Kingdom Hearts III Secret Game Report Part I - Mixed feelings

... I know, I know. I'm late for the party. But somehow the great desire for Kingdom Hearts III didn't really set in at the time - like many returning fans, I'm a KH enthusiast of old days who has waited more than ten years for at least the Xehanort saga to get finished. My personal story with Kingdom Hearts started when I was a child and my mother decided to buy me Kingdom Hearts II randomly for my new Playstation 2, because she saw the cover and thought I could like it. I didn't understand the story one bit and still fell in love with this masterpiece which is still my number one Playstation 2-title without competition, and one of the most beautiful video game-experiences ever. By far the strongest part of the Kingdom Hearts saga, as fan communities will agree. Some time later I played Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, which unfortunately did not age well, but still fascinated me at that time with the unique possibility to control and play as Organization XIII, which is one of the most iconic pop cultural character casts of all time to me. To be able to experience them naturally for many hours on the DS was so new and awesome. Only years later did I watch a Lets Play of Birth by Sleep, which we all thought was Kingdom Hearts III back then. Oh, good, good times. While the world of Kingdom Hearts kept captivating me, I found the gameplay and the worlds to be extremely exhausting just by watching. 

Only much later did I venture to part 1, broke it off, tried again, broke off again. The gameplay was simply too unbearable for me. I crawled through summaries, saw all the cutscenes and left it at that - I have no regrets. I also found Chain of Memories very late, but by now I have consumed it just like every other title of the series, thanks to the 1.5 + 2.5 collections. 

Most recently, 2.8 with Aqua in the leading role surprisingly amazed me again after the previously played Dream Drop Distance had been a bloody disaster in the gameplay-section. The graphics were a real treat, the combat system was fantastic, the hype was real. Hope blossomed for Kingdom Hearts III.

So much for my history. But why am I only playing Kingdom Hearts III one year after release? Because the press and fan echo was so incredibly sobering. Like all of us, I followed the first reviews and preview-impressions of well-known journalists very closely, and none of them were really positive. When I later spoke to friends who played KHIII, this sobering echo repeated itself. I was proofed correctly in my extreme skepticism that such a conservative game of such an ultra-conservative association like Square Enix and Disney after so many years simply can’t be up to date anymore - let alone meet the skyscraper high expectations of passionate fans. I am a thoroughbred fan myself - Kingdom Hearts is one of the five most important franchises in my life, I love the characters, the music, the world, all of them deeply. And that's why I'm so afraid that all of this will be torn down with the third installment. 

It will be less about gameplay and graphics, no, the only thing that is probably most important to me and most of the keybladers out there are the story and characters - will everything be brought to a satisfactory conclusion? Do we get answers? How are character arcs like Aqua, Roxas, Xion, Kairi or Xehanort resolved? Will everything make sense? And will all antagonists be treated with respect instead of simply disappearing after a fight? Will we finally be able to see our beloved protagonists happy after all these years? Finally? Ultimately, I just want to be able to see how Aqua, Terra and Ventus are happy together. And the mastermind-scum Xehanort getting rect, it’s overdue.

Now I have dared to start my playthrough after all. In the form of regular game reports, I will write a walkthrough with my most important thoughts, impressions and opinions during the game. I go into the game BLIND, that is, I have kept away from almost all spoilers.

Of course, these reports will be openly spoiling. This is Kingdom Hearts III, so that shouldn't surprise anyone that much. I also write the walkthrough mainly for other players as a basis for discussion. I hope the walkthrough can give you something and we will have some interesting conversations.

But now I'm getting started - I'm extremely skeptical about 
Kingdom Hearts III, but I'm also willing to put all that aside 
and rate the game fairly.

Yoraiko's Secret Game Report 1

I just defeated the first boss of the first world. I play on professional because I heard that the game was way too easy.

As expected, my impression so far has been very mixed, but also not as bad as I expected after many public reactions to KHIII. 

The first thing to say is about the Opening. Holy Heavy Christ. This is probably one of the most unmelodic, misplaced sound disasters I've ever heard in a video game. For me it quickly became clear that this was by far the worst intro in the whole series, because as great as the video itself is, one has to wonder what went so fundamentally wrong with the song itself.

