Specific Aspects You Loved About KH3

[kaseykockroach]

Figured we could use a companion/contrasting thread to the disappointment thread hanging about.

-Trinity trio. This is pretty much “Sora Donald and Goofy: The Game” as far as I’m concerned, even moreso than KH1 or 2, something of which I’ve longed for ever since being disappointed at KH2’s final boss sticking me with Sora’s goth boyfriend rather than the pals that stuck with me the whole game up until then.

-Exploration, baby! It feels so, so, SO good to run around and explore in a KH game again, especially in worlds so teeming with life/NPC’s! Diving into the waters in the caribbean with Donald and Goofy and exploring dark mysterious caves was a bliss I haven’t felt since Traverse Town in KH1. I know that’s old news by now, but I’m still in the process of washing away the pain and dull agony of KH2. Fourth time playing and I still get a juvenile ecstatic joy of the game basically saying “Here are the open seas. Take your pals and go wherever you’d like! What, Jack needs your help? Yeah, they can wait, whatever. Go have fun.”

 

[Face My Fears]

I loved KH3 so much. I'm not sure how to order what I loved, so I'm just going to list them out as they come to me:

1. The Gummi Ship was such a great upgrade. I really hope that for numbered games they stick with this design and continue to improve it. Maybe optional worlds are kept off the map and you stumble onto them while flying around (Proud/Critical mode feature). Maybe even an online Gummi vs. Gummi mode.
2. Disney worlds are so huge and distinct. KH1 had limited capabilities in how to capture the essence of the Disney worlds, but KH3 really made them all feel unique. Not only were they visually stunning, but the way you battle in them/travel through them and the amount of detail in them is just astounding. The Caribbean literally feels like its own game.
3. Getting the gang back together in Sora/Donald/Goofy, I loved so much, especially at the end when Sora was going to fight Xehanort on his own and then you see Donald and Goofy walking by your side. YES!
4. The music is phenomenal. I loved Face My Fears and Don't Think Twice, and all the mash-ups featured in the game and original world music is so good.
5. Critical mode really takes the game to another level. I'm appreciating the game WAY more and it's not just "hard for being hard sake", it's actually fun. Whenever I play KH2 Critical Mode, the only time it feels like an actual challenge is the data battles/Lingering Will. I still find KH2's story mode easy on Critical, but KH3 made the experience something I never actually played in a KH game -- the story mode itself is challenging/engaging.
6. The use of Disney tying in to the main story and actually ALLOWING Disney characters to speak to/interact with the Organization members was so refreshing. I used to get so annoyed in KH2 when some outside character would say something and the Disney characters were conveniently not in the scene. It always felt like this invisible wall between main plot and Disney worlds, but KH3 sort of removed it and I loved that. Sora even REMEMBERS/ACKNOWLEDGES Disney worlds AFTER leaving them, which he never used to do.
7. I LOVE the focus on Keyblade in KH3. The ability to alternate between 3 of them during gameplay is an idea that should have been in place since KH1 and 2 (because those games had way more keyblades and cooler designs). The Keyblade forge also should have been in the earlier games, so that you could use your favourite keyblade throughout the game and not just move on to the more powerful one. The keyblade transformations (especially in Critical mode) have proven to be a strategic part of the combat. (Side note: I disabled attractions, so I find the combat to be way more fun without them and only have shotlock/grand magic/keyblade transformations).
8. Even in a game where I was supposed to know everything that was going on (IE no more "surprise" reveals or plot twists), KH3 managed to pull a KH and confuse me with a bunch of KH-esque madness going on. Some people may not like that type of storytelling, but to me that's just KH being KH which I love. I love the mysteries and questions that KH brings up, and even though the execution for some may have negatively affected KH3's plot/focus, I still enjoyed that KH3 brought that mystique and wonder that past KH games delivered.

(There's definitely more, but I need to go eat so I'm ending the list here).

