kh4 rambling below the cut

im hoping they include multiple character campaigns for KH4. not just because i wanna see characters be playable that we havent seen in a while, or at all. but also because i feel like a whole game centered on sora in quadratum would get really difficult to tell a story in. not because interesting things couldn't happen. but the series has always had everyone venturing to other worlds to help progress the plot.

having sora, as limber and mobile as he was in that kh4 trailer, be secluded to a city, feels like he'd outpace the world itself and you'd end up traversing the same maps for tens of hours of game time. im sure there's gonna be plenty of narrative to push that world around, but i just dont wanna be in that single world the entire game.

it's part of why i wasn't the biggest fan of chain of memories. i didnt hate the story, and i didnt dislike castle oblivion. but KH excels at having the characters just be all over the universe in their journey. COM sorta shirks the responsibility of telling its story in one world by having illusions of the other worlds. but the most important parts are still only in castle oblivion. and after an hour or so of those cutscenes, it really starts to dawn on me how much ive grown used to the white walls of the castle.

perhaps that was the point? it's been a handful of years since those days, so i couldnt say anymore. ive grown up a lot since then, thematic choices will appear different to me from when i was a kid.

i digress, it'd also be a shame to bring back the whole main cast properly in kh3, free of their shackles or imprisonments, and then have them scarcely appear in the next mainline game. the hints that kairi will be training with ventus, terra, and aqua are already there, which gives me hope. donald and goofy are out looking for sora on their own, while mickey is on his way to the old scala ad caelum. it definitely FEELS like everyone is gonna be present.

im simply praying.

There will never be a game such as kingdom hearts 2 ever again.

Like really never.

The original development team that made KH1 and 2 for playstation 2 was disbanded long ago. Now the tram that was revived, specifically by Nomura if I remember correctly, was not put to the task of making all future installments.

Which likely was the reason why the next four or five games were prequels or side-quels, and why Xehanort became the central plot point of the series for so long as I like to think. As well why many of these games were put on handhelds, likely to not strain the team since they were so new. It may also explain the combat systems that were nothing like kh 1 or 2 but in bad ways most of the time. I have the suspicion that it's as well why the following games kept reusing kh1 and kh2 designs either in the style of combat or straight up replaying the games but with new scenarios or in others cases: the chain of memories exscue. Where a game happened to occur in all the same worlds and have all the same characters and all the same music.

Now with KH 3 this team was finally put to the actual task of making a actual ACTUAL kingdom hearts game to... mimicking results. 3 gameplay wise feels like a bad attempt to copy the homework the original kingdom hearts duology had done atleast a decade and more prior and with how many times the new team had been cheating it resulted in a somewhat bad tasting result. Like look at that base game air combo and tell me that it doesn't make you sick.

Story wise both overall and with the individual worlds I would say only Toy Story does it right. Like it sets the bar, it feels like a classic kingdom hearts Story Arc with the whole gang. It's compelling and emotional and woody has a moment where he's a actual threat to the villian wholes been making a mock of us the entire time. It great.

Then there are the two back to back movie montages with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in the background.

San fran Tokyo is a total joke. It's this massive one room world that you never explore because the entire plot line of the world is a repeat of do a mission, go to the save room, go do a thing, go to the save room, repeat until it's over. And then it just hard cuts to the final world like there should have been like two bosses before we reached the Keyblade Graveyard.

Every world after Toy Story feels horrible. Except The Caribbean for most of it. It's also a fun one room worlds you get to travel and the ship gimmic is pretty fun. It even has its own leveling system.

Most of the story feels like jelly and jam and they once again don't allow you play as Riku in a legitimate way but instead as a hollowed put sora with very little move set. And they gave him a stupid hair cut and snapped his keybalde in half in exchange for a car key which I'm still mad about. Fight in the parking lot over it.

So much of the final world feels like the biggest slog. I appreciate the little moments we have with all the villians as we say our final goodbyes as rivals and as enemies. Especially near the end when you fight the Xehanorts. That hurt different.

The original team is dead and in their wake a nobody has been created, as well a shadow. Neither exactly what they originated from. Both in a way a terrible resemblance of what they once were. The shadow has been vanquished as the light has faded and now only the hollow nobody remains. I have no expectations nor actual bars set for four. I just hope the new team gets better at what they do.

As there will never be such a game like kingdom hearts 2 ever again.

Been working to flesh out my finished saves of BBS and I really do have to say. Out of all the ways to develop and earn new abilities, I think the melding system has to be my absolute favorite.

Not only for the variety, but how it opens up a skill path of preference. Leveling up your spells/abilities alongside of yourself through combat really does make it engaging af for my personal taste. It also encourages exploration as I liked the many surprises you could just spark up for a test drive. (DDD minigames admittedly made it VERY tedious to get ability points.. the +100 times I had to play water barrels..)

It feels like it revolutionizes that formula that should be given more attention going forward. A good touch up form the growth abilities in KH2, spreading that into making creative moves instead. (Even alterations of the movements? A block that heals? Hell yes.)

I'd like to see KH take a means of letting you 'develop your own style' through the usage of what you like. KH3 had also touched on the concept itself with the Keyblade forge. Which also was originally a khux idea, except in that era your keyblades actively transformed too-

So! Another thing I'd like to see in the future. I feel like through the Dark Seeker saga in a gameplay standpoint, we've gained a good number of tools to take and build up on in the future.

Thoughts Regarding the Command Deck

Sep 27

Ever since the first non-numbered Kingdom Hearts title, Chain of Memories, the combat in every non-numbered KH game is structured much differently than the other games. The most prevalent combat change in these games is the Command Deck, seen in Birth by Sleep, Re:Coded, and Dream Drop Distance.

Instead of having all of your attacks at your disposal through the attack, magic, and any other button on the Command Menu, you have a limited number of unique commands that you can put in a deck to use in whichever order you want while dealing with cooldowns after you use a command.

I will say that this has led to some creative builds and decent progression as you move through those respective games, but they still have their pros and cons. One thing I’m not the biggest fan of is melding in BBS and Re:Coded. The way that melding trees work, it’s not easy to make your way to the more powerful commands without coming across them by dumb luck. However, once you do get those commands, you can do some pretty powerful stuff and feel like a boss while pairing that with some of the abilities you can get. My overall opinion is that they should stay in their non-numbered titles, but they should stay as the form of attack in those games.

So what do you think? Should non-numbered KH titles keep the Command Deck style of attacking? Or should they get rid of it in favor of the numbered title way of fighting? Or should they even try a whole new form of combat entirely? Be sure to let me know of your thoughts.

Sorry that I wasn’t able to get Monday’s post out until today as I was very busy that day, but moving forward, the schedule should stay the same. Friday’s post will NOT be the KH1 Level 1 finale because I most likely won’t have enough free time to finish up the game before then so that will be something else. See you all then!

Ok before I forget about it completely now that I've moved on to other stuff for like a week already I should probably say something about Astria Ascending.

Astria Ascending is a trainwreck, but it's one that I spent literally a hundred hours on. The art style and music are generally pretty good (although some NPC designs are kinda iffy, but at least the artists were less horny on main than for XC2), and I thoroughly enjoyed the job system and combat. It's obviously heavily influenced by various older FF games in a lot of ways, especially 12, but mechanically I actually liked this more than most of them.

Coincidentally, and despite being made by a non-Japanese indie studio, they had a couple people who've worked on FF games contribute writing and music. The music was a good call, and that was one of the things that was consistently pretty good in the game. The writing was not a good call, and it was one of the things that was consistently not good in the game.

I know Tetsuya Nomura has worked on lots of good games, including ones that I've really liked, but I kind of have a long history of not getting along great with his writing. Like I had plenty of fun with FF7 and FF8, but I'm not going to pretend the stories weren't a complete mess, especially in 8. I liked the worlds and characters and stuff enough to get past that though. And even though I haven't played them myself, I kind of had the same reaction to the KH games he's worked on.

And then there's FFX, which I kind of hated. Like a lot. I only finished it out of spite and because my laptop was in for repairs that week. It started out with a bunch of interesting stuff, and I had tons of ideas of where it might be going with it, but every time they revealed something significant about the world or plot it was less interesting than everything I'd thought of. So I'd readjust my speculation based on the new information, and then a few hours later I'd be disappointed again. By the end it had just been disappointment after disappointment for a few dozen hours, and it remains one of my least favorite RPGs I've ever played, and definitely my least favorite I've actually finished.

Good news though! Astria Ascending's story and writing is a lot like FFX, only a lot worse. There are a decent number of interesting things about the world, but it just doesn't go anywhere with any of them ever and has the most bland and superficial possible story with no real depth. At least in other stuff he's worked on they generally at least have good characters or character interactions or character development that carries them, but that barely exists here. I would struggle to come up with five adjectives to describe most of the main cast without resorting to really generic stuff, and hardly anything happens to them and they barely change or grow.

I know I said good news, but that wasn't actually entirely sarcastic. It kinda lets you know up front that it's not particularly well written, so I never got my hopes up and was never really disappointed.

I feel like I've been almost entirely negative, but I really did have plenty of fun aside from that. They said they were inspired by FF12, especially the International Zodiac Job System version, and it shows. I genuinely liked the job system and some of the wacky combinations of things you can put together with it, and once I figured out how things work my party was constantly doing very silly things.

The side quests are sometimes poorly explained, and I eventually stopped wandering around finding where stuff was on my own and just looked it up online, but I was actually pleasantly surprised that it had some decent puzzles here and there in the dungeons/temples and mostly enjoyed going through those even if the map is a disaster. They've also basically fixed the game breaking bugs it had for the first few months it was out, so while it's still pretty unpolished and has some weird issues sometimes it's at least playable now without major issues.

Also it has one of the best card game minigames since Triple Triad, which I wasted a lot of time on. It's not quite as good as Triple Triad in the end because the random rule just makes it stop being fun 80% of the time instead of just being harder and taking more thinking, but at least the rules each NPC uses are fixed so you're not spreading around bad rules like in Triple Triad. I feel like they had potential to do a bit more with it than they did, but ultimately I had a lot more fun with it than something like Gwent.

So yeah, I can't really say it's a good game, but it's a game that has good things in it while also being a total mess, and I mostly enjoyed my time with it. Also the battle music is going to live in my brain for the next several years.

(edit while updating tags years later: I have no idea why I went on a tangent about Nomura when the writing in this is Nojima's fault. Sometimes my brain doesn't work, but I suppose they did do most of those FF games together so most of my issues still stand I guess)

Cloud Strife

1: sexuality headcanon: Bisexual. I was trying to craft a funny Cloud anecdote to communicate it, but I was forcing it

2: otp: I’m going to take what seems the cowards way out, though it’s the truth, and say that it’s about equal between Tifa, Aerith, and Zack, and what one “comes out on top” depends on the day/the mood/and whose meta I’ve read most recently--and not always in a positive way. I could and would argue for any of the three, all of the three, in different times and ways in canon, and different aspects I enjoy in and out of canon. 

3: brotp: Cloud and Zack, hands down, but I find myself suddenly wanting to talk about Cloud and Yuffie as most underestimated, and one I hope we see more of in the Remake. Cloud may get frustrated sometimes with the in-your-face aspects of Yuffie’s personality and the theft, but I don’t get the impression that he sees her as a kid like some others do. He respects her as an equal and knows what it’s like to strike out and be on your own at a young age so desperate to prove yourself and be taken seriously. Even before he able to admit weakness to the rest of the party, including the ones he has more history with, you can have him giving Yuffie tactics for dealing with motion sickness...though now that I type this I think that he only admits that this comes from personal experience and they actually bond over it later on, so it may not apply, but some of those optional scenes on boats and airships with them are still cute/sweet and something I want to see more of.

