The Pro's and Con's of KH3

[bp2448]

So unlike most people on these forums (or at least what I am assuming), I haven't played every game in the series and have only played the games accessible to Playstation 2. I have been waiting a long time for this game and have been anxious like a little kid ever since they released the launch date. After finishing it, I had a lot of joys and let downs that followed:

Pros:
- The graphics are unreal and all the small details that they put into each world is insane (especially the Caribbean).

- The form change ability on the Keyblade is a great new feature that really sets it apart from past games

- The attraction feature, especially

Spoiler Show

Thunder mountain express

, is a jaw dropper

-

Spoiler Show

Defeating each of the members in the final world was a gratifying feeling

- I am a big fan of the emblem feature, just as Disneyland has hidden Mickey Mouse's hidden around the whole park

- battle gates were a fun post-game add in

Cons:
- The Gummi Ship new exploration mode was a good idea, but the control of it just doesn't fit right

- None of the worlds really didn't have that depth when it came to plot. Worlds like Frozen, Caribbean, and Tangled felt like I was just replaying the movie over again and it didn't feel like SDG even played into the plot. Like Hundred Acre Woods, what the hell was that?

- Half the damn game was cutscenes, and it felt so much shorter than previous games because there were so many cutscenes.

- No Final Fantasy characters was a shame. I know that they must have wanted to switch it up, but they have been using these characters and it feels like they could have perfectly ended this chapter in this game.
I know we all wanted a Cloud or Sora final clash with Sephiroth

- The abundance of attractions, form changes, and team attacks makes combat very easy. They should have made the last game in the series a challenge and make the player focus more on tactics, rather than a pirate ship coming in and thrashing everyone in a 50 foot radius.

- Not only did the worlds not have a lot of plot, but they also felt rushed. In KH2, playing through the initial Twighlight town, visiting all the worlds and completing them, THEN having to do them all over again for some small missions and a boss fight was brilliant. Plus, worlds inside of other worlds was a nice touch (like timeless river or space paranoids)

- Not a lot of post game material. KH1 had all the secret bosses and Olympus coliseum, KH2 had a more extensive Olympus Coliseum and other small missions.

- Only 2 non-heartless bosses in the worlds, and they also needed more mini bosses like previous games had. Also, with ORG XIII members coming into each world, you would think you would fight a couple along the way but it just ended up giving blue balls throughout the game.

-Very corny


Summary
All in all I was happy about the third game and had a blast doing it, but I felt like they rushed it and could've made minor improvements that would have been major upgrades. I might be biased towards KH2, but I believe they should've stayed closer to what they did in that game instead of trying to experiment on new ideas in KH3. If they took the KH2 basics and implemented new worlds, better graphics, and the form change ability, I would've been perfectly happy. I didn't have that gratifying feeling after completing the game like I did after beating Ansem in KH1 or Xemnas in KH2. Not to be corny, but it didn't have that magic like the previous first two games had. Honestly, I might go replay them just because they were that good. This game should've been a nice conclusion to the series, but instead it has me wanting more..

Sidenote: If you were to use a single orchialum to craft some accessory, could you still form the Ultima Weapon? Or are there only 7 in the game.

Let me know what other things you would've liked them to change in the game.

 

[Sinanxis2]

Yes! I completely agree. Going through the Disney worlds gave me very little satisfaction :-/ plus I was kind of expecting/hoping that there would be a second round in each world, but I figured that it wouldn’t be the case since they added the title of the world every time (just like they did in kh2 when you finished the world the second time).

Also, I felt that in KH1 and 2 (and also BBB if I remember correctly) you were forced to re-visit the worlds because there were minor updates, so that gave you the feeling that the game was longer because you had travel backwards and forwards.

As you said, the game was great and the graphics were mind blowing, but it lacked the magic it had in the previous games... or maybe I’m just getting old T_T

... as I final note... I feel as if I have even more questions compared to usual (kind of frustrating) which makes me feel as if Nomura is trying to bait us to buy more, which has always been the case of course, but it feels more than usual. Maybe because it’s the end of the saga and doesn’t want people to drop KH?

With Kingdom Hearts there’s always been this “Waiting Game” which is fine, I just hope it’s not transforming into a Frustrating Game in some respects.

 

[MATGSY]

PRO: Worlds based on CGI films look almost identical. I swear THAT scene in Arendelle was put in just as much for the purpose of showing off the graphics.

PRO: Toy Box is an extremely well designed world. I say this as a guy with a hatred for vertical levels in games, it used vertical space very well. It never takes very long to get from any spot to another because it all revolves around a central hub.

PRO: Keyblade Graveyard is top to bottom epic in it's battles & beautiful in it's resolution of long dangling plot threads.

