A so-so installment. Wait for the Final mix.

User Rating: 4 | Kingdom Hearts III PS4

I’d honestly give Kingdom Hearts III a generous 5.5/10. Definitely wait for the Final Mix to come before buying this game as it’s like FF15, half completed and hella easy. Sure, KH3’s graphics and scenery are absolutely stunning. And sure, the music is absolutely amazing! However, beyond that, it is an honest let-down and disappointment in the story/plot, in character development, and in playability. It just feels rushed and uncompleted (ironic for a game 5 years in the making). For starters, Square Enix cut MANY things from the game. Tetsuya Nomura stated that there would be well over 90+ hours of content, when in actuality; it’s closer to 35 -45 hours of content. You literally spend 2/3's of the entire game traversing Disney worlds and goofing around which none of it matters in the slightest and doesn't really do anything at all to progress the plot or the characters (Note: you can clearly tell which worlds they spent far more time and resources on than others. Some worlds, only get one tiny little area). On that note, the worlds that people actually wanted to fully explore in all their 4K HD glory were basically reduced to just backgrounds for cut scenes and for the plot (Realm of Darkness, Land of Departure, Keyblade Graveyard, The Final World, Scala ad Caelum, and to a lesser extent, Twilight Town). Then, all the major plot points and major stuff happens quickly and almost back-to-back in the last 1/3 of the game. Before you know it, you're fighting the final boss out of the blue and the games over. Heroes and Villains fly in and out of the story so quick that you just might miss them if you blink. The reunions of 1) Aqua, Ven, and Terra; and 2) Axel, Roxas, and Xion; are completely rushed and lack any substance. Basically, they are brought back at the last minute for fan service and to make sense of the plot before moving on. Hell, don't even get me started on the characters. The dialogue exchange and voice acting is good in certain places, but is often just cringy and awkward. Many of the characters don’t even have much of a personality *ahem*…Kairi *ahem*. Speaking of which, the characters: Kairi, Lea, Riku, Aqua, Ventus, Terra, and King Mickey are now basically weak, useless, and need constant saving. The only exceptions are Roxas and Xion who will completely win the fight and heal you without you doing anything. In fact, the Disney characters in the worlds you visit are significantly more powerful than the KH3 characters are. Minigames are another problem. Minigames are supposed to be fun and enjoyable challenges that offer additional rewards when added to a game for optional playability. However, that's not the case when multiple minigames are pushed into the main story and are required to progress said story. Furthermore, Square Enix made the game insanely easy, even on hard mode. Fights required little-to-no planning or preparation. I never even died once on hard mode or had to retry an encounter. Going to attractions, I understand that attractions were supposed to be cool and epic, but not when you get like three prompts for an attraction every single bloody fight. It got annoying and boring rather quick. I only used the meals once, in the final battle. I didn’t even need to use the meals because everything was too easy. Lastly, the game mechanics are still clearly broken. You can still easily button-mash X/A to win the game. Also, a player can obtain 99 Moogle Post Cards within 1 hour for only 5,000 Munny; they can easily obtain level 99 within an hour; and they can easily and quickly get 999,999 Munny.

*sighs* Look, it’s an okay game. It’s fine to like a game and it’s fine to dislike a game. There are many people who liked KH3 and many who didn’t. It has good and bad qualities. However, you do have to recognize and realize all of its flaws and shortcomings. Because many of us who are long-time hardcore KH fans and who grew up with the series will tell you, KHI and KHII are significantly better/longer than KHIII.