046: Kingdom Hearts 3 (Untangling the Kingdom Hearts Saga Part 5)
In my history of playing video games, one stands out as my most anticipated game, the one I had to wait the longest for. That, of course, was Kingdom Hearts III. Seeing as how I had to wait 13 years to play this game, it’s actually pretty fitting that it’s taken me almost two years to get to this post.
I suppose you’re wondering why I called you all here today. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
I know I’ve been talking about getting this post out for a long time, but I was a little delayed due to a few different factors. First, I wanted to wait until I had the re:Mind DLC. Then the DLC proved to be a bit more challenging than I thought it would be. And finally, I just didn’t have the time to dedicate to playing and working on this post. But here we are, one of the last Kingdom Hearts posts I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future. (I should have two more out by the end of the year to wrap up the series.) This one will be a lot like the format of my Dream Drop Distance post, discussing gameplay and story and giving my review of the game overall. As always, full spoilers follow, so use caution.
Sora is reading your minds right now. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Kingdom Hearts has a notoriously dense and convoluted plot. Although not entirely necessary, it may be helpful for beginners to the Kingdom Hearts series to read my previous recap posts to get up to speed. Kingdom Hearts III can be played on its own or as the final chapter in an extensive video game saga. Here are my posts in order:
016: Untangling the Kingdom Hearts Saga Part 1
017: Untangling the Kingdom Hearts Saga Part 2
018: Untangling the Kingdom Hearts Saga Part 3
021: Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance or That Time Sora Slept In (Untangling Part 4)
You can trust Master Xehanort, Seeker of Darkness. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
In my previous posts I’ve talked at great length about how long (and impatiently) I waited for this game to come out after finishing Kingdom Hearts II. There were times it felt like it would never be released. I won’t get into that again. I’m just bringing it up because it’s an inevitable topic when talking about Kingdom Hearts III. The fans waited seemingly forever for it and when it came out, reactions were mixed as with everything nowadays. I know the game has its detractors, but I loved it and feel like it was worth the unbearable wait.
Kingdom Hearts III is the culmination of all the Kingdom Hearts games that came before it, story-wise and in gameplay mechanics. Features that would eventually come to be included in this game had been tested in previous installments. While not the final Kingdom Hearts game, this installment is considered the end of “Phase 1”, what has retroactively come to be known as “The Dark Seeker Saga”. This game (and the mobile title Dark Road) are the end of Master Xehanort’s story in Kingdom Hearts . . .although his effect and the fallout from his actions are sure to be felt in later games.
This was my second play-through of Kingdom Hearts III. The first time I went through on normal mode and played it fairly quickly so I could see the story. The second time I played on Critical mode (since I always do on Kingdom Hearts games) and got everything. (Except some of the trophies. The obstacle courses in San Fransokyo are annoying. And I refuse to touch the PRO codes.) I did a New Game+ so had access to all the Keyblades I unlocked on my first playthrough.
The Master of Masters is an intriguing character. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Kingdom Hearts III was set up by Dream Drop Distance— Master Xehanort is revived and the thirteen darknesses are ready to face the seven lights. Sora, due to the events of the previous game, has had all his abilities and stats reset. It’s actually pretty clever the way they did this for each mainline installment. Prior to Part 2, Sora was reset by having his memory pieced back together by Namine. This time it was a result of travelling too deep into the Sleeping Worlds and nearly falling to darkness. (It’s a necessity of sequels to take the main character back to default so you can build them up again, but Kingdom Hearts crafts that into the story.) Sora is tasked to regain the Power of Waking and locate the missing Keyblade wielders to help them stop Master Xehanort and the Real Organization XIII. The Organization’s plan is to recreate the X-Blade (pronounced Key Blade) so they can harness the power of the mysterious Kingdom Hearts to remake the worlds in darkness.
This game plays much the same way as the first two chapters but with new tweaks and several new gameplay mechanics added in. One of these is the Gummi Phone, which takes the place of Jiminy Cricket’s journal. The Gummi Phone allows for phone calls in cut scenes and access to a camera so you can take and store photos. (The loading screens take the form of Instagram-esque posts by the main characters with hash tags in the shape of hearts.)
Magic, Skills, Summons, and Shotlocks all return from prior games. Summons are now called Link, but it works the same way, consuming your MP for a special attack with a Disney friend. (My favorite summon is Meow Wow from Dream Drop Distance.)
A big improvement over prior games is that you can have more companions. In previous games your main companions are Goofy and Donald and in certain worlds you could swap one of them out for a different Disney character who belongs to that world. (For instance Aladdin or Jack Skellington.) In this game not only did you not have to swap them out, but you could also have two extra companions for a total of a five person squad in some worlds.
Also, I couldn’t find anywhere to put this but I wanted to note it: The fantastic Utada Hikaru, who did the memorable theme songs for both Part 1 and 2, actually contributed two songs for this one. I love Utada. I have all their albums and have listened to them countless times. Utada is the voice of Kingdom Hearts.
This game is soooo shiny… (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
As is typical for a Kingdom Hearts game, there are a number of Keyblades you can acquire and equip. However this time you can equip three at once and cycle through them at will during battle. Each Keyblade has its own transformation and some have two. This is called Formchange. (Note that the wielders in Birth By Sleep could turn their Keyblades into vehicles and fly between worlds.) After getting in enough hits on enemies, a reaction command comes up to allow you to transform the Keyblade into a different form and gain access to a finisher move. A reaction command is a special conditional action that comes up when you fulfill certain requirements. They were used in previous games, but in this one you can have multiple reaction commands that you can toggle between. (It took me an embarrassing amount of play time before I realized you could toggle.)
Each Keyblade also has its own Shotlock command, which you may have seen on Birth By Sleep. This is a lock-on move that consumes your focus gauge and can help you to attack from a distance or move in closer to your enemy.
You can also upgrade the Keyblades at the Moogle Shop. You know me, I love upgrade systems! This means the Moogle Synthesis system from Part 2 makes a return, which I was happy to see. You upgrade Keyblades using rare material that you accrue in various areas of the game. (A lot of it is in the Gummi Ship areas.) Upgrading gives the Keyblade better stats and sometimes special abilities.
Sora in Ultimate Form. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
As with the Drive Forms in Kingdom Hearts II, this game features different Formchange transformations for Sora. Most of these are achieved by transforming your Keyblade. For instance, Ultimate Form is the reaction command gained from the Ultima Weapon. There is a different form not tied to a Keyblade, however— Rage Form. This is gained by taking a lot of damage and transforms Sora into a shadow that looks much like his Antiform from Part II.
In a related subject, casting enough Magic spells in a row can allow you to use an upgraded version of the spell through a reaction command. This is called Grand Magic. Examples of these are Fireza, Thundaza, etc.
Oh lord… (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
One new battle mechanic is called Attractions. These are various reaction commands that come up when hitting an enemy with a green target on them. Activating an Attraction manifests Disney theme park attractions. (I know, it sounds weird, but it’s not too bad.) The most impressive of these is the Mountain Coaster, which is a roller coaster that only appears in two areas of the game. The other ones are the tea cups (shown above), splash mountain, a carousal, astro blasters, and a pirate ship. They’re not too critical to the gameplay, but they can be fun to use if only to break up the flow of battle.
