Kingdom Hearts 3: The Good and The Bad
Kingdom Hearts 3 was the long awaited sequel to Kingdom Hearts 2, and all the non-numbered games released in between. Expectations were high with this game which is to be expected, it was the conclusion to the Dark Seekers arc which was told over the course of 17 years and numerous games. In some ways, the game meets expectations while failing in others. This review will go over a few different aspects of the gameplay and story and describe what these aspects do well and where they fail.
It should be noted that the Kingdom Heart series is not one that people can just pick a random game and expect to understand the grand scheme of things. However, one can still start with this entry as there are many resources available to learn what happened in the other games. For example, a good way to experience the previous games would be to watch a series of videos made by a youtube channel known as Everglow. While these videos are long, they slowly go over all of the events in the previous games. If one instead would rather play these games instead of simply watching them, Square Enix makes it simple with the Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far collection or the All-In-One Package which include all previous games and 3 being included in the All-In-One Package on top of the others. If one does not want to spend weeks binging on the story, there is also a memory archive in 3 that gives a bare bones summary of everything that happened. I would recommend also watching story summaries on Youtube with this due to how bare bones it is.
Gameplay
As an ARPG, the game features real time combat with the addition of level ups that increase one’s stats and grants them more abilities to use. A nice feature of the game is that it provides many different options to use in combat from special keyblade transformations, team attacks with your party members, and attraction moves that are based off of amusement park rides such as spinning teacups. All of the different options end up providing players with combat full of variety. One of my favorite combat features would be the keyblade transformations. Every keyblade has its own forms that greatly alter how Sora attacks. These forms range from a giant hammer, to a staff, to one of my personal favorites; twin yo-yos.
While all of these options to use are nice, what matters the most is how the basic combat flows and how well these options are incorporated. To that, I would say that the game succeeds at having a fast paced combat system that feels good to use, at least most of the time. One problem I have had with the combat is that the combo modifiers that you get for Sora over the course of the game tend to lack a satisfying feeling and some of them end up making the combo worse. However, once one beats the game, they are rewarded with a new set of modifiers that make Sora’s basic combos incredibly fun to use. Another issue with the combat is that the attraction and team attack mechanics are available at random moments so one cannot strategize when they want to use one.
World Design
In previous entries, worlds typically were comprised of small corridor-like areas. Now the areas are much larger and while just as corridor-like, do not feel as such. While the story holds the player pretty close to a strict path, when reentering the worlds after finishing them, the player is given free reign. The most open world would be the Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean) as once the player reaches a certain point, they are free to sail around as they please and explore the numerous islands available. Only 2 of the islands are actually required to visit so the rest are full of optional goodies for the player to collect.
Another thing Kingdom Hearts 3 does well with its worlds is all the small details in them. Toybox (Toy Story) is especially full of small details. This ranges from all of the pictures and items in Andy’s Room to all of the toys in the Toy Store. All of this detail makes the worlds fun to explore and take a closer look to see what hidden references there are. The game even encourages this exploration with its Lucky Emblem Mechanic. Basically, throughout all of the worlds, there are 90 hidden mickey emblems that reward the player with items as they collect them. The biggest reward is that depending on the difficulty, a certain number of them are needed in order to view the game’s hidden ending. I will mention that this ending does not affect the story but rather is a glimpse of what’s to come in future games.
With the fun to explore worlds, there are some issues with some of the others. Two worlds, Arendelle (Frozen) and Twilight Town are especially disappointing. Arendelle consists of solely a mountain where everything looks the same. Unlike other worlds, it lacks references to the film and does not provide much to explore after completing it. Twilight Town faces a similar issue. The world returned from previous games and unlike the focus on larger areas, Twilight Town is the smallest it’s ever been as the player is unable to feature most of the areas present from previous games.
Story
The story in the game is good enough to satisfy but suffers from poor pacing. One major issue is that the whole journey through Disney worlds feels pointless as all of the major plot points are shoved to the very last world. One benefit of this is that the last world is a blast with all of the events occurring. Another issue is found in the Disney worlds and is that Sora has very little impact on the world. Sora is more of a bystander that only is there to defeat the main villain who transformed into a monster. Luckily, this is not the case for every world as the two Pixar worlds, Monstropolis (Monster’s Inc) and Toybox have actual unique stories rather than being a waterdowned version of the original film. Monstropolis actually takes place sometime after the film and Toybox takes place between the second and third movie.
Difficulty
Kingdom Hearts 3 has many ways to tweak the difficulty of one’s experience, especially if one desires a challenge. The game presents 4 difficulties that simply alter how much damage Sora deals and receives with the exception of Critical, the hardest difficulty. Critical ups the challenge even further by halving the player’s health and mp though gives certain abilities earlier to aid the player slightly. If one buys the Re;Mind DLC they also get access to PRO and EZ codes to further alter the difficulty and have various effects from having your HP drain overtime to being able to defeat every foe within a single hit. One issue that players might find with the difficulty options is that you are unable to change them after starting the game and along with this, can only use one of the 2 code sets in a playthrough until the final super boss is defeated.
In my opinion, the game’s difficulty is at its best and also the most satisfying when battling the super bosses introduced in the DLC. These bosses are insanely difficult and push the player to their limits. As a result, one will die many times over the course of slowly improving to and eventually claiming victory. And that victory is incredibly satisfying. I have fond memories of defeating each of the 14 bosses one by one over the course of a few months and when finally beat the last one, I honestly felt this insane sense of accomplishment that I had not felt since I did the same in one of the previous games.
Before closing off this review I do want to talk about one of my favorite areas in the game. This area, known as The Final World is a beautiful area that comes out of nowhere. Without giving too much away, the goal is to collect many Soras scattered throughout. This mini collectathon along with the beautiful song playing in the background makes this an extremely calming experience despite when it takes place in the story. Even my third time through the world, I was still feeling this sense of peace and awe as I collected the many Soras.
Overall, Kingdom Hearts 3 is an amazing game and a satisfying entry in the series that I recommend. Despite its flaws, the game still remains fun and one of my favorite games and honestly makes me excited to see what’s to come in future entries, both in terms of gameplay and story.
