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Weekly Famitsu #1217

This week Kingdom Hearts is featured on Famitsu’s cover, in celebration of the release of the series’ latest entry, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Destiny, and the 10-year anniversary of the Kingdom Hearts series itself.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (you see what they did there with the three d’s…) is an entirely new game, with an all new story! Sora and Riku are both playable characters this time around, although not at the same time. You see, thanks to the game’s aptly named ‘drop’ system, Sora and Riku tag-in and out; the character you play as is based off a ‘drop gauge’ counting down, which forces you to change to the other character when it hits zero. This can lead to some incredibly annoying boss fights, since if your ‘drop’ gauge runs out during that time, you don’t just switch to the other character like normal: you have to start the whole boss fight over again. Fun times!

In addition to the normal Heartless, there are all new creatures called Dream Eaters. Well…. actually, the enemies are really called Nightmares, as Dream Eaters come in two varieties. The other kind, Spirits, are good, and accompany Sora and Riku on their adventure in lieu of longtime series companions Donald & Goofy. The Spirit Dream Eaters are kinda cute and have a definite “Pokemon” feel to them, which Square Enix seems to be aware of, so the game also has AR cards available that will allow you to play and interact with them.

Like all Kingdom Hearts games, Dream Drop Distance sports new worlds and characters from both the Disney & Square universes. Neku from the World Ends With You joins the Kingdom Hearts’ universe, along with Quasimodo and his friends from Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. The Tron world has also been updated to reflect the one seen in Tron: Legacy. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance was released on March 29th here in Japan, and is scheduled for release this July in the US.

While the release of Kingdom Hearts 3D is to officially celebrate the series’ 10th year anniversary, it’s not the only thing SquareEnix did to mark the occasion: they threw a shindig in a swanky shopping mall! The event, held on March 3rd, included a life-size statue of Sora, Donald, Mickey and Goofy on display; a visit from the Executive Producer of the Kingdom Hearts series; and a special movie presentation of various trailers and new cinemas from Dream Drop Distance for shoppers to enjoy, projected onto the side of a fake church, no less! People who bought special tickets to the event were allowed to sit up at the very front and hold a life-sized keyblade, as well.

While that’s all very exciting, we can’t be the only ones who have gotten a little… confused, as to where the storyline of the series has gone off to. With only two actually numbered titles (the rest being spin-offs, back-stories, re-tellings, and god knows what else), somewhere along the way the story lost us. Actually, we know we can’t be the only ones feeling this way, as Famitsu has included a helpful timeline (officially approved by SquareEnix!) to help other lost souls on their way. The games go chronologically story-wise like this:

• Birth by Sleep (PSP)
• Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
• Chain of Memories (GBA/PS2)
• 358/2 Days (DS)
• Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)
• RE: Coded (DS)
• Dream Drop Distance (3DS)

Hopefully this helps clear things up for some people. Now SquareEnix just needs to make Kingdom Hearts 3 sometime soon, hopefully before the series’ 20th anniversary rolls around.

Hardware Sales: Week of 3/12-3/18

• 3DS - 63,746 units
• PS3 - 28,527 units
• PSP - 17,721 units
• Vita - 11,171 units
• Wii - 7,218 units
• 360 - 864 units
• DS - 655 units
• PS2 - 563 units

Top 5 Selling Games: Week of 3/12-3/18

• Pokemon Conquest (3DS) - 177,928 units
• Shining Blade (PSP) - 118,763 units
• Magic Girl Madoka (PSP) - 72,526 units
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors (PS3) - 35,669 units
• Tokimeki Memorial: Girls Side Story Premium 3rd - 26,705 units

So we are a little late with this week’s installment, and we’re sorry about that. Since we are on the subject of “sorry”, we also weren’t able to pick-up a copy of issue 1218 (some jerk bought the last copy right before we got to the bookstore), so next week we will be skipping ahead one issue to 1219…sorry. As always, thanks for reading “This Week in Famitsu”. See you next week!

Original Article

khiseta:

khiseta:

Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has been out for almost a week now, so now is the time for post-release news!

Thanks to bKvEBVAvUq on Twitter, we have learned that the April 19th issue of Famitsu releasing April 5th will continue celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Kingdom Hearts series, featuring more gameplay information on Kingdom Hearts 3D and interviews with key members of the series development team, as well as the second half of the history of the series!

The April 19th issue will be selling at a special price of ¥350 (roughly $4.26 USD)!

Come discuss this news on the forums!

(Source: stormdiver)

khisign:

Good evening, everyone! Well, we don’t have the high quality scans for you yet if that’s what you’ve been waiting for, but what we do have is some new information regarding the April 5th issue of Famitsu weekly, releasing next Thursday on March 22nd! FamiWeb has updated with info regarding the issue: in terms of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, they will include the background of the story, as well as more details about characters, gameplay, and overall story content! And of course we can’t forget about Director Nomura’s interviewas well!

Asides from Kingdom Hearts, the issue will also feature Monster Hunter 3G and Kid Icarus Uprising!

Come and chat with us about the upcoming issue here in our forums!

khiethy:

Thanks to Alternator, we have a bit of new info on Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]from Tetsuya Nomura in the 3/15 issue of Famitsu!

• Kingdom Hearts 3D will be 35 hours; longer, of course, if you do all of the minigames and Dream Eater training
• Fighting style can be completey different depending on what Dream Eaters you use.
• The first package design for Kingdom Hearts 3D featured King Mickey mainly, with Riku and Sora as side parts. Nomura didn’t feel like it fit the title, so he redesigned the cover to what it is now.
• Buying the game comes with one Augmented Reality (AR) card for one rare Dream Eater, but you’ll be able to get the recipe for them in the game via StreetPass, but remember it will be rare to do so.
• The mysterious figure in the black coat isn’t necessarily new, but they are important to the story.
• About the key phrase, “Those who are asleep in sadness”: Sora and Riku are preparing to rescue them.
• At first they planned to have Sora go to original Tron world, and Riku go to Tron Legacy world.
• Other than Ansem and Xemnas who appear often, Lea and the mysterious silver haired boy are key characters.
• In the end we’ll finally see Xemnas/Ansem’s true form.
• Donald and Goofy couldn’t be team mates this time because they are not Keyblade wielders. Thus the Dream Eaters were developed to serve as party members.
• The growth system of the Dream Eaters is connected to Sora and Riku’s growth.
• Dream Eater’s growth is like a breeding system, treating them well makes them grow better.
• The command system is different than BBS, it’s more of a mix between Days and Re:coded’s systems.
• King Wondernyan isn’t an evolution of a Wondernyan, they are separate Dream Eaters.
• The main mini game you play with then is called Flick Crash, which combines speed and action aspects.
• You can name your Dream Eaters.
• There are 50 kinds of Dream Eaters you can partner with, however boss Dream Eaters are not included.
• The next issue of Famitsu will have more Nomura interview as well!

Translations thanks to SQEXGAL!

Come drop by the forums to discuss this latest news!

(Source: khinsider.com)

khilancelot:

That’s right!

Thanks to the lovely SQEX Gal, we now have translations of the recently leaked Famitsu scans seen earlier this evening! Be warned, some information may be of a spoiling nature, so please read at your own disclosure by clicking this link!

A vital part of information…