Waiting For Sora
SPOILER ALERT: Plot details follow for all of Kingdom Hearts!!
I can still recall with nostalgia the post-credits tease at the end of Kingdom Hearts II. Sora, Riku, and Kairi received a message in a bottle with King Mickey’s seal. We never saw what the letter said, but we were all excited for what new adventures it had in store. Since then, fans have waited years, playing through spinoff after spinoff until the long-awaited sequel. Many fans, myself included, even got PS3s in the hope that Kingdom Hearts III would be on it. Like the recent Final Fantasy VII Remake, it’s almost surreal to witness the actual release of KH3. Fan expectations were high, and it would’ve been impossible for Square to match them all. I expected KH3 to at least rival the standards set by its two major predecessors, but to my dismay, it fell short, very short. This isn’t to say that KH3 is a bad game, it isn’t, but that the overall experience has left me utterly baffled by the final product.
All things considered, the KH series has a pretty good track record. I still hold the original KH1 and KH2 in the highest regard. The spinoffs Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep, and Drop Dream Distance are all quality games that made bold experiments with gameplay, fully utilized the unique advantages of each system they were on, and usually had compelling stories. Square usually took great care to ensure that each KH game was a quality product that didn’t just recycle the same cheap formulas.
The trouble, of course, is that many of these games were pivotal to the overall story, and so you were forced to buy many portable systems to keep up. In recent years, however, this has been made much easier with the HD re-release compilations for the PS3 and PS4. Newcomers to the series can follow the whole saga on a single system. The only issue I have is that Square didn’t also remake 358/2 Days or X Back Cover, as they did for Chain of Memories, instead forcing gamers to slog through hours of cutscenes. The spin-offs, of course, were teases for the grand finale of the Xehanort saga. In some ways, Avengers: Endgame is the perfect parallel to KH3. Both stories demanded a hefty amount of references to properly appreciate the story and promised a satisfying conclusion that was worth the investment into the earlier projects. Endgame was a well-structured climax that lived up to the potential of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. KH3, on the other hand, belongs to that sad category of finales which are rushed, convoluted, and poorly thought out, like Lost, Game of Thrones, and the Rise of Skywalker.
Before getting into the game’s many problems, I do want to celebrate the highlights. The graphics, for one, are as gorgeous as one would expect from a Square product. This game has effortlessly recaptured the distinct visual styles of the Disney films you explore, as well as making the motions of some characters more cartoonish. The amount of graphical detail can be lush to a fault, with seemingly innocuous items (like Hercules’ action figures) thrown in just for show. These inclusions seem to mask the fact that there isn’t as much to explore this time around. Twilight Town is shrunk mostly to the town square, while the landscapes of Corona and Arendelle can feel repetitive and bland. Radiant Garden has also been scrubbed. The designs of the new Heartless, however, deserve applause, such as the Parasol Beauty, the Frost Serpent, and the Anchor Raider.
Another highlight of this game is the spectacular score by Yoko Shimomura. This might be her best soundtrack for KH yet, opening with a beautiful new rendition of “Dearly Beloved.” I’ve gained a deeper appreciation of Shimomura, who has had the difficult task of adapting classic scores from Disney while creating music that not only fits those worlds, but also offers KH its own distinct identity. She has made KH one of the defining soundtracks in video games and has often brought emotion when the writing lacked it. Utada Hikaru also returns with not only one, but two new songs, the better being the sentimental “Don’t Think Twice.”
The best word to describe the gameplay is “congested.” Being a KH game, of course, it’s plenty of fun, but it felt like Square tried to stuff in everything but the kitchen sink. The best new features are the Keyblade Form Changes. This allows you to switch between Keyblades mid-battle. The Keyblades this time around can transform Sora, like the Drive Forms in KH2, and unleash powerful finishers. Some of my favorite Keyblades were Crystal Snow, in which you skated around and turned your hands into ice blades, or the Favorite Deputy, which served as both a hammer and a drill. The Shotlock from BBS is back and its attacks are tied to the Keyblade you’re using. If low on health, you can go into Rage Form, which focuses on rapid, physical attacks. The Summons are also a delight, with Simba roaring with Firaga and timed splashes with Ariel. The Gummi Ship is also enjoyable and flashy.
The team reaction commands from KH2 are back, but they feel reduced. Instead of trying to fill up the limit gauge while battling alongside your new partners, a simple press of the Triangle button is all that’s needed. The Flowmotion from Drop Dream Distance is also thrown in, but it doesn’t feel as smooth or as satisfying here. In fact, it could get to be rather frustrating. The new Attraction Flow has proven to be a polarizing addition among fans. These attacks are a mix of iconic rides at Disneyland theme parks with the look of the Electric Light Parade. I did genuinely enjoy some attractions, such as the Mad Tea Cups and the Big Magic Mountain, but they occur too often. I’d rather that these attacks only happen during certain boss fights, like the Summons in Final Fantasy VII Remake. The problem with the Attractions is that they can disrupt the flow of battle, especially when you want to focus on other abilities and techniques. They can also look a little silly against the more serious bosses. Overall, KH3’s battle system was plenty of fun, but it lacked direction and made game a little too easy.
