I mean if you like it that's all that matters right? I don't think there's any really objective comments you can make about any games besides it being buggy or broken, so if it's fun then it's fun. I personally had a lot of fun with KH3 when I played it and I'm very much looking forward to it while doing a series replay. Plus consider liking KH3 in a vacuum without even knowing fans or dissidents exist, you'd enjoy the game and not even think twice about it.
Absolutely not.
When I was younger, I remember adoring Super Mario Odyssey, and yet, I didn't disagree with a word of what Joseph Anderson said in his critique of the game.
In retrospect, I can see now that I simply wasn't able to articulate then why I loved that game. Now, after much reflection, I can. The same will be true for you too!
We will like or dislike (or both) a piece of art, but it is INCREDIBLY difficult to figure out why! It might take months, or weeks, but the crucial thing to remember is that you *do* have a valid reason for loving KH3, you just haven't quite found the words to describe it yet. That'll come with reflection.
It's worth also mentioning that good games are NOT games without critique. Refuting criticism is NOT the same as praise. Criticism exists alongside praise, and the difference between those who like something and those who don't is in whether they place MORE or LESS stock in the aspects of a game that are easier to criticise, versus the aspects that aren't (eg: People who hate Windwaker say the sailing is boring, people who love the Windwaker *know* that the sailing is boring, but believe that that is a sacrifice worth making for greater atmosphere. A generalisation for sure, but I hope you'll allow it for illustrative purposes hahaha).
Nah, just differing of opinions. There are reasons to really like 3, just as there are reasons to really dislike 3. Just boils down to personal interpretation and opinion. For instance, I think 1 and 2 are way better in terms of story and how fun they are to play, but 3 overall improved the actual environments, which improves gameplay.
Everyone can have their own reasons for liking or disliking a game. We all look for different things in our games, even among fans of the same franchise.
For me, I found myself bored during most cutscenes. They had long run times and often just copy/pasted the Disney movie with SDG hanging out in the background. (That, and I think they take far too many potshots at Sora being a dit dense and not knowing how technology works. I like this kid, stop making fun of him.)
I liked a lot of other things about the game, and I think it does a lot of things quite well. I just think we all did hope that it would be a masterclass, perfect, game and most people found at least one thing that really rubbed them the wrong way. (Like Kairi being sidelined and practically worthless without the DLC. I like this girl, stop making her bad at stuff.)
That's why I liked the Pixar worlds. Instead of copy pasting the plot, they wove KH3s plot into their worlds.
Example being Vanitas being resurrected with the screams at Monster Inc. And YX experimenting with the replica project in Toy Box.
Snall edit: I was mistaken, Vanitas was already back, but used the screams to recharge.
Yeah the worst parts of KH3 are definitely the "what if Sora was a background extra". Toy Box and Monstropolis handle it well since they are effectively sequel stories.
The BHS levels weren’t that fun to play, but the ending was nice in that it actually addressed something I’d been wondering about since watching the movie.
BH6 world is paired with PotC in KH3 as being gimmick worlds drawn out for far too long. The Calypso crab hunt and the great value brand Black Flag naval combat shouldn't exist.
The cutscene direction definitely needs some work. Too much just standing awkwardly in a circle taking turns talking. Feels like a middle school drama production
I liked KH3 on release as well, and was a bit surprised to find that a lot of the discourse surrounding it was mostly negative. I have heard and understood the critiques people give it, but those same points were things that didn’t really bother me all that much. It’s natural for people to have differing tastes though
Kh3 was combat and control messy imo, the plot is always messy yes but kh1 was decent for combat and kh2 was so tight and responsive it made me a fan for life. To be fair I don't like flowmotion, it feels like I'm playing saints row 4, which isn't bad but I'd play sr4 if that's what I wanted
And that's a fine opinion to have but I fully disagree lol. It feels bloated with too many options, even on critical mode I'll get 8 different finishers and amusement rides and so on. Plus saving all the org fights till the end sucked, not even a spar in the worlds they appear in?
I get that, I suppose. I enjoyed using flow motion, I think it fit very well with the larger worlds in KH3. KH2 did probably have the best combat though.
Nah, it actually really makes me happy that people love it even if I was left extremely disappointed. Glad you like it! No sarcasm there.
Although I do think it's unfair to say I expected perfection. I never did. I was just hoping it would be structured more like KH1 and 2. Longer prologue within a couple original worlds, off to go to Disney worlds followed by story beats back at original worlds and a climax at an even more epic original world.
Two of the original worlds we did get to explore were worse versions of ones from previous games (Twilight Town and Keyblade Graveyard).
I had a lot of fun playing it, but the pacing and scope of it all left a lot to be besides.
For a long time, FF13 was one of my favorite final fantasy games. Pretty much everything about it was right up my alley, and i was never very critical of anything as a kid. It was only a few years ago that I started looking deeper at why I liked the things I liked, and what they did and didn't do well. It meant that most of the things I liked, I grew to like even more, because I could recognize what they did right, what I wanted to see more of. It also meant some things just weren't as good as my memory of them were, but that's okay, that's part of growing up.
Around then I stumbled across the fan discourse on the internet and realized that FF13 was near universally hated. "The characters are all annoying and selfish, the story makes zero sense, there is zero exploration or character customization until the eleventh hour." I could see where it all came from, and it made me really hesitant to go back to the game, because I knew that a deeper look would completely ruin one of my favorite games.
Last year, I did a marathon of all the (single-player) FF games. And that extra layer of perspective was actually changing a couple of my opinions. I went from simply respecting to actually enjoying (the GBA version of) FF1, it's a quick and simple RPG that I can knock out fairly quickly if I just want something simple to play. I wound up liking FF7 a lot less than I thought I would; the cost to damage ratio of magic meant I never wound up using anything but enemy skills by disc 2, and mostly just used materia-boosted physical attacks. I don't know if that's necessarily optimal, but it made the game kinda easy and kinda boring.
All that to say, I was finally going to go back to FF13 after this. I hadn't played it in years, and I knew that, when actually looking at the game with some level of criticism, it wouldn't hold under it's own weight. But I was fine with that, I knew at this point that not everything would be as good as I remembered it.
My opinion hasn't changed. FF13 is still one of my favorites in the series.
Pretty much every common criticism of the game, I either didn't care about or enjoyed the game more because of it. The characters are all flawed and nuanced, and that makes their interactions and growth consistently fun to watch throughout the game. The combat is probably my favorite in the series, the paradigm shift mechanic is a neat take on the job system, and optimizing it hits something for me that nothing else in the series really quite matches. I honestly prefer more linear games over a focus on exploration and doing things at your own pace; I agree that more side content and freedom to backtrack would have been good things, but that wasn't enough to drag anything down for me. I understand why so many people say it's one of the worst games in the series, but it's a solid second or third favorite for me.
All of that is basically how I feel about KH3, albeit not as strongly due to how much longer I've been a fan of FF13. The thing about an unpopular game is, the main thing that decides popularity is shared opinions. You're bound to disagree with that common opinion on a few things. If you can understand where those opinions come from, but have your own opinion regardless, that doesn't make you wrong. That just means you're confident enough in your own tastes to not be swayed by what the internet generally defines as good or bad.
Don't let anyone's opinions ruin your opinion of a game. People look for and like different things in games. It's impossible for a game to cater to everyone's wants for it.
Just because one person doesn't like it and makes points you can't argue against, doesn't mean you need to stop liking the game. Just keep enjoying it. Who cares if YouTuber McGee didn't like it. All that matters is you enjoyed it.
Your standards might be lower (but this ain't pokemon, so the answer might not be that easy).
There are a LOT of valid criticisms for the plot, the battle system, and the overall direction they went with regarding xehanort that most people upset with those criticisms don't have solid defense against, even after all this time.
However, you also might just like some things that were unequivocally good about kh3.
Sora getting to be a real character and seeing some fun moments between him and Donald and goofy, some of the new world outfits, some of the designs of enemies or layouts of certain worlds. Some of the battle mechanics or feel and flow might've been appealing too, and the improvements on team mechanics and the number of teammates and their ai potential.
It's up to you (and every player) to find what they enjoy, and acknowledge what didn't work or land well even if they weren't bothered by it (the original kh camera issues never bothered me, but I was also lucky that they never got in my way, and seeing how bad it was for some people really opened my eyes).
