#yes why would i want a detailed ship combat game in my MAGIC SPACE PIRATE setting?

[tlaquetzqui]

Anyone care to place bets that the 6th or 7th Edition of D&D, in a decade or two, is just a lot of fluff to disguise the fact the game has become “I shot you, fall down!” “Nuh-uh!” and the DM just sides with whichever they like better? For the last five years or so Wizards has been getting closer and closer to “there is no rule except Rule Zero (‘GM has final say’)”.

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews Kingdom Hearts III

Kingdom Hearts III, a title that many fans have been waiting to get their hands on for 13 years. Granted, it’s been 7 years since an installment into the series, but it’s been this one that fans have really been waiting for.  Now that it’s here, many fans are combing through every inch of the game to find how the Dark Seeker saga will come to a close. Now, when it came to reviewing the other games in the Kingdom Hearts series, I tried to avoid spoilers best I could, sometimes it was unavoidable and other times it was. For the purposes of Kingdom Hearts III, I’m going to go into full spoilers. I’m going to spoil the previous games, I’m going to spoil this one and yes, I will also be talking about the ending as well.

“But Biscuit, how can I avoid the spoilers from your review?” I hear you asking. Well it’s easy. Normally I would have a “Keep Reading” link shortly after the intro of review, but this go around I’m going to put it right before I get to the spoilers so you can go through your feed or the tag if you just want my thoughts on game itself as well have a brief description of the plot. I’ll throw in another reminder for when spoilers are coming.

Score wise is going to be different as well as I’m going to be displaying my score for the game before I get into the spoilers. I do want to mention that said spoilers do have an impact on the score so if you’re wondering why the game is scored as is, you’ll find more details in the spoiler section of the review.

The game begins right where Dream Drop Distance left off, with Sora going to Olympus Coliseum to not only continue his training to obtain the “Power of Waking” to save Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, as well as stop Xehanort from starting plunging the universe into darkness. This opens up with not Kingdom Hearts III, but rather “Kingdom Hearts 2.9” because I guess Square had to get one last joke in on how long fans had to wait until Kingdom Hearts III proper.

Many of the Disney worlds you’ll travel too actually revolve around the CGI Disney movies and Pixar movies. You’ll travel to worlds featuring: Toy Story, Tangled, Frozen, Monsters Inc., and Big Hero 6. Returning worlds include the previously mentioned Olympus Coliseum, Twilight Town, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

As far as the art style goes, I’ve been vocal on not being the biggest fan with it. I’m still not. Although it complimented the majority of Disney worlds, it still clashes with the Caribbean, but it’s not as jarring as it was in Kingdom Hearts II, it’s still obvious and bad though with a clearly anime looking Sora interacting with realistic people. But, what is perhaps the most jarring of them all is the Olympus Coliseum. Hercules was not meant to be a CGI-esque model and it shows. With the art style of the previous game and the movie proper. The look of Hercules was able to compliment everything to keep a cartoonish look. Now, everything just looks like oddly shaped, realistic blobs.

Like all previous entries in the series, each of these Disney worlds has its own story and problems that Sora will help solve. Some are an abridged version of their respective Disney films, or a new original story within that world. I found that I had preference of the worlds that had their own story, this included: Toy Story, which took place between the events of Toy Story 2 and 3; Monsters Inc., which took place after the first film; Big Hero 6 which takes place after the movie and actually has Sora help Hiro deal with something that occured at the end of the film, something that I hope does become canon if the Big Hero 6 sequel does go into production; Olympus Coliseum to some extent retold the ending of Hercules, but there was enough events altered to where it could have been its own story; finally, Pirates of the Caribbean, although the events of the world take place during “At World’s End” Sora is not actually present for the majority of those events, in fact he’s mostly fighting a member of Organization XIII as the events of the movie play out away from Sora.

Other worlds, such as Tangled and Frozen, told abridged versions of their films. I found that both these worlds did good retellings as both incorporated elements of the main Kingdom Hearts story to keep it interesting. My only complaint is the Tangled world, Sora actually doesn’t contribute to the films events. He’s just simply in the background watching the events be played out. Nothing he does changes anything, unlike the Frozen world where Sora’s presence does cause an alteration in the films events.