Just standing on a fish balloon miles above the city. No biggie. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Since this is a Kingdom Hearts game, there are many side quests to embark on. A notable side quest is Lucky Emblems. In every world you can find little Mickey Mouse head emblems. If you take a photo of them with your Gummi Phone, it is added to the journal. These were actually fairly important to the game. Every few Lucky Emblems you photographed gave you prizes, and the number you found depending on the difficulty you were playing on, would determine whether or not you unlocked the Secret Ending. (Although on Critical Mode these weren’t required for the ending.)
As a side note, the game doesn’t make this clear, but it’s pretty obvious to me that Mickey has wandered to all these worlds, leaving graffiti in random places. Although this would seem to clash with his warrior king character, we did get to see his more mischievous side in some of the Kingdom Hearts II worlds. So I think it fits.
After winning the game, Battle Gates open up. These award you rare materials and prizes for completing, and are a good way to grind for levels or materials to craft stat increase items. These are like the Battle Missions in Birth By Sleep and the Link Portals in Dream Drop Distance. The final Battle Gate, though, was a Heartless named Dark Inferno and he was brutal. I was at level 67 with the Ultima Weapon and I still had to eat a full meal and use Elixers to beat him. (But then after I reached level 99 I came back and tore him apart like he was made of paper. It was bonkers.)
Also, each world has a Flan Heartless that has its own minigame you have to win to get prizes. They’re collectively known as The Flantastic Seven. These are analogous to the Rare Truffles in Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and the Mushroom XIII in Kingdom Hearts II. There’s not too much to say about the Flans, they each have their own strategy, some are fun and some are annoying. One of them has a strawberry on his head.
Whackin’ kitties. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
There is also a side quest to acquire a series of Game and Watch style minigames called Classic Kingdom. These are played in the Gummi Phone once collected. They’re all very simple minigames with high scores you can strive for. Those of you who read my Union X post may recognize these games as being X3[ex tres] that were added to the mobile title to hype up KH3. These games are based around old Disney cartoons.
Space battles! (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Since this is a mainline Kingdom Hearts title, we had to have a Gummi ship. As is the tradition, the Gummi system has been completely retooled and finally we have free roaming flight. As before, you can upgrade your ship, craft your own, or use blueprints you find in your travels. There are a lot of synthesis materials and optional battle to be found in space. (Well, it’s not really space, it’s more the void between worlds, but whatever.) After visiting an area on the map, you could fast travel between them to save from having to fly every time. There were some pretty crazy boss battles here, the most difficult one being Omega Machina.
Haha I’m a bad cook. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
One of the new gameplay features is a cooking minigame and the meal system. Uncle Scrooge has opened a high end Bistro in Twilight Town and his chef is Remy from Ratatouille (marking three Pixar properties that appear in this game.) In your travels you find ingredients and you bring those back to Remy to cook new dishes. Each one has a minigame like grinding pepper, flambé, cracking eggs, things like that. (Cracking eggs was a pain in the ass.) Doing well at the minigame will let you create a plus version of the dish. Cooking enough dishes lets the Bistro rank up in star ranks (up to a Five Star ranking) and gives you prizes. Eating a dish will grant you stat increases and other beneficial results for a set amount of time. Eating a full meal (starter, soup, fish, meat, and dessert) will grant you a Full Course bonus. These are random and give you exclusive effect and Grand Magic commands.
Mickey’s new Keyblade, the Star Cluster. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
As the game begins, Sora and his old travelling companions Donald and Goofy travel to the world of Olympus to meet up with Hercules. This world serves as the usual tutorial level to get the player acquainted with the battle system and new mechanics. Side note: the developers have included a great joke here by labelling this part of the game Kingdom Hearts II.9 as a nod to their weird numbering structures in the games and collections. Kingdom Hearts II.8 for example was the remastered version of KH2 including Birth By Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage.
Hades is once again trying to take over everything and Hercules is working to rebuild Thebes. This time you’re not relegated to the coliseum. (In previous games Olympus was fairly small with the first game just being three rooms long and the second game you spent most of your time down in the Underworld.) This time we not only get to explore Thebes, but also the area outside of it and the climb up Mount Olympus to enter the Realm of the Gods. They expanded this world a lot. We got to meet Zeus and fight the other Titans. Previous games only let us fight the Rock and Ice Titans, this one includes the Lava Titan and Tornado Titan.
This makes me laugh every time. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
After this lengthy “prologue” we get some plot. Sora visits Master Yensid and reveals that he hasn’t found the Power of Waking yet, but he’s going to keep trying. Yensid gives him a Heartbinder to strengthen his natural power of connecting with others. (This is the summon mechanic.) He also gives him new clothes. On the Gummi Ship, Sora discovers a Gummi Phone had been slipped into his pocket. This is the device I mentioned earlier, created by Chip and Dale to help keep them all in touch during the adventure. Sora learns that Ienzo (formerly Zexion of Organization XIII) has regained his human form due to his Nobody being defeated and is now on their side. So is Aeleus and Dilan, other former members. (This was mentioned in Dream Drop Distance and is why Lea/Axel is a good guy now too.) Ienzo has located data hidden within Sora’s heart by Ansem the Wise. He’s working to decrypt it. Ansem also discovered that Sora’s heart belongs to three other people. Roxas is one, but they’re not yet sure about the other two. (Also Namine is in Kairi’s heart, by the way.)
Next Sora and friends visit the familiar location of Twilight Town to meet up with our friends Hayner, Pence, and Olette. (I actually didn’t expect to see them in this game, so that was a nice surprise to see that they got a role.) They want to find out what happened with the missing friend they only vaguely remember, Roxas. (Why they remember Roxas is actually one of my lingering questions… how can they remember Roxas? They never met him, only the data versions of them met him.) Sora promises to figure out what’s going on. Along the way the group runs into both Ansem and Xemnes, who taunt Sora for trying to find a way to help Roxas.
In this world you have to fight Nobodies and a group of Heartless called the Demon Tide. (They group together like a cloud of insects and are pretty difficult to beat.) After investigating the sewers and the old Mansion, you get access to a couple of the game’s minigames. You meet up with Uncle Scrooge and learn about his Café and the Classic Kingdom games, and find our first Lucky Emblem. Ienzo calls again and is helping Pence to decrypt the digital Twilight Town data in hopes that they will find Roxas there.
Everybody seems to like ice cream in Kingdom Hearts. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
So while Sora is out adventuring his little heart out, the others are also busy. Mickey and Riku are wandering the Realm of Darkness searching for Aqua. They’re also getting their asses kicked fighting a Demon Tower (a variation of the Demon Tide), but hey, at least they’re being productive. And our two newest Keyblade Wielders Kairi and Lea/Axel are training in a magical realm with Merlin. Lea is awkward and weird since he’s not used to being a good guy yet. Kairi is determined to become strong so she can stop being sidelined and fight alongside the others.
While the five lights are busying themselves and trying to find their missing two members, Master Xehanort is gathering his thirteen darknesses. If you recall Dream Drop Distance, he was one short since he failed to recruit Sora. The good guys are scrambling to get ready before their opposition finds their thirteenth member, although there are hints that they already have a full crew.
