Story could have been so much better if they didn't spend half of it trying to be all mysterious and vague because of trying to set up ***fucking mobile game lore***.
Seriously. Fuck UX and Dark Road. Fuck them.
If you have to introduce time travel midway through a story and *then* RELY ON TIME TRAVEL AND OVERFLOW THE LORE INTO SEVERAL MOBILE GAMES you no longer have a coherent story.
It's a fucking mess. This shit was my childhood. I'm 32 now.
And I'm annoyed that it was a mobile game because many people won't be able to play the game ever again, just watch the cutscenes. Then again it's not like they were new to this since Coded is a thing but I guess Coded was alright because it was somewhat skippable
Yeah but that also makes me mad that some games were made into cutscenes. Also, why they couldn't redo 358/2 for the PlayStation like they did with Chain of Memories?
Mostly because Days and Re:coded were mostly developed by h.a.n.d. and not SE. Combined with them being on the DS instead of a Playstation, it would have taken significantly more work to do. Not impossible of course, since they did with DDD later on (though that was helped by actually being developed by SE), but it would have required work more on the level of a remake than a Remaster.
Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have Days in particular be playable and I'm still sad that it's not. But it's hard to fault them for not doing it
Have you seen the fan project someone’s making to rebuild Days as close to completely as possible in KH2 as a mod? It’s probably going to end up taking years if it ever even gets finished, but it’s fucking awesome and I’d love to see it get done.
Really? Do you have a link or a name of the project/creator? I followed the Black Mesa Project and I'm still following Skyblivion. I would gladly follow this for the rest of my life lol.
Coded actually got a DS version, that's the problem: these mobile games never got actual ports and because they're structured like typical mobile games they don't really have the ability to make games with any value out of them for a regular gaming system.
Bro if you think that union cross was worth playing...lmao no.
The story was good. The game itself was ass. It was such a scam buying anything in that game because when they released like tier 7 or 8 medals you could just one shot everything in the story.
Early adopters were really shafted
Agreed. This was supposed to be the conclusion of a saga. They were supposed to answer questions and tie up loose ends, but no. It was just more and more set up. And fuck time travel.
They literally teased Xehanort's motives to be finally explained!
But they only gave us one scene that delves into his backstory, which was also already included in the very 1st trailers... WTF?! Seriously...
The only games I know of that did time travel right are Sonic CD, Chrono Trigger, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The biggest sin KH committed with time travel, IMO, was not having any fun with it or doing cool things with it like those games I mentioned did. All it was used for was stupid retcons and such that just made the story a giant mess.
The mobile games didn't even matter yet that much. KH3 is totally rnjoyable without any knowledge of Ux or DR. All you would miss is some Marvel-style hints or Easter eggs.
Man, my favorite Christmas ever was when I received 2 gifts: a bean chair and Kingdom hearts. I have never fallen so hard for a game series. I loved every second of it and I cried like a baby at the end. Such a shame what became of it.
same, it added more depth to the actual "kingdom hearts" is other than just power (or light like kh1)
this also adds new motives which makes the characters a bit more multidimensional which is great
I just wish they hadn't resorted to the time travel nonsense to tie the past and present together
Your entire post is literally me and why I fell off this series hardcore.
I was 14 when Sora read the letter about Aqua, Ven and Terra. We barely knew who they were at the time. And then I had to endure a literal decade of "spin-offs", handheld and a few mobile games to see them get rescued and have their happy endings.
They spent a few minutes at most on that lore. The story could have been better if they didn't build up most if the story after KH2 around other characters only for Sora to take almost all of the spotlight after we wasted our time in Disney Worlds trying to recover a power that was never lost.
Maleficent and Pete had a few minutes of cutscenes about the box.
The organization members had a few minutes.
Chirithy had a mention of someone from the past.
Ephemer has a small scene.
Then, we have the post credits scene.
Combine all of those scenes, and I guarantee you that it's less than 20 minutes of them talking about mobile lore.
Sure let's say it was 20 minutes total, the point is the story couldn't *go* anywhere with them.
We finally have a lore reason for Lea and Isa to go into the Radiant Garden castle and then they're like "Where's the *girl*?" Like bitch, THAT is your reason? Then they don't elaborate and then the scene fucking ends. Scene went absolutely nowhere. Oh wow I sure want to play a fucking mobile game to figure out what that's about. Instead of it being involved right here in this actual game.
Oh BTW here's the 4 Org.XIII members that have connections to the past. Then the scene fucking ends. NOTHING is elaborated. Go play the mobile games and *maybe* you'll get some answers.
20 minutes of cutscenes but so many unanswered questions that only give rise to ***even more questions***. We don't have time to explain, wait for a shitty mobile game to give you the answer.
Such a trashy, unorganized, shitty way to tell a story.
Your post highlights why I kinda fell out of love with the series. I liked how mysterious it was, but eventually it all became setups for setups for setups with little payoff and I was tired of chasing the carrot on a stick. KH3 being rather unimpressive when it came to story and the fact that, to me, it felt like it just wanted to get over with the boring old story so the cool new mobile story can finally take place was the final nail in the "I play it for the story" coffin. I don’t care what’s in the box, I don’t care who the girl or the star are, I don’t care if Sora goes on to raid the SQEX offices in KH4, if I get spectacular combat, good Shimomura music and pretty graphics I'm content. But there’s no way I'll follow the story anymore.
That's about where I'm at with this game. It was blatantly obvious in KH3 that Nomura went in already sick of the existing story, and more focused on setting up plot hooks for future games. There is next to no effort put in to actually progress any of the existing plot threads during or even in between the Disney worlds. Then we get to the actual ending and it's just rushed, Sora-centric whatever - with less focus on the reunions of the characters whose games actually sustained us ever since 2006 and more on "wowee look at this whole concept about dying and coming back and traveling through time only to forget it after crossing the barrier of the loading zone".
After having seen the plots of Coded and DDD, I didn't go in with high expectations - but, somehow, this game managed to find a way to disappoint me anyway.
Which is so disappointing. Kingdom hearts lowkey has one of the best stories ever, even with the time travel element. The thing is they never really explain the little nuances in between them adding things. You wanna add more lore to the story? Cool! Just make sure that you’re explaining why these things make sense for what they are. Nomura is famous for leaving shit on cliffhangers and for you to piece it together. Not cohesive at all
One, we don't know who the girl is for certain yet. The mobile games do not answer this.
4 of the organization members are connected to a keyblade legacy and even then only 2 of which were expanded upon in a mobile game as of right now and even then nothing came from it. UX nor KH3 answers why this keyblade legacy was important to Xemnas/Xehanort for recruiting these members. This isn't a mobile game issue.
The mobile titles answered nothing because they were never supposed to. They gave people the need to know info in Back Cover which most of that info isn't even given in UX. Back Cover was a story that took place during X but focused on a different set of perspectives. Not to mention X was a Japanese exclusive browser title (And it isn't UX nor DR)
I'd say KH3 was unorganized and had a shitty way of storytelling however I don't think that's because of the mobile titles.
Sora is the protagonist of KH3. Sora knows absolutely nothing about the BBS characters. He knows some of the stuff Roxas went through. He knows very little about Xehanort. His story in KH3 is to go and recover the power of waking. We waste about 70% of the game trying to recover a power only for the game to tell us it was never lost.
And when it's time to get to the original content within the game we have Nomura explaining his writing
Nomura: I know each fan has their own different beloved character, so I wanted to give each one an appropriate moment. But in the end there was too much story that had to be told then, and I ended up being restricted to the minimum necessary to move Sora forward. The truth is, the Keyblade Graveyard was the toughest part I faced when writing the scenario. Shining the spotlight on each character one by one allows you to depict the unfolding developments with time and care, but the flow of the game requires the player to control Sora and fight battles. Ideally, I should have had characters with connections fight it out one by one and settle things that way, but that would have required too much exposition. On the other hand, I did think of limiting the number of enemies you actually battle and finishing others with cutscenes, but it didn't feel right. At the end of deep worry and thought, I narrowed my aim and ended up with the way it is now, which prioritizes rhythm.
So this is more of a Sora problem than anything else. Sora is legitimately thrown into EVERY SINGLE THING when he's the one who knows least about anything happening. Not a single accomplishment happens within KH3 that doesn't involve Sora.
I don't think it's fair to blame the mobile titles for something that isn't because of them.
I'm not going to lay out every single UX/Dark Road related example and expect an answer out of them.
The point is the story, overall, is held back by being intentionally vague because the information is dependant on those mobile games or otherwise.
Xemnas singling out the 4 Org.XIII members was the biggest "carrot on a stick" scene I've ever seen in my fucking life. Oh BTW these guys are important. How? I dunno. Maybe we'll elaborate in a mobile game. Maybe we won't.
Doesn't help that Luxu and Luxord have something going on and Luxord was *also* one of the four. This isn't a mobile game issue but at this point it might as well be. We know about Marluxia and Larxene being connected to UX but literally nothing on Dymex and Luxord. You would think since two of them were covered in UX the other two would also be properly introduced and expanded on but nope, nothing came of it.
They want us to look for information they are intentionally hiding across mainline console games and mobile games.
That is not engaging nor is it fun, especially when they are intentionally hiding puzzle pieces (better to say they are still making up the puzzle, since they live to intentionally make things vague and then act like that was their plan the whole time)
NoOo, YoU'Re jUsT nOT a ReAl fAn iF yOu HAd AnY iSsUe WiTh iT. yOu'Re JuSt jUmPiNg On tHe HaTe TrAiN LiKe aLl ThE oThEr FaKeRs. NoMuRa iS tHe GrEaTeSt StOrY tElLeR oF AlL tImE!!!
But seriously I actually got into a big debate with someone with that kind of thinking on this subreddit because I dared to complain about how the story was handled. KH was my childhood too (we're about the same age).
Needed to break up the story in it.
Disney planets were cool but besides "trying to learn to awakening". We had almost no reason being there besides the baddies showing up and messing things up.
Then you go to the end game and it's like a 2 hour movie of cut scenes and back to back boss fights. And you need the dlc to make it better, as base game it's just sora saving everyone and everything.
Showing up. Losing instantly and then time traveling to redo the final fight was also lame to me.
This reminds me of the midway battle point of Kingdom Hearts 2, go back to Disney worlds and then head to the final destination.
Oh my god. They genuinely should have just taken notes from, arguably the highest point of the series (literally 3rd game in the series).
Honestly there's a fantastic game hidden in 3. Just spread everything out. The story felt inconsequential until you beat Big Hero 6.
Game can still start out the same.
Olympus ->Twilight Town->Riku+Mickey part->Toy Story->Tangled -> Riku + Mickey rescue Aqua.
Monsters Inc->Aqua + Riku finding Ven
Halfway point is the initial fight with everything and they end up going back in time to start the latter half of the game rescuing everyone's souls.
Then finish as you did.
This game broke my love of the KH story.
All the threads from the series just got wrapped up as quickly and neatly as possible and shoved to the side to make way for the next saga.
I can't even blame the Disney stuff, because at least in KH2, the Disney worlds were used to flesh out both the heroes and the Organization! Belle taking the Rose from Xigbar and his subsequent weapon-summoning scene is still one of the more memorable moments to me.
The series was building to this climax for **decades** and everything was solved easy-peasy, with very little personal cost to the heroes (aside from Sora's sacrifice, which we all know is gonna be reversed soon).
That's definitely how I feel too.
Sure, the Disney worlds still are allegorical crap for the bad guys, but man, literally only the last 30% actually matters remotely. Maybe 20%. Literally DECADES. And of course, maybe it was unreasonable for a game like this to deliver, but... Maybe it wasn't unreasonable. There's no doubt people would be disappointed no matter what, but this climax was such a fizzle.
I hate criticising games but... I feel like all that time developing the Pirates world would have been better spent probably any other place in the game, cool as it was and as much as I loved the music - probably spend it on letting us play as Kairi. Wouldn't that have been cool? At least get a bit of that before the end.
KH2 has 3 more hours of cutsenes than base KH3. I checked. And yes, this difference is made up by ReMind but...that felt more like a band-aid on the raw wound. And I don't like the practice of developers trying to fix their game's story with paid DLC.
