Day 24: Kingdom Hearts 3

It took Square-Enix a total of 14 years to release this game, eight to announce it and six more to actually make it, but Kingdom Hearts 3 is another example on how good things really do come to those who wait. As a conclusion to what is called, "The Xehanort Saga," I feel that Kingdom Hearts 3 does a decent enough job tying up loose ends and providing a mostly satisfying conclusion. Why mostly, we'll get that in a minute, but first let's talk about the story.

In order to counteract Xehanort's plan to create the X-blade, Master Yen Sid instructs Sora, Donald, and Goofy to go look for the remaining seven guardians of light by figuring out where the likes of Ventus and Aqua went off to, with Riku and Mickey looking for the latter and Kairi and Axel, now known as Lea (Got it memorized?) undergoing keyblade training. Sora also has to figure out what happened to his power of waking, which is needed to resurrect Ventus. After the seven guardians of light are gathered, they along with Goofy and Donald head off for the final confrontation with Xehanort at the Keyblade Graveyard to hopefully stop his evil plans…or at least we thought they were evil.

Yeah, apparently Xehanort wanted give humanity a second chance as he believed the balance between light and darkness was off and he wanted to keep the darkness in check or some bullshit. I'm sorry, but you cannot show me a villain that does so much to manipulate and spreads so much darkness and chaos and expect me to take this sudden Heel-Face Turn seriously. It just makes the conclusion just a tad bit anticlimactic. Also the ending kind of…happened. Sora just disappears after saving Kairi and we don't know where he is. Hopefully the Re:Mind DLC (Which I have yet to play) will and any future games in the series will tie up any loose ends. The post-credit cutscenes look promising if I'm being honest.

But we don't play Kingdom Hearts for the story, and for the whole one person who does congratulations you understand this series' plot better than most of the series' fanbase, but all that aside, the real reason we play Kingdom Hearts is for the Disney Worlds and the fun hack and slash/action RPG combat, and this game delivers on these fronts.

While Olympus Coliseum returns, and I personally think it's one of the better versions since it takes place during the climax of Disney's Hercules. We also get another Pirate's of the Caribbean world based on the third movie and they have awesome ship combat, and on top of that the graphics in that world look pretty damn good. Seriously, Sora, Donald, and Goofy look like they fit right in with Jack Sparrow and his crew. Every other world is one we haven't seen before like Big Hero 6's San Fransokyo, Frozen's Arendelle, Tangled's Kingdom of Corona, and we finally get Pixar movies in the form of Toy Story's Toy Box and Monsters Inc.'s Monstropolis.

While most of these worlds are essentially a retelling of their respective story, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and San Fransokyo offer original storylines that take place after the respective movie. Monstropolis is a better sequel to Monsters Inc. than Monsters University, San Fransokyo shows us what happens to the original Baymax, and Toy Box is now cannon with the Toy Story series.

This game offers side content to keep you busy if you aren't entertained enough with the main story. You can visit the 100 Acre Wood and play a Bust-a-Move style puzzle game. You can play a cooking simulator to make items that'll boost your stats with Remy, who is called Little Chef in this game, from Ratatouille. Look for Lucky Emblems in each world and take a picture with your Gummi Phone. Play these Game & Watch style minigames based on old Disney shorts. They even bring back Gummi Ship segments, give them a more open world feel allowing you to take on bosses and open up Treasure Spheres (On a side note this is so far the most recognition Treasure Planet has gotten in the Kingdom Hearts series). This game does a lot to make sure you're not bored while trying to stop Xehanort.

Now we get to the combat and overall gameplay. I feel that Kingdom Hearts 3 is the perfect melding of past Kingdom Hearts games. We have the Shot Lock commands of Birth By Sleep as well as the Flowmotion of Dream Drop Distance, and the Re:Mind DLC seems to be taking a page out of KH2 Final Mix's book and allowing you to fight every member of this game's Organization XIII.

Kingdom Hearts 3 also does its part to add its own gimmicks. For one thing you can switch between up to 3 keyblades on the fly, meaning you're not restricted to just one, and on that note you can even upgrade your keyblades. So for those of you who like the Kingdom Key, you can now use it throughout the entire game without feeling like you have to switch. This game also gives us the returning Form Changes where depending on what Keyblade you have equipped, Sora's Keyblade will change to either a shield, a drill, a pair of claws, some guns, and more. This game also introduced Rage Form which is essentially Kingdom Hearts 2's Anti-Form done right.

Donald and Goofy are back helping Sora on his journey and they're also pretty handy. Donald is quick to heal you if your health is getting low, and Sora can team up with them in battle to do some interesting team attacks.

But the biggest and most interesting form of gameplay are the Attractions which pay homage to the rides at Disney Theme Parks. Big Magic Mountain pays homage to Big Thunder Mountain by having Sora, Donald, and Goofy ride in the coaster and shoot away at hordes of enemies from the ride's chimney. Mad Tea Cups allows you to spin all around the area and bash into enemies. Blaster Blaze gives you the chance to shoot at the enemies with the ride's lazer guns. Magic Carousel is a rhythm based game where if timed correctly, lots of damage can be dealt to enemies. Splash Run has you create a path of water and then go back up the path you created, crashing into any enemies that cross your path. And finally Pirate Ship which launches waves of water at enemies with each swings and it damages any enemies that go near it. It's even possible to juggle enemies with this ability.

Finally, I want to talk about this game's presentation. This is without a doubt the best looking Kingdom Hearts game and it almost feels like we're playing through an actual Disney Movie. The great graphics also make the battles feel more intense and eye catching, especially when we're fighting against this game's amazing line up of boss battles. And then we get to the game's soundtrack. Some of my favorite tunes are the Toy Box Overworld Theme, this game's iteration of Tension Rising, this game's iteration of The Other Promise, The Key to All, Oscurita di Xehanort, Skoll/Grim Guardianess' theme, this game's iteration of Enter the Darkness', and of course Hikaru Utada's main themes for this game, and probably the best vocal songs I've heard in any game, Face My Fears and Don't Think Twice. The former really gets you pumped up to play this game and the latter is a beautiful song that fits the overall tone the game tried to end on. Seriously, Don't Think Twice is so good I use it for my Fanfiction 'South Park Emotional Warzone.'

In conclusion, Kingdom Hearts 3 may have taken a long time to get here, but it was worth it to experience magnificent gameplay, explore even more magnificent worlds, and listen to the absolutely beautiful soundtrack while taking in the eye catching visuals. The only left for me to do now is play the Re:Mind DLC and wait another eternity for the next Kingdom Hearts game.