Tokyo Game Show 2011: Kingdom Hearts 3D updates

So Tokyo Game Show is happening this weekend, and new information concerning the upcoming 3DS game, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, has come to light: New character designs for Sora and Riku, new party members in place of Donald and Goofy, and confirmation of a cameo by Neku Sakuraba, the protagonist of Tetsuya Nomura/Square Enix's The World Ends With You!

Sora's and Riku's new designs:

Screenshot showing Neku and Sora in Traverse Town (though I think it would be way cooler if Sora went to Shibuya):

Here is a poster showing Sora and Riku sporting their new outfits and joined by the "enigmatic new party members", which are "pets" called Wandanyan and Koumori Bat:

And a picture to sum it all up, taken from kh13.com:

For anyone who doesn't already know, KH3D is about Sora and Riku taking the Mark of Mastery exam to become keyblade masters, as Aqua and Terra did in Birth By Sleep (although Aqua was the only one to pass the exam and become a master). Why isn't Kairi taking the exam? She showed in KHII that she can fight with a [rather girly] keyblade; give her a chance! In any case, the exam is conducted in a dream world, or a "world buried in sleep". There are new enemies called Dream Eaters which are described as "goblins that consume sleep" (go figure). Sora and Riku are both playable characters, but they will randomly rotate during the game; the player has no control over when you play as each character. The gameplay/storyline between Sora and Riku is similar (with super awesome new moves and actions, courtesy of the new "drop gauge", which can be executed with the Y button), but the bosses they face seem to relate directly to each character, as can be seen in the trailer from earlier this year (high quality here, subtitled version here). There are supposed to be all brand-new worlds (though Traverse Town is making a comeback), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been confirmed as one of them. The themes of the game are trust and friendship, and Nomura says that the game is supposed to "tear down past elements" and that we should "expect the unexpected", so get ready for some big changes.
 
As I'm sure all the other fans are, I am ecstatic for this game to come out. This is the game for which I will buy a 3DS, and it looks like it's going to be worth every penny. The Wikipedia page has been updated, referencing interviews with and comments from Tetsuya Nomura, who says that the game's development is almost halfway complete, and they will begin voice recording soon. Coverage of TGS has revealed that the game is set for release in Japan "sometime between February and May" 2012, so here in the US we may be lucky enough to get it by next fall; winter holiday season at the latest. Nomura has also confirmed a secret ending for the game, which he says will be "shocking". Whether that's good or bad, we'll just have to wait and see. There are gameplay demo videos here, and tons more information from the people at TGS should be coming all week.

Nomura has also discussed an HD remake of Kingdom Hearts 1 to celebrate KH's 10th anniversary and to draw more people to the series. Fully animated cutscenes? I'm game for that! It looks like we can look forward to seeing great things from the Kingdom Hearts franchise in the next couple of years.

Back from the Dead: Miyazaki again

I haven't posted in several months, so I thought, why not write about something before I get too fed up with trying to type with my broken c and f keys? (Long story, lots of copy/paste.)


In my first post I voiced my disappointment with Hayao/Goro Miyazaki's latest movies, but now I'm starting to hope that their upcoming works will be better.  I recently heard that the 2010 film, Kari-gurashi no Arietti ("The Secret World of Arretty) is due for release in the US this coming February (2012) under the name Arrietty. The plot is based off of Mary Norton's The Borrowers, in which little people (and by "little" I mean tiny, almost mouse-sized, not "vertically challenged") live in humans' houses and "borrow" food and items from around the house, small things that won't be missed but would be useful to the little people, and strive to keep their existence secret from the larger inhabitants of the houses. I never read the book or its sequels, so I don't know much about the plot. In the movie, the main character, Arrietty (who would've guessed?), one of the Borrower children, befriends Sho, the human boy of their house, and she eventually has to prove the existence of the Borrowers, which goes against their code of living in secret.

The movie has been highly praised and acclaimed in Japan for its animation and music (but when are those aspects ever lacking in a Miyazaki film?), and was the highest grossing 2010 movie, according to Wikipedia.  Hayao Miyazaki supervised a new director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and as Arrietty was so much better received in Japan than was Tales from Earthsea (which apparently earned Goro Miyazaki the "Worst Director/Worst film" awards), I'm somewhat confident that this will be an enjoyable, well-done movie. Here's the trailer; the only problem I have is that the boy, Sho, looks like a cross between Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke and Howl from Howl's Moving Castle; I wish they could come up with more original character designs.

Currently, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are working on a new movie, something about a "Poppy Hill", but since it hasn't even been released in Japan yet, I'll wait to talk about it until a Western release is in the works. On another note, it seems that everyone else whose opinions matter loved Ponyo, making me wonder if I'm the only one who thought that the idea of two (one and a half?) 5-year-old children being made to promise to love each other forever is ridiculous. I might be able to say that they mean platonic, innocent friendship love, if not for the kiss at the end. Well, I stand by my opinion on Ponyo, that it has nice animation but a weak plot, no matter what the critics say. I have to say it's probably not worse than Earthsea, but it's got to be at the bottom of films that Hayao has directed.