Kingdom Hearts 3 Interactive Playthrough

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Final final thoughts

Wow, okay, so it has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. Reasons being I beat the game a while ago and I kept forgetting or getting distracted from finishing this final post. I wanted to do a lot of smaller posts detailing every little event from the end of my last post until the end of the game, it is no longer looking like that is going to happen so I am going to quickly wrap up the last components of the game and swiftly get into my final final thoughts.

The Final World - Creepy, interesting, but overall sorta bland and rather dull. Due to its aesthetic and simple mechanics I got very bored with it rather quickly. I like the idea of a world being basically limbo or death (It’s a KH story so there isn’t a straight forward answer) but this one just seems sorta... meh..

The Cutscenes in between game play - Ranged from holy shit amazing (the massive keyblade attack) to ridiculous (donald laser). Overall every cutscene was gorgeous and filled with artistic wonder. Some of the characters did not hold up to their potential, examples being Axel being a terrible fighter and Kairi dying (Remember that rage? Yeah, it’s about this). Other times the characters had tons of heart and felt like either badasses or emotional powerhouses (i cried four times by the end of the game)

The Labyrinth - So having to go and fight every single new member of organization 13 seemed like a daunting task while it was being built up towards the end of the game and I was curious how they were going to pace them out over time. NOPE! Just throw them all together and have fun! While I understand why they did this, it was a rather large let down that such colorful characters get their 5 seconds in the death spotlight and then are gone.

Xehanort Fight(s) - Long, sometimes very repetitive, and overall pretty good. They could’ve cut out some chunks of it as the constant change in scenes got repetitive (they wouldn’t have if the mechanics significantly changed, but they didn’t) Overall not my favorite fight in the game, and certainly not my favorite final boss fight of any KH game.

Final Final Final Thoughts (I swear, I am going to ramble a lot and then I am done) - Soooooo KH3. I had a ton of fun playing this game. I have been a huge KH fan since the first trailers for KH1 were being released. My gamer tag is my nobody name and I have spent hundreds of hours discussing every minute detail about every game with some of my closest friends. So it’s pretty obvious I love KH.

That being said, this is my least favorite of the three main KH games. While it is clearly the most artistic and the most innovative when it comes to mechanics and levels, it falls short on one of the most important things about a KH (or Squeenix) game, the story.

Each individual level’s story was fun and engaging in some sort of way, but the overarcing story made little to no sense, went almost nowhere given the amount of time they spent on it, and had a very predicatable and unsatisfactory ending. The overarcing story feels very rushed and slapped together for the purposes of just ending Xehanort and Sora’s involvement within the world.

If they had spent more time either in between worlds, took large breaks between worlds, or spent a few more worlds worth of time on the story of Xehanort and Sora than I feel like they could’ve done such a better job. Most other KH stories gave their main story so much more time and effort and it really shows how little they put into it for this game.

For being the third main installment of this series I was really expecting the story to have some sort of massive final struggle and conclusion, but in the end it was the same rehash of the last game’s story with the exception of a different head (which we already knew was there). KH2 built up an entire organization of colorful people, a plan for what they were doing, and how we systematically brought down inch by inch their organization and plan. What did we do in KH3? Uhhh, took down these people in about one world’s worth to stop them from...Unleashing Kingdom Hearts? Again? I barely can even remember why Xehanort wanted to do any of the crap he did and that says a lot about how much time we were given understanding the antagonists motivation and plan.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAGE INCOMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have been reading my previous post you are probably ready for some rage. Well, here you go. THEY FUCKING DID NOTHING WITH KAIRI!!!! They spent so much time on attempting to make her a badass, they gave her a keyblade, they spent most of the game training her, she constantly babbled on about wanting to save Sora for once. Well, SHE DIDNT! All she did was show up, show her keyblade to the players, AND FUCKING DIE!!!!! Words can’t even express how much this angered me when I saw it happen. Technically I was upset and shocked when it first happened, but it was very quickly followed up with blood curdling rage about how they did NOTHING with her. I love having strong female characters in my stories, they don’t have to be physically strong, but they have to be more than just one dimensional - girl. Kairi’s only purpose was to motivate Sora to go do a thing, that is such a horrible waste of a character.

SO ANOTHER THING! Yes, they brought Kairi back at the end of the game, but they fucking KILLED SORA!?! SO, this is supposed to be a happy feelsy sort of game, right? It’s made by fucking DISNEY! If you give me two cute little kids who grow up together, hang out together, and clearly really really like each other, WHY DON’T THEY GET TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!!! *chucks computer*

*deep breaths* Okay, I am done. *mumbles under breath* Fucking ridiculous....

Let’s on a positive note!

KH3 had some of the best combat, mechanics, and graphics that the series has ever seen. Most, if not all, the worlds were immensely enjoyable in one way or another. If you read all of my previous posts it becomes painfully obvious I am a big fan of this game, and I would recommend anyone who has played the previous KH games to play this one as well. Though, don’t get your hopes up too much for it and know that it feels significantly shorter than any of the other KH games. Nitpicks aside, I had fun, and at the end of the day that is the most important part of any game, having fun. Having a positive experience in some way and walking away feeling better for having played the game.

Level of Enjoyment: Still a massive KH fan and can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

*Side Note* If you got all of the way to this note and read all of my previous posts I just wanted to give you a massive thank you!!! Thank you for reading all of my dumb or nerdy rants about this game.