PRO: The crab hunt was silly & that pirate fleet blocking the way to Davy Jones was an annoying road block that forced me to grind, but The Caribbean might be 1 of overall best Disney worlds in the series & a massive step

- Only 2 non-heartless bosses in the worlds, and they also needed more mini bosses like previous games had. Also, with ORG XIII members coming into each world, you would think you would fight a couple along the way but it just ended up giving blue balls throughout the game.

-Rock Titan
-Ice/Lava/Tornado Titans
-Assorted Toys (admittedly possessed by heartless)
-Marshmellow
-Davy Jones
-Dark Baymax

I mean if you're only counting the endbosses sure. As for mini-bosses I'd say a couple of worlds had too many of them! ^_^ Sometimes I got thrown into a bossfight before even reaching a save point in a world. That said....

CON: No Zurg or Randall or Hades or even Maleficent bossfights.

CON: Elsa not a party member or Link summon.

CON: Kairi.

CON: Sora does freaking everything, take a shot everytime he looks to other keyblade wielders & says "No, I'll do it."

CON: SDG's lack of involvement with the movie plots of Corona, Arendelle & Caribbean. Those worlds go so far out of their way to keep the party away from the locals for as much as possible.

CON: The Hundred Foot Woods

CON: No Stan Lee cameo in San Fransokyo. It would've been a fitting send-off for the King of Cameos to appear in a franchise loaded with them.

 

[TruestSyn]

So unlike most people on these forums (or at least what I am assuming), I haven't played every game in the series and have only played the games accessible to Playstation 2. I have been waiting a long time for this game and have been anxious like a little kid ever since they released the launch date. After finishing it, I had a lot of joys and let downs that followed:

Pros:
- The graphics are unreal and all the small details that they put into each world is insane (especially the Caribbean).

- The form change ability on the Keyblade is a great new feature that really sets it apart from past games

- The attraction feature, especially

Spoiler Show

Thunder mountain express

, is a jaw dropper

-

Spoiler Show

Defeating each of the members in the final world was a gratifying feeling

- I am a big fan of the emblem feature, just as Disneyland has hidden Mickey Mouse's hidden around the whole park

- battle gates were a fun post-game add in

Cons:
- The Gummi Ship new exploration mode was a good idea, but the control of it just doesn't fit right

- None of the worlds really didn't have that depth when it came to plot. Worlds like Frozen, Caribbean, and Tangled felt like I was just replaying the movie over again and it didn't feel like SDG even played into the plot. Like Hundred Acre Woods, what the hell was that?

- Half the damn game was cutscenes, and it felt so much shorter than previous games because there were so many cutscenes.

- No Final Fantasy characters was a shame. I know that they must have wanted to switch it up, but they have been using these characters and it feels like they could have perfectly ended this chapter in this game.
I know we all wanted a Cloud or Sora final clash with Sephiroth

- The abundance of attractions, form changes, and team attacks makes combat very easy. They should have made the last game in the series a challenge and make the player focus more on tactics, rather than a pirate ship coming in and thrashing everyone in a 50 foot radius.

- Not only did the worlds not have a lot of plot, but they also felt rushed. In KH2, playing through the initial Twighlight town, visiting all the worlds and completing them, THEN having to do them all over again for some small missions and a boss fight was brilliant. Plus, worlds inside of other worlds was a nice touch (like timeless river or space paranoids)

- Not a lot of post game material. KH1 had all the secret bosses and Olympus coliseum, KH2 had a more extensive Olympus Coliseum and other small missions.

- Only 2 non-heartless bosses in the worlds, and they also needed more mini bosses like previous games had. Also, with ORG XIII members coming into each world, you would think you would fight a couple along the way but it just ended up giving blue balls throughout the game.

-Very corny


Summary
All in all I was happy about the third game and had a blast doing it, but I felt like they rushed it and could've made minor improvements that would have been major upgrades. I might be biased towards KH2, but I believe they should've stayed closer to what they did in that game instead of trying to experiment on new ideas in KH3. If they took the KH2 basics and implemented new worlds, better graphics, and the form change ability, I would've been perfectly happy. I didn't have that gratifying feeling after completing the game like I did after beating Ansem in KH1 or Xemnas in KH2. Not to be corny, but it didn't have that magic like the previous first two games had. Honestly, I might go replay them just because they were that good. This game should've been a nice conclusion to the series, but instead it has me wanting more..

Sidenote: If you were to use a single orchialum to craft some accessory, could you still form the Ultima Weapon? Or are there only 7 in the game.

Let me know what other things you would've liked them to change in the game.

