I think I've had enough time to gather up all my thoughts on the monster game called Kingdom Hearts 3. So here's my little review on it. I did have lots of fun. I think the positives of the game due outweigh the negatives and the worlds are beautiful. Especially when you can dive into the water. My favorite worlds probably look like this.
1. Toy Box
2. Monstropolis
3. Olympus
4. San Fransokyo
5. Kingdom of Cornoa
6. The Caribbean
7. Arendelle
I didn't count Twilight Town and Keyblade Graveyard. Otherwise Graveyard wins. The gameplay was fun, though a bit easy. I thought I would be dying left and right on Proud Mode. The hardest sections of the game is when the introduced new minigames or battle mechanics that you have to learn to progress (Caribbean) and on those portions I failed a lot before I got the hang of it. But it's good learning curve. Honestly the only world I wasn't a big fan of was Arendelle. Love Frozen, but I don't love lazy retellings, so that's a big strike against it. I really loved the Keyblade transformations. They made combat really fun for me, and I experimented with every Keyblade I won. Wasn't a big fan of the attraction flows. They seemed to pop up every time I wanted to transform my Keyblade, so then I would have to cancel that and get back to my Keyblade transformation. I think I prefer reaction commands over them, but I'm not sure if I prefer Drive Forms or Keyblade transfomations. The next stuff I should put in spoilers.
Spoiler
Next would be the story. It has some serious pacing problems, and this is one of my gripes about the game. The Disney Worlds kinda don't matter in the grand scheme of things and when I realized it, it kinda made me rush through. Like the minute I knew no major plot was happening in Arendelle, I began to rush the world and thus my lack of enjoyment of the place. We don't get anything real good until after all the Disney Worlds are done. Which feels like a big let down. I feel like the Disney worlds should really have elements of story to help Sora on his quest to get the power of waking and save the people he's trying to save.
And then there is the main characters. The characters to me are the most important aspect of Kingdom Hearts. Not the gameplay, not even the story (I still don't even know what Xehanort wanted) but the characters. I love them to death. They make or break the game for me. So how did I feel about them? I think my major problem was I just wanted more of them. Like every time Aqua, Ventus, Roxas etc appeared or was even mentioned I geeked out and got excited. And here's where the pacing hurt. You have to save them all after the Disney stuff. And it comes off really rushed in a sense. The trio reunions were still fantastic though. I cried when the Wayfinder trio and especially the Seasalt trios reunited. They were so worth the wait. They are among my favorite Kingdom Hearts moments of all time now. I just wish there was more after and before it though. If it were up to me, Aqua and Ven would have been saved early in the game. Roxas and Namine in the middle of the game. Xion and Terra would remain saved where they were in near the end but with better buildup.
A minor gripe I had was the lack of interactions. The Kingdom Hearts main cast are bunch of weirdos with amazing stories they've told that made me fall in love with them. I really wanted to see how they would get along when finally they are all in the same room. Once you reunite the trios they don't do much. Roxas, my favorite character, stops talking after his one teamup boss fight. Only giving Ventus a meme worthy glance. Riku and Terra don't say a single word to one another. Namine is basically not in the game until the end cutscenes and you can miss her one speaking role like I sadly did Xion's made a darkness but gets so little screen time it doesn't matter. It's weird because we have this Replica storyline going on and while they imply they are remaking some version of her, we don't see her rebuilt and we never learn how Xemnas is able to control her. A simple Final Mix or DLC patch cutscene can easily fix that, so it's not too bad.
I want to talk a bit more positively more about the characters before I go into my biggest issues with the game. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are fantastic in this game. I know Donald and Goofy give Sora some flak, but it's what friends do. I can tell they truly care about him and they made even the chores of this game amazing with their friendship. Next to the trio reunions their "half pint/full pint" line brought a tear to my eye. They've gone through so much.
