vgwriter

[vgwriter]

There is a special place in hell for game devs that make quests the depend on rng

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It's always fun to see let's players try to go through Kingdom Hearts all the way through and get fatigued by the end of 1.

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Honestly, it's gotten pretty bad over the last decade

Gamers! Rise up!

Reddit

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Metro Exodus: A Review

The End of a Trilogy

The Metro series is based off of the books by Dmitry Glukhovsky, with each game set in the world of Metro 2033 (the book) and at times, having Glukhovsky writing them. Metro 2033 came out in 2010 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and was met with critical praise for its setting and horror aspects. Last Light came out in 2013 and built on 2033, adding better graphics and AI. Last Light was one of my favorites on the 7th generation. Exodus came out in February and took the series in drastically different direction. The complex and narrow Metro is traded in for large maps and non-linear missions. The changes are handled well by 4A. This game still brings great tension and story to the FPS genre but unfortunately still has bugs that have persisted through the entire series.

The Good

*SPOILERS*

#1-The Story

4A does something that not a lot of developers do when they make a modern FPS: they focus on the story. Exodus is the third installment of the Metro game continuity but it doesn't really build on the previous two, which were focused on the Dark Ones. Instead, it takes the story in a new direction with exploration outside Moscow and into Russia. The game explores several themes and ideologies with its story including religious extremism, slavery, the inherent violence and love in humanity. The player follows Artyom, his wife Anna, her father Col. Miller, and a half dozen Spartans as they go through nuked out Russia in search of a new home. They pick up a few people as the game goes on as well.

The story starts out with Artyom wanting to explore the outside world in hopes that there are people in it. Everyone says he is crazy but it turns out he is right and they steal a train to go explore Russia. They go to a marsh and pick up a nurse and her kid and one of the soldiers hits on her by making her tell him if her daughter knew her father was dead... it's really a touching scene. They get married later but Anna ruins it by coughing really loudly because she fell down into a toxic bunker two chapters ago (somehow no one saw her sickness coming). Then Artyom and Miller have to go and find her medicine all while Miller and Anna give Artyom back handed compliments or saying this all his fault for getting them kicked out of the Metro. They think they've found a home but turns out it's controlled by Petra Pan and the Lost Boys and Girls. Then they finally get the medicine and the ending depends on how the player played the game. It's not an original story by any stretch and has some dips in execution but coupled with the enviroments, it is a good enough story to warrant another post-apocalyptic setting in a rapidly saturating genre.

Now, there are a few big plot decisions that effect how the story plays out with the morality mechanic in this game. Basically, if the player kills people and does stuff that people normally do in a FPS game, they get the bad ending. If Artyom is just a sneaky little Russian, the crew stays together and they all live happily ever after. Well, kind of, it is a Russian story after all. Pretty simple choices but they do change the tone of the game considerably and for that I will give 4A props on making in game decisions matter.

The dialogue can be a little iffy at times and there are some parts that are roughly translated (Miller uses his Russian name instead of his Anglicized name during one scene) but each character is their own person and brings a great voice to the ensemble. My personal favorites were Anna and Nastya. Over all, the game tells an effective and gripping story of people trying to survive a moralless wasteland and remain the honest people they were before.

#2-Maps and Enviroment

The story is broken up in to 4 large maps with smaller train sections linking the travel to them. It's actually a great move and a refreshing change of pace from all the gigantic map games that have come out recently. The first two maps are just large enough to warrant not having a fast travel system while still making exploration interesting. The other maps in the game are more linear in design with the first and last map being down in the Metro again. This variety in maps keeps the game fresh and makes each area refreshing and interesting instead of an over used chore.

Where this game really shines is the enviroments. Each map feels completely brand new, with very few reused assets like in many other open world games (especially western). Each level seems fully realized and lived in as the player and Artyom pass through areas that feel like someone else's home. The best thing is that each level feels this way. In terms of enviroment, there are no dips in quality in any of the chapters. Each level has this realistic level of destruction and a shared struggle to survive that seeps into every corner of the game. The place where this really lifts this game up is the last level, Dead City. Without the enviroment, the story really wouldn't have landed well with its obvious forshadowing and unoriginal overarching story. The desolation of the city and constant danger everywhere do a great job of putting the player in Artyom's mind with his anxiety and desperation in trying to save Anna. The enviroments throughout the entire game lift up the psychological undercurrents of the characters and really put this game on an artistic level despite its other problems.

