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Kingdom Hearts 3 |OT| One χ-blade to rule them all

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I had to wait a few days to play more, but I got to Frozen's world today. All these people finishing it makes it look like it's not incredibly long. I've finished 1 & 2, but I don't remember how long they took.

I like it and the worlds have decent length to them. Sometimes I don't want to press Y/Triangle because the animations take time. It's fun combat. I'm still avoiding YouTube for anything KH related.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Bro the game is unwelcoming as fuck to us who only played the numbered games. The last thing this game, or series for that matter, needs is more characters.

Honestly there is a *lot* of representation that you won't fully understand until you beat the game. Also, much of the core Final Fantasy characters in previous games kinda had their story arc finished in KH2. Why would the likes of Squall, Aeris, or others need to return? The whole thing about them was that their world (Radiant Garden) was turned into Hollow Bastion. Plus the Current/Former Organization Members, Main Characters, and Supporting Cast that aren't part of Disney may as well be Final Fantasy/Square Enix cameos at this point with how bloody many of them there are.

Just beat the game at about 38 hours and 45 minutes. I will say there are things I loved about the game and things that... disappointed me. My full thoughts in spoilers below.

I am just going to start off with the things that annoyed me about the game:

The first was the Disney Worlds. My main issue was how long they were. In previous Kingdom Hearts games, you had plenty of story in-between and the levels were far shorter. You also revisted them in KH2 which helped alleviate some of the repetitive nature that some of them had. There were also some that just felt... not as good. The Pirates of the Caribbean world felt like it was incredibly short, story wise - but it gave you a lot to explore. The Monsters Inc. world felt like it was room after room of combat challenges, meanwhile the Big Hero 6 world was just a single large map and a garage with Pooh's just being 3 of a very similar minigame on a very tiny map. There was also the issue of some of the worlds feeling ultimately inconsequential, as if Sora and the gang amounted to nothing. In particular, the Frozen and Pirates worlds felt like this.

If I were to rank the worlds I would say that:
I love: Twilight Town, Scala ad Caelum, The Final World
I like: Olympus, Toy Box, Kingdom of Corona, and The Keyblade Graveyard
I am more Neutral about: Monstropolis.
I dislike: San Fransokyo, Arendelle, and Caribbean

Also I just wish there were *more* worlds to explore. I was hoping we would explore Radiant Garden or Traverse Town again. Hell, I am more surprised we didn't see Daybreak Town in any shape or form.

The story, while being mostly perfect and ties up a lot of loose ends - it leaves a number of questions open that annoy me to a great degree. Cool, we finally know that Braig is Luxu, but did he lie about his mission given to him by the Master of Masters? Why would he openly interact with people when the Master of Masters told him to simply watch and protect the box? Speaking of which, who is the Master of Masters? After Olympus I was thinking it would be Braig, but that was dashed. What happened to Ava and why are all the other Foretellers still alive? How did they survive? Why was Ephemer helping Sora? Was that what Ava meant when he left to help the lead the Dandelions? Did Kairi make her way back to the others without the need for Sora's help? What was all that about Sora and young Xehanort suggesting he can't be saved? Was that in reference to the secret ending? Also, who is the "girl" that Axel and Siax keep referencing? Gaaaah, damn you Nomura. You finished the Dark Seeker saga, like you said you would, but now we gotta wait for Kingdom Hearts 4 to get closure or answers to any of these questions.

Another thing I didn't care for was how easy the gameplay was. I died a single time during my proud mode playthrough and that was simply because I wasn't paying much attention to the fight between Aqua and Vanitas. The lack of a Critical Mode also is a bit disappointing.

Now, for the things I love:

It has some of the worlds that made me genuinely just stare at the screen for nearly an hour, listening to the music or just staring at the beauty of it. Scala Ad Caelum and the Final World are just beautiful and tranquil with Twilight Town always being one of my favorite worlds in all of Kingdom Hearts.