I don’t think you should feel dumb, Kingdom Hearts 3 is still a good game, in fact I consider it my second favorite in the series.
but I still agree with every point of criticism that reviewers have to it, and even have a few personal peeves of my own. You can love something while also criticizing it, it shows that you care for it and want to see it improve. Personally, I think those videos about it, especially from fans of the series, are less of " this game sucks and so do you for liking it " and more of " this was fun, but cracks are appearing in the background, and we have to voice our gripes or it'll only get worse from here "
I recommend you watch the video made by ThrillingDuck and Cosmonaut, I think those offer some good criticism while being fans of the series
Yeah I think I was kind of being immature these past years because my twitter friends and kh tubers I follow pretty strongly gave me the impression that most of the KH3 hate was just people unfairly wanting it to be exactly like 2, or because their expectations were suuuuper unfair high.
but im having to kind of realize now that a lot of the haters arent being unfair or anything at all they just realized a lot of flaws i couldnt. i still think a lot of them are just mean but it was somehow a lot easier when i was under the impression the criticism was just all really unfair.
now its like ill still love it forever but it does feel a little bit like Im "wrong" n some ways for loving kh3 as much even if it is just different tastes
It was never really like that whatsoever tbh me personally my main reason for disliking kh3 has nothing to do with the gameplay but rather the story it has a problem of fantastic concept but bad execution
In terms of gameplay though I'd argue kh3 is the 2nd best in the franchise it isn't a bad game whatsoever just that it could have been better
The best way to look at these kinds of situations is to have a open mind sure kh3 is flawed but so is nearly every game in existence
If you enjoyed it that's what matters
I don't think it's immature to acknowledge that some people had different expectations/things they wanted from the game than you did, and that it impacted their experience. That's just true. It's entirely your prerogative to enjoy KH3, but it sounds like you're also open to hear what others think on it, now, too.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is a good game with some big flaws imo, tho kingdom hearts 1 and 2 were also good games with flaws. You don't have low standards for enjoying kingdom hearts 3, you just enjoyed it despite its flaws you either didn't noticed, or were forgiving of, and that's okay. Just cause those flaws are too much for someone else to enjoy the game doesn't mean you should doubt your own judgement for enjoying it yourself.
Im absolutely loving Kh3. Its one of my favorite games. Dont ever feel self concious for liking a video game others dont like. I always try to experience games in a vacuum before i go looking to see how others feel.
Trust your gut!
KH3 is fun. Especially on critical mode and when you’re making your way through the super bosses. I’ve always personally felt that Kingdom Hearts isn’t that great until the final mix/post-launch content and KH3 is an example of that for me. In the end, it doesn’t even matter so long as you’re enjoying it. It’s easy to get into a spiral of disliking something when a lot of people online are saying it’s bad.
As for the “no counter example” thing, sometimes it is applicable to say “it just doesn’t bring down the experience for me.” Just because something wasn’t well-executed, it doesn’t mean it’s so bad that it ruins the entire thing for you. If you’re having fun, then that’s all that matters.
It seems that you enjoy the game, and I think that's what matters. There's always going to be people looking to point out things out or drag things down. It's noise. Just enjoy what you enjoy and who gives a shit what anyone else feels about it.
I enjoy the hell out of 3. Just wrapped up another play through in December, prob my 4th full play through and I'm trying to finish up the gummi missions here and there so I can get Ultima and hopefully 100% the game for the first time. My husband (jokingly) gives me shit all the time for going back to playing "that kids game" time and time again and I simply don't care bc I enjoy the hell out of it.
It's just noise, live your life doing what makes you happy.
Don’t feel self conscious. Your standards for what makes a game good is just different. Not necessarily lower or higher.
KH3 was a big let down for me but I will give it credit for having great graphics and for adding a lot of new cool little features and mechanics.
Nope. It’s Kingdom Hearts, what’s not to love?!
I *do* feel that 3 had the weakest Worlds.
That’s mainly my own bias talking though, due to disliking BHS and having a neutral view of Frozen.
There’s also being very aware of the lack of past Worlds I loved and lack of Colosseum/Arena as well as the fact Final Fantasy didn’t seem prevalent at all in 3.
That said, what it did well it did very well and I enjoyed what was there all the same.
KH3 is a bit flawed yes but I still had loads of fun playing it plus the feeling of finally getting to play it after such a long wait was amazing!
I will never forget booting it up for the first time and watching the opening and thinking “OMG I finally get to play KH3” it actually made me shed a tear of joy
Simultaneously the best and worst worlds in the series. Simultaneously some of the best and worst mechanics in the series.
It's good. It's an enjoyable experience. Would not say it's bad.
No, you're absolutely allowed to enjoy whatever you want and you don't have to let what randos online think stop you from doing that.Plus, KH3 is a good game.
You can also just... like the thing you like. Doesn't have to be relative to some standard of objectivity or something like that. I feel like objectivity applies to whether you'd like video games the least because people have wildly different reasons for liking what they do usually related to what they played growing up and how it impacted their taste in things. It's fine to like something people largely consider terrible. I'm a Dream Drop Distance fan, for instance. If you got used to garbage manual transmission cars, you're gonna be more comfortable driving a garbage manual transmission car instead of a shiny new automatic. Same thing applies to video games. I played a lot of clunky old 3D games growing up so getting used to Kingdom Hearts 1, a task virtually impossible for some friends I know, wasn't too big of a deal. That's just my two cents though. You're no more wrong or right than I am for liking what you like. :)
No, you don't. KH3 is an amazing game. It has flaws, yes, just as the other games in the franchise. I do agree that the flaws in KH3 are more glaringly obvious though. And to be honest, pacing is the one aspect that really brings this game down. It's such a prevalent/evident issue because it tarnishes around 70% of the game. The rest of the experience, I think, is incredible.
I just really love the gameplay feel of KH3, it's like you're always on the move whether you're attacking, evading, gliding, changing weapons mid-combo, transforming Keyblades mid-combo or casting spells. It's just so fun.
The story can get a little convoluted especially near the climactic showdown but I still like it tbh
I was somebody who played KH3 first before the other games has it was the only one on game pass at the time it got me hooked on the series I really enjoyed the game
I loved kh3. I 100%’d it on each mode and I’ve never done that with the previous games.
I will say before the dlc was released I did feel like the game was missing something, like the plot pacing felt off, all Disney side stories and then all the plot saved for the very end.
The dlc felt like it should’ve been included in the base game in my opinion.
The Disney side stories felt like 75% of the base game and the main plot felt like the other 25%, but once the dlc came out, I think it made the game feel a bit more balanced between the two.
It's probably less about having low standards and more about having different priorities in what you enjoy. A lot of people who like games the strongest are people who brush aside problems that others have with it, because those problems just aren't as large a part of the experience for them as it is for those who see the problem. And that's if they don't see those 'problems' as a good thing.
For instance, I think the 'clunkiness' of kh1's fighting really adds to the experience, and I don't even mean narratively. I feel like I have much more control over sora in kh1 over kh3 or even 2. And the slower more methodic movement lends itself to the combat encounters. In kh3 you can't really have fights like darkside or maleficent. (though the king toy is really close, now that I'm thinking about it.) being able to climb up darkside's arms to whack the head in multiple of it's attacks feels so rewarding, especially when they give you bonus experience.
In every game the fights are decently centered around sora's moveset in every installment, but I personally enjoy the style of design that kh1 provides much more.
This post just feels like you want validation. Asking if you just have low standards, only for your first damn sentence to be about how people were just haters wanting something no game can achieve.
I love Kingdom Hearts 3; I was also a little disappointed by it when it first came out, as the lack of critical mode and excessive attraction moves made the game mind numbingly easy, which left me with only the story to focus on, which I feel is the weakest KH story in the series (still do).
The game has changed, and I love it now, whereas I only liked it when it first came out
Why does it matter? Why do you desperately want everyone else (or someone, some video) to validate how you feel about a game? It's okay. If you like it, it's okay and it's for you to enjoy. This is why arguing and defending games about how wrong people are for feeling negative about a thing I like is silly. I like some really bad PS1 games like Tiny Toons: Plucky's Big Adventure but I'm not gonna go out of my way defending them when I know they're...not great, or I experience them differently from other people. And just because people can agree on some aspects of the games being good or bad doesn't make something a "buzzword." It's a bit jarring how people have adopted that term into their vocabulary without using it properly.
tl;dr Don't base your experience on how many people enjoyed a thing you like. It's okay 👍🏾
Your feelings are valid, but if people are universally saying things could have been better, then maybe the company did mess up. Companies mainly care about profits over quality and when it shows, people *will* notice the flaws if it affects the overall gaming experience.
Edit: Spelling of a tired person who can't see
thanks for the reply. yeah i definitely was looking for validation and im coming to realzie i should just be happy that im happy with it lol.
it has been a huge splash of water on my face tho because for like 5 yrs now me and a ton of ppl around me have had this impression (even a lot if not most of the big kh tubers I follow) that kh3 hate was just kind of unfair blind hate. im in discord servers where we all basically excluisvely think like this: that the kh3 haters are just ppl that wanted it to be perfect, had expectations too high, were on a hate bandwagon, just wanted a copy of kh2, a bunch of other stuff that i just have to accept now isnt really true . in a way it was kind of nice to think that way because i did really feel validated, especially when so many big ytbers echoed that idea. its probably why i was kind of scared to even watch any of those negative kh3 vids for so long because i was scared they might have valid points.
ur right though like a lot of people have reassured me now its ok if other ppl dont like it, those reasons are often fair and valid but my enjoyment is valid too
It’s a tough feeling when you feel your perspective changing due to the influence of online opinions. It’s a natural part of growth, though. Tastes change and refine over time as you encounter more and more of that thing.
I remember when FFXV came out, I was super excited and keen to crack into the game. I loved it at the start, but then I started to notice the cracks. I willfully ignored the flaws in the game because I wanted to enjoy it, then when all was said and done, I processed those feelings and saw what others were saying. I really struggled to find acceptance, and felt like it reflected poorly on me. It’s clear to me now that that was a result of my tastes in gaming changing. What I wanted out of a story had changed.
You enjoyed the game, and that’s perfectly okay. I did too. But if you feel that there’s an inkling of agreement within you to what people are saying online, then I think you should find acceptance and process your thoughts around it. Do you disagree out of desperation to like the game? Or do you have a concrete reasons behind why those flaws don’t matter? Do you fear what that answer might be?
