3.5/5 ★ – Diluted_Thought's review of Kingdom Hearts III.

(WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS) After spending 44 hours in the world(s) of Kingdom Hearts 3 I've come away with plenty to say on the experience. Let me start by saying that the last time I played a Kingdom Hearts game was 2005. I stuck to the mainline games and never touched any of the others so I missed a ton of story (but more on that later). But from the time of its release to now I graduated college, became a notable act in my local scene, went through a deep depression, worked at a call center, moved to a new state, got married, lost a job, gained a new job, bought 2 houses and there so much more in between. In short, Its been a long fucking time since I've had an adventure with Sora, Donald and Goofy and I can't say I'm even the same person I was 18 years ago. With that said... "KH3" had been a long time coming. THE GOOD When playing one of these games I'm now looking for obvious design choices that make a Kingdom Hearts game such as great aesthetic with vibrant colors, nostalgic and familiar Disney properties and a fun chaotic battle system with linear level progression. While I was a little bummed that we can no longer duel wield Key blades I was at least pleasantly surprised at the unique special attacks each one is given. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it until 2 worlds into the game and then it started to make more sense to me. My 3 favorite key blades were Happy Gear, Wheel of Fate & Nano Gear. Typically I'll hunt down all Synthesis materials in order to unlock the Ultima Weapon but it slipped my mind during the last few hours. The Links work much like they did in the first 2 games and Simba was definitely my favorite. Another new feature was the Attractions which let you take a ride on classic Disney park rides and use them to attack your foes or help clear out an area. At first I thought they seemed silly and it wasn't until maybe halfway through the game that I started to appreciate their inclusion. Another feature I wasn't ready for was Rage Mode! Rage essentially allows you to tap into your inner heartless and make you a nightmare to anyone standing in your way. This save me on more than a few occasions and helped me take down some of the games tougher bosses as well. I was surprised at how many Pixar worlds they gave us here and a little bummed we didn't get a "Wreck it Ralph" or "Brave" world to explore. The 2 stand out worlds we did get were The Caribbean & San Fransokio, both which we're towards the latter half of the game. What really stood out was how much bigger these worlds felt as they were both had open areas to explore. While this was a great change of pace from the rest of the game it made me wonder what an open world KH game would feel like or even work for that matter. Still, these were done well enough as traversing the levels was a lot of fun but never felt like it was too much. I'd like to add that this game has a beautiful recreation of Port Royale and I had a great time just looking around the island and navigating my ship around the open sea. I remember the original games being pretty cutscene heavy and this one is no different. I didn't mind it though as it felt like watching cartoons and it allowed for plenty of time to put the control down and grab and drink and some snacks before getting back into the action. As with many games that have come out recently this one also gives us a Gummi phone, other wise known in this universe as a smart phone and you know what that means? SELFIES! Granted it has multiple functions but i'd be lying if I said I didn't use for multiple selfies across this games worlds. When it comes to Square-Enix I typically expect beautiful soundtracks and this franchise is no stranger to them. The music was a mixture of both new and old themes with a modern update on their final mix and once again Yoko Shimomura graces us with her presence throughout our adventure. I also believe this is the biggest soundtrack in the franchise so far giving us plenty to listen to with a great variety of sounds. In my mind Kingdom Hearts 3 was suppose to close up some doors (metaphorically) and clean up some lose ends from the previous 10 or more games throughout its history. At least it seemed like it when I finally took out Organization 13 and 4 versions of Master Xehanort. This brought closure to a story that started 17 years ago. Hell of a long time. I was also surprised to find out that Xehanort was voiced by the late Rutger Hauer, one of my favorite actors, alongside the legendary Mark Hamill as Master Eraqus. Very cool. It all lead to an emotional finale that I've been waiting to see through since I was a teenager. Kingdom Hearts 1 started with an Orchestrated version of "Simple and Clean" and that started my adventures with Sora and the gang so believe me when I say I had tears in my eyes when "Simple and Clean" played over one of the final scenes in Kingdom Hearts 3 creating a beautiful full circle moment. Lump in my throat and everything. Yet with all my praises I still rated this game a 7 out of 10. Why? THE BAD Despite the new additions "KH3" feels a little too familiar sometimes and I understand that this is a slippery slope as the game needs just enough new ingredients to make it feel fresh and yet this game felt like it could have been right at home on the Playstation 3. If it wasn't for all the side games in the franchise this quite possibly could have been put out years ago and praised even more for its newer gameplay elements. Even though I enjoyed most of them the one element I never cared for was Flowmotion. It was cool to watch but I never found a practical reason to use it outside of getting back on to my pirate ship in a hurry. Pixar movies are always a delight but there are more than a few I've missed over the last few years so I was familiar with all the content in the game but there were a few stories I never had to chance to see through like "Tangled" and "Frozen". This was my introduction to both of those stories and while "Tangled" was a fun world to traverse, "Frozen" was an absolute bore. With so much snow, snow, ice and more snow, trying to run around this world felt much longer than it needed to feel. I was trying to run through this place as quickly as possible because it was so uninteresting. I was also surprised at how lame the "Monsters Inc" world was. Running through its factory was about as fun as it sounds and the only interesting thing I ran into was the grind rail sections. Personally I would have loved to have seen a world based on the "Monsters U" film. Square-Enix doesn't seem to like givings us full level maps or at least ones that allow for easier traversal, granted, most of the levels are linear but some of the areas are pretty big and the corner map doesn't do a good job at covering them. Is it so hard to have a full map option? The Classic Kingdom games we find, collect and play feel like such a fantastic waste of time that trying to get the Keyblade for these never felt worth the effort. Another feature that should have dropped a long time ago was the Gummi ship portions which always felt like a useless add on from the very beginning. Seriously, they were NEVER fun. My last gripe with the game is its cast. This one is a bit two fold. On one end there were too many returning characters, many of which we'd fought before or showed up in games I never played. Almost every time an Organization 13 member showed up I'd go "Wait...didn't I beat that guy? Who the hell is that? What game did this person show up in? Wait of a minute, there's 4 of him?" I had more questions than answers but thankfully most of them met their end in this title. Hopefully for good. Now on the other end of my argument was that there were NO FINAL FANTASY CHARACTERS! That was the whole reason this franchise took off the way it did. Granted we got the Moogles and a Cactar cameo but what about the original cast? Hell it would have been great to see Lightning or Noctis and I feel like the excuse of "We didn't have time" is a crock. This game has been in the works since 2013. 6 years isn't enough time? Get out. I'm clearly salty about this. FINAL VERDICT When its all said and done "Kingdom Hearts 3" didn't blow my mind but there was enough in here to allow me the ability to enjoy the overall experience. Perhaps its been too long since I've played a KH game but this one felt like a bit of let down. This was the best they could do to wrap up 17 years of story telling and that's gonna have to do. But considering all I know about Kingdom Hearts 4 with the secret ending and the teaser trailer we got last year (2022) I'm actually interested to see where this franchise goes next. This time we won't have to wait longer than a decade (hopefully). In any case "Kingdom Hearts 3" has a lot to love but balances out with so much to dislike. Its a good game overall but I do wish it was better.