4: notp: Used to be Sefikura. “Don’t those people realize…” yes, past me, yes they do. However that sentence ends, most of them do. Things don’t need to be healthy (or any other criteria) to be shippable. Anyway, people who know me know I, uh, don’t have any problem with sefikura anymore. My current least favorite Cloud ship also makes me sound like someone against people having fun though. Strifehart. It’s just a pet peeve because of how much it bleeds into FFVIII tags/discussions/fanfic. I mean it’s easy enough to filter out...when it’s tagged properly, and I don’t hate it as a crossover ship/KH ship. I just have a spite based aversion to Strifehart being one of the most popular Squall ships even when you are specifically talking about FFVIII, Squall/Leon being mistaken for/assumed to be a FFVII character, and so on. I don’t think it’s much of a problem in the reverse since FFVII’s fandom is much bigger, though I did see someone drop the name Strifehart in a FFVII discord referring to Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart and everyone misunderstand and start talking about Cloud and Squall, derailing and confusing the person who had made the initial comment since they hadn’t played Kingdom Hearts. 

5: first headcanon that pops into my head: It’s pretty much a given that someone writes an epic in the style of Loveless about Cloud and the party. This may even be something referenced in AC or DoC for as right as it feels. That’s not the headcanon, the headcanon is, though it may be expected for Cloud to hate the flowery language or the way he or someone else and the relationships are portrayed, he loves it. If it’s a book or a poem it’s on the shelf and he can quote it (if asked, he’s not obnoxious like Gen was about Loveless). If it’s a play, he’s seen it more than once. This doesn’t mean it’s fully accurate or even all that great. He just becomes attached to it. How does this fit in with his lingering guilt and depression in the AC era? Well, first off, those kinds of feelings aren’t a straight line progression, and, second off, I can see him attaching to it as a way of combating negative thoughts by reminding himself of how outside forces saw things.

6: favorite line from this character: "I'm Cloud, the master of my own illusionary world, but I can’t remain trapped in an illusion any more. I’m going to live my life without pretending” I also like his quote about how nobody chooses to live in the slums.

7: one way in which I relate to this character: Gnawing doubt and feeling that you need to be something more/better/other 

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: Listen, we all love crossdressing Cloud but he’s very uncomfortable and I feel that with him. I also would be remiss if I did not mention. “Let’s mosey.” Don’t get me wrong. I think he should say this before the final battle in the remake too. It doesn’t matter if it was initially not the best translation. It’s much too late for that now. But, yeah, I think we all cringed together.

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave? He is a cinnamon roll, but he has his problems too.

Kingdom Hearts BBS, DDD Blind Thoughts

Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and earlier titles in the series. Also warning that I have insomnia and these are utter ramblings on the last 24 hours of blindly binging the Kingdom Hearts series as a total newcomer to the series. Haven’t played three yet and just started Dream Drop Distance. With that warning.....

Birth by Sleep was a ton of fun. We ended up needing to grind a little to make Aqua playable, but that ended up forcing me to learn the game mechanics much deeper, and even my friends leveled up their playing of the game! It was really cool to unlock some of the high tier spells like Triple Firaga and Thundaga Shot, although I do wish we had gotten to chance to unlock even more. I should remember how much more fun the game was after some internet research.

It was very satisfying to unlock the true ending so easily. We had only missed 2 of the 12 required Xehanort Reports. The 2 we needed involved grinding the arena for maybe an hour total and then 5 minutes of finding a treasure chest. We were then able to roll smoothly from Aqua’s finish into the final episode.

Aqua’s fight against Braig was laughable easy, but the final fight against Vanitas/Ventus was slightly tougher. The real challenge was fighting Terra/Xehanort but then the REAL challenge was phase 2 of that fight. I got them all on the first try! It was a really enjoyable flex of my gaming skills in front of the friends.

From a story standpoint, Birth By Sleep had my favorite story of any KH game so far, by a huge margin. I liked certain elements of the KH2 ending (Riku and Sora teaming up, Kairi’s keyblade) but BBS has been the only game where I had any sense of purpose or desire to see how it ends. They did a great job of having each of the 3 routes reveal new information even if played out of order (Xehanort taking over Terra, Vanitas having Sora’s face, Aqua taking care of comatose Ventus).

Obviously it helps to have Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill join the cast, plus Aqua’s VA absolutely dominates every scene she’s in. Terra’s VA reminds me a lot of Leon’s monotone edgy boy voice acting (David Boreanaz or otherwise). Of course Ventus shares a VA with Roxas, but the twist of Vanitas being Haley Joel Osmont is really great because he sounds so much older. I think it would have been easier to predict that twist if I had recently heard more of HJO’s Sora voice in Dream Drop Distance or KH3.

Aqua is, of course, the great standout character from BBS. From the start, we got attached to her because of her known prevalence in KH3 on top of her cool design, Arrow voice actress, and the fact that we could finally play a girl (plus one with more human proportions than Kairi). It worked out really well how we saved her for last and had to kind of unlock the secrets of her play style by finally mastering the various gameplay systems.

I much prefer the command deck system compared to the gameplay of KH2. To be fair, these are the only two KH games I’ve beaten. I’ve only barely touched KH1 and Chain of Memories. I felt like BBS did a good job of fusing the action gameplay of KH2 with the (potentially) satisfying deck building of CoM.

Re: Coded is a fucking mess. I might actually go back and play it on a DS emulator just to see the gameplay, but god damn the story is a flimsy excuse for a retread. I almost wish we had skipped it entirely, but just watching the opening and ending worked out pretty well. In the end, it’s literally just “Mickey is gonna give Sora the memories of all the other protagonists” which is badass but probably going to be mentioned again before being relevant. I will say that the ending with Riku and Sora being summoned by Yen Sid for the mark of mastery test is fucking badass and elicited quite the reaction from all three of us. The series is finally starting to have that feeling of “the stakes are high and I want to see what happens with these characters”.

This was expressed most fully in the intro to Dream Drop Distance. Step 1: invoke Disney Magic with a silhouette of magician Mickey. Step 2: Orchestral Simple and Clean. Step 3: use entirely new cinematic footage instead of splicing together an AMB. Step 4: show every keyblade wielder standing side by side. Apparently that’s enough to make me actually cry. We all got very excited by this intro, so it was a bit of a let down to start the game and be seemingly replaying KH1 again.

Of course that’s not the whole game, but I’m still not sure what the whole game is. Riku and Sora have to...wake the seven sleeping worlds to earn their mark of mastery? Are they dreaming all of this, or what? Seeing The World Ends With You was cute for like a second before realizing that I know almost nothing about it. Flowmotion is similarly kinda neat at first but quickly becomes annoying, but maybe it will grow on me with time.

Speaking of fun at first but quickly annoying: Dream Eaters. The Pokémon-esque system seems like a time waster that’s perfect for 3DS but maybe not so much for our tourist play through. The Dream Eater designs are cute when they’re on your team, but strike me as a bit annoying when fighting the same ones over and over. Heartless and Nobodies felt more generic, but that made them feel a little less repetitive to fight over and over. I see the same god damn rainbow colored Panda every god damn fight. To be fair, I think each world randomly contains certain types of Dream Eaters every time you visit it.

Speaking of Worlds, I’m not really looking forward to Hunchback of Notre Dame or Pinocchio world, but at least they’re new worlds instead of retreading Halloween Town, Agrabah, Olympus, Neverland for the millionth time. What I am looking forward to is The Grid from Tron Legacy! I don’t think we’ve seen any Disney world that specifically spotlight a sequel to a Disney world we’ve already seen. We revisit Halloween Town, Agrabah, Beast’s Castle, Olympus, Atlantica but only for some minor follow-up fluff. The Tron world in KH2 meant a lot to me having just seen the film. The Lightcycle combat could’ve been a little more true to the original, but the visuals were so faithful plus having Tron’s actual actor was so fucking cool. Sora and gang getting Tron outfits was so cool too. Also would’ve liked to have a disc fight, but the Sark/MCP fight was spot on. Hopefully we can get both of more in DDD!

It’s a perfect excuse to revisit The Grid since Legacy looks so different from the original. Now, The Grid is not a true world in KH2 but instead part of Hollow Bastion’s computer system. I’m curious if The Grid in DDD is a sleeping world or something that exists within another world, or if it is somehow connected to the KH2 Tron world (which would get real weird real quick if that version of the Grid is a copy of the original, but Legacy is supposed to be set in The Grid 30 years later).

Oh, I like that DDD has the command deck system but I don’t like the pets, I don’t like the link system, I don’t like reality shift, and I don’t like flowmotion. It just seems like BBS with all the RPG features crammed into the pet system with a bunch of gimmick infused into the combat system. Admittedly, gimmick is one of the biggest strengths of the KH franchise, but flowmotion just seems silly. Perhaps I’ll like it more when I get used to it and potentially get to customize the moves.

I’m not sure yet how I feel about the drop system, but I do like getting to play as Riku. I think multiple protagonists is a smart way to stretch the assets and tell 2 stories per world. I rather enjoyed the way Aqua, Terra, and Ventus interacted with some of the Disney worlds. Hopefully we get something similar in some of these worlds.

The dive mini game is definitely gimmicky nonsense clearly designed for the 3DS. In general though, all the games in these collections look great and feel great. I suppose that is why Days, Coded, and Back Cover are cutscenes: to keep the average quality of gameplay roughly somewhere in between KH1 and 2 between all the titles. In fact, I think KH1 is easily the worst feeling out of all the ones thus far. I’ve always complained about KH hopping between systems, but now I can’t really complain about that anymore. My complaint still stands about the games being overly complicated. Plus, the games are clearly taking themselves way too seriously, but that’s very clearly part of the charm.

Really, I suppose the games aren’t that complicated if you heavily condense Chain of Memories, cut out Coded, and try not to think too hard about the phone games. Then it just becomes: Sora defeats the heartless, Sora defeats the nobodies, Roxas backstory, Aqua/Terra/Ventus, training/prep montage, then KH3. Oh, and try to forget that somehow the upcoming rhythm game is canon.

The Good, The Bad, and the Cards - A Brief Look Back at KH: Chain of Memories

It’s been 15 years since Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released, and while I adore this game, I want to look back and highlight 7 specific elements worthy of praise that still hold up to this day and 7 specific elements that aren’t so good and helped derail the KH franchise going forward, the “Franchise Original Sins” as it were. So without further ado, here they are:

Positive: The Card Map System - I really love the usage of cards when it comes to exploring each world. Through the different cards, you get to create your own customized dungeon to crawl through, and the incentive to battle in order to collect cards you need to progress further in the level is a good one.

Negative: The Card Battle System - Unfortunately, using cards in combat isn’t done nearly as smoothly, and they complicate battles way more than they should. This is especially bad in the original GBA version of the game, where the cards are hard to make out on the small screen and the tiny, cramped arenas that you fight in make it all too easy to get backed into a corner while trying to shuffle through or reload your deck. This game could’ve done better.

Positive: Sora’s Story - The main scenario of the game is superbly written by Daisuke Watanabe. Like I said in my video review, he took what he was given, which was virtually nothing, and turned it into something. Sora’s character has never been explored in as much depth as it is here, with all of his raw strengths and weaknesses on full display. His bond of friendship with Donald and Goofy, his strong romantic interest in Kairi, his tortured clashing with “Riku”, his animosity toward Organization XIII, and the interactions he has with Namine toward the end are all handled perfectly. It really reminds you of just why you love this guy.

Negative: Riku’s Story - Reverse/Rebirth, otoh, doesn’t hold up so well. It tries its best to give Riku good character development, but too much of it is focused on practically everyone but Riku, the lack of anything occurring in the Disney worlds means that the story feels too light on content, and the conclusion Riku’s character is ultimately brought to contradicts what was established in the original KH and only creates further problems down the line. What’s more, this was the start of forcing Riku down our throats as the deuteragonist of the series, which is a role he was never suited for and that he only gets worse in overtime. So yeah, not a fan.

