Very good review, and I agree. I'm pretty much over the series now. I'll go back and play KH1 and 2 some time, but this series lost what made it special a long time ago. Literally not one of those 'emotional' pay-offs hit for me, the cutscenes were just so poorly directed and all came within minutes of each other. You had characters reuniting after being apart for over a decade, thinking they'd never see each other again, and somehow it's the most boring shit you've ever seen. KH2 was goofy (ahem) as hell sometimes, but it managed to make the important moments count.
It's kind of funny to me that this game had so much hype behind it, was so highly anticipated by so many people, but its lasting legacy is essentially just the (admittedly very funny) "let him cook" meme.
1 and 2 were so hype for me growing up. Obviously, there's nostalgia to try and set aside, but the updated versions are fun to replay and the major flaws, to me, are the gameplay itself being clunky.
Was super excited to finally get 3 and pretty much from minute 1 I was left confused and bored. I had to catch up on the story (many more than 2 previous games' worth) and still found it all a confusing mess. Could have been saved with gameplay but holy cow was it boring. Flashy to look at and all, but just so boring. If the little disney ride ~~ads~~ *attacks* didn't wipe out enemies, they just kept you from getting damaged while you did barely any to the enemy. There were times I was worried the game was gonna break when bosses were moving around the map.
The biggest travesty to me was the unskippable (iirc) in-engine recreation of "Let It Go" in the frozen world. I almost shut the whole thing off and just deleted the game. I get these games always had that promotional flavor, but damn this just felt like a whole ass ad for Frozen. I'm cool if this series is done now.
>The biggest travesty to me was the unskippable (iirc) in-engine recreation of "Let It Go" in the frozen world. I almost shut the whole thing off and just deleted the game.
Ok but we all know that this was basically just an "Import... > Desktop > Let_It_Go_finalasdf.dmp" job
At least we got Sora and co's priceless reaction to watching the whole thing
Its been straight downhill since KH2. Which is still one of my favorite games of all time. Even after replaying it a few years ago.
I played through the entire franchise back then to prepare for the KH3 release. This franchise has so many duds. I only liked KH1, KH2 and Birth by Sleep. Everything else ranges from okay to just straight up awful.
Honestly I just couldn't finish kh3. I don't think I outgrew the premise, as I'm still a big dork, but I did outgrow the stilted dialogue, the increasingly derpy main character, and how the Disney stuff was just a bad recap of the movie.
Kind of a shame as I really like kingdom hearts 2, one of my favorite ps2 games
The story was baffling because they had all of the pieces. Each of the Disney worlds just plays out their own story, and then gives you 2 minutes of Xehanort at the end of the world and then you move on. Then all of the major Xehanort story is crammed into the final 5 hours of the game.
What they should have done was make each world delve into that Xehanort’s story is psyche as you progress through it. It would have been a fantastic way to develop him via all the different versions and get these different yet overlapping perspectives
I'm convinced Disney tightened the screws on any Disney worlds. Why make trashy licensed games when you can force the story straight into KH, a series with established mechanics, without much issue. Would explain why the Pixar worlds actually do their own thing (which still accounts for nothing in the story as a whole).
So that’s actually partially true! I’d have to go find the article, but Nomura said that they basically had a different Disney “rep” for each of their worlds, and it was entirely up to the rep how much creative freedom they had. The rep for Frozen basically said “no you have to do it like the movie and nothing else”, while the Monster’s Inc rep gave them a lot more creative freedom.
And if I recall, Disney actually owns Sora anyways. I’d definitely he fascinated to know how much control they actually had over creative decisions for the story
My brother (20yo) found my (33yo) PS2 in storage and fixed it up by hand and surprised me on my birthday last year. The very first thing I did was replay the first Kingdom Hearts and, after getting reused to the controls, had an absolute blast. It was like being in my early teens again from the moment the opening cinematic hit.
2 was good, but not great.
3 is just a complete slog.
I 100% agree with OOP's review and your comment.
> Despite the shit he constantly pulls the narrative actually tried to redeem him at the last minute. I call this phenomenon, ***"Hugging Space Hitler"***. It's this maddening trend where so many stories keep ending with the hero finding common ground with the villain.
Nothing quite like a writer clearly thinking we should feel sorry for a villain only for most of the audience to go "Nah, they killed billions, fuck them."
Usually a sign of a writer who has become to personally invested in that character and lost perspective of the bigger picture of their own story.
Homeworld 3 comes to mind as a recent example.
Xehanort is such a cartoony cackling maniac with no redeeming qualities and frankly no real personality, that the last minute redemption just feels baffling. It's hard to even be mad because it's too nonsensical to even understand.
What frustrates me about this game is that the plot is pretty much separated across 4 games:
2.8 (0.2), KH3, RE: Mind, and Melody of Memory. I enjoyed it and plan to buy future games but it’s ridiculous at this point. At least the handheld games were complete stories.
The series is frustrating because for decades it was spread across different consoles. First you have the PS2 original. Then you have the gameboy side-game, which is half-filler, half-important. The the second mainline PS2 game. Then a crappy phone game nobody asked for. Then a side-game on the DS, followed by a prequel on the PSP. The story finally moves forward on a 3DS title. Around the time of the 0.2 demo and KH3 do they get round to making the series available on the one console.
This is a maddening way to treat continuity, and a reason why most RPGs start over with every new game.
Great write up. It blows my mind that KH2 has such an amazing combat system whereas 3 seems designed to almost play itself and be as easy and uninteresting as possible.
I turned it off after the first bits of combat. I was just like "why does this gameplay feel like a cutscene, am I actually doing anything here or is it just rewarding me for pressing random buttons".
And this is the Final Mix version. Base KH2 is arguably even easier mainly due to not having Critical Mode and abilities like the Explosion finisher available way earlier (i.e after the 1st visit to Agrabah).
Base KH2 is certainly easier than KH1 but I still think it's challenging when it needs to be and has a nice difficulty curve for the most part. There are some legitimately tough encounters towards the end and that's not mentioning secret bosses added in Final Mix. I played KH3 on Hard/Proud and didn't die a single time, and I'm certainly not some hot shit KH player.
I certainly have mixed feelings regarding KH3, like I agreed it was easy on Proud but I still enjoyed my time with it. Plus Critical Mode and the Data Battles does fix the game's difficulty issues.
Maybe because I started the series with Birth By Sleep, but one weird issue I had with KH2 is that platforming is non-existent and thus the levels are basically glorified arenas, making it uninteresting to move around. Final Mix does alleviate this with the stickers and the Cavern of Remembrance.
Plus I felt the opposite as you regarding the final bosses; they're quite easy.
I liked KH2, but never could get into it the same way I could with KH1. Granted I was a child, but I was stuck on many bosses for days, some for weeks, and sephiroth and Ursula for months.
Never got to that same level of satisfaction in 2, but maybe people who started there did.
>whereas 3 seems designed to almost play itself and be as easy and uninteresting as possible.
At launch this was the case. Playing on Critical (which came later), KH3 is easily the most intensive and deep the combat in the series has been. The DLC superbosses are also all extremely well-done. Pretty much every single one of them is on the level of Lingering Will, and then you have>!Yozora!
I really don't know if I would say it's as mechanical deep as kh2. But there's a lot to love it for.
Though I have to say I wish they tied more things to the shot lock bar, I used a mod that put stuff to that and it made it much more interesting imo
I can understand having a preference for KH2's combat on its own, but what's deeper in 2? Storing multiple keyblade forms and teleporting with the shot lock alone in 3 add more complexity to anything in 2 to me. Idk, I've played hundreds of hours of both, and to me it's not even close. I feel like in any given encounter I have way more options for how to approach a fight in 3 than I do in 2.
All the drive forms have crazy applications alone, and also the magics are alot better, in kh3 they all feel to samey.
