Kingdom Hearts III

So I finally got around to this review a year after the release of this game. KH III is a game I've been waiting literally over a decade for, I played the first Kingdom Hearts game as a kid back in 2002 when it came out after getting it for a Christmas present and then got the second game at Gamestop not long after it first came out. Eventually years down the road I ended up playing the various handheld releases when they came to the PS3 collections. Then out of nowhere, we finally got a trailer to this at one of the E3s and a release date after years and years of waiting and no new information. KH II was one of my favorite games as a teenager and a game I still love to this day so this game was no question a day one purchase, which I rarely do anymore.

Honestly, this review might be long due to the love I have for this franchise and how much I was let down. KH III is a game I wanted to like and had so much faith in because how great the previous 2 main games were and how much I loved the concept, the different characters, the combat, the exploration and even the cheesy story was somewhat enjoyable. But I guess the best place to start would be gameplay. KH III probably has the smoothest controls and it has easy controls that are very streamlined. Combat feels a bit floaty though and my biggest complaint in combat is that it is too damn easy and the game relies too heavily on special moves. You get special moves in this game that build up during combat that allow you to transform into various Disney Park rides like a bumper car or spinning cups and these transformations simply tear through and destroy most normal enemies. I played this game on proud mode and didn't die once until the final boss. And even on the final boss I grinded like 5 levels then went back in and beat the final boss without dying after the small grind. In KH I and II there were parts I had to grind a few levels and difficult segments, but this game was just such a pushover that I could tear through everything without even a fear of dying and if you did die, you had an ability in the game that let you resurrect one time after losing all health.

I just felt these special weapon transformations and amusement park attractions took away from the combat and added all these visuals and effects and made the game go more for style than actual fun combat. The combat might have been less flashy in the previous games, but it worked well and it was fun, the combat in this is just so mindless and feels like you can just spam attack everything and win. Now for the World, KH III was disappointing. There are only 9 Worlds in this game and most are from Pixar. Now I love Pixar and it was awesome seeing Toy Story and Monsters Inc., but we also got some less interesting ones. Unlike KH II where you went back to World's for more story, you only go to each World once in this, and each World is semi open where you explore for treasures and hidden items and team up with the princess or protagonist of that World and each World is roughly 2-3 hours long, which to be honest, is a good thing, but also I liked the small, well designed Worlds of the previous 2 games than the big, almost empty feeling open ones of this game. And to be honest most of the Pixar movies we got in this were newer ones like Frozen, Tangled and Big Hero 6. The Pirates of the Carribean World was basically just a pirate ship simulator and it followed the story of the worst Pirate movie and tried to push 2 movies into this World. Frozen and Tangled just felt way too similar to the actual movies and almost followed the dialog and scenes line for line from the movies. And the only actual Disney/Pixar bosses you fight are from Pirates of the Carribean and Hercules. Every other boss is just some generic heartless that has nothing to do with the World. I loved in the first 2 Kingdom Hearts game fighting the actual villains from the movies and going through the Disney stories while also having some differences to fit in Sora and his team. Did I also mention 100 Acre Woods was reduced to minless mini games and was just a quick 10 minute segment in this game and Twilight Town was reduced to a quick visit too and almost feels pointless in this game.

The graphics are amazing and I almost felt like I was watching actual scenes from these movies at times, but its like did we really need the entire Let It Go song in this game frame for frame with Sora, Donald, and Goofy awkwardly watching from the sideline. I feel like Disney just had too much say so in the production of this game and made demands they wanted Square to follow. I did enjoy the Toy Story World because it was cool seeing Buzz and Woody team up with Sora and it actually did have somewhat of an original story instead of just blindly following the movie plot scene for scene, and Monsters Inc. was pretty solid too, even if Randall didn't have a big role in this as the villain. I just felt like most of the Worlds in this game felt too empty and tried to force random KH villains in that felt unnatural rather than relying on the many great villains of Pixar and Disney. And also did I mention the boss fights in this game are very forgettable and lame. They just were so easy and most were generic heartless, and near the end of the game you go through boss gauntlets of some bosses you fought in previous and it just felt lazy and almost fan servicy.

