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Why Kingdom Hearts 3 Is a Disappointment for Me (Part 2)



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SweetYetSalty

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Ahh! This was quite the interesting review indeed. I do want to argue one thing, that Ventus isn't the reason Sora can wield the Kingdom Key. His Keyblade choose him over Riku. So Ventus coming back shouldn't bother his Keyblade status at all. Otherwise this was another insightful review. Personally I found Vanitas a nightmare on Critical Mode with Aqua. You need to fight like perfectly in that dual to win. I enjoyed hearing your views in both this part and your part 1 review of the game.
 

KillerCritic

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Ahh! This was quite the interesting review indeed. I do want to argue one thing, that Ventus isn't the reason Sora can wield the Kingdom Key. His Keyblade choose him over Riku. So Ventus coming back shouldn't bother his Keyblade status at all. Otherwise this was another insightful review. Personally I found Vanitas a nightmare on Critical Mode with Aqua. You need to fight like perfectly in that dual to win. I enjoyed hearing your views in both this part and your part 1 review of the game.
I'm glad you liked it! What are your thoughts on my opinion towards how they used the other characters aside from Sora?

One more thing to expect is for me to explain how I'd fix the story of KH3 so be on the lookout for that.
 
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SweetYetSalty

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I'm glad you liked it! What are your thoughts on my opinion towards how they used the other characters aside from Sora?

That too is a interesting subject. I get why they had Sora be in all the Org battles at the Graveyard from a gameplay perspective. They want you to have all your abilities you've been gaining for these marathon of battles. From a storyline standpoint Sora didn't need to really partake in about half of them. I'd argue that if possible Kairi should have been in the Xigbar/Dark Riku battle as it would have given the SRK team up many craved and tied back to her story of trying to save Namine, since it's in this battle she got a body ready. Kairi had no real spot in the battle they placed her in other then fighting someone her own size and getting caught.

I do agree Riku could have been used in the Terranort battle with Aqua and Ven simply because he's been in that situation himself and it would tie back to his connection with Terra. And if not Riku, it would have been cool to have Lingering Will join Aqua and Ven to battle Terranort and Vanitas. From a storyline point of view these make more sense then Sora. Sora only had to be involved with RAX's part to get the hearts out of him, then go after Kairi as Roxas and crew gang mob Saix, which ReMind seems to tease they are doing that in some form.I also feel like Roxas should have battled Xemnas and sorta wished he was in the nort court battle, but I kinda get why they didn't have him there.

I never even considered Mickey being playable against Anti Aqua. Again, storyline wise that would make sense. And just so the Guardians aren't sitting on their butts during the final battle, I would have had Riku, Mickey, TAV, and RAX come to Scala with Sora, Donald and Goofy and they would be the ones to fight the 12 Xehanort clones while SDG deal with the old guy himself. This would have given Riku, Aqua and potentially Roxas another playable round, with Mickey, Ven, Terra, Axel, and Xion as party members for their respective group.

But overall I get why they had Sora do everything. They've been teasing he would be the one to save everyone since Blank Points so it's to be expected. And again the gameplay reason. I do wish the other heroes got to have more playtime, interactions, and stuff to do after being revived but I'm hoping ReMind is going to fix that.

I agree with everything you said about old man Xehanort. Everything.
 

KillerCritic

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That too is a interesting subject. I get why they had Sora be in all the Org battles at the Graveyard from a gameplay perspective. They want you to have all your abilities you've been gaining for these marathon of battles. From a storyline standpoint Sora didn't need to really partake in about half of them. I'd argue that if possible Kairi should have been in the Xigbar/Dark Riku battle as it would have given the SRK team up many craved and tied back to her story of trying to save Namine, since it's in this battle she got a body ready. Kairi had no real spot in the battle they placed her in other then fighting someone her own size and getting caught.

I do agree Riku could have been used in the Terranort battle with Aqua and Ven simply because he's been in that situation himself and it would tie back to his connection with Terra. And if not Riku, it would have been cool to have Lingering Will join Aqua and Ven to battle Terranort and Vanitas. From a storyline point of view these make more sense then Sora. Sora only had to be involved with RAX's part to get the hearts out of him, then go after Kairi as Roxas and crew gang mob Saix, which ReMind seems to tease they are doing that in some form.I also feel like Roxas should have battled Xemnas and sorta wished he was in the nort court battle, but I kinda get why they didn't have him there.

