I used to be waaaaay more cold on this game quite honestly.

I played it all the way back on the 3DS and could not finish it cause it caused really bad hand cramps for me (do your wrist stretches everybody) to the point where I could play it in fairly small bursts until I eventually gave up because I just wasn't enjoying myself all that much with it.

So I waited for a remaster or cutscene compilation given the remasters steadily coming out at the time, plus 0.2 cause like hot DAMN that shit is fire I cannot wait to write about that one.

So eventually I picked up the 2.8 collection but didn't really finally get around to it until KH3 was almost out which in hindsight was kind of a stupid decision. I was rushing the first real playthrough of this game so that I'd be ready and prepped for 3. I feel like I wasn't quite the most charitable to this game in my excitement and overall more direct want of 3 which sucks but sometimes ya get caught up in the moment ya know!

Something about this game didn't really click into place for me at the time, everything with Sora annoyed me initially, I had at the time felt like the game meandered a bit too much, I didn't really love the worlds, the one thing I DID majorly love was the ending mainly because of how much it goes about setting up for 3.

So going into this I had my worries and concerns about it given the last time though I was still open to trying to really give it that second look and I'm really glad I did especially after playing 3+ReMind.

Dream Drop Distance is such an improvement over Birth By Sleep from a gameplay standpoint that it's kinda fuckin wild that this is seemingly from the same team. They clearly learned a loooot of really good lessons from developing that game and its systems. The movement and feel of the game feels a lot faster and looser, the addition of flowmotion as a system has ya bouncing and zooming around levels like nobodies business, the way it flows into the combat and meshes with how you tangibly interact with the game even brings back a tiny bit of that 1 style exploration and curiosity of its landscapes in my eyes though not to the full degree it could. Honestly I think 3 does that better but again still not to the 3D platformer experimental way that 1 specifically did it.

Dream Eaters are such a good choice for both allies and enemies here. They cute, they hunger, they attack, they heal, they defend. They're really cool and I like them! I like that you can name them whatever ya want and really make them your own. KhimarisSon was a real one and got me through many a battle by the end.

The level scaling this time works pretty well as the game goes on, at no point did I ever feel like I was behind after finishing a location, I felt like the game gave me more than enough in each world to do in terms of battles that by the end I felt properly leveled and ready for whatever was going to pop up next.

The real only gameplay downsides are that some bosses still have the Birth By Sleep problem of just not being able to get hitstunned or any kind of real major knockback at points, making you essentially wait for your turn to do anything before waiting 5 minutes for your next swing which is a bit lame! I know this problem is fixed in 3 at least but it was still pretty annoying to deal with and I feel like this problem more-so only majorly popped up near the end but it was absolutely still there in a way that annoyed.

As for the narrative, I dig the dual split drop in style of the entire thing. This dual perspective seemingly parallel world perspective of both Sora and Riku's adventure. I remember the first time I played through this I was confused on how exactly the world split stuff works even though the game quite literally tells you multiple times so that was on me!

I also used to think that they made Sora WAY too dumb in this game for his own good and to at least be fair to that, he still kinda is for like the first half of the game. I feel like while Sora has always been a real one who takes to other people really easily, there are multiple times here where he almost feels like a parody of himself at points. Maybe that's supposed to play into something of the dream logic kinda weird vibes going on but idk it felt too off in a way that felt wrong at points. Tron onwards though I feel like that problem goes away for the most part at least which I was thankful for.

Sora is dealing with an insecurity about his connections with others that has been deep in there but hasn't really been dug out until now. This tends to be reflected within all the worlds in some capacity ESPECIALLY TRON but especially given that most of the worlds are about some kind of outcast trying their best to connect with others in some kinda way, trying to get some kinda recognition or some kind of value. The pain that others in his life are facing and how much he wants to help them from having to feel any of that pain or despair. It's real good!

Riku's story is a continuation of his arc from the other games, his insecurities around falling to the darkness and the fear it inspires, his want to keep distance out of fear but others not letting him, him learning to rely on others and especially the one he looks up to the most, him choosing to fight on despite the deepest despair he could possibly fall into, seeing others fall prey to similar situations that ailed him and going out of his way to stop them from going through the same. This game has him really look in a mirror again and really dig through a lot of what he's done and was manipulated to do again and really find that groove within himself.

There's a really good moment near the end that's a callback to 1's beginning questionnaire with him and I really think it's a perfect tail end to his entire story within this game and all the games that led up to this point. I think Riku's half of the story is the best part of the game and that while Sora's half is also very important, he's the real protagonist of this particular story with everything that it's doing by the end especially.

If I had any major story complaint, it's that some of the world's (MAINLY TRON) sometimes don't give Riku much of anything which is a bit strange. Tron especially feeling like Riku's section gives more to the movie while Riku kinda hangs around which is a bummer and a bit of a problem with 1 or 2 worlds in 3's case.

Also I just wanna say, the end of this game is absolutely fuckin BONKERS dude, like you've probably seen some shit floating around from it at this point, the reveals, the setup for 3, mickey mouse getting slammed against a pillar like a DBZ fight, it's all here.

Things setup all the way in the first game are reintegrated in order to be paid off or used in a completely new way, characters reveal themselves, new mysteries are setup, seeds are planted, it's so fuckin cool, I genuinely think the end of this game narratively is up there with KH2's in just how much it throws at you and how much it pays off by the end. It's fuckin rad as hell.

Also we wanna talk banger fuckin music. Holy F U C K they brought it hard yet again. That fuckin violin man. An absolute treat of the senses from beginning to end, I really gotta make an OST ranking list for this series on here at some point. 2, 3, DDD and BBS are all a bit tied though so I dunno lol.

This is my constant reminder that I finally need to play The World Ends With You sometime I love the cast here.