Now time for the story. The story in this just felt so lazy and bad. It felt like Nomura just made it up as he went along. Sure you can argue KH never had a strong story, but the story was easy to follow for the first 2 games and Chain of Memories and really even with the confusion in KH II if you didn't play Chain of Memories, it still made sense for the most part. Then they started doing more games and handhelds and convoluting the story adding time travel in Dream Drop Distance, and even with my low expectations for the story going into this, it still let me down. I really don't know where to start, like I said earlier the whole KH villains popping into Disney Worlds to replace the Disney villains just felt a bit forced and unnatural, like in the previous games it made sense because they were working with the Disney villains but in this they sort of just come at the last minute to mess shit up. Then we get the whole confusing Xehanort story, and despite being the bad guy, in the end he somehow was just misunderstood and was just trying to help and he wasn't really the bad guy. And also Braig was really the true villain all along and then the ending World just feels so fan servicy, they literally cram all the organization members in this segment and you have to refight simplified versions of all the organization members from the previous games, and OMG its Roxas and Xion's alive, and they're teaming up to beat the organization members. This just felt like such fan service and all felt rushed and crammed into the last 2 hours of the game. Like here's all the characters from the previous games but with no explanation why they're still alive or back right now. And let's not even mention the lack of Final Fantasy characters, there are no FF characters at all in this and that's a damn shame because they were one of the coolest things about the previous games. Honestly I just could not deal with how convoluted and silly this games story felt. It got worse and worse as the game progressed until near the end where it just completely fell off a cliff and never recovered. This is easily the worst story of every Kingdom Hearts game including all the handheld and spinoff games, and yes even worse than KH Coded. I could forgive the silly and convoluted story in previous games because they at least had some logic to them, but in this it just feels like things were added because fan service and nothing really feels like it makes sense anymore. I felt like barely any development was given to some of the characters too, I mean Mickey barely even has much presence in this outside giving you radio calls, Pete and Maleficent go off on some side adventure and disappear about halfway through the game, Kairi and Riku sort of are pushed to the side until the final planet. Did I also mention the pointless and annoying minigames that even were more annoying than previous games. You got a cooking mini game, a snowboarding one in the Frozen World, a dancing game in the Tangled World. These mini games are truely awful and just boring.

Now KH III had potential, it has beautiful graphics, 10+ years to create a story that logically linked the other games and an interesting story and characters to draw from and so many Disney movies and FF characters they could have drew from. But instead we get this disappointing mess that almost makes me sad that I waited so long in enthusiasm . KH III just is loaded with issues of being way too easy, having combat that is unsatisfying and relies on gimmicks and flashy moves over skill, forgettable and easy boss fights, Worlds that either follow the movie way too closely that you feel like Sora and his friends are just bystanders while the movie plays out or Worlds that randomly cram in a KH villain and awkwardly force that villain into that World's plot, or in the case of the Pirate World, try to cram 2 movies into the World without explaining anything and basically has you on a pirate ship for most of the World. On top of that a poor and convoluted story that felt too full of fan service and convoluted nonsense, a lack of Final Fantasy characters, big open Worlds that feel too empty and less connected, music that is somewhat forgettable (a shame because this composer gave us amazing and memorable songs in the previous 2 main KH games and I absolutely love her music and still enjoy listening to the previous games music), gummi ship that is more open World but also feels more basic and was less thrilling or exciting as II's gummi missions, characters that hardly got any screen time or development like Mickey or Kairi, lack of keyblade variety or Disney themed keyblades, the game feeling too short, a disappointing final World with repeat bosses from previous games and a very disappointing conclusion with a pointless cliffhanger.

