Kingdom Hearts III
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
I have been waiting for this game for a really, really long time. When I first beat Kingdom Hearts II back in 2005 or 2006, I thought FOR SURE that there would be a Kingdom Hearts III shortly on the horizon. I waited patiently for years and years. Spinoff titles like Chain of Memories, Dream Drop Distance, and Birth by Sleep came out in that timeframe, but they were for systems that I didn’t own, so I just ignored them. Where was Kingdom Hearts threeeeeee????
In 2019, a whopping FOURTEEN YEARS after the release of Kingdom Hearts II, I finally got my wish. Kingdom Hearts III had arrived. To prep myself for the game, I went through and I played nearly every game in the series (you can view all of my KH reviews at the bottom of this page). Would Kingdom Hearts III be worth the wait? Read on and you shall see.
Story:
This game picks up right where Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage leaves off. Sora has lost a great deal of his power and heads to Olympus Colisseum to learn from Hercules – who in the past has also had to deal with losing power and then fighting to gain it back. Unlike other Kingdom Hearts games, this one throws you right into the action. No tutorials or dream sequences to help you learn the ropes, you have to tackle a Disney stage right off the bat.
Story details get a little hazy for me after that. Sora, Donald, and Goofy head to the Gummy ship, where they just… uh… pick a direction and go? It seems like previous KH games had some kind of order or purpose with how you visited Disney worlds. This one, you just visit worlds seemingly at random. Oh wait, Sora is “following his heart.” Makes perfect sense! Except when it doesn’t.
The overall purpose of the game is to fix all of the wrongs that have happened in previous KH games, and to gather enough companions so you can take on Xehanort, the evil mastermind behind the events of the series. Rescuing Aqua, Ventus, and Terra becomes a priority. I am very glad I played Birth by Sleep, or I would have no idea who these people are. Another priority is restoring Roxas and finding a host body for him. Kairi and Mr. Got it Memorized are training to become Keyblade Warriors. Mickey, Riku, and Yen Sid are doing their own thing while you do yours. At the end, everyone comes together and they all destroy Xehanort and everyone lives happily ever after. Except that doesn’t exactly happen. This is Kingdom Hearts. Things are never that simple. A bunch of crazy stuff that I don’t understand happens at the end of the game. Something about Sora blinking out of existence. Time travel may be involved. I don’t know. I just smiled and said okay then. I gave up on understanding this series’ storyline a long time ago. Really, I am just here for the combat and the Disney worlds.
Gameplay:
If you are familiar with the Kingdom Hearts series, you will have no problem jumping right into this game. Really, not much has changed over the years. Run, jump, lock on to your enemies, mash the X button to swing your Keyblade, cast magic spells. All standard Kingdom Hearts stuff.
There are a few things that are done differently in this game, but none of the tweaks make too big of a difference. Some small combat elements from games like Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance show up here. You’ve got command menu attacks, form changes, team-up attacks with your sidekicks, and more. Most noticeable are the special attacks which are based on Disney park rides. I know that a lot of people don’t like these attacks because they feel that they are overpowered, take too long, and make the game too easy. I, for one, was happy to not struggle with a Kingdom Hearts game for once. I still have nightmares about Chain of Memories sometimes. But at the same time, I can definitely understand where people are coming from with this criticism.
Some of the stages introduce new themed gimmicks to keep things fresh. For example, in the Toy Story stage you can hop into a big toy robot and control it to blast away at your enemies. In the Pirates of the Caribbean stage, you steer the Black Pearl around on the open waters and use its cannon to attack enemies. Also, the gummy ship stages are actually somewhat enjoyable this time around. You use your ship to explore space and collect secret items. All of the secrets are optional, though, and if you want to just race from planet to planet while ignoring everything else in outer space, you can.
A complaint I have with the gameplay lies in how the map works. You don’t have any destination markers. The map doesn’t tell you where you came from. Seeing as how many of the environments look very similar to one another, I often got turned around and would go the wrong way, thinking I was exploring new territory when really I was going somewhere I had already been. If this had just happened once or twice to me in this game, I wouldn’t be complaining. But it happened CONSTANTLY to me, particularly in the Frozen and Tangled stages.
Graphics:
What can I say, the game looks really good. I always thought the old Kingdom Hearts games still looked great, but there is a night and day difference when you compare this game to the originals. This game looks SO MUCH better. The worlds are gorgeous, the characters are well-detailed, the animations are flawless. I don’t think the game looks *quite* as good as it is capable of looking, but it is still looks pretty spectacular.
I love the color scheme in the game. Everything is so bright and vibrant. Most of the Disney worlds are just an absolute marvel to look at. The cutscenes in the Toy Story world look like you are watching one of the movies. I also appreciate how Sora and company have their appearances change when they visit new worlds. This has always been a staple of the Kingdom Hearts series, but they do a particularly good job with that in this game. The Monsters, Inc. versions of Sora, Donald, and Goofy are probably my favorite character morphs in the entire series.
Sound:
While the music and voice acting is overall pretty good, I do have a few qualms with things, mainly the music. There are a few stages that have catchy theme songs, like the Frozen world, but I found that most of the music in this game was a bit forgettable. All the previous Kingdom Hearts games had standout musical scores, but I feel that this game dropped the ball a bit in this category. They don’t even use “He’s a Pirate” one time, ONE TIME, in the Pirates of the Caribbean world. What a letdown! I mean, the music is still pretty good in this game, but it wasn’t quite as catchy as it was in previous KH games. Am I the only one who feels that way?
Again, the voice acting was a strength in this game. No complaints from me, except that they weren’t able to get Hollywood A-listers like Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp to lend their talents to the game. Also, is it just me, or is Sora’s constant “woo, hwaw, yaw”ing while swinging the Keyblade starting to get annoying?
Overall:
This is a good, fun Kingdom Hearts game. I for the most part had a decent time as I played it. There were a few worlds I didn’t enjoy, and the plot is convoluted as ever, but I still had a good time. Was it worth the fourteen year wait, however? No.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a fun game. But it should be expected after a fourteen year wait that the game should completely blow you away. I enjoyed the game, but never at any point would I say I was blown away. I think that is my major issue with the game. It felt like Kingdom Hearts business as usual. No major improvements, no big changes to the formula, nothing. Aside from the graphics, this game easily could have been made back in the PS2 era along with Kingdom Hearts I and II.
I expected more. The game didn’t suck by any means. And heck, I loved visiting all the new Disney worlds and seeing the Kingdom Hearts spin put on things. But I expected more. I had just as good a time with Dream Drop Distance and Birth by Sleep as I did with this game. But this is the game people have been waiting for for years. It certainly should have been better than its handheld spinoffs. You’d think so, anyway.
Still, I won’t dissuade anyone from picking up this game. Even if you have never played Kingdom Hearts before, playing through the Disney worlds is always a thrill. And if you have played Kingdom Hearts before, it is most definitely worth playing and seeing how things wrap up. I’m a completionist, so NOT playing this game was never on the table for me.
My verdict is that this a good game, but it could have and by all means should have been better. After the long wait, this should have been the ultimate Kingdom Hearts game that dwarfed everything else in the series. Instead, it just kind of maintains the status quo. Can I say with any certainty that it is a better game than Kingdom Hearts 2, Birth by Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, or any of the other countless KH sequels and spinoffs? Not really. Nothing you see in this game you haven’t seen before. I can’t help but feel just a little disappointed by this game.
I expected more.
Final Score:
B-
All of my Kingdom Hearts reviews are listed here:
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