List some pros and cons of KH3’s Disney worlds

[DizneyXBirds95]

Idk if SE can even afford the rights to use Potato Head, Slinky and Barbie. These are real toys owned by real companies; just trying to get permission would be difficult.

Actually, Rex mentioned Slinky in Cutscene when both him and Slink couldn't defeat that Bahamut Boss when introducing himself to Sora.

Plus when compared to Mr. Potato Head and Barbie, Slinky still made some appearances in other Disney games such as Disney Infinity and Disney Crossy Road.

 

[Elysium]

https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/aoog9t

Better than nothing, I suppose.

Oh, cute! I would've loved if they had had statues in the little garden area.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Actually, Rex mentioned Slinky in Cutscene when both him and Slink couldn't defeat that Bahamut Boss when introducing himself to Sora.

Plus when compared to Mr. Potato Head and Barbie, Slinky still made some appearances in other Disney games such as Disney Infinity and Disney Crossy Road.

Those are Disney-produced games where they have the money and clout to have them whereas SE is paying the bulk of the development costs for Kingdom Hearts, which means they themselves have to pay the licensing fees for anything that want to use that isn’t fully owned but Disney.

Slinky is a bit weirder than Barbie or Mr. Potato Head. Mattel and Hasbro likely have a complex contract with Disney on the use of their toys whereas Alex Brands as a smaller toy company is more permissive of Slinky’s use.

 

[DizneyXBirds95]

Those are Disney-produced games where they have the money and clout to have them whereas SE is paying the bulk of the development costs for Kingdom Hearts, which means they themselves have to pay the licensing fees for anything that want to use that isn’t fully owned but Disney.

At least Slinky was acknowledged by Rex in the game instead of being omitted or not mentioned at all.

Really? I find putting in the princess with the ice powers & not doing something with said powers in gameplay to be a waste. Party member, mini-boss, summon, create grind rails to help reach a flying boss, SOMETHING.

Frankly I'm okay with Anna and Elsa weren’t party members in Arendelle, mainly the latter because it was for the sake of the actual movie. Elsa wants to seek isolation and still doesn’t know how to control her Ice powers until the end of the movie. So I can respect why they didn’t make them party members and we had Marshmallow instead.

It's possible she could become a party member for Sora in a future much like how they did with Hercules in KH3 as he wasn't in Sora's party in previous installments.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

At least Slinky was acknowledged by Rex in the game instead of being omitted or not mentioned at all.

I made an edit to my post to clarify what is kinda going on with Slinky.

 

[DizneyXBirds95]

I made an edit to my post to clarify what is kinda going on with Slinky.

Sorry about that didn't know you updated your post.

That would be the likely explanation for Slinky appearing in video games such as Disney Infinity and Disney Crossy Road and his brief mention by Rex in KH3, when compared to Mr. Potato Head and Barbie which would require extra permission from Hasbro and Mattel to be included.

 

[Zettaflare]

The Caribbean is my favorite world in the game but a con for me is not having "He's a Pirate" as the Battle theme. It's such an exciting and intense theme that I wish they were able to get it in.

Especially since that theme was used in KH2

 

[disney233]

The Caribbean is my favorite world in the game but a con for me is not having "He's a Pirate" as the Battle theme. It's such an exciting and intense theme that I wish they were able to get it in.

Especially since that theme was used in KH2

I was fine with the exclusion of He's a Pirate. The Caribbena's battle theme...REALLY. REALLY. REALLY made up for it. Though, I...THINK they snuck in a motif in here.

It...somewhat sounds like something from He's a Pirate around the moment Sora delivered the finishing blow on the Vulture on the 7:40 mark. Though my con for this section in specific is how...BORING this boss is tbh.

 

[Launchpad]

KH3 has a pretty simple rule that most worlds follow, and once you see it it cannot be unseen. Basically, if the world has a good story, the gameplay will be stinky. If the world has a stinky story, the gameplay will be good. Olympus exists outside of this rule and will be ignored for making me look bad and wrong.

ANYWAYS.