It sounds like one of these YouTube remixes with 412 views, which you give a thumbs up only out of pity. But it certainly doesn't sound like the opening of a Square Enix AAA video game, which is supposed to climax in the conclusion of a traditional super-brand that we've been waiting for ten damn years. Sometimes the piece of music does not match the scenes and transitions at all, it looks as if the music had to be exchanged quickly in the last two weeks. Awful. It's just awful. Let's keep in mind that the Kingdom Hearts series actually produced SUCH and SUCH intros. And lastly this little masterpiece, which is the best opening of the series for me and should have been the KHIII-OP because of its hype. And this fantastic music, God, this music... everything is perfect, the optics, the foreshadowing, the animations ... let’s be honest, everyone thought there was nothing more to add to the dead horse ‘Simple and Clean’, and than they do that. And then the Skillrex-opening. It would be a perversion to name the other OPs with this monstrosity in the same sentence alone.

I also found it very strange that the intro appeared to be Kingdom Hearts 3 in a nutshell. It looked like you had just seen the whole story, with the light king in front of Xehanort's eyes at the end. Very subtle ...

The fact that Xehnaort and Eraqus are shown again in a beautiful chess scene stirs up my hope that everything will be brought to a reasonably rounded final instad of the conclusion being "Light is good, Darkness is bad!", but I prefer not to expect anything for now.

Things that I've noticed (very) positively so far:

- Square Enix has finally achieved the matter of course that other games have known for twenty years, it has found out that there are NPCs . The NPCs in the Olympus-world are only one detail, but they make the whole environment much more lively and less empty, sometimes they even say relevant things. Very good and overdue development.

- Atmosphere. Olympus has a really good atmosphere with comets, a destroyed city, rain, day and night, the environment, ...

Sometimes it felt like God of War-Disney. In my eyes, this is a huge increase because the Disney worlds in the previous KH parts all had no atmosphere whatsoever.

Counter-Positive / Negative:

- I only really got half of the fight against the Stone-Titan because I was very sleepy. But I remember that it was already very dominated by Disneyspells. All the specials and combos and effect bombs are already getting on my nerves, it’s simply too much.

- I find the dialogues between Sora, Goofy and Donald just very strange, flat and hollow, especially for the beginning of KHIII. Who writes such conversations right at the beginning?

- The memory gallery is a nice touch for long-established players, but has absolutely no information value to offer for newcomers.

- Two steps, sequence. Three steps, sequence. I started to laugh out loud when I wanted to take a look around before the next sequence starts, I went one step further and that was exactly what happened. Absurd. That disturbs the flow enormously. 

- The combat system and Sora's movements still feel a bit restrained to me. But maybe I'm just imagining it.

Yoraiko's Secret Game Report 2

I have now arrived in the game and am currently in the Monsters Inc. World.

I have recorded most of my impressions this time chronologically and I will post the full part about now before it gets too much. My feeling right now is that KHIII is a mixed experience for me. Mixed means there is a lot of shade, but surprisingly a lot of light too. I don't see it as negatively as some others did at that point.

- The story of the Olympus-world was kind of weird, especially considering that it was the entry into KHIII. So Sora and Co. arrive, Hades sees them but he doesn't care, we run up Olympus, defeat the titans, laugh at Hades and that's it? Somehow that was very strange writing...

- The game of gravity in the Olympus-world was terribly badly programmed, and it took me twenty minutes to get up.

- I wrote it down in the second world, now it counts even more: I am still relatively at the beginning and I already have far, fae, far too many techniques, mechanics and possibilities. While that didn't bother me at first because I thought that the combat system would get more complex that way, I now feel overwhelmed by the three or four bars on the left, the changing key swords, the different specials and finishing moves and the Disney attractions. Don't let me get started about the Disney attractions. They make no sense at all in the context of the worlds, are annoying and destroy every but really every spark of atmosphere. It feels like they have overloaded the combat system in many aspects, even if it is really a storm of effects.

