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[DragoonKain]

Just got done RE2 recently, which was fucking amazing.. my GOTY so far(only February, I know) and was eager to jump into KH3. I recently couldn't get into RDR2 which everyone thought was amazing, and posted about it on here and found to my surprise a bunch felt the same way. Still in the minority, but I didn't expect any to agree. Not a bad game, just was too slow for my liking, I may jump back into it.

So I jumped into KH3. I played, beat, and enjoyed KH1 and KH2. I never played the other titles in the series like 1.5, Birth by Sleep, etc, but I did watch a recap on youtube before I started to make sure I knew most things going in.

I find the game absolutely intolerable. I'm saying to myself why do I hate it so much, I enjoyed the first two in the series. Maybe because I was much younger then and so long ago that my standards for RPGs have risen, but this is just at least early on just mashing the X button over and over and over. I figured they would have diversified the combat at least a little bit by now. Adding a bunch of combos to master and things like that, and there are some combos, but almost all of them are X X X X X X either on ground or in the air. I chose to be a physical attack build, but I can't imagine it would be too different playing magic based. The very first boss I faced I fly around the boss area and then just go up to him and X, X, X, X, X. Use an item when I need one. Maybe throw in a spell here or there(also used as X). Jumping off of pillars and walls and stuff didn't really add much to freshen things up.

Each world is just linear corridors connecting rooms that need crowd clearing. Run to this area... 10 enemies! Run along to the next room... 10 more enemies! Repeat over and over and over and over.

And when I finished the first world(which I decided foolishly I found out to do right before bed) I figure ok cool. I finished Olympus, time for bed. Nope. There was a 30 minute cutscene waiting for me after. Fell asleep during it and once I woke up, I had to youtube what I missed, and by doing that I found out there are supposedly 9 total hours of cutscenes in this game. 9 hours, are you serious? If this was a Telltale game I'd get it, but that is just brutal, I'm sorry. This story better be Shakespearean for that many hours of cutscenes. That's gotta be like 1/4th of the damn game excluding sidequests, no?

And last thing, the voice acting is so inconsistent. Some are pretty good, others(like Riku) are just terrible.

Anyway, I may jump back into it down the road, maybe it's my fault for expecting something that "felt nextgen" compared to previous entries I've played, but it feels like a slightly suped up Kingdom Hearts 2 with some minor additions to gameplay and combat that could easily pass for a title from 10 years ago. Go ahead and trash me if you think I'm way off base lol, like with RDR2 I'm sure I'm way in the minority on this, the reviews were positive.

 

[Dacon]

I don't remember encountering any 30 minute cutscenes so far, I'm up to the Pirates world. Honestly I'm finding the combat to be so much fun that I enjoy it way more than KH2.

It's unfortunate that youre not enjoying your purchase.

 

[Sakura]

Honestly I'm not sure why so many reviews are as high as they are.
Personally I don't have a problem with cutscenes if the cutscenes are actually interesting to watch. Instead you get Chip and Dale chatting about nonsense on the phone, Axel and Kairi "training" etc. It's just boring and doesn't really add anything to the game.
That being said, you can pause the cutscenes, and you can also always rewatch them after from the main menu.

 

[The Shepard]

I think the original Kingdom hearts is still the best after I replayed it on ps4. The story just loses me after the second one. They should have kept it a simple light vs dark fight but it's just an over complicated mess after 100 spin offs. I fear for what they'll do to ff7 remake adding all the ff7 spinoff stuff.

 

[OldGamer]

As someone who just played a lot of this series lately trying to catch up (on DDD right now), I will say that as if you want difficulty in this game, you will have to play in Proud Mode or Critical Mode. I have not played KH3, but this is a constant in most, where normal/standard is just easy and you can usually power through mindlessly.

As for the plot, its very serpentine at this point and cutscenes do generally drone on it the later installments. The Disney portions are usually the meat and potatoes of it all.

Are there a bunch of minigames grafted onto this one too?

 

[TallPike]

Just got done RE2 recently, which was fucking amazing.. my GOTY so far(only February, I know) and was eager to jump into KH3. I recently couldn't get into RDR2 which everyone thought was amazing, and posted about it on here and found to my surprise a bunch felt the same way. Still in the minority, but I didn't expect any to agree. Not a bad game, just was too slow for my liking, I may jump back into it.