Toy Box has a good story and stinky gameplay. Taking place after Toy Story 2 and telling a story that nearly breaks Toy Story lore is just so weird and awesome. Having Xehanort brainwash a paranoid Buzz Lightyear is just brilliant. The original setting of Galaxy Toys is also inspired and amazingly detailed. The issue here is that the amount of time spent in Gigas is just awful. One of the most boring mechanics in the entire game, and you're forced into it one too many times.

Corona has a stinky story and good gameplay. The retelling of Tangled's story is charming at times, but more often than not is clumsy and feels like it's missing important chunks of story. We witness no change in character from Eugene and Mother Gothel is almost entirely absent as a villain. However, travelling through the woodlands with no loading screens is awesome, as are our in-game interactions with Rapunzel. The bosses are also just great here.

Monster's Inc has a good story and stinky gameplay. This opinion has evolved over time, and is definitely one of the less extreme examples. Monster's doesn't REALLY have stinky gameplay, but there's so little on offer that's new that the world is missing a gameplay identity. Lump of Horror is a miserable boss with simple attacks and way too much health and defense. However, Mike and Sulley are wonderful companions and the in-universe explanation for Vanitas's reconstruction is just brilliant.

Arendelle has a stinky story and good gameplay. In this world, we get to watch the discount version of Frozen play out. It's so bad that people forgot to notice that this world has FOUR BOSS FIGHTS in the Rock Troll, Snow Dragons, Marshmallow, and Skoll. Marshmallow in particular is an extremely well designed boss, with Skoll being pretty good too. Sledding down the mountain, climbing on large, icy walls, and mowing enemies over with giant snowballs is a great time. Larxene's Nobodies are also fun to fight.

San Fransokyo has a good story and stinky gameplay. Best story in a KH world, ever. Sora and Hiro's heart to heart on the bridge was amazing, Dark Riku's manipulation of Hiro and Baymax was dripping with the best kind of Kingdom Hearts melodrama, and the very apparent progression of Sora's strength was just fun. But what isn't fun is three of the most dull boss fights in the entire game. The dinosaur volcano heartless is just a lame giant boss with no fun counterplay. Darkubes are easy, but take a long time due to having specific attack windows. Worst of all, Dark Baymax is a gimmick minigame fight set entirely on Baymax's back. Mechanically it just sucks and you really don't do one fun thing in this entire world.

The Caribbean has a stinky story and good gameplay. Yeah the story's a mess and Sora doesn't even play an important role in it. It's irrelevant. Even Luxord is just dicking around here. Huge waste of time. That said, aside from Raging Vulture, every gameplay moment is pure fucking magic. I love the giant fish boss, the crab collectathon in the new, awesome Port Royal, the ship battles, the islands full of treasure and intrigue. I even like the minigame Krakken fight. The crown jewel is the fight against Davy Jones, an amazing fight and awesome visual setpiece.

So what did we learn here? Well, we can see that the original stories are all awesome, and the retellings are all garbage. However, it seems like the retellings ended up staging better experiences to play through.

This turned into a micro review of KH3 and I'm not sorry about that

 

[DizneyXBirds95]

Now it's my turn to give my thoughts on each Disney world

Olympus
Pros:
- Hercules OFFICIALLY becomes a party member for Sora
- Following the movie's plot
- First Disney world we go to instead of being the 2nd/3rd
- Exploring Mt. Olympus and Thebes for the first time and not the Coliseum.
- Air Soldiers are brilliantly designed to look Greek
- Fighting all 4 Titans
- Character models being look more expressive than in previous visits to Olympus in past games

Cons:
- Megara and Phil not having a huge part, with the latter not even speaking)
- No Hades boss fight (disappointed but At least we fought the Titans)
- Gods (Hermes, Athena, Apollo) Not being present on Olympus post-worl

Toy Box
Pros:
- One of the few Disney or Pixar worlds with an Original Plot
- Creative enemies
- Slinky being mentioned
- No Humans walkign around
- Nice FFXV self-parody
- Awesome final boss
- Woody roasting Young Xehanort
Cons:
- Jessie and Bullseye absent. If this was set between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 where were they. They could've had Bullseye represented as among the TS2 Toys not kidnapped by the Organization

