I’m going to do my darndest to write about Kingdom Hearts 3 after every time I play it, so that’s what this is. There will be spoilers up through the first world. This is mostly stream of consciousness as I respond to my notes and try to recreate how I reacted while playing.
Thoughts after playing it for the first time...I’m really having a great time. For starters I’m impressed that Square included an option to learn about past story moments, because that was something I was more nervous about going into it. The question of how the game would orient new players to the story (or even those who only played 1 and 2) loomed heavily over the game before its release. Thankfully there is a “Memory Archive” option on the main menu, and when you load the game for the first time a dialog box appears to tell you about it, so there’s really no way to miss it. If you do happen to miss it though, after you do the Dive to the Heart tutorial (the bit with the stained glass floor) you’re prompted again asking if you need help remembering anything. Selecting that option also opens up the Memory Archive so you have one last chance to learn about the story before starting the game. Square also opted to start the game with the closing cutscene from 0.2 fragmentary passage, which does a good job of setting up what is happening right now in the story. I was honestly afraid the game would just start with Sora already on his way to Olympus, so I’m glad to see they at least tried to get off on the right foot. There are also multiple moments in the opening world where characters re-iterate past plot events and current motivations so that you can stay on board with where they’re going. Overall it’s much more effort than I expected, and the fact that it’s only a little clunky at times is reassuring.
Ok so fangirling for a minute here but the opening cinematic is astounding, and the fact that they included an alternate version of the young Xehanort and Eraqus talk from the original teaser is sooo cool. I’m here for it. I also think it’s interesting that this version has Xehanort refer to the keyblade on the wall as having the power to see the future. Fans who played Unchained X or watched Back Cover will know the keyblade, No Name, has the Gazing Eye in it, which does in fact give it the power to see the future...but as far as we know only for the Master of Masters. Basically the Master of Masters was a keyblade master before the Keyblade War and he gave one of his apprentices, Luxu, the No Name keyblade, and told him that by Luxu carrying the keyblade throughout time, the Master of Master would be able to see what was happening. Xehanort here referring to the keyblade’s power is interesting because it doesn’t grant people the power to see into the future, it really only lets the Master of Master’s know what’s happening in the future, which for us is now the present.
All right I’ll try not to get too into the weeds here. So I’m playing on Proud mode, that may be important to know later. Immediately I started messing around with the movement options Sora has and ohhhhhhhhh boy does it feel fun to just run around. Right out of the gate our boy starts with both Dodge Roll and Air Dash, so you already have a ton of ways of getting around in fights. Also if you’re anything like me, you just use dashes and rolls to travel normally because it’s faster. One thing I will give KH3 though is that after running for a second Sora builds up a bit of speed, which reduces the amount that I have to dodge and roll for normal traversal. The little things!
Flowmotion also returns after being my favorite feature in Dream Drop Distance. Basically you throw yourself at a wall and blast off at high speed. You can also swing off of posts and pillars to do special attacks. It’s essentially another cool way to move around in battle, but once you get the hang of it you can also use it to basically just jump from wall to wall. It’s not quite as useful in that area as it was in DDD, but those levels were also pretty small quarters in comparison to the open spaces of Olympus, so maybe that’ll come back over time. You also have the ability to “freerun” on glowing walls, which is both essential to the Rock Titan set piece at the end of Olympus, but again ALSO gives you additional traversal options and ways to explore for treasure.
All of this is stuff you can do in the very first section of the game, which is just plain fantastic. I spent at least 10 minutes just trying out my different moves to get a feel for how Sora controls. So far I love every detail.
Later you also gain the ability to do Team moves with your party members, a feature lifted from KH2. These are great as finishers or just to clear away groups of enemies. Shotlock from Birth by Sleep is also back, giving Sora the ability to shoot energy from his keyblade, and also “airstep” between floating glowy platforms. This is an ability I never used a ton but can be useful when you want to damage a group or perform multiple hits on a single boss.
Drive forms seem to be gone and replaced with a souped up version of the form changes from BBS. Sora’s keyblade changes forms as he uses it, and it appears that keyblades can also have multiple forms, as the Kingdom Key (Sora’s default) charges up into “Second Form” and can use the finisher “Stun Impact,” however if you keep attacking before the finisher you can change again to a “Sonic Blade” finisher, and then again to an “Ars Arcanum” finisher. It’s really just a reward for doing well, you get a temporary power boost.