I am trying my hardest to become a game designer myself and hope that one day, you will be playing and enjoying my game. Feel free to critique it as intensely as I just critiqued KH3. Have a great life!!

[rayxnkh3-blog]

And then there were no more worlds...

So moving forward away from San Franskoyo the rest of the game (yes, I have beaten it at this point) sort of has fragment fights and levels. The best way I can think of to review the rest of the game is in small fragments covering things that caught my attention as either really good or really bad.

After all of the actual game content is covered there will be a final final thoughts post about how I felt about the game as a whole.

After that, this channel is evolving (queue the Pokemon evolution music) into a game review channel that isn’t just focused on KH3. Regular posts will be delayed until a new game has been chosen to play and review.

Thank you so much for everyone who has been reading these posts so far, I hope you have enjoyed KH and my hyper critical views that breakdown and complain (or fanboy) over a game that is very near and dear to my heart. (Yes, I made a pun, I like puns)

Anywho...

Evil Aqua: I like the idea of Aqua being in the world of darkness for so long that a little bit of the darkness has taken over her and she needs a good ole thrashing to smack some sense into her.

Fighting her was.... allright. Her combat set definitely forced me to balance offense and defense and she certainly wasn’t a pushover. The way this game handles females has never been the best (RAGE INCOMING!!!) so I am glad they made her at least somewhat difficult.

The world of departure (I think it’s called this? I haven’t spent any time looking up the names of things and I damn sure won’t be starting now): The gorgeous animation of Aqua unlocking this hidden world was absolutely stunning. Each piece moving and clicking around to slowly fade into the world itself really gave the feeling that his world was being unlocked. You know, like a door? A really fancy door that decides that when it unlocks it’s going to be so extra that every other door in a five mile radius notices its grandness. Nice job putting so much extra effort into showing a key unlocking a door, didn’t think it could look so spiffy.

So I mentioned KH doesn’t really do female characters well. (This isn’t the rage, but keep reading, it’s coming) But I will say fighting as Aqua was incredibly fun. Her overall move set and combat flow doesn’t change much from BBS, but that isn’t a problem. BBS combat mechanics aren’t that different from KH3 mechanics. The keyblade changes are like the old formchanges, so it makes sense to have Aqua use her form changey like stuff in the exact same manner.

I have always been a fan of Aqua and her magical attack patterns, smacking the shit out of Vanitas brought back tons of BBS nostalgia and how much of a badass Aqua was to play with back in that game.

Next time: Keyblade Graveyard part one and the final world... stay tuned!

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Big City Big Fun

San Fransokyo. A world where the charm of the characters, the size of the world, and the enjoyment of the fights were all in perfect unison.

Story:

Taking a strange turn away from either telling the story of the film or doing an entirely new story, this world merges both by acknowledging plot points from the film and eventually resolving one (that in my opinion didn’t need to be solved but whatever) while telling an entirely new tale of Sora and the gangs involvement with the world.

Big Hero 6 admittedly feels very underrated in my book in the sense that I have only seen it once and while I very much enjoyed it, I didn’t go back to watch it for another time. After interacting with all of the fun quirky characters from the film I very much have a desire to re-watch the film. Baymax and Fred in particular brought a wide grin to my face frequently.

Sora’s interaction with the characters by claiming them the Keyblade Three was incredibly cringy but the idea of him inspiring the other heroes to create new attacks felt like a nice way of having the KH characters subtly impact the original worlds characters.

It really shows how much I have been conditioned to just shut up and go with it when an Org13 member gets revealed and it looks exactly like Riku. I know damn well that isn’t Riku and instead of being incredibly confused or engaged in trying to figure out who this person is, I kinda just shrugged and said, “Well, they’ll explain eventually, or not, I don’t care. Can I fight it?” KH’s story is so complex and confusing that I can barely keep track of all the twists and turns so when something like this happens all the time, it really loses it’s punch.

The ending really confused me as they made a big deal about Baymax dying. “Dying” being his chip getting destroyed, though to my knowledge wasn’t that chip not the one Tadashi made? Didn’t Hiro make that chip and add it to Baymax when he was trying to make him some sort of badass fighting robot? So you weren’t destroying Baymax, you were destroying the part of him you added and later into the film you regretted that you added. So you’re learning the same mistake of the film all over again? This really took the emotional weight out of the idea of losing Baymax as a character. I could be totally wrong in this so feel free to leave a response to help clear this up.

Design:

Before I even saw the layout of this world I knew that anything less than running around an entire city filled with climbable buildings and twisty roads would be a disappointment. My concern became how were they going to do this while limiting the size you can move to a reasonable programmable area, but make it look still like a huge city. Invisible walls, yes, but just running into an invisible wall breaks emersion quite rapidly. Their in between of giving me my giant world but making Hiro comment on how we should really stay close by so we don’t get lost and boxing us in was the perfect solution.

The buildings were fun to jump between, climb up, and discover all the small parts that one can easily miss as you rapidly move about the city. There was an insane amount of variability in building size, shape, color, and design to the point where it felt like an incredibly diverse iron jungle.

Okay, nitpick time, while I am sure there is a reason why we are pigeon holed into Hiro’s garage at set intervals of the story, I certainly don’t get it. You could have easily put a zone transition in part of the city and placed the garage there. Now, it’s possible that they wanted to stay true to the story and Hiro’s house wasn’t close enough to where this part of San Fransokyo was so going to and from the garage was just an implied flight away. Still, having this area cut off from the rest of the zone and forcing me to talk to Hiro to continue the story/go exploring felt a little stunted.

