My not so positive take on KH3

[Maffy 45]

I finished the game yesterday and I wanted to share my opinion to find more like-minded people. I've read some raving reviews and some unsavory reactions. I mostly tend to agree with the criticism with the difference that I still enjoyed the game thoroughly so it wasn't a bad experience, just a disappointment.

  SPOILERS: Click to reveal

First of all, I generally play games mainly for the story so I am not so interested in everything else so my main gripe is the storytelling and that's where I'll focus.

World stories: Lacking. Unlike the first 2 games in which Sora had specific reasons into going each world (KH1 to lock the doors, KH2 to open new paths among them), this time he only had directive: to get back his power of waking. It started well having to go specifically to Olympus and ask Herc's help, but after that, it is just kind of one random world to another and half the time they don't even mention the power of waking except that he still doesn't have it. Not only that, but the stories themselves feel very cut off from us, because we barely do anything. In Tangled, we literally just keep walking until we reach the city and then we are transported back to the tower to fight the boss, while the players get glimpses of the story. In Arendelle, we literally keep getting kicked out by Larxene and spend the entire time trying to reach Elsa. In PotC, we have nothing to do with the story at all until we are meant to go to the end for the boss fight. I mean, I don't expect 10 hours in each world, but I barely felt needed by or connected to anyone. We just happened to stumble on the organisation as well and had some very cliche conversations that I felt we had already pretty much seen before. There were of course some nice bits, but overall, little engagement with the story itself. Special mention to Winnie the Pooh that had the shortest story of them all...

Maps: To put it simply, they were great. I loved how big they are, you could walk for a long time and still not see everything, BUT they still were really empty. The only fun you could have with the maps was to take photos of emblems and find chests and isn't that a shame for those great, big maps? Biggest revelation for me was Port Royale, which had a 2 part city, the Fort and the underwater exploring and what could you do there? Except emblems, chest and the usual heartless, pretty much nothing. Maybe just spin on a barrel for the nth time or overhear the same lines the city people said. It honestly feels such a waste, because I had no inclination to stand around doing nothing. In Tangled, there's this vast expanse of greenery, which was only used to splash Rapunzel in the lake or lead birds to her. Again, little engagement with the surroundings.

Central story: Really lacking and sometimes severely rushed. Throughout the initial 8 worlds, the main story was almost non-existent, other than knowing that Mickey and Riku had their own mission and Sora exchanging pleasantries with every organisation member. Occasionally, we had some scene with the Org. members talking to each other or Sora with his gummiphone, but all in all, almost nothing really moved the story along and many conversations were just stale. Then, towards the end, the more serious events happen and everything somehow from really slow feels REALLY fast. The "twist" with Aqua's turn to darkness was a very fitting one, but it honestly took 1 measly fight to bring her back? She spent 10 years down there, she suffered for so long to the point she allowed herself to sink further and we just had to beat her ass once to save her? Where's the drama? Where's the long sought salvation? I was disappointed with this sudden turn of events, but ok, we had Aqua, hooray.

Then we saved Ventus, which was closer to what I expected it would be, because unlike Aqua's rescue, there was not much more to do with Ventus. The scene in Sora's heart was touching. After that, the story rushes to the Keyblade Graveyard and once we get attacked, Sora does the unthinkable for me and starts repeating how everyone was gone forever and everything is doomed. Say what now? Almost 2 decades of games, where Sora never gave up and continused to believe in the impossible, just to conveniently have him cry after his friends were taken by the darkness for the 100th time in the history of the franchise? Again, where's the drama? How am I supposed to relate to the story when the story really tries very sloppily to make me feel the loss? It was just too fast and sudden.

Then, moving along, the clash starts happening and almost every loser starts repenting about their deeds. I really liked how the battles were set and I didn't mind the random in battle scenes, but having almost everyone turn out as a good guy was a bit over the top. Terra's return also lacked a good climax, because once again, it's been 10 years of torture and never-ending effort at trying to take back his body. At least, they put some effort there, but it was just really fast. Same really with Xion's return, because it happened so fast. At least there was some groundwork for Roxas.

