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elladastinkardiamou · 4 years

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This week’s newsletter from AthensLive is out. The newsletter comes around and touches on other issues like the Novartis case and the situation and status of the Corona pandemic in Greece, but the main part this week is dedicated to the increased role of the Police in Greece as an integrated part of the politics and ideology of the Nea Demokratia government. As an exception - from the importance of the message - this whole part is quoted below.

To every question, the Greek government’s answer is: Police.

A sworn enemy of the university asylum law, established after the fall of the Junta to ensure that nothing like the invasion with the tank in the Polytechnic School during the 1973 Uprising happens again. The ND government had long decided to abolish it. Indeed, the university asylum law was abolished on 8 August 2020, amidst the pandemic, with the votes of ND and the Greek Solution. Those opposing the banishing of the asylum law were posing the question of why such need, since anyway the police had always the right to enter campuses when a criminal act was committed inside them. The move however signaled clearly that the ND government had a plan. Thus, they recently initiated the procedure of institutionalizing a University Police. In a country that has suffered from military rule, when the Junta had special police and security forces in the Universities spying for dissidents, this awakes a painful past. Given that police brutality has been on the rise in lockdown Greece, exclusively targeted against activists and the youth, as we have continuously reported in this newsletter. That the government has been attacking long-standing democratic institutions, like lifting the parliamentary immunity of a DiEM25 MP for a speech she made in Parliament after a police union had filed a complaint against her, it is so very obvious why we are utterly freaked out with this development. Despite the fierce reaction of the rectors, who had already stated their disagreement with university police plans from the very beginning (a relevant petition circulating has already been signed by close to 1,000 academics from all across the progressive political spectrum). One of the reasons being it essentially abolishes the constitutionally guaranteed self-administration of the universities, the Ministry of Education presented the regressive bill along with Minister of “Citizens’ Protection” Michalis Chrysochoides on Wednesday. It is the first time in the last 40 years that the Education and the Police Minister gave a common Press Conference for Higher Education issues, and if this alone signifies a lot about this government. The bill includes controlled access to university buildings, police presence 24/7, and continuous electronic surveillance. One thousand policemen will be hired for this purpose (for start). They will not be armed, will wear special uniforms, have policing and even preliminary investigation responsibilities, and will refer directly to the chief of the Greek Police. As the Minister of Education said the police would even act “preventatively”. It is worth noting that there has been big hiring and huge purchases during the pandemic by the Ministry of “Citizens protection.” We referred to its recent 31 million purchases program. This week, it was reported that the Greek police are about to buy three more water cannons. At the same time (and we hate we have to repeat ourselves once again) the hospitals cry out for more staff and crucial infrastructure, while the Ministry of Education has not even tried to for example rent more spaces and make classrooms less populated in the context of the anti-Covid19 fight. It worths noting that even before “police-is-the-answer-to-everything” Mistotakis’s government, Greece had��the highest number of police officers in the EU-27 (just under 500 per 100,000 inhabitants, as of 2016-2018), coming second only to Cyprus (which is half under occupation) and surpassing even Erdogan’s Turkey by a bit. After ND came to power, they hired more policemen. Indicatively, just one month after their election, in August 2019, they announced the hiring of 1,500 policemen, while within 2020 they announced the hiring of close to 2,000 border guards. Last-minute news was that the Transportation Minister announced on Friday that a police body will also be established for public transport (the announcement came after the serious beating of an underground employee by two passengers, which caused the public prosecutor to intervene). However, the government couldn’t have “given birth” to new public transportation buses, as Mitsotakis famously said, buses that would help reduce crowding. Why not hire half of the country’s citizens to be police, so they can police the other half? Why does the EU, which has been so vocal as to Greece’s spending when it comes to welfare, have no words for all this police-related expenditure? The Higher Education bill includes however more regressive clauses. The bill, which will be put in electronic consultation immediately, introduces a minimum university entry requirement to be defined by each department through a very complex system and a maximum degree programs period, allowing students only two years extra time (three for the five-year courses) to finish their degrees. It should be noted that there is no welfare for the so-called “eternal students”, which means they don’t consume public money, they are just names on a database. Despite the fact the bill provides for exemptions due to work or health reasons, the situation is so complicated in Greece with unregistered or under-registered employment that a student could certainly lose a term because he/she is working. Apart from trying to make higher education accessible to those who can afford it, with this bill they also set up a disciplinary council for students, to be called among others to investigate “offenses” ranging from copying during exams and… noise-pollution to mobilizations and squatting. The sentences will range from simple reprimands to expulsion from university due to “non-contentious prohibition of the institution’s regular functioning.” Which could be anything. It is worth noting that all opposition parties refer to the bill as repressive, especially regarding the university police. Even KINAL, which supports university infrastructure guarding in principle, reacted to the measure, characterizing it as anachronistic. University Authorities are pushed to undertake the role assigned to them according to the new bill, otherwise, they will be evaluated negatively as to their funding. The bill was “welcomed” with students’ demonstrations on Thursday. The police (this police which will enter the universities) beat and tear-gassed the students who had been keeping physical distance and were wearing masks. The police employed their usual brutality. By pushing and encircling the protesters, they led them no choice but to crowd, exposing them thus to Covid19. This, our dear readers, is expected to be the end of free Higher Education for all in Greece as well as the end of the University as a free space for the circulation of ideas. Unless strong reaction comes.By reading the newsletter - and even better by subscribing or becoming a supporting member - you will also find a lot of links to other sources and to events and developments that you will not otherwise come across. And even if some of them are in Greek only, by using a Translator in your browser, it will be easy to read no matter how familiar you are with the Greek language.

This, our dear readers, is expected to be the end of free Higher Education for all in Greece as well as the end of the University as a free space for the circulation of ideas. Unless strong reaction comes. ------- By reading the newsletter - and even better by subscribing or becoming a supporting member - you will also find a lot of links to other sources and to events and developments that you will not otherwise come across. And even if some of them are in Greek only, by using a Translator in your browser, it will be easy to read no matter how familiar you are with the Greek language.

It cannot be recommended strongly enough to read and share this week’s updates on the events and developments in Greece here:

https://us13.campaign-archive.com/…

For anyone with a wish or need to follow and to gain an insight into recent events in Greece and to read and support independent and investigative journalism in English, the weekly newsletter from AthensLive should be a core element in the reading flow.

If you want the best overview of the events and developments in Greece right now, this is the place to go. Not the mainstream Greek news, but independent journalism with sharp analysis and links to interesting and important topics from a variety of sources.

Become a member and get the newsletter in your inbox every week here:

http://bit.ly/2GkVuYt

#Greece #AthensLive #Newsletter #Police #Corona virus #NOVARTIS #Politics

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exampappa · 4 years

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Daily Current Affairs 27th April 2020

CSIR Developed Herbal Decongestant Spray

CSIR Developed Herbal Decongestant Spray The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI) developed herbal decongestant spray The spray is used to prevent COVID-19 infection and to ease wearing masks. Importance of this Spray Wearing mask for a long time creates difficulty in breathing and congestion in respiratory system. The herbal spray will help to address this problem. Why masks are difficult to wear? The main issue of wearing face mask is Carbon Dioxide, which is accumulated in the inner cavity of the mask The accumulated carbon dioxide goes back to the lungs when a person breathes. This creates difficulty in breathing when a person wears mask for a long time. Decongestant Spray The spray has been created by blending four plant-based oil The CSIR has not disclosed the names of the plants due to issues related to intellectual property rights The spray has been prepared based on the guidelines of Ministry of AYUSH. The spray clears windpipe and thus helps in removing mucus or cough that helps to ease breathing. This will also help to reduce the stress caused by excessive decongestion. CSIR-NBRI The NBRI is a Lucknow based laboratory that mainly focuses on botanical research work The institute is to transfer technology to Indian companies for commercial production The masks then produced with the spray are to be sent to the front- line workers fighting against COVID-19

Jeevan Shakti Yojana Launched By Madhya Pradesh Govt Why in News?

Jeevan Shakti Yojana Launched By Madhya Pradesh Govt Why in News? Madhya Pradesh(MP) chief minister launched Jeevan shakti yojana on 26th April 2020 What is Jeevan Shakti yojana Jeevan Shakti Yojana is to make masks on large scale in the state This scheme launched to fight against COVID 19 It also provides livelihood to women at homes Under this scheme double layer masks will be made 100 percent cotton used to make these masks These masks will be effective in the prevention of Corona virus. How to avail this scheme? Women has to register for this schemem through online Government will directly gives order Once the order received they have to submit the masks Once masks receieved the amount directly deposited to their accounts on the same day The state government has issued a helpline number 0755-2700800 to join the scheme. women appreciated this scheme

Immunity Passports Issuance Issue Raised by WHO

Immunity Passports Issuance Issue Raised by WHO What are Immunity Passports that are warned against by WHO? The World Health Organization(WHO) warned against issuance of immunity passports The organization is against the concept due to its non evidence till now on people who have recovered from COVID-19 or developed antibodies will not get infected again. What are Immunity Passports? Immunity passports are given to persons those recovered from COVId-19 and has tested positive to hold antibodies against the disease. The presence of antibodies according to immunity passports say that the person will not get infected by COVID-19 again. What are the issues? Though the idea of immunity passports has not been implemented widely, several organizations are opposing on adopting the idea This is because, it is unknown that how long the antibodies formed against the COVID-19 lasts in human body Also, it is unknown if this strain of virus is similar to that of the other strains such as MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory System) Also, immunity developed helps to protect the person from developing the illness but may not prevent from getting infected. Why Immunity Passports? The countries that have imposed lock down are now trying to return to normalcy It would be convenient for the countries when the citizens hold such a pass like that of the immunity passport This will help in restricting movement of people actually infected and allow others to lead a normal life

Ball Tampering considered by ICC recently What is it? How it works?