Positive: Organization XIII - Primarily the members introduced in Sora’s story; Lexaeus and Zexion are more useful as plot devices than as characters. Not only are Axel, Larxene, Vexen and Marluxia all excellent villains in their own ways, but the villainous arc they are part of is the best-written one in any KH game. Watching them work off each other and against each other in this dark but easy to follow political intrigue plot is one of the game’s highest points.

Negative: The Riku Replica - Don’t get me wrong, this was a decent character with a decent arc, but the execution was way too over-the-top and overstayed its welcome. Between Sora and Riku’s story, you have to fight this asshole six times! That’s just ridiculous for any boss in any game! And then there’s what the whole “replica” concept he introduced was used for in subsequent games, since Nomura just loves taking the simple and making it convoluted.

Positive: The GBA Graphics - This is one of the best-looking GBA games ever, hands-down. The fact that full cutscenes with PS2-style graphics were actually able to fit on the cartridge is simply incredible, and Square should really be commended for pushing the system to its absolute limits.

Negative: Console Spread - COM marked the first time that a KH game was put on an entirely different console than before, being a GBA game released and set in between two PS2 games. This wasn’t too much of a problem back then, since COM was only needed to fully understand the purposefully confusing prologue of KH2 and it ended up getting a PS2 remake anyway. But after a while, the sheer amount of consoles that KH spin-off games that are necessary to understand KH3′s story with became ridiculous. At this point, the only way you can actually get the full KH series is to own a PS4. If you don’t, then you’re out of luck.

Positive: Disney Expansion - Because this game re-uses Disney characters and worlds from the original KH, Daisuke Watanabe got to expand on things that weren’t really delved into in that game. We get more on Aladdin’s character, more on Alice’s character, more on Peter Pan and Wendy’s characters, more on Belle and the Beast’s characters and relationship…and perhaps most notable of all, more on Jiminy Cricket’s character. The Disney worlds and characters that we saw in KH are all enriched by their memory-based appearances.

Negative: An Influx of OCs - The original KH only had four original characters: Sora, Riku, Kairi and Ansem (five if you are counting Xemnas from Final Mix). COM introduced nine new ones: Namine, Axel, Larxene, Marluxia, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Riku Replica, and DiZ. Again, this wasn’t a problem with the game back then, especially seeing as two-thirds of those characters get axed before the game is through. But it started the trend of Nomura introducing way too much OCs that come to overshadow all the Disney and FF characters. Worse still, he refuses to truly let any of them go, as all six of those dead characters end up coming back to life later on, as do the two who went on to perish in KH2. This results in an overly cluttered canvas by KH3, to the point where no FF characters can appear.

Positive: Set-up for KH2 - This game’s existence did for KH2 what the later Dream Drop Distance should have done for KH3 but didn’t: it effectively set the stage for the following game. It gave all of the necessary foreshadowing for things like Nobodies, the Organization’s true goal, Xemnas, Roxas, Twilight Town, Namine being Kairi’s Nobody, and DiZ being the true Ansem while the Ansem we knew being an impostor. It also removed five members of the Organization from the board, with the sixth slated for removal in KH2′s prologue, which left the villain roster at a much more manageable number for the game’s main scenario. COM truly feels like the middle installment of a trilogy: the shit that happens in it actually matters.

Negative: Too Much Rehash from KH1 - There is so much from the original KH that is on repeat in COM. Beyond the same Disney worlds and characters being re-used, the stories in those worlds and with those characters match the original KH’s beat for beat, except with themes of memory inserted in and all context to the larger narrative removed so that they feel like filler. Both recycling from the first KH and Disney world visits being filler were not so bad in this game, but when it kept happening throughout the rest of the series, players grew sick of it. Furthermore, beats from the first KH still transpire in the main storyline of the game: Namine is in a role like Kairi’s, the Riku Replica is in a role like Riku’s, Marlxuia is in a role like both Maleficent and Ansem while Ansem himself comes back for more fun darkness times in Riku’s story, and we get sequences of Sora being separated from Donald and Goofy (this time it’s flipped and he’s the one who turns on them), the trio making an “All for One, One for All” promise as they put their hands on one another, and Sora making a promise with Namine that has Kairi’s good luck charm at the center of it. It’s all a little too much familiarity.

Positive: Atmosphere - As much as this game rehashes the previous one, it has a markedly different tone. It’s darker, more foreboding, more eerie, more psychological and uncertain. The white walls of Castle Oblivion and the creepy music playing as you go through them floor by floor really helps to sell this, as does a lot of the dialogue, memory-based insights into the characters’ hearts, and twisted machinations of the villains. It makes COM, well, memorable.

Negative: Convoluted Writing - That’s right, it all starts here. The writing for the original KH was smart enough to not actively dwell on the more ponderous elements of its story, keeping the narrative to a simple presentation while leaving the deeper lore as stuff for the player to think and speculate about it on their own. But in this game, it starts getting pushed to the forefront. Memory and darkness are the central themes of Sora and Riku’s story respectively, and yet neither of them quite make sense the way they’re explored. Memory is repeatedly said to be an aspect of the heart, to the point where removing it altogether would shatter a person’s heart completely. Except that this is not only confusing to basic logic that says memory is an aspect of the mind, but it gets contradicted by the following game, KH2, where it states that Nobodies that have no hearts act upon the memories of when they had hearts. Then we have Namine’s powers and how it relates to memories, which is nebulously defined here and ends up ballooning to ludicrous godlike degrees in order to make certain plot turns happen in later games, and you end up retroactively questioning why she didn’t just fuck with the Organization’s memories and shatter them in order to escape captivity all by herself.

Meanwhile, darkness is completely rewritten so that it can be a good thing if Riku isn’t afraid of it and uses it for a good cause...except that this is literally what he did in the first KH and it corrupted him. Darkness was unambiguously bad and something that should not be used in that game, but now it’s being revamped just to make Riku into a special snowflake with uber-awesome darkness powers. Future games continue going back and forth on darkness on whether it’s good, bad or neutral, whether it’s a natural force that needs to co-exist with light or whether it’s the source of all evil in the universe. And I again must remind you that this is only the start of how convoluted the series gets with its stories! By KH3, the series has become an absolute clusterfuck where nothing really makes sense or amounts to anything. There’s no real depth anymore, just pretentious nonsense that Nomura confuses for depth.

The energy/vibe each KH game gives off for me:

(Turned out way longer than I expected so it's under a read more)

KH1- It's kinda creepy and I think it's mainly due to most people, including myself, playing it at a young age. There's a giant shadow monster right off the bat as the tutorial boss, a creepy figure in a brown cloak with a deep voice that you meet in a dark enclosed area that no one else should be in. The first new world you go to is permanently in nightime. Everything feels empty(but not in a bad way), like even with two others in the party you still feel alone and helpless. As cute as some of the Heartless can be, they all still feel creepy and lifeless in a way. Hollow Bastion almost has a haunted mansion feel to it and The End of The World needs no words to descibe its eeriness.

CoM- There's something oddly calm about CoM. Being in the white rooms of Castle Oblivion feels relaxing. Nothing feels urgent and everything is contained solely in the castle. It's sorta slow feeling I guess. There's lots of moments where characters are just talking. Even despite the obvious issue of Sora and Co. losing their memories it still strangely feels unconcerning.

KH2- I think because of the battle system it makes the game feel fast. Most movement and combat is fluid and easy. Fights are very action packed and flashy so it sorta feels like a fight straight out of an action film, adding to the fast-paced vibe of the game. Things are very familiar so it loses most of the creepy feel of KH1 and replaces it with action and more humor.

Days- I think it's sorta sad and melancholic. A big part of it is constantly being in the grey room before missions with the hollow music in the background. Everything is white and almost feels like the world is frozen with its inhabitants being foreign to the world(which the Org actually is). The other worlds have the same empty feeling as in KH1 which adds to the melancholy vibe. Adding in the story of a friendship being ruined just makes it worse, especially when you know ahead of time that things don't turn out well. The Roxas vs Riku fight feels like a final last stand that you know Roxas won't win but by God is he gonna try out of pure rage and spite anyway.

Coded- In a strange way I think Coded feels like learning, if 'learning' had a feeling associated with it at least. Most of said feeling revolves around Data Sora. He starts out as just a data copy of Sora but I feel through everything he learns, he becomes his own person and not just a data copy. There's also everything that Data Riku(i.e. the journal) explains throughout the game and eventually in the end when we learn from Data Namine that the hurting needs to be mended. I feel that learning all these things are a major part of the game's overall feel.

BbS- Despite it's downer ending BbS still somehow feels very cheerful and bright. The first thing that stands out is how much brighter all the models look compared to other games. There's a weird shine to everything that just screams 'bright and cheery'. A lot of the worlds feel like this too. Dwarf's Woodlands has the shiny diamonds and jewels in the mines as well as the brightness of the sky when outside and not in the creepy part of the woods. Enchanted Dominion also has it's own woods and the castle, which despite being empty, is still brightly colored. The inside of Cinderella's house and the castle are just as bright as well. It's daytime in the Keyblade Graveyard and Radiant Garden, not to mention how vibrant Radiant Garden is in general. And Disney Town is the most cheerful of all with it's upbeat music, overall Disney feel, the fun of the minigames, and sweet moment with the ice cream prize. The Command Board even adds to this. Everything is just colorful and fun in BbS, which probably makes the ending much more dissonant, but not in a bad way.

3D- It didn't feel like this the first time around since a lot of things went over my head for 3D, but looking back on it now, it sorta feels like there's an encroaching danger that gets closer the further you go, which is probably a perfect description of the game considering the further Sora goes, the deeper he gets lost in the dream. The feeling of going deeper into the darkness makes sense with 'dropping' being apart of the game. Even when you don't know where the story is going there's still a sense of worsening danger that no one, including yourself and your Dream Eaters, will be able to save you from. Even on Riku's end it's a similar feeling all the way up to the Ansem fight with him trying to drag Riku back into the darkness like he did once before.

0.2- This game feels almost old and antique in a way. I believe it has to do with the Disney worlds chosen for it and the overall dark lighting. There's even something about the models and their prototype feel compared to KH3's improved models. The worlds are all old movies. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, these are Disney's earliest princess movies. The aesthetic of each world reflects the oldness of the movies they originate from. And the darkness consuming them along with the way each world feels like its being broken down by said darkness makes it all feel antique. Like an old vase that's seen too much in it's life as evident by all the cracks in it.

KHUX- I think the style kind of overwrites any other feeling the game could give me, sadly. Even when things get dark its still feels... cartoony. Like the whole game could be a cartoon. Of course, this doesn't lessen the impact of tough moments such as the war, Strelitzia's death, and every other sad or creepy moment we've had in the game. Cartoons can be still be sad even when they're cartoons, but it's still the most striking thing about the game for me.

KH3- This one really drives home the feeling of things ending. Of course, things aren't actually over, but so many plot points have been wrapped up by the end that some things really truly did, indeed, end. The whole game builds up to the final battle between light and dark and stresses finding Aqua in order to find Ven and Terra. There's focus on trying to get everyone back together and ready to face Xehanort in the final clash. Especially at the end of the game there was still the lingering feeling of things being over. From here on out things won't be the same as any of the other games. Everything is heading in a new direction, so in a way, the feeling of things ending is very much true. Kingdom Hearts isn't over, but many of the things we've been fighting for since 2002 are over.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Review

Big thank you to Nomura and his team, Disney and Pixar for making this game a reality.

This review is going to be split into several parts to make it easier to read; story, animation/style, combat, gameplay/exploration, music, rating and overall thoughts.

Story:

Just going to say it now. It's still very complex. But it does answer so many questions from previous games; it asks the right questions and answers them in a cohesive way that even new players should get the general jist of.

It starts off where DDD and 0.2 leave off, even covering some cutscenes from 0.2. KH3 is littered with many references from previous titles that fans of the series will appreciate very much and will help new players get an idea of context.

It follows about 4 major plot points but it never really feels overwhelming or like they're trying to stuff too much in. Near the end was maybe a little rushed, but I don't really see how else they could have delievered this without it becoming too repetitive so they did the best they could.