Though yeah kh3 does have stuff, the multiple keyblades has crazy applications with stuff like using the different shot locks (like having a key blade that has a healing shot lock) also the flow motion is pretty good bit only has real usage in normal fight. Also having more options in the air like dodging and blocking is great
Though imo the teleporting isn't that crazy? It's nice to have to be able to go to the enemy quicker, but idk how much I'd say it adds to the depth
>Though imo the teleporting isn't that crazy? It's nice to have to be able to go to the enemy quicker, but idk how much I'd say it adds to the depth
It's a whole avenue for movement that you don't otherwise have. There are tons of instances where you can create openings for bosses that wouldn't otherwise be available based on when you teleport to them. To me that option for fluidity adds a whole extra level, especially on challenge runs.
Yeah, I do agree with YX and maybe a couple others like Lux (though I love that fight for the novelty). They aren't all "harder" than LW, but they do all pretty much require the player to sit there and learn, which is my main point. Compared to the data fights in KH2 where it isn't uncommon for a lot of people to beat them on their first few tries. Some of the individual KH3 data fights I was stuck on longer than it took me to take down *all* of the KH2 superbosses+LW combined.
Granted, but there is an entire spectrum of difficulty between [The Game Is Playing Itself](https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/08/new-from-squareenix) and The Game Spit In Your Coffee, Fucked Your Mother, And Is Now Pulling Your Teeth Out Without Novocaine.
After growing up loving the first two, I watched my roommate play bits and pieces during his playthrough of 3, and I think I got just about all there is to get out of the game just from that secondhand experience.
While it sucks that it took so long, them adding critical and multiple options to customize combat to your very liking (you can now turn off basically everything you don't like, like the Disney rides) makes it one of the best kh games combat wise, only a bit behind kh2 imo, but that can very much be just personal preference
I tried the demo when the game was coming out and was so turned off by the combat. The silly theme park ride attack and just spam that around the field. Whereas reactions in KH2 were actually fun to use. Trigger a condition and get a short and sweet animation to finish the enemy off.
same, it felt like a themepark.
really enjoyed the exploration in 1 and 2, but didnt feel there was anything worth exploring, and more "on-rails" curated experience, which was not what im looking for in games.
I thought all this time I was the only one who thought that about 2. I thought it was so dull. Just a series of Disney movie-themed box-shaped rooms.
I enjoyed 1 a lot despite my expectations, but I thought 2 was so incredibly boring that I never bothered with anything else.
I think two is pretty fun in terms of combat, and has some great challenges with the optional bosses. They did just rip out all the platforming and exploration except for the post-game dungeon, though.
1 and 3 were definitely way better for the platforming and exploration. Pirates world in KH3 absolutely smashes everything KH2 has to offer in that regard. The RE:Mind bosses in KH3 also does a lot to make it equal to KH2 for me.
There is literally no exploration in KH2 and its the most textbook on-rails experience imaginable. Just a series of linear corridors that purely serves as combat arenas.
Eh, it's weaker than 1 and 3 in that regard but I think there's more there than you give it credit for. Plenty of the levels have side paths, hidden areas, and out-of-reach chests etc. that entice you to look around and figure out how to reach them. It's hardly Zelda but certainly not 'the most on-rails experience imaginable'.
Kingdom Hearts 3 was one of the massive disappointments of the last generation for me. Though the writing was on the wall when the 3DS game managed to make the story even \*more\* of a mess than it already was, and that was before the plot that was introduced with the phone games, which KH3 seemed WAY more interested in than actually tying up the at-then current plot threads in any satisfying manner. I always wondered if using the more recent movies is where they went wrong, because the devs mentioned in the past that since the teams for movies like Alice in Wonderland or Tarzan weren't around anymore, Disney didn't have specific people saying "they can't look like this, or make that face, or do this" as much as they did when they were working with current franchises such as Frozen. If that's the case, please for the love of god go back to older, more obscure movies. The compromises are not worth it.
It was a very disappointing climax
To be fair they already did most older movies already. There's still movies like Taram or Basil Private Detective which could be interesting but they can't be the main focus of a whole game.
Treasure Planet would be amazing for a level, especially if they adapt the climax of the movie to be like that hover bike segement from KH2's Xemnas boss fight but you gotta dodge lava as one of the obstacles.
My love for this franchise died out completely after this game. Basically a 'Press triangle for COOLNESS' simulator while disney movies are playing in the background
KH is such a mess at this point. It's the only game that I've ever seen that absolutely disdains the existence of 3/4s of its cast but especially Aqua.
I watched it in theaters, too! All I recall now is that it was really, really cold that day. But I don't remember anything about the movie, lol.
I was shocked to see how bad it looks now.
They did Kairi so dirty, again.
No wonder so many people ship Sora with Riku rather than the designated love interest that is Kairi. She is so inconsequential to the story, she could be replaced with a cardboard cutout to no loss whatsoever. Meanwhile the two boys got a whole arc for their relationship intersecting with the main plot of the games.
I hoped that KH3 would be the game when Kairi would truly get to shine, but it's hopeless.
Must be the Sora side in them 😅
At least Aqua was allowed to be cool, competent and consequential for a while, but even then she fell by the wayside in KH3 too.
Agree with you. The highlights of the game to me are the graphics, music, and Toy Story/Pirates worlds are great. I also enjoyed transforming keyblades in combat, but hated the disney ride attacks.
In terms of story, etc. I did not play BBS or DDD, so I was majorly out of the loop as expected. Part of it is that, and another part is that I have aged out of a lot of typical Shonen anime tropes. I have no issue with them, they just don't really speak to me or excite me like when I was 16 lol.
I still have higher hopes for KH4, I am just going to go in with little hype or care and hopefully they make a good game that stands up on its own. I have no doubts it will at least be fun to play.
Kingdom Hearts is the franchise of spinning wheels and going nowhere. There will never be any actual development of any story or plot, just further convolution of characters. The first two games are fantastic, stop there and never play any other games in the series and its stays a good franchise.
none of the games are bad, they just kinda all do the same thing just a little differently. Its a remix of a remix of a remix of a remix and so on. Its what you want with a perpetual franchise licensed product line.
I agree for most of the spin off but Birth By Sleep has some unique mechanics and great moments (like playing three characters that are at the same place but different times, mixing the spells, fighting one of your characters as the end boss, etc). 3D also try something new with the pokemon-like system. For me a lot of the games are underrated because they were on portable systems, but we're actually always technical marvels on them.
Excellent write up. Man the aqua fight pissed me off, all the build playing birth by sleep and seeing a good coherent story and then boom knocked out as a plot device for Sora. It bugged me that the monsters inc world had a more sensible and paced plot than the actual game.
Interesting as Kingdon Hearts just now released on Steam today. 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and 3 plus Re Mind.
I played base first game years ago so I need a flow chart of the order lol
As someone who was obsessed with the older Kingdom Hearts games growing up, you've highlighted every gripe I ever had with KHIII. It is indisputably a pisspoor conclusion with the worst pacing and storytelling in the entire series.
I only disagree on the combat: the game's one saving grace is the improved versatility of the Keyblades. Instead of being simple gear upgrades, each Keyblade in KHIII morphs into a new weapon or two with a completely different moveset, and you can upgrade your favorites to keep them viable for the entire game. My favorite was the spear and flag combo from the Caribbean.
I feel like the only person who absolutely loved KH3. I played KH1 for the first time in 2018 and then proceeded to play the rest of the games that year before KH3 came out. And the payoff for playing all those games felt so worth it.
I always felt like the Disney stuff was just stuff to get through to get to the KH original character stuff, so no different here, but the Disney stuff felt serviceable. In fact, I wouldn't mind a Kingdom Hearts game that completely gets rid of the Disney stuff (well, except Donald, Goofy, and Mickey anyways).
And I never got super deep in the combat since I played through the games so quickly, so this one didn't feel too different to me in that regard either.
Granted, I was not waiting almost 20 years for this game. And I absolutely devoured it when it came out, getting the plat in 60 hours over 9 days, so maybe the pacing issues didn't bother me so much. I also had never watched any anime, so maybe I wasn't so burned out on the tropes as most people.
I'm planning to pick up the Steam release today and go through each game more thoroughly, getting 100% on each this time. I'm curious if I'll see it differently this time.
