Well, I finally beat it. It took me a little bit due to life being a bit more busy than when the last iteration came out, but I finally beat Kingdom Hearts 3. So what did I think of the game? Well… it’s complicated. Let’s get into it. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice from the title of this post, there will be plenty of spoilers ahead.
Seriously Fun Gameplay
Nearly everything about Kingdom Heart’s gameplay has been revamped in this game. I loved it a lot more than I thought I was going to. I remember starting up the game and being completely overwhelmed by all the different things that I could do. I had to get used to flow motion again. There was a focus gauge for shotlocks. We’ve got the keyblade transformations and the summons. There’s even the amusement park rides. But once I got used to it, I loved the depth.
Flow motion was fun. It was a huge departure from KH1 relatively clunky platforming. On a general note, I could do whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to. I enjoyed running up the walls of buildings and creating a zig-zag pattern in tight corridors.
The shotlock gauge wasn’t all that exciting, but I was happy to see it return. I used it on a regular basis against bosses. But the more useful aspect was the ability to dash to enemies with it. I used that all the time in the final battles.
I enjoyed the keyblade transformations FAR more than I was expecting to. When I first saw it in the trailers, I thought it looked super gimmicky. But no, I found them to be the most exciting part of the combat. I particularly loved the staff combat of the keyblade from the Pirates world.
While the amusement park rides were pretty, they were typically pretty mediocre in terms of usefulness. Sometimes they were helpful, other times I just skipped out of them. The same can’t be said for the summons. The summons were always useful and always beautiful. Stitch for the win!
All in all, the gameplay was the best thing going for KH3.
The Visuals and Voice Work
Man, this game looked stunning. The Unreal Engine did its work well. Cutscenes and gameplay scenes didn’t actually have too much of a quality difference. And there were so many vibrant colors that brought every world to life in a distinct way. Similarly, the voice work was always on point. Well, almost always. Everybody did a fantastic job, but Leonard Nimoy is so hard to replace as Master Xehanort. I couldn’t find myself accepting the replacement. To be fair, I also prefer Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Ansem, but Nimoy made Xehanort seem overwhelmingly cunning. Still, grade A material here all around.
The Disney Worlds
All of the Disney worlds were excellent. As previously mentioned, they were animated beautifully. The voice cast was great. The musical numbers in Frozen were recreated flawlessly. Running through San Fransokyo was amazing. You felt engrossed in the movie.
BUT
There are a couple of issues here. First, I really wanted more of Maleficent and Pete. We’ll get back to that later. But more importantly, many of the worlds made Sora feel unnecessary. For example, in the Frozen World, Sora has no effect on the plot whatsoever, except for protecting people. Tangled has a similar problem. That’s the problem with the movie plot needing to be recreated- it doesn’t allow much interaction. Compare that to the world of Big Hero 6. Sora was integral in every part, mostly because the world didn’t follow the story of the movie.
Lastly, I need to mention this: WHERE ARE MY FINAL FANTASY CHARACTERS?
Seriously, this was a huge let down. If some DLC isn’t released where we spend an entire chapter in the world of Spira or Midgar, I will be thoroughly disappointed. I get it, the cast was already huge, but not seeing Leon or Cloud felt like a let down. It’s like not seeing Chewbacca in Return of the Jedi. I guess you could go without him, but do you really want to?
The Story (Not Including the Ending)
Man, Square Enix had their work cut out for them in this game. They had to put together and wrap up so many different games. And the game references all of them without skipping a beat. Some of them are far more forced than others, but it typically flows very well. Unfortunately, if you come into this game without playing all of the side games (and I do mean all of them) you will be very confused by many things. You can still enjoy the game, but most of the plot won’t make sense. This is especially the case for Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance. If you haven’t played those, you’re going to be lost.
Honestly, a lot of the plot doesn’t make sense. Well, that’s a bit of an overstatement. What I mean to say is that the plot requires long time Kingdom Hearts fans to stretch their suspension of disbelief pretty far. You find out that the universe works a bit differently than presented in KH1 and 2, and you kind of just roll with it. Let me try to give an example or two. First, Keyblades don’t come back to their Master’s hands as often as you’d think. Bequeathing a keyblade to someone doesn’t mean they’ll inherit your keyblade, they just kind of get a new one. Keyblades can be broken, but you can just kind of get a new one. Apparently Yen Sid just kind of makes them rather than the Keyblade really choosing people (kinda loses its mystical nature). That’s not to mention any of the nonsense that comes with time travel.
There are many plot points that are kind of hurried along. In past games, there was a purpose for every world that was out there. KH2 had enemies that wanted to conquer worlds. It had Organization 13 attempting to get more hearts and create more powerful Nobodies. Basically none of the enemies’ plans in the worlds that Sora visits have any impact on the overall story. But once the endgame rolls around, you get a ton of story all in one sitting. It’s satisfying in some ways, but disappointing in others.
The Ending
There are so many things that KH3 does so right with the end game. And there are also so many things that it does so wrong. Let’s tackle what it does right first.
Man, it gives us accurate characters and solid arcs. You feel for all the organization members. There is suspense. Axel almost dying? That was some fantastic story telling. Part of me thinks it would have been better for him to pass, but the moment gave a chance for Xion and Roxas to be reintroduced in a meaningful way. Everybody gets their moment to shine, especially when everybody basically dies.