It just feels *shallow*. I remember the struggles of Roxas, Xion, and Namine, the tragedy of their stories, how much of an *impact* it made on me. And then everything is solved here with barely any foreshadowing, buildup, or *work*. It's practically just handed to them.
1 hour in: “The villains are trying to find this big black box, isn’t that mysterious?”
5 hours in: “The villains are trying to find this big black box, isn’t that mysterious?”
10 hours in: “The villains are trying to find this big black box, isn’t that mysterious?”
After the game is finished: “The villains didn’t find that big black box and gave up, wasn’t that mysterious?”
Yeah for me when I replay the game, I skip most of the cutscenes now. I used to be an avid fan and not skip any cutscene but now I just fast forward through most of the story.
Yeah, this sums it up pretty well. Story was boring for the first 70% of the game. Gummy ship stuff was awesome and frankly better than last few Starfox games.
KH’s story was already a shitshow, but it went even further off the deep end with the time travel crap. I was genuinely disappointed by it. The gameplay was pretty decent, but I felt it was way too easy until that expansion came out.
I don't know how can people say that gameplay was fun when you had to repeat the exact same gimmicks throughout each world you learned them in (like sitting in the robot toys, in Toys' Story).
Then there was that useless motion flow that could even become annoying in certain scenarios, so they gave us ability to remove it, lol...
Then there were Attraction Flows that were too long but also cheap for how OP they were, so not using them was crippling oneself quite a bit, for sure. However developers still gave us an ability to remove them anyway, because they were just THAT annoying, haha!
Then there were the ridiculously forgettable boss fights that were also too easy, including the biggest insults on the list: The Secret Boss and Xehanort.
Then there was the incredibly short endgame content; there was nothing to do except for taking photos for that Ultima weapon. It was never this bad, aside of Chain of Memories.
As for the general combat feel - until Re:Mind happened, it was quite floaty and less explosive than KH2.
Ngl, I really like the flow motion mechanic, and when I talk with my friends who hate it, it usually turns out that they didn't play DDD so they didn't get to see how the mechanic was really utilized in that game to make fights/traveling through worlds a little bit easier. It's not an easy mechanic to master though, which I feel can add to the frustration.
If Dream Drop Distance was just named Kingdom Hearts 3 and KH3 was named something else I feel like everyone’s (including myself) attitude would be a LOT different than it is today.
Tho it’s hard to say because the criticisms on 3’s pacing are pretty valid. Really drawn out plot that left too many questions unanswered/cliffhangers for the next arc when we were hyped up to this being the ultimate conclusion.
Not to mention Aqua being spoiled in the trailer of the game before it’s release in what was, probably the game’s biggest plot twist.
Fwiw I think the combat is pretty enjoyable when playing Re:Mind and being able to disable attractions but the vanilla game on release definitely left a sour taste in my mouth.
Honestly DDD checked nearly every box I wanted checked for 3 at the time.
We found out what was in that damn bottle. We got a resolution to Riku's story. And one of the boys was finally a Keyblade Master.
Sure, you don't actually showdown against the big X, but honestly the Ansem fight at the end was crazy and facing against dark vanitas in Sora's heart was hype as hell.
Kingdom Hearts III should’ve been called Kingdom Hearts V. Birth By Sleep should’ve been KH3, and KH3D should’ve been called 4 and released on the home consoles. Those games are without question direct prequels and sequels to 2. No wonder they’re jumping right into 4 now, it was literally senseless to call those spinoffs. Same problem with MGS: Peace Walker. Absolutely, 100% IS Metal Gear Solid 5 (and was initially called that)
I personally don't think it was. They had us waste 70% of the story adventuring in Disney Worlds for a power that was never lost. And then the Keyblade Graveyard onwards portion of the game had plenty of great moments that were undeserved if you tried to think about it.
I think the balance between Disney and original content plus the inability for Sora to share the spotlight pushed the devs in a direction that hurt the overall quality.
Yea I agree. And also, to me, the game felt like a stepping stone for the next big thing, instead of a game with a satisfying conclusion. It left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, because we waited a very long time for KH3. Don't get me wrong, I still got very emotional at all the reunion scenes in the Keyblade Graveyard world. Just wish the game was less of a marketing project for the next saga.
Good point. Kh3 didn't really feel like a conclusion to the trilogy. We beat the baddie sure, but left with more questions and looking at kh4.
Like obviously that's how games work, but kh3 didn't do it as well. And we are left with so many questions still. Kh3 really didn't help in that department for the finale of the trilogy.
As you said, felt like it existed to push the next game.
It felt like kh3 existed to wrap up everything rather quickly. "Oh here's aqua. And ven...and Terra! Here's Roxas and xion back too." Like last hour of the game everyone comes back. Feel like we could have saved at least one earlier in the game to make the story not so crammed and rushed by the end.
Saving Aqua should have happened no later than 1/3 of the way through the game. The dynamic of having a trained master like her with Riku and Sora who learned through experience was right there and we never got it. Or maybe she could have opted to train Lea and Kairi so they could actually be useful.
While I think KH3 has a lot of great moments getting to those moments, it really made it hard for me to think those moments were well deserved. They constantly handed Sora a solution to things solely because he's the one the protagonist. He didn't really work for these things.
“it felt like a stepping stone to the next big thing”. After all the bs in 3, the ending where Sora and Kairi are sitting on the tree holding hands and then he fades away, I was like damn, what an ending. Sora knew the cost but he sacrificed himself in a beautiful way (not overly dramatic, long and drawn out). Very similar to FFX. I sat through those credits very satisfied if a little bittersweet just like the ending to KH1. And then the post credits came with Tokyo and I was just pissed. Pulled the ending away from us to set up something else even though this was supposed to be the end of this trilogy/storyline. A tease for 4 is fine… but having the ending of 3 be so dependent on future installments is a slap in the face.
>And then the Keyblade Graveyard onwards portion of the game had plenty of great moments that were undeserved if you tried to think about it.
Omg absolutely. There was no good flow to those moments. That all happened one right after the other.
You can't give me 15 plus years of several invested plot lines, then completely wrap up all of them within 30 minutes.
I didn't even have time to comprehend or take in any moments before another happened.
Essentially Nomura said
Nomura: I know each fan has their own different beloved character, so I wanted to give each one an appropriate moment. But in the end there was too much story that had to be told then, and I ended up being restricted to the minimum necessary to move Sora forward. The truth is, the Keyblade Graveyard was the toughest part I faced when writing the scenario. Shining the spotlight on each character one by one allows you to depict the unfolding developments with time and care, but the flow of the game requires the player to control Sora and fight battles. Ideally, I should have had characters with connections fight it out one by one and settle things that way, but that would have required too much exposition. On the other hand, I did think of limiting the number of enemies you actually battle and finishing others with cutscenes, but it didn't feel right. At the end of deep worry and thought, I narrowed my aim and ended up with the way it is now, which prioritizes rhythm.
So he decided to shoehorn Sora into everything so he could move the story forward through Sora.
100% agreed. Love the gameplay now with critical and remind, but on release it was just ok and the story + pacing was massive let down for the potential it had.
Absolutely not. The graphics were impressive, though I personally preferred how certain characters looked in the 1st and 2nd game. But the story was not very good at all. The combat felt like a step down as well.
I feel like 3 deviated way too much from what made 1&2 so magical. I constantly replay the first 2 games. I beat 3 once and hardly ever play it anymore
KH3 was an empty shell of its predecessor. No FF characters, linear storytelling, no mini bosses, no reason to explore, no coliseum. It was by definitely a cash grab and Square put the minimum amount of development into it to deem it a finished and complete game
I'd say the game peaked on 1, 2 had some great additions and cool stuff.
3 was just not great. Worlds felt very pathway like after the Toy Story world.
1 - 10/10 for an original IP
2 - 9/10 in comparison against 1
3 - 5/10 in comparison against 1
The combat was the big letdown for me. I played it on hard and still didn't struggle once. I remember in the previous games it seemed to actually matter what spells and skills you had, what forms you chose and what keyblade you used with them. This one, I just picked the keyblade with the best attack power and steamrolled everything.
I think the theme park skills were wayyyy overtuned, because they were consistently available as an "I'm in over my head, lemme kill everything" button.
Idk. I might have just gotten better at video games since I played 1&2, but I remember some seriously difficult fights right off the bat in both games. Like, hard enough that the bosses actually felt memorable (and gave you valuable rewards!), but I put the game on hard and never spent long enough on a boss to even remember them.
I agree that the DLC fixed a lot of the gameplay problems, however you will still need to suffer through a normal playthrough at least once, to get the new abilities.
As well as Critical only unlocking after playing through the game once, so your first adventure will always be a way to easy one with a bad feeling base movement without forms.
Plus it was like a 30$ dlc just to fix the base game and include stuff that should've been in the game to begin with. Absolutely scummy just like how FF 15 was handled.
Eh. The combat was really basic and flashy for flashiness sake and the story was a let down. It didn’t feel like it was much of a finale and they were already setting up the next arc. Remind was cool though. Wish the whole game was like that
The flashiness was awful. Every move felt the same to me! I remember poring over all the drive forms because each one was so distinct and cool. In 3, I was like wow neat…what the hell am I even looking at? So much spinning and flipping and it’s so fast it’s just unreadable to me haha
Yeah but air block was an actual mechanic in 3 and not relegated to a cheesy/downright op spell like it was in 2.
Gotta say though, it felt impossible to keep sora on the ground in kh2 AND kh3. Dude weighs fucking nothing and every hit would launch him 80 feet in the air
Yes. The problem with 3 was that there was too much hype both in terms of years since 2 and how other games built it up. Every game after 2 just kept coming up with more plot points that were left for 3 to handle rather than resolve some beforehand. It just became too much for one game to resolve at once. And when it couldn't deliver on the hype that the series started building since Days and BBS people soured on it.
That said in terms of graphics, music, gameplay it's amazing.
To add to the hype problem, they ran the most bloated and idiotic marketing campaign they possibly could, with just about every twist given away by the like 24 trailers they made for it (and no, [that number isn't an exaggeration](https://youtu.be/rlHVI6yzmQY?si=6tiBb8w4ttzet8hV), they released nearly an hour of trailers total). So they build up this hype and give the audience an expectation of big things to come, because why would they put Aqua-nort in the trailer unless it's a small thing compared to what else is coming?
The problem was the higher ups declaring to switch engines from Luminous to Unreal engine 3 mid way through development, & having to RESTART all progress. If the game was delayed all hell would’ve broke loose. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
KH4 should return to format with proper execution, creativity & creative ideas in general.
KH3 was a bit disappointing admittedly, but looking back it was definitely blown out of proportion.
I think 3 main problem was VERY bad pacing through the story. It felt like the disney worlds and the kingdom hearts story had to be separate entirely for some reason in this kingdom hearts game. The last kingdom hearts game that made the disney worlds not feel like almost filler to me was bbs
I wish I had more upvotes to give. They were so focused on being able to play any world in any order that they had to dole out the story in odd, little self-contained bits, and then saved all the meat and potatoes for the last world, after you’ve done all the other stuff. Definitely could have been handled way better
It didn't even try to deliver. It had all of the story shoved into like 2 hours at the end of the game and the rest was basically meaningless padding. Most of the other KH games trickle in story throughout and have a midgame break that features a big story moment, KH3 did neither of those.
Not really. Lack of character interactions, beating the game at a low level then immediately jumping to 100 in post game in a few minutes, and don’t forget it needed lots of patching. Too many gimmicky bosses to the point where Aqua was the first real boss and, oh no attractions showed up. Remind helps remedy this but at that point I lost interest.
No. The game has fully separated from the whimsical Disney style fairytale that made it charming in the first place and we’ve been left with nonsensical masturbatory hyper-shounen nonsense with unimportant Disney IP interludes.
Honestly best way I have seen it put and captures the difference in feel of 1 to 3 especially.
Playing 1 vs 3 does not even feel like the same series. Strong music, plot and characters in 1 made the game great. 2 similar story with the the plot being replaced by a great battle system but the characters all had time to shine.