#3-Weapons and Customization

The weapons in Metro are the best kind of customizable in that the options the player makes for what weapons and how they customize them actually matter. There are five kinds of weapons: revolver, shotguns, rifles, sniper, and special. The specials are the air rifle and crossbow (there is also a railgun but I never figured out how to equip it). Each have different positives and negatives to them and feel different to play with in game. The customization is also diverse with each gun having different parts that the player can find out in the world. Unlike other games where the player must find several different components or blueprints (looking at you Andromeda and Fallout), 4A just gives the player the customization if they find it. It provides a great utility in the game without focusing on it, which is how customization should be.

The Bad

#1-The Combat

It is clear that 4A's focus on this game was stealth. The character is slow, the aiming for PS4 is absolutely terrible even after trying to tweak it, and the enemies are super shifty. All of this adds up to a bad combat experience. I can't count the number of times I just said "f*** it" after failing to hit the same guy 3 times only to discover that Artyom was caught in a corner of two inch ledges. This games combat is severely unpolished and makes the otherwise great game difficult to play for bad reasons. When compared to other fps's like Far Cry 5, this game feels definitively last generation. It's like the Crash Bandicoot of fps, really precise shooting on imprecise controls (don't @ me cause you know it's true). This really sapped the fun out of the game.

#2-The Clingy Map

I mentioned this in the last paragraph but the enviroment is not fun to move through. Artyom sticks to everything. There were times when playing this that I would try to be sneaking and come across a small step that I had to get over and couldn't. I had to jump and when I did the enemies who I was sneaking from would discover where I was instantly. They also messed up going down stairs, even though I'm pretty sure they discovered that technology in 2004. When Artyom "walks" down the stairs, he keeps his forward momentum and goes in an arch over the stairs he is "walkig" over. The maps do have a great feel about them but they are not fun to walk around and that really hurts this games replayability for me.

#3-Unpolished, Epic Games, and Bad Camp Design

I've heard and seen all sorts of bugs on the PC version but the PS4 has no shortage of bad glitches either. My very first shot, the first time I ever fired a gun in the game, it didn't make a sound. That sadly set the tone for the whole game. Each chapter was more frustrating than fun and that was caused for a number of reasons but all of them could go under the umbrella of unpolished game design. There have been several recorded game breaking glitches or the AI just acting real dumb. Aside from that the game is an exclusive on PC for Epic Games. Normally I don't concern myself with PC master race bullsh*t but Epic Games has some very shady business practices on a platform that has a great storefront in Steam. Sadly, this does effect the overall game for consumers and that is why I mention it in my review.

The last bad thing I'll mention is the camp conversation interface, or lackthereof. The characters just start talking and they never seem to stop. Being raised in a polite household has taught me to never walk away when someone is talking to me and this game made me rethink my entire upbringing. The conversations are okay but they are sooooo slow and there is no way to control them at all. They just talk to you and it is honestly annoying, easy to ignore but still annoying.

The Non-ESRB Rating

This is tough to give but Metro Exodus is a 2/5. While I love this game for everything that it adds, it is just more of a hassle to play than fun. The combat and general unpolishedness of the game are what really sink this game for me. I really hate that it does this too because the story and enviroments are really cool and enrich the story so much. The tension in the game is real and the map design is refreshing with its variety and design depth. This game had so much potential but it just feels wasted on such a buggy and unpolished product.

[vgwriter]

The saddest part about EA Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 is that the games look incredible. They are by far the prettiest Star Wars games but they are also some of the worst.

[vgwriter]

Breath of the Wild: A Review

A Little History

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out in 2017 to universal acclaim and helped to successfully launch the Nintendo Switch. While that is far from a surprise, (the Zelda series is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful franchises of all time) Breath of the Wild does take the series in a much different direction. It's focus is almost completely on exploration and is the most nonlinear of the series. It is the second biggest jump the series has made outside of going 3D. So, does it work? Well, the rest of the world and their mother seem to think so but here's my take on this game.