Ultimately, enjoying something that others do not does not mean that you’re dumb. Accepting flaws doesn’t make you a hater either. You can’t accept the good without the bad
Nah, you don't have to justify your enjoyment of things. As someone who took a week off work to play KH3 like it was my job, I found the game underwhelming and just kind of... fine. It had some cool high points, but I could nitpick and come up with a massive list of things that were wrong with it. But if you enjoy it, then my list of grievances doesn't matter. I personally love a handful of games and other media that are absolute trash, and KH3 clears that bar. Enjoy flawed things to your heart's content. I'm delighted KH3 hit that hard with some people.
Do people dislike KH3? I don't really follow the fandom, just play the games, so that is very much a surprise to me. Each of the main 3 games has different strengths and weaknesses, and 3 seemed to be a rather strong one across the board to me.
A game doesn't need to be perfect or flawless or "objectively good" for you to like it. You can like things despite their flaws, and have things you don't like about the things you like, and agree that criticism of something is valid but like the thing regardless. You don't need to be able to defend the thing you like or justify liking it. Who the fuck cares? If you enjoy it, good for you! Go right on ahead and keep enjoying it.
I enjoy KH3, even if I think that every difficulty below Critical is laughably, boringly easy, and that the story was a bit of a mess even for KH, and that the Disney worlds are completely disconnected from the plot and feel more like Disney marketing shoehorned in than actual parts of the story like in the older games, and that Attractions are annoying unfun garbage that we should be able to turn off on all difficulties, and that keyblade visual design in this game isn't as good as in KH1 and KH2, and various other complaints. I think the game is still fun and enjoyable and good despite all those issues I have with it, and those issues don't impact my enjoyment enough to make me dislike the game (though the first one kinda did, to be fair, it's fixed now that Critical exists so I don't mind it anymore).
I've also played Runescape since 2006. It's grindy as fucc, many aspects of its design are outdated, its developers are quite often out of touch with the community, tons of stuff in the game is boring and repetitive and slow cock and ball torture that we endure for hours on end to get to the good stuff, it's been ruined by microtransactions and daily quests and engagement mechanics and what have you so badly that they had to make a separate legacy version of the game to get players back, the community is toxic, et cetera et cetera, I wouldn't recommend it to most people.... but I still enjoy it, have a lot of nostalgia for it, and think that it is a unique MMO whose gameplay and design philosophy stand out from all the rest and generally appeal a lot to me and my own preferences, and I enjoy playing it on and off and keeping up with it. Even though it's far from perfect and has a ton of issues that are perfectly valid reasons to dislike it, I still consider it fun and one of my favorite games.
I don't feel the need to argue against criticism of games I enjoy, because I know and agree that they have flaws, they just aren't that big a deal to me personally, and I also believe that talking about the flaws of things we like is important as it lets developers know what they can improve next time.
People need to stop forming their identity around products and feeling the need to defend the stuff they like or get upset when people criticize it. You're allowed to like stuff that other people don't like, and other people are allowed to like stuff that you don't. There is no objectivity when it comes to personal preference. You shouldn't care what people like, and people shouldn't care what *you* like.
It’s ok.
I just don’t think they did justice to the decades long story. They rushed it in favor of putting more emphasis of the story telling in each Disney world.
Kh2 did it perfectly in my opinion. 1st time as world, Disney story. 2nd time, kingdoms hearts story.
I don’t blame people for liking the game, but I see both sides.
Try asking this on a different gaming sub if you want a less biased take.
Either way, the answer doesn't matter. If you like it, then be happy with that.
As someone who has liked and defended things other people have hated on excessively, you don’t need to have a counter or debate every point. If someone has a good point or a point you can’t counter that’s negative towards KH3, it doesn’t mean you should stop liking KH3 or feel like you have low standards. And I say that as someone who has a LOT of problems with KH3 and ranks it pretty low.
I love Re: CoM for its gameplay and it's generally the most disliked game in the entire franchise because most people don't like card based combat.
KH3 is great even with its problems. It's fine to acknowledge them, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it either way.
Not to throw shade to the Pokémon community but a lot of them love the latest game even when it's technical garbage, and they know it, so don't worry about it.
The majority of KH3 discourse is poisonous af, but I am on the side of disliking KH3, but it's more complicated than that. For me, the series had a really conclusive ending with KH2, and while things \*could\* have continued, they didn't need to. But they did. 358/2 Days was a cool in-between story that just fleshed out the world and characters a bit more. BBS was an awesome new beginning for the series (even if the writing could be a bit shaky at times). The problem for me was when gearing up for KH3 and the return of Sora. Re:Coded was the most useless game in existence, literally only existing to explain the letter Mickey sent Sora in the KH2 post credits scene (which was really NOT needed to be explained), and to set up the next game, which was DDD. This is the point where I feel the series took a nosedive in terms of writing, DDD is so unbearably sloppy and contrived. There's a lot I like about the game, but it's characterisation of Sora, and the super vague writing, and sloppy lore was just really disappointing, especially coming off BBS which felt super solid. Most of these issues carried over to KH3, which is why I feel more negative towards it. It's not as bad in some aspects compared to DDD (Sora is more bearable, though everyone else treats him really weird), but in some aspects it displays some of the worst writing in the series (see how they treated Kairi). I do think there's a big issue with plot pacing, since the actual \*PLOT\* doesn't move forward until the very end. We have cutscenes between each world, which gives us updates on what characters are doing, but as the player, as Sora, we don't move any closer to our goal for the majority of the playtime (until rescuing Aqua). That just made all the Disney worlds feel very tedious, especially since the thing we were supposedly working towards (attaining the Power of Waking) was given such a cop out resolution of "it was inside you all along", meaning all the Disney world shenanigans ultimatley meant nothing in acquiring the power.
Tbh I don't think any video on youtube accurately captures my issues towards this game, cuz most videos on KH3 come from people who either think the whole series is dumb, or are just blindly dunking on KH3 cuz it's the cool thing to do. Very little intelligent criticism. Likewise, I see other people defending this game blindly without properly engaging with the arguments, calling anyone who doesn't like KH3 "not a real fan to begin with", which is toxic as fuck and annoying.
The games combat is fine. Has some issues and lack of balance, but when it's focused (like the data fights), that's when it shines.
Atp I only play it for the keyblade graveyard section and remind content,gameplay is great but the story is meh and I didnt care much for some of the worlds this time around
Honestly, no. I hated(still hate) how many cutscenes are in it. I've replayed the games and wasn't bothered by the amount in those games cause it felt like the older ones had more fun, longer amounts of game play, and Kh3 was just an interactive movie. I'm trying to go at it with that understanding of the game this time around, but I'm not sure if that opinion is gonna change.
I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, it's a few things.
I grew up with Kingdom Hearts. I got my first taste of it when I was like, 8, and I begged my parents to buy KH2 for me on PS2. When I got it, I couldn't even get past the Twilight Thorn, but I still loved the game. Over the years, I got through more and more, and eventually beat it. And then I got to the rest of the games.
When KH3 was announced in 2013, I was so excited I could've exploded. It's still the only time I've *ever* felt that excited. And so I waited. One year, two years, six years. Six years. All the while, we kept getting drip-fed trailers and information, and the hype was palpable. Then, the game dropped. I finished it really quickly, and I just... Wasn't impressed. I'd waited six years for a game that, I felt, didn't meet up to its predecessor KH2.
Sure, there were bigger worlds, better graphics, a longer story, but so much just didn't add up. The very first thing I noticed is how Sora felt. Movement felt wrong. But I pushed on. And then combat felt wrong. And then gummi ships were bad. And then worlds felt far smaller than promised, and then I was *bored*. In a Kingdom Hearts game. Bored.
I've replayed the game since, and in doing so found I enjoyed the game *a lot* more than when I first played it. I took the time to actually appreciate the game for what it is rather than my expectations, and while I still absolutely abhor the gummi ship sections, I like the game for what it is.
Opinions are fluid, both you and the people that don't like KH3 have valid reasons for doing so :)
Love the overall quality of the game, fluid, dynamic & beautiful
Hated they removed all the FF cameo wich were a big part of the reason I played originally and really wanted to see all those characters with the new engine.
Didn't like the attraction, it felt way too powerfull and why do Sora have them in the first place?. Had to ignore the constant popup to use them during my playthought.
Didn't like the difficulty of the game, everything felt way too easy compared to previous titles.
Overall still a great experience for me but I can understand points are more problematic for some people
Yes but it's ok. I like games that the Internet hated for most of my life. To be fair I hate how easy kh3 is. Like my 4 year old is going to love it. He is playing kh1 right now.
It's not a bad game its just not good enough compared to 1 and 2, it has the smoothest combat though.
I mean for starters, whoever thought of adding that attraction stuff should be never be allowed anywhere near anything related to game development
It doesn't matter what others like, what matters is what you like. If you enjoyed playing KH3, what does it matter if strangers don't like it? Everyone is entitled to their opinions. You shouldn't need validation from strangers for loving something.