Also of note is Maleficent and Pete, who are wandering the worlds looking for a black box, which KH fans may recognize as the mysterious trunk that Luxu dragged off in the Back Cover movie. (Man, Back Cover was so good. We need more Kingdom Hearts movies.)
I died a lot in this world. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
As we go on keep in mind that, as with all KH games, there is some choice involved in which world you want to set out to first. The game shows a bit of an indicator of the recommended order by the world’s difficulty level, but in each area it’s up to you. Plus you can leave the worlds at any time and visit previous worlds whenever you want. For this post I’ll go through the worlds in the order I visited them. Every world has a different feel and challenge to them. Each one vaguely follows the Disney property that the world is based on, but we also get pieces of the overarching story.
I started off on the Kingdom of Corona. This is the world of Rapunzel from Tangled. (Which I actually liked. It’s a cute movie.) This was the world where I first started to feel the pain of Critical Mode. The boss fights were brutal.
In Corona we follow the story of Rapunzel and her friend/love interest Flynn Rider. For those who don’t know the story, it’s pretty simple. Rapunzel has magic hair and is imprisoned by a nasty witch named Mother Gothel. In the KH version, Gothel is egged on by the reborn Organization XIII member Marluxia. (He was the boss of Chain of Memories, so didn’t live to see KH2.) This starts a running theme in this game. In each world one of the members of the Real Organization XIII is meddling with the affairs of the world and working towards their ultimate goal of filling out their ranks and recreating the X-Blade. Confusing things more, Marluxia doesn’t appear to want to stop Sora, but rather wants him to keep Rapunzel safe, as she is one of the New Seven Hearts. (A new generation of princesses like the ones shown in KH1.) Gothel kills Flynn before she’s defeated, Rapunzel cuts her hair, cures Flynn with her magic tears, and becomes Princess of Corona. Happy fairy tale ending.
This was a cute world. Very challenging. I liked that Rapunzel was a companion and used her hair to fight and swing Sora across chasms. (Sadly when you revisit the world you can’t have Rapunzel in your party anymore.) And it was nice to see Marluxia again. I really didn’t think he’d show up, but it makes sense since the Organization members were all reborn regardless of when they died.
Sora the toy. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Next up we visit Toy Box, the world of Pixar’s Toy Story! This was a nice inclusion, and a very creative world. Sora and friends take the form of action figures, reminding us that as they visit the various worlds, Donald’s magic automatically changes them into a form that allows them to blend in with the denizens of the world. In this world something strange has happened. Andy and most of his toys have disappeared, leaving behind Woody, Buzz, Rex, Ham, and the Toy Soldiers. They have decided to travel to the nearby toy store to look for their missing friends. It turns out that it was a young version of Xehanort (who we first met in Dream Drop Distance) who has been meddling with the worlds. He finds it interesting that toys have hearts and wants to study how hearts connect in this world. To accomplish this, he split the world into two, separating the toys and their owner. Buzz gets temporarily taken over by darkness, but they manage to defeat Xehanort. Sadly the toys don’t reunite with their friends, but Sora relays to them his own hard-learned lesson that no matter how far apart you are from those you care about, you’re always connected in your heart.
This world was fun, but very challenging in Critical Mode. (More on that later.) You get to fight toy-like Heartless, possessed dolls, and evil tsum-tsums. The mini boss is a goth bunny girl doll. Not to mention uber-powerful mechs that you can jump in and pilot when you damage them.
Also of particular note here is that Rex (following with his video game subplot from Toy Story 2) is obsessed with a new game called Verum Rex. This is a very much Final Fantasy inspired game with a main character named Yozora. Rex initially mistakes Sora as being an action figure of Yozora, but Sora thinks the game character looks much more like Riku. At a certain point in this world, Young Xehanort transports Sora into the game Verum Rex: Beat of Lead where he must play a mech-battling minigame to escape. What makes this interesting is that Yozora and Verum Rex are seemingly inspired by a cancelled game by Tetsuya Nomura (the director of Kingdom Hearts) named Final Fantasy Versus XIII. So it appears that this abandoned game lives on within the Kingdom Hearts mythos. I bring all this up because Yozora and his world of Quadratum will become very important to the future of Kingdom Hearts.
Donald neglected to mention he was going to be changing them into monsters. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
After finishing both worlds in the first area, the second area of space opens up with another three worlds to choose from. I first went with Monsteropolis, the world from Pixar’s Monsters Inc. Donald transforms them into goofy-looking monsters, which shocks all of them. (Including Donald.) Here, as you can guess if you’ve seen the movie, we meet up with Sully and Mike, the new heads of Monsters, Inc as they are having another visit with their human toddler friend, Boo. The whole world is them trying to get Boo back home, and for that they need the door that serves as a portal to her closet in the human realm. Randall, the baddie from the movie makes an appearance and Sora uses the locking capabilities of his Keyblade to keep the little monster banished. (I thought that was pretty creative since they use doors so extensively in Monsters Inc.)
The big threat, though, is Vanitus and his Unversed. That’s right… the Unversed finally come back after their long absence since Birth By Sleep! This actually fit in very well since the Unversed are created from negative emotions, and Monsters Inc is pretty much built on that. (They used to convert children’s screams into power to run the monster civilization before they converted to laughter power.) If you recall, Vanitus was the darkness in Ventus’s heart that was given its own form that for some unexplained reason looked like Sora with black hair and yellow eyes. (I’ll mention here that there’s a bit more to Ventus and Vanitas’s origin story that I will cover in a later post.) The two of them were meant to clash— the pure light and the pure darkness— to create the X-Blade. Sora learns that Vanitus looks like him, and suddenly Ventus speaks through Sora, taking everyone by surprise. They realize that Ventus has been sleeping in Sora’s heart all this time. (Which actually explains why Roxas looks like Ventus… he was taking the form of someone else in Sora’s heart when he became a Nobody.) Donald and Goofy try to protect Sora but are overpowered. The only way they stop him is by Sully startling him and then throwing him through a series of doors. (It’s pretty funny. he slams the door, picks it up and throws it through another door and repeats this several times.)
With this all taken care of, they ship Boo off to her home. They put that poor little girl through so much danger. As a friend of mine put it, they’re all terrible babysitters.
What’s Kingdom Hearts without a little Pooh? (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
As usual for a mainline KH game, we take a visit to the storybook world of The Hundred Acre Woods to visit our friend Pooh Bear. This time we’re treated to a more cartoony cell-shaded design for the tiny world. And I do mean tiny— the entire thing takes place in Rabbit’s garden. Strangely, Owl and Eeyore are not in attendance, but we meet a new character, Lumpy. (Who I gather must be a Heffalump and was likely introduced into Pooh canon fairly recently. Not to get off on a tangent, but wasn’t the whole point of Heffalumps and Woozles that you didn’t know if they existed or were just imaginary? Wouldn’t that invalidate the spirit of them to show them in person? Whatever… after everyone met Snuffleupagus in Seasame Street, I guess all bets are off.)
I will talk more about this later, but I didn’t entirely like this world, due to the quality of the minigames. Still, I’m glad they included it since the previous two installments had Pooh’s world and minigames. The games are repetitive and boring, but they are a good way to grind for rare ingredients. It’s a short and sweet world. Well, sweet and sad… Sora has to deal with the fact that he’s growing up, so he won’t always be able to hang with his stuffed animal buddies.