What I Loved

*SPOILERS*

#1-A Story to Remember

It seems odd to focus on the story when the game doesn't but behind the vast world and great characters is a subtle yet amazingly well executed story. The player finds Link in a DBZ healing pod after he is just awakened from a hundred year slumber of healing. He is told by the disembodied voice of British Zelda to defeat Calamity Ganon but wait, there's more! Turns out Link has amnesia from the fight he had 100 years ago trying to protect Zelda. After obtaining the Sheikah Slate (the games multi-tool), the player discovers there are photos Zelda locked in the Slate to help Link recover his memory. This is how the story is unfolded for the player. The struggles of the Five Champions and Princess Zelda are seen through flashbacks that explain how Hyrule went to sh*t. It is a simple and traditional method but it is effective when coupled with the games minimalist piano soundtrack and isolated atmosphere. It gives a heartbreaking insight into just how lonely and broken this version of Hyrule is and how much Link and the others lost.

#2-The Puzzles

The games dungeons are split up into two catagories: shrine and divine beasts. The shrines are smaller and have a variety of challenges in their 120 locations while the devine beasts are 4 large challenges with several moving parts. Most shrines are designed to be easy to follow but still make the player feel creative. This feeling of creativity stems from the developers themselves that made each level doable in multiple ways. Each dungeon is designed to test the players use of the games mechanics, the player can play it how it was designed or try to tackle it from another angle. One example from my personal playthrough was using a bomb arrow to light fire because I couldn't figure out how to light a torch through a gate. It worked but probably not the way it was designed to. While not every shrine has a variety of ways to solve them (mostly the trial by combat shrines), they are all intriguing challenges designed with fun in mind and feel rewarding when completed. The divine beasts are a similar story with a few minor details. The player must first find the map of the dungeon and then go about reclaiming terminals to free the divine. The map is a 3D rendering of the dungeon with an interactive portion that moves key parts of the beast around. This was a great design choice because it challenges the player to think of the dungeon as a moving puzzle and to consider how moving the pieces will help them advance to the boss.

#3-The World and Character Design

To say the world is stunning is an understatement. The design of the enviroment feels so natural to explore and interact with that finding Koroks is like spoting cognitive distortion in a high school drop outs racist rant on Facebook. I usually find map towers annoying in games like Assassin's Creed but in BOTW they are better integrated into the games exploration. Some towers are actually challenging to climb if Link doesn't have enough stamina or if the player just throws him onto a tower without looking for enemies first. They are like little challenges all their own and it is a great take on something that has been bland and stale since it was first introduced (to me at least) in AC1. Outside of the towers is the vast world that pulls the player into it with rewarding exploration in cute and helpful ways. The shrines are an obvious reason to explore but there are also Koroks, fun and unique side quests, and just cool stuff to find as well. The variety and density of things to do justifies the games gigantic map. It is one of the few games to live up to the idea of an open-world and keep it interesting throughout a 100 hour playthrough.

The art design, oh my cel shaded god, it's amazing. I'm not gonna pretend like I'm some art history major but the regional designs do some pretty interesting things with the enviroment. The five peoples in Hyrule have all appeared in previous titles but have been tweaked in some way for BOTW. The Gorons have a theme of raw strength throughout their entire section of the map, from their weapons to the steel planks on the streets of Goron City. The Rito's design is more centered on their freedom and ability to fly with the entire settlement resembling a nest. Seriously, everything has feathers. The Zora have an elegance in everything they own from the large city built from one large carving to the silver weapons. The Gerudo seem to be a shell of their former selves like the Hylians with ruins surrounding their two settlements. Their quality in construction and bejewelment of everything that shines shows what matters most to them, beauty and effectiveness. The Hylian design is European with a mix of far east in certain pockets. Hyrule castle is a great dungeon that actually lives up to the title of castle. Kakariko village is a weird area that doesn't fit into the Hylian design but c'mon, you can't go wrong with far eastern architecture. Each region has its own design that both fit its surroundings and its people and feels natural, like the people and land are truly living together. It's impressive that Nintendo was able to pull that off because it is not easy to do.

The characters are simply iconic, mostly. The four champions don't get a lot of screen time but they use what they have effectively. Daruk is a stubborn strong man with a great admiration for strength and brotherhood. Mipha is the white mage of the group with a thing for Link (which I prefer to Zelda). Revali is the arrogent prick of the group that comes around eventually. Urbosa is basically the group mom, being the most mature out of everyone. Each of these characters are simple but fill their role effectively and are all quite likeable (even Rivali). Their present day counterparts aren't as memorable though. I mean, outside of Sidon. Sidon makes me feel like I can do anything just by smiling. But everyone else I had to look up for this review. Yunobo is some shy kid that finally lives up to his potential. Teba is a proud warrior but really not that memorable. Riju comes close to being memorable but I still had to look her up. Outside of the champions and their descendents, Kilton made an impression on me. The Bolson company had one of my favorite quests and some of the funnier cutscenes. Each side quest character has that quaint old fashioned rpg vacuum writing. They all live in their own world and interact with Link for one reason.