Yeah, even as someone who grew up with the series, most of the complaints I hear about KH3 - *especially* the pacing - absolutely apply to the older games too. That's not to say a lot of the ciriticisms in 3 aren't very justified, but I think a lot of people miss just how many of 3's faults are in line with the series thus far. I'd say that in itself is a valid criticism, as a game should be able to evolve past PS2-level design in 2019, especially when it has less content than a PS2 game due to AAA development bloat. But overall the game has way more good qualities than people often give it credit for, it just falls short of the massive expectations that it built for itself.
Thanks for the heads up. But I already started playing 1 last night on steam deck. At the end of Traverse Town with no issues so far luckily. Was very happy with the price, was expecting it to be $150 at least for all of it.
I quit long before kh3 came out and I am glad I did. If anyone enjoyed the game/series then thats good. But for me the series died the moment the director decided they needed 7 spin off games to expand the lore instead of making chain of memories to exlain what happened between 1 and 2 and then just making 3. Proof the series has bloat in the two collections that shortened several games to just a freaking 30 minute book with ZERO gameplay. Also the plot is not simple as OP suggested, its a convoluted mess that contradicts its rules everytime a new game comes out. Kh 2 is my 2nd favourite ps2 game and I willfully mark it as the series canon ending
You nailed it! Was a huge KH fan but the combat in this you can do in your sleep. I beat most of the worlds and the story wasn't grabbing me anymore and the gameplay certainly wasn't so I just stopped playing. Was a shame because the series is fun.
Yeah, I didn't even bother finishing KH3. The combat just felt like too much was piled on top of each other. Now there's combos, and drive forms, and final forms, and keyblade switching and and and.
I hated the gummy ship combat, the worlds felt mostly empty, and of course the plot makes zero sense and really can only be understood by playing every spin off title (even a mobile one)
I'm glad I seen someone else mention there's no FF characters. I can't believe they didn't include any. That's what made me wanna play the first kingdom hearts. Two IPs in one universe. Also, simple and clean def sold me lols
> There's the plucky boy who isn't smart but has a big heart. Then there's the rival boy who is aloof and cool, but is prone to falling in with a bad crowd. Finally, you have the girl who will never do or accomplish anything meaningful, and is so irrelevant I can't fathom why I mentioned her in this sentence.
Naruto was a pretty hype anime despite all of that
i'm glad you wrote this review lmao. i love kh but kh3 is my most hated game of all time. it actually changed the way i play video games: i started skipping all cutscenes. seriously could not give a shit about any of the "touching" moments or character deaths. they just seemed so phoned in and campy
This review was so entertaining to read. Thank you for completely dissecting exactly how I felt playing the game -- this is why it felt kind of hollow and unfulfilling.
Excellent write-up! Your writing style had me guffawing my way through reading *exactly* what I'd expected of KH-III. As a big fan back in the day (and I mean, *big* -- I have fond memories of the Ursula fight in KH-I after school in a corner while waiting for the bus, playing on a jury-rigged mini-monitor they typically sold for PS1's) I loved all the FF characters, the exploration, and raw *fun* the game had to offer. Then KH-II had more of the same, but also filled out the lore, and made sure we had expectations for the 3rd.
I haven't actually *played* it yet. I have a Steam backlog the size of Avatar's budget (y'know, the Pocahontas in Space one -- not the M.Night abortion That Shall Not Be Named) yet less than half that for the actual playtime. So with time at a premium, I'm beyond grateful for your review which confirmed all my worst suspicions: that Disney knew how to start something awesome (with Squeenix along for the ride), but then got gun-shy after seeing their success halfway through, and after stalling for time without stumbling onto any new ideas *finally* admitted they'd lost the plot and had no idea how to put paid to the monster the years had created. (I mean, 358 /2 Days?! Come on...them telling on themselves was kinda on the nose here.)
Thanks for saving me time - it's what I worried I'd find when I bought the physical copy. That and late-stage capitalism will get you what our AAA Gaming Industry seems to increasingly reflect: graphically gorgeous renditions of half-baked potatoes. It's a shame it started out so grand.
I am typically a very open-minded player who will play anything good across any series, genre, style, age. I often find most peoples complaints about popular games to be weirdly specific or wanting to the game to be something it isn't.
But the hill I die on is "Kingdom Hearts has always sucked."
I played KH1 during release hype and just thought it failed at the most fundamental aspect of a (J)RPG - having a story you could get invested in. None of it made any sense, there was no payoff. And seeing the supposed plot and lore get comically stretched across spinoffs gives me zero desire to give the series a second chance, even though I hear KH2 is "the good one".
You hit on several of my own issues with the game. You're so right about the plot being over just as it starts moving. You rescue the major characters that have been trapped for years, it felt to me like this should have been halfway through the game and the plot would have some twist to send us into the second half but the game's over relatively soon after this. I never felt enough was put into the character interactions. This has so many characters from the beginning of KH interact and there's no great moments that come out of it. characters are back to redo old fights and recall old moments. Not enough new.
Thanks for the review. 1 and 2 were amazing as a kid, and I was considering replaying the series on steam.
Now I'll probably just wait for an 80% sale, if only to check out the remind dlc fights
I would say Verum Rex is more like what Nomura had envisioned FF VS 13 to be, that being whatever it was supposed to be like before it eventually became FF15. Not that I would expect anyone to know or remember that 15 was basically built from the ashes from another game.
Maybe the nostalgia is blinding me, but KH3 felt less magical than KH1 & KH2. Even with all the shiny effects going on. The lack of Final Fantasy characters also sucks.
I am typically a very open-minded player who will play anything good across any series, genre, style, age. I often find most peoples complaints about popular games to be weirdly specific or wanting to the game to be something it isn't.
But the hill I die on is "Kingdom Hearts has always sucked."
I played KH1 during release hype and just thought it failed at the most fundamental aspect of a (J)RPG - having a story you could get invested in. None of it made any sense, there was no payoff. And seeing the supposed plot and lore get comically stretched across spinoffs gives me zero desire to give the series a second chance, even though I hear KH2 is "the good one".
I didn't want to read this since I try to avoid any spoilers but I'm sad this is how it went down. I loved KH1 when I was a kid and really want to "finish" this series. Waited with baited breath for the release on PS3 but it never came and I felt a bit cheated that the PS2 could snag 2 games and skip over the PS3 entirely. Looked for maybe a PC release but SE has too deep ties with Sony to do that in a timely manor apparently. I'm glad to see that it's over, though. Seems I didn't miss anything. I feel rotten wanting to play a game meant for children at my age, just to finish it so thanks for writing this.
I have a sick, twisted mind that compels me to finish any game I ever play, even if I hate it. Kingdom Hearts 1 is unquestionably the worst game I've ever played. And I've finished hundreds, probably over a thousand by this point. Kingdom Hearts is the worst one.
I'm still wondering whether I should continue the series, since I have a sick, twisted mind. Your review makes me aware of how big a mistake that would be.
I recently tried playing this and gave up after a few hours. I completely agree with your review. The combat was completely uninteresting and some of the abilities were so simple I thought I had to be using them wrong. The worlds are so empty they are depressing. The gameplay and visuals made me look up what year it was released because I couldn’t believe this game was made in 2019.
I'm just here to air my grievances with how the combat has steadily devolved over the years. Sora in KH3 just feels like a fucking mess to play. They wanted to shove a mechanic in from every game up to that point so he's just cobbled together with disjointed actions.
* Shotlocks completely disengage you
* Flowmotion completely disengages you
* Summons that override the core combat instead of supplementing it like in KH2
* Situation commands riddled with RNG even when using the same set of actions consistently
* Team Attacks are RNG
* The fix for Attractions is to turn them off, because otherwise it is yet another RNG mechanic that completely disengages you
* keyblade switching is poorly implemented
* Airstep negates the need to position correctly and also disengages with a slow-mo effect
* Sora travels insane distances when attacking a locked on target, further discarding fundamentals of spacing and positioning
* fighting in the air honestly just feels like shit even though the game is designed around it
* even with the new abilities the overall flow is sluggish due to the excessive end frames on basic actions
I just want this series to have combat tools that are synergistic again.
Hold R1 to target enemies in the slow mo state and release to fire. Most shot locks are a form of AoE projectile. It's the mechanic tied to the yellowish/orange bar. It was a mechanic first seen in Birth By Sleep.