As always, the best part of the KH series is playing through the various Disney movies. This time around though, the Disney worlds feel more like a distraction to the main plot than a central part of it. In KH1 and KH2, Sora went to the Disney worlds to seal their keyholes and restore balance. In KH3, he’s only there for strength training and to learn the “power of waking.” It’s later revealed that Sora had this power all along, so going through these worlds feels even more superfluous. In KH1 and KH2, the Disney characters were pivotal to the main plot. In KH1, the Disney villains worked together to capture the Disney Princesses and throw their worlds into darkness. You also had King Triton lecturing Sora about the responsibilities of Keyblade wielders. In KH2, Tron’s world was the central computer for Ansem the Wise’s research. Beast’s Castle was also the spot of an Organization XIII boss fight with Xaldin. Not so with KH3.
Plotwise, the three worst worlds were Pirates of the Caribbean, Tangled, and Frozen. The Pirates world is set during the film At World’s End, and the story follows the film’s plot almost verbatim, though new characters such as Davy Jones aren’t introduced to player. You’re just expected to already know who they are. Worst yet, you spend most of the game away from the action, exploring the islands around Port Royal with Jack Sparrow…except that this Jack is a fake. Port Royal is also expanded, but without minigames or sidequests, it’s really just window dressing for crab collecting. Pirates does redeem itself a bit with some engaging gameplay, from leaping against Heartless in the air to swimming through the depths of the sea. I know that underwater levels can be unpleasant to gamers, but the mechanics have come long way since Atlantica in KH1. The best part is that you even can commandeer your own pirate ship and have naval battles in a system that IGN compared to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The final battle against Davy Jones is a swashbuckling treat and Luxord’s gambits never get old.
Tangled’s world was a little better. While there are many frame for frame shots of the original film, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are incorporated more smoothly. While I did like splashing water at Rapunzel and the dancing in town square, the world still felt very empty to me, as if the staff weren’t sure how to fill your time. There are also times where Rapunzel and Flynn are closed off from the player, especially during the final battle. I got the sneaking suspicion that Disney wanted you to more an observer of the film than an active player, and this suspicion was confirmed when I reached Frozen’s world.
Given that Frozen ushered in a new Renaissance of Disney films, I had rather high expectations for its KH debut, but Frozen might be the worst world in the series. You spend the first quarter of the world in a bland ice labyrinth where nothing significant to the plot occurs. We are then witness to a rather impressive recreation of “Let It Go,” but the player barely knows Elsa at this point, so the song is drained of the emotion it had in the film. I also wonder why the song was just a cutscene and not rhythm challenge like the music in KH2’s Atlantica. We meet Anna, Kristof, Sven, and Olaf, but they feel more like cameos than major supporting roles. None of these characters ever join your party, with the exception of Marshmallow, who I barely remember from the film. As a player, you feel so detached from the thick of it, that the whole world probably should’ve been cut out.
This is exactly the opposite of what makes KH work. While many of the previous Disney worlds were largely faithful to their original properties, they were adapted to fit within the universe of KH. This is how KH distinguished itself from other games based on movies. Instead playing through an elongated version of the film by rote, you were experiencing a new story that used familiar elements. Square used Disney as a toybox to experiment and push the envelope, all while respecting the tone and intent of the original creations. Consider that Atlantica in KH2 had new songs written just for the rhythm game! Disney and Square had built a fruitful relationship of mutual respect over the course of several games. What happened?
Well, it’s complicated. Testuya Nomura, the director and creator of KH, revealed in an interview with USgamer that it’s become harder to negotiate with Disney about using their IPs. This is because with the older Disney films that populated most of the KH games, Nomura only had to go to one person for approval, and Square was then mostly free to do as it pleased. For the more recent Disney films, however, the teams that made them still existed and were producing new work. Nomura then had to negotiate with each of those teams separately, and many had strict guidelines for Square to follow. Nomura got the impression that many of those he negotiated with weren’t even familiar that with KH (emphasis added):
“I think that whenever we would bring our previous titles, a lot of people at Disney, and this is my assumption, but I do assume that they probably didn’t know what Kingdom Hearts was. They’d go, ‘What’s Kingdom Hearts? I have no idea.’ ”
Yikes. No wonder this title feels so disjointed. Nomura notes that Frozen had the most guidelines, which explains why that world ended up as dry as it did. I’m going to give these Disney teams the benefit of the doubt and assume that they weren’t aware of how well the previous KH games did things. They may have genuinely thought that this was the best way to protect their properties, though they inadvertently did more damage to them. There was little that Nomura could do about this, but I imagine that he did the best he could.