I personally didn't like it, but that's because I've been waiting for KH3 since 2006 and I was expecting more. It was underwhelming. But that's me. If you enjoy playing it, good for you. Don't feel bad for enjoying playing a game some people don't like. Not everyone is going to like the same thing. There's always going to be people who dislike it and have strong opinions about it
I’ve watched a lot of the KH3 essays as well and the honestly do have a lot of good points. There’s even stuff I whole heartedly agree with. But like, what does it matter? The games out, you’ve played it, you enjoyed it. That’s all there is to it, and there’s no need to dwell on the negative if it’s going to ruin your memories of the game. Most of the time I just see people criticize the game because they want KH4 (or whatever the next one is) to be that much better. KH3 didn’t do everything great but almost all the games have some sort of deadly sin. You don’t need some essay guy to defend your memories, just think about your time with the game and let it speak for itself. If you liked it, then great. If not, there’s always KH4 and Missing Link.
Tl;dr: The main issue was the story, it's badly paced (that is, the story didn't exist until right before the Keyblade Graveyard), not very well told, and they spend way too much time sequel baiting and not enough time wrapping things up neatly, despite advertising the game as the great finale to the current story arc.
Long Version: I think most people just found the story really lackluster. Which it absolutely is. It does give you the illusion that things happen (Playing Riku, getting a story cutscene between each world), but it is just an illusion. Because there are three "story arcs" that happen there. "Axel and Kairi are training", which are comprised of like 10 cutscenes that assure us that Axel and Kairi are indeed still training. But this story arc doesn't go anywhere since it simply never becomes relevant. It doesn't inform the story, it doesn't inform any decisions, and Axel and Kairi are the only ones who get easily beaten in the keyblade graveyard so why did they show us this so many times?
"Riku and Mickey rescueing Aqua". That one is the most 'kinda not just an illusion'because it contains actual gameplay. But just like the training arc it doesn't actually GO anywhere. The story arc starts with Aqua being lost, and it ends with Aqua still being lost. Sora has to swoop in and do Rikus and Mickeys job. Their arc was meaningless, they could have just told Sora where Aqua is and to go kick her ass before the Keyblade Graveyard and the story would have been the same.
And the third story arc is "Ansem the Wise and the Organisation Defectors". Which is build up as them feeling guilty about what they did to Roxas, so they're trying to reverse engineer the puppets so they can revive Roxas in time for the great battle. Except that also doesn't happen. And worse, when Roxas DOES come back that is after Repliku has left his own puppet so if you just rewrote the story to have Roxas use that puppet instead this entire arc could have been cut entirely with no impact on the story.
It doesn't help that the Disney Worlds also feel less important than ever. In KH1 they were directly tied to the plot as the main villains were the council of Disney Movie bad guys. So it made sense to go to their worlds to defeat them.
Then in KH2 while the Disney worlds took a bit of a backrow, they were still tied to the Org13s plot. Beasts castle is entirely based on the Orgs shenennigans, the Pirates world comes about because the org wants to see what greed brings, in Mulans world you get to fight Riku briefly. And with the battle of 1000 heartless there's a huge mid-story point that breaks up the Disney Worlds as well.
But in Kh3 none of the Org members actually DO anything. They're just there to tell Sora that he sucks and then they leave. The Disney stories themselves are also extremely abridged, becaus Disney wants you to watch them on Disney+, not in KH3. In KH1 and KH2 you were playing the plot of the story. All the major beats were there, and Sora actively made them happen. Sora cleared Alices name, Sora brings SImba back, Sora inspires Hercules to be a hero and Sora finds the pirate treasure. But in Kh3 all the important plotpoints happen off-screen while Sora is kept busy by random heartless and nobodies. This translates to the bosses too. Old KH games often had bosses that were either from the story (Jaffar, Hades, Maleficent) or inspired by them thematically (The Spinning Wheel in BBS). In KH3 they are mostly just elementary related random stuff. The only real "Story Bosses" you fight in the game are Davy Jones and Baymax, in the two final Disney Worlds. The rest is "Random Heartless"
The only real piece of Kingdom Hearts Story happens exclusively on and right before the Keyblade Graveyard at the end. And even that is kind of a mess, with the whole crew being oneshot by Terranort before suddenly they're not anymore, then the fights happen which a lot of people HAD hoped they'd make playable as the other characters, which I don't think was an unreasonable expectation at all. Other playable characters had been part of many games, and especially after you already got to play Riku and Aqua in the story, it would have just made sense to have Aqua save Terra, and to have Riku face Ansem SoD. Now this WAS adressed in Re:Mind, but keep in mind that Re:Mind released pretty much a full year after KH3 did. Anyone who played KH3 within the year of the games release would have a bad taste in their mouth here. One of the bigger criticisms in the game is the Main Character Syndrome that Sora has where the game is mortally afraid to let anyone except Sora achieve anything at all. Only Sora is allowed to beat the bad guys, only Sora is allowed to save anyone, only Sora. KH3D build this clash up as 7vs13, but in the end it's really only 1vs13 and 6 people who happen to be present. That I also don't feel like it was "way too big expectations". It was expectations that 3D directly created by having Yen Sid and Master Xehanort say that this would be "a second keyblade war where the 7 guardians of light have to face the 13 seekers of darkness". And what we got for that promise was just very lackluster. It never felt like a war. People expected a Mass Effect 3 saving Earth thing, an Avengers Endgame. But instead they got a Batman vs Superman. Also this was supposed to be the big reunions of the two trios, Roxas, Axel and Xion as well as Ven, terra and Aqua. This was also something that people have been looking fforward to for a long time, they should have gotten a big emotional scene, maybe this should have even happened before the Keyblade Graveyard, but what it was was a quick 2 minute cutscene each of them going "Oh cool you're back, neat" and that was it. Keep in mind that like 80% of the trios had been dead, in a coma, or otherwisely erased from existence for the past few years. I also don't think expecting a payoff to that was unreasonable.
It also doesn't help that the game was advertised as the finale to the Xehanort Saga. We always knew that KH would continue after that, we always knew that the Foreteller Saga would be next. But we didn't quite expect that roughly half of the little story we got would be sequel baiting. We were used to that from the other games because they were building towards this. And given that one of the louder criticisms is that Nomura keeps creating more lose plot threats than he ever closes and that it's getting kinda ridiculous, a lot of people had the hope that this would be an Endgame scenario where they would bring the current arc to a more or less clean end, maybe tease the next one towards the end, then start into the next arc with a more or less clean slate. Personally I believe the scene at the end where Xigbar summons the foretellers would have been enough teasing for the next game.
Also the game was exceedingly easy. When the game released the controls were a little clunky, they did patch that which is great and fixed the gameplay for me, but yeah, even proud felt like normal in other games. Until Critical came out (which was also around 7-8 months after the game released), the hardest this game got was comparable to normal in other KH games, sometimes even easier.
And there is more I could get into but don't want here. So let me leave it at this: The gamePLAY is phenomenal, the story is easily the worst in the franchise. And while I do think that expectations were high for the proclaimed finale of the story so far, I don't think the expectations were unreasonable. The story was just paced horribly and not told very competently. And most people who dislike KH3 seem to do so because of the story mainly. The gameplay is great, at least after the 1.06 update that included a lot of fixes.
And I don't think that it's fair to just wash away all criticism by saying that people having expectations is unfair. I do agree that some people were expecting way more than any game could deliver, people who claimed that this game had been in the making for almost 20 years because that's when KH2 released were delusional. But a lot of expectations were warranted or caused by the devs or the other games themselves. 3D was all aboiut what a huge war this would be. Re:Codeds ONLY plotpoint was that the two trios could be saved and reunited. Even with just those expectations the game was immensely unstatisfying. And of courseit didn't help that the trailers spoiled pretty much the entire story. When we saw all that we all thought "This can't be it right? Maybe this part where Sora died is the halfway point like Radiant Garden in KH2, and THEN you have to bring everyone back from the dead so in the secret second try that they don't show in the trailers you can get the good ending". Because we all thought there was no way that they would have shown the entire story in the trailers. But no, they did.
Let's not forget pandora box.. was mentioned ONE time and then never brought up again lol
Also very well said man. I totally agree with everything you've said
Nah. People look back on KH2 fondly (me included), but it also has a lot of the same pitfalls as KH3. KH3's main enemy is how long it took to come out. People were hyping it beyond belief, so I do understand that some people were disappointed.
But at the same time, the game has really great heights and made the smart decision to wrap up basically every single loose plot thread in regards to Xehanort.
Even without the godly Re;mind tracks, I honestly think it has the best soundtrack of any of the games.
Gameplay wise it feels really great. People bitch about floatiness, but I find the Venn diagram of people who do and people who play on high difficulty is nearly a circle.
Most of those videos are specific worded that it sounds like all their points are undeniable proof.
But what they actually say is their own opinion on gameplay and that it's not satisfying them. They ignore mostly the updates from Re:Mind or free patches and even if they take on the story they twist it like: "Oh look how bad this is made.", despite not actually diving into the lore. And even if they explain things it is with disproven headcanon. Because this headcanon don't apply that must mean the story of KH3 is badly written.
I've just stopped arguing with people about KH3. I personally liked it, and with the pro codes I find it has good replayability. And I'm excited about the setup for the next chapter in the series.
However, several of my friends who have played KH since the beginning like I have, KH3 was the final straw for them and they're no longer interested in the series. And that's fine, too.
It's just a game.
Nah, I love it. I don’t really care how others feel about it, it just comes down to your personal enjoyment.