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

SDG. Their interactions were the highlight of the game.

The worlds themselves were exciting to explore.

Keyblade Upgrading is something I’ve wanted to carry over from Re:coded and UX.

The sheer abundance of Sora’s animations.

Everything that involved Riku.

Xehanort and Eraqus.

The Final World as a concept.

 

[Zettaflare]

Keyblade transformations were a great addition

Donald vaporizing Terranort is my absolute favorite moment in the series so far.

The fact that some of the Disney worlds and Twilight Town had NPC. Felt nice to be around actual people.

I liked the summon choices despite Disney's restrictions. I especially like that they were modeled after the five classical elements.

The Disney characters actually having a physical impact on the original villains

Some of the goodbyes from the organization members were heartwarming

 

[VoidGear.]

Riku was as soft a bean as always.
Riku for president. Someone fetch me a bro like that.

Meow Wow. While I hold deep hatred for Flowmotion (no thanks, 3D), I love Dream Eaters, so thanks, 3D, for this blessing. I would commit actual crimes for the happiness of this catdog-floofer.

The music. Sure, that ain't a surprise, but it's worth mentioning.

Riku. For real.

Water magic. The combination of protection and attack that it offers. It differs highly from reflect, that's for sure, but I still think it was executed decently.

Gumiship travel was so much more acceptable. It's not some sort of revolutionary amazingness mega concept, but huge improvement.

Stan Riku. I'm not joking here, he's like half the reason I can't fully hate this game.

 

[kaseykockroach]

I wish I got to see how they explained to Tony Anselamo what the heck Zettaflare is.

 

[KH_Is_Light_999]

I loved a lot of things about Kingdom Hearts III. There's way too many things I loved about it to list them all, but the sheer amount of things I was impressed by overtakes any of the negative aspects for me. There are just way too many amazing things in Kingdom Hearts III to call the game as a whole "disappointing" or "a failure" like some people seem so fixated on. I won't go on about that, though. I'll just say, here are some of the things I loved about Kingdom Hearts III:

1. The music. Yoko Shimomura outdid herself once again. There were some absolutely beautiful scores in Kingdom Hearts III, as well as plenty of fantastically fitting themes to levels, characters, and environments. I know it's not likely, but it would be really nice to be able to purchase a Kingdom Hearts III soundtrack on iTunes.
2. Most of the Disney worlds were massive in scale. I love this. The Caribbean, Kingdom of Corona, The Toybox, and Arendelle were all so fun to explore and find all kinds of little details in. The only world that wasn't massive was The Hundred Acre Wood, and even then it was still filled with detail.
3. The Lucky Emblems. I can't express enough how much I love this feature in KH3. Searching for hidden mickeys throughout each of the Disney worlds (and Twilight Town) was extremely fun for me and made me feel like I was at Disneyland.
4. The Gummi Ship. The gummi ship was better than ever thanks to some massive areas to explore that had almost as much to discover as the worlds themselves.
5. This is one some may disagree with, but I love the way things were wrapped up with various characters. Some people complain that "there should have been more" or "There wasn't enough of [fill in the blank]" when it comes to character development. For me, it was all just right. Yes, I loved that everyone was hugging and crying tears of joy. That was beautiful, and it was realistically the best way to show how the characters truly felt being reunited, even if it was more brief than some people may have expected. I loved the ways that

   Spoiler Show

   Terra, Ventus, and Aqua were reunited and how their stories came to a conclusion

   , and I also loved the ways that

   Spoiler Show

   Axel's, Roxas', and Xion's character arcs came to a close, and how they were reunited along with Isa. Even Hayner, Pence, and Olette joined them to have ice cream at their favorite spot in Twilight Town. That was so beautiful, and I thought it was the perfect conclusion to their story.