Ball Tampering considered by ICC recently What is it? How it works? The International Cricket Council (ICC) is considering to legalize ball tampering. Why in News? The ICC is considering to use an artificial substance under the supervision of umpires to polish cricket balls as applying saliva risks the spread of COVID-19. The use of artificial substance has been banned in cricket. What is ball tampering? Ball Tampering is an action in which the player of the fielding team in cricket illegally alters the condition of the ball It is done to achieve favourable bowling conditions against the batsman Using sweat or spit to remove the mud or to polish the ball is common and is allowed. Why is sweat or spit used? The sweat or spit is used to make the ball look shiny. The technique is used by the bowlers after the ball gets older, mostly after 35 overs. The sweat or spit is used to make one side shiny and the other side rough. Logic behind it The swing of the ball depends on three factors namely climatic conditions, shiny side and behaviour of the pitch. The science of shiny side is applied in using sweat or spit. The cricket ball creates turbulence as its swings. In conventional swing, ball moves towards the side of greater turbulence. On the other hand, during reverse swing, it goes other way. Therefore, the bowler polishes one side of the ball to make it reverse swing. This is done to create challenging conditions for the batsman. What law says? According to the Laws of Cricket the subsection 3 says the ball shall be polished without use of artificial substances It can be dried with towel to remove the mud in the ball

CISF Launched e-karyalay application for movement of files

CISF Launched e-karyalay application for movement of files Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) launched ‘e-karyalay’ an electronic office application on April 24, 2020 to enable the movement of files and documents without physical touch It is to prevent coronavirus infection About CISF: It is the national civil aviation security force with 63 airports and also guards the Delhi Metro and other vital infrastructure in the aerospace and nuclear domain & was established under the Act of Parliament- Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968 in 1969. It is under the Home Affairs ministry. Headquarters– New Delhi, India Director General– Rajesh Ranjan Union Minister of Ministry of Home affairs– Amit shah About the app Designed by its in-house technical team for the usage of the 1.62 lakhs personnel & it resembles each and every function of traditional file movement. Has digital signature features to handle various securities related concerns and keep pace with existing standards. Hosted on the CISF Cloud with all security arrangements to safeguard the data & a data recovery site is established to maintain around-the-clock services. Gives the same visual appearance as the file with the notes on the left and all the correspondence and attachments on the right & Files can be opened, worked, parked and closed. App’s ‘Dak’ or letters management section handles all sorts of communication between various levels of functional hierarchy & it enables to transfer the dak (snail mail) directly to the file noting Since the government allows only officers above the rank of deputy secretary to go to office, holding only one-third of the manpower below this rank on a given day at work, the app will reduce the workload & will enable officials to work from home.

Dhanwantari: Assam govt new medicine delivery scheme

Dhanwantari: Assam govt new medicine delivery scheme The Assam state government’s health department has launched a special scheme called ‘Dhanwantari’ on April 24, 2020 Under this scheme medicines which are not available locally will be delivered to patients at home This medicine is free up to 200 rupees About Assam: Capital– Dispur Chief minister– Sarbananda Sonowal Governor– Jagdish Mukhi Notable Points about Dhanwantari This is covering the distance more than 10 km If the medicine is not in 10 km then govt will deliver it They initiated a dedicated number 104 to avail the medicine Health Dept delivers within 24 hours if the medicine available in the district 48 hours required to deliver from other places A total of 4,000 MPWs (Multipurpose Health Workers), ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers and aspirants from across the state will be directly involved in this service Read the full article

#currentaffairs #currentaffairs2020 #currentaffairs27thapril2020 #currentaffairsapril2020

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messmersflame · 4 years

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so the government wants to give MPs a nice bonus while the rest of us fight each other for toilet paper and are forced to deal with inflated prices on food or order overpriced food from door deliveries. and many of us cannot go to work, and are not being paid.

MPs are the reason why so many people in the UK are dead from something that could have been mitigated if they had actually given a shit.

so if you can, sign and share this petition, at the very least it will be seen and heard.

#politics #coronavirus #covid 19 #UK politics #uk pol

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vicharodaya · 3 years

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"न तो कर्फ्यू हटेगा और न ही धीरे-धीरे खोला जाएगा" मध्‍य प्रदेश में कर्फ्यू को लेकर CM शिवराज ने कही ये बात

“न तो कर्फ्यू हटेगा और न ही धीरे-धीरे खोला जाएगा” मध्‍य प्रदेश में कर्फ्यू को लेकर CM शिवराज ने कही ये बात

प्रदेश के जिन जिलों में 17 मई तक कोरोना संक्रमण (पॉजिटिविटी) दर पांच प्रतिशत से कम होगी, वहां कर्फ्यू हटाना शुरू हो जाएगा। कर्फ्यू एक दम से नहीं बल्कि वैज्ञानिक तरीके से धीरे-धीरे हटाया जाएगा ताकि फिर कोई दिक्कत न हो जाए। जहां संक्रमण की दर पांच प्रतिशत से अधिक रहेगी, वहां न तो कर्फ्यू हटेगा और न ही धीरे-धीरे खोला जाएगा। यह बात मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान ने बुधवार को प्रदेशवासियों को संबोधित…

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#जनता कर्फ्यू #C.M Shivraj Singh Chouhan #Lockdown #mp fight corona #mp news #shivraj singh chouhan #vicharodaya

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imsharmauttam · 4 years

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List Of All The Celebrities-Donations During The Lockdown List of All payers In This Pandemic Situation

Novel Coronavirus has taken a Pandemic Situation across the world. Till now 1,521,116 Confirmed cases are in front of us and a confirmed 88,565 deaths across the globe.

Almost All the Countries have gone Lockdown for a few weeks. After the announcement from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of PM care fund. Several Indian Celebrities have taken the pledge to Donate in the PM care fund to tackle the COVID-19. Coronavirus Symptoms and Causes

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In India also the situation is going Out of control, Indian Govt. has taken the action against the Novel Coronavirus. The Indian government has Lockdown the Whole nation for approx. a month. How Corona Virus Affects Us

There are 5,734 confirmed cases in India and 166 deaths in India & 473 recovered patients. There are 4,34,791 cases only in the United States and 24,058 deaths & 14,802 Recovered Patients.

The number of cases Continues, Italy, Spain, China, The United States has in the heavy pandemic situation.

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Here is the list of all the Celebrities who pledge to donate in this pandemic situation

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The Khiladi Kumar of Bollywood Akshay Kumar Donates 25 Crores INR to the PM care Fund.

Varun Dhawan has Donated Rs 30 lakh Rupees.

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Punjabi Singer Guru Randhawa contributed Rs 20 lakhs to the PM care fund.

Indian T.V actor Arjun Bijlani contibuted Rs. 5 lakhs to th fund.

BJP MP Hema Malini from Mathura, Donated Rs 1 crore.

Hrithik Roshan donates procured N95 and FFP3 masks for the BMC.

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Sunny Deol Contributes Rs 50 lakh.

South Indian Actor Prabhas donates Rs 4 crore in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana Govt. and 3 crores in PM relief fund.

Pawan Kalyan Donates Rs 2 crores in the Fund.

Ram Charan Donates Rs 70 Lakh.

The Thalaiva Superstar Rajinikanth has donated Rs 50 lakh for daily wage workers of the South Indian film industry.

South Singham Suriya Karthi along their father Sivakumar donated Rs 10 lakh.

Vijay Sethupathi has donated 10 lakhs for the welfare of FEFSI members.

Salman Khan is helping 25000 daily laborers during the lockdown.

Kartik Aaryan Donates 1 Crore to the Fund.

Vickey Kaushal donates 1 crore to PM CARES fund.

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Mahesh Babu donates 1 crore.

Stylish star Allu Arjun donates 1.25 crore INR to the Fund.

T-Series family has decided to donate Rs 11 crore to the PM-CARES Fund and Rs 1 crore to the CMO Maharashtra.

TikTok Donates Medical Kits Worth 100 Crore.

International Singer Shawn Mendes Donates 175K Dollar to Paediatric Hospital.

Kylie Jenner donated $ 1 Million and team up with a cosmetic company to manufacture Hand Sanitizers.

International Rappers Jay-z & Meek Mill donates 1,00,000 Masks in U.S prison.

All Business Corporates

Jeff-Bezos donates $100 Million to the america to fight food insecurity.

Azim Premji Donates 1,125 Crore to fight with COVID-19.

Tata Company donates 1500 crore ( Ratana Tata- 500, Tata Sona – 1000)

Kia Motors contributed 2 crore INR to the Andhra Pradesh CM relief fund.

BCCI made a 51 Crores donation to the PM care Fund.

Anand Mahindra contributed 500 Crores.

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Honda Commits to donate 11 crores to fight against Coronavirus.

Pepsico Contributes 25,000 COVID-19 Testing kits.

Mukesh Ambani donated Rs.5 crore and isolation ward.

Pradeep and Pankaj Rathod of the Cello Group for contributing Rs. 3.5 crore.

Ram Nath Kovind pledges to donate one-month of his salary to the PM care Fund.

Aditya Birla Group donated 500 Crores in the PM care Fund.

World Bank extended $1b to India as emergency fund to India.

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Gautam Gambhir has also offered to release Rs 50 lakh from his Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.

Milkha Singh Donates Rs. 2 Lakhs.

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has also donated Rs 25 lakh towards the West Bengal government’s relief fund and President Avishek Dalmiya donated 5 lakh.

Sourav Ganguly donated worth 50 lakhs rice for the underprivileged individuals.

Sachin Tendulkar donated 50 lakhs to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Suresh Raina has contributed Rs.25 lakh.

