Kirby: Lucid Dreamer | |
Developer(s) | |
Publisher(s) | |
Platform(s) | Wii U |
Genre(s) | Platformer |
Series | Kirby |
Predecessor | Kirby: Planet Robobot |
Release Date(s) | April 27th, 2017 (worldwide) |
Mode(s) | Main Adventure, Online Adventure, Minigame Mania, Waddle Dee Odyssey, The Arena, The True Arena, Puffball Party, Kirby Quest: 25 Trials |
Age Rating(s) |
Kirby: Lucid Dreamer is an upcoming 2017 Kirby series platforming game being released on the Wii U by HAL Laboratory in collaboration with Fuzzy Feeling Productions. The game is a celebratory game, being released in timing for Kirby's 25th anniversary, and as such boasts a worldwide release of April 27th, 2017.
The game follows Kirby, alongside King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandanna Dee, as the four meet a warrior from an alternate universe, who enlists the help of the four to travel across the realm to recollect eight artifacts that can be used to reopen the gate to a castle and overthrow a maniacal monarch.
The game is much more similar to Kirby's Return to Dream Land in which it follows similar gameplay to the Wii installment, rather than continuing the style from Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot. It brings back local multiplayer, allowing up to five different players to travel across levels together; Player 1 (Kirby) uses the GamePad by default, while the other four players—either the four other characters or a recolored Kirby—play with Wii Remotes, with a similar control scheme to Return to Dream Land.
The game is also compatible with all Kirby series Amiibo, even spawning a series of Amiibo based around the game.
Gameplay[]
Lucid Dreamer plays out like basically any mainstream Kirby title; player 1 (on the GamePad) controls Kirby, while up to four other players (using Wii Remotes) can play as either a differently colored version of Kirby, or any one of the four other characters: Dedede, Meta Knight, Waddle Dee, or Samien. Characters must defeat enemies and platform across a course in order to reach the end and clear it. Clearing all of the regular courses in a specific level—a series of courses based around a specific theme and difficulty—the boss course opens up. Defeating a boss will allow you to continue on through the game. The boss level, of course, only opens up when you have collected a specific number of Dreamstars, tiny blue shining objects that power the portals to the next level. The plane-swapping mechanic from the previous two main series titles have been scrapped from the game, making the game more like Kirby's Return to Dreamland.
In levels, the players can attack, jump, float for a small amount of time, slide, and perform other actions necessary to complete the course. As usual, those playing as Kirby have the power to inhale enemies, to either spit them out at other enemies or swallow them. Swallowing specific enemies grant abilities to Kirby, which give Kirby other attacks to use to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Kirby can also swallow Bubbles to put inside his Stomach: this stomach area is displayed on the GamePad screen, and tapping a bubble that's in the stomach activates it's use towards Kirby; whether it be bubbles containing abilities, healing items, extra lives, keys to doors, or even giant stars that Kirby can spit out at enemies, regardless of ability (or lack of ability).
Each character can fly for a limited time, which is a function brought back from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby: Mass Attack in the form of the Air Gauge. The Air Gauge regulates how much air is being used up by a character, whether it be underwater or during flight; underwater, the air gauge drains slowly, and can be replenished by absorbing bubbles underwater; murky water drains air twice as fast, so be warned. During flight, the air gauge drains just a tad bit faster than underwater, and, upon it running out, prevents the character flying until it's fully refilled. Air only replenishes during flight automatically/over time. Each character has a different rate of the air gauge's decreasing with Waddle Dee having the lowest Air Gauge, and Samien and King Dedede being able to fly the longest.
In courses, there are all types of treasures, outside of Dreamstars, that can be collected in-game; treasure chests are littered all over levels, and they contain different kinds of objects; Spray Paint to customize the colors of characters, music sheets to listen to music in-game, Figurines of characters in the series, scrolls containing a special move for each ability, or, if they've already been opened, healing items. There's also a type of currency in-game in the form of Stars, which Kirby can use to buy objects at the shop at the Dream Palace, the hub of the game (not unlike the Lor Starcutter).