   Everything in that regard was really great to me.
6. I love that keybaldes could be powered up. Now I can use whichever keyblade I want as along as I power it up enough!
7. I love the opening movie with Utada Hikaru's "Face My Fears". It was so action packed and beautiful, and I thought it was perfect for the opening of Kingdom Hearts III.
8. Another one that some may disagree with, but I love the ending. It may have been

   Spoiler Show

   bittersweet

   , but it was still absolutely beautiful and very true to how Kingdom Hearts as a series has always been.
9. As with any Kingdom Hearts game, I love the end credits. I always love the credits for Kingdom Hearts games, and KH3's credits were just as beautiful, and musically and visually powerful as always.
10. I love that the series will continue after this. I don't think Testuya Nomura is trying to drag on this story just for the heck of it, like some people have said. I feel that Kingdom Hearts III still had plenty of story in it, and since it's not the final definitive end to the series, I felt completely fine with the

    Spoiler Show

    cliffhangers involving Sora and Kairi, as well as the cliffhanger regarding the black box.

11. I love the inclusion of summons such as Ariel, Simba, and Stitch. They helped include more Disney properties in the game without having to make whole worlds out of them. I thought that was a great way to include previously used Disney properties in KH3 without using those worlds all over again.
12. I love the humor in the game. There were some great moments I find very entertaining. And lines like "I don't computer, so do that." still make me laugh.
13. Another one that some may disagree with, but I love the mystery surrounding different things in Kingdom Hearts III. Particularly

    Spoiler Show

    The Final World, Scala ad Caelum, and of course the black box

14. I loved that there were not one, but three playable characters. I knew I would play as Riku during a fight or two, thanks to the trailers, but I was pleasantly surprised when I also got to play as

    Spoiler Show

    Aqua.

15. I love the combat. Even though standard mode was a little too easy for me, it was still really fun and exciting. Everything in the combat just flows so well. Not only the combat, but just running around and exploring the environments flows so well too.
16. I love that they added Critical mode. I'm currently replaying the game on critical mode, and it's a lot more difficult to me. I'm really grateful that they took the time to add that for us, and for free too.
17. As with any Kingdom Hearts game, I love that unique beauty that is really only found in Kingdom Hearts. There's something about the artwork, characters, narrative themes, music, and overall presentation that's just so beautiful and inspiring. Kingdom Hearts III was full of that beauty, and I am so blown away by how powerful and special it is.
18. I love the epilogue and secret movie. Both set up things that I'm excited to see more of.
19. I love the cover art for the game. It's so beautiful, and it's my favorite box art ever for a Kingdom Hearts game.
20. I love the scene in the secret forest with Axel and Kairi. As with a lot of other things, it's just absolutely beautiful.
21. I love that Kairi finally learned to use the keyblade. Not as well as Sora or Riku, of course, but I still love that she became a keyblade wielder. I don't think she was useless either. As a Princess of the Heart it was thanks to her that

    Spoiler Show

    the guardians of light were able to come back after being defeated the first time

    . I know that doesn't have to do with using the keyblade, but it still shows that she wasn't useless like some people say. And really, she just started learning to use the keyblade. Give her a break guys. Kairi did great.
22. I love the climax. I felt so engaged and on the edge of my seat during the moments in

    Spoiler Show

    The Keyblade Graveyard. The Final World, and Scala ad Caelum.

23. I love the symbolism of the chess game between the boy in black and the boy in white. I especially love how

    Spoiler Show

    Eraqus and Xehanort make peace in the end, and pass on from this life together

24. I love that there will be DLC. I'm excited to learn more about it.
25. I love the inclusion of Union x. It helps bring the entire timeline together. And that moment when

    Spoiler Show

    all the fallen keyblade wielders with their actual names from that promotion in Union x come to help Sora in the Keybalde Graveyard

    was fantastic.
26. Most of all, I love that for me personally, the long wait was worth it. I know not everyone feels that way, but for me, the six year wait was worth it.