Pretty much everything that I personally wanted to happen, happened in some shape or form which was very satisfying to see.

Animation/Style:

The characters were a lot more expressive and you truely got a real sense of their personality just by their detailed facial expressions and gestures. It felt natural. KH3 is spectacular in terms of animations and some cutscenes were very cinematic which is very different from previous entries in the series. Despite this, they still managed to keep the same feel.

Combat:

There's so much to the combat; you have the turning abilities and the AP system and links/summons from KH1 and KH2, reaction commands from KH2 as well as form changes, flowmotion from DDD, situation commands and shotlock from BBS, as well as Keyblade Transformations and Attraction Flow which is new to KH3 (obviously magic is back too)

It really is the perfect amalgamation of all the previous entries.

It will take a bit of time to get used to because there is so much but the game slowly eases you into it as to not overwhelm the player. If I'm honest, I forgot I had some abilities but I was satisfied with what I utilised.

Floatiness is practically none existant; it feels very much like KH2. The entire system feels similar to KH2 and DDD.

The difficulty only goes up to Proud though which I personally didn't find that hard apart from a few bosses. As long as you have enough items that you remember to restock and you're at least at the recommended level, it shouldn't be too difficult.

Gameplay/exploration:

Going to talk about the minigames here as well as the environments.

KH3 has a range of different minigames, much more variety than any other game. I found them a little hard to wrap my head around at first but after playing through once I got it. There's a cooking minigame, dancing, Classic Kingdom, matching game, a video game in a video game which is basically you in a giant mech suit destroying other mechs, sled minigame, heartless minigame, among others. There's plenty to do so you'll never be bored.

The worlds in the game are vase and beautiful, there are ledges to climb, you can fall from those said ledges to others with ease and without need of a load screen; traversal is really fun!! If you don't want to travel though, you can wrap using the save points.

Music:

The main themes are both performed by Utada Hikaru just like all previous titles. The overall consensus on these songs, Face My Fears and Don't Think Twice are very devisive but they fit the themes of KH3 very well.

Yoko Shimomura has done a fantastic job with the OSTs once again, the field and battle themes nicely flow from one to the other and helped to build the overall feel of the world. The world themes felt more impactful than previous titles and will definitely be listening to them on repeat when they become availible. The rearrangements of songs that have been in the series before had more emotional weight because of our journey and the meaning behind the music, as well as just being outright amazing.

Rating and Overall Thoughts:

9.5/10

There were a couple of hiccups here and there but it's overall a solid and highly enjoyable game. It retains what kept KH so special in the first place and reminded me just why I love this series so much. I'm looking forward to what's next for the KH series and hope that they take from KH3's successes.

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

i almost cant even count how many this is but im doing every single one anyways and you cant stop me despite the fact that this obviously took me ages to actually answer

1: if ur reading this ur legally obligated to follow max (sender of this ask) Right Now. Just Do It.

2: i think more ppl with my sense of humor should watch Spider Riders bc listen..  if somewhere along the line that show suddenly gained more popularity again in this fine year of 2019 id be both actually funny for once but also revolutionary. by all technicalities some of my hcs are fucking great but i dont think i could say a lot of them and even be comprehensible outside of orientation based ones that are just rlly controversial. granted im not even sure i could or would actually recommend the show to people cause its kinda dumb a lot of the time and also fairly long at least to my standards so its harder to finish unless ur like really invested in it :pensive:

3: also on that note the next time a horny person even THINKS about Corona im Going to break into their home and then break their knees. i hate that she has so much fanart thats basically just fetish art or otherwise managing to be nsfw in some way shes like 15 at best fuck off!! its rlly only a problem on like. deviantart but it still makes me die inside.

4: character development is hard i never actually keep my ideas and what i have written down on like.  my actual bios for everyone on the same pace so its a confusing mess and i wish i was better at combating that

5: anon and kanon r such good loids i wish people used them more but i think a part of the problem is that i dont always look That hard for things that use them ahdbsadgashdj

6: alex is the best sdv bachelor and im not accepting criticism on that notion. 2nd best would probably be like..  sam except i havent tried hard enough to be friends with him yet which i feel bad abt bc he seems nice

7: i miss the cracking open a cold one with the boys meme that was still one of my favorites

8: (goes BACK to thinking about SR shdfjds) the anime had no right having like so many characters base their ideals off of how brade used to be in the past and all those good takes on like not necessarily Having to resort to violence as the ultimate solution and all that good stuff just to be like, “surprise!! he actually IS still around! but also he’s going to be minimally helpful at all until the last few episodes and otherwise we’re going to make a ton of gags about him trying to hit on the like 2 girls in the team who are also like 15 while he ignores practically everyone else because thats funny!” im still so mad about it. he is the absolute worst and he has no rights. there was also so much potential they seemed like they could have used and were trying to hint at using in terms of further developing more important details about the history of the inner world or at least some of the things that had been going on well before hunter ever showed up and then they didn’t do anything but hint at the idea of brade having known hunter’s grandfather. but even that wasn’t 100% confirmed bc they dodged around it the one time they had hunter ask. its a mess.

9: my taste is so fucking weird and i hate it bc its mostly just, “oh yeah i heard abt this thing and it seems cool im hoping to start getting into it soon!” for most things that are actually cool or popular or all that and never actually get into it, but then i see smth dumb as shit that i know would probably make me look like an absolute fool for liking and im like, “oh yeah yknow what i can do this one” and then i do like it but i cant say much about it either cause i dont wanna look like.   a fool.

10: these have been depressing as fuck so im gonna lighten the mood and say that himbo is a fucking hilarious word and i love it

11: also axel (kh) is a himbo. why? he just is.

12: im also bad at character design i think bc i always worry that my characters look too similar in terms of hair style like all the time and idk if its rlly that bad or not jfhgkf.  that and like. so many of my characters just wear jeans and boots in terms of the lower half of their body its so unoriginal but it always works so well…

13: still disappointed in myself for having never 100%’d even 1 tlodw game. lunatic mode.. Difficult

14: i dont keep up with ace attorney fans but i hope everyone out there agrees that miles has peak vampire energies based on the way he dresses alone

15: re:zero fans have no rights only bc i only ever see ppl talking abt rem and ram like. wh..   was no one ever going to tell me about reinhard or was i just supposed to watch him get introduced in the first few eps and then fall in love w/him immediately before even finding out hes supposed to be a knight which makes him 20x better

16: leon and/or leonhart is like genuinely a good name idk why it just sounds rlly nice

17: ive had like so many technical difficulties with this site since trying to answer this i hate tumblr

18: im pretty sure im like. genuinely just gonna go mute or some shit one day cause honestly ive mostly only ever gotten worse and worse about not actually being able to say things even when i know exactly what thought im trying to say, both physically and like. online. its so weird i feel like i just cant say things. it may just be being self conscious but i restrict myself soo heavily and its WEIRD….  its like being trapped in ur thoughts and it sucks.  probably doesnt even actually mean all that much but it still makes it hard for me to accomplish anything ever which i hate.

19: despite all the titles like ssbu and all that existing for the switch i think id only want one to play the new(er) inside system games i havent had the chance to yet like the spinoff card game and rudymical and also brave dungeon but w/neville and klinsy and whoever else was dlc on that game cause obviously i own the 3ds port but also neville..  good…  i wanna see how she plays..

20: i miss when i could be passionate abt cave story it just makes me feel tired seeing it sometimes at this point but it also still holds a great significance to me so its just confusing and im not sure how i feel abt it

21: the SR novels were cowards only on account of not giving us any official design for petra but also for writing igneous like.  That.  novelverse igneous is just too bitter in general and like i get it but they couldve done a lot more with him even though he is still somewhat respectable in the end, granted its hard cause like holy shit hes so fucking mean to hunter literally who asked for that. im just glad the anime let him be somewhat more idk..  i guess sociable while still keeping a lot of the inherently essential aspects his personality had like his almost over the top loyalty to the prince and taking things like training/combat in general very seriously. its just good and animeverse igneous is so good id die for him thanks for coming to my tedtalk

I’ve Completed KH3 And I Have Thoughts.

I have finished KH3 short of the side stuff like the ultima weapon, classic kingdom, gummi ship stuff, battle portals and the cooking. I have some thoughts. First off, I loved this game allot. I only have a couple of complaints gameplay wise and three story wise but all in all, I loved every minute of this game. For those who don’t want to read everything I’d give the game a solid 8.5/10. It was amazing but a few small flaws and the three story issues I had made me bring the score down. First I will discuss the issues cause I feel that’s what one should do when critiquing art. I will offer solutions where I can. 

I will discuss my gameplay complaints first.

The manual lock on is ass while the auto lock on is decent. I almost never used the manual lock on due to the fact it can just drag the camera where ever it wanted. Especially if enemies start flying. This is largely due to how often you spend in the air while in combat. The auto lock is good though and doesn’t seem to change targets unless you make it or bump into another enemy. The manual lock is good for human sized bosses though. Short of making the camera tighter this may not be able to be fixed.

The game is to damn easy. I had this issue in BBS and DDD after I got to level 30 and beyond. The game becomes easy even on proud. This is largely due to bad enemy health scaling. They still can hit damn hard and enemies like the Ice Dragon still are dangerous. But since the enemy’s health and defense don’t scale up better the game becomes real easy after level 40. I don’t doubt they will patch in a critical mode which may be a better way to play this game. Just better enemy scaling would fix this problem.

That’s all my gameplay complaints now for story ones. SPOILERS will be discussed so leave while you can.

The game has bad pacing in the Disney worlds. Some like Olympus, Toy Box, San Fransokyo and Kingdom Of Corona have great pacing while Monstropolis is meh and ones like Pirates and Arendelle were just awful. Why are you cheering for Anna and Elsa Sora? You didn’t do anything you turd. This could have been fixed if they added intervals in between all the worlds to reset the pacing and if they just followed the movies from start to finish in their entirety instead of jumping around.

Twilight Town is more of a bus stop then a world. They should have made it bigger and included old areas to explore. Even an expanded sewer system would have been fun. No story reason needed it just exists. Oh well.

These next issues ARE MAJOR SPOILERS so leave now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

What the fuck is Nomura’s issue with writing a good arc for Kairi? I mean they set her up to be training to become a bad ass and we don’t get to see either the training or a decent fight scene. We fight with her once, she gets kidnapped, and then fucking dies!? I’m starting to think Nomura doesn’t know how to write female characters. That may be one of the reasons they dropped him from FF Versus XIII since females had big roles in the story. He fucked Kairi over and made her the least likable and cared about character in the fucking finale of this Saga to me. What the hell? This alone may actually get me to start my own series on something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. Jesus. The death isn’t the issue its that there was no build up for her.

The last story complaint is a small one. I saw Sora’s “death” coming since death seemed to be a theme in allot of the world’s we went to. Flynn, Anna, Jack, and Tadashi were or are dead at some point. Even Young Xehanort hinted at it when he said, “There is a high price to pay for wielding such power recklessly (...) There is no saving you.” The issues I have with the “death” of Sora is that it means nothing. Nomura said he will be the protagonist for the foreseeable future. If he didn’t say that then the death would be okay. The main complaint about this is the final scene on Destiny Islands where everyone sees Kairi and Sora but Sora just gets Thanos’d. That shouldn’t have been in there. There are two scenarios that would work way better than that one in my eyes.

One: Everyone is just looking out to the sea and the music goes quiet. All you can hear is the sounds of the waves and it zooms to Riku and he just smiles.

Two: Same thing but Kairi comes from the ocean in tears and Riku helps her up. They all look at her and she shakes her head. Everyone gets solemn until Riku chuckles. He smiles and says, “That knuckle head always getting into trouble. He’ll be back. Even if I have to drag him home.”

Maybe its stupid but if you removed the scene where Sora turns into smoke or whatever, the ending would have allot more impact.

