Kingdom Hearts 3 - My Thoughts So Far · 1:10am Jan 30th, 2019
I've played up to when I have full access to the world map and the Gummi menu, so here we go.
SPOILER ALERT
So let's get the bitching out of the way first - man was Olympus Coloseum mangled horribly. This game starts us off on the exact wrong foot.
From not being able to decide if the movie events had happened already or not (are the Titans free or aren't they? Does Hercules have his godly powers or doesn't he?), to Hercules' VA sounding bored and lifeless, to the complete lack of tension in the sequence (Herc hasn't lost his strength, Meg isn't dying, and Hercules treats Hades invading Olympus and trying to take over the universe as a minor nuisance), to the easy Titan bosses (though I do like how the Wind Titan combines the elemental abilities of all four), to the fact Sora's reason for coming here is rendered pointless and nonsensical five minutes after he arrives (since the movie hasn't happened yet, the "Hercules lost his strength and got it back" idea is about KH2, and Sora having his heart damaged is hardly comparable to that), Olympus is just a total mess of story threads that don't fit together in any way resembling a coherent whole.
I made notes as I played, and noted early in the world that they're treating Hades like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, like he pulls this shit every week and they have twenty minutes to beat him and then Herc can punch him in the face and spout a catchphrase and strike a pose, and we roll credits. Then after beating the Titans, Herc does exactly that, and Hades teleports away vowing revenge via Meg. The only thing missing is Mad Cat meowing. The entire cap to the Olympus scene is just awful and it really does seem like the Titans and Hades were a nuisance rather than a serious threat, right down to Sora and Herc just letting Hades leave and go back to the underworld. I had to pause and facepalm when my prediction about punching Hades and saying a one-liner came true.
I get that bitching out of the way to talk about everything else that is great - everything else.
The game looks fantastic, the normal gameplay looks like FMVs from the earlier games. Cutscenes are transitionless and areas are much larger with no transition screens, making exploration flow smooth. The story is a little slow so far, but it's okay, it is going and it's going good places. It's a little forced when Mickey recaps who Ansem and Xemnas are - to Riku - but they make it work by pointing out that they never knew Terra had been possessed by Xehanort. So, Mickey explaining Ansem and Xemnas is framed as him noting it doesn't make sense for the old Master Xehanort to have a Heartless and Nobody so young, and along with a couple of other clues, that's how they figure out Terra's fate.
I like the logical connection of diseparate story elements, with how Ienzo networks Ansem's Hollow Bastion computer to the one in the old Twilight Town, and they mention that Ansem's digital Twilight Town is similar to the datascape of the journal we explored in KH coded. Ansem found out Sora had a second heart inside his own while he was examining Sora's heart to repair his memories, and Sora presumes it was Roxas since he knows Roxas must have begun to grow his own heart; then when Xemnas mentions that even if they could re-separate Roxas' heart from Sora's, they'd need a "vessel" to put it in, and I begin to ponder where they're going with this. You can kinda see Nomura in the background calling "see, I knew what I was doing all along, it's gonna make sense when you piece it all together!"
My only other major critique of the story is how Yen Sid says repeatedly that the point of the Mark of Mastery exam in 3D was for Sora and Riku to obtain "the power of waking", but Sora didn't finish his exam properly, so he has to obtain it a different way... what is that? The characters repeatedly discuss it like it's something important but never explain what it is or why Sora needs it.
Gameplay is superb, this feels like a culmination of the series so far. Drive Forms are back and function like Command Styles in BBS, where fighting enemies charges up a gauge and lets Sora initiate a power-up mode where he has new attacks. Each Keyblade has its own Form associated with it, and the Kingdom Key is Second Form, where Sora gets a moveset based on KH2 with recognizable combo finishers. But where BBS's Command Styles eventually overcharged and forced you to use a finisher that ended the Style, KH3 has its finisher available immediately as a Reaction Command, but as you keep fighting in the Form the finisher powers up; Second Form's Finisher is Stun Impact which powers up into Sonic Blade and then Ars Arcanum. But if you miss using a finisher before the Form runs out, it's gone (an ability will have Sora automatically use the finisher when time runs out). Making it more convenient to use multiple Forms is that Sora can equip up to three Keychains and switch between them in battle. And there's also Anti Sora again, "Rage Form", but it's not as much of a Glass Cannon and can be triggered purposefully when he's getting his ass kicked.
