2019. Hey that’s now! My lovely girlfriend got me a copy of Kingdom Hearts III for my birthday.
So, let’s do math, 9 years since I’ve played anything in the series. 10 years since I kind of enjoyed a game in the series. 14 years since the last console release (remasters don’t count, I don’t care what you say). And, 17 years since I have had any idea of what was going on in the story. Put it all together and you get: my feelings going into the third game.
The game starts, and I’m overcome with a feeling of fond nostalgia. The controls feel just as I remember. Mash X to attack, awkwardly stand in the middle of combat when trying to use a spell or item, Donald and Goofy chatter while fighting little black monsters with bright yellow eyes.
And then it starts.
“Press Triangle to activate <insert super over powered CGI effect attack that breaks the game>.”
“Only in boss fights rights?”
“EVERY FIGHT! Also, you can’t use triangle for any of the other things we’ve linked to that button until you do the game breaker. Enjoy.”
There is this odd focus thing, I can’t figure that out for the life of me. Summons which are just more CGI effects. And every 5 steps a new window pops up to tell me about some new feature this game has and how to use it.
However, I’m willing to put the gimmicky combat a side and just play the game for old times sakes. And I have been. But I can only handle so much at a time.
The script. Oh, the script. Maybe it was always like this, but the word “Heart” is used like 5 times a sentence. The Organization is back, only they haven’t really been making much sense up to where I currently am. They basically show up and an argument of which is better, light or dark, starts before they leave. I feel myself tuning out the cut scenes and avoiding the triangle button in combat.
But I mean, at its core, it’s still Kingdom Hearts. A game I loved.