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu has donated a sum of Rs 10 lakh.

Wrestler Bajrang Punia has donated his 6 months salary to the Haryana relief fund. He Work’s for The Indian Railways.

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Thank you for Reading My article I hope you like it. If you like it Then Like it, share it and comment on it what you want next.

Make sure that you follow me on Facebook and Pinterest.

#stay tuned with us

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phonebuffer5-blog · 5 years

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Coronavirus in Iran: Number of deaths continues to rise rapidly - prisoners are released

Iran is particularly badly affected by the corona virus. Citizens hoarding breathing masks and supplies get the death penalty. The virus also spreads to Iranian prisons. Iran is particularly affected by the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 * coronavirus Iran's Deputy Minister of Health, Iradsch Harirtschi, also tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 Crowded prisons accelerate the spread of the virus Update from March 11, 2020, 1:07 p.m .: The number of coronavirus deaths and infections has risen again in Iran. Over the past 24 hours, the death toll has increased from 291 to 354, Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in Tehran on Wednesday. The number of officially recorded infections in the country increased to 9000 - 958 more than the previous day. Most infections occurred again in the capital, Tehran, where almost 2,700 people were infected with the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. At the same time, 2959 patients were healed from the hospitals, said the spokesman on state television. https://jdgoshop.com/product/perfessional-medical-mask-disposable-3-ply-face-mask/ Update from March 11, 2020, 10:31 am: According to media reports, the corona crisis in Iran is to become a top priority. President Hassan Ruhani therefore wants to personally lead the crisis team. The proposal comes directly from the top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after a crisis meeting of government officials and MPs, the Isna news agency reported on Wednesday. So far, the Ministry of Health has been responsible for the fight against the virus. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for the immediate release of detained US citizens in the face of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran. The Islamic Republic has been called upon to release all wrongfully arrested Americans for humanitarian reasons, a statement from its ministry said on Tuesday. Iran released 70,000 prisoners on Monday to help prevent the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 agent in its detention centers. According to the UN expert on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, the virus spread to Iranian prisons, where overcrowding, malnutrition and poor hygiene are a major problem. Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 in Iran: President Hassan Ruhani heads the crisis team Update from 03/10/2020, 1.30 p.m .: The second round of the parliamentary election in Iran is very likely to be postponed due to the coronavirus crisis in the country. The run-off was scheduled for April 17, and the new parliament was due to start work in late May. "However, if the crisis has not ended by then, the runoff election would have to be postponed, (...) maybe even to August," government spokesman Ali Rabiei told the Tasnim news agency. The corona virus has hit Iran particularly hard. Within a day, the death toll increased from 237 to 291, said Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur in Tehran. The number of officially recorded infections in the country increased to 8042 - 881 more than the previous day. Most infections were again in the capital, Tehran, where over 2100 people have been shown to be infected with the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. At the same time, 2,731 patients were cured from the hospitals, the spokesman said. Due to the risk of infection, schools and universities were closed and most political events were canceled. Corona virus in Iran: number of deaths is increasing rapidly Update from March 8th, 2020, 2:04 pm: The number of detected coronavirus infections in Iran has now reached 6566. The total number of deaths has risen sharply in the past few days to 194. This makes the Islamic country the most severely affected by the epidemic after China and South Korea. In the meantime, the corona virus has spread to all 31 provinces in Iran. In order to curb further expansion, schools and universities across the country were closed and major cultural and sporting events were canceled.

The airline Iran Air announced on Sunday that all flights to Europe will be suspended until further notice. The reason for this is "restrictions" imposed on the airline by European authorities for "unknown reasons". In the past few days, for example, Sweden had not issued a landing permit for Iran Air flights in view of the coronavirus epidemic in Iran.

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tenscupcake · 6 years

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Kingdom Hearts 3 - An Honest Review

I’d like to preface this review by saying I am an unabashed Kingdom Hearts geek. Like, through and through. I played KH1 when I was just a tween, and have picked up a copy every installment since (in some cases, even bought the entire console just to play that one game). I still have CDs of the game soundtracks, a few discs which have nearly burnt out on replay in my car. Sanctuary After the Battle will forever make me cry, whether or not I’m watching the cutscene that goes along with it. I’ve replayed most of the titles multiple times. Wasted away hours on YouTube watching Story So Far recaps and funny commentaries about the games in preparation for KH3. Like millions of other enthusiasts, I have been eagerly and patiently (all right, sometimes not so patiently) awaiting the arrival of KH3 since the moment I first finished KH2 – 13 very, very long years ago.

At around eight o’clock on premiere night, I took my place in line at my local GameStop wearing my Kingdom Hearts t-shirt and pajama pants, brandishing the miniature Kingdom Key clipped to my lanyard. Finally holding that blue case in my hands was absolutely surreal. One of those natural highs it took me hours to come down from. Tears welled up in my eyes at the first few somber piano keys as the title screen faded into view.

Lots of people asked me, in the weeks and even months leading up to the release (because believe me, at any opportunity, I would not shut up about how excited I was about this game), if I thought it would live up to the hype. Pfft, I thought. People outside the KH fandom never understand. Of course it will. Sure, the series has had its weak links, its hiccups (the battle system in COM and the perpetual re-releases of old games with minor tweaks, to name a couple). But with the compelling cinematic storytelling and uniquely delightful gameplay of the main series’ smash hits - KH1, KH2, and BBS – in their repertoire, I knew the team at Square was capable of pulling this off. To me, it was just a given that it would be epic. That playing it would be worth all the years of waiting. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind this game was going to be lit. As. Hell.

I’m only saying all this so as not to give the impression I went into this game looking to find flaws, to nitpick it. Or with the expectation of being disappointed. In fact, quite the opposite.

I wanted to love this game. To me, loving KH games is one of very few constants in my life. I was supposed to love this game. I needed to love this game.

But the truth is, I didn’t.

That statement has been pretty difficult for me to come to terms with.

In what few early reviews and videos I’ve found of people discussing their thoughts on the game, I’ve found fans to be quite split: with some unreservedly loving, others downright hating the game.

I fall somewhere in the middle of the polarized fandom. I did NOT hate the game. It was actually a good, if not great game. But putting it on a sliding scale of satisfaction and disappointment, I would say it’s tipping toward the latter. And as it’s taken me hours of mulling, reading, and discussing with other players to characterize and articulate precisely why, and because I think I owe it not only to the series and the characters therein, but also my younger self to leave no stone unturned, this review is going to be a long one.

I’m finding it easiest to break it down by category:

Graphics.

This game is beautiful. It was sort of a dream come true to meander around in real time with the gorgeously, smoothly animated versions of Sora and the gang that we’d previously only been able to see in the rare cinematic cutscenes at each game’s beginning and end. Most of the Disney and even Pixar worlds and characters are rendered to nearly the same quality as their film counterparts. I often found myself just standing in place for a while, admiring it all. The vivid green landscapes of Corona, the beaches and sprawling sea in the Caribbean, the towering cityscape of San Fransokyo. And walking on water where the sky meets the sea? Stunning.

Gameplay.

All in all, this game is pretty damn fun to play. It was all I thought about during long days at work: I couldn’t wait to jump back into the action. Pounding on Heartless still brings me back to the good old days. And who doesn’t want to run up the side of buildings as Riku and Roxas demonstrated so epically, so long ago, in the World That Never Was? Soar to sky-high Heartless as easily as you can lock onto them? These new movement aspects brought an almost superhero-esque quality to the game, reminiscent of Spider-man’s wall-crawling or Batman’s grappling hook, that, if a bit unrealistic, I found to be immense fun. And compared to previous games, worlds are no longer cordoned off into many separate areas, and with the sheer scale of them, KH3 experiments with a quasi-open-world style that is rather freeing.

I also really appreciate that the character interactions with your party and with NPCs felt much less clunky. For one thing, they FINALLY did away with the press X-to-progress text-only conversations that were so prevalent in previous games, with all the dialogue left to voice actors. Even minor NPCs that only show up one time were given a voice, making every interaction that much more immersive. Transitions from cutscenes to the action were also much more fluid, and Sora and his current teammates talk to one another as you pow around. Even if it’s just a warning from Goofy you’re going the wrong way, or a heads-up from Donald there’s an ingredient or lucky emblem nearby, it was still a new feature I was glad to have.

Combat-wise, this game has a lot going for it. This installment brings nearly all the combat styles we’ve seen up until this point: magic, combos, form changes, flowmotion, shotlock, companion team-ups, and links. And it even introduces a few new ones on top of all this: the ability to swap between three different keyblades at will, and the new Disney parks-inspired attraction commands, where you can summon roller coasters, tea cups, and spinning carousels to your heart’s content. What this enables is for the player to never get bored during a battle. With so many options to choose from in each new enemy encounter, you never have to stick with the same combat style or get stuck in a rut of just mashing X to hack and slash everything. All things considered, Sora’s got some pretty sick moves this time around. Whipping out Thundaza, watching lightning explode across the screen and zap all the enemies in sight with it? Wicked. Floating above the ground, wreaking ethereal, glowing havoc with the Mirage Staff? Awesome. Surrounded by a sea of Heartless, locking onto 32 different targets at once and unleashing a flurry of lasers to slash through them all? Amazing. Thumbs getting fatigued fighting the third maddening iteration of Xehanort? Give yourself a break from the chaos in a giant, technicolor pirate ship, watching it thwack your adversary on every rock back and forth.