The world design was a bit of a mixed bag. You had some worlds that truly felt like a a big world, Toy Story, Big Hero 6, and Pirates of the Caribbean are prime examples of this. Then, you had the rest of the worlds which were nothing but a giant hallway with Disney decorations. It was a bit disappointing that Square took that direction when they could have done so much more.

So what about the combat, the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts III. Like the other numbered entries, it’s great. We got a taste of it in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 and I really loved the little bits that was shown in that game, regular attacks, special attacks, grand magic, it’s all in Kingdom Hearts III and it still feels really great to just fly around in the air or glide around the battlefield hitting things with your Keyblade.

Some Heartless enemies now have elemental weaknesses that can hinder them in battle giving a little layer of strategy in your fights, but not very much, that’s the only thing you’re going to really be keeping in mind when you fight.

There’s also a new summoning ability known as “Attraction Flow Summon” where you can summon a Disney World inspired ride to do some serious damage. Some are better than others, but overall I actually liked them. Regular summons are also available in the game and their fine for the most part, but you won’t really find much of a use for them like in Kingdom Hearts II, it’s just an ability that’s there. One of my favorite new additions is how drive forms are handled. It’s not Sora that changes, but rather his Keyblade as it takes a form of a different weapon that has additional properties that can unleash devastating finishing moves after filling up the hit meter.

The Gummi ship also makes a return and this is perhaps my favorite approach to the Gummi ship. It made the worlds feel like their own planet and the Universe more expansive driving you to explore space as you fly through it shooting Heartless and collecting prizes. Approaching a world feels amazing as you approach a giant place that feels like you’re about to step on another unique planet.

Now, there’s something that Kingdom Hearts has always been known for, the secret bosses. These bosses always challenged your knowledge of spells, game mechanics, and reaction speed. In the case of Kingdom Hearts III, there’s only one secret boss, Dark Inferno, and it’s not hard. In fact, you don’t even have to be max level with the Ultima Weapon to even stand somewhat of a chance to face this boss. I was level 55 when I faced this boss and although I did die a few times it wasn’t because of lack of level, but rather reacting to an attack at the wrong moment. There’s no unique difficult Heartless, no Sephiroth battle, no extra Final Fantasy character battles, no Data battles, no extra Disney villain fights, no extra boss to tease the future of the series, nothing and it feels really lacking compared to previous entries. Granted the original vanilla versions of Kingdom Hearts I and II, didn’t have that many extra boss fights, they still had a few challenge bosses for those that wanted to prove themselves.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of side content, there is, it’s just the extra combat side content is severely lacking in terms of challenge and variety and that was one of my favorite side activities in Kingdom Hearts was attempting them. Again, if you haven’t finished the game and don’t want story spoilers. My score is this:

Kingdom Hearts III receives a 2 out of 5

Keep in mind that the story did have an impact on my final score so click on the “Keep Reading” link for the story discussion to see what else contributed to the score.

I hated the story.

There were some great touching moments, but overall I did not like how many of the events played out. The first issue I had was Vexen. He did something that many people will see as a break in character. He’s always been a seeker of knowledge and has been willing to gain it no matter the cost. However, we see that suddenly, we wants to atone for his actions when the story approaches it’s climax. Granted it does get explained why the sudden shift happens in a Secret Report, which you won’t be able to get until you beat the game, it’s still a jarring shift. One that could have easily been dispelled if we saw a scene of Vexen going through that change.

Then we have the Black Box that Maleficent and Pete are looking for for the entire game. Sora and the gang know that Maleficent is trying to do this, and knowing that she’s looking for an item that could potentially grant her power. So what does Sora do? He just ignores them the entire game. What’s in the box? Who knows, the game didn’t bother telling us, it only used the Black Box to tease the future of the series.

Next is the fight with Aqua, or Anti-Aqua if you will. This was perhaps an emotionally charged fight for me. The scene preceding the fight and the fight itself was perhaps the most emotionally charged moment in the entire game. You have Sora, who wants nothing but to save Aqua from her despair and depression. As you’re fighting Aqua, you hear her whisper during the fight. “I wandered the shadows endlessly, no one ever came.” “I waited for so long.” “You shouldn’t have abandoned me.”