All that being said, the restrictions from Disney were beneficial to some worlds. The three best worlds in the game were Monsters Inc, Toy Story, and Big Hero 6. This was because these worlds created new stories which were set after the actual films. As Nomura explained in an interview with KH3 Ultimania, “upon request from the creators, we went with a pattern of depicting a period set after the movie as an ‘authorized history.’ ”
Monsters Inc is set during the new Monstropolis economy that relies on laughter instead of screams. Sulley and Mike have been reunited with Boo, but Randall is up to his old schemes again. Flowmotion feels more useful here, as you slide along the numerous door railways, blasting at Unversed along the way. Dodging and sliding past the machinery of the conveyor belt was also a fun new mechanic.
Toy Story is set between the second and third films, with Woody, Buzz, and the other toys trapped in a simulation of Andy’s Room. Nomura was passionate about Toy Story and it shows. There’s so much to explore, from Andy’s Room, to his backyard, to the road, to the three levels of the mall. The sheer size of the mall is impressive, with sections dedicated to dolls and video games. Being that this is a toy store, the player can take control of the toy robots, which is quite empowering. There are also some cute Final Fantasy references, such as the Dissidia NT figurines and the giant Cactuar.
Big Hero 6 was probably my favorite world in KH3. The whole city of Sanfransokyo is your playground, from the streets to the skyscrapers. It was a delight to be reintroduced to the Big Hero 6 team, and to see Sora, Donald, and Goofy be included as new members. The nanoblocks make a return, most memorably in a creative, shapeshifting boss fight. The story is also surprisingly moving, with Hiro still recovering from the loss of the original Baymax. This emotion is made all the more great when Baymax returns as an enemy, and flying through the city to fight him was a pure joy. I only regret that we didn’t get a Baymax as a summon.
Olympus doesn’t quite work this time around. I want to note that I did enjoy the gargantuan boss fights against the the Titans, especially running up the mountain against Rock Titan. The world itself is serviceable, but it lacks the tournaments, a staple of the KH franchise. Tournaments were fun places to level-up, challenge yourself against numerous enemies with unique restrictions, as well as have all-out melees with the best Final Fantasy. Lacking this optional element, however, the overall game feels emptier.
KH began as a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy, but aside from the Moogle shops, the Final Fantasy is notably absent. Characters like Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and Tifa, who had significant roles in the previous games, are missing here. Olympus always introduced a guest character like Cloud, Zack, or Auron, but that tradition is gone. We also never see or hear from Seifer, Vivi, or Setzer in Twilight Town. It’s also disappointing not to see any newer FF characters incorporated, like Lightning from FFXIII. Nor are we even treated to a challenging Sephiroth boss. KH3 co-director, Tai Yasue, has explained that the absence of FF characters was due to the team wanting to focus on the conclusion of the Xehanort Saga. I’d be more sympathetic to this argument if the conclusion was anything but a lopsided mess.
The primary problem with the story of KH3 is that it is more plot-driven than character-driven. In this sense, I found the stories of 358 and BBS to be more emotionally compelling. Allow me to explain. While KH is notorious for its needlessly convoluted and confusing plots, most fans put up with them because of their investment in the characters. KH1’s focus was to save Riku and Kairi. KH2’s was to find Riku and return to Kairi. Repetitive, yes, but clear and direct. Sora had also developed friendships with Riku and Kairi over the course of those games, so the player was invested in saving them. Riku and Kairi don’t really do a whole lot in KH3. Riku’s mostly off with Mickey looking for Aqua, while Kairi trains with Axel offscreen. KH3’s focus is on resolving loose threads from 358 and BBS. Sora doesn’t personally know Terra, Aqua, Ven, or Xion, so his mission to save them comes off as emotionally hollow. I’m also not fond of the retcon to the bittersweet resolution between Roxas and Namine in KH2. They seemed pretty pleased to live on inside Sora and Kairi back then, but I guess now they need to be “saved” too.
As a result, KH3 just lacks the same sense of urgency and tension that the previous games had. It doesn’t help that all the interesting KH lore and payoff is saved until the end. There’s no sort of midpoint like facing off against Riku in Hollow Bastion or the Battle of 1000 Heartless in Radiant Garden. So the player is left rushing through the Disney worlds to get to the ending. Contrast all of this with how 358 and BBS were handled. 358 opens with Roxas waking up, nervous and afraid, but coming to know the Organization as friends, before the tragic end that separates him from Axel and Xion. Or consider the friendship established between Terra, Aqua, and Ven in BBS, and how they split on diverging paths. With Terra’s temptation into darkness, Aqua carrying the burden of responsibility, and Ven looking up to both as mentors. Instead or reestablishing these relationships with Sora, the game just expects this empathy to carry over.