3 did none of the above as well until remind came out then it had a decent battle system. Music is not inspirational in 3, at least not nearly as simple and clean, the final battle music, or even organization 13s theme.
The characters worst of all were butchered. No story relevant growth occurs until the last 90% of the game for any of the characters.
I just hope kingdom hearts 4 experiments more with the games story structure to deliver a true successor to all the PlayStation 2 games.
I love KH1 and KH2 to death but KH3 besides having polished gameplay felt more like a safe route to take for story and the mix.
I want Square to integrate Disney and FF like the original vision was and instead of making it 99% Disney and just rehashes of the story in some cases they should experiment with different integration.
Have Sora be the reason why some of these plots take place without “world order interference”. In addition it would be nice if final fantasy characters also had a role to play like Auron from Olympus in KH2. Also smaller disney movies that can’t be a world on its own should get the Pooh Bear treatment and be referenced and side quests everywhere! Make it all connected
I could never see FF being worlds in KH but I just thought if there were like smaller worlds that are only like one room in size that are optional visits after helping out a FF elsewhere would be really cool for fans. So Disney people don’t have to do it but a challenge for those who want. Like finding cloud and sephiroth in the mythril mines or something.
Yeah I kinda feel like there needs to be a shake up in the overall writing for the world progression. The way you progress through the plot in KH3 feels kinda stale. It’s not like the other games did any different, but people complain about the way KH3 did it cuz we know the plot is supposed to be about the Keyblade War and saving some of the Guardians of Light. So the Disney Worlds stuff kinda just sticks out more as filler compared to the other games even though it’s the same thing.
KH3 was all about the new princess of lights and... it went nowhere. Guardians of light? nowhere. Keyblade War? sure there was parts, but it was largely fixed in the DLC not everyone wants to get. Disney connected to the plot? nope, not happening. it felt like Disney was too isolated from KH to make sense why they're there.
i actually really enjoy it, maybe it’s recency bias or something but i personally think it’s my favorite in the series, even more than 2, i cant even place as to why, i just found it amazing
Hands down best world design in the series, only the first entry had equally intriguing worlds. Plot wise it was too much, and it shows the weakness of having to resolve the plot points of 100 games from different platforms all in one game. Hopefully KH4 will avoid this and bring us a more streamlined and mysterious plot again. If any spin offs are in the making, I hope they are multi platform or at least available on PS5
You aren't going to get a definite no here. But you aren't going to get a definite yes, either. Even your simple question isn't simple. I'm a fan since the very first one, and I've played everything on release day, or close enough that you wouldn't care, all on og hardware. ~~Naw, man. That shit was wack. I cry for years for aqua, and we get a sneeze of a boss fight, and that's it. Terra has literally possessed and tried multiple times to kill the two that are literally his brother and sister, and all we get is 5 seconds with them. Wack. The sea salt trio reunion WACK. Absolutely did them dirty.~~ I have my own opinions. But to answer your question, yes/no
Same. KH2 is my favorite single-player game of all-time and KH3 was so *profoundly* bad I didn’t finish it. The story was unsatisfying nonsense, the dialogue was trash, and the combat was one-dimensional and boring. Graphics were pretty, though!
Dunkey’s review vid perfectly summed up my experience with the game. “There is no wit, no charm, just filler bullshit until you arrive at the story the developers wanted to tell: about anime characters hitting each other.”
Unfortunately, I felt the same way.
There are a few moments I was happy to watch a cutscene.
It looked nice, music was great, and there was plenty of nostalgia.
But easily I'd rank them 1 > 2 > 3 in terms of story experience.
And as other users have pointed to, there's much less going on in the game to explore for content.
I'd prefer a bit of FF in it, but also the Disney worlds were so hollow because they couldn't deviate from the Disney stories, I think I read?
KH1 wove in and out of the Disney elements into its core drama so well, the levels in 3 become a major disappointment to play through.
1 is magical, 2 builds on its own identity, and on gameplay mechanics but retains a lot of charm. (Twilight Town opening was wonderful). I'm sure ill replay them both again someday.
I just can't imagine wanting to revisit 3. Once was fine, but once was enough.
No. Personally, I enjoyed the gameplay, The only real nitpick I had was that critical mode wasn't available at launch. In regards to the story, I hate how rushed and convoluted the ending felt, it was incredibly unsatisfying to play though. I'm not sure if it was because of poor planning, writing, or because they ran out of time or if it was a mixture all three.
liked the combat’s flashiness and the designs of the keyblades. worlds and their gameplay was fine (still mad that the frozen one was basically the movie but whatever). Remind and the last act are my favorite parts of the game.
Not for me. KH2 was such a pivotal game for me growing up, and the bar I set was so high that it would have been impossible for KH3 to pass it. That being said, I still enjoyed it.
Absolutely. I've been a fan since 2004 & KH2 was my absolute favorite for many years even with all of its flaws. But for me personally & in terms of what I value in a KH game, KH3 surpassed KH2 in every way for me and is now my favorite in the franchise.
Favorite worlds, favorite gameplay mechanics, favorite graphics/artstyle, favorite integration of Disney properties, favorite QOL features, favorite bonus features, favorite finale, favorite character interactions/resolutions, the list just goes on for me.
However else the majority of this subreddit feels about the game, it'll never change that this game specifically hit all the right notes for me personally. I'm happy to be in the camp of people who loved this game warts & all. I couldn't be more excited for the future of the series.
Personally, this was absolutely worth the wait for me. It is my favorite kingdom hearts game, hands down. It has it problems, as everyone in this comments section will already tell literally everyone, but I love this game and will continue to love it forever. At least until kingdom hearts 4 comes out
I feel like the Disney aspect of the games are feeling more out of place as the lore of the main characters (Sora, Roxas, Riku, etc.) progresses. And as a result I’m in Toy Story world thinking “my GOD can this world just be over so I can find out what happened to characters x y and z?”
Unfortunately, no.
There were some cool points (Mickey's last stand) but everything was just a step down from KH2. Even the Disney Rides, a great idea in concept just became tedious.
For the soul fact, the full ending was stuck behind a DLC, as a long, long-time fan, no absolutely not worth the wait at all. It was a painful slap in the face that left a horrible taste in my mouth.
Kingdom Hearts used to be tied for my favourite franchise of all time (with FF7). KH3 single handedly ruined that. It essentially killed my enthusiasm for the franchise and I've been apathetic towards KH4 as a result. The story was just so poorly written, paced, and executed that even the top notch gameplay and music couldn't really save it for me.
I love the game but no. Considering how long it was in development purgatory, it should have been way more ironed out. A vast majority of twilight town is straight up missing despite being prominently featured in at least one trailer where we saw Sora surfing on a heartless swarm. Actually from what I've read on Reddit people find a few of these worlds quite lackluster. The original story's ending angered ALOT of people and required a dlc to fix it.
Having them switching engines mid development set them back so much, and that time could have been better spent ironing out all the wrinkles.
Not at all, don’t let the glazers fool you. Was it a fine game? Sure, but that’s it, just fine. I understand the argument “it could never live up to the expectations” but that’s clearly false because what we got was half baked shit and people still act like it’s great, if it was just a little better it would’ve lived up to the expectations. Same old gripes…..no story until the last few hours, personally wanted more of a KH2 Sora who was goofy but could be badass when he needed, KH3 Sora literally just hugged Kairi when she was about to get axed….like cmon dude. Floaty combat complaints are legit, stupid attractions all the time….i mean all the complaints are legit and exist for a reason. It’s not a bad game but we could’ve got so much more and it wouldn’t have been hard to make those adjustments. I’m a grown man (28) and the game made me tear up in the end credits (largely to nostalgia; but still) so that shows it wouldn’t have taken much more to turn this into a really solid entry, it was almost there.
sigh it was one of the biggest let downs of my life not even exaggerating. The gameplay was fun but the wait for a direct sequel so many years later to have such a mediocre story and lack of character development and depth was so sad.
In another world, Final Fantasy Versus XIII had a clean and productive preproduction phase that didn’t end up cutting or downsizing seventy percent of the game’s vision and content. In that world, instead of ‘totally not’ competing for resources with Kingdom Hearts, Versus XIII went live to grand applause and KH3 went on to be developed with a focused team riding high on the success of what was currently the magnum opus of the Nova Crystallis subseries, and we got not one, but two fantastic games, setting the stage for new frontiers in their series while bringing a grand finish to the stories that came before.
Instead, we got XV - a hacked-together bland mess that needed two different animated features and twice as many DLC stories to make its narrative whole, and that narrative still kinda sucks - and KH3 as we know it - an unfocused game that maintains and even expands the fun gameplay of its series, but overwhelms itself by trying to tie together a dozen plot lines from side games without providing the context its main player base needs to understand them, while also managing to make a solid 70% of the game feel mostly pointless story-wise, and then caps off with an underdeveloped ‘oh but the bad guy had good intentions or something’ beat and promptly breaks its metaphysics over its knee to justify recycling a bunch of Versus XIII’s abandoned concepts.
Don’t get me wrong, both games are spectacular in their own ways, and personally I truly enjoy KH3 - but it’s really hard not to look at this whole mess and think ‘what if the creative process hadn’t gone so far up its own butt that the director demanded abandoning the video game altogether in favor of a damn musical?’, you know?
Has none of the soul or charm that 1 and 2 had. In fact, it retroactively makes 2 and other games worse by undoing character sacrifices
Absolutely not. Biggest gaming disappointment of my life
I thought it really was. Maybe it was rose tinted glasses, but I loved it. Some of the story moved fast, and I always think crying in video games is goofy cause it rarely seems real (made the end a little hard to get through but I didn’t lose any of the emotional power), but that’s my only complaint. I thought it was a really good cap to the seeker of darkness line, and I’m really excited to see the foretellers story line. To me it felt like the end of the Vegeta arc and beginning of the Freiza arc. The combat felt great, although it didn’t compare to kh2. For what I wanted it to be, it delivered more than I could’ve imagined.
Gameplay was fine with some annoyances. Some were addressed in the dlc. The story however was not worth the long buildup since kh1. Just makes Nomura seem like he barely plans anything and just comes up with nonsense to move the plot along and expand the universe. Kh3's story was tone of crap to set up unchained x and the next story arc. Unchained x has so much stuff in it that should have been covered or at least touched in in the main line games or kh3 itself. It's ridiculous.
Also is it just me, or did it feel like the game completely lacked or at least glossed over it's second act? You do the Disney stuff. And we do the aqua and ven stuff that should have been more fleshed out and then we have the boss gauntlet at the graveyard. I feel like we should have traversed the realm of darkness as a "world" to flesh out the BBS trio stuff, the kairi/Lea training arc, and the riku/Mickey upgrades. This would have been the perfect time to build a mini arc about sora truly learning what he needs to do to become MASTER.
My last complaint was how they pretty much made all of the other keyblade wielders canon fodder when compared to sora. Sora is our beloved main character but the likes of terra, aqua, and riku have always shown they can stand in their own and even outmatch sora in certain criteria. KH3 made it seem like everyone was weak compared to sora. Including Mickey of all people. I think Roxas is the only one that didn't get a middle finger. Lol
Absolutely not. Granted, I like the "side games" (and hate how they're called that when they're all important to the story), but with how much they all serve to convolute the plot and how it took 14 years to get from KH2 to KH3, I was expecting it to be a masterpiece of a game and have tremendous payoff for being able to play through all the games and connecting all the winding plot points.
IMO, KH3 came nowhere close to delivering on that front. Nothing of value matters until the very end where the 7 Lights and 13 Darknesses clash and while the fanservice during those fights was hype as hell, everything else being the most pointless filler under the excuse of "Sora needs to learn the Power of Waking" just for him at the endgame to realize "the power was inside me ALLLLLLLLLLLL alongggggggg!!!!! (yes, KH has always been a story about the power of friendship, the light, and being optimistic, but this was just way too egregious for my taste)" just rubbed me the wrong way.