Then final battle arrives. Scala is beautiful place that you can't explore at all, except while fighting. I appreciated the sunken Daybreak Town's sunken tower (which I didn't even notice when playing, only after I was done with it), but once we win, Xehanort starts crying about he did it for the world, to create a pure, bright world, because the darkness was spreading like a plague. Wasn't his initial plan to have a balanced world because he believed the light was too strong compared to the darkness currently? Now it sounded like he wanted to help the people and Eraqus just patted him on the back, even though it was Xehanort that killed him, and Xehanort just gave up after 1 minute of talking. LIKE WHAT? Did I go through 24254 games and 2342543 of his plans, to have him show his good intentions, smile and give up in a matter of seconds, while everyone seems to actually forgive him? Are we really gonna go with the misunderstood path? He didn't have to be a serial killer, but at least he should have gone out with a bang and not another lackluster bad-guy-turning-good silliness. If you want to go that way, then we needed to have seen more of his scenes to see his internal turmoil and his dubious actions, not just stating at the end like it's fact.

Either way, the central story was very rushed in every aspect and with the epilogue/secret ending, it seemed as though Nomura was planning to have this game as a prologue for his next installment. He tried more to showcase new questions, than give any good answers to this one, which is the most disappointing of all. It honestly makes me frustrated that this is all we got when everything was building up for years just to get the "Hmm? Yeah, Xehanort saga is done, but look at my shiny new toy! It's the Lost Masters :D" kind of message. However, I wholly loved that Xigbar was Luxu. I did not see that coming at all.

Gameplay: Good! I can't get into much details on that one, but I liked the gameplay as it was, because it wasn't too hard and the keyblade form changes were fun, though I'm kinda sad we got glide so late in the game. I'm sorry to say though that after the first few times, I got bored with the attractions. They really had no place there and it was boring seeing the same thing all the time so out of place. Other thing that I didn't much like was the ship fighting. God knows how many times it took me to beat Luxord's fleet, because I could hardly move the way I wanted to and I had to level up my ship before trying again. That is probably just me, but damn, the ships were REALLY not for me. I also appreciated the gummi ship maps. I haven't challenged the more difficult adversaries yet (not sure if I will ever do so haha), but I really liked the way they were made to explore things so a plus for that. Furthermore, I played this on Proud and let me tell you, I never play things on the most difficult level, because I'm generally a scaredy cat and as a not great player, I don't like to keep losing. Needless to say that Proud was REALLY easy. They didn't think this through all that well. Last but not least, I liked the element of unknown in the final battle, because you had to do some things but you didn't know how long you had to last or if you had to do something first, etc. Also, a very weird experience to have Donald and Goofy speak to me through the controller haha.

Characters: This ties in with the central story really, because if the main story is rushed, it makes sense that the characters act rushed in some cases. As I mentioned, Sora's total out of character outburst, which came out of nowhere even though he has been through worse things and still had hope. Nevertheless, other than that, Sora is the usual him with no development more or less; he still is happy and acts recklessly when it comes to saving someone and ultimately, that's why we keep playing (although I do believe that Riku would make a more interesting protagonist). My main problem is, of course, Kairi. I ranted about her in another thread, but just to include her here as well, I am very disappointed that Nomura thought that once again her role was to be non-existent until the end, in which she first did absolutely nothing and Lea took the blow for her and then later, she got kidnapped. Thankfully, she did one useful thing of being a tether to Sora's consciousness as to not fade, but that's all she really does; stand there, serve as motivation for Sora. Thankfully, we have great girls like Aqua and even Namine who barely made an appearance, but yeah...

Special mention to the little star in the Final World that might be Strelitzia. I assumed at first that the star would have been X, since it mentioned how there was someone out there for her, but then realized through a friend that it's more possible that it's Strelitzia and X is someone else (probably Skuld).

Visuals: Stunning (in most cases). I couldn't get enough of the textures everywhere; the maps, the clothes, the facial features, the objects, etc. Truly good work and it really showed when they had some scenes from previous games and they lacked such textures. I think the only awkward world to the eye was PotC. I don't know what happened, because I liked what I had seen in the trailers, but when playing, it really didn't work. Their faces seemed so weird and Elizabeth's hair was very awkward. It's the only world that sound and appearance just didn't really match. Other than that, I really loved everything.