Kingdom of Corona
Pros:
- Rapunzel and Flynn’s abilities are used creatively
- Boss Fight against Grim Guardianess
- The dance minigame in the town
- Character interactions with Rapunzel and Flynn
Cons:
- Story is linear and FORCED
- Drastically changed Flynn/Eugene’s character compared to his role in the movie, and his reasonings on why he wanted to return the crown and Satchel in KH3 felt not only lacking and “forced” but it had little to no purpose compared to the original movie.
- Stabbington Brothers were written out of the game and replaced with Marluxia (believe me EVERYONE saw this a mile away when the film was announced as a world and know he was going to replace the brothers)
- Gothel’s eyes turning mahogany not explained furthur
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy sticking out like a sore thumb during the world's final act
- Sora just wouldn’t shut up when he tried to call out Rapunzel and attracted attention of the antagonists even if he showed concerned for Rapunzel's well being.
- Donald and Goofy did absolutely NOTHING and stood idle while Sora remained unconscious until Maximus woke him up the next day thanks to Marluxia. Shame on them.
- Sora and the gang never question Rapunzel's long hair along with witnessing Rapunzel’s magic powers through her hair
- Sora, Donald and Goofy not growing suspicious with Mother Gothel especially when she coldly dismissed them and said they were “useless and of no help” after their first and ONLY time encountering her until Marluxia reveals her real colors to them through context later.
- Magic Flower never addressed nor mentioned
- Rapunzel and Gothel never mentioned nor acknowledge Marluxia after their first and only encounter with him.
- SDG not meeting or seeing Pascal. :/
- No visit to the Snuggly Duckling and the Dam
- Rapunzel not a party member after hair is cut
- Marluxia feeling shoehorned in
- Rapunzel's tower feeling smaller than in cutscenes and not going inside the tower. :/
- Forest drags on for a while
- ONLY One major boss.


Monstropolis
Pros:
- Unversed are the enemies of this world, besides the Heartless
- One of the few Disney or Pixar worlds with an Original Plot
- Boo is back
- Randall is back as a major antagonist
- Scream Strike has the gang making funny faces during the parts where you fill up Boo’s laughter gauge
- Sora doing the Funny Face
- Sulley yeeting Vanitas through the Different doors
Cons:
- No boss fight against Randall, so you can thank Pixar for doing this (but unlike CLU, I can understand why is that, but still salty with Pixar being restrictive and overprotective)
- Only three types of non-Flood Unversed in this world
- Factory feels like a large dungeon and can easily get lost in some instances
- ONLY world where the Unversed appears.


Arendelle
Pros:
- Most of the cast from the film reprise their roles for this game
- The Boss fight against the Wolf Heartless (Skoll)
- Let it Go as a pre-rendered cutscene
- Marshmallow as a party member
- Larxene's Ice Labyrinth
- Larxene
- The humor in the world is funny
Cons:
- Minimal character interactions with the cast (except Marshmallow) compared to the Tangled world
- Not visiting the Town of Arendelle
- Unversed not appearing as the enemies for this world
- No Oaken and the Trolls
- Disney's guidelines put on the world
- No visiting the inside of Elsa's Ice palace
- Being pushed off the mountain thrice.

The Caribbean
Pros:
- One of the best-designed worlds in the series both in size and design
- Jared Butler’s Jack Sparrow sounds more like Johnny Depp and less like James Arnold Taylor
- Graphics and models for the Live-action characters a massive improvement compared to the ones back in KH2 and DDD for the Tron: Legacy world
- Davy Jones is a boss and not ending up in the same fate as Randall and CLU.
- Port Royal section more lively and accurate to the movie
- Doing the plot of At World's End
- Sora remembers his encounter with Barbossa
- The sea and islands can be freely explored at any time
- Luxord less of a nuisance than how he was in KH2
- Pre-rendered cutscenes of Jack's meeting with Beckett and The Maelstrom/Endeavour's destruction.
Cons:
- The ship combat very tedious than it needs to be
- Bootstrap Bill and the Crew of the Dutchman being absent
- No visit to the Brethren Court