We get more plot here too. Ienzo has a theory that if they can locate the memories of Roxas and the others in Sora’s heart and provide a suitable body for each of them, they can be separated from Sora. And they know someone who can do that… Even, although he’s still missing. This is a great twist. I think it’s fantastic that they brought back the Replicas from way back near the beginning of the story and use them to solve a huge problem with the plot… how to give Roxas a second chance without Sora becoming a Heartless again. Goofy realizes that the second heart within Sora’s must be Ventus because of the revelations they learned in Monsteropolis. But who’s the third? Ienzo says it’s been with Sora just about as long as Roxas. Hmm…
Aqua is still lost in the Realm of Darkness and she meets up with Ansem the Wise, who has been stranded there ever since sacrificing himself in KH2. Heartless Ansem shows up and asks Ansem the Wise where “the girl” is. Apparently there is an amnesiac girl who Ansem/Xehanort was experimenting on. She disappeared and he wants her memories, stating they contain somethign very important. Ansem the Wise is playing dumb, but things are starting to come together. Lea and Asa mentioned a girl and she was why they became apprentices in the first place, to save her. She was also mentioned in some of the Secret Reports in previous games. The Secret Reports optionally obtained in this game sheds a bit more light, revealing that she can’t remember her history even after the experiments that were done on her. She is referred to here as Subject X. So here’s another intriguing mystery being drawn out of the overall story. Anyway, in trying to protect Ansem the Wise, Aqua falls to darkness. Uh oh.
Donald’s face perfectly captured my reaction when I learned Olaf was in this game.
Onward to Arendelle, the world from Frozen. You probably won’t be too surprised to learn that they worked the entirety of the song “Let It Go” into the game. And Olaf the snowman, for whatever reason. As for the story, just as in the movie Frozen, Anna is trying to get through to her sister Elsa, who has inexplicable ice powers. (I haven’t watched the movie yet… I meant to, since it was included in this game. I mean, I watched Big Hero 6 for that reason.) Larxene, the only female member of Organization XIII is there to see if Elsa is one of the new Seven Pure Hearts. (Why Larxene and not Vexen? He has ice powers too, so maybe they thought that would be overkill? Well, they’re going to use Vexen/Even for something else in the plot, so I guess Larxene drew the short straw.)
I didn’t mind this world. When I first heard Frozen was going to be included, I anticipated it being annoyed, but that was mainly because I was tired of hearing about Frozen. It turned out to be a challenging world and I liked the snow and ice motif. The Heartless designs were creative. Plus it was nice seeing Larxene again. She’s sassy. The obligatory snowboarding game wasn’t too bad… I just didn’t like having to play it over and over again for the Oricalcum+ I needed to make the Ultima Weapon.
Critical Mode note: I could not for the life of me beat Marshmallow. (He’s a big ice golem that Anna makes who becomes your companion in this world after a boss battle against him.) I came pretty close using a hit and dodge tactic with the Crystal Snow Keyblade equipped. But I couldn’t quite get there. Finally I remembered the cuisine system and ate a full meal that boosted my magic stat and my MP and also gave me a Grand Magic bonus for Fireza. After this I not only beat Marshamallow with no problem, I also sailed through the Heartless Ice Wolf boss battle. After that I cooked up everything I could and used the meal system to get through the harder bosses.
After this world, Sora checks in with his friends. Riku and Mickey are returning to the Realm of Darkness to search for Aqua, who Yensid insists they need to help them locate Ventus. (She hid Ventus away after the tragic events of Birth By Sleep.)
As the cutscenes continue, we check in on some of the members of the Real Organization XIII. They discuss how the new Replicas that Vexen (Even) is creating will be human in every way. Xemnes appears suddenly to talk to them and his voice is pure velvet evil. I love it.
Here we get a big reveal. If you remember your history, the first members of the original Organization XIII were the apprentices of Ansem the Wise, who had his identity stolen by Master Xehanort in Terra’s body. (Lord, Kingdom Hearts is convoluted.) Anyway, the last four members were never really explained. They were just “recruits” picked out by Xemnes for reasons unrevealed. Well, in this game we learn that members 9-12— Marluxa, Demyx, Luxord, and Larxene— were all Keyblade Wielders while they were alive! I can’t recall the timing, but we did meet Lauriam (Marluxia) and Elrena (Larxene) in Union X. (The other two we haven’t seen yet.) This is huge. This explains who they were and what their connection is to the story. Luxord and Demyx (we still don’t know their human names) were likely also in the time of Union X. This just shows that there’s so much more story to explore. Like for instance, cold and stand-offish Larxene clearly has a huge crush on Marluxia. I feel like there’s a lot more about these characters we don’t know. Personally, I think we need a new side game starring Lea and Isa in the days when everyone became Nobodies. Maybe we could learn more about everyone’s pasts there.
I do love the character models in the Caribbean world. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Next up is the world of the Caribbean. This one is based off of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. (The movies with Davey Jones.) Sora is psyched to be back on a pirate ship. I find it interesting that Sora is so enthralled with being a pirate… this is a theme that has recurred in all three main games, starting with his visit to Neverland in KH1. It seems like a contradiction that Sora would want to be a pirate, since they are traditionally represented as being bad and unscrupulous people. Is he so fascinated with the darkness because he has so much light in him? (Or is it the result of Ventus being in his heart? Ventus visited Neverland long before Sora did.)
Anyway, I like this world and it represents a huge improvement over the Caribbean in Part II. They continued with the ultra-realistic style (which looks incredible with Donald and Goofy) and expand everything to allow for free exploration. In Part II, you only had a few locations to sail to and it was all fast travel with battles on the deck of the ship as you went. In this one, you can actually pilot your ship the Leviathan and free roam from island to island (Wind Waker style). You fight Heartless ships and can activate special moves with your cannons. The ship battles are a lot of fun. Using the white crabs from the movies you can also level up the Leviathan, which is cool. (I love upgrades!)
Plot-wise, this world follows the plot of the movies, but with the added Kingdom Hearts twist. Luxord (the cool gambler Organization XIII member) has his own ship and is searching for a black box. They suspect it may be the chest which contains Davy Jones’s heart, but’s clearly the mysterious box Maleficent is also seeking. Luxord admits he doesn’t know what’s in the box, but if it’s a black box, they were ordered to collect it. He also mentions that it contains “hope”. Sora is perplexed as to why the Organization would be searching for hope.
A few more notes about this world: there is a chase in the beginning where you have to catch the Black Pearl as crabs are running off with it. This was very challenging in Critical mode and took me several tries. There is a ship boss battle against the Kraken near the end of the world that took me an embarrassing number of attempts. (It was way less aggravating on normal difficulty.) The battle with Davy Jones was easy by comparison. Also, there’s a scene where Sora impulsively runs off to get a treasure chest that’s an obvious trap. (Just one more reason Sora is my spirit animal.)