Mechanics:

Each fight, encounter, and boss felt incredibly varied and dynamic. Forcing us to use a culmination of many mechanics and skills to get the most out of each encounter.

The first training task, while still being an incredibly overplayed “go through the ring” event, was such a fun introduction to the diverse and massive city that they’ve made for the players. They never let any section of the ring fwooping (it’s a word) get too dull or stay the same. Moving from falling, to climbing, to grinding, to dashing, all while listening to the characters chime in kept me engaged and impressed. Such a simple overall setup done so incredibly well was a great addition.

When you create a boss in the middle of your level that’s more enjoyable than the final boss, I might raise an eyebrow and ask why, but won’t be complaining too hard. The dinosaur ball thingie (I’m sure it has a name but I much prefer to call heartless based off their animal counterpart) was such a joy to fight. The slow breakdown of it’s parts to reveal new attacks, thus forcing new strategies, was such a treat. They even forced him to retreat and let us fly over the skyline of San Fransokyo to catch back up to him. Changing the fight, changing the stage, and keeping things engaging, excellent boss fight.

The jury is still out on how I feel about forced losses in fights, but at least the forced loss doesn’t stick around too long to make a player feel powerless.

Sticking with the first ring challenge, the section where you have to free the Big Hero 6 members using different sort of attacks was just as enjoyable as the ring section for the exact same reasons, so I don’t need to praise it again.

Bosses, bosses, bosses, so many bosses in this world. The microbots (once you can actually fight them) was a fun boss that felt like a multi-stage boss without any large movements, cutscenes, or big design changes. It was a straight forward boss that kept changing forms, making new attacks and forcing new strategies. I would praise this boss for being just as good as dino-roo (the one from earlier in the level) but it just didn’t have as much variability and dynamic feel to it. Still, a good fight and so much better than...

Sooooooo the final showdown with evil Baymax... I would’ve been so much more lenient with this boss if riding around on Baymax felt more diverse or challenging. Baymax is a simple point and shoot, occasionally punch, sort of set up. Letting us have a Baymax v. Baymax showdown is a super cool idea, but when the entire fight is primarily just dodging and allowing your all powerful god-like robot do all the work, it really just doesn’t satisfy. Even more so when the earlier boss fights in this level were astoundingly good. If at any point Baymax took a hit and forced us to fight normally, I would’ve had a completely different opinion on this fight, but sadly, that isn’t what we got. What we got was a let down and a weak note to end on a world.

Final Thoughts:

San Fransokyo, through it’s massively fun world and fights was definitely one of my favorite levels throughout all of KH3. As  with every other world there were some definite sour notes but they threw so much at you in this world that I can easily forgive some unimpressive emotional moments and a wonky final fight.

Level of Enjoyment: Watching Wasabi’s “Laser” Blades cut through robotic heartless

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Understanding Your Player: Play Sessions - How Will People Play Your Game? - Extra Credits

How much time will players spend with your game in one sitting? The answer affects many aspects of your game's design. Test the game in different environment...

So after playing The Caribbean and having been frustrated over how few save spots there were, I was reminded of this amazing Extra Credits video they did where it talked about exit points.

KH in general has always been very cutscene heavy and I feel like their cutscenes sometimes aren’t calculated into their overall play session time, mainly because it turns possibly a 15 minute commitment into a 45 minute one when you chain cutscenes and combat with no place to save and put the game down.

This video is a part of a series about Humane Design they did and I highly recommend it. The channel in general is engaging, funny, and very informative. Check them out!

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Dead Players Tell All Tales

Pirates! One of my favorite things, sadly in my least favorite world so far. Haul anchor and drop sail cause this is gonna be a long voyage.

Story:

Fusing “A Pirate’s Life” with exposition actually does a great job at engaging us while telling us where we are inside the films story. Though I must admit the song lingers on a little too long.

We find ourselves inside Davy Jone’s locker as we start the level, so that places us at the third movie. Most of my problems with the story of this world stem from this choice. Even if you did watch all of the films, there is a lack of build up towards the climax at the end of the world. We have almost no time to bond with characters, set the stakes, or build dramatic tension before the final fight. Hell, if you don’t remember the movie well you would be completely lost as to what was going on! Right before the final fight Elizabeth makes a rousing speech spouting of freedom and the need to fight. If you didn’t understand why they needed a speech to boost morale and turn the tides of battle then this speech has no emotional weight.

In particular Jack is devoid of all of the charm and precociousness we saw in the films and the voice actor for Davy Jones seems far off (Hard to live up to the great actor who portrayed him in the film). This was one of the instances with which I feel like it would’ve been better not to go with the film as the story and instead just have a fun high seas adventure with Captain Jack.

So the story of the film doesn’t transfer over well, let’s focus on the other aspect of it. Luxord shows up periodically trying to figure out about a mysterious black box the organization has been looking for. His interactions with Jack and use of the parley gag were actually quite fun and I felt like Jack and Luxord mixed well together. Of course the black box wasn’t what he was looking for and he quickly made his escape, though I liked that they decided to have him show up at all. Over-arcing story seems to be gaining a little steam.

Design:

KH2′s design of Port Royal always seemed off to me. Having live action transferred over would be fine, but they went with the grittier more realistic look rather than making them more cartoonish. While the bump in graphics mitigates this a little, the world still looks awkward and out of place compared to the aesthetic of Sora and the gang.

