I decided to give myself a few months and a second playthrough before writing my review on this long-awaited game and if I had one word to describe it?
Underwhelming.
Now hold on, I thought it was a good game, just not a great game. There were a ton of missed opportunities and aspects of the first 2 I felt were lacking.
It has been over 13 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, a game that still holds up well, in my opinion at least. Now, why did I wait so long to review this game? Well, because in my heart of hearts, I knew it was going to be a little disappointing, after all, if you build something up for over 10 years, chances are it’s not going to live up to high expectations. But here’s my biggest gripe with the final chapter of Sora’s story…… where the hell did the story go?
I’m not going to pretend I followed all the spin-off games, which perhaps makes my review a little less than fair, I played birth by sleep when it was released on ps4, but other than that, I merely watched youtube playthroughs of the spin off’s like dream drop distance and chain of memories etc quite simply because, i’m not a huge tech nerd and I refused to buy the other consoles just to watch the spin-off stories, screw you Disney I already line your pockets enough as it is. That being said, I knew the story (roughly) of Vanitas and Ven and Aqua etc and obviously Roxas’ story through KH2. The thing is, they built all of these characters from other dimensions and aspects of the OG trio’s personalities etc for what? A lacklustre finale, unanswered questions and a villain that lacked any sort of personality compared to the Villainous titans of Disney films such as Maleficent, Oogie Boogie, Scar and even the various reincarnations of Ansem the Wise and Riku (when he was a naughty lil scamp) of the first two KH games.
Let’s talk about the good points first though, the graphics were obviously amazing, they received a massive upgrade while sticking true to the cartoon like imagery we know and love from the series. The Disney characters were perfectly portrayed as usual and there was even quite a few characters that meshed well with Sora’s character too. One gripe I had with the game that is entirely unfair and just a personal gripe of mine is a couple of the featured worlds I knew would not be my cup of tea. I hate Big Hero 6 and I hate Frozen, so I was never going to fall in love with those worlds, though Frozen did pleasantly surprise me…… to an extent. However I was excited to see the return of Pirates of the Caribbean and the new Toy Story and Tangled worlds, and those two worlds in particular I thought were pulled together very well, especially given the world Tangled is set in is relatively small seeing as it didn’t have a ton of sequels or TV show spin-offs. The reaction commands were cool, especially the ones that paid homage to old Disney rides. So those are the positives, along with some other small little things i’ll probably remember after posting this review, but still, point is, it wasn’t all bad. Now onto the bad, confusing and ultimately dull…..
One aspect of KH2 that I loved which I wasn’t expecting to like was the repeat of the worlds playthroughs. Remember, you got all the way through the worlds the first time and thought damn that was fun, now off to defeat Organisation 13… whoa hold on a second, I have to go back to all the worlds after defeating the Disney villains in them and defeat the organisation this time??? YES PLEASE!!!
Maybe it was because the story was so engaging at that point, I desperately just wanted it to go on, despite already having clocked a pretty solid 25-30 hours of gameplay at that point. The point is there have been other games that get you to go back to the same areas more than once and it ends up being more tiresome than fun (Dragon age 2, I am looking right at you.) KH2 didn’t do this, the story was engaging, the villains were engaging (and enraging, that damn DANCE WATER DANCE battle with Demyx will forever be burned into my brain) enough to make you want to carry on and defeat those pesky guys in black emo coats.
Never thought I would miss this little asshole
KH3 sadly didn’t do this, despite having the time, budget and creative team to do so, perhaps even adding new areas with the second playthrough of worlds. This was something I really didn’t understand, it felt like a step backwards for the franchise. Kingdom Hearts was the test run, KH2 added this method in and it worked fantastically well, Birth By Sleep built on it in the sense that you would go to the same worlds but depending on which character you played as, the challenges in the world were completely different. So why did KH3 just go back to the play once, move on to the next world method? I also found the game equally as linear and limiting in terms of world size as the first two games which wasn’t always a complaint as such, but rather a case of me saying to myself “would have done that differently myself but cool. Whatever”. Again, maybe this hadn’t have bothered me as much had we not have waited so long for the release. I automatically just think, the longer a company works on a film or a game, the bigger it will be. With KH3, I just didn’t get that feeling.
The story, wow. I should really say, lack of story because let’s face it, that’s what it was. Where the hell were the Final Fantasy buddies, the guys that were fundamental in Sora’s story and discovery of his true destiny? Leon, Yuffie and Aerith as well as Sid and Merlin (yeah I know he’s Disney) were just as important in Sora’s story as Mickey and the rest of the Disney cast in the games so wouldn’t you think they would have been in Sora’s final chapter? Come to think of it, where the heck was Kairi? You know, the girl the first game was focused on? Her focus started drifting even in the second game but i wanted them to make her relevant again in the 3rd game otherwise, what was their friendship and reunion even for? Again, was this just overlooked or was it a conscious decision and if so why? Disney are known for using other voice actors when the OG ones can’t do them so surely that can’t have been a problem. The story itself just felt very basic. The threat of Organisation 13 no longer felt as huge, this time around they felt like flies around your head, annoying, but not really much of a threat. In the final chapter, wouldn’t you think the villains would seem bigger and more powerful ever but I somehow just felt like the game developers were eager to close the book on Sora as fast as possible (despite the 13 year wait between titles) and therefore the story felt rushed.
The boss battles in the end also felt lacking in the epicness of the first two games. Remember the second game, riding on top of a nobody dragon to defeat it? Even the eeriness of fighting Xemnas in that completely white area, never knowing when he was going to jump out and get you? Or fighting Maleficent in dragon form and hopping down those little rabbit holes to defeat Ansem in his different forms within the worlds we had already visited? Truly epic, memorable boss battles, what did the 3rd game give us? Fighting the organisation in a sand maze, fighting Xehanort in that city, or at least chasing him around the city because the slippery bastard wouldn’t stay still! Not the worst boss battles I have played through, but definitely lacking compared to the others. Again, that might be my nostalgia talking but even still…
I guess apart from the story feeling lacklustre, my biggest gripes with the game has been linked to the lack of worlds and length of the game, which goes to prove it isn’t all bad. If you want a game to last longer that obviously means it isn’t terrible. It is however, the first KH main game that I have no desire to playthrough again. I only played through it the second time to make sure i wasn’t giving a completely biased review. The other two games, the second in particular i have replayed over 10 times (at least) and can see myself replaying them at least once more this year alone. It’s difficult to judge this game as objectively as possible seeing as for many of us, KH was a part of our childhood so the nostalgia we feel playing the first two was always going to be difficult to match. I’ll admit that some of my opinions are probably based on high expectations and perhaps loving the originals so damn much anything else will always seem inferior, but i can’t shake the feeling that this game’s story and aspects of gameplay were severely lacking.
I do hope this isn’t the end of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, as a Disney nerd and a gaming nerd this series encompassed everything I loved about both of those worlds and I want to see that fusion continue. I just hope the Square Enix team can continue putting these projects out with as much passion and love for the series as the fans have for them.
Ramblings of a gayby 