Kingdom Hearts III

When I think back to the video games that most marked my childhood, the first Kingdom Hearts, and its reconstruction of the universes of various Disney franchises, still hold a special place in my heart as a player. But those 17-year-old memories steeped in strong nostalgia pale in comparison to Kingdom Hearts 3's colorful and varied combat and gigantic, incredibly detailed levels. The long-awaited conclusion to Square Enix's action-RPG trilogy features gameplay evolutions so satisfying that it literally took me back to childhood, even if the conclusion of most of its subplots is still quite disappointing.

The exploration of this new set of Disney worlds, which benefit from a rendering close to that of the films from which they take the universe, turns out to be overall a real treat. The sheer amount of collectible treasures and Mickey Mouse emblems to be found showcasing the vastness and mind-boggling level of detail each of these worlds enjoys. Knowing that some of them also offer fun game mechanics, such as the ability to control mechs or go to sea at the controls of your own ship.

Unfortunately, the storytelling in the different worlds is quite pale when compared to the technical improvements made in this third installment. Seeking to make the various subplots of the Disney worlds and the main story cohesive, the game regularly suffers from pacing issues, with lengthy dialogue scenes, and Sora, Donald and Goofy occasionally wondering why they are visiting some of the these worlds from the start of the adventure. Harmonizing all these plots remains a particularly arduous exercise, and Kingdom Hearts 3 is so constantly pleasant to play and comforting in its conclusion, that its obvious qualities quickly make you forget its few narrative errors.

The hero losing his powers trope is probably one of the most used by RPG sequels, but this loss here is cleverly tied to Sora's fight against the forces of darkness, and builds on one of the personal struggles in which our hero had to face in previous games. This allows by extension to avoid an extended prologue, a notorious error of Kingdom Hearts 2, and plunges us directly into the action, within the world of Hercules. Sora's first steps in Thebes and in the world of Olympus give you a pleasant sense of urgency and progression - Thebes is under attack by the Titans, which offers Sora, determined to recover whatever powers he has. he lost to be able to face the terrible Xehanort, a fight believable from the start.

Past Mount Olympus, that sense of urgency fades as the story progresses, mainly due to a few Disney worlds-specific subplots that take up too much space, or, in the case of Toy Story , lack real issues. As in the previous parts, these sub-plots regularly put the main story and the real motivations of Sora, Riku and Xehanort in the background, which can be quite problematic in a game intended to conclude a saga.

Fortunately, these rhythm problems occurring throughout the adventure (lasting approximately 27 hours) are largely counterbalanced by the wide range of gameplay possibilities during combat, which takes up the movements glimpsed in previous Kingdom games. Hearts (with a few small tweaks) and adds some entirely new ones. As a longtime fan of the series, I was obviously excited to discover the conclusion of Kingdom Hearts 3, but I never imagined for a second enjoying its real-time combat system so much. Hitting Heartless, Similis, and Nescients with Sora's keyblade is obviously the best way to destroy them, but new gameplay elements turn battles into real fireworks displays, and that sense of novelty and variety. will not leave you until the end of the adventure.

This combat system may seem complex at first, but once you understand how its different mechanics work and interact, it becomes enjoyable to coordinate them in order to achieve a devastating effect. One of the things I appreciate most is the new summon system that allows Sora to call on Disney attractions. Seeing a raft hurtling down a waterfall and crossing the battlefield sending all enemies in its path waltz, or a massive pirate ship rocking dangerously and causing the Heartless to flutter is a real delight to behold, and a sound and light show capable of making Disneyland employees jealous.

Each of the keyblades that Sora possesses can also be transformed, and testing their different possibilities is particularly enjoyable. Although there are a few duplicates in the bundle - two separate keyblades can for example turn into a double pistol - the possibilities they offer have allowed me to adapt my playstyle to any situation. When I needed to box enemies, Rapunzel's keyblade for example allowed me to create Sora clones that attacked the enemy from multiple sides, and when I was overwhelmed, the Toy Story keyblade transformed into a hammer. allowed me to benefit from a larger attack surface. Conversely, Sora's ability to move at lightning speed by making use of ledges and other barriers scattered throughout the levels, inherited from the Dream Drop Distance episode on 3DS, is much less pleasant to use. , both being able to grab a cornice or a pillar can be complicated.

Sora's wide range of quick finishers is also making a comeback, but due to the sheer number of offensive possibilities available at any given time, I have used them less overall than in previous games. Instead, I favored the new set of summons including several specific elemental attacks, such as a flaming Simba crushing everything in its path or an Ariel creating water wells with each dive, which allows the combat to be diversified, as does the various tactics adopted by the Similis and the Heartless, and the combined movements with your allies. It is always extremely fun to turn combat into real light and sound shows and summon your favorite Disney characters, although this wide range of offensive possibilities sometimes makes the game a little too easy for my liking (although Expert mode then offered me a much more substantial challenge).

