Some of you might remember my last Strange Talk video about Kingdom Hearts 3D in which I talked about how I don’t hate it anymore. Honestly though, for me the game has just been gaining more and more speed, and now, only a few days from release, I can’t freaking wait to play it.

A large part of the reason why comes from me playing the demo on the 3DS eShop. Before then, yeah, I thought the game looked good, but I didn’t know how it would play yet. Wow that changed. The Kingdom Hearts 3D demo was very well-made in that it really shows you all the key parts of the gameplay, and it completely sold me on this game; I’m going to have a blast playing this.

One of my favorite additions is the Flowmotion, where you can ricochet off walls and surf on rails. This makes traveling through areas a breeze, and actually entertaining, but it has a much more significant impact on the combat.

You can use Flowmotion to attack enemies, and the beauty of this, as odd as it may sound, is the fact that it isn’t very powerful. It’s not another super attack you can use to wipe out crowds of foes without even trying, like the majority of the special abilities in Kingdom Hearts II (Drives, Summons, and Limit Breaks). In Kingdom Hearts 3D they’re effective, but not really any more so than your standard Keyblade attacks. What this means for the game is that they function as simple add-ons to your standard arsenal, which is something the series has drastically needed since game one.

There’s also the fact that Flowmotion has some similarity to the Reaction Commands from Kingdom Hearts II, but without them feeling like cutscenes; you have total control over these, and they provide a nice sense of platforming at all times, bringing two different aspects that can only be found in two of the games — platforming from Kingdom Hearts and Reaction Commands from Kingdom Hearts II — together into one tight game mechanic.

(Honestly, don’t be surprised to hear a lot of what I just wrote about Flowmotion in my eventual review of the game; I think I just summed it up pretty eloquently if I do say so myself.)

Also, for no particular reason, my growing affinity for the Dream Eater friends and foes has only accelerated upon playing the demo. On the ally side of things, that makes sense; I was able to actually fight alongside them in the demo, growing fonder of my little creature buddies and using their (often hilarious) D-Link attacks.

But even as foes, or just from the creature design perspective, I’m really starting to love these little buggers. They’re notably sillier than previous Kingdom Hearts enemies, and they have a different style… but honestly that’s not unusual for the series. The Heartless could be cute at times too, and even before the terrible Unversed came into the picture, the Heartless and Nobodies differed greatly from each other in design style. By now, I’m digging the ridiculous, dreamlike, ultra-colorful and stylized Dream Eaters.

Beyond playing the demo though, there’s two other reasons why my opinion about the game has been improving more and more: Reading more about the worlds and events of the game, and hearing the soundtrack.

I’ve been reading a lot about the game on Kingdom Hearts Wiki (props to them for the images and site background, by the way), and I must say I’m digging it. Chernabog is back? Rinzler boss fight? Pinocchio world? Tons of amazing Dream Eater designs? More of Organization XIII in a plot-important role? Yes please!

And then the soundtrack. Wow. This may actually be my favorite soundtrack of the series now. I can’t make any final calls on that yet, but it’s really looking that way. It has my favorite version of the well-known title theme, Dearly Beloved, but there’s other great new songs, like Majestic Wings, Access the Grid, and the badass remix of Twister. But you’ve probably already figured out that I love those songs, since they’re on the current site playlist.

And then, as a final reason why I can’t wait for Kingdom Hearts 3D… Well, honestly I was playing Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories recently, and I realized something: I like Riku way better as a protagonist than I like Sora. He was a whiny, annoying brat in the first Kingdom Hearts, but since then he’s become a great character and he’s way cooler to me than Sora is. So I really can’t wait for his first chance in a major starring role in Kingdom Hearts 3D, and I imagine I’ll like him more than Sora in the game.

I’ve been trying to hurry and beat my second playthrough of Kingdom Hearts II before Kingdom Hearts 3D comes out but… no idea if I’ll make it. But one way or another, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance is the most exciting thing to happen to the series for me in a while, even if the name still sounds stupid. I’m greatly anticipating it, and the closer it’s gotten to release, the harder it’s been to wait. Let’s hope the game is as good as I expect it will be!