After this world we get to check in on Kairi and Lea again. I like their friendship. Kairi tries to get Lea out of his shell. She reminds Lea of someone, but he can’t exactly remember who. (Spoiler: It’s Xion, who if you recall was created from Sora’s memories of Kairi.) Kairi is training to protect Sora and also to free Namine. She feels like Namine deserves her own life. Lea is just trying to be a good guy again after his time in the Organization. He talks about how he misses Roxas and that he met Ventus long ago. (In Birth By Sleep, when Lea and Asa were still human.)
In the World of Darkness, Riku and Mickey battle the Demon Tower again and Mickey is swept away. Meanwhile in Twilight Town, Heartless Ansem is taking Ansem the Wise to the old mansion. They’re interrupted by Hayner, Pence, and Olette who show how heroic they can be by confronting the evil Ansem and rescuing the good one. Dusk Nobodies arrive to keep the kids safe and help them escape. Who sent them? Surprisingly, it turns out to be Even! He’s turned against the Organization and is fully on the side of light now. (He can still control the Dusks because after he recovered, he must have become a Nobody again. It’s not exactly stated, but his eyes are still yellow and there’s no way the Dusks would listen to a human.)
More ice cream buddies. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Next stop is San Fransokyo, the world from Big Hero 6. This was actually one of my first exposures to this property… I watched the movie after playing this for the first time. The only other time I’d run across Big Hero 6 was in comics books. In the Spider-Man crossover Ends of the Earth, Doctor Octopus is dying and holds the Earth for ransom and wants to burn everyone by depleting the ozone layer. One of his plans is thwarted in Japan by the Marvel version of Big Hero 6. This is a superhero themed world and Sora gets really hyped about it. The actual superheroes train him by sending him through obstacle courses and then they have to stop the Organization’s plans.
The Organization member plaguing this world is the past version of Riku from back when he was possessed by darkness. (Well, that’s what they think. Jumping ahead a bit it later turns out to be the Riku Replica from Chain of Memories.) Also notable about this world is that the virus cubes from re:Coded return, and we learn a bit more about the Organization’s plans. Just as in the Toy Story world, they’re trying to recreate hearts from data. And now we learn that the dead members of the Real Organization XIII were all able to come back to life because their data was placed into Replicas. (Which actually explains a lot. With the Kingdom Hearts version of time travel you have to shed your body to travel through time. You need a vessel for your heart to reside in.)
This world is notable for having night and day versions. Maleficent and Pete make an appearance in this world too, still looking for the black box. This one is very comic-booky and silly but also a bit sad. The original Baymax was turned evil and Hiro is forced to destroy his chip to prevent the medical bot from being used as a weapon. He recovers by the end, though, so there are actually two Baymaxes now. This one had some puzzles on how to do the objectives, but the end boss battle was ridiculously easy.
Yikes. Poor Aqua. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
With all the proper worlds out of the way, it’s time for some crucial plot advancement! Chip and Dale inform Sora that they lost contact with Mickey and Riku. They have no idea how to get to the Realm of Darkness because only King Mickey can open a door to it. We learn this is because Mickey’s Keyblade is actually forged from darkness, which is really interesting. (How did he get it? Why would he have a dark Keyblade in the first place? I want to know more about this.) Sora holds up his Keyblade and somehow opens a gate to Destiny Islands. Washed up on the shore is Aqua’s Keyblade, which creates a door to darkness in the mouth of the cave where he lost Kairi in the very first first game. He insists that Donald and Goofy stay behind and heads through the door alone.
In the Realm of Darkness, Riku has a rematch against the Demon Tower in an attempt to free Mickey. Aqua has arrived and takes Mickey’s Keyblade. She’s been taken over by darkness from her time stranded, succumbing to the bitterness and loneliness in her heart. Sora arrives and faces Aqua. I was a bit worried about this battle, but Sora’s Rage Form tore her apart like she was nothing. After she’s defeated, the darkness drains from her and they all reunite on the shores of Destiny Islands.
Meanwhile, Even meets with Demyx and convinces him to help betray the Organization. Even just wants to atone for the evil he did in the name of science. (He’s actually a pretty solid dude it turns out.) We get a tantalizing clue here too… Even whispers something into Demyx’s ear that convinces him to overcome his cowardice and help. Exactly what it is, we don’t hear, but apparently one of the members of the Real Organization XIII helped Even and also wants to atone.
Ienzo is still hard at work at Hollow Bastian trying to rebuild Roxas’s heart, but still doesn’t have a vessel. Suddenly Demyx appears with a Replica for him, and Ansem the Wise trailing behind.
The good guys all head to Castle Oblivion, where Aqua hid Ventus’s body all those years ago. We also get another bombshell here. Castle Oblivion (the setting for Chain of Memories) was actually Master Eraqus’s castle in the Land of Departure, transformed into a different form by Aqua’s magic to keep Ventus safe and hidden. Before they can reach Ventus, they’re interrupted by Vanitus and let me tell you, this was a difficult battle on Critical. You fight as Aqua, so that’s a bit of a handicap right there. Don’t get me wrong, she’s powerful in her games, but here she controls a bit differently and takes some getting used to. The main problem is Vanitus’s speed and ruthlessness. It took me many, many attempts to beat him. It’s all about blocking and reprisals. I rarely block in games, but Kingdom Hearts III taught me the importance of a good defense.
The team is mostly all together. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The battle finished, Sora finally finds the Power of Waking (it’s still not fully explained) and manages to release Ventus from within his heart and put him back in his own body. Outnumbered, Vanitus leaves. All seven lights (plus Donald and Goofy) are finally together. They all gather in Yensid’s chambers to regroup and celebrate their victories. Lea and Kairi are there too, their training completed. They all have one evening to rest and catch up with one another before the fated battle with Darkness.
For sure one of my favorite scenes in this game. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
That evening, Aqua and Ven watch the stars. Ventus actually dreamt about all Sora’s adventures. (And met the Dreameaters!) Maleficent has given up on the box for now, because she has come to believe it doesn’t exist right now. She has decided to wait for the battle to end to find it and then her “real work can begin”. She promises Pete will get what he wants too. (I want to know more about this!) Lea is alone eating ice cream on the clock tower where he used to hang out with Roxas and Xion. Saix (also a member of the Real Organization XIII) appears and shares his ice cream. Saix reminds him of the girl they joined the Organization to find. He hasn’t been able to find a trace of her and got sidetracked by his lust for power. Lea tries to convince him to leave the Organization. (We learn a little tidbit here… the upside down tears under Axel’s eyes were to stop him from crying. He doesn’t need them anymore now that he’s human again and redeemed himself.)
And then we get two interesting scenes on Destiny Island. Riku is sitting on the beach talking with the Riku Replica that has apparently been inside him ever since their time in Castle Oblivion. And nearby, Sora and Kairi finally share that paopu fruit. (Riku teased Sora with that way back in part 1.) We flash back to the cave drawing from part 1 that they did of each other sharing the fruit, and they promise to keep each other safe. Seriously, this scene makes me so happy and I’m glad they included a cute moment between the two of them here.
Another epic battle, this time with Unversed added to the mix. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The guardians of light enter the Keyblade Graveyard and meet with Master Xehanort, who states that the first Keyblade War brought about creation. He wants to see what another War would bring. The other members of the Real Organization XIII arrive, taunting them. Heartless appear and there is a massive, fun battle against the Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed all at once. I thought the Battle of 1000 Heartless from Part II was fun, but this was epic. There were tons of Attractions and team moves, and a gauge showing you how many more you needed to defeat.