I never even considered Mickey being playable against Anti Aqua. Again, storyline wise that would make sense. And just so the Guardians aren't sitting on their butts during the final battle, I would have had Riku, Mickey, TAV, and RAX come to Scala with Sora, Donald and Goofy and they would be the ones to fight the 12 Xehanort clones while SDG deal with the old guy himself. This would have given Riku, Aqua and potentially Roxas another playable round, with Mickey, Ven, Terra, Axel, and Xion as party members for their respective group.

But overall I get why they had Sora do everything. They've been teasing he would be the one to save everyone since Blank Points so it's to be expected. And again the gameplay reason. I do wish the other heroes got to have more playtime, interactions, and stuff to do after being revived but I'm hoping ReMind is going to fix that.

I agree with everything you said about old man Xehanort. Everything.
What do you think about the quality of the group battles and AI party members themselves?
 

SweetYetSalty

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What do you think about the quality of the group battles and AI party members themselves?

It depends on the difficulty. On Critical Mode all my party members were getting KO'd minus Roxas because he's invincible. I actually didn't know Aqua and Ventus did as much damage as they do until watching your vid. On Proud Mode the party members seemed okay. They are kind of smart most of the time. Like characters with support AI don't stray too far away from you if you keep your distance from the enemy. It is fun to sometimes watch the the party members fight on any mode besides Critical. I get funny moments like Kairi being knocked out, waking back up only to be Strike Raid right back down, then watch her attacker go to sleep or something because she's scripted to lose after a certain period of time XD

With Roxas being so OP it just makes me wish I could play him even more. His moves look fun to use and I'd rather play as him then watch him do my work for me. No matter how much I laugh at it.
 

KillerCritic

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That too is a interesting subject. I get why they had Sora be in all the Org battles at the Graveyard from a gameplay perspective. They want you to have all your abilities you've been gaining for these marathon of battles. From a storyline standpoint Sora didn't need to really partake in about half of them. I'd argue that if possible Kairi should have been in the Xigbar/Dark Riku battle as it would have given the SRK team up many craved and tied back to her story of trying to save Namine, since it's in this battle she got a body ready. Kairi had no real spot in the battle they placed her in other then fighting someone her own size and getting caught.

I do agree Riku could have been used in the Terranort battle with Aqua and Ven simply because he's been in that situation himself and it would tie back to his connection with Terra. And if not Riku, it would have been cool to have Lingering Will join Aqua and Ven to battle Terranort and Vanitas. From a storyline point of view these make more sense then Sora. Sora only had to be involved with RAX's part to get the hearts out of him, then go after Kairi as Roxas and crew gang mob Saix, which ReMind seems to tease they are doing that in some form.I also feel like Roxas should have battled Xemnas and sorta wished he was in the nort court battle, but I kinda get why they didn't have him there.

I never even considered Mickey being playable against Anti Aqua. Again, storyline wise that would make sense. And just so the Guardians aren't sitting on their butts during the final battle, I would have had Riku, Mickey, TAV, and RAX come to Scala with Sora, Donald and Goofy and they would be the ones to fight the 12 Xehanort clones while SDG deal with the old guy himself. This would have given Riku, Aqua and potentially Roxas another playable round, with Mickey, Ven, Terra, Axel, and Xion as party members for their respective group.

But overall I get why they had Sora do everything. They've been teasing he would be the one to save everyone since Blank Points so it's to be expected. And again the gameplay reason. I do wish the other heroes got to have more playtime, interactions, and stuff to do after being revived but I'm hoping ReMind is going to fix that.

I agree with everything you said about old man Xehanort. Everything.
I honestly think it would've been better if Roxas came back earlier and talked Xion down while Axel has to fight Saix one on one.
 

