Kingdom Hearts III

(Ahoy mateys, before you read on know that there be some spoilers ahead. Ye have been warned. Yar!)

When I first started Kingdom Hearts 3 I went in with a very negative viewpoint on the series as a whole. Having only ever played the main titles of the original Kingdom Hearts (2002) and then it's sequel Kingdom Hearts 2 (2005) a lot of the story was lost on me. For anyone that is thinking about diving into this series just know that when Kingdom Hearts 3 starts it starts. No preamble. No get you up to speed story recap. The world(s) is/are in danger and we need to save it/them. Alright, I guess I'll come along for the ride.

Once the game dropped me into Hercules' world of Thebes I found myself to fighting Hades and trying to foil his plan to take over the world the game began to shine. The combat of Kingdom Hearts is light, colorful, and very simple to jump right into. Your basic melee attacks have you dashing around the battlefield on land or flying through the skies while your magic attacks have you throwing balls of fire leaving trails of scorched earth behind them or torrents of beautifully rendered water crashing into distant enemies. The combat in its most basic form is fun and has enough variety to keep things interesting.

For a little extra variety each Keyblade, via smacking around baddies, will build meter which can be spent to turn your weapon into a more powerful alternate form. Giant hammers? Heat seeking hunny bullets? A magical staff with clone powers? There's nothing that the power of key based weapons can't do. Being able to have three Keyblades on Sora at a time means that you can kit yourself out for a variety of situations. That's not even mentioning the Attraction attacks that summon homicidal theme park rides or even the Link abilities which let you summon characters like Simba who casts fire magic because the Lion King is also a pyromancer. Don't ask why. It's just how he rolls in this universe.

Variety doesn't just end with the combat either. Each world in Kingdom Hearts 3 is a love letter to the source material that it comes from. Whether it be the colorful and bright cartoon landscapes of Thebes or the salty crab filled streets of Port Royal, Kingdom Hearts 3 never stops impressing with its visuals from start to finish. Familiar enemies over time will even get little themes from the worlds they inhabit applied to themso even though you are fighting the same enemy in the Monster's Factory later in San Fransokyo that splash of paint really keeps the game fresh and, dare I say, glamorous. Attention to detail is everywhere as worlds that felt barren and empty in past entries now have NPCs wondering around breathing life into their settings. Thebes specifically doesn't just feel like an arena for you to battle but a town full of people going about their business as you just happen to be in their world.

The visuals aren't alone in setting the table as the music and sound design also step up to really deliver the audible goods. Sure I'm fighting a member of Organization XIII for the fate of a world while an exhilarating orchestral piece plays out but its the cartoonish "bonk" that comes from whacking a Nort with Winnie The Pooh's Keyblade that will always brings a smile to my face. This is where I would write out using very descriptive words to paint a picture of the soundscapes and melodic beauty of the game but I don't have the words for it. There's a lot of music. It's really good. There's also a lot of voice acting where you will hear the original actors from Disney/Pixar movies, actors that sound close to the characters, and then there are voice actors trying their best to replicate iconic Disney characters. God bless them.

There's also not a shortage of mini games and activities as well. Once a world is completed there are still activities to do to be rewarded with crafting components, gear, cooking ingredients, and a myriad of other things. Oh yeah, there's cooking. You get to help the Little Chef make fruit tarts and it's a lot more fun than I thought possible. Winnie the Pooh is also back and needs your help to get a smackeral of hunny via slapping around vegetables and flowers. Not even to mention searching nooks and crannies of each world for hidden goodies and a photo hunt. If you're looking for a little fun and distraction then Kingdom Hearts is ready to oblige.

Now is the time where we tackle the core of any good RPG: the story. We've all heard about it. Some of us have seen it. I don't think anyone truly understands all of it. There is a really good example in the Frozen world of Arendelle that best sums up my experience with Kingdom Hearts 3's story. At one point as you're chasing Elsa to tell her the magic of friendship the game stops and does the entire musical number "Let It Go." It's very well animated. The song is still great. There is, however, no reason for it to happen. It brings nothing really interesting to what's going on other than spectacle for spectacle's sake. The fun traveling through this iconic and beautiful world is stopped for no good reason.

That is the problem with Kingdom Hearts 3 that popped its ugly little head up in the twenty-six hours of game play. At its best the story of Kingdom Hearts is Sora! Donald! and Goofy! traveling from Disney locale to Disney locale and playing around though the already established plots with a twist. The twist however is that some spiky haired people that are bad are doing bad things to Disney characters for reasons. At best their plans are confusing and nonsensical and at worst they mean absolutely nothing and could have been cut for the sake of keeping the story simple.

The overarching story, as I understood it, is your typical bad guy gathers some other bad guys and together they fight against some good guys. If all goes well the bad guy gets to be god of a new world which he controls in his own image. You know, a typical Japanese Role Playing Game plot. That's the gist of it. Good vs. Evil that will end in a climatic battle. Kingdom Hearts however decided to take this inevitable final battle that it's been hinting at for years and stretch it out into twenty different battles that had me wanting it all to end. Along the way though this inevitable final confrontation is seeded everywhere and appears at time with the sole purpose to break up the momentum of the game.

Is it worth it though? Does all of these checkpoints at least pay off for the narrative? Not really. Some of the villains motivation for trying to destroy the universe and be remade in a madman's experiment is as simple as "I wanted to. Ha ha ha!" When I came face to face with Organization XIII in the final battle I didn't feel like I was battling fleshed out characters who had motivation and reason for their battle against the forces of light. They were truly nobodies. Husks thrown at me to pad out my game time. As I cut them down their monologues fell on deaf ears as all the acting in the world can't connect me to a character whose sole motivation is "I'm evil because they needed me to be evil."

This is the great battle that I had with Kingdom Hearts 3. One moment I'm having fun with the combat as I'm fighting in a beautiful world with Sora! Donald! and Goofy! and I'm loving it. Then the action stops and for too long we are informed about hearts, replicas, Keyblade Wars, and time traveling villains just to name some of the story themes. It isn't just that all of this is an information overload but that none of it was all that compelling. The last several hours of the game were a frustrating grind as once the Disney sections are over you're left with the original story. Slogging through a marathon of fights that never seemed to end. When the last battle was ended I didn't feel like I had completed Sora's journey. I felt as if I had played dozens of hours of a game that had written itself into a corner and when it was over no sense of accomplishment could be found. In fact, a few times the game is engineered to take that feeling away from you near the end.

At the center of Kingdom hearts is a fun action adventure role playing game with diverse combat, beautiful artwork, and oodles of that Disney charm surrounded by an unwieldy story that regrettably bogs down the fun and pacing of the experience. As this series moves forward I hope that future Kingdom Hearts games keep the charm and game play mechanics that they've developed and marry it with a story free from the narrative shackles that past titles have latched onto it. As it stands Kingdom Hearts 3, and the franchise as a whole, is a game full of heart locked behind a dark door of impenetrable story telling. Recommended for those that have been with the story since the beginning and fallen in love with it but if you're new and wanting to jump in its best to play earlier titles or maybe just a weekend rent after some time with one of a myriad of synopsis videos online.

This Title scored a rating of "Oof" out of "Hey, Alright" on the Bakalar Scale.

-Brandon M. Blizzard, 31/1/2019