On one hand, the hefty damage most of these combat options deal gives the game an almost Ratchet and Clank-esque ‘blowing shit up’ vibe, which is undeniably fun. But, this array of choices does become a double-edged sword. With grand magic, attraction commands, form changes, and team attacks all fighting for space atop the command deck, they tend to pile up quickly. It’s not at all uncommon to rack up three or four different situation commands after only about 30 seconds of fighting. Sometimes, the constant need to make a choice, especially in a busy battle, can be more of a burden than a blessing. Having to shift between situation command selections on top of attacking, blocking, and accessing your shortcuts can be a bit cumbersome.

Unlike in previous games, there also aren’t many consequences for over-using special attacks. In KH2, your drive gauge ran out and needed to be slowly refilled. You also ran the increasingly high risk of morphing into the near-helpless Anti-Sora by relying too much on drive forms. But here, no matter how many times you’ve used a special attack, your MP will reload in a few seconds, and you can easily just ignore the situation command for Rage Form when it pops up. In BBS, it felt like it took a good while to power up to a form change, whereas in KH3 it seems like you can spend just as much time in a powered-up keyblade form change as in regular combat.

And, because so many of these situation commands are so powerful and frequent, they tend to dominate the entire battle, making the combat in the game much easier than previous games. Bordering on too easy. Where in other entries in the main series, I usually had to die several times on each boss in Proud mode before I devised the right strategy to defeat them, I rarely died at all in this game. On the surface, that isn’t such a bad thing. As I like to say a lot of the time, when I play a game “I’m here for a good time, not a hard time.” But there comes a point when the combat is so easy that it no longer gives you that sense of accomplishment when you progress past a tough batch of heartless or a particularly merciless boss – you know, that punching the air, whooping to yourself sort of pride. I was definitely missing that, at times.

Believe it or not, I think the Disney attraction commands, though powerful, and at first hilarious, were a bit too extra. After only a few hours in they just became annoying, and I was doing my best to ignore them when they popped up, even wishing I could turn them off. Now and then, I’d accidentally trigger the Blaster or the raft ride and just roll my eyes while canceling back out of it. Because it doesn’t really feel like you’re doing any fighting, let alone the real-time keyblade-style fighting uniquely special to this series. And forget trying to effectively aim while you’re in one. After a while the only thing I found them useful for was, as I mentioned earlier, taking a break from a fight when you’re fatigued, as they give your thumbs a break and cause you to take much less damage. While they were cool at first, my final impression of this addition to the combat was all flash, no substance.

I was one of the few who actually liked and took advantage of flowmotion in DDD, and was excited to see it brought back here. But this, too, turned out to be mostly another annoyance. I’m not sure if it’s because the actionable objects are so much more spread out in KH3, or because they actually built in restrictions on combos here, but I was unable to keep a flow going at all. After only one successful strike after leaping off a wall or pole, the blue glow of momentum vanished. It didn’t feel like “flowmotion” at all, just a one-and-done special attack that tended to kill any rhythm I had going moreso than facilitate it. So while conceptually and visually it was promising, I unfortunately no longer found it very useful.

Also, and I realize this is completely subjective, but I found the form changes to be stylistically underwhelming overall. I thought the drive forms in KH2 (especially Master and Final) were visually and stylistically cooler, and seemed to have more finesse.

Worlds.

When I was whisked away from San Fransokyo and landed in the final world of the game, I found myself disappointed by the number of worlds I’d been to, expecting there to be a handful more. Though, when I counted the worlds up, the tally was at nine. So I asked myself why it felt like so little, when nine didn’t seem like a small number. But, tallying up the worlds in previous games, KH1 had 13, KH2 had 15, and BBS had 10. Which does put KH3 on the low end of world count. Also, in all three of these previous games (especially KH2 and BBS), you had to return to these worlds more than once, usually unlocking new content and/or areas each time, leading it to feel like there were more worlds than there actually were. Though KH3 has a comparable length of gameplay to complete the story, it definitely does feel like it comes up short in terms of variety of worlds you get to visit. As a result, some of the worlds where you spend 3 or 4 hours at a time can start to feel like they’re dragging on a little bit. And on the flipside of that, there are certain worlds that you technically do visit in KH3 I did not include in the world count, because you are there for such a fleeting amount of time, or in such a tiny portion of the world – e.g. Land of Departure, the Realm of Darkness. Worlds that would have been awesome to get to actually explore! And perhaps the biggest letdown of all, though you get to visit Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden via cutscenes, there is no play time in either. Serious bummer.

As far as the worlds they did choose to include, the selection admittedly left me ambivalent. I was really glad to see Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Big Hero 6 included, but wasn’t over the moon about any of the others. I was really counting on having a Wreck-It-Ralph world (I mean, how perfect would that be?), and would love to have seen them tackle Zootopia, Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons, or the Incredibles. I’d even settle for a return to Halloween Town (shameless NBC fangirl, what can I say). The Emperor’s New Groove could have been pretty damn funny. Even A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo could have offered some unique gameplay opportunities. Certainly better content to work with than Frozen, at any rate.

As far as the plot/experience within the worlds, I also found it to be a mixed bag. I did enjoy all of them, even ones I did not expect to enjoy too much (i.e. Frozen and Pirates). Honestly, though, I found myself a bit bored in worlds where they followed the plot of the films too closely, to the point that it felt like an abridged re-hash of the movies. I know they’ve taken this approach before with earlier Kingdom Hearts games, and I may sound like a hypocrite for only critiquing it now. But I think even in stories where they did do this earlier, like Tarzan or Aladdin, they executed the re-tellings more successfully. The plotline was altered just enough to ensure Sora was a part of the action through and through. After playing those games, Sora was indelibly inserted into those films in my head. To where the next time I watched them, I was jokingly asking myself “Where’s Sora?” But that was not the feeling I got here. In worlds like Corona or the Caribbean, Sora was just sort of jammed into the plot where he didn’t really fit. In many of the longer cutscenes, I actually forgot Sora was even there – even forgot I was playing Kingdom Hearts. Sora didn’t really feel needed. I definitely found it more enjoyable to be part of a new adventure with the characters – like what was done with Toy Story and Big Hero 6, where Sora was able to play more of an active role in progressing the subplot. It was nice to feel like I mattered!

Extras.

These were hit-or-miss for me. I actually screeched with excitement when Sora and the gang ran into Remy, and enjoyed the scavenger hunt for ingredients. And while cooking with little chef was a treat I wouldn’t want to see cut from the game, I found most of the cooking mini-games to be simultaneously too short (less than 10 seconds each!) and needlessly hard to master (especially cracking that egg).

Admittedly a Disney and Disneyland fanatic, I also got a kick out of the lucky emblems (aka hidden mickeys). I thought they were one of the most fun collectibles we’ve seen to date in the franchise.

Which brings me to one of the more controversial extras in the game: the gummiphone! While a lot of people are ragging on the inclusion of this dynamic, I enjoyed it. The Instagram loading screens were a little jarring at first, but they really grew on me. And being able to point the camera at Goofy, Sully, or Hiro and watch them pose for a picture in real-time was nothing short of adorable.

Another thing that surprised me? The game’s occasional self-awareness. I almost included a separate category for this, because I’ve never seen another game do this, and did not see it coming! But the “KINGDOM HEARTS II.9” title screen gave me a good chuckle. It doesn’t make up for all the 1.5, 2.8, 0.2 nonsense we’ve had to put up with, but it’s at least nice to see they can poke fun at their own ridiculousness. And when Sora laments how long it’s been since he’s seen the folks in Twilight Town; then Hayner, confused and even a little creeped out, says “It hasn’t been that long”. Simply acknowledging the vast disconnect between the short time that’s passed in-universe since KH2 and how egregiously long the fans had to wait – well, it had me in stitches. It was morbid laughter, sure, but refreshing nonetheless.

Um, the folk dancing in the square in Corona? Literal funniest thing ever.

One thing that I really missed? Closing keyholes. Finishing worlds wasn’t the same without them.

At this point in the review, I’ve covered basically every aspect I can think of save for one: the story. I’ve purposely saved it for last, because it’s the most important aspect of the series to me, the one that can make or break a Kingdom Hearts game.

From the categories I’ve judged thus far – content, visuals, gameplay, extras – I’d probably give this game a solid 8 or 9/10. I had some issues with the overly cluttered combat, the difficulty level, and the slight disappointment with which worlds were included and the ways they chose to play out the subplots in each. But in the grand scheme of things, all these complaints are minor, and don’t detract from the fact that it’s just plain fun, in a new league with some of the most entertaining and most beautiful titles out there.

But that’s exactly it. Beautiful graphics are the new bare minimum for this generation of console gaming. If a game released for the PS4 or Switch isn’t visually outstanding, it runs a real risk of faltering behind the competition. There is no shortage of beautiful games on the market in 2019.

And if I want a fun game, I can pop back into Mario Odyssey or get a group together to duke it out in Super Smash Ultimate. I can easily download a dozen fun platformers on Steam for less than 50 bucks.

Yes, KH3 is really beautiful, and really fun.

But that’s not why I was so excited to play it.

A legion of kids and teenagers stuck with this series well into their twenties and thirties, never giving up on the release of the next installment. Trudged through handheld games and blocky graphics and clunky battle systems and convoluted plot lines. Why? Well, of course I can’t speak for all KH fans, but for me, and all the ones I know personally, it’s because of the story. It’s always been what, in my mind, sets KH apart from any other video game I’ve ever played. It’s the only game series that’s ever made me cry. The only one I’ve ever owned merchandise for. The only one I’ve ever been so invested in that I can discuss it with friends, even acquaintances, for hours on end. The only one that’s made me care so much about the characters that they feel like my friends. With how much time has passed since I started, maybe even my kids. No pun intended, the series has heart. It contains the same sort of magic that going to Disneyland as a child did. Or, it used to.

