A long-awaited journey

It’s hard to believe that Kingdom Hearts 3 has been out for nearly a month already. Now loads of people have completed it and have given their thoughts about the game but I haven’t yet. What do I think about Kingdom Hearts 3? A game I’ve waited 10+ years for (since KH2).

Well, I think Kingdom Hearts 3 was fantastic, not without its faults of course but I enjoyed every second I have spent playing it. This isn’t going to be a review but more of a discussion of sorts. I want to get that out of the way before I delve into what I think about the game.

 

Graphics

I’ve seen some pretty games in my life but I can safely say that Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the prettiest. Yes, it doesn’t have “realistic” graphics but it’s unique art style, makes it stand out vibrantly amongst a crowd of games that have realistic looking visuals.

 

The Worlds

I love the Disney worlds in all of the Kingdom Hearts games and Kingdom Hearts 3 features some of my favourites. I adore Toy Box and as a HUGE Toy Story fan, I loved it. I spent 20/30 mins just looking around Andy’s room and shouting “there’s the ball”, “that’s the toy chest”.

I was nerding out big time when I was in the Toy Box world. I do wish that more of the Toy Story crew were present here and I would have liked an RC Car mini-game but, I liked what was in the game.

Monstropolis was another brilliant world and I loved seeing Mike, Sully and Boo again but this time in Kingdom Hearts. Much like the Toy Story world, I was geeking out here and I lost my mind when I went into the door vault. Seeing all the doors and being able to grind on the rails, my jaw was on the floor with amazement. I think it’s safe to say that I had a bit of a moment here.

My favourite world in Kingdom Hearts 3 is The Caribbean. I loved every single second I spent in that world. Sailing the high seas with my own ship with Donald, Goofy and Captain Jack Sparrow as my crew and taking on Heartless battleships was delightful. I felt like a pirate and I loved it. I had to pretty much force myself to leave The Caribbean so I could go on to the next world.

There was one Disney world that I didn’t like and that was Arendelle. I like Frozen and its characters but its world in Kingdom Hearts 3 didn’t really do it for me. The Ice Labyrinth can do one, I don’t mind mazes and whatnot but I hated the place. I couldn’t wait to get out and get back to exploring the mountain. I’ve read online that Square Enix had a lot of restrictions with the Arendelle world but maybe this world will get more fleshed out in a possible “Final Mix” update/ expansion?

I liked the Big Hero 6 world but it could have been so much better. The story for this world is pretty much fed to you constantly and is very linear. Where other worlds in the game had you explore the area/s whilst doing that world’s story, this didn’t. You can explore the city after the story for San Fransokyo is done but it feels rushed.

 

Combat

The combat is incredibly fun and stylish. Sora has access to so many different mechanics now that he is essentially a one-man army. There are Shotlocks which is a mechanic that was introduced in Birth by Sleep and I’m glad they were brought back. Attraction Flows are effectively situation commands where you summon a Disney theme park ride and use it in combat. The Attraction Flows are awesome to look at but I do think that they are a little bit overpowered.

Sora can now equip three Keyblades and you are able to switch between them. I really like this as it makes all the Keyblades actually worth using, as you can mix and match to suit your playstyle. The biggest new addition to the fighting mechanics are Keyblade Transformations. Each Keyblade has at least one transformation and gives access to new moves and combos. Transformations vary from dual guns, hammer, drill, claws and more. My favourite is the Pirates of the Caribbean Keyblade, it can turn into a spear and it is super quick and very powerful.

I think the combat is pretty damn good in KH3 and yes, there is some floatiness present in the gameplay but it doesn’t bother me as much it does other people. Seriously, the way some people go on about “floatiness” in Kingdom Hearts, they make it sound like it murdered somebody.

 

Difficulty

I didn’t find Kingdom Hearts 3 to be difficult, I didn’t get defeated once in my entire playthrough on standard difficulty. I’d say this is one of the easier games in the series and I put that down to the plethora of new combat mechanics.

Another reason could be the fact that KH3 is the most ‘mainstream’ entry in the series as this game got more support from Disney than previous instalments. Making the game too difficult could potentially alienate the ‘mainstream’ audience that may pick the game up solely because it is Disney.

I’ve seen complaints from other people that the game is too easy but it doesn’t bother me at all. I wanted the game to be pure, innocent fun and that is what I got. I like difficult games and playing games on the hardest difficulty but I don’t want that for every title I experience. The whole discussion about KH3’s difficulty has been blown way out of proportion in my opinion.

 

Story

I’m not going to mention much here out of respect for those that are still playing the game but I liked the story in Kingdom Hearts 3. Could it have been better? Yeah, it could. Could it have been presented better? Yeah, it could. The story is slowly drip-fed to you as you go through each Disney world. The last 5 hours or so is where the game goes all out with the story and it doesn’t let up until the credits roll.

I enjoyed the story and nearly all the questions I had were answered. One of my theories was sort of proven to be correct which was nice. Then there’s the epilogue and secret movie, oh boy. The post-game cutscenes are excellent and were mindblowing. (I’ve got articles in the works about the epilogue and secret movie.)

I’ll finish off the story side of things by saying, that I am now even more excited for the Kingdom Hearts series and where it goes from here.

 

Was it worth the wait?

Yeah, it was definitely worth the wait. However, Square Enix, don’t think this means you can take just as long to make Kingdom Hearts 4. I’ll wait but I’m going to be annoyed if I have to wait 10+ years for the next numbered instalment.

If I had to score it, I’d give it a 9/10.

 

What did you think of Kingdom Hearts 3? Did you like it or did you hate it? Let me know in the comments below or shout your opinions at me on Twitter – @ThatGreenDude95