All of the characters eyes seemed glossy and reflective in a strange way. Their faces also conveyed much less emotions so the already unemotional story was not helped by the characters all looking apathetic.

The design of Port Royal felt the same to the town in Tangled, filled with characters and life. The islands and water themselves looked gorgeous, the newer engine really showing its power.

Mechanics:

Oh god where to start...

The aerial combat towards the start of the level was actually rather fun. Bouncing from heartless to heartless while shooting at the larger dinosaur bird thing felt like a good culmination of multiple mechanics: R1 movement and classic mounted combat. My issue comes in with how slowly I was able to move while mounted. The ability to boost forward to more easily catch up with the bird pterodactyl thingie would’ve given made me feel like I was setting the pace of the combat, and not the flying undead bird thingie. (I could’ve looked up what it was called, but I didn’t)

I release a large exasperated sigh and have horror flashbacks to KH1′s Atlantis as I start writing this next piece. Now, to be fair, the underwater combat/section was much more merciful than KH1. Mainly because it was short. The combat felt stagnant and forced as we were unable to form change or swap out our keyblades. Have a really great mechanic? Nope, throw that shit away and give us a single combo to spam over and over as we flop around not controlling where Sora goes. Though I did really like the idea of modifying the spells to be more underwater friendly, but it didn’t do enough to save the lack of keyblade fun. We even got a small boss in this section, which seems weird mainly because it didn’t do anything remotely boss like. He felt less like a boss and more like a fish that never learned from Magikarp that flail was an ineffective attack.

Now on to the biggest issue I had with this level. Ship... Combat... Don’t get me wrong, I have had ship combat in other games and have genuinely enjoyed it. I will be the first to admit that it is a very tricky mechanic to work properly and is not for the enjoyment of everyone. This iteration of it was everything I dislike about ship combat. The camera is too zoomed in to be able to effectively see the battlefield and the movement wasn’t quick enough not only as a ship but when moving the cannons. Upgrading your ship was possible but for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out. I know you needed to collect more crabs and I went into town to find more, only to be disappointed in finding none. I figured I would just use the extra I had but couldn’t find where to turn them in back at the Port. Very unclear as to how to improve my ship.

As I left Port Royal I came across and island with a very large unbreakable box marked with a red X. I tried slashing it, spell casting it, and shooting it with cannons. Eventually I got frustrated and moved on, not caring what sort of loot it had. Chests that have special ways of opening them are supposed to inspire desire, the want to figure out how to open the chest and get whatever shinies are inside. I felt no need to figure this out as the game gave me no inclination as to what was inside, or how to actually open said box. Instead it felt like a red herring and a huge disappointment to my pirating ways.

The fight leaving Port Royal right before the Maelstrom final battle was infuriating. All of my problems with ship combat pulled into one, mixed in with wonky mechanics. The flagship (the final big red one) was excruciatingly painful of an enemy to fight. Firstly, he teleports in front of you randomly, so if you have a chance to lean in and do tons of damage, he will teleport away as soon as you hit the special firing button. Secondly, he constantly spawns extra ships no matter how many you shoot down. Now, I don’t have a problem with this in spirit, but when your ship combat normally is taking down the smaller ships and saving the bigger ships for last, forcing us to do the opposite seems a little irksome unless otherwise stated. If we had the ability to heal or repair our ship in some way than I wouldn’t care so much. I would sink the smaller ships for a little bit while taking chip damage along the way until I realized my plans weren’t working. Instead of this I slowly died twice while realizing that my plans weren’t going to work. Almost no game makes dying enjoyable, with the exception being the Arkham series when the villains would riff on Batman for failing miserably.

The Kraken fight was just as boring an unengaging as the other ship combat, so I am just going to blow past it.

The fight with Davy Jones was also a bit of a let down. If you decided to make the villain of the movie be the final boss, I don’t have an issue with it, but make their combat more engaging then what just the character does. Davy Jones slashed at me and summoned tentacles. He himself didn’t hit very hard and my massive AoE took care of most of the tentacles. Not once did I have to pause to think about strategy or mitigate any sort of damage. Hack, slash, repeat, boring.

Final Thoughts:

This world was a disappointment after having so many previous fun worlds. But that’s also why I am so willing to forgive it. This was truly the first bad world I have found while playing this game. Unemotional story, irksome mechanics, and choppy visuals all added up to a High Seas Horror Show. Even with all my problems with this world, I still find myself extremely eager to continue playing, knowing that the game itself is still a huge win.

Level of Enjoyment: NOT getting a choreographed song and dance number in skimpy clothing (both men and women)

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Let Let it Go Go

Haynah na hey a na naaaaa. Okay that’s enough of that, Arendelle! Frozen world was an absolute visual and eventful treat that definitely leaned into the fact that it is such a popular IP. Also, this was a long level so very long review incoming!

Story:

Once again a world where it’s a rehash of the movie but with Sora, Donald, and Goofy mixed up in things as well. There seems to be some sort of overall link to the princesses in the worlds that Org13 needs and it’s nice to see them mention it more and more as you progress through the worlds.

Donald comments at some point about being worried about falling down. Donald, you don’t take fall damage, I have seen you fall 15 stories and shrug it off like you just went down one step. Calm down.