Kingdom Hearts 3 didn’t need to just be a great game. It needed to be a Kingdom Hearts game. One that built a wove a compelling story filled with intrigue and emotion from the first hour. One that did justice to all the characters (and by now, there are a lot of them) that we’ve grown to love over the last 17 years. One where a prepubescent kid can yell a speech up at a threatening villain that makes you believe, harder than you’ve ever believed, in the power of friendship. One that instills a childlike optimism that no matter how dark the world gets, as long as someone keeps fighting, good can still triumph over evil. One that tugs on the heartstrings in just the right ways, at just the right moments, to manage to make you cry – repeatedly – over a gang of outspoken, angsty kids with clown feet.

The thing about the story in KH3 is: it’s not inherently a bad story. Sure, it’s a mess, it doesn’t make much sense, it leaves you with more questions than answers, it’s incredibly cheesy, and it retcons a good deal of lore from previous installments. But many of these things could be said of other Kingdom Hearts games. The fact that these descriptors apply to KH3 isn’t what disqualifies it as a worthy entry in the series, in my mind.

For the most part, it’s not the story itself I found disappointing. After all, think about how a summary sounds on paper: reunions with long lost characters, long-awaited battles, conclusions of lengthy character and story arcs.

The biggest problem wasn’t so much the concept of the story, but rather the execution.

First of all, the pacing. The pacing was terrible. Almost nothing happens the first 20-25 hours of the game. I can think of maybe two scenes that got me on the edge of my seat, gripping my controller in the hopes it would advance the plot further: the scene with Mickey and Riku in the realm of darkness where you get to play as Riku for a few minutes (sadly the only time in the game that you do), and running into Vanitas in Monstropolis. Nothing. Else. Happened. Sure you run into Larxene in Arendelle, and goof around chasing Luxord in the Caribbean, but none of this is actually relevant to the plot we care about. Certainly not the plot the story is telling us to care about from the beginning.

And that leads me to the second issue – how vague your objective actually is. The ultimate objective of the game seems clear enough: rescue Aqua from the realm of darkness, maybe worry about the other two Wayfinder trio once we’ve found her, and defeat Xehanort. But this is not Sora’s given objective. Rather, it’s to find the ‘power of waking.’ Which is not explained, either to Sora or the player. Sora, on the other hand, appoints himself to another mission entirely: contemplating the unfairness of Roxas’ disappearance, he seems to mainly be focused on finding him and restoring him to a physical existence. However, this mission is starkly at odds with the canonical explanation of Nobodies in general and Roxas, specifically. The last time we saw Roxas (chronologically speaking) he reunited with Sora, and as far as we know, he’s still part of Sora. So, the mission to “find” Roxas as if he exists as an entity in the real world is perplexing. Second, lacking hearts, Nobodies can’t exist as a whole on their own. So even assuming we can “find” him in Sora, how far we going to bring him back without splintering Sora into a Heartless and a Nobody again? Even according to the series’ own complex lore, it doesn’t make sense. Therefore, the first half or more of the game seems aimless, not really knowing what we’re meant to be doing, or how. It’s hard to be invested in a story with no clear objective. Not something we can easily get on board with like “Find Riku and Kairi” or “Track down the Organization.” Just “Go find the power of waking.” Okay.

And while a lot (and I mean a lot) happens in the last 4-5 hours of the story to tie up loose ends, it’s crammed together in such a jumbled rush that it’s almost impossible to appreciate any of it.

After collecting Aqua and Ventus, long lost characters reappear on screen one right after another assembly-line style, to the point that none of them feels special or poignant anymore.

Not only that, but the characters who are brought back, many of them beloved protagonists from earlier installments in the series, are not given any time to shine.

It was promising when they let Aqua fight Vanitas in the newly restored Land of Departure. Ven is her friend, her responsibility; it was her fight. But with this taste of getting back a playable character from the franchise, I expected that as the plot progressed, it would open up plenty more chances for past protagonists to take the stage. That we’d be able to step back into the oversized shoes of other playable characters we’d missed. That when (or if) others returned in all their glory, they’d get to strut their stuff.

But that is precisely the opposite of what happened.

I mean, Ventus didn’t get to steal the spotlight for the final clash with Vanitas? By definition, his natural foil?

Terra didn’t get to exact his revenge in an epic showdown with Xehanort, the guy who stole his body and enslaved him for more than a decade?

Roxas and Axel, reunited, couldn’t team up to pound on the Organization members that tormented them? Instead, after his surprise entrance, Roxas got hardly any screen presence at all, and Axel’s epic new flaming keyblade got destroyed, making him sit out most of the fighting after all the build up that he was training to fight?

Oh, and you know who else was utterly useless through the final battles, demoted once again to a damsel in distress despite years of hype that she’d wield a keyblade in this installment, and multiple cutscenes indicating she, too, was training to actually fight? Yup. I don’t even need to say the name.

And to only get one small boss fight as Riku, when in the previous installment he had half the screen time?

The heroes we’ve missed for so long and longed to return to the screen are not resurrected with the dignity and respect they deserve. They are relegated to side characters, who are either completely sidelined for the final battles, or else just hacking away mindlessly in the background as you marathon one ridiculously easy “boss” after another Olympus Coliseum-style.

Speaking of resurrecting characters: the manner in which they brought some of them back was so nebulous it was impossible to understand, let alone experience any sort of emotional reaction.

For one: Roxas. For starters, it’s pretty lazy writing to have Sora be the one pursuing his return (however that was supposed to happen), only to have that pursuit peter out completely, and for Roxas to just appear at the final battle with no resolution or explanation of how. (Nor the satisfaction of fleshing out how Sora achieved it.) But more importantly, where did he come from? There was no scene in which he emerged from Sora’s being. So, where was he? Also, I get that they must have used the replica Demyx/Ansem brought Ienzo as a vessel for him, but how does he have his own heart now? There was no evidence to indicate Sora or Ven lost theirs again. This is a pretty glaring plot hole.

Second? Naminé. This one really came out of left field. No one had even spoken about Naminé the entire game, save one throwaway line. Then all of a sudden, near the very end of the game, everyone cares about bringing her back, too? Even Sora, despite his hours-long obsession with bringing back Roxas without a word about Naminé, sees a newly empty vessel and asks “Oh, is that for Naminé?” All I could do at this point was laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Even more confusing? Xion. She was a replica, with no heart, no personality... a walking vial for Sora’s memories. How on Earth did she get brought back? What was there to bring back? And what was the point? Xion always felt far more like a plot device than an actual character.

At this point, so little made sense and so many characters had appeared in a row with no regard for continuity or maintaining canon that my heart was really starting to sink. It all felt like it was meant to be fan service. Bring back everyone’s favorite characters: they’ll love that, right? But the issue is they did it no matter what rules they had to break, or canon they had to ignore. Sure, I wanted a lot of these characters back, I think a lot of people did. But not at the expense of good writing.

Even if one completely excuses the hole-filled poor writing that got us there, it didn’t even feel real that we had these awesome characters back. Because they just sort of existed, as high-def cool anime hair and porcelain skin and not much else. Not only did they not get to show us what they’re made of in epic fight sequences, but there was no meaningful dialogue from any of them. Where was Terra giving his friends any sort of recollection of his time as Ansem’s guardian? Riku and Roxas making amends? Aqua thanking Sora for keeping Ven safe? A brofest about protecting their friends between Riku and Terra? Axel saying anything at all meaningful to his best friend when he finally saw him again? For all the reunions we got, it was shocking how little substance there actually was in any of them.

It was an insanely rushed ending, with stunted, shallow dialogue, and awkward tears that felt forced rather than genuine.

KH3 is to KH1&2 what Moffat Who is to RTD Who. A lot more flash, a lot less substance, and hollowed out characters that no longer provoke deep emotion.

Characters’ emotions were not handled well in this game. Like when Sora, notorious for being a persistent optimist, dissolves to hysterics and claims he’s “nothing” without his friends. But we never get to see this sharp departure from his M.O. (because he has lost his friends over and over throughout the series without reacting this way) really wrestled with. It’s just swept under the rug after a single line from Riku. It’s okay for characters to hit rock bottom: in fact, it’s good for them. But such episodes have to be properly fleshed out, or they won’t have an impact.

Also, just my two cents? Making your characters cry is not a shortcut to get your audience to cry. It’s a lazy way of demonstrating feeling. In the writing world, there’s something called “show, don’t tell.” Making characters cry left and right with hardly any time devoted to the proper dialogue and action is the equivalent of telling, rather than showing. This series is unique to me precisely because it’s the only video game to make me cry (repeatedly). But I didn’t shed a tear in this game. And I think that is so telling. I always think of this behind the scenes video I watched for Doctor Who, in which they filmed different versions of a (very) emotional scene. In one of these versions, the Doctor properly breaks down and cries. David (the actor) upon seeing this version played back to him, said: “I worry if you see him breaking down, it stops you breaking down, as well.” He was onto something there. They didn’t end up using that take in the episode, and I think everyone would agree it was the right call. I’m not saying crying is inherently bad and always to be avoided. In fact, the opposite: it can be very powerful if used sparingly, and at the right moments with the right build-up. But overusing it, with no apparent regard for characterization nuances, basically making it your only method for tell your audience a character is emotional? It’s a little insulting. You also need good dialogue, good acting (or in this case, good animation and voice acting), and proper timing if you want to strike a chord with anyone.

Which, speaking of, I thought both the dialogue and the voice acting in the game as a whole left something to be desired (and seemed almost painfully slow?), and I think a big reason why emotional moments tended to ring hollow.

