Kingdom Hearts III is Both the Best and Worst Game Ever!

[Dagesh Lene 366]

Did you hear the news?  Kingdom Hearts III is a masterpiece!  It is the most visually pleasing game in the series yet!  The worlds are bigger and better than ever!  The game is fun to play!  It has a good story!  Even if this is your first Kingdom Hearts games, the story is easy to follow!  It definitely lives up to the hype and is the game we've been waiting for!  Everyone who says otherwise is just a hater who is upset that what they wanted wasn't in the game!

Did you hear the other news?  Kingdom Hearts III is the worst game ever!  The characters don't look as good!  The worlds are smaller and there are less of them than in previous games!  The combat is horrible!  The story sucks!  Unless you know everything about all of the past Kingdom Hearts games, you won't know what's going on!  It is the most disappointing game ever!  Everyone who says its good is just lying to themselves and are scared to admit the truth!

These are the two reactions to Kingdom Hearts III that I seem to see the most of.  Either it is perfect and has no flaws, or it is the worst thing ever made and there is nothing redeemable about it.  Why can't it be in the middle?  Why can't it just be a fun game that has flaws?  I feel like most people are just reacting to their own expectations right now, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  However, can't we just admit that there can be both positives and negatives and not ignore the other side (I'm not saying that all of you are acting this way; it just feels like most people are acting this way)?

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

1 hour ago, Dagesh Lene said:

Did you hear the news?  Kingdom Hearts III is a masterpiece!  It is the most visually pleasing game in the series yet!  The worlds are bigger and better than ever!  The game is fun to play!  It has a good story!  Even if this is your first Kingdom Hearts games, the story is easy to follow!  It definitely lives up to the hype and is the game we've been waiting for!  Everyone who says otherwise is just a hater who is upset that what they wanted wasn't in the game!

Did you hear the other news?  Kingdom Hearts III is the worst game ever!  The characters don't look as good!  The worlds are smaller and there are less of them than in previous games!  The combat is horrible!  The story sucks!  Unless you know everything about all of the past Kingdom Hearts games, you won't know what's going on!  It is the most disappointing game ever!  Everyone who says its good is just lying to themselves and are scared to admit the truth!

These are the two reactions to Kingdom Hearts III that I seem to see the most of.  Either it is perfect and has no flaws, or it is the worst thing ever made and there is nothing redeemable about it.  Why can't it be in the middle?  Why can't it just be a fun game that has flaws?  I feel like most people are just reacting to their own expectations right now, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  However, can't we just admit that there can be both positives and negatives and not ignore the other side (I'm not saying that all of you are acting this way; it just feels like most people are acting this way)?

This is what happens when a game is hyped for too long. Either people have crazy expectations and end up being so disappointed that they hate it or they want to love the game so badly that they ignore all of its flaws (I'm not gonna lie I was the latter when FFXV came out lol) 

Edited February 7, 2019 by PrinceNoctis

[2 quid is good 2,209]

I'll be honest, I was about to post a topic on this, I still might, but I think there's very few hater reactions, even on this forum I've literally only seen one post in that vein.

Majority of the fans have been middle of the road

[LunaCatte 169]

Personally, I loved it. I have my own reasons for loving it and I will continue to do so. But I know that doesn't mean everyone does and I know everyone has their reasons why they do and do not.

I will never say it has no flaws, no game does. No game ever will. You will never be able to be 100% perfect in every aspect. There are lots of things that KH3 does REALLY good. There are lots of things that are so-so. There are things that are meh. And there are things that are OH GOD WHY. As it should be.

Reacting to their own expectations is entirely valid regardless of there being such a long wait and a lot of build up for it. Everyone has their own views of what the series is and should be. That's the way humans are. That doesn't mean others should view it a different way. If you loved the game, love it. If you were simply middle ground, then live in the middle ground. If you hated it, then hate it. Games are subjective when it comes to their enjoyment, and that opinion can change over time. The game is still new, and there will be additions to it over time. Even if for some reason it winds up not getting DLC, it will likely get some patches that fix gameplay in some aspects.

[VisitJoan 2,713]

Was it exactly what I was expecting?  No.  Did it live up to my expectations?  Yeah, I’d say it did.  Overall, I’d say it was pretty good.  I think what happens when you wait for a game for this long is that people get ideas into their heads about what should happen and are disappointed when that’s not the case.

[Allwil13 754]

2 hours ago, PrinceNoctis said:

This is what happens when a game is hyped for too long. Either people have crazy expectations and end up being so disappointed that they hate it or they want to love the game so badly that they ignore all of its flaws (I'm not gonna lie I was the latter when FFXV came out lol) 

Truer words were never spoken. Hype can be extremely dangeorus for any form of media, especially when the wait is super long like with Kingdom Hearts 3. The more time passes, the more people develop theories, opinions, ideas, attachments, you name it. This also leads to a drop in logical thinking when excitement starts to dominate people's thought processes (this usually happens after the title in question is announced to be in development). I've said this several times, and I'll say it again. At a certain point, a highly anticipated title enters a stage wherein the hype is just so high that no title can ever hope to live up to it. As a result, when people finally get their hands on it and their countless theories and ideas are disproved, the disappointment is so much worse than it should be. 