Slow movement speed and a cumbersome, poorly implemented control scheme = me totally disinterested in RDR2.

 

[Danjin44]

I personally enjoyed the game. Sure it could have critical difficulty and it could have better post game content like KH2FM but I still end up enjoying the game overall. The story is convoluted as fuck but I'm already invested in KH's lore so I was able to enjoy cutscenes and to me it was satisfying conclusion to the story. I'm hoping they do patch Critical difficulty and add more super bosses later on.

In the end KH series not exactly new comer friendly and its acquired taste, you either going in to the game or not.

 

[danielberg]

Run to this area... 10 enemies! Run along to the next room... 10 more enemies! Repeat over and over and over and over.

What did you expect? The game is bascially a character action game and this criticms is weird to me.
I mean you can make the same reductive argument about literally every game, resident evil 2 shoot zombies pick up stuff, cod shoot some dudes etc and these games have nothing to mix that up compared to kh3 that floods you with other stuff and minigames to do, at the heart of it KH3 is basically a character action game in which you beat up enemies if you dont like that its ok but thats what it set out to do and thats what KH gameplay is.

 

[cartman414]

What did you expect? The game is bascially a character action game and this criticms is weird to me.
I mean you can make the same reductive argument about literally every game, resident evil 2 shoot zombies pick up stuff, cod shoot some dudes etc and these games have nothing to mix that up compared to kh3 that floods you with other stuff and minigames to do, at the heart of it KH3 is basically a character action game in which you beat up enemies if you dont like that its ok but thats what it set out to do and thats what KH gameplay is.

Hardly. A good action game forces you to think on your feet and use tactics.

 

[Antoon]

If you cant enjoy the braindead flashy combat and music then there really isnt anything else of quality in this game. Oh and yeah, if youre a graphics whore.

 

[Lanrutcon]

What did you expect? The game is bascially a character action game and this criticms is weird to me.
I mean you can make the same reductive argument about literally every game, resident evil 2 shoot zombies pick up stuff, cod shoot some dudes etc and these games have nothing to mix that up compared to kh3 that floods you with other stuff and minigames to do, at the heart of it KH3 is basically a character action game in which you beat up enemies if you dont like that its ok but thats what it set out to do and thats what KH gameplay is.

Resident Evil 2: "shoot zombies pick up stuff"?

Only if you play on normal, you filthy casual.

 

[D.Final]

For me, the Kingdom Hearts 3 game no longer presents the same magic of Kingdom Hearts 1, nor even the same concept message, which had Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
(and that is the union of universes, in this case, of Final Fantasy + Disney)

And this is why, for me, Kingdom Hearts 3 is only half Kingdom Hearts game, and not a true and complete Kingdom Hearts.

The biggest problems in the game, for me, are:

- the absence of the iconic characters of Final Fantasy, which are part of the Lore of the saga

- a postgame too poor

- the almost total absence of secret bosses.
(there is only one, and it does not even look like a boss, since I beat it very easily at level 60, in expert mode)
[the gummiship has more secret bosses]

- the unjustified absence of the colosseum.
(there is no arena, not even the mirage arena)

- some worlds are too empty, Mostropoli in the first place.
(and also sometimes too linear)
[Mostropoli is a corridor, almost totally empty]

- Twilight Town, and the book by Winnie the Poo, are the smallest worlds in the entire saga.
(both are much smaller than all their previous extras in previous chapters)
The most disappointing and insipid worlds of the whole game.
Unjustifiably small, especially with today's unreal engine 4 technologies.

- the game is too easy.
Even in expert mode.

- the plot is badly managed.
Because, in practice, with the exception of some cases, the real plot of the game [and therefore its central focus] is concentrated only in the last 5 hours, approximately, of play.
(and that is, after finishing Sanfransokyo)

- Nomura's silly little arrow to his old project, which in more than 8 years has not even been able to finish, which turns out to be a silly interlude, created almost in revenge (and therefore not creative), with an attitude worthy only of an elementary child.......

- The absence of Radiant Garden as an explorable game world.


These are the main problems.
And, unfortunately, I'm not very sure that all these problems can be solved in a hypothetical Final Mix version.

