Kingdom Hearts III is a fun game, I've played through it completely and loved it all the way through!... mostly. I had a few problems with the game and I am here to explain why I like it and why I don't. Keep in mind this is the first game I've played and I'm not into the lore completely. This review isn't about the whole franchise itself and I'm not going to bring in the lore except in whether or not this game is for you. With that being said, I'm critical reviews and let's get into the game!
Part 1: Gameplay
A. Combat
Kingdom Hearts III to me has more of a hack and slash combat. I've heard that before it was about strategy and now it's not, but as I said I haven't played any other games so I wouldn't know. I enjoyed the combat other than a few battles where it was just WAY too long and they had a lot of health. Also, don't get me started on the attractions, they were fun at first, but as time went on it lost its enjoyability. I actually had to turn on shortened cutscenes for them cause I saw them way too much. Once you get past 4 worlds you probably won't want to be riding a float creating waters and then seeing it playback in one of the most nauseating camera angles I've ever seen in a game, and I don't get nauseated from games easily! I did enjoy the different Keyblades, though. (except that the kingdom key was not really that good compared to a lot of others) I personally enjoyed these worlds Keyblades the most.(SPOILERS ON THE WORLDS!!!) Pirates of the Carribean's "Wheel of Fate", and Monsters, Inc's "Happy Gear". I did learn by the end of the game that magic was very useful and realized I made a mistake by using strength only weapons. Whoops.
I am giving Combat a 7/10, I was a little unhappy with the attractions but other than that it's pretty decent.
B. Difficulty
I played on standard mode and I thought it was fair and not too difficult but as I said above a lot of battles took me forever to beat. And before you say it, yes I'm a casual gamer, not a hardcore one, calm your butts down! There are 3 difficulty choices. [easiest to hardest] Beginner, Standard, and Proud. I chose Standard as I said above and I found out halfway through my playthrough, you are unable to change your choice, so beware! (I might've also skipped the part where it says you can't change it during your playthrough, but I didn't see it say that.)
All and all I'd give difficulty an 8/10, I wish they would've let you change the difficulty during the game itself, but it's not a big deal.
For gameplay, I would give it a 7.5/10.
Part 2: Story
As I said in the beginning, I'm not going to bring up any lore behind KH3.
A. Beginning
You are Sora, and your goal is to find the power of waking and defeat "Organization XII". Along with your companions, Donald and Goofy, you set out in search of the power of waking. Meanwhile, Riku (Sora's childhood friend) and Mickey (The King), set out to find Aqua, one of the six known Keyblade Masters. Also, all of this is happening while the Organization follows you and makes your day much, much more difficult.
B. Middle
Basically the same as the beginning except the battles get increasingly more difficult the farther you get in.
C. Ending
Now, spoilers ahead, like seriously a lot of spoilers.
This is the part where I get really frustrated with the game, there are about 5 fights with around 3 of the Organization members each. Luckily you have 2 people every time to fight them with you, but it's still difficult. The "final" boss fight took me like 30 minutes to beat him, just to find out that it's NOT the final boss fight And then you fight the boss for the second time with really annoying attacks. (also forgot to mention Kairi is taken away before the fight) And after all of that, Sora needs to go and find Kairi for the SECOND TIME. Now take this with a side of salt, but I was very disappointed with the ending. Kairi is all back and okay, BUT SORA IS GONE NOW, Leaving you with a cliffhanger to find out what happens next. Though, if you get 90/60/30 (Beginners - Proud) Lucky Emblems, you get a secret ending telling you that Riku and Sora are in a video game IN THE VIDEO GAME. It's just frustrating to me.
Basically, there's most probably going to be another game in the series when I thought that this was the last one. It's like saying Toy Story is getting a fourth installment!... Oh wait...
I would give the story a 5/10 due to it being decent in the first half then slowly getting less and less fun until it literally made me mad at it.
Final rating: 6/10. Gameplay is decent, and a little frustrating at times, but I enjoyed it mostly. The story was fun and enjoyable, but in the end, it left me disappointed and wondering why.