The Wayfinder trio were handled very well. Terra's reveal shocked me. I heard the theories online and thought they were good, but never expected them to be true. Good on you guys, who called it. Aqua and Ventus were fine, not much change. The anti-Aqua thing was a tease but whatever. I do wish Sora commented on Ventus looking like Roxas, I mean Ventus saw Sora as Vanitas. But I guess Sora is use to clones by now. The scene of Aqua being free on Destiny Island is another amazing moment in the entire series. She's finally free of that dark world.
The Seasalt trio got less, but their reunion didn't need words at all. Just throw them crying, hugging, and Xion's theme and that alone is a heartwarming moment. I just wished they got more use after their reunion. Axel/Lea had good chemistry with Saix and anyone he interacted with. Xion didn't do much but Alyson Stoner did a amazing job with her voice. Xion sounds like a more mature Kairi now, and the fragile tone in her voice is gone and she sounds like she has confidence. A big change from Days, so despite being dead and not doing much in the game, she feels like she's growing. Also remember when Xion was flat chested? And my boi Roxas! Like Xion, he didn't do much but I was happy to see him and his Thor entrance. I just wish we got more of him and his dual wielding goodness. Still my favorite character. Also Seasalt Seven
And then there is poor Kairi. I see a lot of hate for her lately. Not all of it is her fault. If you are going to roast her for being lousy with her Keyblade, then do the same for Lea/Axel. He sucked as much as she did. I don't fault her for that. However I was not a fan of killing her like that. It was so badly done and I knew she wasn't dead. It's funny that the Organization members have these long drawn out deaths but Kairi's is massively fast. This is probably my biggest complaint. It's done so randomly and the music they choose for it is their regular sad theme. That tells me even the game doesn't believe she's really dead. Sora reacted fine to it, but I expected more from Riku. I know he doesn't have a crush on her anymore, but sheesh he got over her really quickly. They're a trio right? Right? And here's where the pacing is again a issue. You know what I did after Kairi died? I took a selfie because the game allowed me to, and to travel to other worlds and goof off there while Kairi is dead. I know that's a gaming issue, but come on. When Xion died, you only had one destination and nothing else mattered but to get her back. But with Kairi? Meh, let's go grind for the Ultima Keyblade. Nothing is at stake here.
This also was a missed chance for the other trios to try and help Sora through such a loss. I mean Xion tries to reassure him about Kairi, so props to her. If anyone knows about dying it's her. Wanted to give the little puppet a fist bump for that. But like why not have Roxas compare it to when he lost Xion, and try and connect to Sora. Or Axel who was friends with Kairi, he doesn't act shocked or Aqua. One of their lights is gone. Come on guys. So I felt that was a missed opportunity for them to help pick up Sora as a group Keybladers.
Back to more positive stuff. The Organization XIII boss fights and their final words were all wonderful. I couldn't have asked for more. Saix, Luxord Ansem, Xemnas, Vanitas, even Larxene all had memorable lines upon defeat. All of them just made me feel something for them, because I love the bad guys too. I love that Young Xehanort was still a jerk upon his defeat. The only end that didn't please me was Old Man Xehanort himself. Sure, lets redeem the man who killed Kairi in cold blood. That's the one villain who I did not like the end too. Also before I forget I totally loved the story with Riku Replica and getting a body for Namine. Even after everything that happened in Com he's still looking out for her. That was a cool Riku storyline.
I think that's about it. Despite my complaints I did love this game. The ending made me cry. Seeing Axel, Saix, and Xion in normal clothes hanging out with Roxas made me cry. Add in Hayner, Pence, and Olette and I cry even more. Seeing everyone playing on the beach felt like a dream come true and again I cried. I have not cried like this in a video game in a very long time. I hope we see all these amazing characters back for the MoM saga. Because I want to continue to see them all grow and what new storylines the future has in store for them. Am I excited for KH4? 100% I'm already dreaming about it
So that's my review on the game. It's longer then I expected and probably some spelling errors. Feel free to share your thoughts on the game too.