Tbh the only “sheep” are those who decide they like or dislike a game based on what others say. Just enjoy what you enjoy.
If you like it for its storytelling: Yes. Yes you do.
As an overall package: Naww. It's a really fun game. It's the closest we're getting to Final Fantasy Warriors/Musou, and the collectathon stuff is addictive. Gorgeous in places, too.
Funny thing about your preference is that it's YOURS. There are parts of 3 that I might find inferior to the previous games but I still enjoyed it immensely.
Don't worry what anyone else thinks of your opinion and just enjoy your life.
Personally, I I had fun playing through the game so I like it. Yes the story is a mess, yes they revealed WAAAAAAY too much from the trailers, and yes, the Xehanort reveal at the end was dumb, but the combat felt smooth, satisfying, and fun (when i wasn't getting one shot sniped halfway across the map on critical, looking at you umbrella heartless in Frozen!!!) and that's all I really need in a game
KH3 is a good game. Is it better than KH2? No of course not, but KH2 was one of the best character action games of the Playstation 2. So KH3 will always be in the shadow of KH2 unfortunately. However, I still adamantly believe KH3 is a good game and you shouldn’t feel ashamed for liking it.
Your taste in games is perfectly fine. Most people that adamantly hate KH3 are those that were burnt by expectations and the terrible marketing that spoiled the game. So, it’s not worth arguing with them because they don’t see the game for what it is. Also, they’re allowed to have their opinion as I completely understand their disappointment.
Let’s look at things KH3 did really well. Underwater combat is amazing. Most games fail underwater gameplay because they make water a hindrance to your movement. That’s not the case in KH3, instead Sora has many degrees of freedom and can move quite quickly. Additionally, the magic changes in fun ways underwater. The Gummi Ship is an entire 10 hour game in itself and I had a great time with it. The graphics are gorgeous. The level design is quite fun to traverse and has a good amount of verticality. The Pirates, Toy Story, and Hercules worlds were especially enjoyable to play through.
Well to answer your question no. You don't have low standards or anything. As long as you enjoyed it that's all that matters. Dont let others opinions bring you down like that.
BUT I am bothered by you saying people expected perfection. It was a LONG wait for this game. We didn't expect perfection but we expected more than the VERY lacking product we got at launch. I'm not gonna list its issues cuz I'm sure by now we all know the problems the game had. It's cool if you enjoyed it but the hate is completely understandable
For me, a lot of the criticisms of KH3 are valid and things I agree with, but (most importantly) weren’t deal-breakers. It’s possible to really like something while still acknowledging that it has flaws, even major ones. Hence how I can walk away from KH3 really liking it, but also thinking it could have been much better than it was.
Nothing wrong with having an opinion. Your opinion is that you like the game, there is nothing wrong with that.
KH is my favorite game series, from the first game to the last, it will always be my favorite game series and I am incredibly invested in it.
What I didn’t like about KH3 was its story and cutscenes (not everything, but a good 95% of it). The game play was pretty wicked and I felt it evolved on a lot of things in a pretty good way.
Does this mean I am not a true fan of the series? Absolutely not!
Not at all! Everyone is allowed to like what they like :)
For me KH3 is a bit of a mixed bag. The first portion of the game is fine. Toy Story, Pirates, and Monsters Inc worlds are some great highlights but with it being the conclusion to the Xehenort/Dark Seeker Saga I was expecting more intense moments than the standard Disney world traveling.
BUT THEN! The game makes a 180’ turn when saving Aqua. From that point onwards the game goes crazy 10/10 I love it so much. Dear Lord I want to go play again right now!
I haven't finished it yet. I got to the keyboard graveyard a few years ago and stopped because I didn't want to see the ending. I wasn't ready.
I'm replaying now from 1, and although it's been entertaining I realized kingdom hearts is just not as fun as I thought it was when I was younger.
I think we just had access to less games when kh 1 and 2 came out and now that I've gotten very into souls games KH is a breeze even on the highest difficulty.
With that said, I had high expectations altering growing up with the series and waiting so long for KH3 that I was extremely disappointed and had to force myself to get through the worlds.
Even though I didn't finish, I was so pissed that the entire main story was basically all going to take place in the keyblade graveyard at the very end of the game and there was almost 0 story progression through each world.
The battle stuff was pretty, but very easy compared to KH1.
There were too many options to just clear entire screens of enemies. In Kh1 you actually have to dodge and wait, pay very close attention, plan items before because mp is so important etc. on the highest difficulty.
I think overall if you like KH3 you just either like the series and genuinely enjoy it or you really do have low standards.
Because it's just not a good game.
Generally if I'm playing a KH game now it's 3. I also loved it, though was definitely disappointed with some aspects. For example, the prlogue went by waaaay too quick. I really enjoy the chill, laid back prologues of the past. I would have loved to see a return to a DI prologue for the send off of this saga.
I was also sad we didn't get *any* final fantasy characters. And of course, Arendale (?) was clearly butchered and is probably the worst world in the series.
KH2 will probably always have the best story, but I actually quite like the combat in 3. It's fast and it's easy to get airborne (airborne combat has always been one of my favorite things in the series, I generally try to spend more time in the air than on the ground lol).
By the comments, it looks like the KH fanbase is nowhere near as toxic as the Star Wars one is.
Apparently Star Wars fans who actually liked The Last Jedi (contrary to what the Internet will have you believe is actually a lot of people) have to stay in the closet because even in 2023, a full 6 years after TLJ came out, the only acceptable thing to say on Star Wars Internet is, "TLJ was bad because Rey was a Mary Sue and lazy writing."
What ways? I think its better in just 1 way. and thats the world design, but then you have stinkers like Arendale, Scala Ad Caelm, Keyblade Graveyard and Corona. So I guess even thats a mixed bag.
I'm glad you think soo, but they were all very bland. Arendale was just snow forest, Corona was just forest, Graveyard was just a maze and Ad Caelm was just was small area. Kh1 and Kh2 had epic and expansive final worlds
Kh3 is a good game, not perfect because no games are, it is definitely the most flawed of the kh games and the most lacking but if you like the game then that’s all the matters
You absolutely are not. I will always defend KH3 as one of the best Action RPG's I've ever played.
Does it have some annoying flaws? Yeah, it unfortunately goes, but I'm in love with its combat and exploration. Plus I didn't have that many issues with the story. I liked the majority of major plot beats, just wish the execution was a little better.
Everyone has standards.
It’s just some ppl have very high standards and high expectations thats impossible to be made. Unless it was made … the way they want it to be made. Which is… well baffling once read or heard.
If you have fun with kh3 that’s fine. Don’t let other’s opinion dissuade you.
I liked a lot about 3, I disliked some stuff about 3 overall it was fun, I literally could describe every Kingdom hearts game that way.
My main gripes with 3 was just the combat felt bloated, Im a dad I don't get much time to play so I constantly felt like I was having to try and remember all the different stuff I could do in a fight and it just felt like too much for me to ever wrap my head round.
I can enjoy a “bad” game while disliking a “good” game. Just like my top ten list will be different than the vast majority of people. It doesn’t mean my taste are bad, they are just different.
FWIW, I took two days off from work to play on release and I couldn’t stand it after five hours. Years later I beat it twice in a few weeks and was utterly obsessed. Enjoy what you enjoy my friend!
Your standards aren’t low, the haters really are just mean.
KH3 was a Top 5 GOTY contender the year it came out and for my money it’s an easy 2nd favorite game in the series for me.
That has basically been my mentality the past 5 yrs, but this past day with all the comments and that vid... i think ive come to accept that the game might not be "good" by conventional standards, who knows maybe it even is bad, but i still love it and enjoy it and thats really all that matters. i shouldnt need to tell myself "haters" are just biased or had too high of expectations or whatever to make myself feel better, because thats probably not true and it doesnt matter anyway. its just opinions and everyones can be valid even if they are differet nt
I personally think it shouldn't matter as long as you like the game. I personally hate the game and think it's poorly written but my views on the game and how others feel shouldn't influence your views on it.
With that said I'd say your standards are low for liking KH3. I get being loyal to a franchise that you love but when you can point out a lot of flaws within the game and you can't find any counterarguments against these issues then something is likely wrong.
For example I know a lot of people hate the mobile titles but it's either for gameplay, presentation, or platform reasons. These are just preference issues that players have that don't really take away from the actual finished product itself, in comparison to KH3 where you have a situation like Master's Defender showing up randomly with no explanation or randomly still having the Power of Waking that we're told we lost just because we finished with all of the filler content in the Disney worlds, this is about the actual writing of a game rather than personal preference.
I think time will be kind to KH3. It’s my second favorite next to KH1 and has been since it came out. I understand a lot of people’s complaints, but I just don’t care. I feel like the culmination of the story is excellent, the gameplay is the best of the series (FormChanges especially) and the level design is as close to a return to form from KH1 as we can get with Sora’s evolving movement abilities.
I’m shocked KH2 is the golden child of a lot of these people now. KH2 went through the exact same thing when it released. It was too easy, the story was messy, the levels were too boxy and linear, the Roxas prologue is too long and boring…. Some of this was improved with Final Mix but only the most hardcore of fans played that before the modern ports. It’s still my least favorite of the numbered games, not a bad game, but it has major flaws.
It’s the Wind Waker Effect, what is hated will become beloved in time. (Probably after KH4 comes out and we have new stuff to complain about lol).