After this, Terra shows up and Aqua and Ven run to greet him. Sadly, he’s still possessed by Xehanort, so he throws them aside. He is the 13th member. Axel falls protecting Kairi. Donald uses an insane spell called Zetta Flare and it knocks Terra away and drains Donald’s energy. The Demon Tide returns, bigger than ever, and all the Guardians are trashed. All appears lost and everyone is taken by darkness.
Yow. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Sora awakens in the Final World as a soul (heart?) and meets a Chirithy from Union X. He’s in the place where lost hearts go. Yes, Sora actually died. Long story short, Sora is able to keep his form after death and has to piece himself back together. There’s a pretty cool sequence where you have to chase down phantom Soras. Then Sora meets some lost hearts. Namine is there too. Sora meets a nameless female heart who mentions that everything was taken from her and “he was changed beyond recognition”. Sora promises to help and she whispers a name to him that we don’t get to hear. (I have my theories, but we don’t know for sure yet.)
Sora meets up with Chirithy again and offers to help him. Chirithy explains that he’s waiting for his friend, but his friend no longer remembers the past. He has new friends now. It’s not revealed until the end credits, but I’ll give it away here… this particular Chirithy belongs to Ventus. How could that be? Chirithys were Spirits assigned to Keyblade Wielders around the time of the Keyblade War… the age of fairy tales shown in Union X. So how does Ventus have one? Well, that’s a story for another day. (Another post…) Sora promises to come back to visit Chirity and opens a portal with his Keyblade. He knows saving his friends will take all his heart.
Rude. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The portal takes Sora to Olympus where he finds Riku’s heart being stolen by a grim reaper looking Heartless called the Lich. Sora chases the Lich into each of the previous worlds, rescuing the hearts of his friends. After defeating the Lich in each world, all his friends have been saved… all except for Kairi. Young Xehanort tells Sora that the Lich wasn’t like any other Heartless. Chasing it has doomed him. He’s using the Power of Waking incorrectly to save his friends. Sora doesn’t believe him.
On the way to the Keyblade Graveyard, Sora finds Kairi. It was her belief in Sora that kept him from fading away in the Final World.
This battle was amazing. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Back at the Keyblade Graveyard, everyone is back together again and ready to have their do-over. (Just how much they remember is unclear.) The scene with Terra occurs again, but this time the Lingering Will appears to stop Terra-Xehanort. (The Lingering Will was an optional and very difficult boss in KH2. It was the animated armor of Terra.) As they battle, more Heartless appear and get swept up into a huge hurricane of darkness. Sora faces it alone. But he’s not alone for long. Ephemer from Kingdom Hearts Union X shows up and asks Sora if he needs help. (This game really did tie all the games together!) Keyblades appear from everywhere (I’m assuming the fallen Keyblades from the War) and Sora surfs on them to battle the core of the Heartless storm. This part was really cool. There was a lottery in Union X and a bunch of players got to have their user names in this game. Essentially in this part, Sora is calling upon the powers of the past Keyblade Wielders to help him in the battle.
After this is done, things look dark again as the heroes are surrounded by a horde of Heartless. Yensid shows up unexpectedly to hold them off and give the guardians a chance to get away. Donald and Goofy stay behind to help. The group then splits up to fight their own boss battles and Sora works his way through a labyrinth to meet up with his friends and help with each battle. There are some puzzles to get to each battle, but when all is said and done, you end up battling twelve of the 13 Organization members. (Usually 2 or 3 at a time.)
A few things of note from this part: The Riku Replica helps defeat Riku-Ansem, leaving his body behind. They keep the empty Replica for Namine. After each of the previous Organization members die, they get a parting speech. (It’s also strongly implied they will be made human again after this.) Luxord gives Sora a playing card and tells him its his “wild card” and it could turn the tables. Larxene hints that she’s in love with Marluxia. Marluxia thanks Sora and gets his memories and humanity back. We also learn that all this time, the shadow guardian that evil Ansem used was actually Terra’s heart. It turns against him and helps them defeat him, finally getting back to his own body. The trio is reunited in a touching moment. In the battle against Xion, she recovers her memory and Roxas appears to help, in the Replica that was delivered to Ienzo earlier. Another trio is back together. Xemnes takes Kairi and runs, which is lame. (They need to stop making her a plot device. She deserves better.)
Did somebody call for a boss battle? (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
The twelve battles completed the X-Blade. Xehanort is ready for the final showdown. He summons Kingdom Hearts and shatters Kairi into crystal fragments to motivate Sora to battle. When the X-Blade is forged, Kingdom Hearts is tainted with darkness… it’s “true form” according to Old Man X. All the guardians together form a portal to Scala ad Calem, the home world of Master Xehanort. (It was featured prominently in Dark Road.)
There is a very cinematic multi-part boss battle against Master Xehanort to cap off the game. As you go, he uses his magic to warp the world like in the Doctor Strange movie. The cool thing is that if you die at any stage of the battle you continue from that stage, not from the beginning like in most boss battles. Like all good final bosses, Old Man X has many forms, starting out armored and then taking his elderly form. I expected to have to eat a meal to help me through this in Critical Mode, but by the time I got here, I had leveled way up and crafted the Ultima Weapon, so I did just fine. I did die a few times, but nowhere near as much as previous boss battles.
I always hoped that you would get to travel to Kingdom Hearts in the final game of the trilogy, but that didn’t happen. Still, Xehanort uses Kingdom Hearts as a weapon against you. He summons it and turns it dark again using the X-Blade to try and steal Sora’s light. There’s a scary fake-out part where it plays the death sound and you think you’ve lost, but it’s actually part of the game. Sora floats there like when he dies, but Donald and Goofy arrive to stand with him and you do an impressive trinity attack as the final blow against Xehanort.
Did I mention how shiny it all is? (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Xehanort’s true plan was to plunge the worlds into darkness to purge everything and start it all over. He actually wanted to reboot everything so that the evil in people’s hearts could be conquered. Kingdom Hearts is the first light that appeared in the darkness at the start of time. So all this time, Xehanort had good intentions, just an evil way of going about it. He was basically an anti-Sora. I love that they gave him actual motivations, rather than just being evil because the game needed an antagonist.
As Xehanort explains his reasoning, a keyhole opens in the corrupted Kingdom Hearts and the guardians arrive. Terra approaches Xehanort and the spirit of Eraqus comes from him. (Which means when Terra defeated his master in Birth By Sleep, his heart stayed within Terra.) I didn’t bring it up before, but all through the game, we got scenes of Eraqus and Xehanort in their younger incarnations playing chess. Eraqus convinces Xehanort it’s over and to hand the X-Blade over. It appears like Xehanort returns to light at the end. He reverts to his younger form and floats up with Eraqus. The others help Sora with the X-Blade to close Kingdom Hearts.