I think I've had enough time to gather up all my thoughts on the monster game called Kingdom Hearts 3. So here's my little review on it. I did have lots of fun. I think the positives of the game due outweigh the negatives and the worlds are beautiful. Especially when you can dive into the water. My favorite worlds probably look like this.
1. Toy Box
2. Monstropolis
3. Olympus
4. San Fransokyo
5. Kingdom of Cornoa
6. The Caribbean
7. Arendelle
I didn't count Twilight Town and Keyblade Graveyard. Otherwise Graveyard wins. The gameplay was fun, though a bit easy. I thought I would be dying left and right on Proud Mode. The hardest sections of the game is when the introduced new minigames or battle mechanics that you have to learn to progress (Caribbean) and on those portions I failed a lot before I got the hang of it. But it's good learning curve. Honestly the only world I wasn't a big fan of was Arendelle. Love Frozen, but I don't love lazy retellings, so that's a big strike against it. I really loved the Keyblade transformations. They made combat really fun for me, and I experimented with every Keyblade I won. Wasn't a big fan of the attraction flows. They seemed to pop up every time I wanted to transform my Keyblade, so then I would have to cancel that and get back to my Keyblade transformation. I think I prefer reaction commands over them, but I'm not sure if I prefer Drive Forms or Keyblade transfomations. The next stuff I should put in spoilers.
Next would be the story. It has some serious pacing problems, and this is one of my gripes about the game. The Disney Worlds kinda don't matter in the grand scheme of things and when I realized it, it kinda made me rush through. Like the minute I knew no major plot was happening in Arendelle, I began to rush the world and thus my lack of enjoyment of the place. We don't get anything real good until after all the Disney Worlds are done. Which feels like a big let down. I feel like the Disney worlds should really have elements of story to help Sora on his quest to get the power of waking and save the people he's trying to save.
And then there is the main characters. The characters to me are the most important aspect of Kingdom Hearts. Not the gameplay, not even the story (I still don't even know what Xehanort wanted) but the characters. I love them to death. They make or break the game for me. So how did I feel about them? I think my major problem was I just wanted more of them. Like every time Aqua, Ventus, Roxas etc appeared or was even mentioned I geeked out and got excited. And here's where the pacing hurt. You have to save them all after the Disney stuff. And it comes off really rushed in a sense. The trio reunions were still fantastic though. I cried when the Wayfinder trio and especially the Seasalt trios reunited. They were so worth the wait. They are among my favorite Kingdom Hearts moments of all time now. I just wish there was more after and before it though. If it were up to me, Aqua and Ven would have been saved early in the game. Roxas and Namine in the middle of the game. Xion and Terra would remain saved where they were in near the end but with better buildup.
A minor gripe I had was the lack of interactions. The Kingdom Hearts main cast are bunch of weirdos with amazing stories they've told that made me fall in love with them. I really wanted to see how they would get along when finally they are all in the same room. Once you reunite the trios they don't do much. Roxas, my favorite character, stops talking after his one teamup boss fight. Only giving Ventus a meme worthy glance. Riku and Terra don't say a single word to one another. Namine is basically not in the game until the end cutscenes and you can miss her one speaking role like I sadly did
Xion's made a darkness but gets so little screen time it doesn't matter. It's weird because we have this Replica storyline going on and while they imply they are remaking some version of her, we don't see her rebuilt and we never learn how Xemnas is able to control her. A simple Final Mix or DLC patch cutscene can easily fix that, so it's not too bad.
I want to talk a bit more positively more about the characters before I go into my biggest issues with the game. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are fantastic in this game. I know Donald and Goofy give Sora some flak, but it's what friends do. I can tell they truly care about him and they made even the chores of this game amazing with their friendship. Next to the trio reunions their "half pint/full pint" line brought a tear to my eye. They've gone through so much.