San Fransokyo
Pros:
- One of the few Disney worlds with an Original plot
- Sora and the gang help the Big Hero 6 with their powers and abilities to combat against the Heartless
- Continuation of the movie where it connects to the Baymax that was left behind at the portal.
- Baymax healing Sora in combat

Cons:
- Baymax being the ONLY party member for this world
- The rest of Big Hero 6 not being party members
- The Darkubes. How did they got here? Were they tied to the BugBlox in Coded? Well just like the Tootsie Pop commercial “the world may never know”.
- Donald and especially Goofy don't even recognize the Darkubes being similar to the Bug Bloxes they encountered from Coded.
- Sora thinking Dark Riku is really Riku (come on Sora you're better than that)
- Sora and his visor thinking that the stuff is either “on the display” (when encountering Dark Riku for the first time) or “HERE” (Seeing the Hologram Shadow Heartless when trying the visor)
- The Nobody Snipers being shoehorned in this world, given that they are associated with Xigbar and it's odd that he didn't visit this world.
- Maleficent and Pete searching for the Box and Book of Prophecies in San Fransokyo also shoehorned. Why snoop around searching for the items in a modern setting as San Fransokyo when they should’ve had them at Arendelle or The Caribbean instead, particularly the latter
- Two rooms (Hiro's Garage and a 1/4 of San Fransokyo)
- San Fransokyo just a small square
- Story went from One Conflict to another then it was over
- Story was rushed.

100 Acre Wood
Pros:
- Lumpy being in a KH game
- The visuals being reminiscent to a storybook
- 100 Acre Wood Characters are more expressive than in previous titles.
- Sora not wanting to lose his friends and Merlin's important quote: "Whatever is lost cafoundFound again."
Cons:
- Story felt rushed
- Same mini-games
- ONLY Rabbit's House

 

[disney233]

Now it's my turn to give my thoughts on each Disney world

Olympus
Pros:
- Hercules OFFICIALLY becomes a party member for Sora
- Following the movie's plot
- First Disney world we go to instead of being the 2nd/3rd
- Exploring Mt. Olympus and Thebes for the first time and not the Coliseum.
- Air Soldiers are brilliantly designed to look Greek
- Fighting all 4 Titans
- Character models being look more expressive than in previous visits to Olympus in past games

Cons:
- Megara and Phil not having a huge part, with the latter not even speaking)
- No Hades boss fight (disappointed but At least we fought the Titans)
- Gods (Hermes, Athena, Apollo) Not being present on Olympus post-worl

Toy Box
Pros:
- One of the few Disney or Pixar worlds with an Original Plot
- Creative enemies
- Slinky being mentioned
- No Humans walkign around
- Nice FFXV self-parody
- Awesome final boss
- Woody roasting Young Xehanort
Cons:
- Jessie and Bullseye absent. If this was set between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 where were they. They could've had Bullseye represented as among the TS2 Toys not kidnapped by the Organization

Kingdom of Corona
Pros:
- Rapunzel and Flynn’s abilities are used creatively
- Boss Fight against Grim Guardianess
- The dance minigame in the town
- Character interactions with Rapunzel and Flynn
Cons:
- Story is linear and FORCED
- Drastically changed Flynn/Eugene’s character compared to his role in the movie, and his reasonings on why he wanted to return the crown and Satchel in KH3 felt not only lacking and “forced” but it had little to no purpose compared to the original movie.
- Stabbington Brothers were written out of the game and replaced with Marluxia (believe me EVERYONE saw this a mile away when the film was announced as a world and know he was going to replace the brothers)
- Gothel’s eyes turning mahogany not explained furthur
- Sora, Donald, and Goofy sticking out like a sore thumb during the world's final act
- Sora just wouldn’t shut up when he tried to call out Rapunzel and attracted attention of the antagonists even if he showed concerned for Rapunzel's well being.
- Donald and Goofy did absolutely NOTHING and stood idle while Sora remained unconscious until Maximus woke him up the next day thanks to Marluxia. Shame on them.
- Sora and the gang never question Rapunzel's long hair along with witnessing Rapunzel’s magic powers through her hair
- Sora, Donald and Goofy not growing suspicious with Mother Gothel especially when she coldly dismissed them and said they were “useless and of no help” after their first and ONLY time encountering her until Marluxia reveals her real colors to them through context later.
- Magic Flower never addressed nor mentioned
- Rapunzel and Gothel never mentioned nor acknowledge Marluxia after their first and only encounter with him.
- SDG not meeting or seeing Pascal. :/
- No visit to the Snuggly Duckling and the Dam
- Rapunzel not a party member after hair is cut
- Marluxia feeling shoehorned in
- Rapunzel's tower feeling smaller than in cutscenes and not going inside the tower. :/
- Forest drags on for a while
- ONLY One major boss.