I mean there are some good things, the game looks great, the voice acting is great and they got a lot of original voice actors for the Pixar movies, including from Frozen and Tangled. The World's weren't as rushed in story, the controls were a little more streamlined, and it was cool seeing Pixar in this like Toy Story or Monster's Inc, but that was about all I liked about this game. I mean there were so many things they could have done, and many new Disney movies they could have put in, but we get a Hercules World for the 3rd time in a main KH game and another Pirates World, instead of getting something new like Emperor's New Groove, 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo, hell they could have even brought Bugs Life back to life for this. Instead we get 3 Worlds from Pixar movies that are less than 10 years old, and 2 Worlds that are from previous KH games, that's over half the Worlds in this game. They could have gone for more variety, hell they could have brought back Worlds from KH I too like Alice in Wonderland or Tarzan. As a fan of Kingdom Hearts since I was around 11 years old, this just was disappointing and the long wait definitely wasn't worth it. This may be my least favorite KH game, not just in terms of story but gameplay, World's and fun factor. I don't even care about the DLC for this game and really have no interest to pick this game back up after beating it last year. I just feel Nomura lost what made KH great to begin with and the series feels like its loosing its heart and becoming a convoluted mess with flashy gameplay with no substance to it. Sure KH III looks like a cool game from the outside to non gamers or casual gamers, but once you play it, it just isn't too interesting and took away from what made the previous games so great. I'll always love KH I and II and replay them every so often, and enjoy their music, gameplay, and stories, despite being a little dated and having their flaws. But III is a game I'll never have love for or hold in the same regard as the previous KH games. I wanted to like this and tried to convince myself this was good while I was playing it and there were moments of KH III that I found impressive, but the game lost me about halfway through completely and by the end of the game, I just didn't care anymore and wanted to beat it and move on. I just worry Nomura doesn't mess up the FF VII remake, because that game has potential and is another game people have waiting so long for and hyped. I just feel KH needs to finally end before it gets so bad it ends up becoming a parody of itself. Even having Goofy and Donald at your side sort of lost the charm it once had, and with the story becoming so ridiculous and convoluted it just is going to get worse and worse with each new sequel. Unfortunately will probably get half a dozen more handheld or spinoff games between the next sequel that convolute the story even further to lead into a sequel that has even further dumbed down gameplay. Oh well at least I still have Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, and Devil May Cry games to look forward to because at least those franchises are still good and haven't jumped the shark yet.

World-design is good, combat is not bad but flawed. characters are nice but the plot and pacing is not good

The biggest downfall however, was it's post-game content

(Review will be updated later on

i dont care what anybody says; this is my second favorite game in the franchise

Kingdom Hearts 3 is admittedly the first Kingdom Hearts game I’ve played and I’d decided to give it a whirl in response to the very passionate fans I’ve talked to about these games over the years. At the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised with the tight and deeply varied game-play, whilst at the same time baffled by the game’s totally unrestrained storytelling and cringy execution. At it’s core this is a solid hack and slash title with cinematic battles, it has a fairly simple combat system where you just tap x to attack, circle to jump, square to dodge/block/parry, and triangle to unleash special attacks (sometimes inspired by Disney theme park rides); but it actually works quite well despite it’s simplistic nature. I really dig how each Disney inspired world introduced a totally unique gameplay element that reminded me of many other games; like the Titanfall-esque mech-suits in the Toy Box world, the Assassin’s Creed 4-esque Pirate Ship battles in the Caribbean, or even the Star Fox-esque spaceship battles you can encounter in the cosmic space in between the worlds.

It really feels like a lot of the environments and challenges were designed by passionate developers, they make every location feel like you’re really in the movies they were inspired by, I enjoyed the boss battles quite a lot too; they were all fairly varied and had interesting phases and sequences (the final battle is particularly well executed). The only gameplay mechanic I never really got into was the Gummi ship customisation; they always required you find too many parts and I never really saw the incentive to go out and grind for them, but it was still cool that they put so much depth into the game’s space combat given that it was a totally peripheral aspect of the game. Then there’s still the “Little Chef” cooking mini games, the Winnie the Pooh match 3 games, the mini kingdom arcade games, and the “lucky emblem” selfie challenges which just goes to show how many loving bells’n’whistles were crammed into this game.