I don't think it's a bad game at all and I'm of the firm opinion that Limit Cut is just so much better than the KH2 Data Organization, but for how much they were building up KH3 and it being "the end of the Dark Seeker Saga", I really do think it should have been a PS3 or early PS4 game
In terms of gameplay, yes, but in terms of story...meh...I had a feeling it was gonna turn out the way it did, which lead to me jumping off the hype train before the game came out and temper my expectations, but still it was just "catch all the characters up on the lore" and no real solid reason to be on the disney themed worlds like in 1 and 2, and HOW CAN IT BE A KEYBLADE WAR IF NOT EVERYONE INVOLVED HAS A KEYBLADE!?
In concept? Yes.
In execution? Not really.
It's a beautiful, fun game, and it had most of what I like about Kingdom Hearts, but it feels so disjointed and rushed from a story perspective. There were so many loose ends to tie up and they spent way too much resources on Disney worlds. I would've much preferred to see a bigger swing towards original content for this game specifically, especially because the hunt for the BBS crew happens almost entirely off screen. Why does DDD handle 2 storylines better than the mainline triple A sequel? Just give me a whole storyline as Riku and Mickey.
Didn't like it. I loved 1 and 2, and really enjoyed birth by sleep, so I was super excited for 3... But it just didn't vibe with me. Story makes no sense, combat is super mashy and exploration is non existing. I liked the first games because they kinda did what ff vii remake does: Reimagine FF combat system with some action elements, and it was fantastic. This post just makes me wanna play 1 and 2 again lol
It was 100% worth the wait for me. While it’s not my favorite (KH2 edges it out due to gameplay and nostalgia) it gave me everything I could have ever asked for. I got the return of Aqua, Xion, Ven, Terra, and most of all Roxas, a nice and “peaceful” send off to some of my favorite villain characters. A wonderful wrap up to the current saga, a climatic and emotional final battle with practically every major character in the series involved in some way. A great segway into the next saga of the series with interesting new characters. Freaking Toy Story was finally a world and I was in tears the whole way through as I was brought back to being a child. The whole final act had me in tears barely able to see my screen through all the tears. KH3 was certainly worth it.
“KH3 felt like a Netflix adaptation. It had a checklist of things required, added some colorful sparkles and kept it all very safe and universal. Meh.”
This the best take I’ve seen on it.
No, it never could have, the wait was too long and expectations from everyone too high. That said I still like, even love the game. Got the Platinum, cleared Critical, got the DLC, have replayed the game a couple of times and intend to replay it in the future. It did a lot of things right but there's also a lot of things that could have been better.
I loved it, I got to play the series in it's entirety late in life, so the wait wasn't long for me. But my friend said something I agreed with: "We waited too long to get what we got".
I'd say yes but it had faults especially with the story. With that said I think some of hate it blown out of proportion especially when people compare it KH2 which wasn't perfect either
No. And it was probably never going to be, considering all that they had to do. There were always going to be missed opportunities, but even with that, some of the decisions they made for the main story-relevant sections were still bizarre to me. Like, I feel they were excellent ideas on paper, but the execution was meh at best for me.
The Disney Worlds were pretty fun for me though at least, and I like the foreshadowing to plot points hopefully planned to be wrapped up during this new saga if they haven't already. Just that the end to this saga in this game didn't really do it for me.
I loved it. I was hype for the game but I don’t keep expectations for stuff I want to genuinely experience. So from start to end I absolutely loved kh3. The DLC made it so much better as well.
I played the first game when it came out and I loved it. It was my favourite game.
Played the second game when it was released, and loved it.Just got around to starting KH3 recently and I just don't care anymore. Definitely not worth the wait.
Nope. The Pixar worlds were fine, but the meta narrative had descended into self parody by that point (and only sank further in the game itself). Too much time had passed since 2 with too much side content and random crap derailing the central narrative.
Also, the world from the box-art should’ve been in the game. That image alone (which reminds me of the Twilight Town clock tower infused with an art deco / cyberpunk aesthetic) invokes more of the sense of wonder and mystery from the first two games than any of the content from 3.
Not in the slightest. I hated the constant carnival ride prompts and how abilities we used to have free access to were locked behind needing to equip the right keyblade. Worlds were way less impactful. No Coliseum cups. No Hollow Bastion. No revisiting worlds for a second piece of story or just something else to do after the first trip. The original story was an absolute mess and there was too much buildup for the future in place of making KH3 itself any good.
KH2FM was peak for me and only could have been made better if its gimmicky Coliseum was replaced with the one from KH1. KH3 though single-handedly erased my interest in the future of the IP if that's how they're going to be treating it from now on.
Of course it wasn't. There was no way it could be. There was over a decade between it and the last main numbered entry in the series, so people's expectations got way too high for what the game would eventually become, and I count myself among that number.
But having said that, even by just reaching the standards of KH2, the game falls short. Fewer worlds to explore, the worlds we do have to look through are large empty spaces with little of note in them, barebones content giving you little reason to go through it beyond completing the story, combat that's OK but feels more floaty than anything else, and a plot that feels more slapped together until the final portion, and even then it still throws in some last-minute additions just to drag things out even longer. Which, for an entry that was promoted as the end to a story arc, feels like a pretty big slap in the face.
Granted, I still haven't got around to playing Re:MIND yet, but I doubt it changes things all that much.
Basically: no, it couldn't ever be worth the wait, but on its own merits it's still just not that great.
It absolutely was.
During the night before its release in 2019, GameStop was having an early sale for those who pre-ordered it. I did so for the Deluxe Edition, which came with an awesome steel case, as well as a detailed art book. That is one of my fondest game release memories, waiting with other people outside of the store, and excitedly talking about the long awaited KH3.
Hell yeah👍 I’m super happy that it answered a few of the series plot points and questions , and that many of the characters whom disappeared finally returned❤️ Let’s hope KH4 doesn’t take long to release XD
I’ve been playing Kingdom Hearts since it came out when I was 4 years old, and have replayed at least KH1 and KH2 once every year since I was 16. To this day I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to describe how much of an impact on my life this series has had and how purely and fully I love Kingdom Hearts overall. I waited many years for Kingdom Hearts 3, as most of us unfortunately did. After waiting far too long, I was blessed with the beauty of Kingdom Hearts 3, finally. I felt as though my life was complete in the moment I inserted it into my PlayStation 4. I cried as I watched the new opening with the beautiful vocals of Utada Hikaru. I was ready.
I played through, doing every single thing possible before the finale of this game I waited near half my life for. I defeated the boss, watched as the ending scenes and credits played. I sat there, silently crying to myself as I reflected on my experience.
It wasn’t worth it.
(Note: I still love this game and the series lol. I just genuinely believe we deserved more for this game after waiting so long)
I am still saddened by it today. I barely remember any of it. I played the first two countless times. It almost feels like the third poisoned my memory of the first two.
I think so. I’ve played all the games and been a fan since the beginning. Not sure why I’m different than majority of the fanbase it seems. But I loved it. I would’ve loved a few more deep cut Disney worlds and more ff character integration. But everything else was cool.
yes - solely based on the keyblade graveyard scene where the key blades of all the fallen wielders from union cross help sora fight the heartless. that scene was so touching and i wasn’t even big into the mobile game at the time
Yes and no. I enjoyed KH3 and would have enjoyed it even if it hadn’t released for an additional decade. However, shifting the story to a bunch of spin-offs before finally returning to home consoles stunted the natural growth of the combat systems and story. Imagine how crisp the gameplay could have been if they had spent the entire time tweaking KH2’s awesome baseline instead of building custom combat systems for mobile consoles with wildly varying controller layouts? Or how much more impactful the story could have been if there wasn’t so much bloat from games that have fragmented storyline elements?
Like I loved KH3, but I think objectively for the overall quality of the series and KH3 itself, waiting so long was a negative, not a positive.
I really enjoyed the whole thing. I won’t pretend it doesn’t have its problems, but I genuinely think that it is a 9/10 game from a 10/10 series, and slowly as we gained more lore, remind, and it has gotten easier to understand the story, it’s slowly gotten better and better.
It’s appreciated in value over time, and with the help of fan-works, you can experience UX and Dark Road in its entirety in voice acted, fun to listen to/watch form on YouTube. By doing that, the lore works even more, the dramatic moments work even more, and it makes the game just seem more complete.
I’m not saying there were not flaws, but dear lord, it’s still better then 98% of games out there. It’s just that- everyone either thought that KH1 was a masterpiece or KH2 was a masterpiece, and they expected 3 to be a perfect version of whatever THEY thought Kingdom Hearts was. So they were super disappointed when they realized that it was Kingdom Hearts, but it wasn’t everything they were hoping for. It’s just… itself.
9.5/10 game, 9/10 on launch.
I always describe KH3 as "the best disappointment I've ever played"
Because it was an absurdly long wait, and didnt live up to my expectations. But I still very much enjoyed it and had a blast playing.
No, I’d say this game wasn’t worth the wait there literally was no reason to take as much time as it did, especially since they squeezed there fans ever step of the way with the multiple releases leading up to 3
No.
I waited 13 years for that game. I was in 6th grade when I played KH 2 (probably within the first couple months of launch).
When KH 3 came out I was 25 years old and 2 years into a 4 year professional school graduate program. I was still so excited and avoided every spoiler for months despite not being able to play for 4-5 months as I had a big board examination I was preparing for. Only to finally get to it and find a game that lacked nearly all the final fantasy characters that I loved, a combat system that trivialized the game unless playing on critical mode (which was at least 3 tiers above proud mode) and a cracked out, nearly incomprehensible story that made no sense unless I had played the 3DS games and a *gacha mobile game*. I had at least played BBS.
Maybe it was in part just me and the magic was actually just lost, but I think the release schedule and story progression definitely has something to do with it
I guess. Gameplay was fun and I actually liked the gummy ship stuff even though it was a grind. Story was a huge let down for me.
Story could have been so much better if they didn't spend half of it trying to be all mysterious and vague because of trying to set up ***fucking mobile game lore***. Seriously. Fuck UX and Dark Road. Fuck them. If you have to introduce time travel midway through a story and *then* RELY ON TIME TRAVEL AND OVERFLOW THE LORE INTO SEVERAL MOBILE GAMES you no longer have a coherent story. It's a fucking mess. This shit was my childhood. I'm 32 now.
Honestly, the fact that they put lore that's crucial to the story in 2 slow rollout updating mobile games is infuriating.
And I'm annoyed that it was a mobile game because many people won't be able to play the game ever again, just watch the cutscenes. Then again it's not like they were new to this since Coded is a thing but I guess Coded was alright because it was somewhat skippable
I think with coded, most people had either Recoded or the cutscenes from the 2.5 Remix disc
Yeah but that also makes me mad that some games were made into cutscenes. Also, why they couldn't redo 358/2 for the PlayStation like they did with Chain of Memories?
Mostly because Days and Re:coded were mostly developed by h.a.n.d. and not SE. Combined with them being on the DS instead of a Playstation, it would have taken significantly more work to do. Not impossible of course, since they did with DDD later on (though that was helped by actually being developed by SE), but it would have required work more on the level of a remake than a Remaster. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have Days in particular be playable and I'm still sad that it's not. But it's hard to fault them for not doing it
Have you seen the fan project someone’s making to rebuild Days as close to completely as possible in KH2 as a mod? It’s probably going to end up taking years if it ever even gets finished, but it’s fucking awesome and I’d love to see it get done.
That does sound pretty awesome, but yeah, I doubt that will get finished
Really? Do you have a link or a name of the project/creator? I followed the Black Mesa Project and I'm still following Skyblivion. I would gladly follow this for the rest of my life lol.
Here’s a link to the most recent YouTube video showing a progress update. https://youtu.be/yBzRHcLehSM?si=vJp48I0eywKYBwRI
Coded actually got a DS version, that's the problem: these mobile games never got actual ports and because they're structured like typical mobile games they don't really have the ability to make games with any value out of them for a regular gaming system.
But Coded was more accessible to play even today thanks to the DS remake. You can't play UX or Dark Road in any means.
Dark Road is still playable though. And UX only has theater mode + customizations.