Monstropolis
Pros:
- Unversed are the enemies of this world, besides the Heartless
- One of the few Disney or Pixar worlds with an Original Plot
- Boo is back
- Randall is back as a major antagonist
- Scream Strike has the gang making funny faces during the parts where you fill up Boo’s laughter gauge
- Sora doing the Funny Face
- Sulley yeeting Vanitas through the Different doors
Cons:
- No boss fight against Randall, so you can thank Pixar for doing this (but unlike CLU, I can understand why is that, but still salty with Pixar being restrictive and overprotective)
- Only three types of non-Flood Unversed in this world
- Factory feels like a large dungeon and can easily get lost in some instances
- ONLY world where the Unversed appears.


Arendelle
Pros:
- Most of the cast from the film reprise their roles for this game
- The Boss fight against the Wolf Heartless (Skoll)
- Let it Go as a pre-rendered cutscene
- Marshmallow as a party member
- Larxene's Ice Labyrinth
- Larxene
- The humor in the world is funny
Cons:
- Minimal character interactions with the cast (except Marshmallow) compared to the Tangled world
- Not visiting the Town of Arendelle
- Unversed not appearing as the enemies for this world
- ONLY One major boss.
- No Oaken and the Trolls

The Caribbean
Pros:
- One of the best-designed worlds in the series both in size and design
- Jared Butler’s Jack Sparrow sounds more like Johnny Depp and less like James Arnold Taylor
- Graphics and models for the Live-action characters a massive improvement compared to the ones back in KH2 and DDD for the Tron: Legacy world
- Davy Jones is a boss and not ending up in the same fate as Randall and CLU.
- Port Royal section more lively and accurate to the movie
- Doing the plot of At World's End
- Sora remembers his encounter with Barbossa
- The sea and islands can be freely explored at any time
- Luxord less of a nuisance than how he was in KH2
- Pre-rendered cutscenes of Jack's meeting with Beckett and The Maelstrom/Endeavour's destruction.
Cons:
- The ship combat very tedious than it needs to be
- Bootstrap Bill and the Crew of the Dutchman being absent
- No visit to the Brethren Court

San Fransokyo
Pros:
- One of the few Disney worlds with an Original plot
- Sora and the gang help the Big Hero 6 with their powers and abilities to combat against the Heartless
- Continuation of the movie where it connects to the Baymax that was left behind at the portal.
- Baymax healing Sora in combat

Cons:
- Baymax being the ONLY party member for this world
- The rest of Big Hero 6 not being party members
- The Darkubes. How did they got here? Were they tied to the BugBlox in Coded? Well just like the Tootsie Pop commercial “the world may never know”.
- Donald and especially Goofy don't even recognize the Darkubes being similar to the Bug Bloxes they encountered from Coded.
- Sora thinking Dark Riku is really Riku (come on Sora you're better than that)
- Sora and his visor thinking that the stuff is either “on the display” (when encountering Dark Riku for the first time) or “HERE” (Seeing the Hologram Shadow Heartless when trying the visor)
- The Nobody Snipers being shoehorned in this world, given that they are associated with Xigbar and it's odd that he didn't visit this world.
- Maleficent and Pete searching for the Box and Book of Prophecies in San Fransokyo also shoehorned. Why snoop around searching for the items in a modern setting as San Fransokyo when they should’ve had them at Arendelle or The Caribbean instead, particularly the latter
- Two rooms (Hiro's Garage and a 1/4 of San Fransokyo)
- San Fransokyo just a small square
- Story went from One Conflict to another then it was over
- Story was rushed.