Those are all my complaints for the game. Like I said solid overall but with a few issues that could easily be fixed.

Now for the stuff I loved about the game. Gameplay Is First

All the worlds were so much damn fun to explore. I easily spent and extra couple hours in each just looking around for chests, emblems, Easter eggs, and ingredients. Even Pirates was fun and I was worried it’d be gimmicky due to the ship mechanic but nope it was so much fun. The only one that was less fun was Monstropolis but since it takes place in a factory its okay. It seemed more into hidden paths than open places which is fine.

I haven’t had that much fun with a combat system since playing as Vergil In Devil May Cry 4 Special edition and that’s saying something. His combat was so smooth and easy to experiment with I didn’t think it could be beat but KH3′s comes close with transformations and grand magic. The attractions are a bonus though I didn’t use them allot. There wasn’t a need at later levels.

Thank god for combo cancelling with dodges and slides. Against the Gigas, which are the only enemies that pose a threat now, its a god send.

Flowmotion is fun to use and not over powered like in DDD. No more spamming air slam at early levels.

The party members all feel useful. Not many died in combat and seemed smart enough to back off when they’re in danger. Donald also heals based on need versus what he did before. Like if I was out of magic and potions he would heal me over goofy even if we had similar amounts of health.

There wasn’t a single boss I didn’t like short of Dark Baymax since it felt so slow. Skoll is now my favorite heartless design finally surpassing the Wyvern from Kingdom Hearts 1.

That’s all for gameplay since I could go on and on.

Now for story stuff. SPOILERS INCOMING! All the original story stuff for the KH characters was amazing. Anti-Aqua’s theme was so heartbreaking and beautiful and what she said as we fought made me feel like shit even though it was Mickey’s fault for leaving her there. Vanitas’ voice is god like and his scenes are so good. Him calling Ventus and Sora a brother to him makes sense yet unsettled me with the tone he used. ALL OF THE TRIO’S BEING REUNITED!!! I cried when Xion, Roxas and Axel hugged and cried. I was so happy they got to be together. Aqua’s reunion with Terra and Ven was also beautiful. Xehanort’s story beats were great and the man they got to replace the late Leonard Nimoy is amazing. Sounds more sickly and dying like he should at this point. The twist where Terranort wrecks everyone before we go back into time was a fucking shock and amazing. THEN LINGERING WILL SHOWING UP! The voice for Lingering will was amazing. DONALD’S ZETAFLARE HOLY SHIT! All the foreshadowing of Sora’s “Death” or “Disappearance.” Death was talked about allot and Young Xehanort even said Sora couldn’t be saved since Sora uses the power of waking so recklessly. All the Disney characters who met organization members being sick of their shit before they even talk. Woody especially. “I bet you’ve never been loved.” and “That makes you more hollow than any toy.” My son I am so proud. All the instagram style posts were so cute. The epilogue was mind blowing. I knew that sarcastic sniper knew way more than he let on but him being Luxu was a fucking shock. Amazing. And the secret ending seems to be hinting that Sora’s been given a second chance in the form of The Reaper game from TWEWY. Either its going to be DLC which Nomura said if he did decide to do he’d do free stuff and/or one big dlc that adds to the experience in a big way or the next game opens with The Reaper Game. Riku being in Verum Rex is interesting to me. Maybe he realizes Sora isn’t in the realm of light and after talking with Goofy and Donald he learns of Verum Rex and how Sora was tossed in so he goes looking for him there. And finally the Master of Masters looking at the moon and forming a heart with his hands. Is he looking for a new plain of existence for everyone to live on but before he can move people there it needs a new Kingdom Hearts? And is that what’s in the box? I’m excited to see. All in all I love the game and would recommend it to people who want a good JRPG.

8.5/10

i have a lot of thoughts about KH3 so i’m going to put them below. it’s pretty long and obviously, spoiler-ish, so it’s under a cut in case anyone hasn’t played / finished it yet

okay, i have ... a lot of disappointment with KH3. when i first finished the game i was heart broken and hurt but i thought the journey had been incredible, but the more and more i thought about it, and the more hours and days started to pass and i started to really think on it, the more disappointed i became. i was just trying my best not to admit or recognize that i was disappointed because this is a game i, that all of us, have been waiting over a decade for, and to admit that it was anything less than what we’d hoped and imagined it to be is heartbreaking. but it wasn’t what i imagined it would be like, it didn’t feel like a proper end to a 16 year saga. 

that isn’t to say i hate the game or that i even dislike it, i loved playing it, and the journey was incredible. there were so many things that KH3 did right and did amazing, a lot of amazing moments and the way they pulled everything together, convoluted plotline and dozens of characters and all, was interesting to see. it had a very different feel to the other games, especially the title games KH1 and KH2. it was far more poignant, more mature and serious. throughout the game you got the sense that this was the end to things, because everything was coming together and sora was reflecting on his journey so far. 

so i feel like between that, and between nomura’s comments on how the end of the game would be hard to accept / how some friendships would change, i should have seen things coming, and i thought i did, but i didn’t. and i wish i could say that i was only disappointed in the ending of the game, but there’s far more to it than that. the ending however definitely felt a bit like a slap to the face, especially when you put it together with everything else that kind of fell flat.

to start off on the technical side: i feel very bad for any new players, because right off the bat square enix throws a whole lot at them, game mechanic wise, and it was a little tough even for me to keep up with all the controls at first. all the shortcuts and command switching in the middle of combat can be difficult sometimes. that being said, the way they incorporated all of the game mechanics from previous games and morphed into something more streamline, sleek, and uniform was fucking great. they really did well on that, and on making combat fun, exciting, and dynamic. all the links, the spells, the attacks, the combos, the team attacks and summons were great! the keyblade upgrading was a fun aspect too and i had fun maxing out starseeker and wheel of fate. 

speaking of wheel of fate, aside from ultima which will always be the fuckin best keyblade to ever grace the goddamn planet, i LOVED wheel of fate so much!! it was so fucking badass and very powerful and along with starseeker, once i got it i don’t think i ever unequipped it lol. 

also, one BIG THING that i absolute loved and could not stop talking about to anyone who would listen: THE NPCS!!! THE WORLD POPULATION!!! the fact that there were PEOPLE in the worlds! actual PEOPLE who walked, talked, laughed! people you could interact with and who reacted to you! It was so much fun just walking around the world and hearing all the conversations, seeing all the different NPC models. It really, really REALLY helped make the game feel more real. Like the worlds were actual worlds, and not just empty sets like in the other games. It really added another layer to the game, making it much more immersive, and I think the devs did a fucking AMAZING job and a fantastic decision on including them. :-)

and speaking of NPCS, the developers who scripted them and were in charge of them, i would like to thank them a whole lot. especially when it comes to the companions / teammates. because holy FUCK. CAN I TALK ABOUT THAT? BECAUSE I CAN’T GET OVER IT. in KH1 and KH2, it was always fun having your world companions with you, but there was never really much of anything to them apart from the fact that they fought beside you in combat and that they interacted with sora during cutscenes. but that was all there was to them. in between, while traveling, walking running breaking things or jumping on / off things, going different places, there was no reaction from them. teammates were silent companions and that was always kind of sad, always felt a little lacking.

and kh3 changed that. the scripts for your NPC teammates, having them interact with you during the actual game, point things out to you or comment on stuff you did. like flynn whenever you showboated tricks in the town, or the little games you could play with them while journeying through the world with them like in corona, when you slid down the meadow with rapunzel and flynn or danced in the town square with them. even whenever you took a selfie with them or a photo of them and they would look at the camera, comment on it, react, pose maybe. it’s those little things, the little reactions and the interactions between sora and his teammates / companions that made the journey seem much more ... real? it made the friendships more believable, that you actually did have someone traveling with you because they had personalities that shone and were shown outside of cutscenes or battle. but the cutscenes helped, too. there was much more interaction between everyone in the cutscenes this time around, and the dialogue -- while still cheesy at times (its kh and disney, of course, why wouldn’t it be?) was much more believable and natural as compared to the past few games. it felt more polished, more like conversations between actual friends, there was more emotion being displayed. in how they reacted verbally and also in the minute micro-expressions. the micro-expressions!!! god!! watching a brow twitch or an eye twitch or someone’s eyes crinkle or their hair move with the wind and the little subtle facial changes and scrunches !!! i loved it!!!

also, obviously ... the fucking graphics. the level of detail in the game. was fucking. GORGEOUS. the entire time i played i could understand why the game took so long, with everything that went into it, and how the gameplay graphics blended in so seamlessly with the in-game cutscenes. it was amazing. absolutely beautiful. all the models, all the textures, the lighting, the style --- so fucking gorgeous. and THE VIBRANCY OF THE WORLDS! the EXPANSIVENESS of them! they were HUGE! the fact that you could go so many places and weren’t bound to a small box room for the most part, no fading to black as you entered a new area. you just keep going for the most part and it doesn’t break you out of the illusion of actually being there. the maps were so expansive and the work that went into each of them was so clear...it was absolutely gorgeous and so much fun exploring them all and testing the limits and boundaries of them all.

HOWEVER, one of my main gripes with KH3, was the level of difficulty in the game. which is to say ... it had absolutely zero challenge in it. and it was extremely disappointing. in the other games you at least had to strategize on what items to equip and more importantly, what ABILITIES, but here they just hand you everything on a silver platter and let you go wild and yes, that can be fun, but not if it makes the game so unchallenging. even the boss fights were disappointing because they weren’t tough at all. the final fight against master xehanort wasn’t difficult, just time consuming. the boss battle of all boss battles in kingdom hearts 3, and he wasn’t even as difficult as riku or ansem from KH1. like. what? how does that make sense? they gave you kupo tokens in case you die but i literally never had to use it once. maybe it’s different on pride mode, but i’ve talked to people who have played it in pride mode, including my brother, and they say it’s not challenging at all either.

which, i don’t want to be eternally frustrated and never be able to beat a game because it’s so hard, but damn. at least some level of difficulty would have been nice. the enemies had a lot more HP this game but as far as their attack style went and how much damage you took, with all the accessories you were given and could equip, it didn’t matter how much HP they had, you’d cut through them easily and never be in any real danger of losing.

the worlds were also so short. like, incredibly short. unbelievably so. to the point where i really thought, for over half the game, that there would be a second go at them and you’d come back to them until i found out that that wasn’t the case, and you only go there once. the stories in so many of the worlds, toy story, mount olympus, twilight town and tangled especially, felt so ... incomplete. not only that, but so many of the worlds were just cut and dry repeats of what had happened in the original movies. it wasn’t like the other games where there were new plots and stories introduced that you could go through. the cutscenes were all basically just the movie repeated but with sora somewhere in the background. which, they looked absolutely beautiful! no joke. i won’t lie about that. it’s amazing how faithful to the disney movie art styles they stayed and how they recreated them. that’s amazing. but as far as actual content and story? they felt lacking. especially since so much of the worlds were made up of cutscenes. not even gameplay or battles but cutscenes. 

there was eleven hours worth of cutscenes in the game. eleven! on average it takes around 20-29 hours to beat KH3. that’s practically half the game. that’s insane. and i hesitate to complain about this because i love cutscenes, i love seeing the characters and seeing them interact, but unlike the other games KH3 felt less like a game you played and more like a movie you watched where you could on occasion participate. 

okay. now to the worlds:

Mount Olympus: so gorgeous....what a big ass fuckin world too. mount olympus had the most GORGEOUS lighting and colors and i probably spent a good hour just. turning every which way and staring for a couple of minutes at how beautiful and scenic everything was. the friendly back and forth between herc and sora was so cute too, really felt like they were good friends, it felt very natural and i adored it. sora’s instagram post on herc’s dad was hilarious too, oh my god. 