But Sora is not done just yet. He has to use the Power of Waking to save Kairi. Even though he knows it’s risky. After this we see Mickey, Donald, and Goofy return to Disney Castle. Yensid is there, safe and sound. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus return to the Land of Departure and Ventus finds his Chirithy waiting for him. He greets the little Spirit with open arms. Axel, Roxas, and Xion are on the clock tower in Twilight Town and Isa, back in human form, brings them sea salt ice cream. Pence, Hayner, and Olette are there too. In Radiant Garden, Namine awakens in her new replica body as Ienzo, Even, and Ansem the Wise look on. Aeleus and Dilan are back to their guard duty outside the castle. Riku comes to visit her and they fly off together in a Gummi Ship.
Everyone gathers on Destiny Islands and they see Kairi and Sora sitting on their tree. A tear falls down Kairi’s cheek and suddenly Sora fades away. Using his Power of Waking to save Kairi really did cost him everything.
This is how I felt after the epilogue. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
So that, in brief is the story. There’s more, but this is where I’ll leave off for now. There seems to be some plot holes, if you’ve been paying attention. How did Namine and Chirithy get back from the Final World? Why did the Lingering Will show up? How did Sora save Kairi? If you want to find out what happened in the epilogue and in the re:Mind DLC, you’ll have to wait for my next two Untangling posts. (Cliffhanger!) Seriously, though, I’m not just teasing you with it… this post is overlong as it is, and the rest of the plot will fit better in that post.
Utter madness. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Next I’ll go over the features and gameplay of the DLC. (I’m lumping together the free DLC and the paid here.) In re:Mind, we get to see what happens after the main game when Sora goes to find Kairi. Like I said before, I’ll go over the plot in a later post, but for now I’ll say that there are three parts to this DLC. The first part is re:Mind, where Sora travels through time and revisits the battles in the Keyblade Graveyard, tinkering with the events a bit. The second part is Limit Cut, where a digital Sora re-battles the members of the Real Organization XIII. And then there’s a Secret Episode with a mysterious boss battle followed by an epilogue.
The DLC also adds in some extra Keyblades, an expanded photo mode, Critical difficulty, and the Premium Menu. Depending on the difficulty of the adventure you select in the beginning of the game you can unlock EZ Codes or PRO codes. The EZ codes are just what they sound like: options to make the game easier. There are Merits (or achievements) to be earned by accomplishing certain things. In contrast, the PRO codes makes things more difficult and you can earn Merit points by defeating bosses while having the codes activated. These codes do things like keeping you at 1 HP, shutting off features in the game, changing your stats, and more. I never messed with any of these settings, but I could see some completionists enjoying the challenge.
I may have squealed out loud when I saw this. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
I’ll go through this quickly. The re:Mind scenario was a replay of the latter part of the game with new scenes. I know some players were disappointed with this, but I enjoyed it. I feel like it added some more angles to the story, filling in some seeming plot holes. And you get to play some of the bosses as different characters, which made me really happy. It was nice to get to play as Roxas and Riku again, and to finally take Kairi into battle. Whenever I had the option, I chose the second character, more for the novelty than anything else.
Playing as these other characters was where the true challenge of re:Mind came in. The first character choice you get is Riku, and that fight took me a bit of time. The same with the Roxas fight. Focusing on one enemy at a time was what helped. The battles get pretty chaotic when you have three bosses coming at you at once. (Flashbacks to the arena battles with Leon and Yuffie in KH1.)
A wild sky battle as the tainted Kingdom Hearts looms in the background. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
There was a fun and flashy battle as you fight as the various guardians of light against armored Xehanort clone-thingies. Mickey gets a solo battle, and then it’s back to Sora.
This is beautiful. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
And then finally you get a chance to fight as Kairi against Xehanort. By this time of the night I was pretty exhausted by all the boss battles and wasn’t given the option to save, so I had no choice but to push ahead, through the fatigue. Thankfully halfway through the Xehanort battle you get a checkpoint, so I got to stop doing the first part of the battle after that. It was a tough battle… very challenging. It’s not that Kairi was weak, it was just that the difficulty ramped up since this was the final challenge of this part of the DLC. I can’t recall how late it was by the time I finally beat him, but I needed a nap the next day for sure.
The three trios are together. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
I didn’t end up snagging a screenshot of it, but the next section of the game is Limit Cut. Riku meets up with the Final Fantasy crew in Radiant Garden and uses a data Sora to battle all the members of the Real Organization XIII again. Just like the data battles in KH2 you have a small arena with gates to enter to fight each boss in whatever order you want. (However the last two are locked until the other 11 are defeated.) When I say this part is relentlessly difficult, just know that words cannot cover just how much of an understatement that was.
After getting through re:Mind, I was excited to try Limit Cut. (After sleeping, of course.) My hopes were dashed immediately when I waltzed into battle and got immediately trashed. After several attempts I had to face facts… I couldn’t beat the easiest boss even in my uber-powerful state. I had to go through the Battle Gates and grind for materials to synthesize a few dozen Strength Boosts and Defense Boosts. I also did more cooking and reached level 99. After taking a few months off, I did some studying and tried again. With perseverance and some luck, I started to defeat some of the bosses. These battles are very rewarding to beat, and I have to say they may even knock Lingering Will off the top spot for most challenging optional boss in all of Kingdom Hearts. Especially Ansem… so far he’s been the toughest for me. You can’t just power your way through… you have to learn your opponent’s moves and strategize the best counter for them. It takes practice and more than a little patience to persevere.
I don’t care, Mickey is a little badass. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
And, sadly, our journey ends here for now. I’m actually still fighting my way through Limit Cut as of the writing of this. That was partly why I delayed this post for so long… I wanted to finish before I got this out, but it eventually became clear that it wasn’t going to happen. Halloween was fast approaching and I had many other posts I needed to do. So the secret battle and the epilogue of re:Mind will have to wait until a later post. So far I have defeated 9 of the 13 bosses. The others will take me a bit of time, but I’m sure I can get through them without more Strength Boosts.
Seriously though . . . Why does Yozora look like Riku? (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
So that’s Kingdom Hearts III. I know this has been an incredibly long post, but believe me, I really did speed past a lot of it, trying my best to summarize while still not losing anything in the translation. I really loved this game and I had so much fun both times I played through it. As I said, I took my time with this second playthrough, trying to accomplish and enjoy as much as I could while still playing at the highest difficulty (without PRO codes).
Critical Mode was ruthless in this game. Typically on Kingdom Hearts you can grind to a high enough level and even Critical isn’t too difficult. But that changed with KH3. Here’s a good example— I completed the story portion of Toy Box and went back to look for the Lucky Emblems I missed. I entered the toy store and was wiped out. Not just once or twice… no, I was slaughtered 15 times. Finally, after strategizing, restrategizing, and having some blind luck, I managed to defeat all the Heartless and Gigas and get back to my Emblem hunt. And that wasn’t the only part of the game I had trouble with. The bull mini boss in Kingdom of Corona was a very annoying fight too. It took me about an hour and a lot of dodge roll practice to beat it. The final boss in Corona was where I realized how vital it was to strategize and make sure you have the right Keyblade equipped. I mentioned earlier about Arendelle teaching me how important it is to eat food in this game. I didn’t bother with food much in my first playthrough, but it was pretty vital for Critical. It was a very challenging experience, but worth it.
