(SPOILERS AHEAD)

both YIIK and KH3 end with the protagonist slowly becoming a metaphysical entity, losing contact with the world outside, being both dead and alive, becoming a fictional concept, and having no way out. But YIIK does it better, and with breezier dialogue

at the end of KH3, sora is both: living forever in the virtual world, nonexistent in the physical world, dead, and in shibuya square, fighting yozora, a fictionalised version of himself WITHIN KH's fiction. it's like it's trying to be "postmodern"- i.e making a comment on fiction itself, but I simply don't get what the point is


at the end of Yiik, alex has slowly learned that he and his friends will all die as a result of his rage, that he is a multi-personed being who has been in existence multiple times but can only exist once at a time (except when he doesn't). the entire last half of the game takes place entirely in the metaphysical plane and he can't go back. there is also a time loop where he repeatedly fails to save his friends in every single universe he's incarnated in. he is eventually forced to choose to do the "right thing" and sacrifice himself to end the loop. the presence of metaphysical elements slowly creeps into the story in a more natural manner than KH, and, more clearly, the story has been structured around it

yiik is easier to follow and explain despite being notoriously wordy and dense. KH3's ending is hard to explain even to people who've been following the games. the walk is much shorter. there's a clearer payoff