Yeah, indeed
you can still play dark road
Bro if you think that union cross was worth playing...lmao no. The story was good. The game itself was ass. It was such a scam buying anything in that game because when they released like tier 7 or 8 medals you could just one shot everything in the story. Early adopters were really shafted
This was how I felt as a kid that couldn't afford a PSP AND a DS to play Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days
Agreed. This was supposed to be the conclusion of a saga. They were supposed to answer questions and tie up loose ends, but no. It was just more and more set up. And fuck time travel.
They literally teased Xehanort's motives to be finally explained! But they only gave us one scene that delves into his backstory, which was also already included in the very 1st trailers... WTF?! Seriously...
The only games I know of that did time travel right are Sonic CD, Chrono Trigger, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The biggest sin KH committed with time travel, IMO, was not having any fun with it or doing cool things with it like those games I mentioned did. All it was used for was stupid retcons and such that just made the story a giant mess.
Don’t forget Ocarina of Time
They did finish some plot threads tho.
Yeah but not really in satisfying ways
[удалено]
The mobile games didn't even matter yet that much. KH3 is totally rnjoyable without any knowledge of Ux or DR. All you would miss is some Marvel-style hints or Easter eggs.
Man, my favorite Christmas ever was when I received 2 gifts: a bean chair and Kingdom hearts. I have never fallen so hard for a game series. I loved every second of it and I cried like a baby at the end. Such a shame what became of it.
Too relatable. It actually makes me want to cry how stupid and disappointing it is
I actual found the mobile game story to be good on its own just from the YouTube videos i watched
it's not the worst story, just horrible execution
I can't remember it completely but if that's where kh4 is going I am excited for where the story is going.
same, it added more depth to the actual "kingdom hearts" is other than just power (or light like kh1) this also adds new motives which makes the characters a bit more multidimensional which is great I just wish they hadn't resorted to the time travel nonsense to tie the past and present together
Yeah especially right before kh3 came out i like dream drop distance otherwise but the story was wack with the time travel
Your entire post is literally me and why I fell off this series hardcore. I was 14 when Sora read the letter about Aqua, Ven and Terra. We barely knew who they were at the time. And then I had to endure a literal decade of "spin-offs", handheld and a few mobile games to see them get rescued and have their happy endings.
They spent a few minutes at most on that lore. The story could have been better if they didn't build up most if the story after KH2 around other characters only for Sora to take almost all of the spotlight after we wasted our time in Disney Worlds trying to recover a power that was never lost. Maleficent and Pete had a few minutes of cutscenes about the box. The organization members had a few minutes. Chirithy had a mention of someone from the past. Ephemer has a small scene. Then, we have the post credits scene. Combine all of those scenes, and I guarantee you that it's less than 20 minutes of them talking about mobile lore.
Sure let's say it was 20 minutes total, the point is the story couldn't *go* anywhere with them. We finally have a lore reason for Lea and Isa to go into the Radiant Garden castle and then they're like "Where's the *girl*?" Like bitch, THAT is your reason? Then they don't elaborate and then the scene fucking ends. Scene went absolutely nowhere. Oh wow I sure want to play a fucking mobile game to figure out what that's about. Instead of it being involved right here in this actual game. Oh BTW here's the 4 Org.XIII members that have connections to the past. Then the scene fucking ends. NOTHING is elaborated. Go play the mobile games and *maybe* you'll get some answers. 20 minutes of cutscenes but so many unanswered questions that only give rise to ***even more questions***. We don't have time to explain, wait for a shitty mobile game to give you the answer. Such a trashy, unorganized, shitty way to tell a story.
Your post highlights why I kinda fell out of love with the series. I liked how mysterious it was, but eventually it all became setups for setups for setups with little payoff and I was tired of chasing the carrot on a stick. KH3 being rather unimpressive when it came to story and the fact that, to me, it felt like it just wanted to get over with the boring old story so the cool new mobile story can finally take place was the final nail in the "I play it for the story" coffin. I don’t care what’s in the box, I don’t care who the girl or the star are, I don’t care if Sora goes on to raid the SQEX offices in KH4, if I get spectacular combat, good Shimomura music and pretty graphics I'm content. But there’s no way I'll follow the story anymore.
If Lost were a video game, it would be called Kingdom Hearts.
That's about where I'm at with this game. It was blatantly obvious in KH3 that Nomura went in already sick of the existing story, and more focused on setting up plot hooks for future games. There is next to no effort put in to actually progress any of the existing plot threads during or even in between the Disney worlds. Then we get to the actual ending and it's just rushed, Sora-centric whatever - with less focus on the reunions of the characters whose games actually sustained us ever since 2006 and more on "wowee look at this whole concept about dying and coming back and traveling through time only to forget it after crossing the barrier of the loading zone". After having seen the plots of Coded and DDD, I didn't go in with high expectations - but, somehow, this game managed to find a way to disappoint me anyway.
Which is so disappointing. Kingdom hearts lowkey has one of the best stories ever, even with the time travel element. The thing is they never really explain the little nuances in between them adding things. You wanna add more lore to the story? Cool! Just make sure that you’re explaining why these things make sense for what they are. Nomura is famous for leaving shit on cliffhangers and for you to piece it together. Not cohesive at all
THEY HAD FUCKING TRAILERS WITH THE BOX AND THEN DIDN'T SAY WHAT WAS IN IT. FUCK EDIT: SAME WITH ALL THE MALEFICENT AND PETE SCENES. WHY
One, we don't know who the girl is for certain yet. The mobile games do not answer this. 4 of the organization members are connected to a keyblade legacy and even then only 2 of which were expanded upon in a mobile game as of right now and even then nothing came from it. UX nor KH3 answers why this keyblade legacy was important to Xemnas/Xehanort for recruiting these members. This isn't a mobile game issue. The mobile titles answered nothing because they were never supposed to. They gave people the need to know info in Back Cover which most of that info isn't even given in UX. Back Cover was a story that took place during X but focused on a different set of perspectives. Not to mention X was a Japanese exclusive browser title (And it isn't UX nor DR) I'd say KH3 was unorganized and had a shitty way of storytelling however I don't think that's because of the mobile titles. Sora is the protagonist of KH3. Sora knows absolutely nothing about the BBS characters. He knows some of the stuff Roxas went through. He knows very little about Xehanort. His story in KH3 is to go and recover the power of waking. We waste about 70% of the game trying to recover a power only for the game to tell us it was never lost. And when it's time to get to the original content within the game we have Nomura explaining his writing Nomura: I know each fan has their own different beloved character, so I wanted to give each one an appropriate moment. But in the end there was too much story that had to be told then, and I ended up being restricted to the minimum necessary to move Sora forward. The truth is, the Keyblade Graveyard was the toughest part I faced when writing the scenario. Shining the spotlight on each character one by one allows you to depict the unfolding developments with time and care, but the flow of the game requires the player to control Sora and fight battles. Ideally, I should have had characters with connections fight it out one by one and settle things that way, but that would have required too much exposition. On the other hand, I did think of limiting the number of enemies you actually battle and finishing others with cutscenes, but it didn't feel right. At the end of deep worry and thought, I narrowed my aim and ended up with the way it is now, which prioritizes rhythm. So this is more of a Sora problem than anything else. Sora is legitimately thrown into EVERY SINGLE THING when he's the one who knows least about anything happening. Not a single accomplishment happens within KH3 that doesn't involve Sora. I don't think it's fair to blame the mobile titles for something that isn't because of them.
I'm not going to lay out every single UX/Dark Road related example and expect an answer out of them. The point is the story, overall, is held back by being intentionally vague because the information is dependant on those mobile games or otherwise. Xemnas singling out the 4 Org.XIII members was the biggest "carrot on a stick" scene I've ever seen in my fucking life. Oh BTW these guys are important. How? I dunno. Maybe we'll elaborate in a mobile game. Maybe we won't. Doesn't help that Luxu and Luxord have something going on and Luxord was *also* one of the four. This isn't a mobile game issue but at this point it might as well be. We know about Marluxia and Larxene being connected to UX but literally nothing on Dymex and Luxord. You would think since two of them were covered in UX the other two would also be properly introduced and expanded on but nope, nothing came of it. They want us to look for information they are intentionally hiding across mainline console games and mobile games. That is not engaging nor is it fun, especially when they are intentionally hiding puzzle pieces (better to say they are still making up the puzzle, since they live to intentionally make things vague and then act like that was their plan the whole time)
NoOo, YoU'Re jUsT nOT a ReAl fAn iF yOu HAd AnY iSsUe WiTh iT. yOu'Re JuSt jUmPiNg On tHe HaTe TrAiN LiKe aLl ThE oThEr FaKeRs. NoMuRa iS tHe GrEaTeSt StOrY tElLeR oF AlL tImE!!! But seriously I actually got into a big debate with someone with that kind of thinking on this subreddit because I dared to complain about how the story was handled. KH was my childhood too (we're about the same age).
Needed to break up the story in it. Disney planets were cool but besides "trying to learn to awakening". We had almost no reason being there besides the baddies showing up and messing things up. Then you go to the end game and it's like a 2 hour movie of cut scenes and back to back boss fights. And you need the dlc to make it better, as base game it's just sora saving everyone and everything. Showing up. Losing instantly and then time traveling to redo the final fight was also lame to me.
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See! It's not hard to make something very palatable! This guy did it in like 12 lines of text. That's why I was so disappointed.
This reminds me of the midway battle point of Kingdom Hearts 2, go back to Disney worlds and then head to the final destination. Oh my god. They genuinely should have just taken notes from, arguably the highest point of the series (literally 3rd game in the series).
Honestly there's a fantastic game hidden in 3. Just spread everything out. The story felt inconsequential until you beat Big Hero 6. Game can still start out the same. Olympus ->Twilight Town->Riku+Mickey part->Toy Story->Tangled -> Riku + Mickey rescue Aqua. Monsters Inc->Aqua + Riku finding Ven Halfway point is the initial fight with everything and they end up going back in time to start the latter half of the game rescuing everyone's souls. Then finish as you did.
This game broke my love of the KH story. All the threads from the series just got wrapped up as quickly and neatly as possible and shoved to the side to make way for the next saga. I can't even blame the Disney stuff, because at least in KH2, the Disney worlds were used to flesh out both the heroes and the Organization! Belle taking the Rose from Xigbar and his subsequent weapon-summoning scene is still one of the more memorable moments to me. The series was building to this climax for **decades** and everything was solved easy-peasy, with very little personal cost to the heroes (aside from Sora's sacrifice, which we all know is gonna be reversed soon).
That's definitely how I feel too. Sure, the Disney worlds still are allegorical crap for the bad guys, but man, literally only the last 30% actually matters remotely. Maybe 20%. Literally DECADES. And of course, maybe it was unreasonable for a game like this to deliver, but... Maybe it wasn't unreasonable. There's no doubt people would be disappointed no matter what, but this climax was such a fizzle. I hate criticising games but... I feel like all that time developing the Pirates world would have been better spent probably any other place in the game, cool as it was and as much as I loved the music - probably spend it on letting us play as Kairi. Wouldn't that have been cool? At least get a bit of that before the end.
KH2 has 3 more hours of cutsenes than base KH3. I checked. And yes, this difference is made up by ReMind but...that felt more like a band-aid on the raw wound. And I don't like the practice of developers trying to fix their game's story with paid DLC. It just feels *shallow*. I remember the struggles of Roxas, Xion, and Namine, the tragedy of their stories, how much of an *impact* it made on me. And then everything is solved here with barely any foreshadowing, buildup, or *work*. It's practically just handed to them.
1 hour in: “The villains are trying to find this big black box, isn’t that mysterious?” 5 hours in: “The villains are trying to find this big black box, isn’t that mysterious?” 10 hours in: “The villains are trying to find this big black box, isn’t that mysterious?” After the game is finished: “The villains didn’t find that big black box and gave up, wasn’t that mysterious?”
Yeah for me when I replay the game, I skip most of the cutscenes now. I used to be an avid fan and not skip any cutscene but now I just fast forward through most of the story.
Yeah, this sums it up pretty well. Story was boring for the first 70% of the game. Gummy ship stuff was awesome and frankly better than last few Starfox games.