Twilight Town: SO BEAUTIFUL! i love how they expanding on Twilight Town’s world, made it so much more open, made it so populated! the sunset was gorgeous and i took way too many selfies in front of it on the rooftops than necessary. hayner pence and olette were adorable and i adore them and how much they wanted to learn about roxas and get him back, and how they juped xemnas LMAO. ratatouille’s bistro was a lot of fun as well but cracking the damn eggs are devil’s work and i never fuckin got to five stars BECAUSE I COULDN’T GET EXCELLENT ON ANY EGG RECIPE BFBFRJFESJSAB 

Toy Story: VERY VERY CUTE VERY NOSTALGIC GOD HOW CAN ANYONE NOT LOVE TOY STORY’S WORLD??? they did an amazing job in every world recreating the movie art styles but MAN ... TOY STORY FELT JUST LIKE THE MOVIE. fighting in the mechs was a lot of fun, the doll heartless was creepy, i had way too much trouble finding the stores i needed to go to and spent far too much time getting everyone’s voice high on helium LOL. woody was MVP of the world and he kicked ass, loved the sass he gave ymx. and speaking of ymx, how he kept subtly fucking with sora’s head, really fucked with me and left me so fuckin worried and anxious. also did we ever get an explanation on how they got home?? like we left them in a world split in two and we were just like okay bye now g2g laterrrr and its like, WELL ... OKAY THEN ... im glad it seemed their world was repaired at the end in the credits but, also, that means they forgot about sora and that makes me );

Tangled: My second fav world!! i admit ... i wasn’t looking forward to rapunzel’s world. i thought it would be my least favorite cuz tangled is my least favorite disney movie. i thought it was too boring and bland. but her world was anything but! and rapunzel and flynn themselves were very dynamic and active and interactive too. :-) it sucked that her world, like many of the other worlds, was just cut and paste of her movie with no difference, but her world was so beautiful --- full of vibrant colors, so expansive, and the movie cutscenes were gorgeously recreated. the festival where you dance with the townspeople was the CUTEST FUCKING THING EVER AND I MUST HAVE DONE IT LIKE TEN TIMES. 

Frozen: i was very tired at the end of it after being thrown off the mountain like 5 times LOL BJSKDBA. the fact that they had sora poke fun at their plot after the last time he gets thrown off is funny too haha. other than that, frozen was cute. too cold and the colors too muted / the same in every direction for my tastes, and i had the most trouble finding one of the mickey lucky marks here too. all that fucking snow man. GAH. hearing idina menzel sing though was surprising but a blessing and while frozen has never been one of my favorite movies, i adore how much emotion idina delivers in let it go. the fact that sora was so clearly in awe of her voice and powers and his instragram post on it just makes it even better fbksba. 

Monstropolis: this was fun! boo was adorable. sully and mike caring for boo and their back and forth banter, the way they just yeeted vanitas through one of the doors was fucking hilarious. sora’s reaction to being monster-ified was funny as well, and it was nice that there was a somewhat different plot to this world from the original movie.

POTC: MY FAVORITE WORLD HANDS DOWN ... nothing compares imo bjsakdbsa. the fucking hours i spent grinding to get my leviathan ship to max level and finding all the treasures and all the ingredients AND THE GIANT TREASURE COVE FULL OF ORICHALCUM AND PRECIOUS MATERIALS AND ACCESSORIES. WHOOOOOO! sora’s enthusiasm for being a pirate was cute as always, and the fact that he finally became captain of his own ship!!! the sailing of the seas and ship combat was so much fun too and unexpected, and the undersea combat was very fun as well. diving down and seeing all the fish and coves and caves!! man. it was so much fun. easily my favorite world by far.

San Fransokyo: i think my favorite part about this world was the fact that it was modern day, and so phones and cars and television were a thing, and the fact that we SAW! HEARTLESS! ON NATIONAL TV! ON THE NEWS! PEOPLE WERE TALKING ABOUT HEARTLESS ATTACKING AND IT FELT SO MUCH LIKE TWO WORLDS COLLIDING AND I LOVED IT SO MUCH. and i know the BH6 world was the movie version of the world but i like to think it’s still connected to earth-616 like in the comics anyway and therefore marvel and therefore sora in the same world as the avengers and the x-men. as for the actual world itself...i was really excited at first, but it felt a little ... anti-climactic? it felt very short compared to the other worlds, and san fransokyo itself was probably the smallest out of every other one. so that was a little disappointing, but BH6 team was adorable, and i loved all their interactions with one another and with sora donald and goofy. :-)

Pooh’s World: pooh’s world probably gave me the world’s biggest heart attack, with sora reassuring pooh and having us think everything was fine and innocent and carefree like the other times and then BAM you hear sora’s thoughts and he’s like ‘he’s right something’s pulling us apart, what’s happening to me?’ and you’re just left like HUH WHAT ? THE FUCK, EXPLAIN. other than that, it was very cute. very short, but cute.

now onto the actualy story of the game. i was kind of shocked about how serious, how dark and much more intense the story was in this game. the tone and the emotion in KH3 was so vastly different compared to the other games. it’s partly due to the dialogue but also, i think there was much more of an emphasis on realistic emotions and reactions as well. in the other games, whenever something bad happened, it sucked, but it was never really a big deal. the characters would never really react like it was something world ending or horrible, they’d just move past it like it wasn’t grave or like it weighed on them. there were times where things were more serious, sure, but even then, it was usually resolved with a smile or a laugh or a joke or some motivational speech or saying.

KH3 on the other hand? totally different. everything felt like it had so much more gravitas, because the situations that the characters were put into, the battles they faced, the people they met or fought against --- they weren’t resolved with a laugh or a speech, they weren’t moved on from after a few seconds of deciding everything was alright. there were some moments like that, but there were far more weighty situations where the characters really took everything in, really reacted to it. showed negative emotions -- fear, sadness, confusion, doubt, anger. there wasn’t just symbolic talk of death in some abstract form, where you could interpret the loss of a heart for someone dying but still vague enough it could be said it wasn’t really death. there were far more realistic and understandable forms of death: flynn getting stabbed with a knife, will getting stabbed with a sword, xigbar purposely letting himself fall off the ledge down a cliffside. sora going to ‘heaven’, and chirithy telling him -- and us, the audience -- that when the heart and body perish together someone is dead, and that that’s what happened to sora and the others. and the reactions to those deaths were far more real as well. in the other games death, when it happened, was never given much weight, apart from a few -- the main characters in each of the game mainly. but for the most part, the organization members, the NPCS who lost their hearts? 

they were given moments but sora and the others all just kind of. moved on very quickly, and that was that. but for this game the reactions to seeing someone die were so much more intense. they were more real. when someone was dying, like flynn or will, people cried, sora got angry and violent and lashed out. for the organization members, they all had their own moments, there were conversations that were had, emotions displayed and truths told, and when all of the trios reunited there were tears and joy and breakdowns of relief. you could feel all of those emotions and you could see it in them and just how much this journey had cost each and every single one of them. there was no moving on right away, there was surprise but blink and they’re over it moments. each reunion and each goodbye held so much real, raw emotion, where the pain and the exhaustion and the sadness and joy were able to be felt.

in general, there was much more of a range of emotion and personality for all of the characters during moments of duress or conflict, but especially when it came to sora. and i absolutely adored it, even though it gave me so many heart attacks lol and a lot of pain and worry. he was showing such a mature side of him that we haven’t been able to get in other games. the closest one is DDD, where we saw sides to him that were serious, had more weight, but even then his faith was never broken, never shaken, and he had unwavering faith and radiated positivity. this game pushed sora to his limits. we saw him at his weakest, and his strongest, and every moment in between. we were able to hear his thoughts --- hear all the directions his mind takes that he doesn’t speak out loud. we were able to see that yes, sora is smart, and no, when things happen to him, he doesn’t just brush them off. he feels them - the pain, the hurt, the anger, the sadness, the doubt - just as much as anyone else. and the doubt. i’ve been saying this for YEARS that sora, while his strength lies in his friends, he relies on his friends too much, in the sense that he attributes all his success and all his strength and his worth from them. that he believes he’s ordinary and unextraordinary without them. this game fucking confirmed that. the moments where he doubted himself, where he lost hope in himself, where he admitted that he didn’t think anything of his abilities without his friends. it was heartbreaking to see but it showed us that sora isn’t just happy - go - lucky all the time like some people like to believe.

and riku ... RIKU! i’m SO PROUD OF RIKU. so proud of who he’s become. his empathy, his kindness, his thoughtfulness was so beautiful and so sweet. especially when it came to aqua. that first time we saw him and mickey in the realm of darkness, and riku was hesitant to leave, and he voiced how lonely and sad aqua must feel trapped there, it really showed how empathetic he is towards people, how caring he is. his conversations with repliku, his reassurance towards sora, how he picked up on what mickey had been planning to use stopga, the way he protects everyone. he’s warm and kind and he has a strong heart and while his moments were sadly quite few in the game, he really shined bright in a couple of scenes.

for kairi, i couldn’t shake the feeling all game that they were shafting her, pushing her to the side again. more so really in the first half of the game because, wow, while riku didn’t get much screen time (and i’ll talk about that in the next paragraph), kairi had even less. i’m pretty sure hayner, pence, and olette had double her screentime in the first half of the game which ... i love them, but really? c’mon. i was hoping we’d see more of her and lea training, or their conversations, or something. the moments they had were lovely and cute and so scenic and very deep, but i was hoping for more, especially for kairi. ): they also really fucked her over fighting wise. despite stressing that she and lea have been training together to become keyblade wielders and despite both of them being told in the game that they were ready to fight xehanort and organization xiii, they only showed kairi needing to be rescued. we saw lea fighting, but kairi? maybe one or two seconds. and that ... sucks. they still didn’t do her justice in that sense. she’s prepared - she’s capable. why not show that? that being said, i’m happy she had more focus on the second half of the game, and i absolutely ADORE her being determined to be the one to save sora this time and not the other way around, and making good on that promise, and being sora’s light to guide him back to the world of the living. 

that being said i am very disappointed we weren’t able to play as her, or even as RIKU apart from those two short battles in the realm of darkness. i thought we’d be able to play more as him or kairi or even aqua, seeing how this is the third and final game in the saga, and we were able to play as riku for half of DDD and aqua had her own prequel to KH3 but it seems not. :/

not only that, but the characterization for riku, while i definitely think it started off strong, felt like it fell flat after that first fight in the realm of darkness. the fact that sora and riku were in the same room together, twice, at yen sid’s tower, and yet hardly even acknowledged one another, felt so odd. especially considering the fact that in every other game, their friendship and bond was stressed heavily, implying how close they were and how much they cared for one another. the fact that this was the end to the saga, the third game in the series, and they had only two significant moments with each other, both which lasted only about a minute or two, was so weird. it was so so weird. 

i know nomura said that he wanted to keep the friendships realistic, that friends can grow distant over time as goals change, and fine, that’s fine, but it doesn’t make sense when you look at literally every other game and see how close sora and riku are, and then they hardly even look each other’s direction out of nowhere. it was just so ... disjointed. not just sora and riku either, but riku and kairi. we never ONCE saw them interact or even TALK. not once! sora and kairi were the only ones who got any real screen time and development together in the game, which i’m happy for, because that was long overdue, and kairi was a STAR in the second half of the game and that moment between them where they FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY share the paopu fruit with each other and make a promise to protect each other was so ... fucking long overdue ... and so gratifying and sweet and romantic. 

but it’s just incredibly disappointing how all the other trios were able to get their reunion EXCEPT for sora, kairi, and riku. every other trio. literally every other trio was close, were friends, had a reunion scene. were able to relax, to find peace and rest after this long journey they’ve all been on. everyone except sora kairi and riku. we were all expecting for them to finish their journeys the way they started it: together on the island. after years of searching for one another, chasing each other, fighting, being apart. they were constantly looking out for each other and looking for each other and in the end? we never got that. we never got them together on destiny islands at last, after everything. never even got them together, period. it felt like such a slap in the face, alongside the fact that sora is dead. 

and i know sora will remain the protagonist of the kingdom hearts series, and that the secret ending set up KH4 and sora’s next adventure, where possibly riku stars in it like DDD as well, but ... FUCK. it doesn’t take away the disappointment and the bitter feeling of knowing that everyone else is able to be at peace and find happiness and be among their friends, together with everyone at last, while he’s dead and gone and alone. and i try to justify it, because sora was fine with sacrificing himself for kairi. his journey started when he looked for her. he loves her. he loves his friends. he doesn’t want them to be dead. and if they’re happy, if they found peace, he’s happy. 

but it also just hurts to think that after all that, after all of the sacrifices he made, after all the people he brought together and saved, he doesn’t get that happy ending for himself. doesn’t get to relax after everything. that he doesn’t get to be with his friends, that he’s alone. 

it’s a very bitter ending and i know nomura intended for it to be that way, but understanding and knowing that the ending was meant to be like this doesn’t mean that the ending is any good, or satisfying in any way. it’s just disappointing and a little insulting. 

in the end, i’m very mixed on kh3. i’m trying very hard to focus on what i enjoyed and take it for what it is and accept it, because there were a lot of good moments, but i can’t help but feel like the game could have been better in many ways.