AR829038

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I personally think most people have been misreading Master Xehanort's final scene. They weren't trying to excuse his actions, they were trying to bring to light the mentality that drove him to commit such heinous atrocities. Like so many tyrants throughout history, Xehanort's objective stemmed from what he believed were noble intentions, but he became fueled by self-righteousness and obsession. Xehanort concocted an entire philosophy around correcting a perceived universal imbalance simply as an excuse for foisting his own will on the world around him, because the world not being perfect in his eyes amounts to it needing to be redone in his image. And there are many people like that in reality. In fiction, a character like Thanos is perhaps the best modern example of it. Both characters are people who believe that their ends justify any means. In that mindset, it doesn't matter if those means represent the antithesis of what you're trying to acheive, so long as it accomplishes your goal. Just as Thanos was willing to kill trillions to rid the universe of suffering and death, Xehanort was willing to use darkness as a means of creating a world where darkness would no longer exist, because to use light to that end was not a tenable solution due to its overabundance. It doesn't quite make sense, but then it doesn't have to. Such contradictions are the ultimate sign of hypocrisy.
Now, granted, the way they tried going about this was sloppy. It's difficult to connect the dots between the Xehanort of KH3 and the one from BBS, as the MX from BBS was portrayed as just an acolyte of the darkness who wanted to help spread it across the world. What they did with him in KH3 is obviously a retcon, but I don't think it's a bad one. In fact, if you disregard some problematic translations (i.e., "pure and bright" world vs. "pure and blank" in the original Japanese), then what actually emerges from this rewrite of him is a more nuanced and realistic villain. There are people who have such inability to accept the problems of the world around them that they strive to force their own vision of what it should be onto others, and in this form Xehanort represents a much better antagonist for this series considering its themes of destiny, fate, and connection.
At the very end of his life, after losing what he had worked decades to achieve in one fell swoop, Xehanort finally realized before dying what his mistakes had been, and that his life's mission of trying to recreate the world in his image was futile and foolish from the beginning. Finally realizing this, Xehanort lets go of his obsession at last, and in doing so his heart is released from its ties of obsession. One thing to keep in mind is that, even though we as Western audiences have a tendency to look at an image like Xehanort floating up into the sky with Eraqus as symbolic of him entering heaven, this is not quite the case for an Eastern audience. Remember, the Japanese are predominantly Buddhist/Shinto more than they are Christian, and in Buddhist mythology, the door to spiritual emancipation is left open for any who are willing to let go of their earthly tethers, even if they only get around to doing it in the last seconds of their life. Xehanort isn't being rewarded, he's simply letting go. The scene isn't meant to excuse anything that Xehanort had done, or to paint him out of nowhere as "a good guy." It's meant to show the final transformation of his character: his relinquishment of control and his consequent release.
Now, if you're someone who just wanted to see Xehanort get his head stomped in after all the shit he's done, I don't necessarily blame you. But too many people are mistaking his acceptance of defeat with the other characters forgiving him, which, if you watch carefully, is NOT what happened. Nobody forgave Xehanort in the end. Not Sora, not TAV, not anyone. Maybe you could argue Eraqus does, but the two of them have shared a deep bond since childhood, and despite Xehanort's betrayal and murder of him, Eraqus seems to be beyond holding grudges, especially now that he's a Force ghost. He's probably just glad to have gotten his old friend back in the end.
 

