Kingdoms Hearts III is the third game of the main trilogy, but there are over ten games in the series. The Kingdom Hearts series is made by Square Enix in conjunction with Disney. This creates a unique game with different iconic characters from both universes and also adds new characters. This game changes many aspects of the previous games and adds many new characters. The series follows Sora a keyblade wielding warrior and his two friends Donald and Goofy. As a player you get to partially control the paths of Sora’s abilities and how your companions use their skills. All of these lend towards the play style of the player.
The game has similar gameplay to the Final Fantasy series. It is a third person hack and slash role playing game that gives players more than enough options for abilities in combat. As I stated above these lend to different play styles. The player can be more of a mage focusing on magic and summons. The player could also focus on damage using the keyblade and combo systems to decimate all foes in their path. While lastly the player can choose to be more of a tank focusing on survivability and delivering combos. All of these playstyles merge and constantly work together. As a player you can also choose what keyblades you use having up to three different blades equipped. Each blade has unique abilities and also provides the player with different form changes improving Sora’s combat prowess. There are also summons these can summon different characters or Disney attractions. The Disney attractions are things like the mad tea cups and pirate ship. These different attractions help with combat and give more complex interactions. The character summons also give the player new powerful ally’s such as Simba. All of these can lead to intense and complex battles. This also leads to conflict almost being too hectic and busy.
The games story is very complex and confusing. The story is meant to combine all the stories of every other game in the series. The story is based around Sora finding the power of waking. The game also includes the stories of every world. Some are new stories such as Olympus where you assist Hercules. Other worlds are basically the movies such as Arendelle which tells the story of Frozen. While this can be cool or fun it also leads to issues with the main story not being explored. This is also not helped by the complex nature of the core story. The games story struggles at points from not making the player feel included in the world’s stories. Since the game must follow the stories that Disney made this must make it more difficult to create unique stories. However, in previous games they made the players feel as though they had a huge impact on the worlds. This one is not necessarily like that. The stories are fun, but it can take away from the core story. The impressive visuals and gameplay also create a beautiful visual narrative.
The game has many good points but also some bad points. The gameplay is amazing and flows beautifully. However, it has so many nuances and abilities that this makes combat too complex at times. It also isn’t helpful that you can’t always choose which of your abilities you use. These are the most powerful abilities in your arsenal but if you have several lined up you can’t pick between them. Another negative lies in the issues with the story telling as the core story is so rarely told. I will say these negatives aren’t game ending.
After looking at all of the negatives and positives I would give it a seven out of ten. The game has amazing gameplay. The story is also very enjoyable leading to an amazing ending. However, with the story’s failings and the combats issues these all lend to it’s score being lowered. I enjoyed the game and am excited to see where the series goes, but I won’t be playing it again for a long time.