Although this may have just been a cool fight with emotions on high, there is a deeper meaning to this fight, rather it be intentional or not and that is how this can be an allegory of battling depression and abandonment. When depressed, we might often stew in our self created darkness, possible blaming circumstances or people for putting us on this state. Sora, Riku and Mickey in this case, represent the light to help you out of that depression as they have ventured in that darkness to help get you out of it. As for the abandonment, again Sora, Riku, and Mickey, showing that she was not abandoned, as they were looking for a way to help her the entire time.  Again, I’m not sure if this was intentional on Nomura’s part, but it does give the fight a more impactful meaning outside of the core story.

Another enjoyable moment was a scene that I’m sure many people, including myself have been waiting on for years and that Sora and Kairi having their moment. Before the final battle, they exchange some heartfelt words and do something that has been teased since Kingdom Hearts I, share a paopu fruit. This small scene has been building up for years and to finally have this moment delivered did make the wait worth it.

Next, is the concept of death. Kingdom Hearts has always been a series that has been a bit of an enigma when it came to death. That’s not say death has happened in the series, for it has, see Master Eraqus in Birth by Sleep and Strelitzia in Kingdom Hearts Union X. The series established that just because someone loses their heart, doesn’t mean that they themselves die, rather a piece of themselves is lost until it’s found again. Kingdom Hearts takes the concept of death and basically just burns the book, throw it out the window and take away any impact it could have had to the overall story.

That’s right, I’m talking about Kairi’s “death”.

Before we get into that, I want to talk about the Final World. This world, is essentially the afterlife. Keyblade wielders find themselves here if their heart and body have been destroyed in a state that they cannot return. However, Sora was able to break out of the afterlife because of Kairi’s power, which in turn allowed him to use the Power of Waking to revive his friends who also died for them to continue their fight with Xehanort.

When Xehanort struck Kairi down to where she was completely obliterated, this not only shocked me that Nomura was willing to do this to one of the core three, but also how it impacted Sora. He wanted nothing more but to defeat Xehanort and to avenge Kairi. This could have been a powerful moment that stayed rooted in the final entry of the Dark Seeker saga. However, after defeating Xehanort, Sora begins a new journey, to save Kairi.

Because of the connection Sora and Kairi share, Sora believes he can use the Power of Waking to bring Kairi back, however it comes at the cost of Sora himself. Everyone even warns Sora that he’s abusing the power and will disappear if he brings Kairi back. This would make sense as Kairi’s Heart and Body have been obliterated to a state that she cannot return. But hey, Sora discovered he can use the power of waking to go into the afterlife to revive people and you know what, that’s what he does. He goes to the afterlife, revives Kairi and then disappears for abusing the power. Doing this to me ruined the impact this moment could have potentially left for the finale of the Dark Seeker saga.

There is however one more point I would like to discuss with the story before finally closing this review. How the story felt.

I felt it was half baked. I think Nomura wanted to move on to a different idea he had for the series, but he couldn’t as he had to conclude the Dark Seeker Saga first. It’s partly why I feel Kingdom Hearts III is rather empty, because I don’t think Nomura’s heart was in the conclusion. I feel he only did this to finish the story and to give the fans the title they wanted, Kingdom Hearts III. A good portion of Kingdom Hearts III, even sets pieces up for the future of the series, rather than act as a wrap up. Which is fine, if you want a loose thread to have the idea and possibility for a sequel open, but I felt Nomura didn’t give Kingdom Hearts III his all and felt restricted with what he could do, because he couldn’t tell the story he really wanted. Again, I don’t know Nomura, I’m not in the guys head, but to me that’s what it felt like.

As for me, I think this is where my journey will end for the series. I don’t see myself following this series anymore and I’ll probably let the new generation of fans inherit the series. It was fun while it lasted and I’ll most likely continue to play the previous entries of the series, but the future entries, I think I’ll pass.

Thank you all for sharing this journey with me. The core gameplay is enjoyable and although there are some wonky bits, it’s a still a good game for long time fans of the series, just not the grand finale that I’m sure many people were hoping for and expecting. The score was something I was wrestling with for awhile, but at the end of the day, I feel that this is what I would give it.