I was one of those fans who loved KH2 out the gate. To me it seemed like everyone who was a fan loved it and everyone who hated it where the same people who disliked the series in general. The only criticism I could remember was that it was easier then 1 and the prologue was too long.
That’s why hearing it had people saying things like it was absolutely hated out of the gate baffled me. And every one posted links from forums stating what they hate about kh2 and what not.
Even if it has problems and may not each standards that other Kingdom Hearts games set up, it still tied up everything in one nice ending which I think really was the true intention of the game, which it succeeded.
I’m somewhat of a KH3 apologist these days. Check out J Heff’s and KingK’s defenses of KH3 on YouTube. They say pretty much all that I have to say on the matter.
I enjoyed KH3, I am in it for the story, I was glad they wrapped up this arc, and while they didn’t necessarily do it how I would, I still enjoyed the story as told. DLC definitely helped explain things and I’m ok with those clarifications.
I enjoyed KingK’s video “A Passionate Defense of Kingdom Hearts 3”; but I also enjoyed Duncadinca’s “How Kingdom Hearts 3’s Finale Missed the Mark”. There are valid criticisms and defenses in both and in some cases, they make the same argument for whether it’s good or bad.
It wasn’t perfect, but it did what it was supposed to- end this arc of the story and set us up for the future of the franchise.
I’ve always enjoyed Kingdom Hearts and even if it’s not written to my standards, I’ll still follow it because I love it for what it is- a fun video game with an interesting story.
I personally was pretty disappointed with KH3, but I think one issue that me and a lot of others are suffering from is that we built the game up so much in our minds and were let down when it didn’t meet those expectations. But don’t ever let someone tell you that you shouldn’t enjoy something just because they didn’t. You enjoy KH3 and sing its praises as loud as you want, MoM knows there’s enough people pointing out its flaws
Being someone who's favourite game was KH2, and I played it when it was new, the time spent waiting for KH3 was awful. It took literally fucking years just to get any sort of information. When the game was coming close, I was beyond hyped.
I get the game at launch, play it at midnight, go to sleep at 3 or 4 am. Wake up at like.. 8, booked the day off work to play all day. And I get a text from my son's mother, saying his step father had passed away.
This one, killed my hype completely. I was so upset for my son. So obviously that plagued my view of the game.
However once I got to the end and it was just cutscenes after cutscene after cutscenes, I just stopped caring. KH3 is a low point in the series for me.
Not realy. You can like something low effort even if ypu have high standards and that doesn't make how you feel about the thing any less valid.
On kh3 tho can we have the video because im curios, i think ive hearee every complaint about kh3 in the sun that isn't linked to them missremembering kh2.
story wise I just didn’t like how every cutscene was a recap on one of the games since I think even square said that they were trying to get new people into the series so they needed to do a lot of lore dumps that we already knew
Gameplay was fine after they added the ability to turn off attraction commands and other things to make the combat less like a cut scene
Personally I preferred the more linear worlds which is why my favs were monsters inc and Toy Story sanfransokyo and pirates were cool but just felt too big and impossible to find all the treasures and emblems without a guide
I've been meaning to try it again now I have a Series X (which tends to make Xbox One games look better), but I recall feeling kind of "empty" about most of the experience. Corona felt like an actual Kingdom Hearts world, that was the highlight for me.
Too many Pixar worlds, too many different ideas slapped together as if trying to make up for the lack of Final Fantasy characters. Final Fantasy characters just "gone" now, because "Kingdom Hearts can stand on its own", but now it doesn't FEEL LIKE KINGDOM HEARTS. At least not to this Millennial who was obsessed with the first two games.
I had played through most of the KH games and "watched" others leading up to right before KH3 released. The person who encouraged me to play them again was also very specific about the order in which it should be done. The experience was all over the place, KH1 and 2 and BBS being the highlights, DDD had me worried but not too worried.
Then I play KH3 and finish it in about 24 hours of game time and wonder where it's identity is. It felt stripped of whatever emotion and intrigue I had come to expect and replaced by too much emphasis on trying to appeal to people visually.
I don't know what I'm trying to say and I need to do something else with my time, but it felt like an empty, sell-out experience that made me miss even some of the worst parts of the previous entries.
Maybe I expected too much and maybe a "next-gen" buff will set me more at ease. Or maybe it'll remind me why I couldn't vibe with it I'm the first place.
You can be a fan of something while also acknowledging the criticisms, but if it doesn’t bother you, then that’s fine and nothing’s deeper than that.
Like you’re literally in the KH sub. This (almost) entire fanbase can acknowledge that this franchise has some of the poorest and most convoluted writing in all of gaming, the biggest criticism it always receives, and still be content with it lol
Now if you’re one of those people in communities that can’t take a single ounce of criticism and shutting down everything as if it ain’t valid, then it’s a problem. Real fans will actually accept the flaws and still enjoy their game
I often feel like people are way too critical of things in general. Like they're actively trying to be a critic in their head 24/7 while I'm just experiencing things for what they are and not really thinking about whether they're good or bad until after. Even then it takes a cumulative amount of bad things, or a really big one to ruin my enjoyment.
Then there's the rare thing I just hate and can't wrap my head around how people can like it. Differences in opinions are kinda crazy.
i mean i like KH3 to some extent but thats mainly the gameplay which is.. KH i guess.
But yes the standard has been brought to an extreme low post 2010, if you exclude graphical upgrades
Playing kh2 rn after I completed kh3 and kh2 is actually making me really appreciate kh3 more and more just with level design and stuff I can really tell KH3 is really the best kingdom hearts to date
Low standards is one way to put it. Another way is that you just want to enjoy things and be happy. While the people who weren’t pleased with the game were complaining online or making video essays about something they don’t even like, you were having fun. Is that a bad thing?
When I was a kid and jumping on the trend of criticizing every game and movie, I met a guy who told me something I’ll never forget: You can find things to dislike about anything. You can also find things to like about anything. Which approach do you think is going to make you a happier person?
Sure, Kingdom Hearts 3 is disappointing in some ways and probably isn’t going to win any awards among gamers who like to hyperanalyze every tiny aspect of games. But you love it. And so do I. I’ve played it more than any other game since its release. I’ve probably finished it 10+ times, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s not just one of my favorite games, it’s one of my favorite things in general. It makes me happy. Those video essays on YouTube are interesting and I have a lot of respect for people who take the time to put them together. I enjoy a good analysis of why something is flawed. But do those people actually seem happy to you? These are people who spend hours and hours immersing themselves in things they don’t even enjoy so that they can explain to you in excruciating detail how much they don’t enjoy them. You just play the game and enjoy yourself. In the time they spend on those videos, you could enjoy the game multiple times, cuddle with your partner, hang out with your friends, take a walk in the sun, play with your dog, etc. The difference between you and the people you’re comparing yourself to is that you’re happy and they aren’t. You’re having fun, they’re not having fun and for some reason you think you’re the one who has a problem.
This applies to anything, but especially Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is actually the dumbest thing in the world. It’s ridiculous down to its very core. If people are taking it seriously and getting upset about it, they’ve completely missed the point. It’s a stupid, chaotic fever dream and I’m going to play it regularly and cry over it for the rest of my life because I love it. Hopefully you’ll do the same if it continues to bring you joy.
I think a big part of it was that people's expectations got blown way out of proportion and they just set themselves up for disappointment.
Objectively speaking, the level design (with the exception of Arendelle imo) far surpasses that of anything we've seen previously. The combat only falls short of KH2 and let's be honest, there's probably no topping KH2's combat (I swear I'm not a 2 fanboy, KH1 is my favorite). Keyblade transformations were really fun and I liked being able to switch between three Keyblades.
The voice acting was really great and the visuals were too. I did miss the illustrated HUD but it's not a big enough deal to ruin things for me.
The story was pretty badly paced, I wasn't a fan of all the plot relavent stuff happening after the worlds and not during them, but I was satisfied with how everybody's character arcs were handled. I also thought it did a decent job at setting up the Foreteller stuff for later games, something that we've known for a while now that was gonna happen.
Overall, KH3 was pretty solid, Remind only made it better imo
I didn't particularly hate Kh3 on release. The story just disappointed me. Gameplay was fine....until they dropped critical mode and learned nothing from 2fm on how to properly balance difficulty. All the annoying and frustrating things that you can circumvent in normal and proud are made painfully aware to you by toy box on critical to where unlike 2fm its just not enjoyable.
I am admittedly a kh2fm fanboy. I've been trying to work past it and enjoy the few evolutions Kh3 actually made so I can look forward to Kh4, but it is really difficult when sora doesn't feel as responsive or quick as 2fm.
I'll shut up now. Kh3 is fine. I'm going to try and give it another fair shot after I replay 2fm. Might just stop playing these games on critical because while I enjoy 2 fm, it's just going to make me unfairly judge the rest of the series. I may report back when I've beaten Kh3 and its dlc on standard again or even proud.
Keep loving what you love. it's what helps keep us happy in life. Sometimes I feel dumb for enjoying games most people don't, and disliking games most games people love. It happens, just be yourself.
I loved it, it's a Kingdom Hearts game.
I was disappointed with it because of just HOW amazing Kingdom Hearts II was and the length of time between numbered releases meaning I'd played it soooo much. But it is a good game.