The Wayfinder trio were handled very well. Terra's reveal shocked me. I heard the theories online and thought they were good, but never expected them to be true. Good on you guys, who called it. Aqua and Ventus were fine, not much change. The anti-Aqua thing was a tease but whatever. I do wish Sora commented on Ventus looking like Roxas, I mean Ventus saw Sora as Vanitas. But I guess Sora is use to clones by now. The scene of Aqua being free on Destiny Island is another amazing moment in the entire series. She's finally free of that dark world.
The Seasalt trio got less, but their reunion didn't need words at all. Just throw them crying, hugging, and Xion's theme and that alone is a heartwarming moment. I just wished they got more use after their reunion. Axel/Lea had good chemistry with Saix and anyone he interacted with. Xion didn't do much but Alyson Stoner did a amazing job with her voice. Xion sounds like a more mature Kairi now, and the fragile tone in her voice is gone and she sounds like she has confidence. A big change from Days, so despite being dead and not doing much in the game, she feels like she's growing. Also remember when Xion was flat chested? And my boi Roxas! Like Xion, he didn't do much but I was happy to see him and his Thor entrance. I just wish we got more of him and his dual wielding goodness. Still my favorite character. Also Seasalt Seven
And then there is poor Kairi. I see a lot of hate for her lately. Not all of it is her fault. If you are going to roast her for being lousy with her Keyblade, then do the same for Lea/Axel. He sucked as much as she did. I don't fault her for that. However I was not a fan of killing her like that. It was so badly done and I knew she wasn't dead. It's funny that the Organization members have these long drawn out deaths but Kairi's is massively fast. This is probably my biggest complaint. It's done so randomly and the music they choose for it is their regular sad theme. That tells me even the game doesn't believe she's really dead. Sora reacted fine to it, but I expected more from Riku. I know he doesn't have a crush on her anymore, but sheesh he got over her really quickly. They're a trio right? Right? And here's where the pacing is again a issue. You know what I did after Kairi died? I took a selfie because the game allowed me to, and to travel to other worlds and goof off there while Kairi is dead. I know that's a gaming issue, but come on. When Xion died, you only had one destination and nothing else mattered but to get her back. But with Kairi? Meh, let's go grind for the Ultima Keyblade. Nothing is at stake here.
This also was a missed chance for the other trios to try and help Sora through such a loss. I mean Xion tries to reassure him about Kairi, so props to her. If anyone knows about dying it's her. Wanted to give the little puppet a fist bump for that. But like why not have Roxas compare it to when he lost Xion, and try and connect to Sora. Or Axel who was friends with Kairi, he doesn't act shocked or Aqua. One of their lights is gone. Come on guys. So I felt that was a missed opportunity for them to help pick up Sora as a group Keybladers.
Back to more positive stuff. The Organization XIII boss fights and their final words were all wonderful. I couldn't have asked for more. Saix, Luxord Ansem, Xemnas, Vanitas, even Larxene all had memorable lines upon defeat. All of them just made me feel something for them, because I love the bad guys too. I love that Young Xehanort was still a jerk upon his defeat. The only end that didn't please me was Old Man Xehanort himself. Sure, lets redeem the man who killed Kairi in cold blood. That's the one villain who I did not like the end too. Also before I forget I totally loved the story with Riku Replica and getting a body for Namine. Even after everything that happened in Com he's still looking out for her. That was a cool Riku storyline.
I think that's about it. Despite my complaints I did love this game. The ending made me cry. Seeing Axel, Saix, and Xion in normal clothes hanging out with Roxas made me cry. Add in Hayner, Pence, and Olette and I cry even more. Seeing everyone playing on the beach felt like a dream come true and again I cried. I have not cried like this in a video game in a very long time. I hope we see all these amazing characters back for the MoM saga. Because I want to continue to see them all grow and what new storylines the future has in store for them. Am I excited for KH4? 100% I'm already dreaming about it
So that's my review on the game. It's longer then I expected and probably some spelling errors. Feel free to share your thoughts on the game too.