- I think it's incredibly, incredibly cool that former Organization XIII members are now partly back and partly also playing in the good team. The fact that the Chain of Memories-people are now working with Sora is a great fan service. And having Marluxia and Saix back is just great if you like them as much as I do. Also with the scene of Xemnas and Xehanort at the manor house or the unversed. Vanitas will definitely appear again, we know that now. I find it incredibly exciting that in this series finale you feel that all opponents and antagonists are brought back to the table and thrown at the heroes, everyone is back in the game. However, I am 82% certain that the game will not use this potential or that you will fight them all in the fantastic way they deserve. But I like that fanservice very much right now.

- Hayner, Pence and Olette are back and have great new outfits just like the main team.

- Twilight Town has become great, with the many lively NPCs, the cinema and everything, it's a good hub. It is very disappointing and lazy that the rest of the city and the manor house are not accessible, but as a hub the place now works well. Only ... why are the roofs not accessible? In other worlds too. This deprives the feeling of freedom again and loses a lot of charm.

- The Titan-boss fight was, like most other boss fights, staged very cinematically and thrilling, but to me ... it felt soulless. I don't know, somehow they didn't feel like Kingdom Hearts-bosses, but more like some random fantasy bosses ...

- In addition, what I feared before is actually happening: the soundtrack has had very little, especially in the fights, new pieces shown, instead you get (again) remixes of existing pieces. My theory is that the team of Square Enix looked at KHI, KHII and KH BbS and noticed 

"Okay, the soundtracks and pieces of these games are Kingdom Hearts. They are iconic and stand for the series. We CAN'T top it. We CAN'T top them so let's celebrate the iconic soundtrack instead." That feels very uninspired to me and I hope that the final part will get the changes it deserves. 

- The difficulty so far. I play on professional and measured on that it is very easy. Especially the bosses, the small fodder is okay. But if I take it away from the fact that I'm playing on professional, I don't find it too easy at the moment ... with some bosses I was close to death, several times, so far the difficulty feels at a low to medium KH level.

- The interactions with Goofy and Donald and also with guest characters are lovingly staged, they add and characterize all members of the group much better than ever before. Even with the photo camera. The small dialogues, the small environmental events with Rapunzel in her world which started the extra scenes ... those are moments and features where I think that a lot of thoughts and love have flowed into parts of KHIII that should have been elsewhere too.

- The scene with Kairi and Axel was beautiful, the graphics are absolutely bombastic and almost every shot looks fantastic. This was also evident in the Tangled-world. The scene with Riku and Micky, the summary of the events, was informative and desirable too.

- I am absolutely no friend of Toy Story. What struck me as very, very disturbing was how incredibly long and tough this world was. I think three times as long as any Disney world in KHII. Four bosses? A lot of creative ideas were included, but I think even if I liked Toy Story it would have bothered me. And then putting such a crusher with a rather silly franchise at the beginning of a KHIII is a design decision that gives me gray hair.

- The Tangled-world was not as bad as I would have expected when it was clear that the movie would be retold. It was by far the best world so far. Fantasy and the Middle Ages fit so well with KH. And these beautiful landscapes, these great, wide surroundings, a feast for the eyes. It didn't seem too empty to me, and the city! The city was great. Lots of people, a harbor for swimming and the dancing mini game. The fantastic mini-game. I played that for thirty minutes and I could have continued because it is so, so much fun !! And the music is great too. Minigames in KH have been a crux for me for years, and now something great has finally come out of it. I didn't think the movie compilation was that bad. Because the graphics are so incredibly good, it is ultimately just a short tangled with slightly worse graphics, but they have sensibly left out things and told a non-strange story that works for people who haven't seen the movie. With exceptions. If you have to retell a movie, it should happen like this. The world just got me into the mood of kingdom hearts III very positively. Rapunzel as a combat companion was also great.

- I don't see the role of Monster Inc. in the KH-cosmos, but let's see what they make of it. I am really looking forward to Frozen, even if it will be a movie-retelling again.

There is a lot that currently bothers me, but almost more that I find really good. At that point I expected KHIII to have mostly lost me, but right now it's more of a mixed experience with a slightly positive tendency.

But at the end of the day, of course, the story is what matters. If they fuck up here and go downhill, the whole game goes straight down the drain with it. But for now I’m curious how it will play out.

If you have any feedback, please let me know. Please note that this text is translated from german and I’m aware about the grammar being questionable at best.

Until the next report.

- Yoraiko