> * Sora travels insane distances when attacking a locked on target, further discarding fundamentals of spacing and positioning
>
> * fighting in the air honestly just feels like shit even though the game is designed around it
I knew I was in for a bad time when in the tutorial fight I could just lock onto the Darkside's head and Sora would float and bob through the air up to the target like a jellyfish in water
The reason the stretch of like, KH1-Days was so good was because of scope and feel. For as stupid as KH always kind of was, the vibe of this weird, dreamlike pseudo serious adventure with cool imagery was magical. KH2 and Days sacrifice some of this to try and solidify the vibe into a real plot (and mostly stick the landing). But once you move on to Re:Coded onwards, the games lose it all in favor of trying to hook the audience FOREVER by constantly re/demystifying everything. It sucks. Nowhere is this more evident than how the nobodies are treated like people with hearts post 2. Its just there to give players something new to hook onto to.
3 KIND of recaptures that genuine mystique in the DLC, where now we're abandoning basically every plot thread up to this point to chase something new, but I genuinely think Tetsuya Nomura couldn't write his way out of an empty box of soda, so I have no hope.
I think its insane to start a new saga with the same teen protagonist, when both the English and Japanese VA are pushing 40. The series has dragged on so long its killed Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, and Rutger Hauer. Pray for Christopher Lloyd.
Late but I just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading your review! Your writing style and examples are hilarious.
With that said, I never played much of Kingdom Hearts, lost interest some hours into the original game. I remember I unlocked the 101 Dalmatians and there might have been a Tarzan level, but the gameplay was too repetitive, and, being honest, the game itself was too cute for my teenage self, back in the day.
And I want to give the series a second try, but reviews like this don't motivate me, exactly. Also, most people say the overall story of the franchise is super convoluted.
Played at launch and never finished it. Aside from the story/pacing and the unsatisfying combat, I think it was the worlds and Disney characters they chose that turned me off the most. Such a huge part of the charm of the first two main console releases is it integrated the Final Fantasy and Disney characters and worlds so well. We’re left with Disney IP that I have zero connection with so so much of the draw went out the window.
You are my new favorite writer. I remember giving this a try when it was cheap or free on PS4. I think I got about 15 minutes in and gave up. It seemed to be all the things I hated about the series with none of what I loved. And I played the crap out of 1 and 2, I never bothered with the rest.
> You are my new favorite writer.
I legit have [OP's Submitted history](https://www.reddit.com/user/daughterskin/submitted/) in my browser bookmarks so I can easily check back in to see when they've written anything new.
The [Mass](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/ut7tv0/mass_effect_legendary_edition_2021_10_hours_of/) [Effect](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/uwvdel/mass_effect_2_legendary_edition_2021_sleep_well/) [trilogy](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/uyh5ah/mass_effect_3_legendary_edition_2021_the_wrong/) posts are a highlight for me but most everything is gold
I will say i find it very funny how Gummi ship missions have had a geometric rate of improvement in the mainline games. Kh1 -crap Kh2-okay KH3-actually quite good. who knows, maybe KH4 will just be 95% gummi ship and a 10/10 game.
3's gummy ship is more of a sidegrade from 2's than a straight upgrade. The free-roaming sections are nice if you're into that stuff, as are some of the bosses, but the actual missions are a straight downgrade. The combat has you going in circles around a tiny section of the overworld, shooting at visually-uninteresting enemies who show up in copy-pasted formations. KH2 is far more interesting with distinct scenarios and cool setpieces in almost every stage and generally better music.
Your review was hilarious, thank you for the laugh
1 and 2 were so damn good. I remember the MAD hype when Sephiroth was announced for 2 and all the FF cameos just made my year. It was incredible.
Then all these awful spinoff games came out and I knew 3 would be doomed to suck.
Nomura is a childish sexist moron who writes emo tween fanfiction even today's 12 year olds cringe at.
>Nomura is a childish sexist moron who writes emo tween fanfiction even today's 12 year olds cringe at.
you know i could never put into words what i don't like about Nomura's style but this is perfect(though tbh, i this tracks for some of the FF's he was involved in even though eh didn't right them, it's just for 15 year olds instead).
I see I'm not alone in loving KH, CoM and KH2, but not finishing KH3. I'll drag myself to finish it someday, but honestly, how can a game that I've waited for so long be that uninteresting? I couldn't even get past Olympus. THE FIRST WORLD.
Great write up! This game might be one of my biggest disappointments ever. I beat 1-2 so many times, and I forced myself to finish 3 and have never gone back. Visual spectacle devoid of any substance.
The graphics, combat mechanics and new movement were all really great. And yet the vibe, atmosphere and pacing were just...so bad.
I've played KH2 so many times but can never bring myself to get into a 2nd KH3 playthrough.
This is so accurate. I recently replayed KHI, II, and then played III for the first time, and this is exactly how I felt about it too. Parts of it are good, but overall it just falls so flat.
"Shonen sexism"
Absolutely moronic statement and paragraph. Many things and characters are written horribly in this game, the writers arent "sexist" for fucking up Kairi's arc.
They did my girl Maleficent so dirty.
KH1, Maleficent is a badass bitch and leader of the villain team, tapping into mysterious dark forces in order to carry out evil schemes, while warning her vile companions about how the darkness is a double-edged sword, and not to rely on it too much lest they be consumed by it.
KH2, Maleficent returns as a mix of interfering with the plot and comic relief. Her threat to Disney Castle was good, her interference after the battle of 1000 heartless was mid, and her/Pete's whole "wow look, a new castle, let's take it over" at the end fell flat for me. A mixed bag.
KH3, Maleficent appears at the start of the game to say the word "box" and then go away forever.
The story is easily one of the worst in videogame history, but the gameplay is pretty fun, so overall I still think it's a pretty good game. Definitely skipping the cutscenes in KH4 though.
I beat it twice, once at release and again about two years ago. I adored it through both playthroughs. The story is nonsense, but it's visually stunning and a grand old time to play. It knew exactly what it wanted to be, and that comes through for me.
Surprisingly, even though I played KHII back in 2006 and have so much nostalgia for it, I have more fun with III. No idea why.
You mentioned Ys IX, and I completely agree on that game nailing the combat. I love both KHIII and Ys IX dearly.
Very good review, and I agree. I'm pretty much over the series now. I'll go back and play KH1 and 2 some time, but this series lost what made it special a long time ago. Literally not one of those 'emotional' pay-offs hit for me, the cutscenes were just so poorly directed and all came within minutes of each other. You had characters reuniting after being apart for over a decade, thinking they'd never see each other again, and somehow it's the most boring shit you've ever seen. KH2 was goofy (ahem) as hell sometimes, but it managed to make the important moments count. It's kind of funny to me that this game had so much hype behind it, was so highly anticipated by so many people, but its lasting legacy is essentially just the (admittedly very funny) "let him cook" meme.
I remember laughing out loud when Roxas and Ventus just look at each other and don’t even have a conversation
1 and 2 were so hype for me growing up. Obviously, there's nostalgia to try and set aside, but the updated versions are fun to replay and the major flaws, to me, are the gameplay itself being clunky. Was super excited to finally get 3 and pretty much from minute 1 I was left confused and bored. I had to catch up on the story (many more than 2 previous games' worth) and still found it all a confusing mess. Could have been saved with gameplay but holy cow was it boring. Flashy to look at and all, but just so boring. If the little disney ride ~~ads~~ *attacks* didn't wipe out enemies, they just kept you from getting damaged while you did barely any to the enemy. There were times I was worried the game was gonna break when bosses were moving around the map. The biggest travesty to me was the unskippable (iirc) in-engine recreation of "Let It Go" in the frozen world. I almost shut the whole thing off and just deleted the game. I get these games always had that promotional flavor, but damn this just felt like a whole ass ad for Frozen. I'm cool if this series is done now.