Now, I am a fan of Let it Go, but why did we have to have the entire thing as a shot for shot remake of the film? (Probably because it’s so popular) But it does seem odd and out of place considering we don’t get entire other songs from all the other IPs. Tangled didn’t replay “I have a dream” and I friggin love that song. Though Sora’s comments at the end were hysterical and it made it abundently clear that some of the writers/designers didn’t quite get why it was there too. (Sidenote: If Donald or Sora sang this instead I would’ve fallen over with laughter =D)

Almost immediately after we got “Let it Go” we started “Do you want to build a snowman”, which would’ve felt odd and out of place as well but if that is a constant in this world than I am more okay with it. My problem was Anna recalling the events of the start of the film OVER the song itself. Thank goodness for subtitles or I would’ve had no clue what anyone was saying. A character talking over a singing childhood version of herself does not make for a good cutscene.

Kristoff comes off as sort of a creepy guy in this version. If you didn’t see him earlier talking to Sven and voicing Sven himself than it just comes off as creepy. Kristoff makes that voice so he has someone to talk to due to his loneliness at the start of the film, this is charming and kinda sad which makes you feel sympathy for the character. Without setting that as a groundwork then you get some weirdo who voices his animal in the presence of his friends. Odd.

Elsa’s giant ice monster (whom this moment forward I am calling Frosty, because I can) gets so much more personality in this world. You see them (cause I don’t know what gender they are, mixed in with who knows if snowmen have genders) striving to catch up and protect Elsa after she gets kidnapped. Their concern for their master makes them strive to fight heartless and team up with Sora to save them. Hell, Frosty even holds up a giant heartless moon towards the end to protect Sora. I was devastated when they fell into a giant void of darkness. Good job KH3 for making me care about Frosty just to kill them off, good storytelling, sad feels.

Design:

It can be really hard to make a land of just ice and mountains appear visually stunning, but for the most part they did a great job. The ice and mountains were varied and there were multiple shapes, sizes, and shades of ice to keep things varied amungst the world. The sledding scene had such gorgeous reflective ice on the ground I was sad it passed by so quickly.

The heartless in this world were particularly great. The ice deer heartless were so friggin adorable! I felt bad when I had to murder them all. The ice dragons on the other hand were terrifying and the final boss was stunningly gorgeous! Excellent job art team who designed these heartless’s looks!

Only small nitpick about the look was we didn’t ever visit Arendelle itself. The level is called Arendelle yet we didn’t set one foot inside the village. Tangled let us go into the city and it was an absolute treat! I would’ve loved all of the Nordic designs of the town had we had a chance to enter. Ah well, there’s always the next KH and Frozen 2.

Mechanics:

The ice labyrinth at the beginning of the level was an absolute treat. It felt like a classic dungeon crawl and was filled with areas to explore, enemies to kill, and “puzzles” to solve. It might’ve dragged just a touch too long but overall it was an absolute blast to play through and got me pumped for the rest of the level. It was a completely pointless part of the level, didn’t contribute to the story in any way, but was quite fun!

Up and down, up and down. That was the basics of the level itself and overall I can’t complain too much, but why did it have to be the same thing so many times? Going up and down the mountain once, possibly twice, would’ve been fine. But constantly trying to get back to the Ice Palace and not once going to the village to change things up felt very repetitive.

So going down on Goofy’s shield. The first third was a nightmare. Terrible movement, locked camera, and fidgety enemies. Not being able to see the enemies mixed with not being quick enough to dodge said enemies attacks got frustrating rather quickly and I found myself hoping it wouldn’t last long. The second third was a quick turn around as flying down the mountain collecting munny (as my friend described it) felt like Snowkids on the N64, which is a good thing. The last part was fighting said Ice Dragons and they were medium difficulty. Having three of them was a tad harsh at this point into the event but overall it was alright.

On a brighter note, when Frosty appeared and we trekked through the snow storm beating up heartless together, it felt very random but definitely a warm welcome to my party. Yes, I made a pun, get over it.

The final boss was an absolute cinematic masterpiece. The design of the ice wolf mixed in with the floating wolf heads was challenging and gorgeous. There was a moment of awe and stupor as the wolf turned into a frackin moon and crashed down upon Sora and gang. Great fight that kept up the action without making me feel overwhelmed, while simultaneously just being beautiful to look at. No goop monster this time.

Final Thoughts:

This level was on the longer side and it definitely feels like it’s because Disney knows how well received Frozen was. There was also a lot of hype built up during marketing that revolved around Frozen, so I get this being a long level that pays homage to it’s source material. Thankfully it was a 1080 spin of fun from start to end, though it went a little heavy on some of the Frozenness of it all. As I said in the title, Let Let it Go Go.

Level of Enjoyment: Fat body Olaf (Large and in charge)

[rayxnkh3-blog]

A Scary Good Time

Monstropolis! Home of monsters, children and tons of heavy machinery. Overall this level seemed very straight forward and kept me engaged the entire time.

Story:

Very simple story in which it’s essence is returning Boo to her door. The rest of the level is all of the events and persons that get in the way of returning Boo. The explanation for Randall’s return and how it ties into the overarcing KH story felt natural and not like some hokey excuse to have the villain return. Boo’s laughter and its ability to power the environment also tied in nicely throughout the level, forcing us to stop and make her laugh in order to continue through.

Towards the end I was happy with Vanitas appearing and attempting to steal part of Sora’s heart, but was even more surprised when Sully stopped him. Usually Sora and the gang go into the worlds and help their inhabitants with their problems, it was nice for a change to see the opposite where a worlds characters directly help/save Sora.

Design:

So overall the world didn’t feel too large (which I personally was a fan of) in that most of the time you are going from corridor to large room back to corridor. It definitely funnels you the direction you are supposed to go but litters the entire level with lots to smash, fight, and discover.