The story, disregarding what I stated above - pretty much tied up most of the loose ends and made me tear up multiple times. Seeing the return of Aqua, Ventus, Terra, the return of Xion and Roxas, Namine finally being able to have her own life. All the best girls are finally back and able to be happy and that makes me happy.

The core gameplay is so much fun as well. The switching of forms for the Keyblade was excellently done, the attractions were quick and easy to use (by about the third world, I just used it and finished it immediately for some punishing damage and it worked very well), plus it was nice to be able to have a good list of moves again that I could customize.

Graphically and musically, this is beyond the best game of the franchise and the new main menu theme is breathtaking. I love it so much.

Ultimately, I would give this game a 8.5/10 or maybe 9/10 depending on how I feel after I do all the after game stuff. There is a lot to love, but there are also some design choices that really didn't mesh well for me.
 
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RPGCrazied

Member
Holy hell. Been playing a couple hours on the pro. Even with supersampling turned on I'm seeing a night and day difference from base PS4. 900p vs 4k? Looks fantastic. I'll gladly take the dips for this mode. Can any PS4 game be supersampled? I'm just using a standard 1080p TV.

Geeze, I need to replay all my PS4 games again.
 
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HotPocket69

Banned
Holy hell. Been playing a couple hours on the pro. Even with supersampling turned on I'm seeing a night and day difference from base PS4. 900p vs 4k? Looks fantastic. I'll gladly take the dips for this mode. Can any PS4 game be supersampled? I'm just using a standard 1080p TV.

Geeze, I need to replay all my PS4 games again.

It’s 900 vs your 1080. It’s not in 4K because you don’t have a 4K TV. You get 180 extra P’s. That’s it.

There should barely be any dips if you have “default” selected for graphics in the option menu

If you turn off Supersampling the game actually gets closer to 60fps

Also turn on Boost Mode in system settings
 
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Fake

Member
Its true if you select 1080p in ps4 video output, turn off super sampling you get 55-60fps, its pretty nice.
You need to restart the ps4pro too, but yes. Tom from DF with is a KH fan too sayed is much much better. Almost 60 most of the time. I get jealous.
 
Toybox world starts off strong but straight up suuuuuuuuuucks once you get to the toy store.

The mech's are boring af to use and enemy mechs are too cheap not to use mechs against.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Toybox world starts off strong but straight up suuuuuuuuuucks once you get to the toy store.

The mech's are boring af to use and enemy mechs are too cheap not to use mechs against.
Really? but LOOOOOVED the toy store, so much to explore and I also was easily able to beat the enemy mechs with out using the mechs.
 
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Fake

Member
Toybox world starts off strong but straight up suuuuuuuuuucks once you get to the toy store.

The mech's are boring af to use and enemy mechs are too cheap not to use mechs against.
For me te Toybox was the best world by a quite margin. Just the Andy room, Woody, Buzz, their teamwork move is a big win. The store is a mix bag, but still lots of toys so they don't break the world meta. Of course, the Toy Story 2 game for PSX kinda help my enjoyment about this world, but still is a great world.
 
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Verdanth

Member
Toybox wins easily because of the background music. Right there with Kingdom of Corona.

Arrived at the Caribbean world and only if it had Pirates of the Caribbean main theme. You had one job Square.

But so far i really like how each world feels different and unique.

Having a blast with the game.

Just missing my organization XIII battles. Where the hell are they? Guessing its gonna be one hell of fight corridor near the end, uh?
 
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My first KH game. Just finished watching all the backstory videos the game starts you with...:messenger_fearful::messenger_fearful:

What the hell did I get into! This story is total nonsense! Hope the gameplay is worth it!
 
Really? but LOOOOOVED the toy store, so much to explore and I also was easily able to beat the enemy mechs with out using the mechs.

The cutscenes were great but the focus on the mechs, (there's unavoidable parts). Like with the Vernum Rex minigame and the stupid kids playground with the movable blocks ruined it for me.