 

[Dacon]

Hardly. A good action game forces you to think on your feet and use tactics.

The Kingdom Hearts series has some very challenging bossfights that involve some quick thinking and good reflexes beyond mash x. Especially if you play on proud mode.

 

[Larxia]

Not to criticize Kingdom Hearts 3, I haven't played it yet, only watched gameplay, but I'm really wondering if all these people who say that the combats are much better than in KH2 played KH2 FM+ in critical mode.

Because Kingdom Hearts 2 final mix in critical mode was a totally different game, it may sound exaggerated but it's not, the balacing is totally different, the game is faster paced, it doesn't take as long to be interesting because you immediatly start the game with tons of different skills and it's crazy fight right from the beginning, until the end with all the great endgame content which is my favorite part of KH2 actually.
I'm wondering this because now that KH3 is out, a lot of people seem to be claiming that KH2 wasn't fun and was just button mashing, some people even put KH2 and KH1 gameplay in the same basket, which is nonsense.

Kingdom Hearts 2 in critical mode was an amazing game with a near perfect gameplay, and was for me a much more enjoyable experience than standard KH2.
What I've seen of KH3 doesn't seem as deep as what was in KH2 Critical, it looks a bit more spectacular but the lack of challenge seems big, again , I didn't play it, so I can't really judge other than from what I've watched, but I'd like to know if people who played KH2 In critical mode, beating all endgame content, do find KH3 combats better.

 

[Virex]

Another Kingdom Hearts 3 hate thread. I'm seeing it everywhere lately

 

[Fake]

You enjoy KH2, but not KH3? You enjoy KH2, but KH3 have 30 min cutscene? You enjoy KH2, but every KH3 world was a linear corridor? Sry, but I can't take you serious.

 

[JohannCK]

Gameplay-wise I only enjoyed the Pirates world and most of the bosses in the last area. I didn't find the combat to be particularly fun and the bosses were mostly underwhelming.

The writing makes the story nonsensical if you haven't followed all the side stuff up to this point because it assumes you know all of the characters who were never mentioned in 1-2, and it's unrewarding even if you have because important stuff is handled with what can only be described as sheer irreverence.

It's been a long time since I played it but I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed base KH2 (Japanese release which had less content than the international version, I believe) more than this.

Very unfortunate.

 

[AgentP]

It's awful, no way around it. I sold it after 4 painful hours of confusion, bad combat, bad voice acting and PS3 era graphics.

 

[shark sandwich]

This game is too immature for anybody who’s old enough to have played KH2 at release.

I don’t mean immature as in “not enough violence/sex/swearing etc”

I mean immature as in KH3 is like a 13-year-old weeaboo’s idea of what “mature” is. Bunch of edgelord emos clad head-to-toe in black leather, spouting off 2deep4u dialog filled with Ominous Sounding Proper Nouns.

It simply isn’t possible for a well-adjusted adult to unironically enjoy the story/dialog scenes in this game.

 

[danielberg]

KH3 is like a 13-year-old weeaboo’s idea of what “mature” is. Bunch of edgelord emos clad head-to-toe in black leather, spouting off 2deep4u dialog filled with Ominous Sounding Proper Nouns.

Not enjoying nomuras wild ride and anime autism for the nonsense it is.. smh

 

[PapiKong]

Its a very painful game to play, I don't blame anyone for hating it tbh.

 

[PapiKong]

You enjoy KH2, but not KH3? You enjoy KH2, but KH3 have 30 min cutscene? You enjoy KH2, but every KH3 world was a linear corridor? Sry, but I can't take you serious.

lol

 

[JohannCK]

I mean immature as in KH3 is like a 13-year-old weeaboo’s idea of what “mature” is. Bunch of edgelord emos clad head-to-toe in black leather, spouting off 2deep4u dialog filled with Ominous Sounding Proper Nouns.

That actually wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, those guys barely got any screentime and were played as jokes a couple of times (Monsters and Pirates worlds come to mind).