100 Acre Wood
Pros:
- Lumpy being in a KH game
- The visuals being reminiscent to a storybook
- 100 Acre Wood Characters are more expressive than in previous titles.
- Sora not wanting to lose his friends and Merlin's important quote: "Whatever is lost cafoundFound again."
Cons:
- Story felt rushed
- Same mini-games
- ONLY Rabbit's House

Can't help but notice that you really don't like Corona.I'm not disappointed or anything but, man that's a passionate dislike, man.

 

[DizneyXBirds95]

Can't help but notice that you really don't like Corona.I'm not disappointed or anything but, man that's a passionate dislike, man.

Sorry about that, but Honestly in my unpopular opinion Kingdom of Corona has been overpraised a lot in the KH fandom, and frankly I just wasn't to keen on the story being TOO Forced and Linear and preachy during the 2nd act onwards along with how Sora, Donald and Goofy in the last act just were "there" in the background and not acknowledged by the cast.

It's get's me cautiously skeptical that Disney will pull the same stint again if we wound up getting worlds, based on The Princess and the Frog, Wreck-it Ralph, Moana, Zootopia and especially the upcoming Raya and the Lost Dragon in a future KH game with the same stints and restrictions that were put in like the Tangled and Frozen worlds in KH3.

 

[disney233]

Sorry about that, but Honestly in my unpopular opinion Kingdom of Corona has been overpraised a lot in the KH fandom, and frankly I just wasn't to keen on the story being TOO Forced and Linear and preachy during the 2nd act onwards along with how Sora, Donald and Goofy in the last act just were "there" in the background and not acknowledged by the cast.

It's get's me cautiously skeptical that Disney will pull the same stint again if we wound up getting worlds, based on The Princess and the Frog, Wreck-it Ralph, Moana, Zootopia and especially the upcoming Raya and the Lost Dragon in a future KH game with the same stints and restrictions that were put in like the Tangled and Frozen worlds in KH3.

That's the problem with the Disney worlds not just in 3, but throughout the entire series. There wouldn't be any restrictions and the world would STILL be bland of repetition. I've always made my complaint on worlds that have the tendency to remake their Disney story; all of the Disney worlds (With the exception of Beast Castle & Space Paranoids) coming out bland and sometimes even makes me ponder WHY SDG, TAV, & The Organization even bother to go there when they contribute to nothing? There's more to the Disney worlds than just retelling their movie story, like...if we wanted THAT, we can just watch the movies. (Maybe that's Disney's intention here in Corona, Arendelle, & Caribbean...as a forceful advertisement to watch the movies. Arendelle makes sense along that line given how MILKED it is.) It's always been the same thing throughout the series, and it's WAAAY more noticeable in 3. Like I said, there's more to the worlds than shoddy movie retellings. Odds are, neither Square nor Disney cares to take that into account.

 

[Veevee]

Toy Story:
Pro: Loved the design. So many games and toys and all the colour. Gorgeous. Young Xehanort showing off with his teleporting abilities was great.
Con: Young Xehanort getting "roasted" by the most generic anti-bully response ever was pathetic and his appearance was pretty much a waste. Also, I hate Buzz, so I wanted to beat him up. Bummer.

Frozen:
Pro: I like the inclusion of an ice world. The keyblade is great, it's my favorite in 3.
Con: Mountain climbing x 3, the story made no sense, I had a big hype for Larxene who did pretty much nothing and made no sense in what little she did, the whole world is a complete waste of time.

Caribbean:
Pro: Gorgeous. I also liked the crab collecting. Putting Luxord in the same world where he was in 2.
Con: Story was poorly told and incomprehensible. Luxord didn't do much and we hardly got to know him any better.

Arendelle:
Pro: Duh .. liked the design. Love Pascal. The lights in the night sky were gorgeous. World looked amazing. Love the dandelion enemies. Great heartless design and Marluxia fit very well in the world.
Con: Hated the parts where Rapunzel was including because that took. so. long. Story made zero sense. Marluxia has suddenly awesome mind control and instant sleep powers that have never been mentioned and probably will never appear again, also doesn't do much with that except stalling the plot. Duh.