I have a whole essay of thoughts on KH3. Let’s see if I can be remotely coherent.

Gameplay is fun. Movement feels good, and so does combat. Keyblade switching is neat, although it would be better if there were some cooler keyblades to use. I’d take Oblivion, Oathkeeper, etc over some of the silly stuff we got. Grand magic is cool. The only new mechanic I don’t like is the attractions. They aren’t fun to use, they don’t feel good, they’re just flashy. But you can mostly ignore them, so overall combat is fun. The real problem is that it’s too easy, even on Proud mode. There were a couple of tricky spots for me early on while Sora’s HP was low, but they really throw those HP upgrades at you and enemy damage doesn’t scale fast enough to continue to be a threat. Even the last boss was basically doing chip damage to me while I took out half a bar of health per fire spell. There was nothing like the Riku fight in KH1 or the final boss sequences for 1 or 2. Other KH games have fights leaving me pumped with adrenaline because they’re so good at keeping you on your toes, but KH3 never got me that worked up. Some folks cite all the powerful finishers, attractions, etc, but I think it could have still been challenging with those things if the damage scaling was better.

Exploration is fun, and I like the different approaches each world took to it, with some being large open spaces and others being more linear. It does make searching for treasure and emblems more difficult, though, and some sort of tool to help with that late game would have been nice.

The worlds themselves and how they play out have their ups and downs. You never really fight any big bads in them, so none of them feel like they have the stakes of KH2 worlds, but they don’t all need to. Olympus was a very solid world, and a pretty good setup for what Sora’s trying to do in KH3 (which unfortunately falls flat later, but in Olympus it feels good). It also sets up some intrigue with Maleficent looking for the box (which goes even more poorly later, but again, here it feels good). It’s a big, pretty playground to experiment with all the new stuff in the game. My only real gripe is Phil’s awkward silence. If you want him to show up, Square, give him at least one line. If you can’t give him any lines, don’t have him show up! This was awkward later with Aeleus and Dilan later as well. They make for such clear time/budget cuts, it breaks immersion something terrible.

Twilight Town was a huge disappointment. While it’s nice that it’s so populated (and that goes for many other worlds as well), only having a small part of what we know to exist available to explore is pretty sad. The story there sets things up so that Pence has to do some research which takes time, so I figured we could come back and go up the hill later, but of course that never happens.

Toy Box was fun. It was nice to have a world where almost all of it is just one big open area with lots of vertical space. The Gigases here were some of the only enemies in the game to pose a threat, but only because you need to also use the Gigases, which makes them and the whole world easy. The idea that the organization is doing research on inanimate objects acquiring hearts is interesting, but never amounts to anything, and the main conflict here goes unresolved until the end credits where it’s maybe kinda resolved without our input.

The Tangled world was interesting. It’s probably the most faithful adaptation of a Disney movie’s plot in a KH world in the series, down to specific scene setups, lines, framing, etc. I thought it was bizarre at first, but exploring the world with Rapunzel, which she’s seeing for the first time, and seeing her reactions to it made me feel like I was playing the game of the movie, in a good way. And of course this world had some gorgeous greenery. It also introduces the New Seven Hearts, which is interesting in theory but ends up being irrelevant and underutilized, especially since it could have fixed a problem that’s present for the entire game.

The bad guys want Sora and co to gather the seven lights. By rescuing Aqua, etc, they are playing into Xehanort’s plan. There should be some conflict about this. As it stands, there’s no tension. We’re not really doing anything to stop their plan. Of course Sora wants to save everyone, but maybe they could wonder if they can just not fight, or hide some people away, or something. But, it’s mentioned that if Sora fails to gather the seven lights, the new princesses can be used instead. That makes them leverage: if Sora and his allies fail to show up to the final battle, then these innocent princesses will be used, which of course forces Sora to move forward with the original plan. There’s conflict and tension there, where currently, in the game, there is none.

Monstropolis is interesting because it serves as a sequel to Monsters Inc, developing the lore of the Disney property in an interesting way. The factory’s a little bland but it has some fun sequences. Boo gets some cute moments. What’s annoying is that a Vanitas fight is teased here, and then ripped away from us. By this point I was dying for a good old classic KH person v. person hardcore showdown, because those are always the best fights, but alas. And of course nothing here ends up being super relevant to the main plot.

The Frozen world was fairly faithful to the movie, similar to the Tangled world, except with Sora mostly doing his own thing while the plot of the movie happened elsewhere. I actually thought this world set up an interesting theme that could have been explored more, which is Sora’s hero complex. He sees Elsa hurting and wants to help her, but it’s not something he can help with, so he has to learn to let her work through it on her own instead of coming to the rescue. Unfortunately they don’t do much with it, but it’s an interesting angle. And the New Seven Hearts come up again, which continues to be a waste of potential. The one thing that stood out as a peculiar choice to me was reanimating the entirety of the Let It Go scene. It was so bizarre I was laughing the whole time. I like the song, but what point did that serve? I actually heard a streamer mention that Elsa sings all of Let It Go when I watched some prerelease streams, but I assumed he was joking.

The Pirates world is the only one in this game based on a movie I haven’t seen, so I was a little lost as to the larger plot, but it gave some good characterization for Luxord. It’s nice that he seems to come to this world just because he likes it. I enjoyed the ship exploration and island setup, but I always do (see also: Wind Waker, Suikoden IV). Underwater movement and combat feel much better in this game than Atlantica worlds in earlier games. Ship battles got a little repetitive after a while.

San Fransokyo was one of my favourite worlds. The GTA-esque open city setup is fun, although a little small, and I love that we can see it during the day and at night, although having some chests and emblems only appear at certain times was a bit annoying. The music is excellent here. I like Big Hero 6 a lot, and the story of the world was a very interesting way to build off of the movie. I would love to watch a full BH6 sequel that’s basically the KH3 plot. It’s also a cool and interesting way to reintroduce Dark Riku as a member of the organization. Even though none of the Disney worlds really advance the plot directly, I’m okay with it because they serve another purpose, which is to slowly reveal organization members, keeping us guessing as to who the full 13 will be. Of course, it would be better if we didn’t see almost everyone in trailers, but it was fun to guess at the ones we didn’t know. What is disappointing about the Disney worlds is that Sora is supposed to be learning how to use the power of waking, but it’s obvious early on that it’s going to work when it needs to and he’s not going to figure it out before then, so that entire quest feels pointless.

In between these we get cutscenes of other plot points, and briefly play Riku in the world of darkness. I don’t like that so much of the cool plot stuff happens elsewhere. To me, that’s all the interesting stuff, the stuff I’m playing KH3 for, and I wanted to be involved in it instead of it happening elsewhere or hearing about it over the gummiphone. I did like that we get to play as Riku, as one of the things I’ve come to love about the series is seeing the different keyblade wielders’ combat styles. I also liked that, after we save Aqua, we get a fight as her. I was pumped to see my favourite keyblade master and the most badass character in the series in action again, but after the fight she gets inexplicably knocked out so that she can be rescued, which was both disappointing and out of character.

And then we go to the Keyblade Graveyard, which is where things really fall apart. First of all, the KG is a disappointing final world. It’s somewhere we’ve been before, and it’s nothing like the big, mysterious final worlds of previous games. The End of the World and the World That Never Was are two of my favourite worlds in the series, and the KG here fails to stack up. The labyrinth is a cool concept, but sorely underutilized. But before we even get there we get a very poorly explained time loop thing, and another moment where Aqua doesn’t seem nearly as capable as we know her to be, not to mention all the other great keyblade wielders with them at that point. We get some sort of afterlife, which complicates the life and death mythos of Kingdom Hearts even further, and we get an optional scene there that really should have been mandatory.

Then we go into the final showdown stuff. What was most exciting leading up to KH3 to me was this promised showdown, the 7 lights vs the 13 darknesses, all the keyblade wielders fighting together against overwhelming odds and kicking butt because they’re all great. Instead, what we get is Sora going through and systematically rescuing every one of his allies. It’s not the 7 lights vs the 13 darknesses, it’s Sora vs the 13 darknesses. What’s the point of having everyone there if Sora does everything in the end anyway? It’s especially grating to have extremely capable people like Aqua have to be rescued again. There’s also the matter of Kairi and Axel, who I was most excited to see finally fight with their keyblades. Instead they get trounced immediately and we don’t get any Kairi action at all, and then she gets fucking kidnapped. I’d understand her being less skilled than the others, but what was all that training for? And Axel may be new to the keyblade, but he’s a great fighter, much better than we see here. It’s all so disappointing. The entire section completely fails to live up to the promise of the big group showdown. We have Riku and Aqua programmed as playable characters, so even if they had been playable for their fights that would have made things feel a lot better, although it doesn’t fix everything. The Kairi issue is the biggest bummer for me.

This is where a lot of the important character stuff is resolved, too, and it’s all done quickly and sloppily. The ‘fight, stop for a cutscene, continue the fight, get another cutscene’ format is lazy and immersion breaking. Xion shows up with very little explanation. The whole struggle with her is that no one remembers her, and yet that’s brushed aside without ever really being addressed. And no one really gets the time they need to live in these moments of being reunited with the people they care about. I wanted to see more of them interacting, and more characters interacting who never have before but have clear links to each other. The way everything was quickly resolved, and the way things are set up for the future, makes me think Nomura was getting bored of these characters and wanted to get them out of the way as quickly as possible to move on to his current infatuation, which is the mobile game garbage.

It’s not as if I dislike everything the mobile game has to offer in terms of story and lore additions, but too much of that stuff bled into KH3. The thing where Sora summons the power of all the past keyblade wielders was fine, although I don’t like the 4th wall breaking of including everyone’s usernames. Still, it’s innocent enough. Making the epilogue all about the mobile game, tying the motivations of characters from earlier games to stuff from the mobile game, and introducing new mysteries that are clearly tied to the mobile game but never get resolved here lessened the quality of KH3. I expect some new mysteries and elements to be introduced each game to tease sequels. But in most games, those aspects were relegated to the secret endings and secret reports. That way you get a full game, leaving you feeling satisfied as you watch the ending, and then getting a teaser for another satisfying experience to come. For KH3, as I watched the ending I wasn’t satisfied. There was still too much left unresolved, or poorly resolved, things I needed from the game that I didn’t get. I was still looking for those things when I got to the secret ending, and of course it offered no closure. It made this entire game feel like sequel bait, when this is the game the previous games were supposed to be sequel bait for. I feel like I’m being strung along by the developers and taken advantage of.