There's some archaic and downright bad game design choices in this game that I've seen so far. Don't even get me started on the gummi ship.

Nomura doesn't know wtf he's doing when it comes to game design.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
The cutscenes were great but the focus on the mechs, (there's unavoidable parts). Like with the Vernum Rex minigame and the stupid kids playground with the movable blocks ruined it for me.

There's some archaic and downright bad game design choices in this game that I've seen so far. Don't even get me started on the gummi ship.

Nomura doesn't know wtf he's doing when it comes to game design.
Sorry I just don’t agree with that.
I’m currently in Arendelle and so far having a blast with the game and none of parts I personally consider “archaic” or “bad game design”.
 
The best I can say about this game is it plays and feels very much like a ps2 era game. Not sure I would call the game play bad yet. But it certainly feels archaic.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
The best I can say about this game is it plays and feels very much like a ps2 era game. Not sure I would call the game play bad yet. But it certainly feels archaic.

The design of the game probably wasn't going to change too much. Toy Box has some interesting design elements to it. The animations of the characters in Corona and the scenery I thought were beautiful at times.
The toy store has an interesting way of traveling through it. You have 3 floors and there aren't any steps. You literally have to fall down and then around in order to backtrack and you're always having to get back at the center of the gum ball tracks. Its actually not bad once you have a feel for things. The awesome part was seeing the Final Fantasy figures at the toy store. lol at the fake game they advertised. Typical Square-Enix game being teased and then the typical gameplay is something else lol

I liked how Rapunzel would run along with you. I thought the animation of her throwing her hair was good, but it felt like the frame rate dropped a bit when the animation kicked in for it because she has to run up to where you are.

I never want to hear "Let it Go" ever again. That was a 1:1 straight out of the film. I liked it, but I've heard that song so many times. I definitely enjoy the world :/
 
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Trying out some of the data battles or whatever they're called post game, and wtf Square. I understand making the game accessible for everyone but the difficulty in those 2 star fights and above should've just been in the base game imo, I'm having a lot of fun with the struggle and having to figure out how to really play the game. But I suppose its standard game design to make the story mode easy as hell and then let post game be where the challenge be. Not a big fan of it myself. Many devs have been doing it, although I feel Nintendo is the biggest offenders, with a few exceptions. Critical mode could fix these issues if Square does it right, but we'll see.
 
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Fake

Member
People are too attached with the KH 2 Final mix, but they pretty much forget how terrible the base kh2 ps2 version was. I have here and he don't have a minimal chance of being compared with the 2.5 for ps4.
I always beat kh in critical mode, but dare you beat kh2/birth by sleep in critical difficult on ps2/psp. Was a living hell.
 
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bigedole

Member
I actually really enjoy the gummi ship design. It's a fun little mini-game. I like building my own ridiculously shaped ships that are pretty much all guns hehe.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Sora's voice actor is atrocious :messenger_pensive:.
Really? It fits the character in my opinion. If you can imagine they've used the same person since the first game. That's 16-17 years depending on when he recorded the lines (2002 - 2019).
osment-split-blog-jpg_173236.jpg
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
The design of the game probably wasn't going to change too much. Toy Box has some interesting design elements to it. The animations of the characters in Corona and the scenery I thought were beautiful at times.
The toy store has an interesting way of traveling through it. You have 3 floors and there aren't any steps. You literally have to fall down and then around in order to backtrack and you're always having to get back at the center of the gum ball tracks. Its actually not bad once you have a feel for things. The awesome part was seeing the Final Fantasy figures at the toy store. lol at the fake game they advertised. Typical Square-Enix game being teased and then the typical gameplay is something else lol

I liked how Rapunzel would run along with you. I thought the animation of her throwing her hair was good, but it felt like the frame rate dropped a bit when the animation kicked in for it because she has to run up to where you are.