Have I mentioned how shiny it all is? (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Upsides: I love the new mechanics. There’s a lot of upgrading. Donald and Goofy are very useful in this game compared to the previous ones. (This time, I never had to complain about Donald healing himself and letting me die. Actually I don’t think I said “Dammit Donald” even one time!) I like how they tweaked and adapted Shotlock and Flowmotion to this game. I really like how much the previous games impacted this game— especially re:Coded, which I always considered a throw-away game. It actually became pretty vital to this one with the importance of data and Datascapes. They brought back the Replicas from way back in Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days, and that plot point became crucial to this game’s events. The return of the Riku Replica was particularly surprising for me.
Above all I enjoyed the plot. Although there was still plenty of confusion and we were left with as many unanswered questions as always, there was care taken to tie up lingering plot threads and provide a satisfying conclusion to many of the stories. It was great seeing the evils committed by Master Xehanort in Birth By Sleep finally put right. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus were reunited and freed from darkness. Namine was given new life. And Roxas and Xion! I honestly didn’t anticipate them getting their own bodies… it never occurred to me as a possibility. I’m glad they did— their stories were very tragic and now they get the opportunity to live their own lives outside the Organization. Castle Oblivion being the Land of Departures was one of many plot twists that took me completely by surprise. The big twist about the four Organization members being past Keyblade Wielders adds even more possibilities to the future of the series and goes a long way to explaining why Xehanort kept them around when he was building his new group.
There is a lot of story here. A LOT. Over ten hours of cut scenes all together, which is crazy. (I believe another 3 hours on top of that for re:Mind.) I can see people getting annoyed with the lengthy cutscenes, but I loved them. Instead of getting a piece of the plot after every few worlds, we got cutscenes after every world, advancing things gradually and driving you to keep playing to reveal more of the story. It was well done, in my opinion. I actually left out a ton of details and interactions to keep this post from being even more lengthy.
Oops. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Downsides: This may seem a bit nitpicky, but there are a few things I wish they’d have included for balance. By that I’m not talking game balance, I mean story and theme balance since this is the last installment of a trilogy. There are things you come to expect in a Kingdom Hearts main title: Gummi ships, optional secret bosses, Ultima Weapon. They included all these things, along with Olympus, Radiant Garden, the mushroom minigames, summons, the Moogle and duck shopkeepers . . . and more. However there were things included in the previous two games that didn’t make the cut here. There was no Sephiroth battle, and for that matter the Final Fantasy crew didn’t show up at all until the DLC and that was basically a cameo. Cloud’s search for Sephiroth and Tifa’s search for Cloud got no resolution in this game. You didn’t visit Agrabah, Halloweentown, or Atlantica. (Those worlds were in both the previous games.) Beast didn’t show up either. One of the more notable exclusions is the Coliseum. We got to explore much more of Olympus this time, but we didn’t have an arena to fight in like the previous games.
The Hundred Acre Wood world was a bit of a let-down. I’m glad they included it to balance the trilogy out, and the design was great, as mentioned earlier. But the minigames were just three different variations of the same bubble pop style matching game. It just seemed lazy to me. Still, there were a lot of other minigames to make up for it: Frozen Slider, Verum Rex, the Flantastic Seven, the Bistro, and all of Classic Kingdom. Really, it was a minigame-heavy title so I can’t blame them for skimping out on Pooh’s world.
Another let down was the role Maleficent and Pete played in the story. They wandered from world to world looking for Luxu’s chest. Yes, it seemed vaguely threatening, and you knew they were up to something, but after the fun Pete battles and Maleficent seemingly sacrificing herself to protect you in Part II, their reduced role in this game seemed odd. But returning to the balance argument, leaving Maleficent out would have thrown off the trilogy badly.
An obvious complaint that I can see with this game is how ridiculously dense the plot has gotten. I’ve spent seven posts now breaking down the games and the extensive lore of Kingdom Hearts, and I haven’t even covered it all. (I still have to get through the epilogue and DLC in this game, Union X, Dark Road, and Melody of Memories.) Like I said before, there’s a lot of story here. It can seem inaccessible to newcomers. Even long-time fans needed a refresher before this game came out. I feel like the game could have been better served with more of a breakdown, reminding everyone of how we got here.
More than anything I was disappointed by how Kairi was cheated in this game. She is one of my favorite characters, and after being set up as a new Wielder, she ended up as she always does… the damsel in distress. (As a friend of mine put it, “They did Kairi real dirty.” The same friend, by the way, who commented on Sully and Mike’s babysitting skills.) re:Mind did a bit of work making this better and giving her a chance to shine, but the choices they made with her character still sting.
Aside from those complaints I only have minor issues with the game. Rage Form couldn’t be turned off, and kept getting in my way when I was trying to do Formchanges. Cracking the eggs in the cooking minigame was aggravating. I didn’t like the obstacle courses in Sanfransokyo. Olaf is annoying. Little things like that don’t really take away from the experience.
“What’s in the box?” (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Kingdom Hearts III was a satisfying ending to the Kingdom Hearts story so far while still setting up the future of the franchise. As always with Kingdom Hearts, we got more questions than answers. (Would it truly be a KH game if that weren’t the case?) Who was Yozora and why does he look like Riku? Who was the nameless star? What does all the stuff in the epilogue and secret movie mean? (We’ll analyze some of that in my Untangling 7 post.) Where did Sora go and how are they going to get him back? Did Cloud ever get his rematch with Sephiroth? Who are the other three New Princesses of Heart? (We learned in this game that Repunzel, Anna, and Elsa have joined Kairi as princesses.) Who was the girl Xehanort and Saix were looking for? They left Demyx and Even as Nobodies… will they have to be killed to turn back into humans? Will Kairi ever get a proper game of her own? Do the health inspectors ever visit Uncle Scrooge’s Bistro and shut it down due to the head chef being a rat?
But the biggest questions surround the looming and mysterious figure of the Master of Masters. I love this character… he’s shady and quirky, threatening and charming. The revelations we received in this game show that he actually may have caused everything we’ve seen so far… but I’ll get into that in a later post. We know very little about him, including what he looks like under that hood. All we know is that he’s missing an eye… one of his eyes is in the Gazing Eye Keyblade he gave to Luxo. Is he a grown up Sora? Is he Axel, who is every bit as animated as him? Is he someone from Kingdom Hearts Union X like Brain or Ephemer? Is he a completely new character we haven’t seen outside of the cloak? What was his actual plan and what is his new plan? Or was it all one massive plan and we’ve just seen the first two phases of it through Union X and the KH trilogy? These are all questions for another day. And hopefully this day won’t take another 13 years to get here.
My stats were probably different by the end of re:Mind… for one thing I used the hell out of the Ultima Weapon in late game. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
Overall, I loved this game and found it to be worth the wait. In part, the extensive amount of time between games, the build up and constant disappointment while waiting, made playing the finished game even sweeter. I can’t fully express the excitement I felt when I popped in the disc for the first time and saw the opening cinematic and song come up. In our age of instant gratification, streaming services, digital downloads, and libraries that fit in the palm of our hand, there’s something to be said for finally getting something that you have waited over a decade to possess.
Thank you for reading the newest post in my Kingdom Hearts series. We’re almost done… two more posts to go until I take a break from Kingdom Hearts for the foreseeable future. I am grateful for all of you who have taken this journey with me, I appreciate you all, and I will be back soon!
Aww. (Credit: Square Enix, Disney)
