Kingdom Hearts III (XB1) Review

Someone must have wished upon a star. It’s actually here.

Go ahead and queue up the Titanic “It’s been 84 years” meme. To be fair, it has been quite a while since Kingdom Hearts II, a good 14 years, which is wild in and of itself. Of course, we’ve had plenty of games come out in between that bridged the gap a bit, as well as give even more back story to the entire series. Kingdom Hearts III is finally here and is it worth the wait? Let’s find out.

Players take on the role of Sora. After being saved by Riku in Dream Drop Distance, Sora is now trying to train himself back into fighting shape as well as gather his memories that have been lost since his last run-in with Organization XIII. Master Xehanort is still trying to recreate the X-blade using his vessels, and it’s up to the band of keyblade wielders to stop him. Yes, I know this is a complex storyline, but one thing Kingdom Hearts III does is catch players up on it through a nice video series that can be viewed at the beginning of the game.

Platforms: XB1, PS4
MSRP: $59.99
Price I’d pay: $59.99

What stands out the most about KHIII is both the combat and the presentation. The combat has practically every aspect of the previous games here. The freeflow abilities, the changing of keyblades during battle, the combo attacks, and even special “attraction” attacks that come in the form of Disney World rides like the spinning teacups and the flying pirate ship. There’s a lot here to digest, but the game does a wonderful job of both showing the player how to pull off all these moves and make it easy and accessible to initiate them without having to do some fancy controller gymnastics.

While the combat can revolve around button mashing, there is a level of skill that can be utilized to make quick work of enemies. Using magic combined with the different forms in the keyblades can create some devastating combos. Add to it the team up attacks with Sora’s party members and knocking out enemies can be both easy and fun to do.

Along with the simple yet complex combat there are other modes of play as well. Almost every world Sora travels to will have something new and different to try out. Maybe a mech suit in Toy Story or swinging from Rapunzel’s hair in Tangled, there’s always a new thing to do.

The gummi ship makes a return here when travelling from world to world. Players can mark a destination and use either warp points or free fly there. Along the way, they will run into encounters where players will have to use the gummi ship in space combat that plays out much like a game of Galaga. There are even boss fights here. After the game opens up, players can pick and choose which worlds to visit, granted, there is a recommended level for each world. Taking on something too high of level can be rather punishing.

The amount to see and do in KHIII is very impressive. There are mini games, both in the world as well as on Sora’s phone, that feature the style of the old 1930’s Disney cartoons, there’s a full on camera mode that can be used to find hidden Mickey Mouse symbols for rewards, and players can craft new items as well as cook up stat boosting dishes with the help from Remey from Ratatouille. This game has everything.

Through the combat come the RPG elements to this action RPG. All party members level up with enough experience points which increase stats like strength, defense, and magic as well as have each character learn new abilities. These abilities can be assigned to characters as long as they have enough ability points to cover them. AP is gained from equipment as well as leveling up and items. Learning new abilities can give characters new attacks, magic, and stats. Add onto that new weapons, armor and accessories to increase stats and we have ourselves a full on action RPG that works very, very well.

That brings me to my next point – the presentation. Obviously, the combination of Square Enix characters with the familiar faces of Disney has enough power to resonate with pretty much anyone, but the visuals and the delivery from voice actors either known for their respected roles or actors that sound pretty much just like them really sell the entire experience. So many times did I arrive at a new location or watch a cutscene unfold to find myself smiling from ear to ear. I use the term a lot, but I mean it when I say this game is overflowing with charm.

While the entire package is highly impressive, there are a few issues I have with the game overall, the first being the performance. I played the Xbox One version on my Xbox One X in 4k. While it looked amazing, the frame rate would dip a good amount, enough to get me to actively notice. While it didn’t break any combat experiences for me, it was distracting multiple times.

The other issue I had was the design choices for level size and length. Many worlds seemed to last too long for my tastes, well after I had had my fill of the area and characters. By the time I was finished with levels, I was already ready to be done there, but with this game wanting to have everything and the kitchen sink, they would throw in a new mechanic or mini game for me to do. This wasn’t every world, but the ones that weren’t as great really seemed to be the longest.

Kingdom Hearts III is a great game. Sure I had my issues with it, but the overall package is jam packed with things to do, a fun story, and a flashy and deep combat system all wrapped around a fun RPG. Fans of the series have nothing to fear here, and even newcomers can jump in and enjoy their time with it without having too much of a problem following the story, and even if the story is not your thing, the combat will keep action fans and RPG players entertained throughout. This is the best Kingdom Hearts game to date.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Great visuals
  • Wonderful presentation
  • Fun combat
  • Tons of content
  • Great voice work
Bad
  • Some worlds go on a bit too long
  • Some frame rate issues
8.5
Great
Written by
Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.