I never want to hear "Let it Go" ever again. That was a 1:1 straight out of the film. I liked it, but I've heard that song so many times. I definitely enjoy the world :/

For Toy Box

You can easily air dash onto the top of the gumball or into the second area from the third floor with little issue. Saves a lot of time. You never have to start from the very bottom, reach the gumball, climb it, and ride the rails unless you want to.

Sora's voice actor is atrocious :messenger_pensive:.

Really? The voice acting is probably the best in recent years for Haley Joel. His voice is what I associate with Sora and I would be incredibly disappointed if they were to change voice actors for him.

The cutscenes were great but the focus on the mechs, (there's unavoidable parts). Like with the Vernum Rex minigame and the stupid kids playground with the movable blocks ruined it for me.

There's some archaic and downright bad game design choices in this game that I've seen so far. Don't even get me started on the gummi ship.

Nomura doesn't know wtf he's doing when it comes to game design.

What bad game design? The Toy Box mech parts are incredibly short and I had zero issue killing them faster out of the mech on Proud Difficulty. As for the 'required' mech portions, you can easily hop out of the mech to do them and only go into them to move blocks. The minigame also takes like 2-3 minutes. Out of a 30 hour game, that is hardly nothing.

Are you struggling with the Gummi Ship or somethin'? It is the best it has ever been and I actually enjoyed crafting my own Gummi ship and exploring the area finding treasures and fighting heartless in this game. What is bad about it?

The only "bad game design" I can honestly think of is how easy the game is on Proud mode. But that comes with the original releases for most KH games.
 
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Verdanth

Member
I skiped the frozen world. Hate that movie and music. Sorry Frozen fans.

I haven't watched the movie and actually I liked the world.

Missed chance for having Sora singing let it go however. Sebastian and Under the Sea still the kings.
 
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Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Why did I read so many bad things about the Caribbean world?

It's amazing so far.

For me the issue was the story. While I love the core gameplay of the world, the story of it is probably the shortest and you are involved so little in it as a whole. Still enjoyable regardless.
 
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Saber

Gold Member
Why did I read so many bad things about the Caribbean world?

It's amazing so far.

I dunno, maybe because PoC 3 sucks in plot and put it on KH3 would make no difference? I for instance I'm not a fan of Port Royal theme too.
 

Ten_Fold

Member
Finished the game yesterday l, about to finish collecting some lucky Emblems, after thinking about it I was and still am sad to see no FF characters, I thought I would’ve been cool to fight lightning or something, but I can see why since they have soo many KH characters to show. Overall I enjoyed the game it was a bit too easy. I’m wondering if they will make some dlc worlds or something.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Finished the game yesterday l, about to finish collecting some lucky Emblems, after thinking about it I was and still am sad to see no FF characters, I thought I would’ve been cool to fight lightning or something, but I can see why since they have soo many KH characters to show. Overall I enjoyed the game it was a bit too easy. I’m wondering if they will make some dlc worlds or something.
I’m guessing they might add Critical difficulty later on because the Critical difficulty in KH are not as simple as hard difficulty in other games. For Final Mix versions they added lots of balance change to the combat. Still I personally really finding the combat in KH3 super fun and engaging and it make me hope they do add critical to make combat shine even more.
 

Fake

Member
I’m guessing they might add Critical difficulty later on because the Critical difficulty in KH are not as simple as hard difficulty in other games. For Final Mix versions they added lots of balance change to the combat. Still I personally really finding the combat in KH3 super fun and engaging and it make me hope they do add critical to make combat shine even more.
I hard believe critical difficulty could make THAT difference take into consideration many mechanics changes (no more MP waste in teamwork, more invensible scenes, revive, magic is more strong, more friends AI, shotlock, etc...), as me saying by beat the entire 1.5+2.5 in critital mode. Besides, IMO if someone need a more challenge game they could simple active the 'no exp' ability. 'No exp' really limit the Sora strenght.
 
Is flourite just in random chests or do you get any from the gummi ship stuff or mickey emblems? Anyone know where some alternate sources are for it.
 