Halfway through the world you encounter parts that are on fire, which upped the stakes a bit by surrounding you with fire that could actually hurt you! A small criticism is that we don’t get much notice that the fire will directly hurt you and that you should stop to equip water spells on the quick bar to make the fighting easier. Still, I had very little problem smashing and slicing my way through it.

The door rooms and factory were both gorgeous, though parts of the factory seemed to not have enough variability in their environment. One part they went into this sort of boiler/water room and I got so excited to see different parts of the factory and what they do, but this was only one room.

Also, Goofy’s eyes are terrifying!!! All the disguises looked gorgeous and appropriate for the characters but Goofy’s eyes gave my nightmares nightmares.

Mechanics:

Each fight felt like it flowed well from one to the other with plenty of variability of the Unversed. Some big, lots of small, allowing for each keyblade, spell, or any other ability to have some sort of use in it.

While sliding on the rails that carry the doors I felt like the heartless appeared and attacked a tad too quickly for me to react. Frequently I got hit not because I couldn’t dodge, but because I was attacking while their spells were already being flung at me. They cast them so quickly after appearing that it didn’t give me much time to choose to attack or defend. These went quickly though so it never got annoying.

Randall’s evil villain death traps was a great example of giving you a simple problem with multiple solutions. Get to the other side of this dangerous area: You can use the covers, dash through, or go around each laser in some way or another. It really allows freedom of movement and environment to solve the room in any way you want. I also enjoyed Randall’s chastisizing of us the entire time we are running through.

The final pile of goop they called a boss, while not being the most imaginative of enemies, was a rather enjoyable one. I felt like I had to memorize his pattern of attack and block accordingly so that I had my own chance to attack. This felt very Dark Souls (a game I don’t play because it is far too hard (Yes, I am a filthy casual =P)) and I really enjoyed it. Waiting for the moment to strike made the hits much more satisfying. Medium difficulty, quite fun!

Side note: There are ladders in the world but Sora can’t climb them!? The boy can scale 90 degree horizontal walls but not a friggin ladder? Sora continues to laugh at the laws of physics

Final Thoughts:

While never being a huge fan of the original Monsters Inc movie, I certainly enjoyed the world and characters of this one. The story felt engaging and heartfelt from start to end. The fights were fun and frequent and I have to say I really loved this level.

Level of Enjoyment: Bowling for cyclopes

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Not Beer Kingdom

Warm up your vocal pipes and get ready for classic fantasy, its Tangled! The level was very well done and watching the movie again in video game form was simply a joy. The movie translated over well into video game level form and all of the charm of the original story and characters shone through!

Story:

It’s Tangled...

Sora clearly told Flynn to leave and let him handle it, why would then Sora be confused that Flynn took off? C’mon writers, you’re better than that.

I appreciate the continuity that only a keyblade can defeat a nobody, forcing Sora to tell Flynn and Rapunzel to stay back.

Towards the end when Flynn is dying from a “stab wound” I couldn’t help but yell at my screen saying, “Sora and Donald, you have healing magic. HEAL HIM!”. The tension of the scene leaves pretty quickly when two main protagonists can solve a stab wound as if it’s a minor inconvenience.

Design:

When you first enter the zone and see the obvious hidden area I chastized it for being super easy to spot, only then to eat my own words towards the end when I couldn’t find it again.

Overall the layout of the world was fun to roam around in, not too big not too small. I personally am a huge fan of forest worlds so I had no problem with it being mostly one giant forest. Though I can see people getting tired of nothing but forest zones over and over again.

Heartless in this world felt natural and appropriate. What thing would be attacking you in the woods? Plants, bugs, or flowers, and the fact that they had them as flowers or dandelions felt natural.

The kingdom itself had far more detail than I first expected. It was almost a fully fleshed out town filled with npcs, hidden mickeys, chests, and fun little nooks and crannies to explore.

Mechanics:

Hitting the wanted posters makes them disappear and munny magically appears, this is not how wanted posters work.

Sporadically stopping to indulge Rapunzel in the wonders of the new world was very enjoyable, and I definitely did it because I wanted to make the character happy. That being said, it was confusing towards the end that each event didn’t reward you in some way with an item or money, but when I got to the Kingdom I was rewarded with multiple items, was this from all the events I did with Rapunzel? It was very unclear why I was being rewarded with a seemingly random number of items.

DDR - Derpy Dancing w/ Rapunzel. Semi clunky considering I had to memorize what colors associated with certain buttons, though now looking back on it the colors are the same as the colors on the actual controller. (I use a PS4 so the colors were pink, red, and blue) Though in the moment they could’ve put a holographic representation of the button hovering over each circle. I goofed up a lot but it had 0 negative ramifications. Dancing around with guys and gals that eventually leads up to a conga line dance party with Sora and Rapunzel was just clean fun. Also, the music was so dance-y I literally got up and started dancing, good job sound team!

Aero was a new spell introduced to this level and the monsters you fight perfectly test out its new capabilities. They give you swarms of small monsters to fight that using Aero would be a very satisfying and beneficial spell to cast on. Props also for having a spell that you can interact with after the cast to create an even stronger attack. Very good mechanics design!

The final bosses now of each level really have great designs. The look and style of their combat perfectly matches the world they are in. Classic fantasy forest world? Giant haunted tree lizard thing! I am super glad they also incorporated the tower into the combat as it was a landmark of the world and would feel weird not to have it be a part of the combat.