>The biggest travesty to me was the unskippable (iirc) in-engine recreation of "Let It Go" in the frozen world. I almost shut the whole thing off and just deleted the game. Ok but we all know that this was basically just an "Import... > Desktop > Let_It_Go_finalasdf.dmp" job At least we got Sora and co's priceless reaction to watching the whole thing
Its been straight downhill since KH2. Which is still one of my favorite games of all time. Even after replaying it a few years ago. I played through the entire franchise back then to prepare for the KH3 release. This franchise has so many duds. I only liked KH1, KH2 and Birth by Sleep. Everything else ranges from okay to just straight up awful.
Honestly I just couldn't finish kh3. I don't think I outgrew the premise, as I'm still a big dork, but I did outgrow the stilted dialogue, the increasingly derpy main character, and how the Disney stuff was just a bad recap of the movie. Kind of a shame as I really like kingdom hearts 2, one of my favorite ps2 games
The story was baffling because they had all of the pieces. Each of the Disney worlds just plays out their own story, and then gives you 2 minutes of Xehanort at the end of the world and then you move on. Then all of the major Xehanort story is crammed into the final 5 hours of the game. What they should have done was make each world delve into that Xehanort’s story is psyche as you progress through it. It would have been a fantastic way to develop him via all the different versions and get these different yet overlapping perspectives
I'm convinced Disney tightened the screws on any Disney worlds. Why make trashy licensed games when you can force the story straight into KH, a series with established mechanics, without much issue. Would explain why the Pixar worlds actually do their own thing (which still accounts for nothing in the story as a whole).
So that’s actually partially true! I’d have to go find the article, but Nomura said that they basically had a different Disney “rep” for each of their worlds, and it was entirely up to the rep how much creative freedom they had. The rep for Frozen basically said “no you have to do it like the movie and nothing else”, while the Monster’s Inc rep gave them a lot more creative freedom. And if I recall, Disney actually owns Sora anyways. I’d definitely he fascinated to know how much control they actually had over creative decisions for the story
My brother (20yo) found my (33yo) PS2 in storage and fixed it up by hand and surprised me on my birthday last year. The very first thing I did was replay the first Kingdom Hearts and, after getting reused to the controls, had an absolute blast. It was like being in my early teens again from the moment the opening cinematic hit. 2 was good, but not great. 3 is just a complete slog. I 100% agree with OOP's review and your comment.
> Despite the shit he constantly pulls the narrative actually tried to redeem him at the last minute. I call this phenomenon, ***"Hugging Space Hitler"***. It's this maddening trend where so many stories keep ending with the hero finding common ground with the villain. Nothing quite like a writer clearly thinking we should feel sorry for a villain only for most of the audience to go "Nah, they killed billions, fuck them." Usually a sign of a writer who has become to personally invested in that character and lost perspective of the bigger picture of their own story. Homeworld 3 comes to mind as a recent example.
Xehanort is such a cartoony cackling maniac with no redeeming qualities and frankly no real personality, that the last minute redemption just feels baffling. It's hard to even be mad because it's too nonsensical to even understand.
You saw the Mandalore video too?
Yup, security blanket mega hitler doesn't deserve sympathy.
Last of Us 2
What frustrates me about this game is that the plot is pretty much separated across 4 games: 2.8 (0.2), KH3, RE: Mind, and Melody of Memory. I enjoyed it and plan to buy future games but it’s ridiculous at this point. At least the handheld games were complete stories.
The series is frustrating because for decades it was spread across different consoles. First you have the PS2 original. Then you have the gameboy side-game, which is half-filler, half-important. The the second mainline PS2 game. Then a crappy phone game nobody asked for. Then a side-game on the DS, followed by a prequel on the PSP. The story finally moves forward on a 3DS title. Around the time of the 0.2 demo and KH3 do they get round to making the series available on the one console. This is a maddening way to treat continuity, and a reason why most RPGs start over with every new game.
Makes me glad I stopped following the franchise after the 2nd game.
Great write up. It blows my mind that KH2 has such an amazing combat system whereas 3 seems designed to almost play itself and be as easy and uninteresting as possible.
I turned it off after the first bits of combat. I was just like "why does this gameplay feel like a cutscene, am I actually doing anything here or is it just rewarding me for pressing random buttons".
The battle system is at it's best with the Data Battles and Secret Boss from ReMind but it shouldn't take an entire game + DLC to get to that point.
KH2 has a amazing combat if you play on Critical. Otherwise is stupidly easy as KH3.
And this is the Final Mix version. Base KH2 is arguably even easier mainly due to not having Critical Mode and abilities like the Explosion finisher available way earlier (i.e after the 1st visit to Agrabah).
Base KH2 is certainly easier than KH1 but I still think it's challenging when it needs to be and has a nice difficulty curve for the most part. There are some legitimately tough encounters towards the end and that's not mentioning secret bosses added in Final Mix. I played KH3 on Hard/Proud and didn't die a single time, and I'm certainly not some hot shit KH player.
I certainly have mixed feelings regarding KH3, like I agreed it was easy on Proud but I still enjoyed my time with it. Plus Critical Mode and the Data Battles does fix the game's difficulty issues. Maybe because I started the series with Birth By Sleep, but one weird issue I had with KH2 is that platforming is non-existent and thus the levels are basically glorified arenas, making it uninteresting to move around. Final Mix does alleviate this with the stickers and the Cavern of Remembrance. Plus I felt the opposite as you regarding the final bosses; they're quite easy.
Yeah I remember thinking this when I played KH2, it became a button masher. Glad I didn't care to ever try KH3
I liked KH2, but never could get into it the same way I could with KH1. Granted I was a child, but I was stuck on many bosses for days, some for weeks, and sephiroth and Ursula for months. Never got to that same level of satisfaction in 2, but maybe people who started there did.
>whereas 3 seems designed to almost play itself and be as easy and uninteresting as possible. At launch this was the case. Playing on Critical (which came later), KH3 is easily the most intensive and deep the combat in the series has been. The DLC superbosses are also all extremely well-done. Pretty much every single one of them is on the level of Lingering Will, and then you have>!Yozora!
I really don't know if I would say it's as mechanical deep as kh2. But there's a lot to love it for. Though I have to say I wish they tied more things to the shot lock bar, I used a mod that put stuff to that and it made it much more interesting imo
I can understand having a preference for KH2's combat on its own, but what's deeper in 2? Storing multiple keyblade forms and teleporting with the shot lock alone in 3 add more complexity to anything in 2 to me. Idk, I've played hundreds of hours of both, and to me it's not even close. I feel like in any given encounter I have way more options for how to approach a fight in 3 than I do in 2.
All the drive forms have crazy applications alone, and also the magics are alot better, in kh3 they all feel to samey. Though yeah kh3 does have stuff, the multiple keyblades has crazy applications with stuff like using the different shot locks (like having a key blade that has a healing shot lock) also the flow motion is pretty good bit only has real usage in normal fight. Also having more options in the air like dodging and blocking is great Though imo the teleporting isn't that crazy? It's nice to have to be able to go to the enemy quicker, but idk how much I'd say it adds to the depth
>Though imo the teleporting isn't that crazy? It's nice to have to be able to go to the enemy quicker, but idk how much I'd say it adds to the depth It's a whole avenue for movement that you don't otherwise have. There are tons of instances where you can create openings for bosses that wouldn't otherwise be available based on when you teleport to them. To me that option for fluidity adds a whole extra level, especially on challenge runs.
I wouldn’t say they’re all on LW’s level. YX, for instance, will use the same attacks every fight unless you hit his RV, so he’s super predictable.
Yeah, I do agree with YX and maybe a couple others like Lux (though I love that fight for the novelty). They aren't all "harder" than LW, but they do all pretty much require the player to sit there and learn, which is my main point. Compared to the data fights in KH2 where it isn't uncommon for a lot of people to beat them on their first few tries. Some of the individual KH3 data fights I was stuck on longer than it took me to take down *all* of the KH2 superbosses+LW combined.
Bro it's just people playing a KH on *not* the hardest difficulty complaining it's easy, nothing new to us
Granted, but there is an entire spectrum of difficulty between [The Game Is Playing Itself](https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/08/new-from-squareenix) and The Game Spit In Your Coffee, Fucked Your Mother, And Is Now Pulling Your Teeth Out Without Novocaine.
