Kingdom Hearts was a very popular game in my High School years. Most all my friends loved it to death, and went on and on about how awesome it was. A friend of mine let me borrow his PlayStation 2 (I was more a Nintendo kid growing up, so I didn't own other systems besides a Gameboy Advanced SP and Gamecube) and let me borrow his copies the first and second Kingdom Hearts.
After I finished (and returned the games and the system), I could not get enough of the franchise. The later games didn't interest me much, though, so I decided to skip them.
A couple years later, the 3DS came out, and being the Nintendo child I was, I couldn't help but to buy the system. After I bought the system and beat a couple of games, Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance was coming out.
I was out of luck! The only GameStop that was available to me was completely sold out the game, and didn't plan on getting any copies (any time soon). Bummed out, I decided to ask my friends from High School to see if anyone had it, and if they did, they would be nice enough to let me borrow it. Once again my luck ran low, and nobody had it. Since I was out of luck, I decided to check eBay, but thought about all those stories on "haunted games" and crap like that.
"Just wait and see what the future had to hold." I told myself.
A couple weeks went by and I went to see if GameStop had KH:DDD. To my surprise they STILL didn't have a copy. I though that was complete BS, but I wasn't about to mess with a clerk's day by yelling at him about a video game. Disappointed, I walked home. On my way back home, I saw across a 3DS cartridge with no label in the middle of the street..
"WOW" I thought to myself. I looked both ways of the street, so when I crossed, I wouldn't get ran over. I picked the cartridge up.
"Couldn't get the game I wanted, I guess I'll play you."
I stuffed the cartridge in my pocket and walked home.
Once I had gotten home, I sat on my couch. I put the cartridge into my 3DS and my jaw dropped and a giant smile came across my face.
"Holy crap! This is too good to be true!"
Then I thought about it for a little bit.
"Why would this of all games be on the middle of the STREET? Why was this not in GameStop? Maybe I shouldn't play this. I mean like those stories on the internet about someone dying over some game."
"It's just a game, right? what could it possibly do to me?"
Sadly, as human beings, we tend to get curious.
I inserted the game into my 3DS. Not aware of what could happen next, I decided to press play. The 3DS opening came up, and a cutscene of Mickey doing Fantasia magic and the Disney sign came up. I decided to skip the cutscene and go on my marry way. The start menu came up with a sleeping Sora flying down with a worried Mickey trying to grab his had. Riku wasn't even there.
"That's funny, I thought Riku was in this?" I decided to ignore that. I decided to press play and start on Normal Mode.
When the game started, I felt a little light headed. This I didn't understand. I put the game down and checked to see if the 3D bar was on. It was only a little, but not enough to give me a headache like I was playing 3D full blast for and hour. I told myself to just set the 3D bar off. Doing so, I noticed the headache go away.
"What the... whatever. Could just be me" and I started to play.
The game stared with me as Sora in a tutorial and a simple fight with Ursula. Once i defeated her I had to "Dive", whatever that was. I noticed some things that set me off a little. Like when I ran into something Sora looked as if he were in a lot of pain, like you would in real life.
I told myself I guess it's supposed to be realistic and their making this a step. Personally, I thought it was really messed up. Once I had gotten through the dive, My head begin pounding really hard.
"F***" I whispered to myself.
The hell was happening to me? I found this no mere coincidence. After getting over the headache, I found I was in Travers Town. I took a tutorial about some kind of free running activity, which was pretty fun. After the tutorial, Sora was standing up eyes closed. He then woke surprised he was in Travers Town.
"NO!" He yelled. No? why no? what's going on?
"I gotta get out of here! Right NOW!" the camera zoomed to Sora's face, ending the cutsence. Once again, I found this a little... dumb.
Why would Square Enix make a happy go lucky character into suck a baby? Why was he freaking out like that? If I knew anything over KH 1, nothing bad had happened to him in Traverse Town. Maybe it there was something in the games I skipped? Curious as hell I continued my adventure.
I was getting a bit tired, so I found a checkpoint and saved, then headed to bed. I got ready and raced to bed like you would when your a little kid afraid of monsters. Obviously I wasn't really scared of monsters, but the racing to bed part stuck to me. I guess some habits stick well, huh? Well, as I feel asleep I dreamed I was in Travers Town. No control of my body what-so-ever, I raced along Sora. My body turned and say what was chasing us. It was this big Dog type thing. It was missing an eye, and had a spine chilling grin on it. This made me a bit scared, I mean, who wouldn't be? As we ran from this hell-beast in what felt like a never ending hall, Sora had tripped.
My body turned and I saw the hell beast flip Sora into the air. Sora reached for me, but i couldn't really stop running. Horror filled everything in me as I heard Sora yell bloody murder. Tears reached my eyes, as I knew it was me next. I woke up with the biggest headache ever. I was trembling from what had happened.
"This can't wait" I told myself.
"I need to know"
I got out of bed. It was around 3:30 and turned my 3DS on and opened my save file. I had skipped over a tutorial, as I felt it wasn't needed. I needed to battle these things called "Dreamed Eaters".
I eyes had opened wide as these "Dream Eaters" were visually horrifying. This bat (If I can even call it that) had one wing ripped open and were soaked red.
"This has to be fake." I thought to myself.
"This is a KIDS game for crying out loud! Square Enix wouldn't allow this!"
Another Dream Eater was a panda looking animal, who from even the slightest look could make you pass out ( just let your imagination take over, for I really do NOT want to describe this demon).
When Sora took damage, he made the face like he did when I was "Diving" and ran into something. Instead of hearts coming out like they did in KH1 and 2, they simply vanished.
"Wait... Nobodies didn't release hearts, only heartless." I remembered in a trailer explaining something about the Dream Eaters were only after dreams, so I by passed that.
The game then forced me into the pause screen and made me make my own Dream Eater. The game gave me materials and I made a Dream Eater. I froze in shock. My mind couldn't grasp the horror when I say what the Dream Eater was.
"Tha...That...THAT'S THAT THING FROM MY D*** DREAM! Why is this THING in HERE?" It was then when I understood what Sora was scared about.
A programmer must have messed the whole game, causing Sora to say something he wouldn't. His character wasn't like what he said at all. Someone unlucky must have gone through the same thing as I was. Maybe he/she cracked under what had happened and got rid of the game. Maybe if they did a better job, this wouldn't have happened to me.
My brain came back from its deep thinking to find the Monster staring at me, still on the screen. I ejected the cartridge from my 3DS and turned the system off. I clenched the cartridge tight in my hand. I looked at the time. "5:00? How the hell" I put on my dress clothes and I was personally gonna get rid of it for GOOD. I walked out of my house locked the door and went out to an area where no one was around so I could smash this cursed thing.
The only place I knew was abandoned was a parking lot, so I took a half an hour walk to pay that place a visit. Once I was there, I dropped the game to the floor. "Nobody deserves that kind of hellish nightmare. Not even a video game character"
I smashed the game. overjoyed, I kept stomping on it repeatably with a satisfied look of approval when I found the "game" into what seemed like hundred pieces. I then walked home. When I unlocked the door, this instant migraine that was x10 times worse than the first. My head hurt to much to try to open the door, and I was panicking. I had no idea why, but I was scared of something.
I woke up in a hospital bed. I asked what had happened and why am I here?
"Your neighbor say you pass out and called 911. Your not mentally fit right now, so I'll give you some pills so you'll get back on track." He said. Something in his voice made me think he was hiding something.