**** SPOILERS****
I have quite
a few bones to pick with Kingdom Hearts III; I’ve already mentioned the POV
fail and the overabundance of Disney, but there were a few other points that
hit my editing nerve.
The dialogue
tags were excruciating. There was no need throughout the game to keep naming
all the characters when they were talking to them. It came off very awkward the
first couple times, and was painful the longer I played.
The cut
scenes were another problematic area. Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love
those little mini movies in my RPGs, but in KH3, there were so many that the
gameplay was interrupted. Cut scenes are good for a reward after a long battle
or to tell a part of the story that can’t be told in the gameplay, but too many
can pull the player out of the game, which was the case for me.
Kairi got
shafted in this game. She worked so hard to be a member of the team, and she
doesn’t even get to use her skills. Instead of being the fully-fleshed out
character she deserved to be, she was relegated to a plot device. I don’t know
if her story got left on the cutting room floor or was never developed, but at
this point in the game universe, she should’ve had a bigger part.
My final
major issue was with the conflict resolution throughout the game. Too often,
problems were resolved without any meaningful effort from Sora. For example, we
were presented with restoring Roxas like it should be a goal to achieve, but in
the end nothing Sora did directly assisted in that goal. Sora doesn’t even
actively free Roxas’s heart from his. Any time Sora expressed doubt or worry,
it was brushed off and never addressed again.
Overall, I
think Square-Enix tried to resolve too many conflicts from too many stories
instead of centering on the original tale about Sora, Rikku, and Kairi. The
aftermath was a confusing tangle that lacked the solidarity to make this a
great game. If the secret movie at the end is truly a glimpse into the next
game, I hope that the writers are able to focus on the new plot rather than cover
any remaining loose ends.
And for the
love of Bahamut, please rethink those theme park attacks.
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