Final Thoughts:

This is exactly what I am looking for in a KH level. Nostalgia for the world, love of the characters, and combat encounters so perfectly tailored for the world that you never get bored. They were spaced out evently between events and combat and each event felt fun and engaging. Tangled is a great film and they certainly delivered a magical level!

Level of Enjoyment: Marluxia (Mar-loo-shuh?) threatening me with flowers and comas

[rayxnkh3-blog]

You’ve got a song in me

Toy Box! The first new world in KH3 that we haven’t seen in any other Kingdom Hearts game. Overall a very fun world with some new mechanics, colorful areas, and one very annoyingly catchy theme song.

Story:

World begins in such an odd way I almost thought it was a cutscene for the regular KH game and not Toy Story. Squeenix tempts me with another game that sadly will never be starring Riku and Axel wearing a stylish hat! Was honestly very jarring to watch the cutscene as it took a while before fading out and revealing it was just a commercial.

Buzz Lightyear makes a comment about his own world being the real world. Yes buzz, your world that’s actually starring living toys inside a movie inside a video game is SUPER REAL!

We bounced around in a toy store gathering all of our lost toy friends for a while, then Buzz went evil and Woody saved him with the power of monologuing.

Design:

Overall I really enjoyed Andy’s Room, and even the street he was on. Though if I am going to nitpick then the street seemed a little too big without too much to fill it in. Then we get to floor one of the toy store and I am flooded with too much space. You need the mech to move around at a good pace. Thankfully levels two and three were just the perfect size for either a mech or sora to run around in.

The smaller rooms on levels two and three made excellent areas for exploration and fights. Each one, whether the children’s section or the video game story, had its own unique flavor and felt good to run around in. One section of note was one that featured the princess Julia? Who the hell is Julia? Disney, you have dozens of characters you could’ve featured plastered on the walls and you went with this random chick? I mean, even Squeenix put its name on the fake game they were trying to claim Sora came from. Come on Disney, step up your advertisement game.

Another segment that was incredibly fun was the kids korral. Basically if you ever wanted to go back to being child-size and run around in the play area, this simulates it perfectly. Only you are a giant mech who can shoot lasers and move blocks with the power of science! The ballpit in particular was phenomenal. I squeed with joy after you create the giant cactuar and hear the FF7 battle success music.

Mechanics:

Now that I have had some time to get used to keyblade swapping i must say it is rather helpful. To have separate types of keyblades, one that is magical and ranged, or one that is defensive and melee, allows for better combat customization. With such varied heartless running around it becomes almost a necessity to change things up. When I had to swap from the Olympus keyblade to something else because the lightning heartless were taking no damage, I was thankful it was as easy as pressing one button.

Ah, the mechs, let’s talk about those. When I was first introduced to them I didn’t care for them. They seem stilted in their movement and it felt like they slowed down the combat. It also seemed forced as the first level feels far too large to not have a mech to run around in. As the level went on I found myself looking for mechs to jump in to as they were far better equip to taking on other mech heartless. The fact that there were at least three types of mechs, each one suited to a different style of combat, was a great addition and I found the mech that best suited my personal play style (which is punch things btw). Eventually they won me over as I got used to their movement and combat. The Kids Korral also felt like the perfect world to run around in to best utilize the mechs mechanics.

The best mech combat though was when Xehanort flings Sora into the Mecha world. They change up the usual heartless enemies (that take quite a few punches/blasts to defeat) into easily mow-downable mechs. They also plaster the battleground with plenty of things to explode for bonus points. It was a nonstop blast fest from start to finish, while still being semi difficult with the stronger mechs towards the end. Though, to be honest, I am glad this part was just a small section. If the entire level included that many heartless to easily mow down they would lose their menace real fast and I would go to every following world wishing I could have my mechs back.

Side Note - Why does Sora flip backwards when he equips high jump? In what way would doing that increase your height of jumping? It wouldn’t, physics is a thing KH, even if you constantly defy it with Sora’s wall climbing. *sighs*

KH games usually have really fun final bosses in their level and Toy Box did an... eh job? I loved the concept and area, even the mechanics, forcing you to jump onto blocks or run up walls to reach the hit box, was clever. It felt overall too short and didn’t have that satisfying feel of beating a difficult enemy. Yes, this is like the... third world, so they shouldn’t be trying to melt our faces quite yet, but still.

Summary:

Fun representation of Toy Story and while they had some bumpy parts, overall a great world. My biggest critique, after all of this, was that the theme song was “You’ve got a friend in me”. I had that friggin theme song stuck in my head for days while playing through this level. Randy Newman, you write way too catchy tunes that become exceedingly annoying after humming them for 5 days straight!! Safe to say I am glad to be moving on.

Level of Enjoyment: Playing with your childhood toys wearing noise-canceling headphones

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Twilight Town Smells Good

We’re back! I must say the overall sheen of Twilight Town looks new and fresh. Today we are going to break down this level piece by piece

Design:

No real difference in the layout of the town, basic cut and paste from last time with some upgraded graphics. One improvement was the town felt more alive with all of the NPC’s. It’s a town, more than just three kids live there. Speaking of, why do Hayner, Pence, and Olette all have the same color scheme? Nothing was wrong with their outfits before and I am kinda bummed they all look so similar now.

