This is probably the game in the series I've put the most hours into. I put 150+ hours on the 3ds and around 100 hours on Ps4 and Xbox combined. On 3ds, I grinded both Sora & Riku to level 99 just for the hell of it when I first beat this game.
Compared to Birth by Sleep, this game is not perfect, but an improvement in most aspects. The worlds do look a bit better compared to it and it has my favorite world in the entire series, Symphony of Sorcery. It's a beautiful world and the music choices for it also elevate its enjoyment to me. The combat is more fun in this game too. Flowmotion is an absolute blast to use and the different minigames you can use against enemies are a cool way of using the stylus but also was able to carried over in the console versions without it being clunky. While it is somewhat better balanced than Birth by Sleep, its still pretty broken since Balloon exists and you can endlessly spam flowmotion. Despite this, if you want to be able to beat Julius or some of the harder story bosses without cheese, it is still entirely doable compared to Mysterious Figure who is far more difficult without cheese.
The story in this game is where it jumps the shark for the series' whole story. The time travel aspect is a cool way to bring back past villains, but its where it starts to make things confusing for people who would be interested in the series.
Another huge aspect of the game I really enjoyed were the dream eaters. Unlocking everything on a spirit board was kind of annoying but overall a minor complaint since your dream eaters are useful companions and petting and playing with your dream eaters is also super fun too. Flick Rush is a solid minigame too that I found to be pretty enjoyable. Naming dream eaters was another aspect that is simple but goes a long way in customizing them. Speaking of that, I named my Tyranto Rex on my Xbox playthrough Sexy Rexy. Out of my entire time of playing through Dream Drop Distance, he was the only one I was sadly not able to save because he died just moments before I got the last achievement on there. Can we get an F in the comments for Sexy Rexy?
Out of all the handheld Kingdom Hearts games, I'd say that this one is my favorite despite its flaws. It's no console Kingdom Hearts but it's a step-up from Birth by Sleep.
Compared to Birth by Sleep, this game is not perfect, but an improvement in most aspects. The worlds do look a bit better compared to it and it has my favorite world in the entire series, Symphony of Sorcery. It's a beautiful world and the music choices for it also elevate its enjoyment to me. The combat is more fun in this game too. Flowmotion is an absolute blast to use and the different minigames you can use against enemies are a cool way of using the stylus but also was able to carried over in the console versions without it being clunky. While it is somewhat better balanced than Birth by Sleep, its still pretty broken since Balloon exists and you can endlessly spam flowmotion. Despite this, if you want to be able to beat Julius or some of the harder story bosses without cheese, it is still entirely doable compared to Mysterious Figure who is far more difficult without cheese.
The story in this game is where it jumps the shark for the series' whole story. The time travel aspect is a cool way to bring back past villains, but its where it starts to make things confusing for people who would be interested in the series.
Another huge aspect of the game I really enjoyed were the dream eaters. Unlocking everything on a spirit board was kind of annoying but overall a minor complaint since your dream eaters are useful companions and petting and playing with your dream eaters is also super fun too. Flick Rush is a solid minigame too that I found to be pretty enjoyable. Naming dream eaters was another aspect that is simple but goes a long way in customizing them. Speaking of that, I named my Tyranto Rex on my Xbox playthrough Sexy Rexy. Out of my entire time of playing through Dream Drop Distance, he was the only one I was sadly not able to save because he died just moments before I got the last achievement on there. Can we get an F in the comments for Sexy Rexy?
Out of all the handheld Kingdom Hearts games, I'd say that this one is my favorite despite its flaws. It's no console Kingdom Hearts but it's a step-up from Birth by Sleep.