Dagesh Lene

Kingdom Hearts III: the game that everyone has been waiting for, but no one thought was ever going to actually be made. Finally, it is here, but was it worth the wait? When I first finished the game, I would have had to say, “No.” However, now that I have taken some time to process my thoughts and play through the game again with adjusted expectations, I can see that my disappointment came from the fact that it was never going to live up to the hype. So, now that I can see the game for what it is and not what I wanted it to be, I am finally posting my review of Kingdom Hearts III. The gameplay was fun, and it provided us with more options than ever before. However, I found myself relying mostly on hitting X, casting magic, and using Situation Commands. The rest of the options didn’t seem that useful to me (except for Airstepping, which I found really useful, but I kept forgetting I could use). Flowmotion was nerfed, which I appreciated, but I also felt like it was nerfed to the point that I never used it unless I had to reach an area that I couldn’t reach by just jumping. I didn’t find any of the Link Summons other than Simba worth using. The attractions were disappointing, and it was one of the things that I was looking forward to the most too. There aren’t many different attractions, and you can’t choose which ones you use. In addition, they take you out of the battle, especially since the music changes in most of the battles when you use one. The only one I found myself using, again and again, was Splash Run. I liked Mountain Coaster the most, but it was only used in two battles and had very specific things happen during it, such as the Rock Titan attacking you while you flew around the mountain or massive amounts of Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed being taken out at one time whenever you attacked with it, which is probably why I liked it so much. The Keyblades are better than ever in this game. The Formchanges for the Keyblades makes every Keyblade useful in different ways, although some of them just reuse forms from other Keyblades, which seemed unnecessary since there aren’t that many Keyblades compared to previous games, and therefore, aren’t that many Formchanges. However, Formchanges are still fun. In addition to Formchanges, the ability to upgrade the Keyblades makes them feel even more useful. The cherry on top is the ability to switch between three of them at any time during the game. You can even have Formchanges or Finishers saved on the other two Keyblades that you have equipped that you are waiting for the right moment to use. I, admittedly, did not use this very often. However, unlike the other gameplay options, it’s not because I didn’t find it useful. It’s because I kept forgetting you could do that, or I liked the Keyblade I was currently using. It was the same with the Shotlocks. I didn't have a problem with them, but I kept forgetting that they were an option. The world specific gameplay was fun too. I loved using the Gigas in Toy Box and loved exploring the Caribbean and fighting enemy ships in the Leviathan (although collecting crabs to level up the Leviathan can get a bit tedious). I even enjoyed the underwater gameplay in the Caribbean. The Gummi Ship was better than ever. I loved the open map and the exploration element that they added. The cherry on top was the ability to exit battles. The Disney worlds, with the exception of 100 Acre Wood, are bigger and better than ever before. There was so much detail put into them, and the worlds actually felt lived in this time with the addition of way more NPCs. However, the original worlds were not as well done as the Disney worlds were. That being said, the worlds in Kingdom Hearts III overall are the best yet. The game is visually stunning, and the characters are a lot more animated in cutscenes. There were times when I felt like I was watching a movie with how the cutscenes were made. The dialogue is also the best it has ever been, and there were many moments that actually made me laugh this time (it felt like there weren’t a whole lot of those in previous games). However, there were moments when it felt like the cutscenes were going on for too long, and this wouldn’t have been too bad, except in most of those cutscenes, there was a lot of talking, but not a lot of action. However, that wasn’t enough to ruin the cutscenes for me. The music is the best in the series. The new tracks were amazing, most of the remixes of old tracks sounded even better than before, and I loved the mashups of different tracks that were used for many of the boss themes near the end of the game. Probably my favorite thing that was done with the music was that original music was scored for many of the cutscenes, which made the cutscenes feel even more like movies. There may not seem to be a lot of postgame content, but I still think that there is a lot there to keep you busy for a while. There are quite a few minigames to complete, including cooking with Little Chef and the Classic Kingdom minigames. There are plenty of chests, ingredients, and Lucky Emblems to find. There are many items to synthesize. There’s a lot to do in the Gummi Ship. Finally, there are Battlegates to complete once you beat the game. You can also play around with the camera on the Gummiphone and take some great pictures. However, my party members kept wandering into the picture I was trying to take, which got really annoying, especially since they would usually do so just as I lined up the perfect shot. The only thing that left me feeling disappointed about Kingdom Hearts III was the story. Nothing too significant happened until after you completed all of the Disney worlds, which made everything that happened after that feel a bit rushed since it had to wrap up ten games worth of story at the end of the game. The setup for future games made this game feel less like a finale and more like just another chapter in the story. Because of the rushed nature of everything after the Disney worlds were completed, every single character whose name wasn't Sora was given the short end of the stick in this game, although they did each have some amazing moments. Speaking of moments, this game had the best moments of any Kingdom Hearts game. There were amazing moments given to the characters (as I already stated) and epic moments that left my jaw on the floor and that made me think that no future Kingdom Hearts game could ever top what happened in this game. So, while the story could have been paced better, and while it could have done with less setup, it was still an amazing experience. In the end, Kingdom Hearts III is a fun game to play with the best visuals, worlds, and music of any Kingdom Hearts game that came before it. Not all of the gameplay options are great, but that did not make the game any less fun to play. Some of the cutscenes went on for too long, but that did not ruin them. The story has some issues, but the great moments in the story make it enjoyable nonetheless. Is Kingdom Hearts III the game that everyone wanted? No. Is it a good game nonetheless? Yes. I give Kingdom Hearts III an 8/10.