Adventurer Dee Gameplay[]
In the game's "Extra Mode", known as Adventurer Dee, the player controls either Waddle Dee or Samien (or, in the case of more than one player, a recolored version of the former), in which the characters travel through all the same levels of the main game, except at a much higher difficulty. All mid-bosses and bosses now have the "Dream" title in their name (i.e.; Dream Whispy Woods), use new moves, and are overall much more difficult to defeat, all enemies have a small amount of health added to their regular HP, and invincible enemies do much more damage (similarly to Kirby's Dream Land. With that said, the objective remains the same; get to the goal.
A new mechanic in-game is the Weapon Swap: if you play as a Waddle Dee, you can push the set button that usually ejects an ability from Kirby to swap weapons; normally, Waddle Dee uses a spear in-game. However, as the game progresses and you find weapons throughout the levels (which replace the ability scrolls from the main game), Waddle Dee can use more and more weapons based around the pre-existing abilities, which can be swapped with that button. Alternatively, if you are the player using the GamePad, you can tap the weapon on the GamePad to use it.
Game Modes[]
Main Adventure[]
The main mode, where Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight, Waddle Dee, and new character Samien must journey across Dream Land to make it back to a distant universe to overthrow a maniacal dictator.
Online Adventure[]
Similar to the regular mode, except five players can choose a random level to play through from either the Main Adventurer or it's Adventurer Dee counterpart and try to complete it before your fellow players do.
Minigame Mania[]
In this mode, up to four players can play around with a few simple sub-games, competing to win the most points overall. There are four sub-games that you can play;
- Cloud Bounce: Each player gets a chance to bounce off a cloud and try and fly the highest distance by timing buttons correctly while in the air.
- Fishing Frenzy: Four players try to fish in a pond, attempting to throw their fishing rod in dark spots where fish are. Catching real fish, like Blippers, Squishies, Flotzos, and Eelongos will yield points, while catching Glunks, Sawgills, or Gordos will cause points to be lost.
- Gourmet Race: Four players must race through one of four courses, trying to make it to the end while eating food to speed you up. Food is scattered all over the course.
- Samurai Rush: Four players, dressed as ninjas, must get to the end of a pagoda-based stage by defeating other ninjas and even attacking each-other. First one to the end wins.
Labyrinth of the Mind[]
Unlocked after beating the Final Boss of the Main Adventure, the single-player game follows Samien, as he creates a machine to go into the still intact soul of Diculia to try and purify it, only to get trapped by the darkness infecting it. Samien must explore the depths of Diculia's soul to try and defeat the three dark entities plaguing it, in order to fully purify his father's soul to try and bring him back.
The gameplay is mostly similar to the Main Game, as Samien controls similarly to the main game; however, with the GamePad, Samien has access to several new abilities. Aside from the usual abilities of the revamped ESP abilities, Samien can now use Spells, which activate through the usage of PSI Points. PSI Points can be found by defeating enemies or bosses, in treasure chests, or as general collectibles in some of the sectors. These spells can be offensive, defensive, can heal Samien, or miscellaneous. Samien also cannot fly, meaning he has to get through some areas through some other method.
Sectors[]
Sector | Description |
Spells[]
- Direct Psych: Summons an arrow that points to the direction of either a treasure chest or a door to the next area, for only a second. Requires 3 PSI Points.
- Slip Psych: Causes all enemies to halt their movements for a brief moment, stopping any potential attack they may have been preparing. Requires 5 PSI Points.
- Support Psych: Summons a projection of either Starlight or Molotov to temporarily fight alongside Samien. The projection disappears upon entering another room, or completing the sector. Requires 5 PSI Points.
- Speed Psych: Triples the speed of Samien's movement and attack speed. Requires 10 PSI Points.
- Toxen Psych: Puts all on-screen enemies and bosses under a spell that causes them to undergo poison damage for 20 seconds. Require 20 PSI Points.