Whole new worlds

In Kingdom Hearts 3, the array of locations to explore includes seven reconstructions and expansions of the universes we love so much. As a good Disney fan, I can only deplore the absence of certain must-have franchises, like Aladdin or Snow White, but the more modern choices made by Square Enix - with Monsters Inc., Big Hero 6 and Pirates of the Caribbean for n to name just three - are a real feast for the eyes. When you play on Playstation 4 Pro or Xbox One X, the visual rendering is extremely faithful to that of 3D animated films, and all of this is supported by beautiful orchestral scores using the themes of the different films, one of the peculiarities that me people love the franchise so much. I even caught myself letting out an admiring “wow” when I discovered the kingdom of the gods in the world of Hercules and the rolling hills of the kingdom of Corona in that of Rapunzel. I felt the need to dig through every square inch of these levels not only to flush out all the treasures hiding there, but also not to miss any of the little details the developers had slipped in, like the toys based on the summons of Final Fantasy in Toy Story, or the posters looking for Flynn Rider dead or alive, plastered on trees at the edge of the forest in the world of Corona.

It is precisely when Square Enix distances itself from source material that it produces the most interesting worlds. The Toy Story Toy Shop, for example, captures the essence of exploration from a toy's perspective. This level is so vast that a single storey of the store could house several worlds from the previous shutters. Each section of the store has its own unique look, and I couldn't resist spending more time there so that I wouldn't miss any of the fictional toys and video games on its shelves.

While I hadn't been particularly thrilled with the later feature films in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean has become quite inexplicably my favorite world in Kingdom Hearts 3. Much like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Fag, Sora can roam the seas at the controls of his ship, engage in naval battles, and explore islands for loot. This is roughly a simplified formula of the different aspects of Ubisoft's piracy game, with a limited number of actions and upgrades to unlock, but the latter functions well and stays true to the spirit of completion that animates the series since its beginnings.

We are witnessing the arrival of a new game mechanic in each of the available worlds, with varying degrees of success. The gameplay of Toy Story's super-mech battles, which swap the third-person view for a first-person view, is certainly less worked than that of the boat, but these fights offer a particularly appreciable change of pace. The sleigh descent from Frozen is less successful, however. The controls are imprecise, and aligning jumps or turns is much less enjoyable than simply wandering through the world of Arendelle.

Either way, these new mechanics are another testament to the richness of these worlds. The toy store fascinates with its variety, and I loved walking the streets of San Fransokyo, taken from Big Hero 6, and admiring the intriguing architecture of one of my favorite fictional towns. Along with these interesting environments, exploring the worlds of Rapunzel and Frozen quickly proved mundane and repetitive due to their more common settings. These are pretty worlds, but climbing the same grassy hills and snow-capped peaks can quickly turn out to be boring, if not confusing, due to a lack of distinctive visual cues.

As far as the quality of the storytelling in each of these worlds is concerned, it's double or nothing. Overall, I enjoyed the worlds featuring new storylines - while those of Monsters Inc. and Big Hero 6 allowed me to experience new nuances of my favorite characters. On the other hand, as Toy Story took a risk with an original story set between the movies, in a new location, and without the entire cast, I found its pace chilling and its stakes and conclusion quite anecdotal.

One of the biggest mysteries of Kingdom Hearts 3 is the storytelling approach taken by the different worlds of Disney to me, when I think of the series as a whole. While their design has often evolved intelligently, the same cannot be said for the storytelling, unfortunately. With such a degree of visual fidelity, it is all the more annoying to see that the plot comes down to an ultra-condensed version of that from the movies, with less punchy dialogue and missing key scenes. So yeah, that's more or less a constant for the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and seeing Sora, Donald, and Goofy interacting with Flynn Rider and Olaf is still delicious as ever. However, it is clear that if the gap between the game and the films has considerably reduced visually, the one that separates the quality of their respective narratives is today more obvious than ever.

The gameplay of the Gummi Ship, which helps you to rally the different game worlds, has been wonderfully revamped, which allowed me to enjoy these phases of the game for the first time. It may not be so yet. exciting than ground combat, and battles are based on a rail system, but the way they play out in a series of open, explorable star systems makes piloting these passages much more enjoyable. There aren't many challenges to complete, but I enjoyed flying, unlocking giant spheres, and chasing asteroid clusters in search of loot.

In the heart of the Kingdom

The plot of Kingdom Hearts 3 is meant to be the culmination of everything that has happened previously in the franchise - which is no small feat. And I'm pleasantly surprised at how well she sums up this story of the power of friendship and the bonds we make with each other, although I didn't find it particularly transcendent. In the many years that have passed since the release of the second installment, I have had plenty of time - and this also goes for the rest of the Kingdom Hearts saga fan community - to think about how the events could unfold, and I've seen some twists happen from a long way off.