This game looks insanely good at times! Especially in cut scenes.

But I wish the cut scenes were not so long! Or at least if they were some what interactive. Becuase currently I just pull out my phone when a cut scene comes on.
 

Fake

Member
This game looks insanely good at times! Especially in cut scenes.

But I wish the cut scenes were not so long! Or at least if they were some what interactive. Becuase currently I just pull out my phone when a cut scene comes on.
This is Kingdom Hearts after all.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
This game looks insanely good at times! Especially in cut scenes.

But I wish the cut scenes were not so long! Or at least if they were some what interactive. Becuase currently I just pull out my phone when a cut scene comes on.
To me the cutscenes is very well done and its very entertaining to watch but I can understand it might not be fun to watch if you never care for KH story and lore, this why I think KH3 is at all new comer friendly. To most people this negative but I honestly find it refreshing. I hate when some series basically ditches entire story arc just for sake of being new comer friendly. I HATED Evil Within 2 entirely takes out Ruvik the story.
 

Hobbesian

Banned
I watched my cousin play on and off for about 4-5 hours and I found the amount of the cutscenes to be supremely annoying. Seemed like there was a cutscene after even the smallest battles
 

Bkdk

Member
This game has so many flaws from way too linear map design at times, slow and drag on cutscenes, unstable frame rate for an action rpg yet it’s still awesome since the combat, attraction moves and boss fights are so stylish that it feels like I’m playing a game again. I like it more than nearly all the AAA titles I played since 2018. Glad to see Japanese devs are back on top again while nearly all western AAA devs have completely lost their way on fun gameplay design.
 

Sygma

Member
just reached Arendelle after like 12 hours or so, only missing 2 photo missions and pretty much got all the lucky emblems available so far. Monsters Inc world for now is by far my favorite. Pooh bear stuff however was just like the character, atrocious
 
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Fake

Member
just reached Arendelle after like 12 hours or so, only missing 2 photo missions and pretty much got all the lucky emblems available so far. Monsters Inc world for now is by far my favorite. Pooh bear stuff however was just like the character, atrocious
We can't expect much from Pooh world. Was more faster than before to beat, but still crap.
 
just reached Arendelle after like 12 hours or so, only missing 2 photo missions and pretty much got all the lucky emblems available so far. Monsters Inc world for now is by far my favorite. Pooh bear stuff however was just like the character, atrocious

I'm liking monstropolis to so far, also is it me or does it seem like the game has a way better performance there than other worlds? The framerate seems way more consistent in monstropolis.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
This game...

It looks and plays like a PS2 remaster. First a boring Hercules world, followed by cutscenes which make no sense, then a spaceship sequence, then some town I've never heard of.

I thought what can go wrong, good reviews and Disney. What is with the button mashing floaty combat? Can you even die? What is the point of Sora's magic, it doesn't hurt anything.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
This game...

It looks and plays like a PS2 remaster. First a boring Hercules world, followed by cutscenes which make no sense, then a spaceship sequence, then some town I've never heard of.

I thought what can go wrong, good reviews and Disney. What is with the button mashing floaty combat? Can you even die? What is the point of Sora's magic, it doesn't hurt anything.

Now that is definitely a troll comment. The game does not look anywhere near PS2 and magic is literally OP in the game.
 
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bigedole

Member
This game...

It looks and plays like a PS2 remaster. First a boring Hercules world, followed by cutscenes which make no sense, then a spaceship sequence, then some town I've never heard of.

I thought what can go wrong, good reviews and Disney. What is with the button mashing floaty combat? Can you even die? What is the point of Sora's magic, it doesn't hurt anything.

I dunno how you can play through the first world and claim it looks like a PS2 remaster. I went mystic and +MP with my early game choices and my magic feels great. I think the attractions and lack of mp on team combo attacks makes it a little easy, but I still came close to dying a couple times when I wasn't sure about what to do (The water guys the first time you meet them and the dudes the first time you get to the realm of the gods).
 
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