 

[kaseykockroach]

I actually love that the final save point pretty much gets it own unique music, a track solely devoted to your final moment of rest. Scala is a very atypical kind of area for a final boss.

 

[Lulcy]

Love might be a strong word (cause I was never close to getting to that level) but there were aspects that I was either pleased with or enjoyed quite a bit:

Gummi Ship navegation. In previous games they were nothing more than padding between Worlds and extremely on-rails, free-roaming navegation was right step in improving this inconsequential (and unnecesary) mini-game from the mainline titles.

Keyblade Transformations. They are flashy and give a decent amount of extra combat options to Sora's gameplay.

Verticality to the worlds. No longer the flat enviroments and levels that we have been getting after KH1, and it only took 17 years...

Graphics, visual design and aesthetics. The game is sure very eye-candy.

Ship combat and exploration on the Caribbean World. It was decently enjoyable.

The endgame boss-rush in the last World. Historically boss fights in the franchise were most of the times were againts one enemy, two at the same time happening only once in a blue moon, and imo KH3 pulled the 3 simulataneous boss at the same time pretty well.

 

[redcrown]

I love how the game actually acknowledged Jiminy Cricket's existence this time and how he helped guide Sora and kept his spirits up when finding the other GoL's lost hearts. They could have easily just made it into a "Sora journeys alone to find them" situation but they didn't. Jiminy really was the ace in the whole for them bringing the Big Bads down.

To me Jiminy's voice of reason and fatherly love for Sora has been one of my favorite aspects of the series, with his prominent role in CoM being especially fond for me personally. I think his character has overall been criminally underrated throughout the series, and KH3 actually utilized his role with the respect he's long deserved since CoM.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

Aw shit, here we go again.

- The visit in Corona is by far the most beautiful, with some small yet appreciated details and interactions that really manage to make the environment stand out and be memorable. Also you can go from treading into the woods to a lively town, which is nice and reminds me of the different feel some areas in KH1 worlds had. Barring what they did with the characters, is for sure a pretty world.

- Lucky Emblems and photo missions join treasure chests in being a fun collection for those who like me feel a rush in just seeing those big checkmarks and leaving a world with a 100% completion. After a couple of runs I also already memorized all of them, too.

- Larxene is an absolute queen and rules every scene she's in. We complain about the disservice made to so many characters and how it was clear they didn't understand what to do with them, but at least they showed they were aware Larxene got her own fan pool and people wanted to see her ramped up to eleven.
"Ugh. Xemnas" and "I didn't ask for your garbage opinion" are M O O D S.
God, Shanelle Grey should be a national treasure. Of every nation.

- I will never get over just how good Toy Box's "calm" theme and San Fransokyo Day theme are.

- The Final World is a pretty zen moment and I find myself collecting 333 Soras not for the HP upgrade, but simply because I'm having mindless fun just zipping around in a relaxing scenery thinking about stuff.
It's the Pooh's Book I didn't get.

- Woody's moment with Young was criticized by some and put on the same tier as Yeetus Vanitas, but to me it was nice, a good way of making Disney relevant and "badass" without dumbing down the other party.

- As someone who doesn't really gush over the graphics of every single game (I deem them to be 100% a secondary aspect in a videogame, and at some point we'll finally get over iper-realistic graphics and just accept them as a natural progression of technology and not a stroke of genius), the Caribbeans are gorgeous, especially Sandbar Island. If only they made the islands a teensy bit more varied and wrote the story visit around them, this would've potentially been the best world.

- The single city part of Twilight Town is probably my favourite spot of the entire game. There the game truly makes use of the NPCs and improved assets to bring a piece of scenery and atmosphere that wouldn't lose against KH1's best (except, alas, in size and content).

- This game's Ultima Weapon and Final Form are actually clean. I love that Ultima's awakened state is that of a proper sword.

- Despite me not liking the overall dialogue or finding it pretty meh most of the time, I like how expressive some characters got, and I want to believe the voice actors also appreciated being able to express more feelings throughout their lines.