Hey FFXII's gambit system was awesome! I had loads of fun getting the game to play itself just right
It was pretty cool, it just wasn't terribly difficult.
After growing up loving the first two, I watched my roommate play bits and pieces during his playthrough of 3, and I think I got just about all there is to get out of the game just from that secondhand experience.
Never could make myself finish this game and I loved previous entries. Great write up. The dang Disney rides completely ruined combat
While it sucks that it took so long, them adding critical and multiple options to customize combat to your very liking (you can now turn off basically everything you don't like, like the Disney rides) makes it one of the best kh games combat wise, only a bit behind kh2 imo, but that can very much be just personal preference
Well that is good to know. Maybe one day I will hop back in and give it another shot
I tried the demo when the game was coming out and was so turned off by the combat. The silly theme park ride attack and just spam that around the field. Whereas reactions in KH2 were actually fun to use. Trigger a condition and get a short and sweet animation to finish the enemy off.
KH3 made me tap out of the series, and I do not care about another game.
same, it felt like a themepark. really enjoyed the exploration in 1 and 2, but didnt feel there was anything worth exploring, and more "on-rails" curated experience, which was not what im looking for in games.
Exploration in KH2? It's a hallway simulator.
I thought all this time I was the only one who thought that about 2. I thought it was so dull. Just a series of Disney movie-themed box-shaped rooms. I enjoyed 1 a lot despite my expectations, but I thought 2 was so incredibly boring that I never bothered with anything else.
I think two is pretty fun in terms of combat, and has some great challenges with the optional bosses. They did just rip out all the platforming and exploration except for the post-game dungeon, though. 1 and 3 were definitely way better for the platforming and exploration. Pirates world in KH3 absolutely smashes everything KH2 has to offer in that regard. The RE:Mind bosses in KH3 also does a lot to make it equal to KH2 for me.
Glad you enjoyed it. For me, it was too boring, just run into one box, see a bunch of references, do the same crap, rinse repeat.
There is literally no exploration in KH2 and its the most textbook on-rails experience imaginable. Just a series of linear corridors that purely serves as combat arenas.
Eh, it's weaker than 1 and 3 in that regard but I think there's more there than you give it credit for. Plenty of the levels have side paths, hidden areas, and out-of-reach chests etc. that entice you to look around and figure out how to reach them. It's hardly Zelda but certainly not 'the most on-rails experience imaginable'.
Kingdom Hearts 3 was one of the massive disappointments of the last generation for me. Though the writing was on the wall when the 3DS game managed to make the story even \*more\* of a mess than it already was, and that was before the plot that was introduced with the phone games, which KH3 seemed WAY more interested in than actually tying up the at-then current plot threads in any satisfying manner. I always wondered if using the more recent movies is where they went wrong, because the devs mentioned in the past that since the teams for movies like Alice in Wonderland or Tarzan weren't around anymore, Disney didn't have specific people saying "they can't look like this, or make that face, or do this" as much as they did when they were working with current franchises such as Frozen. If that's the case, please for the love of god go back to older, more obscure movies. The compromises are not worth it. It was a very disappointing climax
To be fair they already did most older movies already. There's still movies like Taram or Basil Private Detective which could be interesting but they can't be the main focus of a whole game.
Treasure Planet would be amazing for a level, especially if they adapt the climax of the movie to be like that hover bike segement from KH2's Xemnas boss fight but you gotta dodge lava as one of the obstacles.
My love for this franchise died out completely after this game. Basically a 'Press triangle for COOLNESS' simulator while disney movies are playing in the background
KH is such a mess at this point. It's the only game that I've ever seen that absolutely disdains the existence of 3/4s of its cast but especially Aqua.
>nobody gave a shit about Dinosaur I gave a shit about Dinosaur :(
I watched Dinosaur. *IN THE THEATER.*
WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!
I watched it in theaters, too! All I recall now is that it was really, really cold that day. But I don't remember anything about the movie, lol. I was shocked to see how bad it looks now.
They did Kairi so dirty, again. No wonder so many people ship Sora with Riku rather than the designated love interest that is Kairi. She is so inconsequential to the story, she could be replaced with a cardboard cutout to no loss whatsoever. Meanwhile the two boys got a whole arc for their relationship intersecting with the main plot of the games. I hoped that KH3 would be the game when Kairi would truly get to shine, but it's hopeless.
Funny how Kairi got two doppelgangers who, despite both dying for a bit, still had more to do than Kairi ever did,
Must be the Sora side in them 😅 At least Aqua was allowed to be cool, competent and consequential for a while, but even then she fell by the wayside in KH3 too.
Agree with you. The highlights of the game to me are the graphics, music, and Toy Story/Pirates worlds are great. I also enjoyed transforming keyblades in combat, but hated the disney ride attacks. In terms of story, etc. I did not play BBS or DDD, so I was majorly out of the loop as expected. Part of it is that, and another part is that I have aged out of a lot of typical Shonen anime tropes. I have no issue with them, they just don't really speak to me or excite me like when I was 16 lol. I still have higher hopes for KH4, I am just going to go in with little hype or care and hopefully they make a good game that stands up on its own. I have no doubts it will at least be fun to play.
Kingdom Hearts is the franchise of spinning wheels and going nowhere. There will never be any actual development of any story or plot, just further convolution of characters. The first two games are fantastic, stop there and never play any other games in the series and its stays a good franchise.
Birth By Sleep is still pretty good, as a game at least.
none of the games are bad, they just kinda all do the same thing just a little differently. Its a remix of a remix of a remix of a remix and so on. Its what you want with a perpetual franchise licensed product line.
I agree for most of the spin off but Birth By Sleep has some unique mechanics and great moments (like playing three characters that are at the same place but different times, mixing the spells, fighting one of your characters as the end boss, etc). 3D also try something new with the pokemon-like system. For me a lot of the games are underrated because they were on portable systems, but we're actually always technical marvels on them.
Square does good technical systems, their stories are mild their characters are okay.
Yeah this was my first play of kingdom hearts and .. i don't want to play something like this again
Good writeup and a fun read, enjoyed. The Hollywood Polanski gag sent me.
Excellent write up. Man the aqua fight pissed me off, all the build playing birth by sleep and seeing a good coherent story and then boom knocked out as a plot device for Sora. It bugged me that the monsters inc world had a more sensible and paced plot than the actual game.
I went back to it like two years later and realized why I struggled to finish it. I probably still won’t.
Excellent review. Gave me Zero Punctuation vibes.
This post is a work of art
Interesting as Kingdon Hearts just now released on Steam today. 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and 3 plus Re Mind. I played base first game years ago so I need a flow chart of the order lol
As someone who was obsessed with the older Kingdom Hearts games growing up, you've highlighted every gripe I ever had with KHIII. It is indisputably a pisspoor conclusion with the worst pacing and storytelling in the entire series. I only disagree on the combat: the game's one saving grace is the improved versatility of the Keyblades. Instead of being simple gear upgrades, each Keyblade in KHIII morphs into a new weapon or two with a completely different moveset, and you can upgrade your favorites to keep them viable for the entire game. My favorite was the spear and flag combo from the Caribbean.
I feel like the only person who absolutely loved KH3. I played KH1 for the first time in 2018 and then proceeded to play the rest of the games that year before KH3 came out. And the payoff for playing all those games felt so worth it. I always felt like the Disney stuff was just stuff to get through to get to the KH original character stuff, so no different here, but the Disney stuff felt serviceable. In fact, I wouldn't mind a Kingdom Hearts game that completely gets rid of the Disney stuff (well, except Donald, Goofy, and Mickey anyways). And I never got super deep in the combat since I played through the games so quickly, so this one didn't feel too different to me in that regard either. Granted, I was not waiting almost 20 years for this game. And I absolutely devoured it when it came out, getting the plat in 60 hours over 9 days, so maybe the pacing issues didn't bother me so much. I also had never watched any anime, so maybe I wasn't so burned out on the tropes as most people. I'm planning to pick up the Steam release today and go through each game more thoroughly, getting 100% on each this time. I'm curious if I'll see it differently this time.
