. However, I'm not sure if I would prefer the TWEWY songs to be played straight or for Yoko Shimomura (KH composer of music/dreams) to fiddle with them a bit, like most of the FF themes. I think I'd prefer/expect the latter, just so TWEWY doesn't get special treatment over FF. Also, I think that, for the most part, the lyrics should be taken out of the TWEWY tracks. Just to make it more KH-ish.

Also, frequency of TWEWY tunes. I wouldn't say TWEWY will completely replace the soundtrack for Traverse Town, but I'd wager that some TWEWY tracks will play when new characters are revealed, maybe for the boss battles against reapers (which I sincerely hope there will be), possibly for important cutscenes... I dunno. But I hope there's more besides Twister.

Next up, we see Sora kicking some general ass in the same area as that last gameplay footage thing from Famitsu at TGS. Sora rushes towards the lamp post, twirls around by the teeth of his Keyblade and jumps off in a flurry of circular awesome. Dream Drop Distance! Y u no in my 3DS already?!? *sigh* Anyway. Looking spectacular as always~ Nothing new to add, really, except that when Sora is flying around the pole he seems to create a vortex of magenta streaks that draws in enemies so you can kill them easier. Always fun.

We then see Sora unleashing an awesome sauce ability on an unsuspecting Nightmare (I think it's the same baby green dinosaur thing we saw before in those screenshots after TGS...)

I think it's a baby dinosaur... Sure hope so, at any rate. Baby dinosaurs are the shizz. Anyway, Sora's ability is all awesome, with him circling through the air all epicly and prettily. Still can't get over how gorgeous this game looks... Also, the shop in the background. Looks to me like a jewellery or bag shop of sorts, with displays and the like. Reminds me of the clothes/shoe/hat stores in the 2nd District of Traverse Town, so it's probably just an aesthetic thing. I loved all the store fronts in KHI, so hopefully they're making a return in the new districts of TT in DDD.

But also of slight note in the background of this scene is the pink zipline wire thing running down the steps behind Sora.

This is similar to the next scene, where Sora...

...is travelling down another zipline at great speed and ends up in...

...that Courtyard of Many Things place. Ashe doesn't tumble down the zipline and end up in that area with the shop, one can safely assume that there are multiple ziplines across the new Traverse Town. Me gusta. Certainly more fun than actually walking down the stairs like a mere pleb. Sora then twirls in the air and smacks down on the ground in a flurry of epic (even if he doesn't actually hit anything...)

In the next clip we see Sora reach for his crown pendant...

...to initiate a wondrous light show...

...to summon his Spirit cohorts to start...

...UNLEASHING HELL UPON HIS ENEMIES. Hell in the form of a Giant Wonder Meow, of course. I love how there's proper columns of fire erupting from the ground as Wonder Meow wreaks his destruction. Somewhat interesting to note; this Dual Link has completely depleted Kuma Panda's pink gauge, whereas Wonder Meow's is still rather plentiful. It drops pretty rapidly, but it seems to replenish a bit each time you hit a Nightmare. Handy.

Something I also wanted to mention is the green building to the side. Just take a gander at it from the above screenshots and this one...

Red, green and white as the pre-dominant colours; what appears to be fairy lights and candy canes; a general holiday vibe... Why is there a Building of All Things Christmas in Traverse Town?! Definitely curious... Now, it's not confirmed that this place has anything to do with Christmas, but all signs seem to point to yes. There's a definite Christmas feeling about it... Huh. What could it be for? The only other mention of Christmas in KH was Christmas Town in Hallowe'en Town in KHII. But I doubt that it's anything related to that. Maybe a Christmas-themed world just fell to darkness and ended up stuck onto Traverse Town, like so many other worlds do? *scratches head* This one's a conundrum, for sure...

Last thing I wanted to say; the battle theme for TT seems to be a revamped version of Hand in Hand. Seems darker and less adventure-y. I still like it, mind.

Last bit of footage involves Wonder Meow falling down the stairs of the 1st District and just being overall adorable while the lovely reprise of Dearly Beloved from KHI plays in the background. Aw.

And...that's it, folks. Hurrah.

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Phew. Told ya it was a lot of news, all things considered. Nomura did say back in July in the Famitsu interview that...

...from this summer to next spring, we’ll continue releasing information and sales dates for KH...

...so hopefully the healthy batch of news this month means that he's sticking to his word. Maybe at least one big-ish piece of news each month 'til release? Just something to make the wait all the more bearable... As long as it doesn't completely spoil DDD and its mysterious plot. I hate when trailers and junk do that...

tl;dr: DDD came no.22 on Famitsu's readers' 'most anticipated games thing' list. KH tunes shall be present at a Squeenix orchestra in January. Richard Epcar has HINTED at a POSSIBLE new version of Xehanort. MAYBE. We gots some new footage of Sora gameplay from Nintendo's recent conference, which is always fun. Looking as stunning as ever~ Wonder Cat is fairly damn adorable, it has to be said...

Yeah. Ugh, I'm tired. Stupid school, making me exert energy...

Laters.