Overall, the characters and how they interact with the enviroment are what make this game a masterpiece. The mechanics and story are what make it a great game but the world design is that extra step where most great games stumble to me.

#4-The Combat

The combat is simple but has a multitude of uses against the games enemies. Link has three moves: attack, shield, and shoot. Everything beyond this simple moveset depends on how the player equips Link or uses the Slate Ruins. If an enemy is mostly ice, fire weapons are super effective and vice versa. Thunder disarms anyone, including Link. It gets better than simple elemental weapons. If you bring a cucco to a battle and an enemy hits that cucco, a swarm of bird will rain hell on that unassuming bokoblin. Seriously, that alone gives this a 5/5! Also, the enviroment can be used as a weapon if it's set up correctly. If Link fells a tree and lines up the path right, it will attack the enemies. There is just so much to do in this game and it all works off of three simple actions. Perfect.

#5-Misc.

Some other things that stood out enough to mention but not enough to make a paragraph. The crafting is useful and not intrusive. Link can buy a house, which is always fun. The outfits are all great designs and useful in their respective enviroment. There are throwback outfits from previous titles (mostly through amiibos) and that is always cool. Zelda became a scholar and that was a great take, not just on Zelda but on the idea of fictional princesses in general. Link can cut grass. The variety of weapons is astounding. Oh, and uh, all this fits on a small little card no bigger then the last knuckle of my thumb.

What I Didn't Like

#1-The Weapons Fragile Weaponinity

The weapons break way too easy. That's it. That is the only thing I have to complain about this game. That shouldn't be all I have to complain about. I should have two more points to make at least but I don't. Nintendo has made a masterpiece.

The Score

This game shouldn't exsist, it's too good. The gameplay is simple but versatile. The enviroment is peaceful and relaxing while also being desolate and dangerous and this makes it fun to explore. The story and the enviroment fit so well together and compliment each other every time they connect. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 5/5 and the definitive way to make open-ended games.

[vgwriter]

WOMEN’S DAY

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My Reviewing Philosophy

What They Do

In the words of the one and only Video Game Dunkus "Video game critics suck a**!" and he's not wrong. Look at any of the big name publishers and you'll see what's wrong with them.

They have too many writers to start. IGN has like 30 and they are completely different people with their own opinions and preferences in video games. One person who doesn't like platformers is probably not the best person to review a new platformer.

They also don't give their reviewers enough time to actulally review the game. Take RDR2, Polygon released a review the day it came out. Now, they probably had an early release copy but still, even one week is not enough to really sink into a game as big as RDR2 and then write a detailed review. I've played through it twice and continue to find new and fun things as I go along. It's like review a meal that you scarfed down in an minute.

Where does the money go? If you look at IGN, Polygon and the likes you'll notice that a bunch of their ads are from game developers. To take money from someone and then claim to be writing unbiased reviews is more than a little shady to me. That is my biggest complaint that I have but there is also another thing that if true, really grinds my gears. I saw a Reddit thread where a former game reviewer said their editor wouldn't play the game or read the review but would actually grade the game anyway. It would make sense of the fact that absolutely terrible games have 7/10 on horrible games like Mass Effect Andromeda.

My philosophy is in direct opposition to big reviewers. I want to be upfront with what I enjoy so you know my tastes. I take my time with every game I review and opinion piece I put out. And lastly, no one is ever going to pay me to do this, like ever. My goals and methods are choosen in order to make a fair reviewing process that gives you, the reader, a real look into the game before you buy it.

What I Do

To start with, I enjoy storybased games, 3D platformers, relaxing games in the vein of Stardew Valley, and open world exploration. I am so-so on fps games, puzzle games and strategy games. I cannot stand fighting games or games that are mostly online (like Street Fighter or newer CODs). I rate from a 0-5 scale, 5/5 being literally perfect with fun in everything the player does, 4/5 one of the best of all time with alot of fun, 3/5 had it's problems but fun was kinda there, 2/5 terrible and a majority of the game has problems and fun is feeling a little awkward, 1/5 is broken at its core and fun is dead in a corner, and 0/5 is broken in all aspects with absolutely no sign of fun anywhere. I hope this keeps you informed on what kind of reviewer I am and that you come back to view my content as I expand my blog.

