The only thing that worries me in KH3 gameplay

[Andrealsant]

I want to know if I'm the only one who's worried about this.

I've been watching a lot of KH3 gameplay from Gamescom/other events, and every video it looks like Sora is ice-skating on the ground; it really bugs me that he sometimes moves to the left and to the right while still facing forward, like he's sliding instead of running. It reminds me of old games that didn't have collision detection between the character and the ground. I hoped it would be fixed in later videos but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Is the reason for this because Sora has to move faster now that the maps are larger? If so, I am the only one who doesn't like it?

 

[Echoecho6]

Well I know Aquas movement in 0.2 felt kinda off putting to me. I think you are right about it compensating for the larger maps.

 

[Nazo]

Any chance you could post a link to a video that you think demonstrates what you're talking about? Because I agree that the increased movement speed is to account for the map size increase, but I'm not sure what you're referring to by the "ice skating" movement thing.

 

[Meow Wow]

In watching the demos, I've never seen the "sliding left and right" thing while Sora was on the ground but I have noticed it running up walls in the Olympus demo

It's a little jarring but definitely not something that ruins the game

 

[Andrealsant]

https://youtu.be/TofVxOXNUTA
In the Gamescom interview/gameplay with IGN, you can see more clearly what I'm referring to between 6:38 and 6:52 (this kind of "floaty" movement of Sora's that doesn't really look natural). I understand why it looks that way, it just looks very odd compared to how "realistic" the weight in the animation looked in KH1 and 2

 

[Nazo]

Okay, I see what you're referring to. It's easy to see at about the 3:41 mark exactly. The movement does look a little off, I agree. I wouldn't describe it as "floaty" per se, but rather it almost looks like Sora's forward movement in response to the control stick and his running animation aren't fully aligned whenever he changes direction as he's running, so you get this sort of "moving forward while running in place" type of look.

One thing to keep in mind though is that you aren't going to see any improvement in this footage over time. This is the exact same demo that was used for the KH3 Premiere. At the time of that event, that was already an "older" build of the game, which means that demo is now quite a bit older than what SQEX is currently working on. Demos typically don't get any sort of update or patch (unless you're FFXV, I guess) so seeing this little animation bug continue to pop up over time is to be expected because it isn't being updated. It's not as if Square is making new versions of the demo as they make improvements over time. For all we know, lots of bugs and mechanics have been updated but we won't be able to see them by watching the demo footage because that isn't representative of the current build that Square is working on. So, if this does end up being fixed, you won't see it until a newer build of the game is presented to us.

 

[Launchpad]

It's not as if Square is making new versions of the demo as they make improvements over time. For all we know, lots of bugs and mechanics have been updated but we won't be able to see them by watching the demo footage because that isn't representative of the current build that Square is working on. So, if this does end up being fixed, you won't see it until a newer build of the game is presented to us.

That would be true of any other company besides Square, but for whatever reason, they're pretty infamous for updating public demos. 0.2 saw a revision or two publicly before it even was released, with graphical changes and physics changes. I don't know this for a fact, but the KH3 demo seems to have received a revision in that Sora moves more quickly to the ground during air combos.

If the movement is anything like 0.2, we're gonna have some annoying issues to look forward to. Aqua would get snagged on geometry and miss jumps very frequently, and the movement options didn't feel fun or intuitive at all, a major step back from KH2 and DDD, which both were quite tight in their controls. The reason for this new sluggishness is that SE has diversified and added more detail to the way characters move around. Sora won't just pivot on a dime when turning around anymore, the game more smoothly animates Sora's movements, which lends to the game aesthetically, but removes a fair degree of player control. I prefer a game to always put its controls and game-feel first before trying to be fancy, but SE has always had a flair for aesthetic.

 

[Nazo]

That would be true of any other company besides Square, but for whatever reason, they're pretty infamous for updating public demos. 0.2 saw a revision or two publicly before it even was released, with graphical changes and physics changes. I don't know this for a fact, but the KH3 demo seems to have received a revision in that Sora moves more quickly to the ground during air combos.

If the movement is anything like 0.2, we're gonna have some annoying issues to look forward to. Aqua would get snagged on geometry and miss jumps very frequently, and the movement options didn't feel fun or intuitive at all, a major step back from KH2 and DDD, which both were quite tight in their controls. The reason for this new sluggishness is that SE has diversified and added more detail to the way characters move around. Sora won't just pivot on a dime when turning around anymore, the game more smoothly animates Sora's movements, which lends to the game aesthetically, but removes a fair degree of player control. I prefer a game to always put its controls and game-feel first before trying to be fancy, but SE has always had a flair for aesthetic.

Excellent points. And you're absolutely right about Square's preference for flashy animations and graphics over tight controls and gameplay.

One thing I really don't like in 0.2/KH3 are those little terrain sparkles that allow you to do parkour stuff. In 0.2 they felt SO off mainly because you had zero control over them. I had assumed it would be something like Assassin's Creed where you hold down a button and then move, which triggers a running animation and then if you interact with the terrain during said running animation, you begin climbing. I figured something similar would happen in 0.2 where you'd hold down a button and then move towards the little sparkle and then your button input would respond to the sparkle and perform the action. But no, you literally just walk into them and the game takes over. Walking forward and having the game just suddenly grab Aqua and make her jump across a couple spires despite the fact that all you're doing as the player is moving the control stick forward feels VERY weird and I don't like it at all.

And I'm not expecting that to be changed much if at all, so I guess we're in for some wonky movement controls in KH3, at least at first. They patched 0.2 in response to fan feedback, so I definitely won't be surprised if KH3 gets a big post-launch patch in response to critique from the fans over certain little bugs and suggestions.

 

[UltimaXOmega]

I'm a bit concerned with normal combos after playing.

 

[Andrealsant]

I always thought the demos were constantly updated, guess I'll wait for the next trailer (in TGS) to see if they changed the character's movements.
I saw a video that perfectly described this issue as a "lack of diagonal movement" in the game (especially during the wall-running segments). I think that's exactly it, Sora won't move diagonally, it always looks like he is running forward while he's changing directions.
All in all, the game still looks perfect and I can't wait to play it; KH is one of those games where the gameplay is nice, but what everyone is actually excited about is the content (worlds, bosses, the story).

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I'm a bit concerned with normal combos after playing.

I think that will change once we know how abilities work in this game.

 

[Nazo]

I'm very curious about the abilities and combo modifiers in this game. So far we've only seen the same few base combos. And when you first start KH1 or 2, the combat isn't super smooth or satisfying right from the get-go because you have to build up your abilities as you level up. So, hopefully the standard combat in KH3 follows suit and looks/feels more fluid and satisfying once you unlock more abilities.