Now I’ll talk about the story which is where this review takes a nose dive. While sure I didn’t play the previous games so I was generally lost as to the game’s more basic plot points; my problems with the storytelling go far beyond the game not adequately catching up newcomers. The writers jam so many different superfluous characters and plot elements on top of one another that the whole package is just one dizzying mess. I beat the damn game and I still couldn’t give you a decent plot synopsis as to what happened in the 30+ hours I played, that is; outside of a painfully generic light vs dark story where a painfully generic antagonist named Xehanort brings together a team of 13 painfully generic henchman to unlock a kingdom hearts thingy that controls destiny I think?... The nearly infinite supporting cast in this game is dreadful with very few personality traits making any of them feel distinct (this is particularly true of the “anime” portion of the cast), so many characters are introduced and referred to as being very important despite having next to no presence in the overall game (Xehanort being a great example of this). Sora (the main protagonist) acts like a teenager who’s mental development was halted at 8 years of age, the dialogue is omega cringe, the voice acting ranges from dulled renditions of famous Pixar characters with all of their charisma from the films sucked away, to blatantly horrible impressions of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck…

Most of the game’s main plot doesn’t even matter until the late-game, because for the bulk of the game Sora needs to travel to all of the different Disney world’s so that he can awaken his powers or something? Like they just come up with some super convenient reasons for all of these new Disney/Pixar worlds to have plot relevance because in the greater scheme of Kingdom Hearts 3’s narrative they aren’t relevant in the slightest and nor are the characters who reside in them. They also do this bizarre thing in a few worlds where they play out the narratives of the respective Disney/Pixar films shot for shot but pretend as though Sora, Donald, and Goofy were there the whole time. It’s kind of lazy but I wouldn’t have minded it so much if not for the fact that they jump around the plots of these films without explaining anything, and thus this left me – having not watched all of these movies – confused as to what the hell was going on. They clearly expected you to have seen all of these films and thus expected you to fill in all of the blanks yourself, which in my opinion is just poor storytelling; I would have greatly preferred that they just come up with their own isolated stories within these worlds like they’ve done in previous Kingdom Hearts games. That said I didn’t mind the stories within the worlds where they did in fact craft unique plots, the Monsters Inc. and Big Hero 6 worlds being my favourite examples of this.

Okay that’s it for me venting on the game’s story; believe it or not I actually do like this game for it’s enjoyable game-play, bold sense of variety, passionate world designs, and all of the little details and collectables that prove to me that the developers at least cared about what they were making. All it really comes down to is how much the game’s insufferable story impacted my experience, and while it did quite a bit… I would still recommend this game to folks who are more game-play oriented gamers. And overall I’m happy I got the chance to finally experience a franchise that has so much cultural importance to my fellow millennials, for better or for worse…

Kingdom Hearts III is the end of the "Xehanort saga". The roman numeral "III" may lead people to believe this is the third game, but it is honestly the ninth. In order to understand the plot of KH3, you have to play eight other games. Luckily, most of this can be achieved through the The Story so Far collection, which has five of these games in game form, and the other three in cutscene form.
For thirteen years, I have wanted Kingdom Hearts III. In that time, five other KH games came out, and none satisfied me. The "command deck" games, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep [キングダム ハーツ バース バイ スリープ] and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance were just "good", if that, and served only to muddle the plot, which was already muddled enough by that point. In a story about people separating themselves into two separate entities, then merging those two entities back together, did we honestly, truly need a time travel plot on top of it all?
This isn't even touching upon Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days [スリー ファイブ エイト デイズ オーバー ツー], which I found awful.
On their face, the only KH games before this one that I replay are Kingdom Hearts [キングダムハーツ] and Kingdom Hearts II [キングダムハーツII]. I wanted more of that style of gameplay. KH2 perfected it, and expectations were high for KH3.