On your sidenote: Orichalcum + are the item there is only 7 of, you can farm Orichalcum in asteroids in the gummi ship. It is impossible to lose Calc+. You can't even sell them.

 

[drew0512]

Y

Also, I felt that in KH1 and 2 (and also BBB if I remember correctly) you were forced to re-visit the worlds because there were minor updates, so that gave you the feeling that the game was longer because you had travel backwards and forwards.

Umh, no. KH2 is the only game that forces you to re-visit worlds and 90% of the time it's completely unnecessary. KH3 does give worlds minor updates, just go to Olympus once you're done with the story.

 

[Neo_]

I actually saw this in a YouTube video, but the cutscenes are too long, drag and are too frequent. Sometimes I feel tempted to skip them cause I just want to play the game (it's a game, not a movie).

I feel like (especially mandatory) Heartless encounters are longer than usual to compensate for a true lack of difficulty.

Team attacks and Keyblade transformations happen way too much that I feel like someone is gonna get a seizure.

 

[Sora2016]

Cons:
- The Gummi Ship new exploration mode was a good idea, but the control of it just doesn't fit right

- None of the worlds really didn't have that depth when it came to plot. Worlds like Frozen, Caribbean, and Tangled felt like I was just replaying the movie over again and it didn't feel like SDG even played into the plot. Like Hundred Acre Woods, what the hell was that?

- Half the damn game was cutscenes, and it felt so much shorter than previous games because there were so many cutscenes.

- No Final Fantasy characters was a shame. I know that they must have wanted to switch it up, but they have been using these characters and it feels like they could have perfectly ended this chapter in this game.
I know we all wanted a Cloud or Sora final clash with Sephiroth

- The abundance of attractions, form changes, and team attacks makes combat very easy. They should have made the last game in the series a challenge and make the player focus more on tactics, rather than a pirate ship coming in and thrashing everyone in a 50 foot radius.

- Not only did the worlds not have a lot of plot, but they also felt rushed. In KH2, playing through the initial Twighlight town, visiting all the worlds and completing them, THEN having to do them all over again for some small missions and a boss fight was brilliant. Plus, worlds inside of other worlds was a nice touch (like timeless river or space paranoids)

- Not a lot of post game material. KH1 had all the secret bosses and Olympus coliseum, KH2 had a more extensive Olympus Coliseum and other small missions.

- Only 2 non-heartless bosses in the worlds, and they also needed more mini bosses like previous games had. Also, with ORG XIII members coming into each world, you would think you would fight a couple along the way but it just ended up giving blue balls throughout the game.

-Very corny

I kinda feel like if there were too many fewer scenes people would be complaining about nothing happening in the game story wise instead...Not that I don't get the complaint. I feel like a broken record lol, but I still KH2 has more intrusive scenes. They literally happen every 2 steps sometimes in those worlds. At least there are some large open areas to explore in this game till the next scene, sometimes at least lol. And they do take the route of characters speaking on the field. If this was KH2, that would have just been another scene.

Also these worlds were literally as long as both of those KH2 visits combined so I don't actually get that complaint? Would I have loved even more story for them? Yes. But they literally are the longest Disney worlds in the whole series overall lol. I think that's literally untrue to say they are too short. Also I guess its a matter of opinion, but I think most of the worlds did a decent job being involved. Clearly the ones you mentioned did it least, but that has been a thing since, once again, KH2 lol. That was the game that started the trend of like half the Disney worlds actually sorta mattering to the plot but mostly not. I was impressed with some of the decisions made with these worlds on that note. Games like DDD, CoM, Coded, and Days had like literally no reason for the Disney worlds to be there at all lol. So its definitely far and above that. KH1 is still the only game where the Disney really mattered the whole game but thats also cuz the main threat were the Disney villains. But I digress.

I don't think vanilla KH2 had any extra missions other than the Ultima Weapon, Coliseum, and Synthesis. That was it. Final Mix added a shit ton instead. KH1 was really the only time we had a ton of post game content at launch, and actually some of it was added to our version specifically. Which is sorta what led to the Final Mix versions existing in the first place. I guess for better or worse, since this was almost a simultaneous release there was clearly no time to give us extra bosses or anything. This is actually a very standard base KH game post game. There are a bunch of mini-games and little collectables, the battle gates, and the synthesis stuff. I expect we will get more like they added for 1 and 2 and Birth by Sleep eventually. At least I hope. Cuz I genuinely want more as well.