Onto another aspect of the story: how it ties in to earlier installments in the series. There was a fair amount of speculation going into this game whether or not smaller, handheld-console based installments and extra nuggets from mobile games and re-releases would be relevant in KH3. But regardless of which side of the argument fans fell on, the fact remains that many fans had only played KH1 and KH2, possibly BBS, prior to playing KH3. Many people don’t have the money or the interest in playing on multiple handheld consoles (me being one of them, though I toughed it out in this case) or cell phones, nor the tireless dedication and yes, more money, to purchase games a second time for Final Mix versions and secret endings. This is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean they are bad fans, or less deserving of playing or enjoying KH3. Someone should not have to be a zealous super-fan to be able to enjoy a video game, or any form of entertainment. If you show up to Avengers: Endgame without having seen some of the previous major installments in the film franchise, you are probably going to be confused. I don’t recommend doing that. But is it necessary to have re-watched them all 20 times, speculated for hours on blogs and message boards, and read decades worth of Avengers comics to be able to understand it? Of course not. Though some insufferable comic book elitists insist they’re better than everyone else because they know more about the Marvel universe, the fact is you don’t have to be a Marvel super-fan to enjoy the films. That’s how it should be. Because it’s okay to be a casual fan of something. Content creators normally recognize this, and respect all of their audience. But here, there was critical information from pretty much every spinoff handheld game that you needed in order to have any idea what was going on. There wasn’t even any recap system like in KH2 (the static memories) to get you up to speed on what had happened in the series up until this point. Not to mention the location of the final boss fight, as well as the very last cutscenes centered around a mobile game/movie that I had never even heard of until I was in the middle of playing KH3. Now I am something of a KH geek as I said, so I’ve sat through Union Cross now and done my best to understand some of the more obscure lore. But, call me crazy, I don’t think it’s fair to expect every single person who plays the game to do that in order to understand it. Games are supposed to be fun, not homework.

Which brings me to my last point: this game was supposed to be the end of the saga as we know it. Whether it’s the end of the series or simply the end of this story arc and subsequent games will follow a villain besides the many iterations of Xehanort is yet to be seen (as of me writing this), but it was established this game would be the end to the main trilogy so far. And, to have that end be the main character swanning off on his own (as some have speculated, possibly to his death)? With everyone else from the series partying on the beach like someone important isn’t missing? As someone who came into this game expecting closure, I felt completely blindsided by this ending. After all he’s been through and all the sacrifices he’s made, Sora deserves better.

Kingdom Hearts 3 was visually and mechanically a blast, and credit should go to the developers, artists, and designers where credit is due. But as a fan who plays this series not for graphics or flashy gameplay, but to immerse myself in the story, I’m left feeling cheated. The way the plot unfolded and the way the characters were handled did a disservice to both long-time fans of the saga and to the characters themselves.

I always have a hard time with this, but if I had to put a number to it? I’d say maybe 6/10.

It hurt just to type that.

I’m not giving up hope in the franchise. If there’s ever a KH4 (which still seems unclear right now), I’ll probably still play it. I’m trying to give the creators the benefit of the doubt: they were under a lot of pressure to create a great game, and had too much time in development on their hands and too many sprawling ideas and tried to do too much at once. I’m all for second chances. But if they want the trust of fans like me back, they’re going to have to earn it.

Over the last couple months as I’ve put together this review, I’ve found myself in doubt. Even, dare I say it, like a bad fan, though in principle I vehemently reject the notion someone is a bad fan for disliking an installment of any franchise they love. Am I just too old for Kingdom Hearts now? I wondered. Was I romanticizing the series the whole time, and it’s not as good as I’ve built it up to be in my head? After all my time spent waiting, am I being too critical? I tortured myself over it. So, a couple of weeks after finishing KH3, I popped in the 1.5/2.5 HD compilation into the PS4 and restarted KH2. I had to see if it even came close to the hype I’d built in my head in the 8 or 9 years since I played it last. Almost 60 hours of gameplay later, I can say with confidence that I had not romanticized it at all. This game is amazing. I didn’t mind watching 30 minutes of cutscenes at a time because everything is so compelling. So the graphics are dated, but who cares? The combat is FUN without ever being cumbersome. It’s just the right level of difficulty that there are still some battles and bosses that require multiple attempts and the journey continuously instills a sense of pride and accomplishment. It has so much heart. I still teared up in the same places I used to as a teenager.

KH2 is still a perfect 10/10, and playing it again with fresh eyes only made me realize just how disappointing KH3 actually was.

There’s an old adage that it’s the things we love most that hurt us the most. I wouldn’t feel so let down, or compelled to write 6800 words why, if I didn’t love this series with all my heart. I’ve seen a lot of fans insulting and belittling anyone who dares to criticize the game online, and frankly I’m baffled by that. I critique and discuss all forms of entertainment I enjoy: and that includes both the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and flaws. And I guess I tend to associate with people who do the same. It doesn’t make us bad fans, but passionate ones. I’m not sending hate mail to Square telling them the game unequivocally sucks. I don’t have any ill will towards them or think they’re irredeemable writers or developers. I’m simply recording and posting my honest thoughts to help myself process how I’m feeling, and perhaps others if they choose to read them.

I’m genuinely happy for the fans who loved the game and felt it worth the wait – I don’t want to pick any fights with them (so please don’t pick any fights with me, either). I’m sadly - believe me, no one is sadder than me to admit this - just not one of them.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh meta #kh3 #kh #idk if any of my followers play but #there aren't many places i can post such a long review #so my old blog seemed an appropriate place #written by yours truly

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kenzichi · 6 years

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Here’s my KH3 review:

I would like to start off by saying I enjoyed this game very much. I have a lot of good to say about this game, but also a lot of bad. I tried to keep it spoiler free, but once I reached the cons it was inevitable. Heads up on that. And I also tried not to dive too deep into critiquing the story itself too much. I did sorta do that at the end though, but I felt it was okay to include the points I mentioned because they’re about Org. 13 and X and this game concludes their story arc.

Pros: The game is visually stunning. The worlds are GIGANTIC. It was a little intimidating actually. I always had the thought that I was going to miss something in the back of my mind. But it was still a joy to explore. The scenery really felt alive. The grass moved with you, the water rippled, you can see Sora’s hair move when it was windy! My favorite world in 3 is Kingdom of Corona. It’s just so beautiful and so fun! In this world especially, you interact with Rapunzel as she explores her environment because she’s never experienced it before. It’s really cute and really gets you involved in the world besides just being the guy that takes out heartless.

Another pro is: Yoko Shimomura did it again! Her music compositions for 3 are AMAZING! I got into the music right away and eventually found myself humming to every background song in no time flat. I also enjoyed how every world had more than 2 themes this time. Usually we had a ‘calm’ world theme and a ‘battle’ world theme. Yoko went beyond that and gave us a different theme per situation… for EACH world! One example is in Frozen: we had a theme for the mountain, a battle theme, and a theme for after they met Larxene (and she did the thing if you’ve played the game lol). My favorite theme is the one for Hiro’s Garage in Sanfransokyo. It’s so soothing; I could listen to it for hours. The theme for Aqua’s battle is totally creepy and it fits so well. I enjoyed all of the music.

Game play is fun and really nostalgic. They brought back equipping abilities (with AP), the old command box from 2, and accessories. Magic is better than ever in this game. One problem I had with 2 is that I could only use a few spells and my MP level would quickly run out so I felt it was a waste of time. In 3, even just starting, I didn’t have to worry about running out as fast. It was a relief not having to worry about watching my MP levels and I used magic a lot more in this game.

A new combat feature for 3 is the keyblade transformations. When you finish a world and gain a keyblade, you can unlock special abilities with that keyblade. For example: if you equip the Toybox keyblade, and you bash enough heartless with it, you can transform your keyblade into a giant hammer. I wasn’t too excited about it when they first revealed these new abilities during development, but they’re actually super fun and totally optional if you really don’t dig it. You can also switch between 3 different keyblades during combat easily if you feel one keyblade isn’t working out against an enemy. I love this new feature. My favorite keyblade transformations are the Toybox hammer and the Monstropolis Yo-yos. Sora is channeling his inner Killua with the Yo-yos and I am all for that lol.

Another pro is Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s interactions. Like, omg, they are so cute. They are so genuine. It really felt like I was watching Sora and his two Disney dads. It gave me life and I felt so many emotions watching them. This trio was the best developed trio in 3.

Cons: Pacing y’all. My biggest problem with this game as a whole. It started off good, but once you finish the Disney worlds and get into the real plot with Xehanort it’s like a rollercoaster and not in a good way. All the things we were hoping to happen, that we’ve been waiting for for years, happen so quickly and then it’s over like… did it even happen? I felt I didn’t get to be as emotional about those scenes as I could have been because they immediately thrust us into another scene. I didn’t have time to appreciate those moments like I wanted to.

Kairi…. Poor Kairi. Nomura screwed her over again. He let us get hyped about her finally training to become a keyblade wielder, gave her a new outfit, and showed her willing and ready to fight in the Keyblade Graveyard and yet? Screwed all of us. I wasn’t expecting her to be a badass, but I was expecting her to be SOMETHING. I was really hoping she’d develop a personality and presence in this game, but she fell flat yet again because Nomura doesn’t know what to do with her. She literally only exists as a plot device and love interest for Sora (I’m not going to get into that here lol).

Also disappointed they hyped playable Riku, but it was only 2 times, for 2 battles and frankly switching between Sora’s magic command menu to Riku’s with no time to look through it and get accustomed to it other than during actual combat was a pain. Also sad Sora, Riku, or Kairi didn’t travel to ONE world together. Not one. I was hoping to have them in my party as least once, but nope. I’m generally disappointed in the lack of Destiny Island trio interactions. There were no moments between the 3 of them and there was no interaction between Riku and Kairi and barely any between Sora and Riku despite growing so close in DDD. It goes to show Nomura didn’t develop this ‘trio’ as well as the others.