Gameplay-wise, KH3 pretty much delivers. The new keyblade transformation system is neat, but I honestly wish they'd just made them different weapon types full-stop, so I could switch from the Pirates of the Caribbean staff to the Monsters Inc. yo-yo Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening [デビル メイ クライ 3]-style.
The main thing the transformation system and the accompanying keyblade upgrade menu accomplishes is making it so every keyblade in the game can be considered useful for the entire game. In every other KH game, I ditch the default Kingdom Key as soon as I can, but the endgame stats screen said it was my most-used weapon this time around.
Magic is something I largely ignored in previous games (aside from cure and some defense spells), but KH3 makes it so obviously good that I used it all the time. It's probably too good, however, since Firaga basically just destroyed most of the later bosses. One problem I had, though, was that Blizzard spells seemed like just a worse version of Fire. I also would have liked Reflect and Magnet to return from KH2, but I appreciated the addition of Water spells.
I wish that they'd let me turn off attraction flow, though. It sucks, and I only ever activate it by mistake. All the summons are terrible, too, but that was the case in KH2 as well, so.

The Disney/Pixar worlds in this game are a mixed bag. The biggest problem with KH2 was that every single Disney world was just "the movie, but everyone says 'Sora, Donald, and Goofy' a lot". Half of KH3's worlds are like this, but half feature entirely new plots, written with the help of Disney/Pixar.
The Hercules world seemed to just be there to wrap up the plot of the movie, since KH2 didn't really finish it. Hercules's voice acting seemed really stilted for most of the world, and James Woods's voice isn't what it used to be.
The Toy Story world features a new plot, and is one of the cooler worlds in the game in that regard. Fans of Woody in particular will not be disappointed with his role. However, the constant presence of the giant robot enemies got really annoying really quickly.
The Tangled world just goes through the plot of the movie, but I honestly loved this world. I've never seen the movie, though, so the fact that a lot of the plot happens off-screen left a lot of plot holes as I was playing. Why is Rapunzel calling Flynn "Eugene"? How does she have the tiara if it was last seen in the tower? However, the visual design and the fun character moments with Rapunzel made this world second-best in the game, I'd say.
Now, I've never liked Monsters Inc. I didn't like the movie as a kid, and I don't like the world. The ending was cool, but I hated Sora's monster design. The original plot they created for the game was fine, but I simply wasn't a fan.
The Frozen world is ridiculous. It features the clearest example of Disney meddling in the series. At the beginning, a labyrinth is created out of nowhere for no particular reason, but that's the best part of the level. The heroes climb the mountain, watch Elsa sing "Let it Go" (because Disney), then get booted down the mountain in a horrible sled chase. After this, they meet Anna and listen to her talk over her past self singing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman", with horrible audio mixing. Then they go back up the mountain again, and get booted down again. It's an annoying world where Sora, Donald, and Goofy do basically nothing and only interact with the movie characters once each.
Luckily, that's followed by the best world in not just the game, but the series. The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End level is absolutely brilliant. Not the story part, though, since it's just another "the plot happens off-screen" world in that regard. Jack Sparrow gets a really cool moment with a member of Organisation XIII, though, so that's nice. The real part thing about this world is that you get a pirate ship, and can sail from island to island and find treasure, and face other ships in sea battles. The underwater swimming sections are absolutely brilliant, because they just let you have fun and aren't trying to jump-scare you with horrifying undersea life, which is something I dread in games with water levels. I honestly wish this had been its own game. If they do DLC for this game, I 100% want more islands.
The final Disney world is based on Big Hero Six. It has an original plot as well, but the world is small and feels kind of rushed. It's a little section of the city, but aside from a cool plot set-up, there's really nothing to say about it.