What was problematic was them saying, in most cases, what amounts to literally nothing and leaving without a fight only to

Spoiler

have half-assed scenes when defeated in the boss rush in the final dungeon, being treated with about reverence as one of the 8 bosses before Wily in a Mega Man, despite some of them supposedly being very important to the story, some having been final bosses in their previous appearances

The whole game feels very neither here nor there. It just meanders for 20 hours with close to nothing happening and then ends almost as soon as it begins.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Not to criticize Kingdom Hearts 3, I haven't played it yet, only watched gameplay, but I'm really wondering if all these people who say that the combats are much better than in KH2 played KH2 FM+ in critical mode.

Because Kingdom Hearts 2 final mix in critical mode was a totally different game, it may sound exaggerated but it's not, the balacing is totally different, the game is faster paced, it doesn't take as long to be interesting because you immediatly start the game with tons of different skills and it's crazy fight right from the beginning, until the end with all the great endgame content which is my favorite part of KH2 actually.
I'm wondering this because now that KH3 is out, a lot of people seem to be claiming that KH2 wasn't fun and was just button mashing, some people even put KH2 and KH1 gameplay in the same basket, which is nonsense.

Kingdom Hearts 2 in critical mode was an amazing game with a near perfect gameplay, and was for me a much more enjoyable experience than standard KH2.
What I've seen of KH3 doesn't seem as deep as what was in KH2 Critical, it looks a bit more spectacular but the lack of challenge seems big, again , I didn't play it, so I can't really judge other than from what I've watched, but I'd like to know if people who played KH2 In critical mode, beating all endgame content, do find KH3 combats better.

KH3 is exactly how KH2 was played in its original JPN release. Lots of flashy moves, but devoid of substance. We didn't get the amazing Critical Mode and rebalancing until much later. Same goes for its post-game (which also relates back to the OG KH1 release in JPN).

What many fail to understand is that the first versions of KH games, especially the major numbered entries, lack a lot of balancing and post-game content. The WorldWide releases added new bosses, cutscenes, enemies, and then FInal Mix added even more *on top of that*.

People keep trying to compare KH3 to KH2FM which is highly unfair.

Just for clarification for those who don't know what KH2FM added: https://kingdomhearts.fandom.com/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts_II_Final_Mix

 

[Fake]

I played KH2 for ps2 and was horrible. On the other hand playing KH2 final mix on ps4 was much better. Keep that in mind if you gonna compare base game vs final mix.

 

[shark sandwich]

Spoiler

have half-assed scenes when defeated in the boss rush in the final dungeon, being treated with about reverence as one of the 8 bosses before Wily in a Mega Man, despite some of them supposedly being very important to the story, some having been final bosses in their previous appearances

The whole game feels very neither here nor there. It just meanders for 20 hours with close to nothing happening and then ends almost as soon as it begins.

LOL haven’t gotten to that part yet but it reminds me of Xenosaga 3. Like they got the end and said “oh crap we still have like 6 major villains left and 25 dangling plot threads to tie up.” So you spend the last few hours quickly finishing off these bad guys who have harassed you continuously since the beginning.

 

[JohannCK]

LOL haven’t gotten to that part yet but it reminds me of Xenosaga 3. Like they got the end and said “oh crap we still have like 6 major villains left and 25 dangling plot threads to tie up.” So you spend the last few hours quickly finishing off these bad guys who have harassed you continuously since the beginning.

I'm not sure which is worse, Xenosaga 3 has concept art in supplementary material showing that a bunch of people were supposed to have gotten boss fights that were cut entirely, meanwhile over here

Spoiler

it's a non-stop boss rush where you take THREE of them on at the same time and each has a 1-2 minute farewell cutscene inserted as soon as you defeat them even if the others are still around, and it somehow manages to feel worse than, say, Kevin or Albedo's new ES not having fights at all.

I DID enjoy the actual fights though, which makes it feel dumber that you don't fight them individually when they show up in the other worlds.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

It never improves. The narrative is a wreck and the combat is one-note throughout.

On the flip side, it does make me morbidly excited to how S-E manages to utterly f*ck up FFVII and their other properties. Kinda wish they hadn’t acquired Eidos, only because it allowed this post-merger shitshow to carry on far longer than it deserves.

 

[TeamGhobad]

the disney stuff is great, the FF square stuff is awful.