Toy Story:
Pro: ... I'm trying to find something I liked about the world, but I fail. Oh, well, I liked the inclusion of the plot in that aspect that Vanitas was revived by scream power. Made sense in a way.
Con: Really boring. Trailer bait.

San Fransokyo:
Pro: Big Hero 6 learn from Sora. Wallrunning is kinda fun.
Con: The ending was so cheesy. Ugh.

 

[Zettaflare]

KH3 has a pretty simple rule that most worlds follow, and once you see it it cannot be unseen. Basically, if the world has a good story, the gameplay will be stinky. If the world has a stinky story, the gameplay will be good. Olympus exists outside of this rule and will be ignored for making me look bad and wrong.

ANYWAYS.

Toy Box has a good story and stinky gameplay. Taking place after Toy Story 2 and telling a story that nearly breaks Toy Story lore is just so weird and awesome. Having Xehanort brainwash a paranoid Buzz Lightyear is just brilliant. The original setting of Galaxy Toys is also inspired and amazingly detailed. The issue here is that the amount of time spent in Gigas is just awful. One of the most boring mechanics in the entire game, and you're forced into it one too many times.

Corona has a stinky story and good gameplay. The retelling of Tangled's story is charming at times, but more often than not is clumsy and feels like it's missing important chunks of story. We witness no change in character from Eugene and Mother Gothel is almost entirely absent as a villain. However, travelling through the woodlands with no loading screens is awesome, as are our in-game interactions with Rapunzel. The bosses are also just great here.

Monster's Inc has a good story and stinky gameplay. This opinion has evolved over time, and is definitely one of the less extreme examples. Monster's doesn't REALLY have stinky gameplay, but there's so little on offer that's new that the world is missing a gameplay identity. Lump of Horror is a miserable boss with simple attacks and way too much health and defense. However, Mike and Sulley are wonderful companions and the in-universe explanation for Vanitas's reconstruction is just brilliant.

Arendelle has a stinky story and good gameplay. In this world, we get to watch the discount version of Frozen play out. It's so bad that people forgot to notice that this world has FOUR BOSS FIGHTS in the Rock Troll, Snow Dragons, Marshmallow, and Skoll. Marshmallow in particular is an extremely well designed boss, with Skoll being pretty good too. Sledding down the mountain, climbing on large, icy walls, and mowing enemies over with giant snowballs is a great time. Larxene's Nobodies are also fun to fight.

San Fransokyo has a good story and stinky gameplay. Best story in a KH world, ever. Sora and Hiro's heart to heart on the bridge was amazing, Dark Riku's manipulation of Hiro and Baymax was dripping with the best kind of Kingdom Hearts melodrama, and the very apparent progression of Sora's strength was just fun. But what isn't fun is three of the most dull boss fights in the entire game. The dinosaur volcano heartless is just a lame giant boss with no fun counterplay. Darkubes are easy, but take a long time due to having specific attack windows. Worst of all, Dark Baymax is a gimmick minigame fight set entirely on Baymax's back. Mechanically it just sucks and you really don't do one fun thing in this entire world.

The Caribbean has a stinky story and good gameplay. Yeah the story's a mess and Sora doesn't even play an important role in it. It's irrelevant. Even Luxord is just dicking around here. Huge waste of time. That said, aside from Raging Vulture, every gameplay moment is pure fucking magic. I love the giant fish boss, the crab collectathon in the new, awesome Port Royal, the ship battles, the islands full of treasure and intrigue. I even like the minigame Krakken fight. The crown jewel is the fight against Davy Jones, an amazing fight and awesome visual setpiece.

So what did we learn here? Well, we can see that the original stories are all awesome, and the retellings are all garbage. However, it seems like the retellings ended up staging better experiences to play through.