Finally (for now anyway…) a completely new battle mechanic introduced in this game is the Attraction Flow, a system where you summon Disney themed vehicles that let you perform some crazy maneuvers - like a Pirate Ship that swings back and forth, hitting any enemies it touches. It functions essentially the same as using a summon would in previous games, except for some reason they’re theme park rides. No explanation is given for why Sora is able to summon these things, but it’s a lot of fun to use and again, mixes up your battle options. Also the train sequence when fighting the Rock Titan is incredible and I hope it comes back for later bosses.
In other words, they’ve basically shoved a version of every battle mechanic to ever appear in a Kingdom Hearts game into this game and I am so here for it.
Ok now that I went through mechanics, let’s talk Worlds. I’m only going to cover the first world, Olympus, in this post. I’m impressed by the sheer size of this place, full of twisting turns and branching pathways. Most of Thebes feels more linear when you really think about where you need to go, but on Mt. Olympus there’s at least one section where you can choose two totally different paths forward, so I’m hopeful that future levels will continue to have some degree of openness. The verticality is also impressive, especially when you get to Olympus and can see straight down to the bottom. And yea, you can fall off the top and drop right back to where you started. It’s less impressive then but I won’t fault the game for my own mistakes. Really it’s just fun to run around and explore the level, and if the rest of the game can keep up that pace I will be happy.
As for story; I like how they created an in world reason for Sora to be at level one, but also he keeps those advanced movement tricks he’s learned in past games. Subtle, but it’s a welcome touch. I’m surprised they dove right into Maleficent’s search for the black box, which is something I’m very interested in this game answering. If you aren’t caught up, remember when I mentioned Luxu before and the No Name keyblade? So when the Master of Masters gave him that, he ALSO gave him a locked black box, and told him to never open it. Maleficent is now looking for that box, and she also confirmed she thinks the Book of Prophecies is inside. The Book of Prophecies ALSO ALSO goes back to the Master of Masters, who wrote the book using his power to see into the future. The book also has the ability to manifest things that don’t exist yet, and it’s presumably this power Maleficent is after (that may have been confirmed in a previous game? I forget). This was a nice twist for me because previously they made it seem like she was looking for the Book of Prophecies AND the black box, so most fan speculation points to something else being inside the box. Spence and I unpacked that idea on our big Kingdom Hearts podcast, so check that out for more information (I promised I wouldn’t get too into the weeds here).
OH ok so this is slightly past Olympus but you get to play as Riku super early in this game and I didn’t expect it and I LOVED IT and I just hope I get to play as him more. It’s great that he has more health and more advanced magic than Sora does since he passed his Mark of Mastery and didn’t revert to level 1. It’s also promising that the story made room for what Riku and Mickey are up to at all, I was afraid that they would be shoved to the side for a bit, but what’s actually happening is that they seem to be doing more of the core lore stuff while Sora is going on the more game-y quest. This is one that I hope pays off in some major ways.
Not everything is perfect though.... I kinda..don’t like the graphic style. Everyone looks just a little bit off. The higher quality cutscenes are great sure, but during gameplay and standard cutscenes I’m just thrown off by how everyone looks. Everyone’s a bit shiny looking? And the lighting effects seem inconsistent so some places just look plain fake. I’m not sure if they were going for a more realistic look and missed the mark or what, but the style is just slightly different compared to the previous games and I’m not a fan. I keep tweaking with my tv settings hoping it’s something on my end that I can just correct but I don’t think it is. Oh well!
Stray thoughts: Donald and Goofy will wander away from you near save points and you can talk to them like in KH2, but in this game their lines are voiced. They even have party chat when you’re out doing your thing! I know this is like...standard in games now but this is the first KH game to do it so it stands out to me.
I think that’s everything for this time, in the next piece I’ll take on World 2 and maybe a bit after that depending on how long I play. One thing I’ve noticed out the gate is that the worlds are quite a bit longer than previous titles so there I’ll probably have to stretch my posts between levels.