There are some things I like about the ending. Although I don’t like the way it was shown so briefly and vaguely, I like the idea that Sora sacrificed himself to save Kairi. In multiple worlds in this game, we see characters try to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones, so when Sora does it, it makes for an interesting thematic link between the Disney content and main story content. I also like that the game seems to imply a switching of roles for Sora and Kairi, in the way the shots are framed so that Kairi is where Sora normally would be. This is the one thing that made me excited for future games: the thought that maybe Kairi could be the protagonist and go on her own journey to save Sora, that she could finally fucking do something other than be the damsel and love interest. Both KH2 and DDD suggested that she would have a more active role as well, though, and look how that turned out. So, I don’t trust it, especially with the secret ending showing Sora and Riku.

Speaking of which… Yozora. He’s clearly a Versus XIII reference, and I thought it was rightfully petty and hilarious when I saw the Toy Box scene, like Nomura was showing off how much cooler his game would have been than FFXV. Seeing Yozora in the secret ending makes me worry, though. Is he so petty that he would use a future KH game as a vehicle for the characters and ideas that didn’t come to fruition with Versus? With this and all the mobile game stuff, not to mention the general quality of KH3, I’m seriously worried about future games. For over a decade I’ve been thrilled every time a new KH game was announced. Now, though, I feel I’m going to have to be more cautious. It’s not a good feeling to have. Kingdom Hearts has never been perfect, but KH3 makes me feel like Nomura has forgotten what it is that made Kingdom Hearts great in the first place.

Kingdom Hearts III: A Long Time Coming

As we’re about a month after the release of KH3, I wanted to get out my thoughts on the game (there are spoilers below). I might be talking into the void, but hey, that’s what fandom’s all about. Anyway, let’s rock.

First things first: I loved the game. I’m biased, because I’ve been in love with this series ever since I saw the first trailer on tv all those years ago. I have some criticisms, but please never take those to mean that I don’t love this game because I do.

Story

My main issue with the plot of KH3 is that I think pacing was a weak point in this one. Now, I’m used to playing through mostly irrelevant Disney worlds the whole time and then getting a plot dump at the end. I know how this series works; that’s not my issue. The problem is that there are a lot of characters who would pop in to do something pivotal, and then make an equally swift exit without any real closure. Demyx and Vexen come to mind, but even the non-benched OrgXIII members didn’t do much besides serve in the boss rush and make their goodbyes (while the other fighters politely waited before continuing to rough you up).  We knew there was going to be a huge cast of characters, but for the ones that served to move the plot forward, in a lot of cases I was left feeling like I didn’t have an answer for why the roles had to be filled by them in particular. (Connections to KHUX were blurry at best, though that’s more of an issue with series planning than with this game on its own. I’m okay with using Luxu as a cliffhanger, though, since that’s more of an intentional setup.) Motivations weren’t explored and many of the characters ended up just where they were before: lost, floating in the void.

I was also a little put out with the game’s treatment of the main heroes.  Riku and Mickey spend 5/6 of the game throwing themselves against a wall, staunchly refusing Sora’s help.  Meanwhile Sora (aka the player) is supposed to just wander around until the Power of Waking comes to him all deus ex machina style? That’s not a plan, and it makes for a meandering plot. And when you finally do get to the Realm of Darkness, lo and behold, the power was in him all along, meaning that we’ve all wasted a lot of time in what we’re supposed to believe is a pretty urgent situation. If I’m considering this within the framework of the KH universe, it means we should probably never take direction from Yen Sid again.  If I look at if from a real world perspective, it’s a rather poor excuse for the player to visit the obligatory worlds while the main plot gets compressed to a cutscene movie at the end of the game.  Either way, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

And finally, I was truly disappointed with KH3′s treatment of Kairi. I try to be understanding. I get it, she’s not the main character. But here’s the thing: the writers set Kairi up to be in a position of agency, if not power. She has a keyblade, she has the benefit of legitimate training in no less than a genuine hyperbolic time chamber (more than Sora has ever had the benefit of, mind you), and she has a history of being eager to pull her weight as a Guardian of Light.  Plus, she’s a Princess of Heart.  You’d think this would lead to her being able to contribute to the fight in more ways than just believing in Sora enough to keep him from keeling over when he loses his cool (another thing I took a bit of issue with, but I won’t digress here).  But no, Kairi is demoted very solidly to damsel in distress when the plot finally sees fit to release her and Lea from their bubble. To be blunt, I call bullshit. I think she deserved better as a character, and I think if they weren’t going to do anything with her having a keyblade, they shouldn’t have wasted all that time making it happen. In the last fight, she and Lea were more liabilities than anything. I think they both deserved better than that.

End(?)

Obviously, the end of the game contains a culmination of the complaints I’ve mentioned.  I’m overjoyed that my favorite characters get their lives back, but a lot of that takes place without direct player contribution (for example, Roxas showing up by himself, having melded with a replica body offscreen, or Namine being a footnote in the closing scenes). I acknowledge that the player character doesn’t need to (and shouldn’t) be the sole instigator of action in a game, but for some of these instances, having these points basically narrated to me felt like things were coming together because they had to for the plot to resolve, and not because our own actions had led to an optimal outcome. I didn’t feel like we had earned all of the pieces falling into place the way they did.

I mentioned unclear motivations before. All I will say about Xehanort is that I don’t quite see the connection between the story they’ve been selling us for him literally this entire time and the story he painted for his motivations at the very end. I don’t feel one way or the other about them trying to redeem him, but I don’t feel that that was a well-established path to try to take with the character they’d built. It’s important to give evidence throughout if that’s the final claim you’re going to stand on, and nothing in any previous game has ever hinted at the “noble reset” MO.

And then, there’s Sora. My precious sunshine child. They damseled Kairi so hard that Sora died got lost in an alternate universe. I had two problems with this: 1) it just made me sad, and 2) it was like...completely unaddressed. I get it, you’re leading into the next saga, and that’s admittedly an excellent hook. But like, I feel like a plot point as pivotal as the main character functionally disappearing warrants some sort of ... visible reaction from his friends and comrades??? To have that emotional fallout completely unaddressed makes me feel like the story wasn’t complete. And not to make a somewhat unrelated gripe, but I feel like if they had space to make us watch the entire Let It Go song, they had space to let the audience know that Sora’s disappearance actually had some effect on the people he’d saved.

Experience

So, given all that grumbling, what did I feel about the overall experience of the game? I actually thought it was very positive. The gameplay - both exploration and combat - was very smooth and exciting. The worlds we visited were well-executed and fun (though San Fransokyo felt deceptively small, somehow). The graphics were awesome. (I’d been concerned that the new engine would lose some of the Kingdom Hearts feel, but I think they really nailed it.) Yoko Shimomura triumphed as always with a stellar soundtrack. (I found myself humming along to the Arendelle and Corona themes for hours.) The plot, obviously, was great despite my issues with the execution in this particular chapter. I think that most of the problems that I mentioned earlier with pacing and details stem from there being what I consider to be too many plotlines to handle in one ~40 hour game. I wouldn’t want another side game of course, but I think that the telling of the story might have benefited from the Dark Seeker saga continuing into a KH4. The plot is sprawling, as we all know, and it just needed a little more space to resolve everything cleanly.

(Side note: I missed my FF friends, but I understand why they weren’t present. Like I said, there was too much going on as it is.)

Aside from that, I personally got to spend a lot more time with my brother than I have ... probably since KH2 came out, to be honest. We promised to only play together, and we took turns with the controller just like we had to do in the good ol’ days when we were kids. And we’ve always played the main games together, so this was a really nice throwback. Closing this chapter of the story was impactful for us as individuals, but sharing the experience was just as great. After several years of being pretty closed off, I feel like this reminded me how to be a kinder sister. So, I thank the KH franchise from the bottom of my heart for that.

All things said, I really enjoyed the hell out of playing this game. At the end of the day, I think that’s all you can ask of a game, really. This one did much more than that, though. It largely followed through on my hopes for the characters, and definitely fulfilled my technical expectations. Most importantly, it felt like it came through on my immense emotional investment in the series. I cried (a lot), like I knew I would. Heck, I might even play it again sometime. lol  ...Maybe not right away, since I still have to heal emotionally. But yeah. Thank you for the ride, KH. I won’t make this sound like a goodbye because you still owe me some closure. But thanks.

Here’s to the next half a lifetime. :)

About me: Kingdom Hearts

Got this from @khfriendlyreminders so I thought I’d give it a whirl

Favorite Kh Game Overall: Kingdom Hearts 1

Least Favorite Kh Game Overall: Tie between Chain of Memories for the very slow, linear and tedious gameplay with the cards and Coded for the overall story that really felt pointless but just to market other games.

Kh Games I Should Replay: Honestly played them multiple times in the past so I can’t really say.

Most Played Kh Game: Kingdom Hearts 1, I was on a hype when it first came out in 2002

Least Played Kh Game: Coded, while the gameplay was more fun compared to 358/2 Days and Chain of Memories, by the time the remixes came out and turned Coded into a movie, there was no point.

Kh Games I Need to Play: I played all of em so I guess Kingdom Hearts 3 since that’s technically not out yet? Feel like that’s kinda cheating.

Favorite Gameplay: KH1 for the simplicity that made the growth feel more natural and DDD for the crazy abilities that actually makes more sense given it takes place within dreams. KH2 did have improvements in the final mix but its linear style for most of the gameplay till Cavern of Remembrance just made it a bore for me even on Critical.

Least Favorite Gameplay: Chain of Memories.

Favorite Story: KH1, can NEVER beat the classics.

Least Favorite Story: KH2′s story was all over the place and I REALLY hated its lack of focus of trying to be either a Kingdom Hearts game, a Final Fantasy game, or an anime in general. Not to mention this was the game that infamously started retelling the plots of the Disney movies. If I wanted to relieve the movie, I’d watch the damn movie! But Coded is even more pointless overall so I’d say that. I can at least say KH2 had some great ideas and themes present but its execution severely botched it.

Favorite Character: Hmm...never really gave it that much thought before.

Least Favorite Character: Xemnas. For anyone interested, send a note if they want the short list or the long cause I could go on about my problems with Xemnas for a while.

Favorite Character from Main Cast: Sora, easy answer but still likeable.

Least Favorite Character from Main Cast: If going by the main 3, least fave is not even a fair category for this one but I would say Kairi. I honestly like her but sadly we never really got much character from her. Here’s hoping future games fixes that somehow.

Favorite Drive Form: Limit, aside using the moves from KH1, I still think KH1 Sora looked much better because of the better use of colour. Too much black in my opinion or KH2 Sora.

Favorite Spell: Cure...isn’t it obvious!?

Favorite Keyblade: One-Winged Angel, always liked how its literally based off of Sephiroth’s Masamune sword and how its teeth its literally designed after the meteor spell from FFVII

Favorite Summon: Cloud in CoM and Tinker Bell in KH1

Favorite Limit: Teamwork, where you repeatedly send Goofy’s shield flying multiple times then afterwards fire him like a rocket, looks awesome and always does a lot of damage.

Favorite Dream Eater: Tyranto Rex, why? “I’m a motha f***in’ T-REX!!”

Favorite World: Deep Jungle, not only based on my fave Disney film of all time but just enjoyed the interaction and how its story was not a complete rehash but actually contributed to the main story of the game. And having Tarzan as the very first official in-world party member is awesome and having the tree sliding mini-game too. Plus maybe it was just me but I never got lost in it at all during my first playthroughs...maybe it was just I enjoyed the world that much I never felt lost?

Least Favorite World: If going by Disney worlds, KH2 Atlantica. I know that’s considered cheating but at least Atlantica in KH1 had a unique concept and like most worlds in the game, it really contributed to the main story despite taking a bit to get the hang of the controls at first. While KH2 Atlantica made it easier to control...the crappy minigame idea is one thing, but its entire story is not only pointless, but its baffling to understand the logic of what went into that world. Seriously, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

Am I ready for Kingdom Hearts III: Honestly, as long as it takes in the great story telling and not rehashing the stories from Disney films from the first game and the faster paced combat introduced in KH2 and executes both very well, the wait will be worth it.