Overall: Really enjoyable most of the time, albeit very disapointing in the most important aspects. It's too bad that I'm not that invested to the secondary games it had. I still loved how bbs had monopoly as an extra game, why couldn't KH3 have such a game too other than repetitive ones? Nevertheless, the game feels like a prologue to another game and it's not as complete as it should have been. I'm a fan for 11 years now and kinda wanted a more wholesome experience for the end of the saga, when I have felt that for other side games.

Either way, those were my (extensive) thoughts about it.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Maffy
Added something I had forgotten.

[Dustin Lübbers 933]

Finished it an hour ago and i feel lime with the donzens of more questions raised than answered the aecret ending it feels like nomura mayd be more interested in his next kh Project which is why he rushed a lot amd i mean A LOT of things. I cant say i am disappointment quite the opposite the akward or confusing a stuff is what i came to expect and without it it would not be the Series that it is that being said i do feel there is the certain pinch of salt missing that kh1 and 2 gave me at the end i can only make my final judgment if a dlc comes out but i think it will only gives us a few extra bosses amd hints for the next saga as it is now it is how i feel about the series as a whole there is more positiv than negativ and i cant help but love it but i can not ignore all of its mistakes and or make them into Something positive this game is a mixed bag in some aspects but i will think much more about it as time goes by

[Kaze 2]

They definetely treated this game more like a side game (ex: DDD) than an actual conclusion to a saga. Not only that but, they tried to make it fit more of a general audience. Which is good from a business standpoint, but the story is so convoluted at this point that the only people who would get what is going on is the dedicated fans. No one really wins besides those who just wanted a new kh game for the sake of having a new kh game.

What boggles my mind is that fans are going around calling this the best KH ever. No this game suffers from way too many writing flaws even for KH's standards. Everything that is stated in the OP is word for word how I felt about everything. This game also suffers from a severe lack of content, but fans will point out there are minigames and collectibles (Come on really minigames & collectibles, yeah that is why we play KH right?). We are also not allowed to compare it KH2FM, which obviously has more to offer than a game we have been waiting over a decade for.

We waited so long for this game and to do it like this feels like such a slap in the face. This game seems like a repeat of how FFXV went down. An incomplete story with incomplete content that will charge its consumer base through DLC to make the appropriate game they should have (KH makes too much money to not get dlc). Even still dlc probably won't be enough to fix the entirety of the story. Which is such a shame to get something that offers less than its predecessors besides shiny graphics.

This game is a massive disappointment and I wish more people voice that disappointment. Instead of everyone hyping it up as such a "masterpiece" when its clearly not.

 

 

[Maffy 45]

  On 2/9/2019 at 1:28 AM, Kaze said:

What boggles my mind is that fans are going around calling this the best KH ever. No this game suffers from way too many writing flaws even for KH's standards.

Exactly this. KH rarely had true good writing, but it had lots of charm and my favorite games are actually a couple of the side games, but the next big installment managed to botch everything story-wise, even that charm. No tension, no proper pacing, no gratifying for everything we've been through, nothing.

  SPOILERS: Click to reveal

It still astounds me that Aqua even had her own prologue venturing in the Land of Darkness and in KH3, she said 3 lines before we just kicked her butt and saved her.

KH is one of the few franchises that has managed to create such a complex universe (albeit convoluted) and even pulled off the suffering of some characters successfully, only to basically skip over them in the end. How did this happen? So many years and we got basically a condensed version of what KH3 should have been.

Unfortunately, it's nowhere close to a masterpiece for me and I don't think any dlc is going to change that. I can definitely see them release extra bosses, Scala exploration and maybe side stories for some organisation members or for Terra/Aqua/Ven

  SPOILERS: Click to reveal

or even Xehanort now that he seems such a good guy,

but nothing can save the way this was handled. At least the central story needed a lot more attention. I wonder when we will get more info for future dlc/games~