This turned into a micro review of KH3 and I'm not sorry about that

So basically the Disney worlds that told an original story were the best ones? I feel for Arendelle a plot set between the first film and Frozen 2 would have been so much better. I'd say the same for Caribbean but then we might not have gotten Davy as a boss

 

[Launchpad]

So basically the Disney worlds that told an original story were the best ones? I feel for Arendelle a plot set between the first film and Frozen 2 would have been so much better. I'd say the same for Caribbean but then we might not have gotten Davy as a boss

No. The worlds that told an original story were the worst in terms of gameplay scenarios.

 

[disney233]

No. The worlds that told an original story were the worst in terms of gameplay scenarios.

Worlds with an original story lacks in gameplay
Worlds with good gameplay lacks in original story

Kinda makes sense tbh.

 

[DizneyXBirds95]

That's the problem with the Disney worlds not just in 3, but throughout the entire series. There wouldn't be any restrictions and the world would STILL be bland of repetition. I've always made my complaint on worlds that have the tendency to remake their Disney story; all of the Disney worlds (With the exception of Beast Castle & Space Paranoids) coming out bland and sometimes even makes me ponder WHY SDG, TAV, & The Organization even bother to go there when they contribute to nothing? There's more to the Disney worlds than just retelling their movie story, like...if we wanted THAT, we can just watch the movies. (Maybe that's Disney's intention here in Corona, Arendelle, & Caribbean...as a forceful advertisement to watch the movies. Arendelle makes sense along that line given how MILKED it is.) It's always been the same thing throughout the series, and it's WAAAY more noticeable in 3. Like I said, there's more to the worlds than shoddy movie retellings. Odds are, neither Square nor Disney cares to take that into account.

At least the Disney worlds in the First KH game were tied together to the KH plot despite a few of them being a loose retelling of their films (e.g. Agrabah). Heck even the Nightmare Before Christmas world (Halloween Town) in the first KH game and especially KH2 were largely original storylines and unrelated to the movie's plot, incase you noticed.

 

[disney233]

At least the Disney worlds in the First KH game were tied together to the KH plot despite a few of them being a loose retelling of their films (e.g. Agrabah). Heck even the Nightmare Before Christmas world (Halloween Town) in the first KH game and especially KH2 were largely original storylines and unrelated to the movie's plot, incase you noticed.

See, literally, EVERY world in KH1 was an original story. With of course the exception of Agrabah, and that world alone introduced the plotline of the Princesses and Maleficent to Sora. I didn't at all add the KH1 story because...the story in the worlds had no problem. They were all leading up to the main plot, and keep in mind that was back when the plot was a bit...simplistic and the cast was smaller, and the FF characters felt at home, more than just being mere cameos. I honestly liked the worlds in KH1, they had meaning. Unfortunately, Disney worlds began to drift further away from the larger scale of things. Beast Castle, Timeless River, & Space Paranoids were worlds that were well integrated into the KH2 story and its main characters despite their story retelling. (I'd say perhaps even Port Royal, but only 2nd visit.) Aaaaand...that's when it ends. At that point, the Disney worlds were there...just for the sake of being there. Re:COM even proves my point. The Disney worlds didn't really add to the CO cutscenes for Sora, and Riku goes through those worlds....just because. That's literally it.

 

[DizneyXBirds95]

Corona:
Pro: Duh .. liked the design. Love Pascal. The lights in the night sky were gorgeous. World looked amazing. Love the dandelion enemies. Great heartless design and Marluxia fit very well in the world.
Con: Hated the parts where Rapunzel was including because that took. so. long. Story made zero sense. Marluxia has suddenly awesome mind control and instant sleep powers that have never been mentioned and probably will never appear again, also doesn't do much with that except stalling the plot. Duh.

No matter how much Marluxia thematically fit the world and how many of you expected him to appear he just felt shoehorned in Corona if you ask me.

On top of that even if Gothel and Rapunzel encountered him (ONCE), they never bring up his name for the majority of the world after meeting him. At least with Toy Box, Monstropolis, and San Fransokyo the inhabitants of the world do acknowledge the Organization XIII member instead of just brushing them off and pretend like it was nothing, even Xaldin was handled much better as the antagonist of Beast's Castle, than Marluxia.