 

[D.Final]

I'm not sure which is worse, Xenosaga 3 has concept art in supplementary material showing that a bunch of people were supposed to have gotten boss fights that were cut entirely, meanwhile over here

Spoiler

it's a non-stop boss rush where you take THREE of them on at the same time and each has a 1-2 minute farewell cutscene inserted as soon as you defeat them even if the others are still around, and it somehow manages to feel worse than, say, Kevin or Albedo's new ES not having fights at all.

I DID enjoy the actual fights though, which makes it feel dumber that you don't fight them individually when they show up in the other worlds.

That of the

Spoiler

Boss Rush, in Kingdom Hearts 3, 3 at a time together

, was another of the things that I did not particularly like of the game.

That is,

Spoiler

ok also to do all the boss battles of the new organization xiii in the Keyblade Graveyard but, at least, given that Sora is always the one who has to take care of everyone, at least, to face one at a time in new challenges, unique, and interesting.

So, instead, for how they have been managed, they are just like a big shopping list, where everyone patiently waits for his defeat.......
Totally anticlimatic.
(as well as managed a lot, too much, quickly and superficially)

 

[DragoonKain]

You enjoy KH2, but not KH3? You enjoy KH2, but KH3 have 30 min cutscene? You enjoy KH2, but every KH3 world was a linear corridor? Sry, but I can't take you serious.

I enjoyed KH2... past tense. If I erased it from my memory and played it today for the first time again, I’d probably dislike it too. Tastes change over time. There are a lot of games that I probably loved and wouldn’t like if I played today. I loved the original Syphon Filter, but if I played it today I’d think it was the worst 3rd person shooter ever considering what else is out there in comparison.

I don’t think KH3 is a bad game in terms of production value, but I find it really hard to get into and not the jump in quality I was expecting.

 

[Hinedorf]

I've recently hit something of a wall with Kingdom Hearts 2. I'm a bit disappointed of the need to revisit Disney worlds you've already been to from KH1. The luster of visiting these worlds is now totally gone and just feels more like repetitive work.

I really like the story as convoluted as it seems but am considering doing a recap to catch up to KH3 as I'm getting worn out with the backtracking. The gummi ship stuff has run it's course of interest and is now painful

It also might be from KH overkill as I've been burning through all these games for the last several weeks but as far as the action being described by the OP, that's more or less my expectation for combat with a KH game

 

[shark sandwich]

It never improves. The narrative is a wreck and the combat is one-note throughout.

On the flip side, it does make me morbidly excited to how S-E manages to utterly f*ck up FFVII and their other properties. Kinda wish they hadn’t acquired Eidos, only because it allowed this post-merger shitshow to carry on far longer than it deserves.

At this point I’m expecting Kingdom Hearts 3 meets Advent Children. With a theme song by Imagine Dragons.

I can’t imagine anything less appealing than having Tetsuya Nomura in charge of remaking a beloved classic. He’s going to shit all over everything that made the original special and make us feel embarrassed that we ever liked FF VII in the first place.

 

[OldGamer]

I enjoyed KH2... past tense. If I erased it from my memory and played it today for the first time again, I’d probably dislike it too. Tastes change over time. There are a lot of games that I probably loved and wouldn’t like if I played today. I loved the original Syphon Filter, but if I played it today I’d think it was the worst 3rd person shooter ever considering what else is out there in comparison.

I don’t think KH3 is a bad game in terms of production value, but I find it really hard to get into and not the jump in quality I was expecting.

Well, I've played KH2 and it still holds up. But that is having awareness that KH2 was released in 2005 and comparing it to KH1.

KH3 was released roughly 14 years later. I would also have high expectations in terms of improvement in the overall gameplay. Heck, at least the sort of leap from KH1 to KH2.

That's not to say I won't buy it in the future to see for myself. Probably next month at the rate I'm going.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

At this point I’m expecting Kingdom Hearts 3 meets Advent Children. With a theme song by Imagine Dragons.

I can’t imagine anything less appealing than having Tetsuya Nomura in charge of remaking a beloved classic. He’s going to shit all over everything that made the original special and make us feel embarrassed that we ever liked FF VII in the first place.

He sorta did that already (see: Advent Children), he’s simply back to finish the job.

In all fairness, Nomura’s game design isn’t what bothers me. KH1 and KH2 are respectively great for their era, plus TWEWY and the Nomura-parts of FFXV are laudable. But it’s his penchant for flash over substance that undermines everything he does.