KillerCritic

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I personally think most people have been misreading Master Xehanort's final scene. They weren't trying to excuse his actions, they were trying to bring to light the mentality that drove him to commit such heinous atrocities. Like so many tyrants throughout history, Xehanort's objective stemmed from what he believed were noble intentions, but he became fueled by self-righteousness and obsession. Xehanort concocted an entire philosophy around correcting a perceived universal imbalance simply as an excuse for foisting his own will on the world around him, because the world not being perfect in his eyes amounts to it needing to be redone in his image. And there are many people like that in reality. In fiction, a character like Thanos is perhaps the best modern example of it. Both characters are people who believe that their ends justify any means. In that mindset, it doesn't matter if those means represent the antithesis of what you're trying to acheive, so long as it accomplishes your goal. Just as Thanos was willing to kill trillions to rid the universe of suffering and death, Xehanort was willing to use darkness as a means of creating a world where darkness would no longer exist, because to use light to that end was not a tenable solution due to its overabundance. It doesn't quite make sense, but then it doesn't have to. Such contradictions are the ultimate sign of hypocrisy.
Now, granted, the way they tried going about this was sloppy. It's difficult to connect the dots between the Xehanort of KH3 and the one from BBS, as the MX from BBS was portrayed as just an acolyte of the darkness who wanted to help spread it across the world. What they did with him in KH3 is obviously a retcon, but I don't think it's a bad one. In fact, if you disregard some problematic translations (i.e., "pure and bright" world vs. "pure and blank" in the original Japanese), then what actually emerges from this rewrite of him is a more nuanced and realistic villain. There are people who have such inability to accept the problems of the world around them that they strive to force their own vision of what it should be onto others, and in this form Xehanort represents a much better antagonist for this series considering its themes of destiny, fate, and connection.
At the very end of his life, after losing what he had worked decades to achieve in one fell swoop, Xehanort finally realized before dying what his mistakes had been, and that his life's mission of trying to recreate the world in his image was futile and foolish from the beginning. Finally realizing this, Xehanort lets go of his obsession at last, and in doing so his heart is released from its ties of obsession. One thing to keep in mind is that, even though we as Western audiences have a tendency to look at an image like Xehanort floating up into the sky with Eraqus as symbolic of him entering heaven, this is not quite the case for an Eastern audience. Remember, the Japanese are predominantly Buddhist/Shinto more than they are Christian, and in Buddhist mythology, the door to spiritual emancipation is left open for any who are willing to let go of their earthly tethers, even if they only get around to doing it in the last seconds of their life. Xehanort isn't being rewarded, he's simply letting go. The scene isn't meant to excuse anything that Xehanort had done, or to paint him out of nowhere as "a good guy." It's meant to show the final transformation of his character: his relinquishment of control and his consequent release.
Now, if you're someone who just wanted to see Xehanort get his head stomped in after all the shit he's done, I don't necessarily blame you. But too many people are mistaking his acceptance of defeat with the other characters forgiving him, which, if you watch carefully, is NOT what happened. Nobody forgave Xehanort in the end. Not Sora, not TAV, not anyone. Maybe you could argue Eraqus does, but the two of them have shared a deep bond since childhood, and despite Xehanort's betrayal and murder of him, Eraqus seems to be beyond holding grudges, especially now that he's a Force ghost. He's probably just glad to have gotten his old friend back in the end.
While the others certainly don't forgive him, I feel that my point is that he gets to go to the afterlife without issue for everything he's done and he never has to redeem himself before moving on. If after this final fight he chose to help Sora bring back Kairi at the cost of himself it would at least make his final moments understandable as he would have died redeeming himself to a certain extent for his actions. Honestly this is one of the biggest errors with making Xehanort only appear in the very end especially when his interactions with Sora feel generic when its the main villain meeting the hero for the first time.
 

AR829038

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While the others certainly don't forgive him, I feel that my point is that he gets to go to the afterlife without issue for everything he's done and he never has to redeem himself before moving on. If after this final fight he chose to help Sora bring back Kairi at the cost of himself it would at least make his final moments understandable as he would have died redeeming himself to a certain extent for his actions. Honestly this is one of the biggest errors with making Xehanort only appear in the very end especially when his interactions with Sora feel generic when its the main villain meeting the hero for the first time.
Yeah, I definitely get your point. But again, I want to stress that "the afterlife" in the Kingdom Hearts universe is not the same thing as heaven, so it's not like you have to redeem yourself or become a good person to go there. Kingdom Hearts, which is the final destination for all hearts, constitutes the collective afterlife for both good and bad people. Some people wind up in the Realm of Darkness, but only when they have completely succumbed as human beings to the darkness, thereby having turned into Darklings or Heartless. Now, while it's true that earlier games implied that the Realm of Darkness was equivalent to the realm of death (i.e., Vexen mentioning Maleficent being in the RoD after her death in CoM), later games make it clear that the Dark World is NOT an afterlife, merely a dimension more akin to the Upside Down from Stranger Things, and that the only thing comparable to an afterlife would be the Final World, though that functions more as a state of limbo than anything else. And I don't think Xehanort would have gone to the Final World, because that's only a place for people still tied to the Realm of Light by some unfinished purpose, and as we saw Xehanort let go of his ambition, we can conclude therefore that he and Eraqus must have assimilated into Kingdom Hearts.
Also, I partly agree that Xehanort and Sora should have had some more interaction earlier in the game, but on the other hand, I think the developers intended MX to only have the bare minimum screen time necessary considering the original voice actors were deceased, and they probably knew people would have a hard time getting used to his new voice in this game (I am referring to both the English and Japanese releases, of course).
 

alexis.anagram

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"because the writers just remembered they had to finish KH3's story..."
Ha.
This review was worth it just for the "Monstrous Things Xehanort Has Done" montage.
 

KillerCritic

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"because the writers just remembered they had to finish KH3's story..."
Ha.
This review was worth it just for the "Monstrous Things Xehanort Has Done" montage.
I'm glad you liked it! Still sucks I got copyright claimed by sony over it. But you take what you can get right?
 
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