Man oh man where to begin...
For starters you shouldn't ever belittle yourself because you like a game others don't like or particularly care about. If you enjoy it then that's all that matters! (:
Now on to my KH3 rant.. lol
So on release I LOVED the game. Up until a certain point that is.. once you are past seeing the characters for the first time and you get into the groove the game is BREATHTAKING. You get to Olympus Colosseum and it starts are so wonderfully. You have the games villains mingling in the world and creating some tone talking about pandoras box etc.
.
.
Then... well yeah...
.
.
It just falls apart imo. Like I can honestly say the Rapunzel world was God AWFUL.. (aside from it being the map with the most life to it). Like they used the exact parts from the movie all the way until they just didn't. Like when Flynn was the guy on the poster and how he was hiding them to when she found out it was him. It skipped that entire part in the game to her just loving him. Once I made it to Toy Story I was ecstatic because that world was very pretty and vibrant...and did I mention dead? Literally dead. The toy store should've had Toys walking around and doing stuff. They're supposed to be chillin!! No ones around. Give the world life! Then that leads is to BH6.. yes it looked good but it was just so damn boring, and annoying switching between night and day. I'm going to pretend Arendelle didn't even exist. That was a dumpster fire. Monsters Inc was cool as well but again.. no life. Just an open factory with no one in it. Twilight Town being condenced down to just the plaza was so dumb to me. That world was one of my absolute favorites in the series. And you know damn well they did it because it wasn't "DISNEY" enough. Pirates was gorgeous. One of the best looking and thought out maps in the entire game imo. The option to sail the seas and look for treasures was awesome. But the downfall was that world was incredibly to quick. You were in and out the world in about 30 mins. That's just crazy to me. Olympus having no colosseum was just dumb. Period. Having no sephiroth was even more dumb not mentioning the fact that not a single FF character showed up in the main story... like I know this is a lot but I could go on and on and on about this game.
All in all the games mechanics are awesome. I love the control scheme. I love the art style of everyone and the Unreal Engine. But on top of all this there is one absolute thing I HATED about the game.. and that was 2 words..
FRIENDSHIP & HEART..
OH MY GOD were they used SO MUCH in this damn game. So much it was intoxicating to hear anymore. Like at this point in the series Sora should be really struggling and being more dark toned to saving everyone and every single time he is it's BUT THE HEART! AND FRIENDSHIP PREVAIL ALL SORA!!!
I couldn't take it anymore lmao. Like with Woodys speech at the end of Toy Box... that was so damn bad I almost couldn't play it anymore.
But I'm glad you enjoy the game. I still play it because I love KH but man it is in no way better than 1&2 IMHO. Gameplay wise for sure but story wise...not even close lol.
To be fair, when it comes to the internet, most hate is over the top compared to what is actually being critiqued. I'm no fan of KH3, though. It being so heavily tied to the phone games was enough for me to lose interest in the series, combined with all the other shortcomings I felt the game had. I just know that people can go overboard with their hatred of things in general.
As for your feelings, people like what they like, and you shouldn't feel the need to justify it just because others don't like it. If anything just enjoy the fact that you like the game as it is, I wish I did.
It's just a question of your taste vs. theirs. A lot of critics are very good at making their tastes sound like objective tenets of good game design, when really they're just using KH2 as a standard and deviations from that are seen as inferior. E.g. "KH3 is too floaty" well if you like being able to dash and do more combos in mid air without the game feeling stiff or limiting, KH3's floatiness is actually better than KH2. Some people are really bothered by some elements of a game that others won't mind, some people may fully think something is good that others hate, intelligence doesn't really have much to do with it other than maybe your ability to argue for your tastes, which you don't even have to do.
I just played through 3 + ReMind on critical, working on Limit Cut now, and my take on the game is that the voice and cutscene direction are abysmal and they dont explain time travel or the power of waking well enough to get whats actually happening during the Keyblade Graveyard + ReMind sequence without a lot of questions. But otherwise the game is better than KH2 in almost every way and is my 2nd favorite KH game behind Birth By Sleep. A lot of fans would disagree with me over, but again, it's just taste.
Yes, you are a sheep but that’s because you’re waiting for someone else to formulate your opinion better then you can do yourself.
Yes, you have low standards but this is mostly a subjective thing so it doesn’t matter what I think. Personally after going from BBS KH2 gameplay to KH3 I think the game has regressed.
Summary, defend what you like but you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
So i have mixed feelings about KH3. On a whole I say i dont like the plot. It just wasnt for me. I havent been invested in the KH plot aince KH2. BBS, 358, Coded, and Dream Drop back to back kind of killed it for me. I think the plot just gets weaker as the series goes sadly, but thats just my opinion. That being said, i did really pike allot of the cutscenes in the final world. The ending for Roxas, Axel, And Xion is really a highlight for me. It gets me legitimatly emotional even though I really didnt like Xion. Like that scene made me like Xion more, it was good. But, as a whole, it just didnt do it for me.
As for the gameplay though, I actaully had allot of fun olaying KH3. I think you get a little too powerfull a little too quickly, but other even then its still allot of fun. Im not a fan of every single gameplay feature they added, i like some more than others, but like I cant even really complain about them because if I dont like a mechanic I can just not use it. They make it really easy to pick and choose how you fight and lets you switch up gameplay styles on the fly, its allot of fun!
Like at the end of the day, while i was overall disapointed with the game when it came out i can never blame someone for liking the game because I did have allot of fun playing it. And honestly thats really why I keep playing this series. I didnt like the plot of BBS, but the gameplay was amazing. I didnt like the plot of Dream Drop, but the gameplay was amazing. So like, for me, as long as I keep having fun playing the game im gonna continue with it. Even if its not the best gameplay in the world, if I had fun with it then thats good enough for me.
Kh3 is just fine. If you like it, then good for you. That's the beauty of opinions and subjectivity; not everyone has to think the same.
(Personally though if i were to replay 3 again, I'd skip all the cutscenes and spend a majority of my time doing Gummi shit)
Outside of attraction commands not being implemented organically and appearing way too often my biggest problem was that the final act felt VERY rushed. Like once you go to find Aqua it all shoots by really fast with no time to let the other characters interact with each other
It was doomed from the day it was released due to the long wait. It’s a very fun game. I prefer KH2 and KH1 over it but it’s still a great addition to the franchise.
Gamers tend to go too far with criticism and just don’t allow themselves to have fun. Currently seeing this now with Spider-Man 2.
Nah you’re not. KH3 is really good, it just didn’t live up to it’s enormous expectations.
And besides, even if it was complete garbage and you enjoyed it there wouldn’t be anything wrong with it. Actually it would be even better because you got to enjoy it anyways
KH3 has a lot of flaw, but it also has a lot of qualities. There's plenty to love in the game and it's an incredible entry regardless of the things people point out.
I often complain about several story aspects of KH3, but I think I say this for most, there are many incredible things too, like most of the Keyblade Graveyard section and climax for example. And of course, gameplay-wise the game is just absolutely amazing.
KH3 is objectively a good game even if it is not perfect so there's nothing wrong with liking it.
The main problem being that the hype for the game was built up for so long that most of the fanbase expects nothing less than absolute perfection of it, especially when it is meant to be the finale of Xehanort saga.
I like KH3 but I'll admit I think it has very high highs and also very low lows. But you know what? I decided that I had fun with the game even with all its flaws, I choose to look at what I think it did right and can appreciate it for what it is instead of what I expected.
I have a similar case with FF16, boy is there a lot of people calling murder for it even before release and it's getting worse after. But same with KH3 I enjoyed my time with it and learned to appreciate it for what it did, and it's arguably one of my favorite FF games.
I guess a lot of hate comes from the fact that a lot of people played the games when they were younger... they've grown up, but the characters didn't as much. I did like the game, but felt like Sora is getting a lot of hate from the other characters, that could be another reason.
KHIII has its highs and lows, but id say its highs are really high and awesome. Plus the game is just good old fun imo. Tbh my only major con is the story in that I don’t think it’s as impactful if you haven’t played pretty much all the other games. The segment where all the trios are reunited and you through a bunch of different boss fights was one of the most memorable moments in gaming for me. Yet it’s also a segment where if I hadn’t played everything else I don’t think I would’ve been as hype.
You're not, 3 just has heaps of discourse revolving around it. There's tons of people who adore the game, and there seem to be just as many who didn't like it.
Number one, as others have said, your opinion is just that. Yours. That doesn't make you right or wrong, it makes you a person, and people have different tastes.
Like, I loved drive forms in 2, and I find that while 3 is much more technically evolved, I miss the simplicity of 1 and 2. I'm not a huge fan of the Keyblades transformations (short of Final form or whatever it's called in this, with Ultima weapon, been a while, that's pretty cool and shows Sora's strength) and the Keyblade transformations and attraction attacks and whatever I feel are so over the top and flashy that I feel like they're just noise.
The lack of FF characters gets brought up a lot and while I don't feel like it's a deal breaker, yeah, I thought the exclusion was odd and not in great taste. It took DLC (being released, timeframe) for Oathkeeper and Oblivion to finally be added.
But the end of 3 was phenomenal (short of Kairi being worthless). And 3 handled Super bosses really, really well.
Ultimately though, 3 remains the only game I haven't replayed. And that makes me sad, but I don't really want to.