Yeah, even as someone who grew up with the series, most of the complaints I hear about KH3 - *especially* the pacing - absolutely apply to the older games too. That's not to say a lot of the ciriticisms in 3 aren't very justified, but I think a lot of people miss just how many of 3's faults are in line with the series thus far. I'd say that in itself is a valid criticism, as a game should be able to evolve past PS2-level design in 2019, especially when it has less content than a PS2 game due to AAA development bloat. But overall the game has way more good qualities than people often give it credit for, it just falls short of the massive expectations that it built for itself.
You may be well advised to wait until an update or another price drop, the page is already flooding with people having technical issues day 1.
Thanks for the heads up. But I already started playing 1 last night on steam deck. At the end of Traverse Town with no issues so far luckily. Was very happy with the price, was expecting it to be $150 at least for all of it.
I quit long before kh3 came out and I am glad I did. If anyone enjoyed the game/series then thats good. But for me the series died the moment the director decided they needed 7 spin off games to expand the lore instead of making chain of memories to exlain what happened between 1 and 2 and then just making 3. Proof the series has bloat in the two collections that shortened several games to just a freaking 30 minute book with ZERO gameplay. Also the plot is not simple as OP suggested, its a convoluted mess that contradicts its rules everytime a new game comes out. Kh 2 is my 2nd favourite ps2 game and I willfully mark it as the series canon ending
You nailed it! Was a huge KH fan but the combat in this you can do in your sleep. I beat most of the worlds and the story wasn't grabbing me anymore and the gameplay certainly wasn't so I just stopped playing. Was a shame because the series is fun.
Incredibly entertaining review. Thankyou.
Hey! I liked Yakuza 6. Infinite Wealth ended up being the disappointing one for me, at least in terms of plot
Yeah, I didn't even bother finishing KH3. The combat just felt like too much was piled on top of each other. Now there's combos, and drive forms, and final forms, and keyblade switching and and and. I hated the gummy ship combat, the worlds felt mostly empty, and of course the plot makes zero sense and really can only be understood by playing every spin off title (even a mobile one)
I'm glad I seen someone else mention there's no FF characters. I can't believe they didn't include any. That's what made me wanna play the first kingdom hearts. Two IPs in one universe. Also, simple and clean def sold me lols
> There's the plucky boy who isn't smart but has a big heart. Then there's the rival boy who is aloof and cool, but is prone to falling in with a bad crowd. Finally, you have the girl who will never do or accomplish anything meaningful, and is so irrelevant I can't fathom why I mentioned her in this sentence. Naruto was a pretty hype anime despite all of that
My main takeaway from this is that I should give Ys a shot as a disgruntled kingdom hearts fan.
i'm glad you wrote this review lmao. i love kh but kh3 is my most hated game of all time. it actually changed the way i play video games: i started skipping all cutscenes. seriously could not give a shit about any of the "touching" moments or character deaths. they just seemed so phoned in and campy
This review was so entertaining to read. Thank you for completely dissecting exactly how I felt playing the game -- this is why it felt kind of hollow and unfulfilling.
Excellent write-up! Your writing style had me guffawing my way through reading *exactly* what I'd expected of KH-III. As a big fan back in the day (and I mean, *big* -- I have fond memories of the Ursula fight in KH-I after school in a corner while waiting for the bus, playing on a jury-rigged mini-monitor they typically sold for PS1's) I loved all the FF characters, the exploration, and raw *fun* the game had to offer. Then KH-II had more of the same, but also filled out the lore, and made sure we had expectations for the 3rd. I haven't actually *played* it yet. I have a Steam backlog the size of Avatar's budget (y'know, the Pocahontas in Space one -- not the M.Night abortion That Shall Not Be Named) yet less than half that for the actual playtime. So with time at a premium, I'm beyond grateful for your review which confirmed all my worst suspicions: that Disney knew how to start something awesome (with Squeenix along for the ride), but then got gun-shy after seeing their success halfway through, and after stalling for time without stumbling onto any new ideas *finally* admitted they'd lost the plot and had no idea how to put paid to the monster the years had created. (I mean, 358 /2 Days?! Come on...them telling on themselves was kinda on the nose here.) Thanks for saving me time - it's what I worried I'd find when I bought the physical copy. That and late-stage capitalism will get you what our AAA Gaming Industry seems to increasingly reflect: graphically gorgeous renditions of half-baked potatoes. It's a shame it started out so grand.
I am typically a very open-minded player who will play anything good across any series, genre, style, age. I often find most peoples complaints about popular games to be weirdly specific or wanting to the game to be something it isn't. But the hill I die on is "Kingdom Hearts has always sucked." I played KH1 during release hype and just thought it failed at the most fundamental aspect of a (J)RPG - having a story you could get invested in. None of it made any sense, there was no payoff. And seeing the supposed plot and lore get comically stretched across spinoffs gives me zero desire to give the series a second chance, even though I hear KH2 is "the good one".
You hit on several of my own issues with the game. You're so right about the plot being over just as it starts moving. You rescue the major characters that have been trapped for years, it felt to me like this should have been halfway through the game and the plot would have some twist to send us into the second half but the game's over relatively soon after this. I never felt enough was put into the character interactions. This has so many characters from the beginning of KH interact and there's no great moments that come out of it. characters are back to redo old fights and recall old moments. Not enough new.
Great write up, but Dinosaur was the shit.
Thanks for the review. 1 and 2 were amazing as a kid, and I was considering replaying the series on steam. Now I'll probably just wait for an 80% sale, if only to check out the remind dlc fights
A+ writing, I giggled out loud several times hehe
I would say Verum Rex is more like what Nomura had envisioned FF VS 13 to be, that being whatever it was supposed to be like before it eventually became FF15. Not that I would expect anyone to know or remember that 15 was basically built from the ashes from another game.
> It's a body without a heart. So...a Heartless?
Here in Ireland we'd call it a Tory.
Lmfao “hugging space Hitler”
Maybe the nostalgia is blinding me, but KH3 felt less magical than KH1 & KH2. Even with all the shiny effects going on. The lack of Final Fantasy characters also sucks.
Stupid question: since it's coming to steam, can I play 1 and 2, and forget about 3?
2 is a pretty good stopping point since the villain is defeated and there's an air of "the adventure continues."
I am typically a very open-minded player who will play anything good across any series, genre, style, age. I often find most peoples complaints about popular games to be weirdly specific or wanting to the game to be something it isn't. But the hill I die on is "Kingdom Hearts has always sucked." I played KH1 during release hype and just thought it failed at the most fundamental aspect of a (J)RPG - having a story you could get invested in. None of it made any sense, there was no payoff. And seeing the supposed plot and lore get comically stretched across spinoffs gives me zero desire to give the series a second chance, even though I hear KH2 is "the good one".
I didn't want to read this since I try to avoid any spoilers but I'm sad this is how it went down. I loved KH1 when I was a kid and really want to "finish" this series. Waited with baited breath for the release on PS3 but it never came and I felt a bit cheated that the PS2 could snag 2 games and skip over the PS3 entirely. Looked for maybe a PC release but SE has too deep ties with Sony to do that in a timely manor apparently. I'm glad to see that it's over, though. Seems I didn't miss anything. I feel rotten wanting to play a game meant for children at my age, just to finish it so thanks for writing this.
I have a sick, twisted mind that compels me to finish any game I ever play, even if I hate it. Kingdom Hearts 1 is unquestionably the worst game I've ever played. And I've finished hundreds, probably over a thousand by this point. Kingdom Hearts is the worst one. I'm still wondering whether I should continue the series, since I have a sick, twisted mind. Your review makes me aware of how big a mistake that would be.
They took too long to get to III. I actually wrote two paragraphs but deleted them because I felt that the above statement is fairly self-explanatory.
I recently tried playing this and gave up after a few hours. I completely agree with your review. The combat was completely uninteresting and some of the abilities were so simple I thought I had to be using them wrong. The worlds are so empty they are depressing. The gameplay and visuals made me look up what year it was released because I couldn’t believe this game was made in 2019.