Then we get into the original plot. I'm not going to talk much about it, aside from complaints. All I am going to do is complain from here on out. I'm better at complaining than talking about why I like things anyway.
Riku's voice actor sounded like he didn't try. A lot of his lines sounded like he got one take, without being able to read the script before hand. He kept emphasising the wrong word in his sentences, making his dialogue sound really unnatural.
I wasn't a fan of the replacement voices for Master Xehanort, Scrooge McDuck, Ansem SoD, and Mickey Mouse. I get that Bret Iwan has been voicing Mickey since Wayne Allwine's death in 2009, but I just don't like him. Chris Diamantopoulos voices Mickey in the Disney channel shorts, and I like him a lot better in the role.
As far as Ansem SoD goes, I will never get over the loss of Billy Zane. He was absolutely perfect in KH1.
Seriously, why did Sora just forgive Xehanort at the very end? Why didn't he demand to know what happened to Kairi? Why, after all the shit he caused, is Xehanort allowed to just stroll back to heaven with Eraqus?
Why did Sora go back in time after The Final World, just to do things the exact same way again?
Why was "The Power of Waking" so important if all Sora does is use it wrong? What did Yen Sid even want Sora to do with it?
After a big subplot of KH2 was Roxas learning to accept that he wasn't a real person, and learning to accept that his place was as a part of Sora, why does he get to come back? His ending was bittersweet, but that was the point.
Why did they think it was a good idea to end on a downer cliffhanger? After thirteen years of waiting for another good game after KH2, why were we slapped in the face with that ending?
Also, really disappointed that Scala ad Caelum was just a boss arena rather than an actual level.

Kingdom Hearts III slapped me in the face at the end, but the journey was mostly great. I don't know. I'm glad Donald and Goofy got to be relevant again, at least.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a hard game to even consider talking about. This isn't just one game but an attempted culmination of the direction of a nearly 17-year-old franchise. It's also a game coming off the hype of its own extended development cycle, being announced officially years and years after speculation and years before the actual release. It's hard to go into this without some kind of expectation coloring your experience, positive or negative your experience with Kingdom Hearts 3 will depend entirely on your history with the series. But history can only hold up so much, Kingdom Hearts 3 is still, after all, its own new game, and has to stand up on its own. So let's try to get into that.

Conceptually Kingdom Hearts 3 picks up right where the previous game, the 3ds interquel "Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance", left off, with Sora having nearly fallen to darkness and stripped of his strength. At the start we have the supposedly de-powered Sora, the recently made master Riku, and the old reliable trio of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy around for the ride. This is only a fraction of the cast but starting off with the most classic members of the cast splitting into their usual groups gives some good grounding for the start of Kingdom Hearts 3. Though, as a title card will soon reveal, this is actually "Kingdom Hearts 2.9", presumably a joke about the silly number of decimal titles across the last few years of this series. Once you enter the first world, Olympus, you're finally given a chance to actually play the game.

Gameplay in KH3 is generally similar to the previous numbered entries, with the classic style command menu and an emphasis on powerful combos and magic. However, a number of elements from the side games like the "ability combo" system as I'll call it, wherein building up a meter by using other abilities allows you to use either superpowered versions of those abilities or a whole new "style". These styles primarily take the form of Keyblade Transformations but for the start, the only one is "Second Form", a style featuring finishers from Kingdom Hearts 2. While all this sounds like a good foundation, KH3 isn't even close to done with its mechanics. There are also: Links (The new version of summons), Team Attacks (randomly appearing attacks that allow you to use a party members skills to deal damage), Attraction Flow (We'll get to that), and Shotlocks (The weird autolock projectile attacks from Birth By Sleep). Most of these are available from the very start and the ones that aren't are earned within the first world. This kind of brings up the games biggest issue: Kingdom Hearts 3 is unbelievably overwhelming.