- Power Psych: Doubles the power of Samien's attacks. Requires 25 PSI Points.
- TimeStop Psych: Stops time temporarily, halting all obstacle and enemy movement for 15 seconds. Samien can still freely move and attack enemies during this moment. Requires 35 PSI Points.
- Psycho Shift: Summons a huge laser to blow vertically across the screen, hugely damaging all enemies onscreen. Requires 45 PSI Points.
Adventurer Dee[]
This sub-game, unlocked when you complete Labyrinth of the Mind, is the "Time Attack" or "Extra Mode" of the game. In this game, Samien, returning to Dream Land to investigate the source of the shadowy anomalies happening on Lucid Star, enlists Waddle Dee to travel across the land once more to follow the traveling shadows and eventually stop it from corrupting both worlds. The game follows Waddle Dee and Samien, replaying all of the levels in game while trying to reach the end of each level as fast as possible. Times can be posted on Miiverse.
The main change in level design between the Main Adventure and Adventurer Dee is that all enemies are bigger and stronger, and all mid-bosses and bosses now are far more powerful than in the main game, now having the "PSI" suffix in their names (i.e., Hacky Woods PSI). The game also features several new bosses that you can fight at the end, as opposed to the final boss in the regular game.
List of Special Weapons[]
The Arena[]
Unlocked after beating the Final Boss of the Main Adventure, The Arena allows up to five players to gear up and put them through a trial to defeat every single boss in the Main Game, with limited health items or a random copy ability available at random intervals between each boss. All of the mid-bosses are fought, too, as Mid-Boss All-Stars 1, 2, and 3. The bosses and mid-bosses are fought in a fixed order depending on the order the bosses are fought in the main game.
The True Arena[]
Unlocked after completing The Arena, Adventurer Dee, and Labyrinth of the Mind, this is a much harder version of The Arena; all of the bosses in Adventurer Dee are fought (in their PSI formes), as well as all four bosses in Labyrinth of the Mind, in a fixed order based on the order the bosses are fought in both modes. You may even fight some surprise "guest bosses" here!
Pop Star Battalions[]
This different kind of mode has Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Waddle Dee, and Samien all on a grid-based map, trying to fight other enemies on the map to complete the level. The gameplay is similar to that of the Fire Emblem series, where you can move each character separately across the map. If you interact with an enemy character on the map, it brings you to an attack menu, where you can use attacks to defeat the enemies. You can also find health items on the map to heal characters if they have low health. If a character reaches zero health, they can no longer fight on the map. Lose all five characters in a level and it's Game Over.
Each playable characters starts the game with 2 actions/attacks, and, as they level up by attacking enemies, they can learn new actions. The maximum level for a playable character is 20. One attack is learnt at Level 5, one at Level 10, and the last one at Level 20.
Movable Character Stats[]
Enemy Character Stats[]
Levels[]
Story Mode[]
It's another regular lazy day on Dream Land, and Kirby, planet Pop Star's hero, is taking the time to relax while something major isn't happening; eating, fishing, flying, and a nap to top it all off. While Kirby does what Kirby does best, King Dedede and Bandanna Waddle Dee are plotting something against Kirby, seemingly involving stealing his Warp Star. As all this happens, the Halberd flies above Pop Star, with Meta Knight examining a radar. Captain Vul, the pilot of the ship, questions Meta Knight's observation, to which the knight replies that he is observed odd anomalies happening on other planets, and he is checking to see what may happen to Pop Star in that case.
As he says this, a large purple wormhole opens over Pop Star, and dozens of small shining objects fall all over the planet, and small purple rays coming from it change the landscape of the planet. Most notably, however, is a large shotting star falls towards Dream Land. Meta Knight commands Vul to direct the Halberd towards Dream Land, in hopes to protect citizens, to which the pilot obliges.