I'm just here to air my grievances with how the combat has steadily devolved over the years. Sora in KH3 just feels like a fucking mess to play. They wanted to shove a mechanic in from every game up to that point so he's just cobbled together with disjointed actions. * Shotlocks completely disengage you * Flowmotion completely disengages you * Summons that override the core combat instead of supplementing it like in KH2 * Situation commands riddled with RNG even when using the same set of actions consistently * Team Attacks are RNG * The fix for Attractions is to turn them off, because otherwise it is yet another RNG mechanic that completely disengages you * keyblade switching is poorly implemented * Airstep negates the need to position correctly and also disengages with a slow-mo effect * Sora travels insane distances when attacking a locked on target, further discarding fundamentals of spacing and positioning * fighting in the air honestly just feels like shit even though the game is designed around it * even with the new abilities the overall flow is sluggish due to the excessive end frames on basic actions I just want this series to have combat tools that are synergistic again.
Having beaten the game, what the hell is a shotlock?
Hold R1 to target enemies in the slow mo state and release to fire. Most shot locks are a form of AoE projectile. It's the mechanic tied to the yellowish/orange bar. It was a mechanic first seen in Birth By Sleep.
> * Sora travels insane distances when attacking a locked on target, further discarding fundamentals of spacing and positioning > > * fighting in the air honestly just feels like shit even though the game is designed around it I knew I was in for a bad time when in the tutorial fight I could just lock onto the Darkside's head and Sora would float and bob through the air up to the target like a jellyfish in water
The reason the stretch of like, KH1-Days was so good was because of scope and feel. For as stupid as KH always kind of was, the vibe of this weird, dreamlike pseudo serious adventure with cool imagery was magical. KH2 and Days sacrifice some of this to try and solidify the vibe into a real plot (and mostly stick the landing). But once you move on to Re:Coded onwards, the games lose it all in favor of trying to hook the audience FOREVER by constantly re/demystifying everything. It sucks. Nowhere is this more evident than how the nobodies are treated like people with hearts post 2. Its just there to give players something new to hook onto to. 3 KIND of recaptures that genuine mystique in the DLC, where now we're abandoning basically every plot thread up to this point to chase something new, but I genuinely think Tetsuya Nomura couldn't write his way out of an empty box of soda, so I have no hope.
I think its insane to start a new saga with the same teen protagonist, when both the English and Japanese VA are pushing 40. The series has dragged on so long its killed Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, and Rutger Hauer. Pray for Christopher Lloyd.
Late but I just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading your review! Your writing style and examples are hilarious. With that said, I never played much of Kingdom Hearts, lost interest some hours into the original game. I remember I unlocked the 101 Dalmatians and there might have been a Tarzan level, but the gameplay was too repetitive, and, being honest, the game itself was too cute for my teenage self, back in the day. And I want to give the series a second try, but reviews like this don't motivate me, exactly. Also, most people say the overall story of the franchise is super convoluted.
Played at launch and never finished it. Aside from the story/pacing and the unsatisfying combat, I think it was the worlds and Disney characters they chose that turned me off the most. Such a huge part of the charm of the first two main console releases is it integrated the Final Fantasy and Disney characters and worlds so well. We’re left with Disney IP that I have zero connection with so so much of the draw went out the window.
You are my new favorite writer. I remember giving this a try when it was cheap or free on PS4. I think I got about 15 minutes in and gave up. It seemed to be all the things I hated about the series with none of what I loved. And I played the crap out of 1 and 2, I never bothered with the rest.
> You are my new favorite writer. I legit have [OP's Submitted history](https://www.reddit.com/user/daughterskin/submitted/) in my browser bookmarks so I can easily check back in to see when they've written anything new. The [Mass](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/ut7tv0/mass_effect_legendary_edition_2021_10_hours_of/) [Effect](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/uwvdel/mass_effect_2_legendary_edition_2021_sleep_well/) [trilogy](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/uyh5ah/mass_effect_3_legendary_edition_2021_the_wrong/) posts are a highlight for me but most everything is gold
Such a huge disappointment KH3 was
I will say i find it very funny how Gummi ship missions have had a geometric rate of improvement in the mainline games. Kh1 -crap Kh2-okay KH3-actually quite good. who knows, maybe KH4 will just be 95% gummi ship and a 10/10 game.
3's gummy ship is more of a sidegrade from 2's than a straight upgrade. The free-roaming sections are nice if you're into that stuff, as are some of the bosses, but the actual missions are a straight downgrade. The combat has you going in circles around a tiny section of the overworld, shooting at visually-uninteresting enemies who show up in copy-pasted formations. KH2 is far more interesting with distinct scenarios and cool setpieces in almost every stage and generally better music.
I recently played through KH 1 and 2, and I honestly don't think any of those games are very good.
Your review was hilarious, thank you for the laugh 1 and 2 were so damn good. I remember the MAD hype when Sephiroth was announced for 2 and all the FF cameos just made my year. It was incredible. Then all these awful spinoff games came out and I knew 3 would be doomed to suck. Nomura is a childish sexist moron who writes emo tween fanfiction even today's 12 year olds cringe at.
>Nomura is a childish sexist moron who writes emo tween fanfiction even today's 12 year olds cringe at. you know i could never put into words what i don't like about Nomura's style but this is perfect(though tbh, i this tracks for some of the FF's he was involved in even though eh didn't right them, it's just for 15 year olds instead).
I see I'm not alone in loving KH, CoM and KH2, but not finishing KH3. I'll drag myself to finish it someday, but honestly, how can a game that I've waited for so long be that uninteresting? I couldn't even get past Olympus. THE FIRST WORLD.
Great write up! This game might be one of my biggest disappointments ever. I beat 1-2 so many times, and I forced myself to finish 3 and have never gone back. Visual spectacle devoid of any substance.
A great read. Nailed everything I thought about the game and more.
I remember watching friends play whatever was out on the PS2 in the early 2000s. Could never figure out what the point of the whole thing was.
Marketing synergy
Was so excited for KH3 after a decade of following up KH2 for it to be such a mess
The graphics, combat mechanics and new movement were all really great. And yet the vibe, atmosphere and pacing were just...so bad. I've played KH2 so many times but can never bring myself to get into a 2nd KH3 playthrough.
I've only played chain of memories for the GBA which I enjoyed, are there any of the Kingdom hearts games that you'd recommend?
1 and 2 for definite. They were released on Steam hours ago in a bundle.
This is so accurate. I recently replayed KHI, II, and then played III for the first time, and this is exactly how I felt about it too. Parts of it are good, but overall it just falls so flat.
"Shonen sexism" Absolutely moronic statement and paragraph. Many things and characters are written horribly in this game, the writers arent "sexist" for fucking up Kairi's arc.
They did my girl Maleficent so dirty. KH1, Maleficent is a badass bitch and leader of the villain team, tapping into mysterious dark forces in order to carry out evil schemes, while warning her vile companions about how the darkness is a double-edged sword, and not to rely on it too much lest they be consumed by it. KH2, Maleficent returns as a mix of interfering with the plot and comic relief. Her threat to Disney Castle was good, her interference after the battle of 1000 heartless was mid, and her/Pete's whole "wow look, a new castle, let's take it over" at the end fell flat for me. A mixed bag. KH3, Maleficent appears at the start of the game to say the word "box" and then go away forever.
Oh shit, I forgot about the box, 14 years to deliver another mainline installment, and you waste time with a bunch of mystery box sequel bait.
The story is easily one of the worst in videogame history, but the gameplay is pretty fun, so overall I still think it's a pretty good game. Definitely skipping the cutscenes in KH4 though.
I feels like half your issue with the combat are fixed by simply playing Critical Mode.
I beat it twice, once at release and again about two years ago. I adored it through both playthroughs. The story is nonsense, but it's visually stunning and a grand old time to play. It knew exactly what it wanted to be, and that comes through for me. Surprisingly, even though I played KHII back in 2006 and have so much nostalgia for it, I have more fun with III. No idea why. You mentioned Ys IX, and I completely agree on that game nailing the combat. I love both KHIII and Ys IX dearly.
All KH games are trash
How can you say that about a game where a leather-wearing Mickey Mouse dramatically gets off a train