KH2 Limits are here but downgraded to basically combo attacks, and are triggered by attacking the same enemy as an ally, marked by a green cursor. Shotlocks are here but they're expanded into a movement ability, Sora can Focus on certain objects and instant-dash towards them. The Dream Eaters from 3D are here and they function as Summons, basically. The shotcut quick menu is back and it comes with sub menus accessed by pressing up or down on the control pad, so you can basically hotkey twelve commands or items, much appreciated. Flowmotion is here but eh, I find it hard to use, it's inconvenient to have to air dash into something to enter the mode and you don't dash very far when leaping off, they really nerfed it from 3D.
The only shortcoming of the battle system is the newest part - the Attraction attacks, the bright flashy ones themed on Disney rides. They do little damage, they seem to trigger at random and the one that triggers triggers at random, and they bring combat to a screeching halt while you basically play a minigame that damages enemies. They're also difficult to control, the teacups send Sora spinning around to damage enemies by ramming them while the blaster forces you into a first-person shooter perspective - the first time I used that one, I backed up off a cliff because I couldn't see where I was going. Attraction attacks interrupt the flow of battle instead of moving with it and I hope down the road there's a way to turn them off.
I know it all seems like a bit much, but it really isn't, it just feels like all these separate mechanics have been united in organic harmony. Everything just clicks together to give you many different ways to fight without forcing you to use all the ways. Most of these special attacks are activated as Reaction Commands via Triangle, and you can use L2 to cycle through them if you have more than one active. They only stay active a short time, usually 30 seconds, long enough to not feel the need to use them immediately but not so long you can save them for later. The simple ability to cycle through them to decide which attack to trigger is a simple but effective control scheme that solves some of the interface problems present in past games, and I much appreciate it.
So, overall, once I pushed past the lame and dull Olympus visit to begin the game proper (seriously - with all parties going to visit Yen Sid afterward and then going to Twilight Town as the hub world, Olympus feels incredibly tacked on and forced), Kingdom Hearts III has been a blast to play with its smooth and fun combat system, and I'm enjoying watching the story unfold. Other than Olympus my critiques are minor and my hype is real.
And now it's time to go visit the Toy Story world. Gummi, full steam ahead!
Nice
I love how I've watched no less than three recaps of the previous games, and I still have no idea what the hell is going on.
5004771
tl;dr - everyone lives in the same apartment building and they're all busting in other apartments looking for the key to the boiler room, because if the one jackass who hates everyone finds it first he's gonna overload it and destroy the building.
also something something Christian symbolism.
The power of waking is exactly that, the power to wake up someone's heart. Yen Sid wanted to get Sora to learn it so they could get Terra, Ventus and Aqua back in action. Riku learns it at the end of DDD and uses it to dive into Sora's heart to wake him up, but he doesn't have such a strong connection to the missing keyblade warriors so Sora still has to learn it.
I've been watching some of the videos online. Anyone know what happens to Frozen's level after it is completed? Does it remain ice, or does the appearance of everything change.
5004771
This will explain everything:
I didn't mind Olympus, it's clearly just the tutorial level this time around and only there because they are finally capable of recreating the climax of the film.
The most surprising thing so far is how funny the game is, it helps that the game isn't afraid to poke fun at its self with that Kingdom Hearts 2.9 title card being a highlight.
Kingdom Hearts is one of those series i’ve Always wanted to play (big Disney fan, if you couldn’t tell), but never have, on account of never owning a Sony console. Yes, I suppose that doesn’t stop me from the various GBA, DS and 3DS games, but starting with spin-offs like those just doesn’t feel right. Maybe i’ll Get a PS4 second-hand at some point and do the remasters of the first two and this. That, and Ratchet and Clank, that’s another of the few things that makes me regret never going Sony rather then being all-Nintendo.
Regardless, it’s a series I keep myself posted on, so happy to hear the numerous gameplay and story issues of many past instalments are smoothed over. But sad to hear Olympus is mangled, as while I’m not a big Hercules fan (a fun film, but kind of a hot mess), I still appreciate its KH prominence (it fits, somehow). That, and the rest of the Titans finally appearing - Pyros and Stratos have been sitting out for far too long. Tell me, are the movies normally represented very well in terms of when in the movie the events the game depicts is taking place, accounting for the presence of Sora, Goofy, Donald and other KH characters)? Both in this and past instalments.
Still, half to hear the game’s delivering well after so many delays and sub-par spin-offs that existed purely to keep the franchise alive until this could come along. That’s what we want! Also, glad the balance between Disney and Square-Enix elements has been evened again, after being heavily Square for many games for a while now.