[vgwriter]

Red Dead Redemption 2: A Review

The Good

Red Dead Redemtion 2 came out last October to a grand opening. It is certainly an instant classic and further cemented Rockstars reputation as one of the few AAA developers to make truly AAA worthy games. But, is this game really that flippin' fantastic?

spoilers

#1-The Story

This games biggest strength has got to be its story. Arthur's redemption and how it conflicts with Dutch's Micah fueled descent into madness is what anchors the main storyline. There are many moving parts within these two opposing forces that sometimes overlap and other times occur almost as in a vacuum. What makes it brilliant is that each mission and camp scene reveals something new about the characters involved, unfolds more of who they think they are and who they really are. It is a difficult thing to do for two pages, let alone a 60 hour game but somehow Rockstar pulled it off. The side content (or stranger missions) also all fit in to the story and expand characters for the player. Whether helping Mary or robbing with Micah, the player always learns more about Arthur and the people involved and to me, it's fascinating. Within the story there are important themes that are masterfully explored. To name a few: Obviously, the idea of redemption plays a huge role in the games plot but I think it has an equal partner in the question of can someone really change? or do they just become more of who they were? The comparison of the two ideas is played out beautifully with Dutch and Arthur. There is also the clashing of ideologies, with Dutch and his gang being anarchist facing a rapid expasion of civilisation. And of course, the dying out of the old west outlaw comes in with the theme of change which graces every character and mission in this game.

#1.5-The Characters

In the end, this game hinges on it's characters. Every member of the gang is their own person with their own reasons for riding with Dutch and their own desires driving them in life and this makes for an exceptional game. Now, every character is great but there a few who stand out to me that really make the game shine. Arthur is a complex fellow whose moral compass is a bit of roulette wheel due to game design but no matter how you play the story it is clear that he thinks of the gang as his family and Dutch as his father. Speaking of Dutch, he is also an exceedingly complex character whose goals and ambitions come to define him and shape him into the man we see in Red Dead Redemption. Charles is a good man whose situation is defined by his heritage and skin color rather than his own actions; he is by far the most likable member of the gang. We see John Marston go from a childish manboy who never takes responsibilty to the family man trying to bury his past. Sadie Adler (oh boy), while I don't like when seemingly pedestrian characters go from hunting housewife to gang killing badass, I gotta admit, Sadie did grow on me. Her transformation is sadly unseen for the most part but I think that is because Rockstar cut out a few missions with her involved. Last, but cerainly not least, Rains Fall and Eagle Flies. Rockstar does an amazing job with writing these two opposing father and son characters and their tragic story. They portray the Native American not as savages or perfect helpless victims, but as real people in a lose-lose situation with their own faults and personalities outside of their struggles. Each character is fully realized and interesting in their own way and they carry this game through its shortcomings.

#2-Voice Acting

Roger Clark is an excellent lead throughout the entire game with absolutely zero dips in quality. Aside from Clark, Benjamin Byron Davis makes a return as Dutch as well as Rob Wietoff for John Marston. Davis does an amazing job with his expanded role and Wietoff is great at making John into the John we see in RDR1. Peter Blomquist made me hate Micah Bell more than I ever hated a fictional person before and that is an accomplishment. I could go on down the cast lineup but it is safe to assume that each voice is directed and performed incredibly.

#3-and, uh, the GRAPHICS

While I am not a believer in the idea that great graphics makes for a great game, the realism is important in this title. Motion capture was used extensively (like, even on the horses) and it gives that whole game a grounded feeling. Like, yeah, people move like this in real life. It beautifully accents the voice acting and really gives the player the full impact of the story as though they were watching a movie.

The Bad

#1-The Rootin' Tootin' Shootin'

Rockstar has been using RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Gaming Engine) for over a decade now and it is starting to show its age. While playing the game, getting into cover felt like guess work sometimes. I would hit right bumper and instead of going for the rock right in front of Mr. Morgan, he would get behind a tree 3 yards away with his back to the people shooting at him. This clumsiness is horrible because the actual shooting is pretty fun. What was introduced as a Table Tennis simulator (seriously) has made some seriously impressive games but the combat has become stale and clunky. Hopefully, they will focus on fine tuning the combat because the engine is great at making vivid worlds with powerful draw distances, which is perfect for what Rockstar does.