Another problem I had were almost all the Organization members ended up… being ‘good after all’ or something. For over 10 years they gave no indication Luxord, Larxene, and Marluxia were nothing, but just evil just because and they had no feelings towards Sora other than a boy that was in their way, but once they start fading away for good it’s suddenly, ‘you’re a great person, Sora. Let’s meet again’ or in the case of Larxene, just giving Sora the time of day and actually talking to him civilly just felt so random to me. Including Xemnas. He suddenly revealed how he felt sorta bad for betraying the old organization members, but there was literally no hint of that before?? Idk, it just felt out of place. I was kinda cringing the whole time, haha. I’m actually surprised YX was the one that disappeared the most unremorseful for his (future) actions.

And then there was Xehanort, omg. He literally destroyed the lives of dozens of people, almost sent the world into the apocalypse, and had this grand scheme for the last 15+ years that he literally invested multiple lives to see fulfilled, but once his old bff Eraqus tells him ‘you’re done’, he went, ‘okay’. Lol wat? That’s it? I’m sure he knew he lost, but I expected more of a grumbling, complaining old man on the brink of death than just a nonchalant, ‘you done good kids’ while giving the x-blade to Sora with a damn smile on his face. I cringed. It all felt unfulfilling to me at that moment because X gave up too easily and was so OOC. I think Nomura just wanted to wrap up this story real quick and move on with his life.

And another thing! 3 didn’t go into Xehanort’s past. They gave us some cutscenes of X and Eraqus playing chess and flirting, but that’s it. When did their relationship change? What made Xehanort so obsessed with dark and light balancing? When did he meet Braig? What happened to Scala ad Caelum? Does it still exist? Like…. They didn’t go into X’s background AT ALL. I was really hoping to see more about his character.

Neutral feelings: I remember reading somewhere that 3 was supposed to be the longest game in the series, but I finished the game in about the same time as the others. So maybe they meant longest game gameplay wise and not story wise. On the plus side, there is a TON of stuff to do in this game like a bunch of mini games, cooking with Remy, finding lucky emblems, and exploring worlds after they’re completed. On the downside though, even just 10 more minutes of cutscenes could have helped the pacing in the later part of the game. The gameplay and story are imbalanced and they should have focused on solidifying the story rather than adding so many different gameplay elements. I honestly find them all overwhelming. I stopped trying to remember them all.

The Disney attraction rides. I don’t really have a like or dislike for these reaction commands. Good thing is that some are fun to see visually like the train and the tea cups (Sora is so dang cute in those teacups). Downside is some attractions don’t seem to fit with the heartless that activate them. For example: that shooting attraction ride is terrible with flying type heartless and yet I get that command a lot with them so it’s pointless. I never hit them.

This is a con for me, but maybe not for others. They closed a big chapter in the game, but kept a lot of plot points open too. I think my main problem with 3 was that I was hoping it would be more conclusive. Nomura made it seem like it was more conclusive. I already knew 3 wasn’t the end of the series as a whole, but you can still end a storyline with a definite conclusion while still being open to new adventures. 3 didn’t do that. They closed a bunch of chapters, but also left us with a lot of new questions.

Most of the voice acting is great in this game! Haley really delivered as Sora and I honestly think this was his best performance as him to date! It was genuine, totally cute, and fit Sora perfectly. You can tell he had a great time voicing this game. I also really enjoyed Larxene which is something for me because I felt her VA was trying too hard in CoM. She really improved in 3 and it was fun to watch her. On the other hand, the voices for Xehanort and Marluxia fell flat. Xehanort’s is just unfortunate and I don’t think anyone could have captured him as well as Nimoy did no matter how much they tried. Marluxia sounded like he belonged in an infomercial. Totally hated his voice.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #my thoughts #review

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burnouts3s3 · 6 years

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Kingdom Hearts 3, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously. Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Business Division 3 Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 59.99 USD Rated: E10+ for Alcohol Reference and Fantasy Violence How long I played: 24 Hours which includes watching the (skippable) cutscenes to complete the game on Beginner Mode, the easiest game mode. Microtransactions: None! Dual Audio: No. Only The English Dub is available. What I played on: A Regular PS4, not a PS4 Pro Performance Issues: Say what you will about Tetsuya Nomura’s writing, the graphics are as beautiful as the current generation can muster. Some pixilation of hair tip details. Choppy framerate animation of heartless during mass army scenes. Featured Worlds: Olympus (Hercules), Toy Box (Toy Story), The Kingdom of Corona (Tangled), Monstropolis (Monster’s Inc.), Arendelle (Frozen), The Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean), San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6) My Personal Biases: I’ve played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 to death but haven’t managed to beat the spin-off titles (358/2 Days, Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance) and mainly kept up with the series by watching the various cutscenes on Youtube. My Verdict: Kingdom Hearts 3 feels like a bookend, at least for certain characters. So while it closes off certain plot points for the spin-off characters, others are sure to get another decades worth of peripheral media thanks to Tetsuya Nomura’s convoluted and at times nonsensical storytelling. It’s also a great deal shorter than the previous games if you cut out the cutscenes. My fondness of watching Ratatouille’s Remy control Sora through a cooking mini-game notwithstanding, I wish there was more content here. Wait for a sale or the inevitable ‘Final Mix’. Kingdom Hearts 3, a review

The Kingdom Hearts franchise has managed to create numerous best-selling games across multiple platforms while weaving a tale that manages to incorporate characters from the Walt Disney Corporation and Square Enix into a narrative that deals with the enternal struggle of light and darkness. It also manages to have the most convoluted, overwritted and confusing storytelling to the point where George R.R. Martin would call overly complex. With the multiple mechanics, retcons, side stories, side characters and mixes and remixes, one would require an encyclopedia knowledge to keep everything straight. Tetsuya Nomura has managed the impossible of taking Disney characters and making spout paragraphs upon paragraphs of confusing exposition referencing other games that are almost necessary to gain any sort of emotional investment out of. I consider that an accomplishment considering this is a game where your two most frequent sidekicks are Donald Duck and Goofy. So after all the spin-offs, the side games, and the peripheral media with a decade in the making, this is “Kingdom Hearts 3”. So for those of you who haven’t kept up with the series, aka, normal human beings, Sora underwent a Trial but failed said Trial because he has not unlocked the power of Waking (Because this is Kingdom Hearts and in Kingdom Hearts, there’s always a convoluted reason why Sora is reset to Level 1). So Sora, Donald and Goofy have to visit various worlds so Sora can level up and also learn the power of Waking. Meanwhile, Riku and King Mickey are trying to find Aqua so she can find Ventus and Terra. Meanwhile, Kairi and Lea aka Axel are training under Master Yen Sid to become Keyblade masters. Meanwhile, Organization XIII are planning to unlock Kingdom Hearts yet again.

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If the following paragraph confused you, be prepared to get even more confused as various Organization XIII members appear, give vague and confusing exposition before disappearing. Tetsuya Nomura, when he isn’t giving his characters leather outfits with an overabundance of zippers, has managed to write entire scenes revolving around plot mechanics, metaphors come to life, time travel and retcons. I’m not one to judge but at the point where Mickey Mouse is expositing backstories, character motivations and plot mechanics to the audience, I began to wonder if the targeted audience was still children. Gameplay wise, the game hasn’t changed much from Kingdom Hearts 2. For the most part, you’ll still be defeating Heartless using the Keyblade and physical attacks. As you level up or defeat story bosses, you’ll unlock abilities you can equip with Ability Points (or AP). Just as well, meters such as Health Bars or Magic will also increase. Using Magic for spells such as Fire or Thunder will use up a portion of Magic Points (MP) while using Cure to heal yourself will use up all your MP. When all MP is used, a pink bar will be depleted over time before MP is restored. They even keep some gameplay elements from spin-off games. Pressing Square near a pole will make Sora spin and attack. Using the Focus bar, Sora and aim and shoot, unleashing multiple ranged attacks. Crafting is the same as usual for the Gummi ship and synthesizing items with the addition of finding ingredients for a delightful cooking mini-game with Ratatouille’s Remy. You can create food which Sora can consume for temporary Stat increases. Returning are character limit breaks and unison attacks with the Triangle button. Pressing Triangle will unleash a team attack that does extra damage. New to the game are the ‘attraction attacks’. Hitting an enemy with a green marker allows Sora to summon attraction rides (such as Splash Mountain or a Carousel) and does area attacks. I didn’t really like these elements because it felt like blatant advertising and often not very useful. Remember all those cool context commands from Kingdom Hearts 2, like reflecting Xigbar’s shards, lassoing Demyx’s clones or Jumping on Xaldin? Those are gone and all the commands are just party based. The only unique ones are locked with guest characters such as Rapunzel lassoing the trio and spinning them around. At the same time, I really felt that the Disney portion of the game, aka, visiting the various worlds, was really lacking. The choice of worlds this time around didn’t really entertain me. Using movies that were already in 3D CGI felt really redundant to me, though credit to where credit is due in that the worlds of Monsters Inc., Big Hero 6 and Toy Story at least take place after their movies have finished. But Arendelle and Corona take place ‘during’ the movies so I’m just sitting watching scenes wholy lifted from the movies themselves. Here, they just recreate whole scenes from Frozen and Tangled but with the in-game engine. And however you feel about those various movies (FYI, I like Frozen but I felt that Tangled was a missed opportunity), it just seems like a waste of resources. Like, watching Kingdom Hearts recreate Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare before Christmas, The Lion King, The Pirates of the Caribbean and Mulan felt ‘iconic’ because it was translating a work not found in CGI to CGI and it was a cool sight. Just recreating scenes from Frozen and Tangled aren’t as cool to me because those various movies were already similar to the animation styles found in the game. Just the same, I found the boss battles lacking this time around. Before you were fighting against villains in Disney’s past. You got to fight Captain Hook with Peter Pan. You got to fight Ursula with Ariel. You got to fight Scar with Simba. Here, you’re just fighting random Heartless only bigger. I was expecting to fight Hans with Elsa but… didn’t. I was expecting to confront Gothel with Rapunzel but… didn’t. The only boss fight with a Disney Villain was Davy Jones and I really liked it. Still when the final chapters roll around, I did feel a tear in my eye seeing various characters reunited and seeing various villains finally bite the dust. CAVEAT: Ugh. This is one of the most frustrating reviews I’ve done. Fact is, for a AAA title, Kingdom Hearts 3 does a lot of things better than a lot of games. There’s no tacked on DLC, there’s no constant online mode and there’s still a plethora of content that justifies 60 dollars. But, I just don’t like how much shorter the game is and how even revisiting the 7 worlds, the one I genuinely like was the Caribbean one (and I don’t even like Pirates of the Caribbean). Verdict: Fans: Full Price. Everyone else: Wait for a Sale, Rental or the inevitable ‘Final Mix’.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #elsa #anna #elsanna #square enix #disney #sora #kairi #goofy #donald #donald duck #tetsuya nomura

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whittertwitter · 6 years

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How I’d fix Kingdom Hearts III.

