Written by: Emi
It’s about time we got our grubby gamer hands on Kingdom Hearts 3. We’ve spent 13 years waiting for the conclusion of this story arc, holding out hope with every iteration of game they released imaginable (I’m looking at you Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final and Kingdom Hearts Story) up til now. For all the hype circulating around it, does it really deserve it? I’ve reached the second sphere of gummi travel, so let’s look at some of the good things and bad things I’ve found so far.
****Spoilers ahead, proceed at your own risk.****
I want to start off saying, if you’re a hardcore and dedicated fan of the series, we finally made it. Nomura-sensei left us hanging for a long time, not that it was truly his fault, but come on man! As usual, the game starts off with an orchestrated version of one of Utada’s song, which in this case was ‘Think Twice’. The whole thing covers various scenes from every major console release, Birth by Sleep, Re: Coded, 1 and 2, and 358/2 are some of the really notable ones. The main menu greets you with another beautiful rendition of ‘Dearly Beloved’. I always look forward to that bit, if I’m being honest. It also houses the Memory Archive; if you’re jumping in on 3 as a casual or new fan, watching these 30 minute segments from the previous story lines can be EXTREMELY helpful.
The game itself begins with the opening sequence and theme ‘Face my Fears’, which was expertly done. Next comes the character traits. In previous games, they’d have Sora (you) select objects, but this time, floating screens, all playing footage from earlier games surrounds you. Three screens will swoop done for you to choose from. I found this to be refreshing. The screens also shows footage from Dream Drop and Re:Coded which was unique and strangely invigorating. Getting to see previous game scenes made it feel like the side stories actually means something, and not just filler backstory. Once you’re done deciding who Sora is (I chose the power to help my friends and equal potential from both mind and body; these directly affect your stats), you get shoved into a tutorial for combat.
Combat is actually where I find some faults. It feels… old. Clunky. Classic Kingdom Hearts, if you will. Normally this wouldn’t be such a bad thing, especially with the special group attacks, form changes, and attraction moves, however, the basis for these overpowered attacks is blindly smashing X until the meter fills. The introduction of new level traversing, called flow motion, is super fun, and reminds me a bit of Mirror’s Edge (shimmering walls and footholds), with new abilities being unlocked for it by advancing in level, but if you skip the tutorial, it could be a bit of a challenge. All things considered, I don’t use flow motion as much as I should. It’s a cool dynamic but in the middle of combat, it can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. Flow motion can also coincide with sure shot, but depending on what you press for input, square or R2, you can bounce between floating rubble or light your enemies up with magic.
As you fight through Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed, you’ll fill your meter for all the special attacks I mentioned above. Donald and Goofy will have more unlocked as you level with them, but each world you go to can show you unique finishers with the world partners. With Hercules, he’ll pick Sora up like a discus and spin him around at top speed. Woody, Buzz, and Sora will launch on a rocket for Toy Story. It’s cute and tailored appropriately for each world. Attraction moves function a little different. There’s a chance to trigger these moves in almost every battle. An enemy will have a green ring that will slowly deplete around them. Sora has to land a hit on them while this ring is active in order to gain the ability to use these moves. All the attraction moves are based off popular rides in the Magic Kingdom, and they deal ridiculous amounts of damage. Most people I’ve talked with claim they hit all the rides before they left Olympus, so I’m wondering if I just didn’t play right because I recently saw the Merry-go-round until I was in the Tangled world.
There’s one last combat feature that was neat, and it’s Rage Form. It’s probably exactly what you are thinking of too. 25% health or less and you can activate this skill, allowing you to assume a “dark form”, which looks suspiciously like a Heartless form, and go berserk while refilling the health bar. Admittedly, this comes in handy, especially because Donald still won’t heal you as often as he should. My biggest gripe with all these special moves is that you can’t choose which one you want to use. Each move has a timer on it, and it can’t be reordered. For example, I had an attraction move, a grand magic move, Rage form, and Heroic Spin with Hercules. I couldn’t choose the grand magic option without having to use the attraction move first. All the while, the timer on these moves are counting down. It’s frustrating, and I hope it gets patched.
Another gripe I have with this game is the voice acting. I’m playing it in English, and the amount of forced lines and weird lip flaps syncing is real. They brought back the original voice actors, which is amazing! However, you can tell it was a struggle to adapt to the pacing of the lip flaps. Since the game is predominantly designed for the Japanese language, it contains pacing normally found in other media forms, like anime. When translated out into English, it gets a little wonky. This was extremely evident in Tangled. As I watched Eugene and Rapunzel at the beginning struggle to find the correct pacing from Japanese to English, my soul hurt. I love Tangled with an unholy passion and having to hear the movie lines in my head against what the game was giving me was truly awful. If Square had wanted to withhold Kingdom Hearts 3 for a few months on the North American and European side to fix these issues with syncing, I’d have been all for it.
I can almost hear the fanboys in the distance crying out : “Leave Kingdom Hearts alone, you monster!” It’s all valid guys! Once you look past the hype we had, it’s really glaring. That doesn’t mean this game is a steaming pile of shit though. This game is beautiful, I can talk about the details the game produces in Unreal Engine all day and the story is satisfying, even going so far as to joke itself in the beginning with Kingdom Hearts 2.9 (it’s exasperating but hilarious) or the self mocking Verum Rex (but to be completely blunt, I was a bit miffed with the shameless Dissidia promotion- not a fan of Final Fantasy and don’t come for me on it).
The minigames are fun, and the animations are fluid switching from combat style to flow motion. Searching for lucky emblems and treasures is tediously enjoyable and very rewarding when you find that final emblem because not was hiding on the back of a stupid, giant pumpkin.
Do I think 13 years of waiting was worth it for the final product? I’m not sure, I’ll need to finish the game before I can pass a final judgement. I do feel like I would have been happier of they pushed it back a few more months, if nothing more than for some final tweaks with syncing between the audio and the cutscenes. It’s still an extremely enjoyable game and well worth the money spent.
The Gaming TechLits 