#2-Oh, That's Your Fast Travel?

Rockstar made a huge map. It is massive even without the epilogue and the only free transportation the player has is a horse? "Well, Rockstar developers, will there be a fast travel system in place? Oh, only in camp and inaccessible from literally anywhere else?" Seriously, why did they make a huge map with such slow transportation and only one way to fast travel? I cannot count the number of times I misclicked and sent myself to the other side of the map and had to take a longer trip. Also, there was no way to fast travel back to camp, free or payed. It was a real hassle and felt like game padding to me.

#3-The Length

This is a 60 hour game. That is more than two days of content and while most of it is a gripping story, there are some definite dips in gameplay. The fast travel system, or lack thereof, is the biggest contributor to this unwanted down time in the game. The player has to ride out for 5 minutes to one mission where they ride halfway back to camp. It's even worse when the mission is nowhere near a fast travel point should the player even be in camp at the time. Also, the lack of mission variety begins to show after chapter 5, with each mission being a shooting gallary while trying to protect certain people. Not every late-game mission is this way but enough to where it is a bit monotonous.

The Ugly...Verdict

Well, it's far from ugly. Overall, I give the game a solid 4/5 with it being one of the best games I've played since The Witcher 3. High and well deserved praise.

[vgwriter]

[vgwriter]

Super Mario Odyssey and Good Exploration

One of the greatest platformers (and arguably the best game) of all time came out in 2017 with Nintendo's Super Mario Odyssey. The thing that made Odyssey stand out from a decade where platformers were far from the focus was its use of creative exploration. Now, every game is creative in its own way or else it's just a clone of what came before (looking at you EA Sports) but what makes Odyssey's creativity spectacular is that it not only progresses the game but expands the decievingly compact worlds. Every level is filled with these moments of exspansive exploration where Mario is thrown into a linear challenge or has to use an enemy to get a moon or get to a boss. Odyssey isn't special because you can become a chain-chomp, it's special because once you become a chain-chomp you realize you can do so much more. Players only need 120 moons to finish the game, 500 to get the real ending out of 830 moons. There is almost always more to unpack. This unpacking is achieved through exploration where the capture mechanic is used to great effect. These moons aren't just copy and paste challenges (well, refacing bosses...) and that is refreshing these days with games either being shooting gallaries or simple fetch quests. Each moon is a different challenge and forces the player to think outside the conventional platforming box and that is why Odyssey is so great.

This idea of rewarding and fun exploration has become a trend for Nintendo's blockbuster releases (BoTW and SMO) and it looks like they aren't stopping anytime soon.

[vgwriter]

Everything wrong with Kingdom Hearts 3 and why its not all bad

Everything Wrong

Kingdom Hearts is an interesting series to say the least. Over the greater part of the last two decades it has released 9 games on 7 different platforms. The truly astonishing thing is that they all add something to the series' overall plot. This is something that rarely happens in video games or fiction in general. The wait that many fans had for Kingdom Hearts 3 and all the expectation from prequels and years of development was bound to lead to disappointment. But enough with the broad claims and needless facts, lets get down to what went wrong with the game.

#1-The lack of Final Fantasy characters

This has been a pretty consistant outcry from fans since the launch of the game but probably came as no surprise to hardcore fans who had notice Nomura slowly directing the series away from FF. I agree with most fans and think this was a bad call, not because I didn't get to hit Sephiroth with a giant key for 10 minutes but because Square wasted character development on the Hollow Bastion Gang. Squall (Leon), Aerith, Yuffie, and Cid, who we had all seen since Traverse Town, are no where in sight. Not even a mention in the ridiculous amount of cutscenes this game had. Now, it is easy to say that they weren't consequential to the overall story that this game focused on but I argue they are not so easy to throw away. We watched and helped them go from Traverse Town to cleaning up Radiant Garden. Squall introduced us to the concept of the Keyblade and Heartless for crying outloud! With so many cutscenes on their world, they certainly deserved an onscreen appearance and really, an interaction, too.