Meanwhile, back in Dream Land, Kirby wakes up to the sound of falling stars, watching as the land around him changes drastically, with grass turning different colors, lush plant life becoming distorted and radioactive, and lakes of water become poisonous. Dedede and Bandanna, suddenly frightened by these changes, run to the exit to find Kirby, only to see their castle being distorted and spiraling into the air, spikes protruding from the walls and floors.
Kirby rushes outside of the castle, floats up to a window, and rescues the two just as the entire castle turns into what is basically a giant trap dungeon, and the three fall to the ground, as the sky becomes indigo, and the clouds spiral in the air. The Halberd lands, and Meta Knight runs into the three runaways, as he watches the giant comet land. The wormhole above Pop Star closes, though the changes remain.
A large explosion rings through the air, and the four heroes run to the site of the meteor, only to find the meteor wasn't a meteor at all, but a humanoid creature wearing a long black cap covering his eyes, and a red cape. The creature gets up shakily, witnessing the chaos an round him, only to turn around and see the other four gaping at him. He quickly jumps back, almost about to attack them, when Kirby walks up to him calmly and shakes his (seemingly floating) hand. Meta Knight notices the spiraling clouds start to storm, sending purple fiery lightning down on the planet, and he directs the others to come back to the Halberd with him, with Kirby taking the odd creature with him.
Meta Knight and the others reenter the Halberd, and Vul takes it off, sending it above Pop Star, just as the storm is seemingly ending, though the changes to the planet still remain. The creature, calming down, introduces himself as Samien, a sentry from another world known as Lucid Star. He explains that he attempted to stop the maniacal monarch of the realm, Diculia, who was corrupted by an unknown darkness, and, from his realm, was trying to corrupt all of Pop Star. He tried to stop him, but he failed, and, wounded, took several artifacts with him to escape to Pop Star. He lost the artifacts during the fall, however, which were crucial to stopping Pop Star's corruption AND returning to Lucid Star.
Discouraged, Samien sits down, unsure what to do. Kirby, however, agrees to help him, with the other three heroes reluctantly agreeing. Samien, touched by the kindness, accepts the offer, and tells Captain Vul the places the artifacts fell.
He shows the crew a psychic projection of a map of where he detected the artifacts fell, telling them about what they do. The artifacts are Spacial Stars, which are needed to break the barriers the guardians of the Dreamstones, which are needed to open up the portal to return to Lucid Star. They set course for the first area, Natural Neons.
After defeating Wonder Woods in Natural Neons, and Volcracko in Igneous Island, the Halberd sets course for the next area, Great Gauntlet, and the Halberd approaches the gargantuan tower, only for the tower to rotate and fire a thin red laser at the Halberd, damaging it and causing it to crash far off from the tower. Luckily, all of the people on the ship are okay, but the Halberd is damaged, so they are unable to fly straight to the top of the tower. Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight, Waddle Dee, and Samien travel by foot to the Gauntlet, while the others stay behind to repair the Halberd.
Upon reaching the heart of the gauntlet, the top of the tower, they meet and creature similar to Samien, named Ace; however, Ace is seemingly corrupted by an unknown dark aura. The five battle Ace briefly, and win, as the dark aura is expelled from his body, bringing him back to his senses. Ace explains that he was ordered by Diculia to intercept Samien and co. in Dream Land, but he refused, leading the monarch to corrupt him with whatever the dark aura was. Ace hands over the Spacial Star and tells the group where to go next, the spooky Haunted Hallows.