Combat will have you constantly activating ridiculously powerful attacks to the point where basic combos, while back to their old reliability from their heavy nerfing in the side games, are basically just builders for the rest. Just this system of building up more powerful forms or transformations would be fine, but the game also has far more random attacks that make you feel like you're nonstop throwing out ridiculously high damage. This gets even more convoluted with Attraction Flows, these attacks change your entire gameplay style for a short time to things like a Rhythm game or a shooter, all while filling the screen with wildly flashy effects. All of these are actually fun to use, and wouldn't be too much if only a few of them were present but the way it is now be prepared to spend the first few hours fumbling through victory with overpowered attacks. However, I never felt like I wasn't having fun with these systems. For as needlessly complex (though also oddly surface level too, more on that later) and overloaded as this combat can be, it's also a tremendously satisfying rush. Throwing Goofy from high in the sky down onto an enemy never stopped looking cool and being satisfying even past the 20 hour mark where I'd done it countless times. Even the more jarring Attraction Flow, while having a few duds, mostly provided fun variety from all the keyblade slashing.

While I do find the combat very fun and you do eventually get used to how much is going on, I can't shake that it is still a fair bit lesser than the combat in KH2. The main reason is that while that game had a smaller number of mechanics, it had tons of depth to all of them, the drives felt a lot more natural and integrated into the regular systems than these new forms. Basic combos were extremely long and gave way to tons of interesting strategies, and with Final Mix, that game had content that actually required those strategies. It was a fantastic experience to learn that games inner workings as I tried to get better at it just to face some of the toughest regular bosses. In contrast, KH3 has tons of mechanics but they're all pretty simple, keyblade combos at level 1 and level 30 feel pretty similar. There's only so many team attacks and attraction flows. While it never stopped being fun, I could also see this just not offering as much to dig into, even when a potential Final Mix dlc drops and adds bosses that test your limits with these systems.

With the main combat out of the way, the rest of the gameplay is a lot easier to explain. General world exploration is fun thanks to Sora's gradually growing set of movement abilities. While Flowmotion from Dream Drop Distance has been severely nerfed, it never hurts too much with how you're still able to run around super freely without it. Many worlds offer different types of gameplay for a short time for variety, and with the exception of the underwater combat, I enjoyed all of these quite a lot. I especially like the aerial fight in The Pirates of the Caribbean world. The weakest link gameplay wise is yet again in this series, the gummi ship. This time around gummi ship sections are primarily open space exploration kinda like some of the 3d Zeldas. Just like those, space here is pretty empty and boring to travel though. It's slightly more exciting but only barely when you run into combat and play a short section more akin to the gummi ship from KH2. These sections could be cut easily and I really wouldn't miss them much. Also this game has ingredient gathering and a variety of cooking minigames, not super important but they're actually pretty fun and quick.

Also worth mentioning is the original gimmick of the series, the Disney crossovers and worlds. These still serve as the bulk of gameplay and are quite good this time around. While some, like Frozen and Tangled follow the plot of their films far too closely for my liking. Others, like Toy Story and Big Hero 6 are fun little original stories with these characters. The better visuals really shine in these worlds as well, often having characters that come close to looking as good as their original versions. These worlds are also pretty large, being the longest they've ever been, many of them stretching past the 4 hour mark. Only really in the Frozen world did that really feel like padding for me, and the rest of the time I was perfectly happy to spend more time in these worlds. The stories of these worlds are also still primarily self contained but many elements to the larger plot are set up or hinted at within these worlds which helps them feel a bit more connected than they had been in some of the side games.

Speaking of the story, let's get into that now. Without spoiling anything I'll say I absolutely loved almost every minute of the main plot. So many resolutions to long standing plot threads were reached in a very satisfying way. Tons of scenes in this game's finale rank up alongside my favorite moments in the entire series. It takes quite a while to kick into gear as is typical with Kingdom Hearts, but it mostly feels like it's building up to this final confrontation that everyone is anticipating. The real joy of this story in general is the characters, still as likeable as ever, there are a number of fun new dynamics and touching reappearances of beloved cast members. Sora, Donald, and Goofy's friendship is still as funny and charming as ever, keeping the game lively through its entire duration. The expanded original cast are a little more rarely seen but everyone gets a good moment to either shine in action or get long time fans emotional. This is the kind of story made entirely for fans that fans like me will absolutely adore.

