After earning the Platinum Trophy, I am ready to write a review of this game. Given the fact that I've been a fan of KH since its release, I had great expectations for this game, after waiting for it since its reveal in 2013 (even though we all know that the wait has been longer than that). I don't want this review to be long, I'll just make it quick and I'll analyze all the pros and cons that I could think of. So, let's get started. It won't take long when it comes to pros, but I'll surely have to spend some more words when the cons come.
PROS
1) Graphics. They look phenomenal. Nothing can be said about this actually. Just as I expected them to be, they even improved compared to 0.2's.
2) The main plotpoints have been solved. I feared some of them would be left behind, but they really did close the circle.
3) Gameplay. It is the best so far when it comes to fluidity and entertainment. I could play this game for hours and not getting bored or tired or anything. You just want to smash those enemies and kill them with style. An amazing experience, to say the least.
4) Worlds design. Overall, there's been a visible improvement when compared to the straight corridors that KH2 provided, even though Monstropolis and San Fransokyo are still less detailed than what I expected. I sort of felt KH1 vibes when I was exploring KH3 worlds, because there are different routes you can take that will lead you to different places.
5) Vexen's betrayal. I loved that plot twist. Well done.
6) The Guardian is Terra. Another plot twist that I have enjoyed.
7) The ending was satisfactory. Same goes for the epilogue and the secret ending. It's a good way to tell us there's going to be more, however, at this point, a remake for UX is urgent: we cannot have such an important title only playable on a smartphone.
8) Music. Amazing, as always. The best part of KH. It never ceases to impress me.
CONS
1) Twilight Town. This is a joke. 2 areas and the world is done. Who on earth would endorse such a choice? I was looking forward to exploring all the areas that were available in KH2 and admire the new graphics. I felt disappointed, almost scammed that we couldn't even reach those areas. Some say they were not necessary for the plot, but I would say the plot needed them. The station is Roxas's favorite spot; the mansion, with Naminé's room and data Twilight Town; the hill, so that we could have more Roxas-related cutscenes, to help the game build tension and make us long for Roxas's return.
2) The Mysterious Tower. Cut content, again. It was shown in the trailers, makes no sense that it didn't make it in the final product. The pun on the loading screens makes me even more furious about this. I expect it to be included back in a future DLC.
3) Realm of Darkness. Not explorable, not even a bit, just bossfights. The laziness here. Plus, I expected more Riku gameplay. I mean, in KH2 we got to play Roxas for 2 good hours, damn it!
4) Destiny Islands. Another big disappointment. It is Xehanort's home world. A lot of lore could have been put there. Plus, we never got to explore the main island, which was shown in KH2 and KHBBS. Needless to say that we've all been waiting to explore them again since KH1. I mean, come on! It's the last numbered title!
5) Scala ad Caelum. Another joke. Such a beautiful and huge world and it's not explorable. I will not stress again how much plot could have been put here. Before Master Xehanort wrecks it, of course, it would have been amazing to explore it and perhaps reach the room in which Young Xehanort and Young Eraqus used to play that chess-like game. Imagine reaching The End Of The World in KH1 and fighting Ansem as you enter the world. Imagine reaching The World That Never Was in KH2 and jumping straight to the final fight. Odd, isn't it?
6) Lea and Kairi's world. Where the hell did they train and why isn't that explained? Merlin's magic is not a possible answer, we obviously need to know more.
7) Pooh's World. It doesn't have a purpose and was advertised as a playable world. It's one area. One. It's basically a scam. There are 3 minigames and they are all the same. I think I have said enough
8) The plot is oddly paced. The first half of the game is Sora wandering in Disney worlds to get his strength back, and the Org. Members just appear and disappear without a purpose. I expected an Org. bossfight in each world, but all we got was Heartless bossfights. Plus, we didn't even get to fight many Disney bosses. Then, all of a sudden, a lot of things start to happen. Actually, too many things happen in a short amount of time. All the plot is centered around the last 7 hours of the game and it's mainly cutscenes.
9) The trailers showed too many things. Hadn't I watched them, I would've had a better experience. They basically showed all the plot. That's why I was expecting more. I told myself that they could dare to show this much only because there were so many things left. I was wrong, and that was a bitter experience.