Labyrinth of the Mind[]
Adventurer Dee[]
The True Arena[]
Characters[]
Playable[]
NPCs[]
Levels[]
Name | Description | Course Count | Bosses |
Natural Neons | This first level looks like a typical plains/forest/hills based level; however, it's entirely made out of light. Natural Neons's entire span is one big light show spanning out across the land to make everything look completely dazzling. As expected, the world has many elements most first levels have. | 5 | Wonder Woods |
Igneous Island | A tropical island plagued only by the existence of a massive volcano that just so happened to pick the most convenient time to erupt; when you're almost done traveling across it, of course! Expect many water elements throughout the level due to its island/volcano theme, and maybe a fire puzzle or two. | 6 | Volcracko |
Great Gauntlet | A gargantuan tower with a bigger fighting aspect than any other world. The Great Gauntlet is consisted of six floors that lead up to the boss, and each floor bases itself around some kind of level design; fighting, running, solving puzzles, and the like. Something seems off, though...how does the tower move on its own without any machinery or magic? | 6 | Chancace |
Haunted Hallows | Unlike the first world, this is a real forest; it's just that it's haunted this time around. What fun! This spooky spot has a lot of creepy creatures crawling around, wanting to make dinner out of a certain pink puff. There are spiders, bats, and haunted objects galore! | 6 | Dreararc |
Towering Tundra | A frozen wasteland spiraling upwards into the skies, cold air surrounding the entire mountain. The atmosphere makes it hard to traverse, with cold winds blowing everything all over the place. You're going to want to keep warm as long as you can, that's for sure! You can use fire and ice elements to solve puzzles here. | 7 | Ice Dragon |
Mindful Mirage | The place known as Mindful Mirage is really a big mirage; it has several components based off of a paradise, even though none of it is actually really. The place manages to let you use your imagination just a little bit with what you think a real paradise looks like, at the very least! | 7 | Mirage Matter |
Adventerous Atmosphere | This sky-land combines two general world types: Volcanic and Sky. Pumice clouds up the area, meteors fall from the bottom of the screen instead of from the top, and fiery enemies are everywhere, despite being miles above the ground. Probably because you're right above a smoking volcano. | '7 | Molotov
Pix |
Radiant Road | A shining space-like world that leads right into the final area of Lucid Star, Ender Eras. Stars, moons, meteors, and metallic space stations fill up the platforming here, gravity is messed up, and you'll find a lot of alien-like enemies here. | 7 | Starlight
Miracle Matter |
Ender Eras | This is where Diculia has made his kingdom, and he definitely chose a fitting theme: Ender Eras is a mass of dark worlds, and every single level is covered in darkness. It's a spooky last hurrah, but you'll need to do anything you can to finish the job and reach Diculia. | 8 | Starlight and Molotov
Diculia |
Diculia's Dark Kingdom | Diculia has completely destroyed Ender Eras, feeding off all of the darkness making up the massive world. You must defeat him, once and for all! | 1 | Psycho Diculia
Psychosis Matter Core |
Abilities[]
There is a total of 36 abilities that Kirby can access in-game. 5 of them are new to the series. Also, a total of seven abilities return after being cut in past titles; Bell, Cupid, Missile, Needle, Spear, Water, and Yo-Yo.
Helpers[]
These are a list of helpers that appear in the game; these helpers last only for the level they are summoned for, and are summoned by the usage of amiibo.
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Items[]
List of Figurines[]
Enemies[]
This is a list of basic enemies found in-game. They can be defeated easily, usually as basic obstacles, and most yield Copy Abilities when inhaled.
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Mid-Bosses[]
Bosses[]
Boss | Description |
Shadow Warrior |
TBA
First Phase Second Phase |
Shadow Warlock |
TBA
First Phase Second Phase |
Shadow Memory |
TBA
First Phase Second Phase |
File:ShadowMind KLD.png Shadow Mind |
TBA
First Phase Second Phase Third Phase |
TBA
Arena Line-Up[]
True Arena Line-Up[]
Amiibo[]
Gallery[]
Polls[]
What is the best new ability? |
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What is the best new mid-boss? |
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What is the best regular boss design? |
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What is the best Extra Mode boss design? |
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Overall quality of the article? |
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Trivia[]
- This is the first of four titles taking place in the Kirby: Rise of Zero Tetralogy.
- Additionally, the game is a reboot of the original first entry of the Kirby: Rise of Zero Tetralogy, known as Kirby's Dream Land: Shattered Star.