I would also like to point out that other games in the series had a response similar to this one upon release. I'm pretty sure KH2's fan reception wasn't super high at first, but once people started thinking about the game's events and characters and how it all came together, the game gained a strong reception. People need time to come down from the high of anticipating the game, as well as some more time to recover from the disappointment. This results in the return of logical and realistic thinking.

I imagine that fan opinions of KH3 will improve in the next few months, once people have time to process the game's events. I certainly don't think it will retain the intense hatred some fans are giving it.

[Movies798 1,358]

I don't care what people said about Kingdom Hearts 3 because that's their opinions, and I have my own opinions about Kingdom Hearts 3. In my opinion, Kingdom Hearts 3 is definitely one of the best Kingdom Hearts games in the series. Definitely on par with Kingdom Hearts 2 and definitely better than my other two favorite KH games, 358/2 Days and Dream Drop Distance. But of course I for one won't denied that this game has flaws. Hell even Kingdom Hearts 2 has flaws as well but it's still a great game. Kingdom Hearts 3 was able to exceed my expectations, but at the same time Kingdom Hearts 3 didn't live up my expectations. Some parts in Kingdom Hearts 3 did in fact disappoint me and I wish they didn't better or a different way. But despite that I still love this game in general. I won't say it's a masterpiece but it's definitely one of the best games in the series I've played. It's okay to love the game even if it has a bunch of flaws. 

Edited February 7, 2019 by Movies798

[FlipMode 141]

Its a good game. I just don't really have much more to say about it than that. Because the series hasn't really changed much since it started. Graphics and gameplay have improved over the series but the entire concept and premise has always been the same. This isn't the third game in the series, its the... twelfth game I think? That is a heckin' lot of games for an RPG series that is only about 17 years old. The whole thing about travelling to Disney worlds and fighting heartless or variations of, well its just been done so many times now, I am kinda over it really.

Its a good RPG, it looks fantastic and its a blast to play but I mean... You know what this game is? Its sushi is what it is. Because the first time I tried it, I loved it, it was unlike anything I had ever eaten before. But if I eat it too often I do get a bit bored of eating it and crave something different. I've done this Kingdom Hearts jam so many times now, go to a Disney world, fight some heartless, guy in black hood appears and talks about hearts, Sora sasses him, hoodie guy summons a boss, beat boss and get a cutscene with more characters talking about hearts, repeat about eight times, beat the final boss, cry over the ending and then your done. 

The series has improved but I don't feel like its ever really evolved past KH1. 

Its a good game for sure, but so are all the other KH games. And this one I don't think has given us as much to talk about, since it really just wraps up the plot points and then sets up the next chapter. There's not much to speculate about since we have almost no idea where the series is headed next. 

I will replay it at some point but I could just play any of the other KH games and have pretty much the same experience I feel. Good game. sushi/10 would play again. 

[keyslinger 307]

I think it's my second favorite game in series after KH II. It's a very fun game but if I had one nitpick it would have to be that the game feels sparse in content. But that's my own opinion of course.

[Maffy 45]

I honestly don't understand the big hype or the big hate towards the game. I didn't even see anyone hating it, but there's too much praise to go around for reasons I can't completely fathom. The game was kind of disappointment for me. I adore the franchise and it's true I was hyped about KH3 (even though most of it had died while waiting for years), but it just kinda felt... empty? Everything looks REALLY nice, I loved the textures and details (and I prefer gameplay Sora to animated Sora, he has better hair) and loved how big the maps were, but... were they really used right? I mean, apart from searching for emblems and chests, you literally do nothing with most places. Port Royale was big with 3 places and underwater stuff, but at most, you could just spin on a barrel and maybe eavesdrop on someone for something unrelated. At least Thebes had a mini game with the Hercules dolls gathering, but all in all, every map was big, but essentially useless.

Then, it was the story for each world and for the first time it felt like a non-story almost. Half the time in the worlds we were not even involved in the story, other than trying to reach the main characters of each world and we just had to walk, walk, walk. I really didn't feel involved in most of them, which is sad. I'd expand more on that, but "spoilers".

And then, the main story felt so little. If you take our the filler that was each world, you're left with almost nothing, but the ending of the game, which was completely rushed. Events that spun decades (literal decades, even) and plans and games and almost everything seemed to pass in matter of seconds or minutes with no questions asked. For all we've been waiting for, I really wanted some events to unfold more realistically. Of course, I didn't and don't expect good writing in terms of dialogue or anything (we love the charas for who they are), but the franchise has sold itself so much throughout the years and it was just really fast in some places. Even Sora sounded out of character for me at some point.

In retrospect, I really enjoyed the game, but I don't feel the same as when I finished KH2 (though ok, it has been many many years) or BBS or even Days, for that matter. We got too few answers and even more questions... It had a couple great twists, but in the end, this game feels half-finished or to be more precise, a prologue for a "real" game and that just makes me sad. Maybe we'll get a few dlc to fill some stuff, but eh, I guess we have to start hoping the next game won't take 10 years...

[Novayon 192]

I think I've heard more of the former tbh.

Still, I think most people are actually somewhere nearer the middle. It is easier to point out criticisms though, because they stand out in a game that is full of good stuff.