10) Yellow eyes. So, the canon changed again. Aqua has yellow eyes, but is the a nort? It doesn't seem to be like that, but it's confusing and vague. We now know that Xehanort didn't use to have yellow eyes, so I assume it now has something to to with "darkness"? This needs to be explained, since Luxu/Xigbar still has yellow eyes even though Xehanort is dead.
11) Why does the majority of the new Org. have to become nobodies again? This makes no sense. When Xehanort norted Braig in BBS, he was still a human. Another plothole joins the list.
12) Difficulty. Proud Mode is easier than KH2's Normal Mode and that's it. I died once during the whole playthrough. Getting to Level 99 is way too easy, you can easily farm 1 Level per minute. Plus, there's no Critical Mode and this bugs me so much.
Overall, what can be said is:
Lack of worlds, especially non-Disney worlds. I have already mentioned it through specific examples, but I don't think that the game has the proper amount of worlds. I understand that for many of us quality is over quantity but it is valid to a certain extent. I feel like the game needs a couple more Disney worlds and 2-3 non-Disney Worlds to reach its peak of glory. As of now, it just seems an involution to me, when compared to other numbered titles of course. KH0, which is KHBBS, had 3 non-Disney worlds: Land of Departure, Radiant Garden and the Keyblade Graveyard. KH1 had 4 non-Disney Worlds: Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion and The End Of The World. KH2 had 3 non-Disney World: Twilight Town, Hollow Bastion and The Worlds That Never Was. KH3 has "6" non-Disney worlds: Twilight Town, the Realm of Darkness, the Land of Departure, the Final World, the Keyblade Graveyard and Scala ad Caelum. However, despite having 6 non-Disney worlds, they are not fully explorable, so it feels like there's a lot missing. The Land of Departure is one room and the Final World does not offer anything to explore, whereas Twilight Town, the Realm of Darkness and Scala ad Caelum have already been exposed. Also, the Keyblade Graveyard isn't that spectacular too, but it's a graveyard, so no big expectations here.
The plot could have been told better, but with Nomura on the lead, this is nothing but a dream. Non-Disney characters feel like they were forced to come back and didn't really have a purpose. I personally didn't understand Xion's comeback, and why she doesn't have yellow eyes just like all the other members. There is little to none interaction with these characters and this is because things happen too quickly.
In the end, I hope this game will be fixed. My hopes for the future lie in a possible big update, some DLCs for example.
That's all folks, I probably have omitted something, perhaps I will edit this thread when I remember to add more. I hope we can start a good debate.
PROS
1) Graphics. They look phenomenal. Nothing can be said about this actually. Just as I expected them to be, they even improved compared to 0.2's.
2) The main plotpoints have been solved. I feared some of them would be left behind, but they really did close the circle.
3) Gameplay. It is the best so far when it comes to fluidity and entertainment. I could play this game for hours and not getting bored or tired or anything. You just want to smash those enemies and kill them with style. An amazing experience, to say the least.
4) Worlds design. Overall, there's been a visible improvement when compared to the straight corridors that KH2 provided, even though Monstropolis and San Fransokyo are still less detailed than what I expected. I sort of felt KH1 vibes when I was exploring KH3 worlds, because there are different routes you can take that will lead you to different places.
5) Vexen's betrayal. I loved that plot twist. Well done.
6) The Guardian is Terra. Another plot twist that I have enjoyed.
7) The ending was satisfactory. Same goes for the epilogue and the secret ending. It's a good way to tell us there's going to be more, however, at this point, a remake for UX is urgent: we cannot have such an important title only playable on a smartphone.
8) Music. Amazing, as always. The best part of KH. It never ceases to impress me.
CONS
1) Twilight Town. This is a joke. 2 areas and the world is done. Who on earth would endorse such a choice? I was looking forward to exploring all the areas that were available in KH2 and admire the new graphics. I felt disappointed, almost scammed that we couldn't even reach those areas. Some say they were not necessary for the plot, but I would say the plot needed them. The station is Roxas's favorite spot; the mansion, with Naminé's room and data Twilight Town; the hill, so that we could have more Roxas-related cutscenes, to help the game build tension and make us long for Roxas's return.
2) The Mysterious Tower. Cut content, again. It was shown in the trailers, makes no sense that it didn't make it in the final product. The pun on the loading screens makes me even more furious about this. I expect it to be included back in a future DLC.
3) Realm of Darkness. Not explorable, not even a bit, just bossfights. The laziness here. Plus, I expected more Riku gameplay. I mean, in KH2 we got to play Roxas for 2 good hours, damn it!