I can't deny I don't want more mini-bosses. I have been feeling that drag a little. I do think they did a good job making the hordes of Heartless interact with each other and the environment to make all the scripted fights actually interesting though. Like setting things on fire, or Heartless doing team up attacks with certain other Heartless. The main reason I wanted mini-bosses is for designs, and also it could have opened an opportunity for basically only Randall I assume to be a boss lol. If Pixar didn't just straight up so no anyway, I have no idea. But otherwise they did give us a lot of the Disney bosses I expected in this game. Other than like Zurg or something. And I guess Hades but that has happened a ton already. SO, I get the complaint for sure. I would put the lack of Disney bosses and big bosses in general on my "con" list as well.

 

[OneDandelion]

Great story, terrible game.

And as beautiful as the game is it feels small to me. I don't understand how we never got a destiny islands world and why twilight town is so small. Being able to see the old drawing that sora and kairi made in that cave and the clock tower that axel, xion, and roxas sat on seemed so mandatory for a final game in my eyes.

The story was beautiful too but I can't help but feel it could have been better if we had a chance to visit all of the most iconic places and had more conversations with the major characters. I mean you can't even find the main characters anywhere after beating the game.

 

[GrumpyRoxy]

My only cons are the lack of more super bosses and the lack of Critical Mode. (even though I "created" mine)

Other than that, KH3 is the perfect game for me personally.

 

[Scoobert_Doobert]

Cons:
- The Gummi Ship new exploration mode was a good idea, but the control of it just doesn't fit right

- None of the worlds really didn't have that depth when it came to plot. Worlds like Frozen, Caribbean, and Tangled felt like I was just replaying the movie over again and it didn't feel like SDG even played into the plot. Like Hundred Acre Woods, what the hell was that?

- Half the damn game was cutscenes, and it felt so much shorter than previous games because there were so many cutscenes.

- No Final Fantasy characters was a shame. I know that they must have wanted to switch it up, but they have been using these characters and it feels like they could have perfectly ended this chapter in this game.
I know we all wanted a Cloud or Sora final clash with Sephiroth

- The abundance of attractions, form changes, and team attacks makes combat very easy. They should have made the last game in the series a challenge and make the player focus more on tactics, rather than a pirate ship coming in and thrashing everyone in a 50 foot radius.

- Not only did the worlds not have a lot of plot, but they also felt rushed. In KH2, playing through the initial Twighlight town, visiting all the worlds and completing them, THEN having to do them all over again for some small missions and a boss fight was brilliant. Plus, worlds inside of other worlds was a nice touch (like timeless river or space paranoids)

- Not a lot of post game material. KH1 had all the secret bosses and Olympus coliseum, KH2 had a more extensive Olympus Coliseum and other small missions.

- Only 2 non-heartless bosses in the worlds, and they also needed more mini bosses like previous games had. Also, with ORG XIII members coming into each world, you would think you would fight a couple along the way but it just ended up giving blue balls throughout the game.

-Very corny

I gotta HARD disagree with a lot of this. Especially the stuff about the worlds not having plot or being rushed. Even with skipping cutscenes, the Disney worlds were bigger, more grand, and more fleshed out than any KH game ever.
Multiple bosses, puzzles, minigames, treasures, and most of them had their own individual game mechanics, like mecha suits and open sea sailing.

The whole revisiting worlds thing is personal preference, so I get that some people liked that about KH2, but most of the 2nd visits in that game were so unnecessary, and boiled down to just fighting a big heartless to pad out the game length. I'm glad KH 3 made every world mandatory once and then gave you a bunch of stuff to do in each world IF you wanted to come back.

I personally never cared that much about about the final fantasy characters, because I always saw the the original kingdom hearts characters (Like Sora, Kairi, Riku, Roxas, Aqua etc..) as the final fantasy aspect of the Disney x FF collab, but I can see if you're fan of the the final fantasy games, only having Moogles in KH3 is kind of a let down.

While I agree that the attraction rides and various other mechanics made combat really easy for most of the game, I don't think that's a bad thing. KH3 is meant to be a kind of gaming celebration. Combat feels like a big disney/anime party with all your favorite characters. It's definitely easy, but it's fun as hell to have so many different tools and options at your disposal and just cycle through all them while blowing through enemies. And if we're being honest, the original KH2 was pretty easy as well.

and if we're talking about corny, I feel like this was objectively the least corny and best written game of the series. The amount of times scenes ended in Kh2 with everyone laughing at a joke that wasn't funny as the screen faded to black makes me cringe just thinking about it. KH3 definitely still has it's corny moments, but there's no way it's worse than anything game that game that came before it.

But yeah... Gummi Ship is still the worst lol

 

[Ashton69]

Pros: Literally everything aside from too easy difficulty and some illogical plot points that make my head and heart hurt.

Cons: Too easy difficulty and some illogical plot points that make my head and heart hurt.