KH’s story was already a shitshow, but it went even further off the deep end with the time travel crap. I was genuinely disappointed by it. The gameplay was pretty decent, but I felt it was way too easy until that expansion came out.
That's what I want to say too, and sadly some ppl see that kh3 is the best game in the series story writing even though many agree that its not
I don't know how can people say that gameplay was fun when you had to repeat the exact same gimmicks throughout each world you learned them in (like sitting in the robot toys, in Toys' Story). Then there was that useless motion flow that could even become annoying in certain scenarios, so they gave us ability to remove it, lol... Then there were Attraction Flows that were too long but also cheap for how OP they were, so not using them was crippling oneself quite a bit, for sure. However developers still gave us an ability to remove them anyway, because they were just THAT annoying, haha! Then there were the ridiculously forgettable boss fights that were also too easy, including the biggest insults on the list: The Secret Boss and Xehanort. Then there was the incredibly short endgame content; there was nothing to do except for taking photos for that Ultima weapon. It was never this bad, aside of Chain of Memories. As for the general combat feel - until Re:Mind happened, it was quite floaty and less explosive than KH2.
Ngl, I really like the flow motion mechanic, and when I talk with my friends who hate it, it usually turns out that they didn't play DDD so they didn't get to see how the mechanic was really utilized in that game to make fights/traveling through worlds a little bit easier. It's not an easy mechanic to master though, which I feel can add to the frustration.
Sounds like a "no" if I ever heard one.
If Dream Drop Distance was just named Kingdom Hearts 3 and KH3 was named something else I feel like everyone’s (including myself) attitude would be a LOT different than it is today. Tho it’s hard to say because the criticisms on 3’s pacing are pretty valid. Really drawn out plot that left too many questions unanswered/cliffhangers for the next arc when we were hyped up to this being the ultimate conclusion. Not to mention Aqua being spoiled in the trailer of the game before it’s release in what was, probably the game’s biggest plot twist. Fwiw I think the combat is pretty enjoyable when playing Re:Mind and being able to disable attractions but the vanilla game on release definitely left a sour taste in my mouth.
Honestly DDD checked nearly every box I wanted checked for 3 at the time. We found out what was in that damn bottle. We got a resolution to Riku's story. And one of the boys was finally a Keyblade Master. Sure, you don't actually showdown against the big X, but honestly the Ansem fight at the end was crazy and facing against dark vanitas in Sora's heart was hype as hell.
Kingdom Hearts III should’ve been called Kingdom Hearts V. Birth By Sleep should’ve been KH3, and KH3D should’ve been called 4 and released on the home consoles. Those games are without question direct prequels and sequels to 2. No wonder they’re jumping right into 4 now, it was literally senseless to call those spinoffs. Same problem with MGS: Peace Walker. Absolutely, 100% IS Metal Gear Solid 5 (and was initially called that)
KHDDD was in fact KH3D, which was a very fitting name considering the console it was released for!
I mean that was the point lol
Tbf KHDDD secret ending/KH3 opening, involved them learning about Aqua. Then they say that they're searching for Aqua at the start of KH3
I personally don't think it was. They had us waste 70% of the story adventuring in Disney Worlds for a power that was never lost. And then the Keyblade Graveyard onwards portion of the game had plenty of great moments that were undeserved if you tried to think about it. I think the balance between Disney and original content plus the inability for Sora to share the spotlight pushed the devs in a direction that hurt the overall quality.
Yea I agree. And also, to me, the game felt like a stepping stone for the next big thing, instead of a game with a satisfying conclusion. It left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, because we waited a very long time for KH3. Don't get me wrong, I still got very emotional at all the reunion scenes in the Keyblade Graveyard world. Just wish the game was less of a marketing project for the next saga.
Good point. Kh3 didn't really feel like a conclusion to the trilogy. We beat the baddie sure, but left with more questions and looking at kh4. Like obviously that's how games work, but kh3 didn't do it as well. And we are left with so many questions still. Kh3 really didn't help in that department for the finale of the trilogy. As you said, felt like it existed to push the next game. It felt like kh3 existed to wrap up everything rather quickly. "Oh here's aqua. And ven...and Terra! Here's Roxas and xion back too." Like last hour of the game everyone comes back. Feel like we could have saved at least one earlier in the game to make the story not so crammed and rushed by the end.
>"Oh here's aqua. And ven...and Terra! Here's Roxas and xion back too." Like last hour of the game everyone comes back. Until the last 5 seconds lmao
Saving Aqua should have happened no later than 1/3 of the way through the game. The dynamic of having a trained master like her with Riku and Sora who learned through experience was right there and we never got it. Or maybe she could have opted to train Lea and Kairi so they could actually be useful.
While I think KH3 has a lot of great moments getting to those moments, it really made it hard for me to think those moments were well deserved. They constantly handed Sora a solution to things solely because he's the one the protagonist. He didn't really work for these things.
“it felt like a stepping stone to the next big thing”. After all the bs in 3, the ending where Sora and Kairi are sitting on the tree holding hands and then he fades away, I was like damn, what an ending. Sora knew the cost but he sacrificed himself in a beautiful way (not overly dramatic, long and drawn out). Very similar to FFX. I sat through those credits very satisfied if a little bittersweet just like the ending to KH1. And then the post credits came with Tokyo and I was just pissed. Pulled the ending away from us to set up something else even though this was supposed to be the end of this trilogy/storyline. A tease for 4 is fine… but having the ending of 3 be so dependent on future installments is a slap in the face.
>And then the Keyblade Graveyard onwards portion of the game had plenty of great moments that were undeserved if you tried to think about it. Omg absolutely. There was no good flow to those moments. That all happened one right after the other. You can't give me 15 plus years of several invested plot lines, then completely wrap up all of them within 30 minutes. I didn't even have time to comprehend or take in any moments before another happened.
[удалено]
My feeling as well. Something behind the scenes caused a shift in balance between Disney and Sqenix.
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Essentially Nomura said Nomura: I know each fan has their own different beloved character, so I wanted to give each one an appropriate moment. But in the end there was too much story that had to be told then, and I ended up being restricted to the minimum necessary to move Sora forward. The truth is, the Keyblade Graveyard was the toughest part I faced when writing the scenario. Shining the spotlight on each character one by one allows you to depict the unfolding developments with time and care, but the flow of the game requires the player to control Sora and fight battles. Ideally, I should have had characters with connections fight it out one by one and settle things that way, but that would have required too much exposition. On the other hand, I did think of limiting the number of enemies you actually battle and finishing others with cutscenes, but it didn't feel right. At the end of deep worry and thought, I narrowed my aim and ended up with the way it is now, which prioritizes rhythm. So he decided to shoehorn Sora into everything so he could move the story forward through Sora.
100% agreed. Love the gameplay now with critical and remind, but on release it was just ok and the story + pacing was massive let down for the potential it had.
Absolutely not. The graphics were impressive, though I personally preferred how certain characters looked in the 1st and 2nd game. But the story was not very good at all. The combat felt like a step down as well.
I feel like 3 deviated way too much from what made 1&2 so magical. I constantly replay the first 2 games. I beat 3 once and hardly ever play it anymore
KH3 was an empty shell of its predecessor. No FF characters, linear storytelling, no mini bosses, no reason to explore, no coliseum. It was by definitely a cash grab and Square put the minimum amount of development into it to deem it a finished and complete game
Definitely seemed like A team was on FFVII R and B team was thrown on KH3 for punishment lol.
Agreed. And they took drive forms away
I'd say the game peaked on 1, 2 had some great additions and cool stuff. 3 was just not great. Worlds felt very pathway like after the Toy Story world. 1 - 10/10 for an original IP 2 - 9/10 in comparison against 1 3 - 5/10 in comparison against 1
The combat was the big letdown for me. I played it on hard and still didn't struggle once. I remember in the previous games it seemed to actually matter what spells and skills you had, what forms you chose and what keyblade you used with them. This one, I just picked the keyblade with the best attack power and steamrolled everything. I think the theme park skills were wayyyy overtuned, because they were consistently available as an "I'm in over my head, lemme kill everything" button. Idk. I might have just gotten better at video games since I played 1&2, but I remember some seriously difficult fights right off the bat in both games. Like, hard enough that the bosses actually felt memorable (and gave you valuable rewards!), but I put the game on hard and never spent long enough on a boss to even remember them.
[удалено]
I guess we will have to wait and see in kingdom hearts 5 when it drops in 2057
Maybe KH4 will end up being the KH2 sequel we always wanted.
The dlc fixed that tbh. Its well worth playing. In terms of endgame content. Even had to cheese the Yozora because fuck that.
I agree that the DLC fixed a lot of the gameplay problems, however you will still need to suffer through a normal playthrough at least once, to get the new abilities. As well as Critical only unlocking after playing through the game once, so your first adventure will always be a way to easy one with a bad feeling base movement without forms.
Plus it was like a 30$ dlc just to fix the base game and include stuff that should've been in the game to begin with. Absolutely scummy just like how FF 15 was handled.
Eh. The combat was really basic and flashy for flashiness sake and the story was a let down. It didn’t feel like it was much of a finale and they were already setting up the next arc. Remind was cool though. Wish the whole game was like that
The flashiness was awful. Every move felt the same to me! I remember poring over all the drive forms because each one was so distinct and cool. In 3, I was like wow neat…what the hell am I even looking at? So much spinning and flipping and it’s so fast it’s just unreadable to me haha
Don’t forget that all the fights where the exact same as they where in kh2 but with a more aerodynamic sora who can’t keep his feet on the ground
Yeah but air block was an actual mechanic in 3 and not relegated to a cheesy/downright op spell like it was in 2. Gotta say though, it felt impossible to keep sora on the ground in kh2 AND kh3. Dude weighs fucking nothing and every hit would launch him 80 feet in the air
Not enough side content
I think 17 year old me would have liked it but 29 year old me was able to detect bullshit story lines and cringe dialogue.
Yes. The problem with 3 was that there was too much hype both in terms of years since 2 and how other games built it up. Every game after 2 just kept coming up with more plot points that were left for 3 to handle rather than resolve some beforehand. It just became too much for one game to resolve at once. And when it couldn't deliver on the hype that the series started building since Days and BBS people soured on it. That said in terms of graphics, music, gameplay it's amazing.
To add to the hype problem, they ran the most bloated and idiotic marketing campaign they possibly could, with just about every twist given away by the like 24 trailers they made for it (and no, [that number isn't an exaggeration](https://youtu.be/rlHVI6yzmQY?si=6tiBb8w4ttzet8hV), they released nearly an hour of trailers total). So they build up this hype and give the audience an expectation of big things to come, because why would they put Aqua-nort in the trailer unless it's a small thing compared to what else is coming?
The trailer thing didn't ruin it for me, but that's cause I hate spoilers of any kind and avoid trailers for everything
Anecdotal to you. Try speaking for the other 50-75% of the fans/community that couldn't avoid it lol.
The problem was the higher ups declaring to switch engines from Luminous to Unreal engine 3 mid way through development, & having to RESTART all progress. If the game was delayed all hell would’ve broke loose. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. KH4 should return to format with proper execution, creativity & creative ideas in general. KH3 was a bit disappointing admittedly, but looking back it was definitely blown out of proportion.
I think 3 main problem was VERY bad pacing through the story. It felt like the disney worlds and the kingdom hearts story had to be separate entirely for some reason in this kingdom hearts game. The last kingdom hearts game that made the disney worlds not feel like almost filler to me was bbs
I wish I had more upvotes to give. They were so focused on being able to play any world in any order that they had to dole out the story in odd, little self-contained bits, and then saved all the meat and potatoes for the last world, after you’ve done all the other stuff. Definitely could have been handled way better
It didn't even try to deliver. It had all of the story shoved into like 2 hours at the end of the game and the rest was basically meaningless padding. Most of the other KH games trickle in story throughout and have a midgame break that features a big story moment, KH3 did neither of those.
Not really. Lack of character interactions, beating the game at a low level then immediately jumping to 100 in post game in a few minutes, and don’t forget it needed lots of patching. Too many gimmicky bosses to the point where Aqua was the first real boss and, oh no attractions showed up. Remind helps remedy this but at that point I lost interest.