My reaction was basically: "WHAT? NO!"

It makes me happy to see Kingdom Hearts doing so well.

My favorite Marvel movie is and probably always will be the first Avengers movie, but I would like to give a special shoutout to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I feel like I'm the only one who prefers Vol. 2 over the original, and I don't think it gets enough love. While the first Guardians of the Galaxy is great, I have always felt that the humor is what was holding it together, and if you got rid of the humor, the movie would fall apart. However, what I loved about the sequel was that you really got to dive into the characters and their relationships in a way that you didn't in the first one. I couldn't really believe that they were all friends and willing to risk their lives to save the galaxy in the first movie, but I fully believed it in the sequel because of the extra character development we got.

I don't think he's going to be a character we already know. I think he's going to be a completely new character.

Kairi will always be my favorite.

Did you hear the news? Kingdom Hearts III is a masterpiece! It is the most visually pleasing game in the series yet! The worlds are bigger and better than ever! The game is fun to play! It has a good story! Even if this is your first Kingdom Hearts games, the story is easy to follow! It definitely lives up to the hype and is the game we've been waiting for! Everyone who says otherwise is just a hater who is upset that what they wanted wasn't in the game! Did you hear the other news? Kingdom Hearts III is the worst game ever! The characters don't look as good! The worlds are smaller and there are less of them than in previous games! The combat is horrible! The story sucks! Unless you know everything about all of the past Kingdom Hearts games, you won't know what's going on! It is the most disappointing game ever! Everyone who says its good is just lying to themselves and are scared to admit the truth! These are the two reactions to Kingdom Hearts III that I seem to see the most of. Either it is perfect and has no flaws, or it is the worst thing ever made and there is nothing redeemable about it. Why can't it be in the middle? Why can't it just be a fun game that has flaws? I feel like most people are just reacting to their own expectations right now, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, can't we just admit that there can be both positives and negatives and not ignore the other side (I'm not saying that all of you are acting this way; it just feels like most people are acting this way)?

It seems that every time I edit this post, another "4" is added to the bottom. Does anyone know why that is? Is there a way to get rid of them?

