*This review should contain minimal spoilers
Kingdom Hearts III has been long awaited by fans (myself included) since 2006. Almost 13 years have passed since the last major installment and it can be felt. There have been game releases between 2 and 3, but nothing could quite fill in the void left awaiting a 3rd major installment (though each game contained important plot points). There was some major hype following the announcement of Kingdom Hearts III up until release. Growing up with Kingdom Hearts, one could imagine the excitement behind this project. However, the question remains: does it live up to the hype? Find out in the detailed review below.
Due to the stylistic nature of Kingdom Hearts, the gameplay seems like a good place to start. From the beginning, Sora moves with such finesse and everything seems to mold so smoothly together with each strike and magical attack. The team finally feels as though they are comfortable in battle and with each other where Donald will perfectly end a combo with Sora or Goofy will launch himself into the thick of it with a flurry. Instead of the classic forms like Valor, Wisdom, Master, and Final the game opts for a more direct change affected by the keyblade that you are holding. Each key has a different form, one might be a hammer while another might be a spear. Each keyblade transformation occurring after enough hits have landed and you hit the reaction command.
While I found myself missing the styles and combat of Kingdom Hearts II, this game still held its own with its fluidity and style. The magic, perhaps, was my most enjoyed changed. After casting a spell enough times, an upgraded version of the spell can be cast at no extra charge to MP. This made for some spectacular displays of power in the midst of combat. Summons are still present in the form of “links” if that is something you are looking for as well. The combat also adapted some of the combat from Dream Drop Distance in that Sora can swing from poles and jump of walls making things fast paced. Though this aspect didn’t seem as useful or fluid as it did in Dream Drop Distance. Attractions were also added to the game. These commands allowed for Sora and friends to summon Disney rides to help in battle. This by far was the most immersion breaking part of my experience. It made things too easy and for me at least, didn’t feel like it fit in with the rest of the game. The rides appeared from thin air, appeared far too often, and made combat more chaotic than anything else. You could opt to just not press the command by shifting up, but the constant occurrence of the attraction commands occurred so often that you were bound to mistakenly summon them by mistake. This was something that I found to be too much, personally.
It also ought to be mentioned here, the bosses of this game lack variation. Aside from the ending portion of the game, most bosses are just giant heartless or something similar that take the same effort to take down. Some bosses are better than others, but most lack the personal touch and tactics that a more humanoid enemy can offer. Still, each battle was beautiful and awesome looking throughout even if the fight itself tended to be lacking.
All in all, I much preferred Kingdom Hearts II’s combat with its specific forms, bosses, and limits. That feeling of holding two keyblades at a time and destroying your enemies with outrageous combos was something that I felt lacking in this sequel. But while combat for Kingdom Hearts III had its down sides, it still held fun times and a distinct style like no other game you could imagine well worth your time in experiencing.
As for the story, this is where I felt things get a little rough. While the ending reaches a predictable and mostly satisfying conclusion, the lead up to it was a major disappointment. Every world was its own story with little dashes of the plot that if you played the whole series felt so minor it was almost like there was no Kingdom Hearts story really pushed through at all.
Don’t get me wrong, some of these worlds had excellent stories all on their own, but others… well they were just rehashed movies with very little intrigue or effort. In fact, no real story came about until almost 20-25 hours of the game after all of the Disney worlds had been played. Then came the heavy amounts of story appearing only the last few hours of the game. For being the final game in the Xehanort storyline, there was hardly anything memorable to display up until the last portion and even then, the ending world was all just boss battles with no lead up in a Kingdom Hearts designed world. A disappointment to be sure. Considering my expertise lies in the storytelling and script aspects of media, this was a major point for me.
Kingdom Hearts III took pride in its large cast of characters this time around. Though the multitude of characters led to some epic moments, the story was so cramped with them that none really had any development aside from what was mentioned offscreen. Still, I appreciated their inclusion, even if most of their inclusion was just to tie up the many plot threads that Kingdom Hearts had left open until now with no intense focus on their specific journeys aside from one or two.
And of course, there was the script. Again, up until the story heavy last few hours, the script was lacking. It felt as if they were circling with the same few lines in every world. Kingdom Hearts has never had an especially inspiring script altogether, but throughout it felt worse than usual. Up until the end where things finally picked up and the script began to open up a lot more.
As a whole though, the story and script did not impress. Mostly due to a bare plot until the end.
On top of a so-so script comes the voice acting. One would hope that even if the script couldn’t live up to its potential, then perhaps the voice acting could make up for that. Well, that’s a yes and no. For the first half of the game, I was put off by how bad the voice acting was, even amongst familiar voices. It felt as if they didn’t care about what they were recording, leaving their lines empty. But then, almost as if a switch was turned on, the voice acting got ultimately better, to a point where I started to feel impressed and delighted. Even if the sudden shift in excellent voice work didn’t make up for the first half, it was definitely a close call.
Then for the design of the game overall including the music, visuals, and sound, things were great. The music was as good as always, excluding the weird choice of a beginning song coupled with the introductory cinematic. The music seemed to be varied from past games and the new worlds, making something fantastic. The visuals were astonishing, leaving me to awe at the beauty of the worlds and cartoony style that the series has been known for. Even in the worst of the worlds, everything looked polished and gorgeous. Though, most worlds seemed to be empty, even in huge cities. You’d expect people and traffic everywhere, but instead you get empty sidewalks and streets where occasional heartless pop up. If anything were to be wrong visually, this would be it. It would immersion breaking to walk into a heavy transit area to find not a single person in sight. The sounds of battle and magic were great as well. They really brought life to the game and kept things where they needed to be.
To be honest, my overall enjoyment of this game was somewhere in the middle. On one hand, I was incredibly disappointed by how the story and characters were handled. But on the other, I still had a fun time playing through some of my favorite Disney worlds and it still had a conclusion that was worth the effort.
To close out it out, was this a bad game? No. But did it live up to the hype? Unfortunately, it did not for me. Still, it was fun ride and one worth your time, especially if you’ve invested any time into the series.
| STORY | Out of 30 | 21 |
| GAMEPLAY | Out of 25 | 19 |
| VOICE ACTING | Out of 15 | 8.5 |
| DESIGN | Out of 20 | 18 |
| OVERALL ENJOYMENT | Out of 10 | 7.5 |
Final Verdict
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