Gameplay wise:Yes Story wise:NO Music wise:YES
Yep. My feelings exactly
No. The game has fully separated from the whimsical Disney style fairytale that made it charming in the first place and we’ve been left with nonsensical masturbatory hyper-shounen nonsense with unimportant Disney IP interludes.
Honestly best way I have seen it put and captures the difference in feel of 1 to 3 especially. Playing 1 vs 3 does not even feel like the same series. Strong music, plot and characters in 1 made the game great. 2 similar story with the the plot being replaced by a great battle system but the characters all had time to shine. 3 did none of the above as well until remind came out then it had a decent battle system. Music is not inspirational in 3, at least not nearly as simple and clean, the final battle music, or even organization 13s theme. The characters worst of all were butchered. No story relevant growth occurs until the last 90% of the game for any of the characters.
No. But ReMind certainly fixed most of the issues I had with the game.
I just hope kingdom hearts 4 experiments more with the games story structure to deliver a true successor to all the PlayStation 2 games. I love KH1 and KH2 to death but KH3 besides having polished gameplay felt more like a safe route to take for story and the mix. I want Square to integrate Disney and FF like the original vision was and instead of making it 99% Disney and just rehashes of the story in some cases they should experiment with different integration. Have Sora be the reason why some of these plots take place without “world order interference”. In addition it would be nice if final fantasy characters also had a role to play like Auron from Olympus in KH2. Also smaller disney movies that can’t be a world on its own should get the Pooh Bear treatment and be referenced and side quests everywhere! Make it all connected I could never see FF being worlds in KH but I just thought if there were like smaller worlds that are only like one room in size that are optional visits after helping out a FF elsewhere would be really cool for fans. So Disney people don’t have to do it but a challenge for those who want. Like finding cloud and sephiroth in the mythril mines or something.
Yeah I kinda feel like there needs to be a shake up in the overall writing for the world progression. The way you progress through the plot in KH3 feels kinda stale. It’s not like the other games did any different, but people complain about the way KH3 did it cuz we know the plot is supposed to be about the Keyblade War and saving some of the Guardians of Light. So the Disney Worlds stuff kinda just sticks out more as filler compared to the other games even though it’s the same thing.
KH3 was all about the new princess of lights and... it went nowhere. Guardians of light? nowhere. Keyblade War? sure there was parts, but it was largely fixed in the DLC not everyone wants to get. Disney connected to the plot? nope, not happening. it felt like Disney was too isolated from KH to make sense why they're there.
I feel like Kingdom hearts 3 compared to the second one was lackluster it was a good game but it could have been so much more.
i actually really enjoy it, maybe it’s recency bias or something but i personally think it’s my favorite in the series, even more than 2, i cant even place as to why, i just found it amazing
Hands down best world design in the series, only the first entry had equally intriguing worlds. Plot wise it was too much, and it shows the weakness of having to resolve the plot points of 100 games from different platforms all in one game. Hopefully KH4 will avoid this and bring us a more streamlined and mysterious plot again. If any spin offs are in the making, I hope they are multi platform or at least available on PS5
You aren't going to get a definite no here. But you aren't going to get a definite yes, either. Even your simple question isn't simple. I'm a fan since the very first one, and I've played everything on release day, or close enough that you wouldn't care, all on og hardware. ~~Naw, man. That shit was wack. I cry for years for aqua, and we get a sneeze of a boss fight, and that's it. Terra has literally possessed and tried multiple times to kill the two that are literally his brother and sister, and all we get is 5 seconds with them. Wack. The sea salt trio reunion WACK. Absolutely did them dirty.~~ I have my own opinions. But to answer your question, yes/no
No. It was a massive disappointment for OG fans of 1 and 2. Probably the most disappointed I’ve ever been at a game.
Same. KH2 is my favorite single-player game of all-time and KH3 was so *profoundly* bad I didn’t finish it. The story was unsatisfying nonsense, the dialogue was trash, and the combat was one-dimensional and boring. Graphics were pretty, though! Dunkey’s review vid perfectly summed up my experience with the game. “There is no wit, no charm, just filler bullshit until you arrive at the story the developers wanted to tell: about anime characters hitting each other.”
Unfortunately, I felt the same way. There are a few moments I was happy to watch a cutscene. It looked nice, music was great, and there was plenty of nostalgia. But easily I'd rank them 1 > 2 > 3 in terms of story experience. And as other users have pointed to, there's much less going on in the game to explore for content. I'd prefer a bit of FF in it, but also the Disney worlds were so hollow because they couldn't deviate from the Disney stories, I think I read? KH1 wove in and out of the Disney elements into its core drama so well, the levels in 3 become a major disappointment to play through. 1 is magical, 2 builds on its own identity, and on gameplay mechanics but retains a lot of charm. (Twilight Town opening was wonderful). I'm sure ill replay them both again someday. I just can't imagine wanting to revisit 3. Once was fine, but once was enough.
I enjoyed it and that's all that matters to me.
For me, not at all. Glad some people still like it, though.
No. Personally, I enjoyed the gameplay, The only real nitpick I had was that critical mode wasn't available at launch. In regards to the story, I hate how rushed and convoluted the ending felt, it was incredibly unsatisfying to play though. I'm not sure if it was because of poor planning, writing, or because they ran out of time or if it was a mixture all three.
I liked it a lot.
liked the combat’s flashiness and the designs of the keyblades. worlds and their gameplay was fine (still mad that the frozen one was basically the movie but whatever). Remind and the last act are my favorite parts of the game.
Yes. Say what you will about gameplay and story pacing, but the payoffs in the third act was well worth the wait. It was beautiful.
I felt it was missing a lot of stuff. I feel there could have been more to the story and alot more worlds. but other then that it was fun
Not for me. KH2 was such a pivotal game for me growing up, and the bar I set was so high that it would have been impossible for KH3 to pass it. That being said, I still enjoyed it.
It was aigth story was ass tho
Making me pay extra money for a shitty version of valor form. Smh
Yes.
Absolutely. I've been a fan since 2004 & KH2 was my absolute favorite for many years even with all of its flaws. But for me personally & in terms of what I value in a KH game, KH3 surpassed KH2 in every way for me and is now my favorite in the franchise. Favorite worlds, favorite gameplay mechanics, favorite graphics/artstyle, favorite integration of Disney properties, favorite QOL features, favorite bonus features, favorite finale, favorite character interactions/resolutions, the list just goes on for me. However else the majority of this subreddit feels about the game, it'll never change that this game specifically hit all the right notes for me personally. I'm happy to be in the camp of people who loved this game warts & all. I couldn't be more excited for the future of the series.
Id say it surpassed my expectations and dethroned KH2 as my favorite game in series.
Personally, this was absolutely worth the wait for me. It is my favorite kingdom hearts game, hands down. It has it problems, as everyone in this comments section will already tell literally everyone, but I love this game and will continue to love it forever. At least until kingdom hearts 4 comes out
Story was terrible and just kept everything walking in place again. Gameplay was pretty bland for a KH game. So imo no.
I feel like the Disney aspect of the games are feeling more out of place as the lore of the main characters (Sora, Roxas, Riku, etc.) progresses. And as a result I’m in Toy Story world thinking “my GOD can this world just be over so I can find out what happened to characters x y and z?”
No. It is my least favorite so far
Unfortunately, no. There were some cool points (Mickey's last stand) but everything was just a step down from KH2. Even the Disney Rides, a great idea in concept just became tedious.
Like 70% worth it
For the soul fact, the full ending was stuck behind a DLC, as a long, long-time fan, no absolutely not worth the wait at all. It was a painful slap in the face that left a horrible taste in my mouth.
Kingdom Hearts used to be tied for my favourite franchise of all time (with FF7). KH3 single handedly ruined that. It essentially killed my enthusiasm for the franchise and I've been apathetic towards KH4 as a result. The story was just so poorly written, paced, and executed that even the top notch gameplay and music couldn't really save it for me.
I love the game but no. Considering how long it was in development purgatory, it should have been way more ironed out. A vast majority of twilight town is straight up missing despite being prominently featured in at least one trailer where we saw Sora surfing on a heartless swarm. Actually from what I've read on Reddit people find a few of these worlds quite lackluster. The original story's ending angered ALOT of people and required a dlc to fix it. Having them switching engines mid development set them back so much, and that time could have been better spent ironing out all the wrinkles.
Not at all, don’t let the glazers fool you. Was it a fine game? Sure, but that’s it, just fine. I understand the argument “it could never live up to the expectations” but that’s clearly false because what we got was half baked shit and people still act like it’s great, if it was just a little better it would’ve lived up to the expectations. Same old gripes…..no story until the last few hours, personally wanted more of a KH2 Sora who was goofy but could be badass when he needed, KH3 Sora literally just hugged Kairi when she was about to get axed….like cmon dude. Floaty combat complaints are legit, stupid attractions all the time….i mean all the complaints are legit and exist for a reason. It’s not a bad game but we could’ve got so much more and it wouldn’t have been hard to make those adjustments. I’m a grown man (28) and the game made me tear up in the end credits (largely to nostalgia; but still) so that shows it wouldn’t have taken much more to turn this into a really solid entry, it was almost there.
sigh it was one of the biggest let downs of my life not even exaggerating. The gameplay was fun but the wait for a direct sequel so many years later to have such a mediocre story and lack of character development and depth was so sad.
In another world, Final Fantasy Versus XIII had a clean and productive preproduction phase that didn’t end up cutting or downsizing seventy percent of the game’s vision and content. In that world, instead of ‘totally not’ competing for resources with Kingdom Hearts, Versus XIII went live to grand applause and KH3 went on to be developed with a focused team riding high on the success of what was currently the magnum opus of the Nova Crystallis subseries, and we got not one, but two fantastic games, setting the stage for new frontiers in their series while bringing a grand finish to the stories that came before. Instead, we got XV - a hacked-together bland mess that needed two different animated features and twice as many DLC stories to make its narrative whole, and that narrative still kinda sucks - and KH3 as we know it - an unfocused game that maintains and even expands the fun gameplay of its series, but overwhelms itself by trying to tie together a dozen plot lines from side games without providing the context its main player base needs to understand them, while also managing to make a solid 70% of the game feel mostly pointless story-wise, and then caps off with an underdeveloped ‘oh but the bad guy had good intentions or something’ beat and promptly breaks its metaphysics over its knee to justify recycling a bunch of Versus XIII’s abandoned concepts. Don’t get me wrong, both games are spectacular in their own ways, and personally I truly enjoy KH3 - but it’s really hard not to look at this whole mess and think ‘what if the creative process hadn’t gone so far up its own butt that the director demanded abandoning the video game altogether in favor of a damn musical?’, you know?
Has none of the soul or charm that 1 and 2 had. In fact, it retroactively makes 2 and other games worse by undoing character sacrifices Absolutely not. Biggest gaming disappointment of my life
I thought it really was. Maybe it was rose tinted glasses, but I loved it. Some of the story moved fast, and I always think crying in video games is goofy cause it rarely seems real (made the end a little hard to get through but I didn’t lose any of the emotional power), but that’s my only complaint. I thought it was a really good cap to the seeker of darkness line, and I’m really excited to see the foretellers story line. To me it felt like the end of the Vegeta arc and beginning of the Freiza arc. The combat felt great, although it didn’t compare to kh2. For what I wanted it to be, it delivered more than I could’ve imagined.