Bearing in mind that the issues I had with it were mostly story-related, namely: integration of the overarching plot into (some of the) Disney worlds, pacing, characterization, female characters getting sidelined, and threads left dangling. In terms of gameplay, I’d probably just tie Team Attacks and Attraction Flow to MP (or make Attraction Flow location-specific, like Reality Shift in 3D) and Formchanges to Focus, just so the player has to use them more strategically. I’d also make the Riku and Mickey scenes in the Realm of Darkness playable, or at least have more player input than they do.

First of all, I’d change Olympus to Agrabah. They used the first movie in the first game and Return of Jafar in II, so they really should have used King of Thieves in III. Since the whole reason for Sora going to Olympus in the first place (to gain the power of waking) doesn’t come into play until the end of the game anyway, I don’t see it as that big of a change. If you really need a reason for him to go there, I think either learning something from Aladdin as the diamond in the rough or from Genie adapting to being semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic could work. Axel will tag along to Agrabah because:

He went there on a lot of missions for the Organization, so he’s familiar with the world and won’t drag them down, plus he could learn a lot from Sora because...

I’ve decided that Axel should struggle to consistently summon his Keyblade, both to mirror Sora’s power of waking thing and to provide the Guardians of Light with incentive to rescue as many Keyblade wielders as possible just in case he doesn’t prove up to snuff.

I think there’s a good character study that could be done between Axel and Cassim, what with them both being charming roguish types who fell in with a bad crowd and struggle with breaking old habits.

I’d also introduce the New Seven Hearts concept here, with Sora and company realizing that Jasmine is no longer a Princess of Heart. From here, Axel’s still struggling, so Yen Sid sends him on a mission to confirm if any of the Princesses of Heart have retained their status; Axel visits Wonderland--or rather, the world Alice is actually from--and Beast’s Castle in cutscenes between worlds in Sora’s first world set, and probably encounters Xaldin in the latter world. (Xaldin replaces Xion as a Nort, because it’s still so weird that he’s got the pointy Nort ears after becoming a Nobody and as a Nobody is obsessed with negative emotions AND needs time to recover after being re-completed, but somehow isn’t a Nort?)

Meanwhile, Kairi isn’t in active Keyblade wielder training yet, but only because she’s at Radiant Garden, where Zexion is focusing on Namine first because it should be easier to untangle just one heart in another than three hearts in another, and Namine’s power over memories would sure come in handy. While she’s there, you could explore her childhood in Radiant Garden. (If her grandmother’s still alive, that’d be a touching reunion!) I’m leaning toward not having her be part of the New Seven Hearts, because going from having a heart of pure light to a normal heart with the capacity for darkness seems more interesting to me. (Aaand now I’m thinking about Master Xehanort taking advantage of that lack of experience with darkness and Norting Kairi instead of killing her. It’d make Sora less likely to fight, which is the opposite of what he wants, but damn it’s so much more compelling than what we got.)

For the first set of worlds, I’m pretty satisfied with how the overarching plot was integrated. However, in Kingdom of Corona, some things aren’t well-explained unless you’ve seen the movie, like Rapunzel suddenly having the crown back. For that one, Heartless/Nobodies could show up when Mother Gothel meets Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and she drops it while running away; Sora could give it back to Rapunzel and mention something about her mother looking for her. Also, I still think Mother Gothel should’ve knocked Marluxia out with the tree branch instead of his Reapers, lol.

Someone on Reddit made the suggestion to move rescuing Aqua and Ven to between the first and second world sets--possibly with fully playable Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure--and I absolutely love the idea. Others pointed out that it couldn’t work because they go to the Keyblade Graveyard after gathering all the Guardians of Light, which is why I suggest having Vanitas reawaken and assume control of Ven as soon as Sora returns Ven’s heart to his body.

Other cutscenes will have to be moved up to this point, including Vexen recruiting Demyx and the latter dropping off the completed Replica, which will now go to Namine while Zexion reverse-engineers one for Roxas. (Or not; Namine’s entire existence is pretty weird, so she might be able to generate her own body after her heart is untangled from Kairi’s, leaving the Replica to Roxas.) Regardless, Namine is now awake and starts work on freeing Roxas and Xion; Axel is now capable of consistently summoning his Keyblade, so he and Kairi start training under Riku and Mickey; Sora and company possibly revisit Twilight Town, just so we can get that first world revisit that was in the first game, II, and 3D; and Aqua recovers from ten years in the Realm of Darkness plus having Ven snatched out from under her nose, then gives Riku and Mickey a hand with training.

Monstropolis won’t change too much, though Sora and company now knowing who Vanitas is and having beef with him will impart a different tone. As for Arendelle...Larxene needs to interact with people besides Sora and company, like trying to bully Anna into giving up on Elsa or taunting Hans and turning him into a Heartless; Sora and company need to go to places besides the North Mountain; and there need to not be random out of place musical numbers. Since the 100 Acre Wood was even more of a minigame hub than usual and didn’t actual adapt the plot of Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, I propose cutting it in favor of a Wreck-It Ralph world, with the arcade being one of Scrooge’s many business ventures in Twilight Town; Xigbar would actually be a great Nort if the world needs one, since going Turbo kinda reminds me of Luxu body-surfing through the ages. (While I’m on the subject, I’d replace Ralph and Stitch with Jack Skellington and Tron, that way Sora has all the party members from past worlds that required a change in appearance as Links; Simba would be obtained in Agrabah, Dream Eaters in Toy Box, Jack Skellington in Monstropolis, and Tron in San Fransokyo, and I’m leaning toward Tron being in his Tron: Legacy form.)

For The Caribbean, its biggest problem comes down to the audience already knowing that the chest of Davy Jones isn’t the box the Organization is looking for, so it feels like a waste of time; Sora and company barely having any impact on the plot doesn’t help. Having them actually interact with characters besides Jack would help. I’d also have Beckett play a larger role and Luxord turn him into a Heartless. I thought it was an odd choice to have Dark Riku show up in San Fransokyo instead of the Riku Replica or Data-Riku and make it seem like he’s time traveling (UGH) from when Ansem possessed him...only to have it be a Replica anyway! So yeah, I’d probably change that to Data-Riku in a Replica to make the Bug Blox from Coded showing up actually matter, and I’d have Vexen supervising him instead of faffing about in The Caribbean.

At this point, Zexion and Namine have finally succeeded in getting Roxas free, but are still working on Xion. However, since they now have seven Guardians of Light, the decision is made to rest up and prepare for the Keyblade War, as in canon. I’m keeping the scene with Axel and Saix before the final battle but cutting out the bit about them becoming apprentices to save their heretofore unknown female friend, because it’s just a blatant retcon; Nomura confirmed in an interview after BBS that they were just ordinary kids who got caught up in the Heartless experiments.

As for the final battle itself, my thoughts are much more scattered as of right now, besides Kairi not getting fridged of course. I like blackosprey’s idea of moving Sora’s little jaunt in The Final World to after the boss rush of Norts but before Scala ad Caelum. Since Xaldin’s taking Xion’s place as a Nort, it’ll be Saix who’s tasked with killing Axel and hesitates; Zexion and Namine get Xion free just in time for her to possess the discarded Replica and make the save. I'd prefer Terranort be re-completed after you defeat Ansem and Xemnas instead of being a Nort from the get-go, or have him around from the get-go instead of Ansem and Xemnas, because him existing at the same time as the Wonder Twins is only possible thanks to time travel bullshit. (Same with Master Xehanort, for that matter, but he’s harder to work around. Unless you have Young Xehanort pulling the strings for most of the game, fight him after Ansem and Xemnas and/or Terranort, and only fight Master Xehanort in Scala ad Caelum?) And if they’re going to bring up Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene’s connection to the mobile game, the least they could do is have dead people close to them besides Strelitzia hanging out in The Final World, giving out exposition tidbits.

Also: I know Nomura said this was just going to be the end of the Xehanort Saga, but I really feel this game should’ve retired Sora as well. Part of the reason the ending left me unsatisfied is because Sora doesn’t get any closure, and I know it’s because they want us to keep buying these games, but if they try, they can easily make us care just as much about a new protagonist. Maybe even, horror of horrors, a female one!

So yeah, those are my thoughts on how to improve KHIII! Several days after I said I’d post them. Maybe before the next ice age, I can work up the motivation to post about my series-wide KH rewrite, lol.

#kingdom hearts #khiii spoilers #kingdom hearts rewrite

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