KH3 recap

Kingdom Hearts 3 Recap
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DISCLAIMER: This entire document is my opinion and is probably very biased.  :D

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SPOILERS BELOW

Overview
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Kingdom Hearts 3 is a wonderful game and a solid entry in the series, it is not without flaw, but I very much enjoyed my first playthrough and I will probably enjoy many more to come.  My opinion of the plot is complicated. So I'll start there.

Plot
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If you consider the over arching plot for the entire series, KH3 ties up almost all of the loose ends.  It plucks at the nostalgia strings EXTREMELY hard.  I do think that a lot of the plot seems rushed/shallow.  I think this is a side effect of having so many loose ends to tie up, and I'm honestly sort of okay with it.  A few of the worlds felt especially weak plot-wise.

Worlds
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Olympus - a good opening world, sets the pace for music in the game.  Titans are cool bosses.  No Coliseum??? Also Phil doesn't talk and thats a shame.

Twilight Town - twilight town is twilight town.  This particular entry feels very small relative to other games but you spend an insane amount of time in TwiTown in KH2 so its probably not a good comparison.

Toy Box - HELL YES TOY STORY.  This world owned so hard.  The mech combat was cool, toy story owns, there were actual final fantasy references, and it started off with a classic Kingdom Hearts WTF IS GOING ON moment.  Toy story models are also cool looking.

Corona - Tangled is cool and FAR SUPERIOR to Frozen.  I found some neat speed tech I think on the boss.  Dancing was fun.

Monstropolis - I was pleasantly surprised at this world.  It provided the first boss encounter that I didn't steamroll.  And despite not having a particular attachment to Monsters, Inc. I just really liked this world. Also, this is the point where the story begins to pick up pace and I appreciated that.

Arendelle - FUCK FROZEN.  The only redeeming qualities of this world were the movement (platforming was especially good, and the snowball rolling was neat) and Marshmallow.  I did not want to hear Let it Go in its entirety.  Also the avalanche sequence didnt feel fun but it was right after hearing Let it Go so i might have just been in a bad mood.

100 Acre Wood - this was an extremely weak entry in the world list.  3 copies of the same Minigame, no conflict, nothing.  Just Snood.  I was very disappointed in this world.

The Caribbean - I didn't know this world was in the game until I got to it.  I historically hate Pirates™ worlds.  This one was actually very good.  The story was cool, the ship combat wasn't forced.  It was really nice.

San Fransokyo - Running around in the city was cool, story was a little shallow.  Baymax makes me smile.  Story was picking up a lot at this point.

Keyblade Graveyard - holy shit its the keyblade graveyard, game was going full speed at this point and this world is extra empty.  The labyrinth was cool and the multi-boss fights were cool.

The Final World - this was really cool too.  I wish you could have collected all the phantom Soras.  The souls of the people there were pretty neat to talk to.

Scala Ad Caelum - The final boss was here it was neat I guess (the world not the fight, the fight was cool)



Music
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I think this might be one of the strongest entries in the series musically.  Face my Fears is mediocre and the game would be better without it.  Don't Think Twice is outstanding.  I think the orchestral version is the best song in the series.  It might be caused by the opening cinematic in this game but holy moly its so good.  Other standout themes include "Titan" and obviously I'm partial to "You've Got  a Friend in Me".  The KH3 version of Dearly Beloved is also amazing.  It's just really good.


Combat
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Attractions are a plague on this games otherwise fantastic combat system.  Attractions need to be one of 2 things: Toggleable as abilities, or just less common.  This game quickly devolves into "press triangle to win".  Also being able to activate attractions out of combat sucks and is just poor design.  Nothing makes me more frustrated than walking up to a chest and turning into a pirate ship or a teacup.  Also the River Rapids attraction is just BAD all around.

That being said.  The combat system in this game is the most flexible and deep and just fun, provided you ignore attractions.  The fact that all keyblades are viable, you can equip 3 of them at once, and they all have special moves makes this combat system just amazing.  Form Shift and Grand Magic are also both amazing.

The special forms of combat in all the worlds was also, for the most part, good.  Mech combat was cool, pirate ship (not the attraction but in the Caribbean world) was also neat.


Conclusion
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I cried a lot.  Who cares if some of the stuff was a bit forced like "power of the heart".  Thats this whole series in a nutshell.  Also hell yeah my ships are all good your ships are bad dont @ me.  This game was not the best entry in the series, but it was far from the worst.  Waiting more than half of my life for this game to come out made this a pretty emotional experience.  Playing KH1 at my friends house before I had a PS2 and then being able to play it for myself once I got one.  It's been a wild ride.  I thought that it might be ending with this game but heck I'll go for another ride.


Future?
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Hell yeah Xigbar.  Looking forward to the next entry in the series.

Thanks for reading :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYAlnhy88Y4