What... a journey you and I have had... Your strenght is vaster than darkness. [...] What? It is time to move on, boy... There is more to seek... so go forth now, and seek it...

 

[Elysium]

Yeah, I didn't expect Larxene to be as funny as she was. Her and Sora's conversation is one of my favorites in the game. "Look at you getting all sassy."

I liked that Hayner still got dialogue in this game. I thought HPO would only have a couple of lines and then become part of the scenery (and then show up again in the ending cinematics with Roxas). I've never been a Twilight Town fan, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. All the NPCs and the theme upgrade really did a lot for the place.

I would write more, but I think it would just be the same I wrote for that positivity thread from a week ago.

 

[Zach2]

I loved the part where Sora and Kairi shared the paopu fruit

 

[Absent]

The callback that Nobodies can’t be damaged by normal weapons/items in Corona.

The scene with Gothel and the Nobodies is the confirmation that she and Marluxia did plot together because she “defeated” one without a special weapon.

 

[Deleted member]

- Woody's moment with Young was criticized by some and put on the same tier as Yeetus Vanitas

i'm sorry, people criticize those scenes???

i can't anymore.

 

[kaseykockroach]

My guess is, no one’s ever loved those people before.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

The scene between Demyx and Vexen is the best thing to ever happen in this series.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

The relationship of Sora, Donald and Goofy. I found them somewhat stale in many parts of KH2, but they really shined in this game. These guys make the ultimate team. Even though Donald and Sora roast one another, you can feel the BFF relationship between them. They were outstanding.

After the Grim Reaper bit, the Keyblade Graveyard was incredible. Not 100% perfect, but it gave me moments I have been waiting forever for and are now my favorite. You know the ones. When I finally get brave and play Critical Mode, I can't wait to get to the Keyblade Graveyard again for those bosses and cutscenes in Blu-Ray high def again. I can't wait. I'll need my tissue box.

The Disney Worlds all look beautiful. They are also so much fun to play in. I loved playing in Olympus/Thebes, Toy Box, Kingdom of Corona, and the Caribbean in particular. I had a rough start with the Caribbean but it all worked out in the end. They were all so much fun to explore and find new things, and they were so huge.

I know some say it's too easy but I love the combat and the Keyblade Transformations. They were fun to spam on swarms of Heartless and made level grinding on Proud Mode lots of fun. The attractions were okay in moderation. But there were times they got in my way.

Minus Marluxia and Larxene, I enjoyed the Organization members in the Disney Worlds. Especially Luxord. He really stepped up his game and felt like the true main antagonist of the Caribbean. We raced him, fought his very fancy pirate ship, he's involved with the main plot. Luxord was working overtime this game and I appreciate it. Vanitas, Young Xehanort, and even Dark Riku had cool moments as well.

Sora and Kairi paopu fruit scene. Been waiting years for it and it finally happened. My inner childhood exploded with happiness.

Just seeing every major character in updated unreal engine graphics made me squeal. Didn't matter who it was, every time I saw a Kingdom Hearts character in these graphics I got excited.

How important Replicas ended up being in the series. I keep saying it, Replicas are the new Nobodies. I hope they explore more with these weird toys.

The callbacks to the series. KH3 has many callbacks to many of the other Kingdom Hearts games. Be it music, situations, bringing something back, or looking similar to a scene from a old game. It's fun to spot them all.

There's more but I'll leave it at that. While I do have many complaints about KH3, I did overall enjoy it and for me the good outweighs the bad.

 

[ryushin5]

Even though I hated the world I loved the final boss for Arendelle. The whole thing was so cinematic and my favorite part has to be where the wolf turns into a dark moon and it starts raining darkness and then starts crashing down and Sora and Marshmallow are holding it back. Just so good!

 

[Absent]

Donald and Goofy calling out to Sora through the remote control. It reminded me of Undertale.