4) Destiny Islands. Another big disappointment. It is Xehanort's home world. A lot of lore could have been put there. Plus, we never got to explore the main island, which was shown in KH2 and KHBBS. Needless to say that we've all been waiting to explore them again since KH1. I mean, come on! It's the last numbered title!
5) Scala ad Caelum. Another joke. Such a beautiful and huge world and it's not explorable. I will not stress again how much plot could have been put here. Before Master Xehanort wrecks it, of course, it would have been amazing to explore it and perhaps reach the room in which Young Xehanort and Young Eraqus used to play that chess-like game. Imagine reaching The End Of The World in KH1 and fighting Ansem as you enter the world. Imagine reaching The World That Never Was in KH2 and jumping straight to the final fight. Odd, isn't it?
6) Lea and Kairi's world. Where the hell did they train and why isn't that explained? Merlin's magic is not a possible answer, we obviously need to know more.
7) Pooh's World. It doesn't have a purpose and was advertised as a playable world. It's one area. One. It's basically a scam. There are 3 minigames and they are all the same. I think I have said enough
8) The plot is oddly paced. The first half of the game is Sora wandering in Disney worlds to get his strength back, and the Org. Members just appear and disappear without a purpose. I expected an Org. bossfight in each world, but all we got was Heartless bossfights. Plus, we didn't even get to fight many Disney bosses. Then, all of a sudden, a lot of things start to happen. Actually, too many things happen in a short amount of time. All the plot is centered around the last 7 hours of the game and it's mainly cutscenes.
9) The trailers showed too many things. Hadn't I watched them, I would've had a better experience. They basically showed all the plot. That's why I was expecting more. I told myself that they could dare to show this much only because there were so many things left. I was wrong, and that was a bitter experience.
10) Yellow eyes. So, the canon changed again. Aqua has yellow eyes, but is the a nort? It doesn't seem to be like that, but it's confusing and vague. We now know that Xehanort didn't use to have yellow eyes, so I assume it now has something to to with "darkness"? This needs to be explained, since Luxu/Xigbar still has yellow eyes even though Xehanort is dead.
11) Why does the majority of the new Org. have to become nobodies again? This makes no sense. When Xehanort norted Braig in BBS, he was still a human. Another plothole joins the list.
12) Difficulty. Proud Mode is easier than KH2's Normal Mode and that's it. I died once during the whole playthrough. Getting to Level 99 is way too easy, you can easily farm 1 Level per minute. Plus, there's no Critical Mode and this bugs me so much.
Overall, what can be said is:
Lack of worlds, especially non-Disney worlds. I have already mentioned it through specific examples, but I don't think that the game has the proper amount of worlds. I understand that for many of us quality is over quantity but it is valid to a certain extent. I feel like the game needs a couple more Disney worlds and 2-3 non-Disney Worlds to reach its peak of glory. As of now, it just seems an involution to me, when compared to other numbered titles of course. KH0, which is KHBBS, had 3 non-Disney worlds: Land of Departure, Radiant Garden and the Keyblade Graveyard. KH1 had 4 non-Disney Worlds: Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion and The End Of The World. KH2 had 3 non-Disney World: Twilight Town, Hollow Bastion and The Worlds That Never Was. KH3 has "6" non-Disney worlds: Twilight Town, the Realm of Darkness, the Land of Departure, the Final World, the Keyblade Graveyard and Scala ad Caelum. However, despite having 6 non-Disney worlds, they are not fully explorable, so it feels like there's a lot missing. The Land of Departure is one room and the Final World does not offer anything to explore, whereas Twilight Town, the Realm of Darkness and Scala ad Caelum have already been exposed. Also, the Keyblade Graveyard isn't that spectacular too, but it's a graveyard, so no big expectations here.
The plot could have been told better, but with Nomura on the lead, this is nothing but a dream. Non-Disney characters feel like they were forced to come back and didn't really have a purpose. I personally didn't understand Xion's comeback, and why she doesn't have yellow eyes just like all the other members. There is little to none interaction with these characters and this is because things happen too quickly.
In the end, I hope this game will be fixed. My hopes for the future lie in a possible big update, some DLCs for example.
That's all folks, I probably have omitted something, perhaps I will edit this thread when I remember to add more. I hope we can start a good debate.
Last edited:
Spoiler