There are some high points here. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are as fun as ever to watch and still have team chemistry. The Organization is also a highlight. The interactions between Demyx and Vexen are hilarious, Axel and Saix’s conversation on the clocktower is well done, and Larxene is kinda cute. A lot of the endgame fights really pay off, too. The boss battles with Dark Aqua in the World of Darkness and Vanitas in Castle Oblivion are satisfying, as are the all-out melees against the ex-Organization members and the three Xehanorts. The fights were not only nostalgic for old players but also fresh enough to keep you on your toes. I even relished in clashing with the Riku Replica again, as ham-fisted as his latter-day appearance here might seem. I also liked the creative Final World, where Sora interacted with lost souls and had to collect all the stray parts of himself.
A major difference between Endgame and KH3 is that while both professed to being conclusions to a saga, only Endgame delivered on providing closure. KH2 felt more like a definitive ending, and in fact, I’d have preferred it if the Xehanort Saga had finished there. Despite the payoff that came with the boss fights, the grand finale itself is kind of clunky. Instead of spacing things out, like the previous games, the restoration of Aqua, Ven, Terra, Roxas, and Xion are all done in such quick succession, that they aren’t given too much room to breathe. With so many characters coming back, you begin to wonder if anyone even dies in this universe. I know that these are essentially Disney games, but the sacrifices of Axel and Ansem the Wise in KH2 were moving moments that added some gravity to the stakes. Now there’s no gravity at all, because now I know that death is just another obstacle that the characters can shake off. This leads me to the fakeout “deaths” of Kairi and Sora.
After doing nothing of significance throughout the whole game, Kairi shows up during the endgame to get “killed off” by Master Xehanort. This is done to further enrage Sora, as if the coming apocalypse wasn’t motivation enough. The whole scenario feels so cliche, even by KH standards. Kairi already had to be saved in the two previous games and by now it just feels lazy, like Square isn’t even trying. What was the point in having her train if you were just going to disempower her anyways? Of course, the characters are just as familiar with the tropes of this franchise as the player, so they quickly reassure Sora that she too can be saved. Sora inevitably has to give himself up to restore Kairi, which sets up a whole new adventure to save Sora. Not only does Sora’s “sacrifice” feel needless and forced, but it doesn’t give the game the closure it deserves. And that’s not all. There’s still the mysterious black box that Maleficent and Pete are after. Xigbar turns out to be ancient Keyblade wielder who’s been pulling a lot of the strings. Verum Rex isn’t just a video game in Toy Story, but its own universe! KH3 is too busy setting up new KH games to slow down and mourn Sora’s loss.
By the way, the Re:Mind DLC doesn’t make things any better. Re:Mind essentially lets you play through an improved version of the ending that makes the original look like a rough draft. Plotwise, the narrative of Sora going back in time to save Kairi and going through the same cutscenes gets repetitive and tedious. The improvements I speak of come from the new gameplay elements. In the Keyblade Graveyard, you are given the option of playing as Aqua, Riku, and Roxas, with special reaction commands for each. There’s also a massive Keyblade wielder teamup in the air, a slow walk with Mickey against the Xehanort Replicas, and even the option to play as Kairi in the final battle! As I played through through these various parts, I began to wonder why this stuff wasn’t in the original game! It would’ve made for a better finale, and as I stated earlier, makes the original KH3 ending look weak. Re:Mind also gives one the option of fighting against data bosses of past Organization members, but they’re so insanely difficult that if you aren’t already maxed out then you may as well give up.
Am I looking forward to the future of KH? Not after this game. I know that fans have long been excited by the prospect of seeing films such as The Incredibles, Moana, Robin Hood and the like pop up, but with the new guidelines and restrictions put on the recent films, it might be more of the same disjointed storytelling as before. There’s also the possibility of the newly acquired Disney properties showing up, such as Star Wars and Marvel, but I fear their inclusion could dilute the Disney-specific aesthetic that made KH special. The moment they start including any new copyright Disney happens to own, KH will become little different from Ready Player One. The only interesting storyline down the road is Verum Rex, which looks like Nomura’s attempt to reverse Final Fantasy Versus XIII’s dissatisfying transition into Final Fantasy XV.
I had hoped that after KH3, Square would hit the refresh button and return to the simpler storytelling of the first KH game. I wasn’t expecting them to completely reboot and redo all the characters, but I wanted the feeling of a new start. Instead, KH is imploding under the weight of its own complications and I’d rather not see any more than I have to.