For new players, I think this story will be incomprehensible. The whole thing is based hugely in franchise lore, even reaching to the browser/mobile game spinoff for key elements. It's a daunting task just trying to know what's important before you start this game, and I could totally understand if it puts some players off. This shouldn't be anyone's first game but I'm glad that it doesn't waste too much time trying to explain things new players won't have a connection to and old players already know. If you're new, you can probably skip a lot of the story and just play this as a flashy action game. If you're a fan, this story will satisfy almost all of your hopes. Though I will say that anyone hoping for full resolutions to some threads from the mobile game should be patient, that game's updates aren't even over and it's seemed from the start that a lot of that stuff will come into play later on. There's still plenty of payoff for being invested in that game though, so don't feel like it's time wasted learning the story there.

This next section will contain major spoilers, so be warned if you haven't completed the game and don't want it spoiled. The entire final battle in the keyblade graveyard was exactly what I hoped for. Satisfying payoff to Union Cross as an element in this story, multiple keyblade wielders fighting at once, and the x-blade finally being forged after all this time. Roxas, Xion, and Terra all finally coming back is something I'd wanted for the whole game. Roxas and Ventus looking at each other for a moment is my favorite funny detail in any game ever. A great microcosm of how this game does payoff perfectly for those invested in a thing like that. From there, the battle against Armored Xehanort was as incredibly cool looking as it should have been. Though major points off for having an awkward and unnecessary underwater section during this battle. The final battle against Xehanort was pretty easy to expect but still pretty cool. Landing the final blow on him was undoubtedly satisfying. Eraqus returning to see Xehanort off to the afterlife was also touching and had me pretty emotional, especially seeing their younger selves one last time before they both go. It leaves on a nice note to remind us of where this all began, and how it can finally end.

But Kairi's "death" during the battle left some pretty big holes in Sora's heart so he sets off to get her back. While the ending cinematic implies he succeeded, he also disappears soon after. It's all up to speculation what really happened to him but I personally think he's lost in some sleeping world and the next game will involve Riku searching for and saving him. This little bit can be seen as a kind of unfair punch to fans who just wanted a happy ending but it works well I think, these games are always a bit bittersweet. The ending of 1 ensured Kairi was safe and home but her and Sora were separated. In 2 everyone makes it home but Roxas and Namine are still unable to exist on their own, and Sora and Riku have to leave again. This feels very much along those same lines, it's a happy ending for everyone for the time being except Sora, but there's no doubt in my mind that he'll be back eventually, that's what this series does.

Last note, that epilogue is ridiculous. Xigbar being Luxu in the most Nomura kind of wild and out of nowhere twist imaginable. It has me incredibly excited for both what's gonna happen soon in UX and what will happen later down the line in the series. The Master of Masters is already a pretty fun and charming antagonist so if we get more of him through the next "saga" on this series I'll be more than on board. That secret movie also has me excited though I, like most, can barely figure out what's supposed to be going on in it and am just gonna wait until we get the next announcement to get too into speculation. The theory about The World Ends with You is super exciting if possible though.

So, Kingdom Hearts 3 remains a hard game to talk about, but it's one I really want to talk about. I loved this game, if I didn't make that clear enough I had a total blast playing it both for its conclusive story and flashy gameplay. I've seen people say it's the best in the series, and others say it's a major disappointment. I don't know if much can top my adoration for Kingdom Hearts 2, but I am in no way disappointed. It's rare a game I was hyped for actually live up to my expectations this much but I seriously only have minor gameplay issues to speak of here. Nothing about the story let me down, I can say that for absolute certain. I hope other fans enjoy it as much as I have, and I hope the feature of the series remains bright. I don't know if I'm ready to think about a Kingdom Hearts 4, but I'm always ready to rejoin the cast I love so much for whatever's next.