Late to the Party Review: Kingdom Hearts 3

By: Caleb A.

Developer: Square Enix, Division 3

Publisher: Square Enix

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4

The Kingdom Hearts fans are some of the most patient fans in all of gaming but was Kingdom Hearts 3 actually worth the wait? After completing the main story over the span of roughly 40 hours I’d have to say: yes. Don’t worry, we’ll avoid using any spoilers.

The Story

The game follows protagonist Sora and his Disney companions Goofy and Donald Duck as they traverse through Disney worlds based on iconic Disney movies. They fight against Organization XIII who are trying to use the darkness in people’s hearts to control the universe. Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight against the shadowy organization in a classic good vs. evil showdown. That’s as much of a short version of the plot as I can give without getting into much detail. Honestly though, if I went any further than that it gets confusing rather quickly.

Full disclosure here: the only Kingdom Hearts games I’ve played were the first two and Chain of Memories when it was originally released on Gameboy Advance. Needless to say, I missed quite a bit over those years. Having missed out on the 5-6 spinoff games in the franchise I found myself constantly rushing to research who certain characters were and why I should care. After quite a bit of investigation, I would feel comfortable knowing about characters missions only to have the game introduce another character for me to research. Once I hit about the halfway point in the game however I had a much better understanding of the story as all of the major players had been introduced and I could enjoy the game. Despite a confusing narrative, the game kept me begging for more with its excellent controls and gameplay.

The Gameplay

KH3 has some exceptional controls that help push the combat system in a solid direction. Controls are extremely responsive and feel smoother than previous games in the series. What I really liked about the game was how the combat system slowly builds itself up. At the start of the game all of the abilities, skills, magic spells, team attacks, and attraction attacks (more on that in a minute) seem overwhelming but as I progressed I became more in tune with the arsenal of craziness. You just start to get a natural feel of what attack will work well for a certain situation. Even boss fights became less overwhelming as the whole playbook opened up. If you string together enough consecutive attacks on enemies it triggers a type of bonus move where you either transform, come together for team attacks, or unleash destructive attraction attacks.

The game introduces attraction attacks early in the game as an assist during a boss fight. Basically, these moves allow Sora and the gang to summon a classic Disney theme park ride to aid in the battle. In one of the early battles, the game allows you to call in the train from Thunder Mountain Railroad to attack a boss character and it’s quite the spectacle. KH3 allows us to bring a rollercoaster to a sword fight and I dig it! Seeing these amusement park rides that were a big part of childhood vacations being used to mow down enemies is a such a surreal image that rarely wears off as the game goes on.

Aside from combat, there were other aspects found in the game. One part of the game that I found the most tedious was the exploration in some of the middle to late parts of the game. KH3 doesn’t offer a waypoint or navigation system where the player can easily find where to go on the map like other recent RPGs make use of. In fact, at one point in the Frozen world, I became so lost that I ended up wandering around the world in multiple laps looking for whatever quest objective I needed. Thankfully other worlds in the game weren’t as frustrating but overall not having objective markers led to some unnecessary backtracking through Disney worlds.

The last aspect of gameplay to mention is the space battles in the Gummi Ship. One underrated aspect of the Kingdom Hearts series is the number of customization options available for the space travel portions of the game. With enough imagination and patience, it’s possible to create any type of spaceship your heart desires. After customizing your ship it’s time to take it for a drive. Flying through space and attacking enemies was a nice change of pace from the constant battles and exploration through Disney Worlds. The space flight sections for the Gummi Ships played extremely similar to Star Fox 64 which is basically the gold standard for space combat games. Space in this game is vast and expansive so it may be something that helps me return to the game at a later date.

The Verdict

To sum up, the experience that Kingdom Hearts 3 provides is hard to put in words. It’s a nice game with some solid controls that have some great callbacks to Disney’s past but the confusing story and tedious exploration may be intimidating to newcomers. If you are a fan of the franchise this game is absolutely for you. If you’re a fan of action RPGs, this game is for you. If you’re a fan of Disney you’ll love this game. If none of this is up your alley I would still say you should check the game out based on the gameplay and the craziness. To put it simple (and clean), Kingdom Hearts 3 is a good game that has a few minor flaws that many people should enjoy.