Don't get me wrong. I think that Kingdom Hearts III is an amazing game. However, I also think that the story is messy. It is poorly paced and includes plot elements that are either not properly explained or don't matter to the story at all and only serve to set up for the future of the series (or maybe both). And so, using the power of hindsight, I have decided to rewrite the story of Kingdom Hearts III, while keeping as many story elements that it introduced as possible, into a story that I think has better pacing, explains things a bit better, and doesn't hint toward the future as heavily in order to spend more time on wrapping up the story of the Dark Seeker Saga. Keep in mind, I don't think that I could necessarily write a better story than they did. If I was tasked with writing the story for Kingdom Hearts III from scratch, it might end up being worse than the one we got (not that the one we got was bad; it was just messy). I'm just using the ideas they came up with to tell a story that I think would flow better. With that being said, I'm interested to hear what you guys think of my rewrite (and, just as a warning, it is a pretty lengthy rewrite). How would you rewrite the story of Kingdom Hearts III? Do you think the story is fine the way it is?

I can understand being disappointed. I was disappointed by certain parts of the game too. However, at the same time, there is so much to like about this game. For me, the only things that really held the game back were certain parts of the story. It is perfectly fine to not like it. It is also perfectly fine to like it least of all of them. However, I think that most of what you brought up can be summed up as not meeting your expectations.

My biggest issues with Kingdom Hearts III was with the story too, but for different reasons.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think I've played through Birth by Sleep the most. We'll have to see if that changes once I get my hands on Kingdom Hearts III.

Where did those people pre-order their copies from that theirs got delivered early? I've been tracking my copy, and it's been sitting in the town next to me since Friday. It looks like they have no intention of giving it to me early, which is torture! It's so close and yet so far! So, I'm planning a heist to steal what's rightfully mine but is being withheld from me. Any help would be appreciated. Disclaimer: I am not actually planning a heist and have no intention of stealing anything. This is all just a joke to help ease the pain since I have to wait two more days to play this game that I've been waiting so long for.

I can understand how these things may be concerning, but I think the fact that, despite these flaws, the game is still receiving great reviews shows that these flaws did not break the game or make it unenjoyable. Because of that, I'm not too worried about them. I also think that it is really cool that we have the option to turn off some of these features if we don't want to use them. While I suppose that wanting to turn them off could be viewed as a bad thing since that could mean that they aren't that good, at least we have the option to do so to customize our style of play so that we can play the way we want to and get the most enjoyment out of it. That's how I see it anyway.

I wonder if we get to take control of Riku more than one time during the game, and this is one of those times. We see Riku protect Sora from a wave of Heartless while Sora is on his hands and knees near the end of the Final Battle Trailer. Maybe Riku says this quote to Sora, but Sora is too upset by what happened, so we play as Riku as we try to protect Sora from the oncoming Heartless. It could end with Riku being lost to the storm of Heartless too as he sacrifices himself to save Sora, which leaves Sora all alone. It is also possible that he says this before everyone is swept away by the Heartless, which would mean that he is referring to Donald and Axel (and possibly some others who haven't been shown yet) and is telling everyone else (Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Goofy, and whoever else could be there) that there is still a chance to save them. I suppose he could also be talking about one or more of the characters who have been Norted and is saying that there is still a chance to save them from Xehanort's control, but I think that the other guesses are more likely.

Memorable is a lot different than best or favorite. For me, even though the World of Chaos from Kingdom Hearts 1 is my favorite boss fight in the entire series, the most memorable boss fight has to be the final boss fight against Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II. Since Kingdom Hearts II was my first Kingdom Hearts game, the entire ending is really memorable to me, especially since this was the first time I was introduced to multiple phases for a final boss fight. I kept thinking it was over, but it just kept going, and I had to start all over again if I lost. It was so frustrating, but it felt so good when I defeated him and saw what I consider one of the happiest endings of all time. Plus, that final attack that Xemnas does makes this fight impossible to not be memorable.

As a follow up to a post I already made, while I personally don't need a lot of content in order to be satisfied with the game, I can completely understand why others would be concerned, especially if it's true that not as much attention was given to the original worlds. The point that I was trying to make was that Square-Enix has made good games and has given us complete stories in the past, even when the original worlds were small, such as in Birth by Sleep. So, I'm sure that they will still give us a good and complete experience no matter what. Basically, I think that there are still reasons to be optimistic, but I guess we will just have to wait and see for ourselves once the game officially is released.