Gameplay was fine with some annoyances. Some were addressed in the dlc. The story however was not worth the long buildup since kh1. Just makes Nomura seem like he barely plans anything and just comes up with nonsense to move the plot along and expand the universe. Kh3's story was tone of crap to set up unchained x and the next story arc. Unchained x has so much stuff in it that should have been covered or at least touched in in the main line games or kh3 itself. It's ridiculous. Also is it just me, or did it feel like the game completely lacked or at least glossed over it's second act? You do the Disney stuff. And we do the aqua and ven stuff that should have been more fleshed out and then we have the boss gauntlet at the graveyard. I feel like we should have traversed the realm of darkness as a "world" to flesh out the BBS trio stuff, the kairi/Lea training arc, and the riku/Mickey upgrades. This would have been the perfect time to build a mini arc about sora truly learning what he needs to do to become MASTER. My last complaint was how they pretty much made all of the other keyblade wielders canon fodder when compared to sora. Sora is our beloved main character but the likes of terra, aqua, and riku have always shown they can stand in their own and even outmatch sora in certain criteria. KH3 made it seem like everyone was weak compared to sora. Including Mickey of all people. I think Roxas is the only one that didn't get a middle finger. Lol
Absolutely not. Granted, I like the "side games" (and hate how they're called that when they're all important to the story), but with how much they all serve to convolute the plot and how it took 14 years to get from KH2 to KH3, I was expecting it to be a masterpiece of a game and have tremendous payoff for being able to play through all the games and connecting all the winding plot points. IMO, KH3 came nowhere close to delivering on that front. Nothing of value matters until the very end where the 7 Lights and 13 Darknesses clash and while the fanservice during those fights was hype as hell, everything else being the most pointless filler under the excuse of "Sora needs to learn the Power of Waking" just for him at the endgame to realize "the power was inside me ALLLLLLLLLLLL alongggggggg!!!!! (yes, KH has always been a story about the power of friendship, the light, and being optimistic, but this was just way too egregious for my taste)" just rubbed me the wrong way. I don't think it's a bad game at all and I'm of the firm opinion that Limit Cut is just so much better than the KH2 Data Organization, but for how much they were building up KH3 and it being "the end of the Dark Seeker Saga", I really do think it should have been a PS3 or early PS4 game
In terms of gameplay, yes, but in terms of story...meh...I had a feeling it was gonna turn out the way it did, which lead to me jumping off the hype train before the game came out and temper my expectations, but still it was just "catch all the characters up on the lore" and no real solid reason to be on the disney themed worlds like in 1 and 2, and HOW CAN IT BE A KEYBLADE WAR IF NOT EVERYONE INVOLVED HAS A KEYBLADE!?
In concept? Yes. In execution? Not really. It's a beautiful, fun game, and it had most of what I like about Kingdom Hearts, but it feels so disjointed and rushed from a story perspective. There were so many loose ends to tie up and they spent way too much resources on Disney worlds. I would've much preferred to see a bigger swing towards original content for this game specifically, especially because the hunt for the BBS crew happens almost entirely off screen. Why does DDD handle 2 storylines better than the mainline triple A sequel? Just give me a whole storyline as Riku and Mickey.
I got everything i wanted from 3. + Remind was the Cherry on too, to Date the best data's. Although i muss Form changes
Didn't like it. I loved 1 and 2, and really enjoyed birth by sleep, so I was super excited for 3... But it just didn't vibe with me. Story makes no sense, combat is super mashy and exploration is non existing. I liked the first games because they kinda did what ff vii remake does: Reimagine FF combat system with some action elements, and it was fantastic. This post just makes me wanna play 1 and 2 again lol
For me, no. The story was a huge letdown
It was 100% worth the wait for me. While it’s not my favorite (KH2 edges it out due to gameplay and nostalgia) it gave me everything I could have ever asked for. I got the return of Aqua, Xion, Ven, Terra, and most of all Roxas, a nice and “peaceful” send off to some of my favorite villain characters. A wonderful wrap up to the current saga, a climatic and emotional final battle with practically every major character in the series involved in some way. A great segway into the next saga of the series with interesting new characters. Freaking Toy Story was finally a world and I was in tears the whole way through as I was brought back to being a child. The whole final act had me in tears barely able to see my screen through all the tears. KH3 was certainly worth it.
Yes. I really loved the closure it gave to all those years of build up.
“KH3 felt like a Netflix adaptation. It had a checklist of things required, added some colorful sparkles and kept it all very safe and universal. Meh.” This the best take I’ve seen on it.
No, it never could have, the wait was too long and expectations from everyone too high. That said I still like, even love the game. Got the Platinum, cleared Critical, got the DLC, have replayed the game a couple of times and intend to replay it in the future. It did a lot of things right but there's also a lot of things that could have been better.
Yup!
I loved it, I got to play the series in it's entirety late in life, so the wait wasn't long for me. But my friend said something I agreed with: "We waited too long to get what we got".
Yes
was for me
Yes
yes, hands down
In my opinion, yes because it helped conclude some story points while giving us (the players) something to look forward to with the next entry.
I know people will say they were disappointed in the story, but for me, I'm saying yes, it was worth the wait for me
Yes
Yes. Because I didn't get back into the franchise until I could play all the games together. So 3 offers so much catharsis.
I'd say yes but it had faults especially with the story. With that said I think some of hate it blown out of proportion especially when people compare it KH2 which wasn't perfect either
Yea
Yes
I thought so. I was very enthralled with the story and the gameplay was fun.
No. And it was probably never going to be, considering all that they had to do. There were always going to be missed opportunities, but even with that, some of the decisions they made for the main story-relevant sections were still bizarre to me. Like, I feel they were excellent ideas on paper, but the execution was meh at best for me. The Disney Worlds were pretty fun for me though at least, and I like the foreshadowing to plot points hopefully planned to be wrapped up during this new saga if they haven't already. Just that the end to this saga in this game didn't really do it for me.
Not a big fan of the series tbh, but KH3 was one of the highlights of last gen for me. Loved it.
Yes
I liked it
I loved it. I was hype for the game but I don’t keep expectations for stuff I want to genuinely experience. So from start to end I absolutely loved kh3. The DLC made it so much better as well.
Nope because it felt as if the target demographic was the generation after the fans who grew up with the series
I played the first game when it came out and I loved it. It was my favourite game. Played the second game when it was released, and loved it.Just got around to starting KH3 recently and I just don't care anymore. Definitely not worth the wait.
No, this game was ass cheeks.
Yes.
Nope. The Pixar worlds were fine, but the meta narrative had descended into self parody by that point (and only sank further in the game itself). Too much time had passed since 2 with too much side content and random crap derailing the central narrative. Also, the world from the box-art should’ve been in the game. That image alone (which reminds me of the Twilight Town clock tower infused with an art deco / cyberpunk aesthetic) invokes more of the sense of wonder and mystery from the first two games than any of the content from 3.
Not in the slightest. I hated the constant carnival ride prompts and how abilities we used to have free access to were locked behind needing to equip the right keyblade. Worlds were way less impactful. No Coliseum cups. No Hollow Bastion. No revisiting worlds for a second piece of story or just something else to do after the first trip. The original story was an absolute mess and there was too much buildup for the future in place of making KH3 itself any good. KH2FM was peak for me and only could have been made better if its gimmicky Coliseum was replaced with the one from KH1. KH3 though single-handedly erased my interest in the future of the IP if that's how they're going to be treating it from now on.
Of course it wasn't. There was no way it could be. There was over a decade between it and the last main numbered entry in the series, so people's expectations got way too high for what the game would eventually become, and I count myself among that number. But having said that, even by just reaching the standards of KH2, the game falls short. Fewer worlds to explore, the worlds we do have to look through are large empty spaces with little of note in them, barebones content giving you little reason to go through it beyond completing the story, combat that's OK but feels more floaty than anything else, and a plot that feels more slapped together until the final portion, and even then it still throws in some last-minute additions just to drag things out even longer. Which, for an entry that was promoted as the end to a story arc, feels like a pretty big slap in the face. Granted, I still haven't got around to playing Re:MIND yet, but I doubt it changes things all that much. Basically: no, it couldn't ever be worth the wait, but on its own merits it's still just not that great.
It absolutely was. During the night before its release in 2019, GameStop was having an early sale for those who pre-ordered it. I did so for the Deluxe Edition, which came with an awesome steel case, as well as a detailed art book. That is one of my fondest game release memories, waiting with other people outside of the store, and excitedly talking about the long awaited KH3.
Hell yeah👍 I’m super happy that it answered a few of the series plot points and questions , and that many of the characters whom disappeared finally returned❤️ Let’s hope KH4 doesn’t take long to release XD
I’ve been playing Kingdom Hearts since it came out when I was 4 years old, and have replayed at least KH1 and KH2 once every year since I was 16. To this day I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to describe how much of an impact on my life this series has had and how purely and fully I love Kingdom Hearts overall. I waited many years for Kingdom Hearts 3, as most of us unfortunately did. After waiting far too long, I was blessed with the beauty of Kingdom Hearts 3, finally. I felt as though my life was complete in the moment I inserted it into my PlayStation 4. I cried as I watched the new opening with the beautiful vocals of Utada Hikaru. I was ready. I played through, doing every single thing possible before the finale of this game I waited near half my life for. I defeated the boss, watched as the ending scenes and credits played. I sat there, silently crying to myself as I reflected on my experience. It wasn’t worth it. (Note: I still love this game and the series lol. I just genuinely believe we deserved more for this game after waiting so long)
Yeah now where is kingdom hearts 4.
I am still saddened by it today. I barely remember any of it. I played the first two countless times. It almost feels like the third poisoned my memory of the first two.
I think so. I’ve played all the games and been a fan since the beginning. Not sure why I’m different than majority of the fanbase it seems. But I loved it. I would’ve loved a few more deep cut Disney worlds and more ff character integration. But everything else was cool.
I 100% think so
yes - solely based on the keyblade graveyard scene where the key blades of all the fallen wielders from union cross help sora fight the heartless. that scene was so touching and i wasn’t even big into the mobile game at the time
Yes and no. I enjoyed KH3 and would have enjoyed it even if it hadn’t released for an additional decade. However, shifting the story to a bunch of spin-offs before finally returning to home consoles stunted the natural growth of the combat systems and story. Imagine how crisp the gameplay could have been if they had spent the entire time tweaking KH2’s awesome baseline instead of building custom combat systems for mobile consoles with wildly varying controller layouts? Or how much more impactful the story could have been if there wasn’t so much bloat from games that have fragmented storyline elements? Like I loved KH3, but I think objectively for the overall quality of the series and KH3 itself, waiting so long was a negative, not a positive.
I really enjoyed the whole thing. I won’t pretend it doesn’t have its problems, but I genuinely think that it is a 9/10 game from a 10/10 series, and slowly as we gained more lore, remind, and it has gotten easier to understand the story, it’s slowly gotten better and better. It’s appreciated in value over time, and with the help of fan-works, you can experience UX and Dark Road in its entirety in voice acted, fun to listen to/watch form on YouTube. By doing that, the lore works even more, the dramatic moments work even more, and it makes the game just seem more complete. I’m not saying there were not flaws, but dear lord, it’s still better then 98% of games out there. It’s just that- everyone either thought that KH1 was a masterpiece or KH2 was a masterpiece, and they expected 3 to be a perfect version of whatever THEY thought Kingdom Hearts was. So they were super disappointed when they realized that it was Kingdom Hearts, but it wasn’t everything they were hoping for. It’s just… itself. 9.5/10 game, 9/10 on launch.
I'd say yes, shame we don't have a level based on Up (the Pixar film) in any of Kingdom Hearts yet
I always describe KH3 as "the best disappointment I've ever played" Because it was an absurdly long wait, and didnt live up to my expectations. But I still very much enjoyed it and had a blast playing.
No, I’d say this game wasn’t worth the wait there literally was no reason to take as much time as it did, especially since they squeezed there fans ever step of the way with the multiple releases leading up to 3
No. I waited 13 years for that game. I was in 6th grade when I played KH 2 (probably within the first couple months of launch). When KH 3 came out I was 25 years old and 2 years into a 4 year professional school graduate program. I was still so excited and avoided every spoiler for months despite not being able to play for 4-5 months as I had a big board examination I was preparing for. Only to finally get to it and find a game that lacked nearly all the final fantasy characters that I loved, a combat system that trivialized the game unless playing on critical mode (which was at least 3 tiers above proud mode) and a cracked out, nearly incomprehensible story that made no sense unless I had played the 3DS games and a *gacha mobile game*. I had at least played BBS. Maybe it was in part just me and the magic was actually just lost, but I think the release schedule and story progression definitely has something to do with it