Story:

After meeting/saving the rat from Ratatouille whose name I 100% did not have to look up (It’s Remy, right?) we went into the Old Mansion. Feels slightly odd that they decided to not make the mansion an entire small level like before. Sora showed his utter lack of any future in the field of computer science and we were given more ominous cajoling from baddies. We were also re-introduced to Scrooge McDuck who isn’t played by David Tennant so I have much less interest in. Also, Axel crying over trying to remember Xion was intense and emotional, but that is still not a good excuse to waste good ice cream.

Mechanics:

Now that we have more time to use the new Olympus keyblade I must say I am a big fan of the shield. Not necessarily due to its blocking capabilities (those seem slow and ineffective in a world that’s so fast paced) but because of it’s AoE abilities.

We also got the water world style event which is loads of fun to bounce around in. I am starting to understanding why we have all of these extra combat capabilities, all the heartless seem to have more health and come in greater numbers, so the new combat abilities become necessary for dispensing them quicker.

FOOD! So we are also given access to the bistro, which uses a “cooking mama” style event to make food that boosts stats. The idea of out of combat buffs isn’t new, but it does add an extra layer of combat prep that may make a difference in more difficult battles. While I adore the way you make the food and the idea that eating a full course meal gives better boosts, I don’t get why it’s so short.

Being too short is a weird nitpick but here is my mentality: If you are going to force us to do an event to make a food item, and it’s fun to do, why only prep one ingredient. Why not do 3 different actions/ingredients in order to complete the dish? If you have the mini-game in there, go all in on it. Disclaimer, I haven’t recooked any of the food yet. It’s possible you have to do it every time you make the dish, so having to do multiple steps could possbibly become tedious, but I still say the events are quick and fun enough that having more makes more sense to me.

Either way, the cooking seems like a fun addition that is also another subtle way of forcing players to interact more with each world looking for ingredients. Though, who puts caviar in a chinese takeout box?! They also give you access to the kitchen at any save point so you can cook any time!

Overall:

Great (if short) level that really brings back good memories of T-town, introduces a fun new mechanic, and boots you out the door with a brand new Keyblade. Next up is Toy Box!

Total play time: 5 hours 54 minutes

Level of Enjoyment: Playing “Cooking Mama” with a rat-possessed Sora

[rayxnkh3-blog]

FINALLY!

Hey Internet!

The big day is here and there is so much to cover! I got the deluxe edition and i must say, the case, art book, and enamal pin are all absolutely excellent additions. I am an enamel pin collector so I was pleasantly surprised to see such a nice one attached to my favorite video game franchise of all time.

Loading it up felt like an eternity. 100% cried at the beginning as Dearly Beloved started to play. Overall the game looks gorgeous and the opening cutscene was pure joy to watch. Though, I will admit, this was my least favorite Hikaru Utada songs that I have heard. Felt very techno and scratchy and not my sort of thing. Still, it fit well with the visuals and the cutscene had that vague FF sort of vibe to it that we have come to know and love.

Class KH stained glass window tutorial/opening. WOO!! That stained glass has never looked so shiny!

So we spent all this time waiting for KH3 and what is one of the first things they tell us? We are playing KH2.9. This seemed like a middle finger and sorta pointless. If it’s an intro, it’s still technically KH3. Ah well, 13 years of waiting, I can wait .1 more time =D

Mount Olympus has never looked so good, graphics and environment are simply a joy to move around. Controls feel more free than they ever have been, Sora’s fluid movements are borderline too bouncey, but you adjust rather quickly and the fast reaction/movement times are absolutely essential to keeping up with the combat.

KH1 slowly introduced you to lots of other mechanics like blocking, dodge rolls, or any forms or flashy moves. KH3 skips all of that (but allows you to keep practicing in the tutorial if need be) and as someone who has played the original two, this is a huge benefit. Giving you old mechanics while slowly adding more and more, leading up to brand new mechanics, seems well paced. Never too long as you get bored, but not too fast as some new shiny grabs your attention.

Should I mention the classic KH3 cheese and goofiness? Nah, it’s in full force and it’s awesome.

Only real mechanic I have to say I had an issue with is the dashing using the scope thingy towards the end of Mount Olympus. While the actual movements aren’t difficult, the environment felt annoying to test this new mechanic out in that the rocks were spaced rather odd. Either too far away or I couldn’t move my camera towards them quick enough. Didn’t take too long to figure things out and move on. I am hoping there isn’t too much of this in future worlds.

The story is as vague and engaging as always. It’s amazing how this games writing can simultaneously be nothing but pronouns and strange stares into the distance, and yet I am at the edge of my chair wanting them to explain.

Great start, can’t wait to keep going.

Playtime - Roughly 3 hours

Happy Gaming!

[rayxnkh3-blog]

Welcome to Destiny Islands!

Hello! My name is Rayxn and I started this blog to document and post my experience while playing through the upcoming game Kingdom Hearts 3. The wait is almost over and my fellow KH fans are buzzing eagerly with wanting to play the crap out of this game. I have sequestered myself from the internet and any available spoilers so most of my experience shall be untainted by spoilers and much other KH3 announcements.

I hope to give my honest opinion and express my thoughts and ideas in a constructive, or just excited, way. Feel free to post any of your thoughts or feelings towards this soon to be insanely fun game. Whether it be a strange bug you found or just wanted to share an epic story, post away. My only stipulation is try to keep this spoiler free. Posts shall be made as I play through the game and I would prefer not to have this crazy convoluted Hero’s Journey story be ruined for myself and others.

Have a lovely day! Happy Gaming!