#2-No Cloud and Sephiroth

That's right, this is so wrong it gets its own little paragraph. The Cloud saga has also been simmering in the background for many years with Cloud being tricked by Hades and battling the darkness within himself. The story fits so well into Kingdom Hearts' themes that it is disappointing to not see it come to a close in this third home console installment. Also, a numbered Kingdom Hearts game where I can't beat up Sephiroth? The Sephiroth fight was a rite of passage for me as a little kid and the idea of not being able to do it for the long awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 is a major let down.

#3-The Combat and Difficulty

The basic combat, much like the rest of the game, looks absolutely stunning. But, like a trackcar, it doesn't feel amazing (for the most part). Sora has never been as airborn as he was for this game and this greatly effects the difficulty in the otherwise outdated combat system. The basic combat system is floaty, for lack of a better word, and Sora is a lightening bolt across the worlds. In previous titles, the difficulty derived from how well you could move Sora (or other protags) with emphasis on understanding boss patterns and manipulating mobs. With the amount of mobility Sora has in Kingdom Hearts 3, players don't have to worry about mob control or bosses for that matter. Sora will move wherever the player wants in almost a flash and the game just isn't built around that kind of mobility, yet. Kingdom Hearts 3 enemies are built like the previous titles: slow, large, and highly predictable. They were challenging when Sora was an immobile piece of cabbage in Kingdom Hearts 1 but now they are simply too easy for this new high paced Sora.

The biggest additions to the combat are its biggest detractors. The forms seem too elementary and bland when compared to the drives used in Kingdom Hearts 2. Also, the fact that they are all attached to their respective keyblades is an odd way of limiting how the player can use each form. I personally loved the Frozen keyblade's forms but wanted to go for a more physical combat style and with the keyblade being magic focused, it was a choice I didn't like making. The attractions are a major detraction (insert laugh track). Aside from a few boss specific attractions, they disrupt the flow of combat and give the player a get of jail free card in a game that is already way too easy. They aren't very involved either and it turns an otherwise interesting and explosive combat system into an unrealized, underdeveloped shooter, quicktime event, or an invincablilty mode. The new mechanics for the combat were clearly an afterthought to the games graphics.

#4-Sidelined Characters and Sora's Arrested Development

This should come as no surprise by now but Nomura benched Kairi, again. Not only did he bench her, he ultra benched her. In game that was supposed to be her big fighting debut she had one on screen kill. While other female protags like Aqua and Xion have some badass moments here and there, Kairi is a cheerleader in an era of game storytelling that has left the trope far behind. Her and Axel (about the same rant for him) are trapped in this little time and space pocket dimension that we only get to see in cutscenes. Sqaure really missed a great opportunity to make the world Kairi and Axel went to in to a unique coliseum experience. We could've seen Kairi and Axel train or even helped! It's a great opportunity that was missed just like Kairi's character.

Although we have seen Sora grow up physically, Sora is still the same naive little kid on the inside and that is becoming a problem. It was fine when Sora was just the vehicle for us to explore Disney worlds in KH1 but every other character has grown up and we've grown up too. Sora has also been through way too much to be the same kid he was in KH1. Characters like Riku, Axel and Aqua have all been through a lot and their struggle changed them in to the character they are in KH3. Sora needs to mature and grow in future or else this franchise won't have a palatable main protagonist. So, while it is nice that Haley Joel Osment can use a comfortable range when voicing Sora, it doesn't make up for the fact that Sora hasn't changed at all over the past decade and a half.

A small thing, but the last fight with Xehanort would've been great with the Destiny Island Trio instead of Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Why its Not a Bad Thing

So, while this game is by far the weakest number entry in the entire series in my opinion, the future for the franchise does show promise. For starters, the Xehanort saga was wrapped excellently. (The ending was by far the best part and did justice to the absolutely massive scale of the story so far) Looking to the next game, Nomura will essentially have a fresh start and that is great news. The character cast had become a little bloated with the idea of three trios (BBS, Days, and the Destiny Island Trio), each with their own complex storyline and resolution. With this fresh start, we could see a more focused style of storytelling at best or at worst, some great new characters and plots. Either way, it is certainly exciting!

The combat was weak because the enemies had yet to adapt to the mobility Sora has with the Unreal 4 engine. With the overwhelming comments on the games difficulty, I'm pretty sure Sqaure will try to created more aggressive AI and bosses that really test the player on how well they can use Sora's new found mobility. The idea alone gives me chills.

Overall, I give the game a 3/5 but I still have high hopes for the franchise as a whole.