This had the effect of mitigating their impact, which did not prevent me from sporting a stupid smile when the long-awaited events took place on the screen. Even guessing their likely direction, seeing them finally happen was still cathartic. The last five hours of Kingdom Hearts 3 have kept all their promises, touching moments involving different characters in tense battles taking place in spectacular environments.

Plot progression will prove to be slightly sluggish before it gets to this, however - the characters are scattered throughout the various Disney worlds and little updates tell you more about the overall unfolding of the story - but the actual showdowns. and passages involving character changes are only taken into account when Sora's adventure comes to an end. This is now a constant for the series, and the occasional character cameos have often intrigued me, but I would have really appreciated that care equivalent to that given to the gameplay of the title had been applied to the fluidity of its narration.

Once the Disney worlds are over, Kingdom Hearts 3 brings you consistent high-level content filled with massive battles that really put my mastery of the combat system to the test. Previous boss fights that took place in Disney worlds were often fun due to their sheer scale, but relatively easy, as enemies acted like damage sponges requiring more stamina than skill. The real reward is these last hours of play. Satisfying both from a narrative and gameplay standpoint, These crucial battles regularly lead to confrontations, reunions, and other emotional moments that fanfiction writers secretly dream of.

Throughout the adventure, Kingdom Hearts 3 attempts to summarize the events prior to its plot, and most of the time succeeds, providing you with the essential details to understand the overall story without necessarily having to relaunch the previous parts. Unfortunately, new players are unlikely to grasp all of the nuances of the characters, as Kingdom Hearts 3, in addressing broader issues like identity and feeling whole as a person, regularly refers to previous installments. Having experienced these moments with the controller in hand - sometimes several times, thanks to the many reissues on offer - helped to anchor certain dynamics and personalities in my mind. While it's still possible to get a rough idea of the goals of the good guys and the bad guys, the deeper nature of their relationships often gives rise to some extremely touching moments during the final hours of the adventure.

It is not easy to reconnect to the Kingdom Hearts III events without writing an entire essay, because the saga conceived by Tetsuya Nomura has its roots in 2002 and was difficult to follow due to its branching on multiple platforms and the past years, which inevitably lead to plot holes or pending issues without due explanation.

What Sora has accomplished is neither more nor less than the hero's journey in its classic sense - the same, to say, that we have seen Link do for thirty years now. There comes a point where certainties collapse, where a little doubt creates that crack that leads to breakage: it also applies to our naive hero with a heart too big and too fragile. In Dream Drop Distance we saw him fall, weakening to the point of becoming the victim of that same darkness that struggles to defeat.

Now the time has come for the resurrection because - citing Mago Merlino - anything lost can be found, and Sora will have to make a long journey to rediscover himself while his friends, on several fronts, help him in this new imminent war. He will travel far and wide through the worlds through a series of situations that sometimes closely follow the events of the Disney films of reference, an odyssey interspersed several times by side films of his story and whose only task is to update the player both on past events - a well-implemented system, in my opinion - and on efforts made elsewhere to prepare for war.

If on the one hand this choice makes us appreciate the incredible work put in place from a visual and often directorial point of view (you will see it for yourself with the beautiful world of the Pirates of the Caribbean), on the other it is one of the two pebbles in the shoe of this great ending: the rhythm of the game is affected by the need to show all the moves on both sides of the board and at the same time we are often asked to be understanding with regards to a narration that is not always optimal, made of inevitable plot holes and moments or uninspired dialogues children of a development distributed over many, perhaps too many, years.

It is a recipe that combines the epic nature of memorable clashes in the light of those emotions on which the whole plot rests, but one cannot avoid noticing the bitter aftertaste of the holes in the plot and the use of deus ex machina: a carousel , to use a fitting term, which with a few squeaks brings us to the end where the narrative rears up and leaves us with bated breath waiting for the epilogue available in a few days.

The gameplay, I had already had the opportunity to notice it at some fairs or presentations, collects all that has been done in these years and indeed adds something of its own: aspects borrowed from Kingdom Hearts II, 3D or even Birth by Sleep bring the fight on a family level and the Rides (new element of Kingdom Hearts III) add a sense of spectacularity to everything, putting in your hands the most popular attractions of the Disney theme park to unleash an incredible destructive power - even too much, I dare say, but I will come back to this shortly.

Without following the parallel paths that the fall of Sora had pushed us to experiment in Dream Drop Distance, this third chapter also puts us in the shoes of more characters than the protagonist, for a very limited time and only with the aim of satisfying the canvas narrative but still a appreciated change of register, even if to try different styles.

Returning to Sora, his path of rebirth within the hero's greatest journey is evident thanks to the progressive stratification of his skills in combat: from world to world we will get new skills, or Keyblades with which to experience visually spectacular and capable of inflicting numerous damage, all without losing a drop of their style. From the past, the attacks with Pippo and Donald, or just one of the two, and those of support with the guests of the party, return in a continuous chain that sometimes will be essential to overcome the battles while in other cases it is even too much.