Kingdom Hearts 3 was an exercise in pure beauty, convoluted plot points, and canned jokes. Itโs a much less mature game than KH2, with Sora, Donald, Riku, Kairi, and Goofy acting as though theyโre younger/less experienced than they are at the โheroes of the universeโ gambit.
While the graphics and worlds are beautiful, the nearly exclusive focus on Pixar/live action related films is off-putting at best and jarring at worst. The developers were very (and I mean very) lazy. The writing is sub-standard. The plot points are shoehorned together. None of the worlds you grew up loving and caring about are available to re-explore.
Thereโs no real deepening of the KH related feel but, rather, a superficial glossing over of the intermediate-between-title releases. There are no Final Fantasy characters present at all. The superficiality is extended further by endless cutscenes with little relevance to the story, the cringe inducing (and cut rate graphics version) of โLet It Goโ, and many other ~pretty but irrelevant moments.
Thereโs so much less mystery and nuance associated with everything about the KH Universe. Thereโs no โusing the key blade to lock the doors to different worldsโ to save them.
While combat is more fluid, from a sensory experience itโs an absolute eye and ear sore.
I completed the entire game at around 30-35 hours and was more or less bored for most of the play through. I was very dissatisfied with KH3 and felt like a part of my childhood was ruined.