Every character gets screen time, but doesn’t take away from Sora. And Xehanort’s childhood with Eraqus being fleshed out was a great decision. The endgame being a pretty long endeavor was a welcome addition. Overall, I always had fun while in the endgame. Oh, and I have to say that Donald’s Zettaflare is one of the most epic things I’ve ever seen.
BUT
Man, there are so many problems with this ending. For this, I’m going to get pretty specific, so bear with me.
First, there were so many things that were hinted at that didn’t find resolution. Here’s a few examples- Luxford gave Sora a card to use, just in case. Sora never uses it. Terra’s armor comes and fights Xehanort. It is never seen again. Riku tells Mickey to save his time magic for later. We never see the time magic (though we see him cast Ultima, so…). Vexen has a long discussion with Demyx about being a traitor, but we don’t see him do anything, nor do we get a conclusive look at which of the chosen 13 betrayed the Organization. Maybe it was Xigbar being all Luxu-like. Maybe it was Luxford because he’s a pretty cool dude. I don’t know. Oh, but I loved it that Vexen was a double agent.
Second, it just didn’t make sense from time to time. Yen Sid coming down to help everyone was epic, but Donald and Goofy staying with him didn’t make sense. It was only a gameplay ploy to keep Sora alone. Why in the world, after Sora recollected everyone’s hearts, would time just repeat in the same way? Did they just go back in time with only Sora knowing the difference? Does everyone know the difference? If so, why does Ven act the same way? For that matter, why didn’t Sora immediately attack Xehanort-Terra once they were back at that place? What did Sora’s actions have to do with Terra’s armor coming around? Why did the ancient keyblades of light attack for this fight and not for the original one with Terra, Aqua, and Ven?
The ending was just incredibly unsatisfying for me because of the lack of closure. This was supposed to be the end of a trilogy. Sora having more than a day or two with Kairi was necessary. But the story was robbed of closure when Sora was deprived of a happy ending and when Kairi and Sora’s relationship didn’t exactly get the chance to change. How much better would it have been if Sora and Kairi had their moment, then the two of them with Riku had a moment similar to the opening scenes of KH1? You can still leave plot points open via Luxu and those final scenes, but you can also give the game a sense of finality. With Kairi and Sora’s fate uncertain, it’s hard to feel like Sora succeeded against Xehanort. Kairi’s “death” is undercut by the weird way that death works in KH, but it’s also not fully redeemed. In a sense, that means it lacks the emotional payoff and the emotional closure, which is a failure to me on both fronts.
I think it would be beneficial to compare Kairi’s fate in KH3 with Riku’s in KH1. Sure, both seemed lost. But Riku just got finished with a character arc that changed him and Sora forever. Kairi had the least amount of lines of anybody present for the endgame. Riku could have been lost forever, and that would have been a fitting end with plenty of payoff. Kairi would just frustrate. Plus, it’s the end of a trilogy. Give Kairi a break.
There is one more that I think deserves to be ranted about. Xigbar being Luxu makes almost no sense to me. Braig in Birth By Sleep does not act like somebody who has any experience with a keyblade. He’s constantly duped and seeks knowledge. He desperately wants a keyblade because he doesn’t understand its power. Xigbar is nothing but a pawn in Organization 13. Twists like Xigbar being Luxu are best when everything starts to make sense because of the reveal. You’re welcome to disagree with me on this one, but it seems to me that they came up with this far after Braig’s other encounters and hoped that it would fit. And I personally don’t think it does. Even the idea that Luxu was playing stupid doesn’t make sense because he has nothing to gain from helping Xehanort.
Pete and Maleficent being in the end was a nice touch, though. Honestly, I would have preferred that as their only appearance. They show up at the beginning like they’re going to be important on the plot of this game whatsover. They aren’t. Let them just show up and that end and, one, it raises more questions in a good way, and, two, it makes the plot more understandable. Instead, my KH3 experience was just littered with KH4 (or whatever they call it) teasers from beginning to end. Kind of annoying, if you ask me.
Final Thoughts
I have so many other thoughts than what I’ve written down. And it’s easier to complain about things that it is to praise things. But I do want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this game. If it were for Kairi’s fate at the end, I think I wouldn’t have had much bad to say about it. It’s just at that point that all my other complaints finally decided to push through. But it was still an absolutely fantastic game.
It was definitely worth the wait. The gameplay improvements were fantastic and seeing every single character from every game was pretty fun (even if it didn’t make much sense. Time travel is weird).
My favorite Kingdom Hearts game has been Kingdom Hearts 2. Even the fantastic Birth By Sleep or Dream Drop Distance has not supplanted that game. Concerning gameplay, I think that Kingdom Hearts 3 has an edge on 2. Not a huge one, mind you. KH2’s drive forms and limits were fantastic. But I think that KH2 will maintain its #1 slot as my favorite Kingdom Hearts game for a few reasons. The story was more understandable and better written. The conflict had huge emotional stakes. Riku and Sora’s relationship had huge changes and lasting effects. And the boss battles were better in KH2, generally speaking. Do you remember the dramatic tension of trying to block all of those laser bolts with Riku and Sora? Pure gold.
You’re welcome to disagree, of course. Both are fantastic game. I just hope that they add some sort of DLC where I can fight Sephiroth again. Traditions, man! But those are my thoughts on KH3. What did you think?
Soli Deo Gloria, Friends.
P.S.- My wife watched me play most of this game. She often asked me, “What just happened?”
My answer was almost always, “it’s hard to explain, but you’d get it if you played the other game.” Sometimes, my answer was, “I’m not really sure.”
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