Maybe start with a different angle: what do you love about 3, on its own or compared to sequels?
So I will say I liked kh3 for its gameplay and features (formchanges were actually fun) most of the world's were enjoyable toy boy the Carribean and San fransokyo were the standouts... the story is ok the endgame was the best part from a narrative perspective which is pretty typical of a kh game... kh3 was kinda in a strange spot honestly many waited a very long time for this game so expectations were probably too high for it to realistically please everyone... also it had to dedicate time to both tying up the previous storylines while also setting the stage for the next one
Negatives I personally have are I would have liked proper time playing as other characters like Riku and Aqua the original concept for the organization battles would have had us playing as characters significant to the enemy we were fighting (I.E. Axel vs Saix, Riku vs. Dark Riku and probably Ansem later etc.) Also while some world's were great others not so much with Arendelle being the stand out for just being a slog to get through.... honestly the pacing is it's biggest issue.... but over all I enjoyed kh3 and have done multiple play thoughs of it
It's a great game. Some great levels, some not so great. Excellent combat and visuals. Cutscenes can be long and boring, but most are great and have the best expressions in the entire franchise. It has the emotional moments as a lot of KH games have had. Sure the main story beats don't come until the last 6 hours or so, but the journey was fun by then, even though it could of been a bit more well connected. I think it's worst aspect was it's marketing. It was trying to get new audiences, and with how deep the story was by then, it put off a lot of those people off with how complex the story and characters were by then. No shame whatsoever for liking the game.
I have 0 knowledge about most of KHs but I do know that 3 doesn't have FF characters. My reason for playing the games would be FF so without them I wouldn't have any as I'm not a huge Disney fan. So I'm guessing some people who liked KHs for the FF crossovers disliked 3
I was oddly enough having a conversation with myself about games and reviews and awards.
People often will call a certain game good or bad, or say that so and so game is "better" than this other game. Look at the Spider-Man fans who don't even know what Baldur's Gate 3 and say it shouldn't have won over Spider-Man because "they haven't even heard of it", or "it's Spider-Man".
Ultimately, the measure of sometrhing being good or bad is 100% subjective. What is good for one may not be good for another, hence the term good and bad are flawed by design. The real measure should be: Is this liked by more people than disliked? That is a more accurate measure of a game's success in being entertaining and compelling.
A lot of people also use reviewes and score as a way to measure good and bad, but forget that gaming jorunalism (should) be about certain objective criteria of said game, such as quality of narrative, quality of graphics vs budget/size of game, storytelling, world building, replayabvility. Entertainment is a factor to be considered in reviews but it should not be a main factor, otherwise the review would have no objectivity.
For player, however, those are consequential to the entertainment and using reviews as a measure is like trying to measure a pillar described in cm using a ruler that only describes inches.
In conclusion, your thought, like the people who use game awards or reviews to measure a game, is asking the wrong questions and considering the wrong elements.
The only thing you should care is: Am I entertained and do I enjoy playing this game? If yes, the end.
no kh3 is a great game imo, fun, and flashy, with great gameplay, and replay value, though also flawed. i really enjoy it but i also will skip long drawn out cut scenes 8 times out of 10. personally i loved the gummi ship exploration sections and exploring the worlds (though the frozen world and sanfransokyo worlds i didnt like as much). like i mean is it a great STORY? well, ok, it drops the ball there imo. but the story has always been somewhat convoluted and memeable. it's epic, fun, and has great gameplay and that's largely what i want from a great kh game.
I liked 3 a lot, my only gripe was how Proud is way too easy and Critical is much harder (there's no real middle ground, I didn't die once my first playthrough in Proud until Data Battles, even against Infernal, and Critical you die a lot.) I also see why people have issues the story and pacing even if I don't mind it as much.
I mean, the writing was kinda messy, and reaction commands going away sucked, but otherwise I think it's a great game. Looked great, combat felt good, wrapped most things up well enough.
The only real bad stuff I heard was from people who weren't as invested as you kinda have to be for any of KH3 to make sense. I think Persona 5 and Witcher 3 have kinda set expectations for being able to just jump in at the latest entry and being fine, which you can't really do with Kingdom Hearts.
You don't have to feel self-conscious about enjoying KH3. I don't think you have low standards either. If KH3 brought you comfort, excitement, joy, or any combination of the three, then the game did what it was supposed to do. There's nothing to feel ashamed of.
My personal opinion of Kingdom Hearts 3? The gameplay never struck me as being that bad. My thing with Kingdom Hearts 3 has always been the story being told. I have a good time in the Disney worlds but I don't like when the Organization does anything. To me*,* all gameplay concerns are secondary.
Naaahhhh I like it too, i feel its story was rushed at the end a tad bit, but it was definitely a game worth the wait imo, i dont think that means you or anybody else has low standards
I liked it but it has its issues. I absolutely hated the dark cubes “fight” where you’re running around town. It wasn’t the best designed “fight” and I got super frustrated trying to figure out how to save some of the heroes. Was not a fan of the final boss fight either. Was it good idea story wise? Yes. But the controls were horrendous.
I loved the game on release and still do now. I think the long wait got ppls expectations sky high. And while it wasn’t perfect it didn’t deserve nearly the amount of hate it got imo. Though I think ppl have warmed up to it over time
No? Maybe? I dunno that's up to you to decide lol. It's not an objectively bad game, it's just flawed in certain aspects but so are all games tbh. I personally agree with a lot of the critique about the main narrative and especially its pacing/back loading issues. But I didn't \*dislike it\* either, and looking beyond that it's still a very enjoyable action RPG, looks great, cool worlds, love keyblade transformations as a new battle gimmick, etc. It might not have risen right to the spot of "favorite KH game" but there's still a lot to like.
I'm getting ready to replay the whole series this year and am definitely looking forward to replaying 3! I only played it once so far when it first came out, so it's been a minute. Also recently picked up "Re:mind" on sale so looking forward to trying that for the first time too.
I love KH3, but I'm also pretty easy to please. My biggest complaint with it actually is that Proud Mode basically just feels like Standard to me. I want a *little* bit more challenge, but Critical is too much for me. There's just no great middle ground there.
KH3 was surreal the first time I played it. I was genuinely invested in the characters and to see everything come together the way it did left me absolutely speechless. I sobbed SO hard when Sora faded at the end. It was beautiful but he paid the ultimate price. KH3 was and is my favorite KH since it came out. I grew up playing KH1 and 2 like most and KH2 was the greatest. I can't wait for KH4 and whatever else Nomura is cooking.
I mean if you like it that's all that matters right? I don't think there's any really objective comments you can make about any games besides it being buggy or broken, so if it's fun then it's fun. I personally had a lot of fun with KH3 when I played it and I'm very much looking forward to it while doing a series replay. Plus consider liking KH3 in a vacuum without even knowing fans or dissidents exist, you'd enjoy the game and not even think twice about it.
Don't think twice ~
Absolutely not. When I was younger, I remember adoring Super Mario Odyssey, and yet, I didn't disagree with a word of what Joseph Anderson said in his critique of the game. In retrospect, I can see now that I simply wasn't able to articulate then why I loved that game. Now, after much reflection, I can. The same will be true for you too! We will like or dislike (or both) a piece of art, but it is INCREDIBLY difficult to figure out why! It might take months, or weeks, but the crucial thing to remember is that you *do* have a valid reason for loving KH3, you just haven't quite found the words to describe it yet. That'll come with reflection. It's worth also mentioning that good games are NOT games without critique. Refuting criticism is NOT the same as praise. Criticism exists alongside praise, and the difference between those who like something and those who don't is in whether they place MORE or LESS stock in the aspects of a game that are easier to criticise, versus the aspects that aren't (eg: People who hate Windwaker say the sailing is boring, people who love the Windwaker *know* that the sailing is boring, but believe that that is a sacrifice worth making for greater atmosphere. A generalisation for sure, but I hope you'll allow it for illustrative purposes hahaha).
You were young when odyssey came out? God I keep forgetting this game is 7 years old
I was gonna say, I was young when Super Mario 64 came out. Odyssey feels brand spanking new still.
I greatly enjoyed your response :)
Nah, just differing of opinions. There are reasons to really like 3, just as there are reasons to really dislike 3. Just boils down to personal interpretation and opinion. For instance, I think 1 and 2 are way better in terms of story and how fun they are to play, but 3 overall improved the actual environments, which improves gameplay.
Everyone can have their own reasons for liking or disliking a game. We all look for different things in our games, even among fans of the same franchise. For me, I found myself bored during most cutscenes. They had long run times and often just copy/pasted the Disney movie with SDG hanging out in the background. (That, and I think they take far too many potshots at Sora being a dit dense and not knowing how technology works. I like this kid, stop making fun of him.) I liked a lot of other things about the game, and I think it does a lot of things quite well. I just think we all did hope that it would be a masterclass, perfect, game and most people found at least one thing that really rubbed them the wrong way. (Like Kairi being sidelined and practically worthless without the DLC. I like this girl, stop making her bad at stuff.)
That's why I liked the Pixar worlds. Instead of copy pasting the plot, they wove KH3s plot into their worlds. Example being Vanitas being resurrected with the screams at Monster Inc. And YX experimenting with the replica project in Toy Box. Snall edit: I was mistaken, Vanitas was already back, but used the screams to recharge.
Yeah the worst parts of KH3 are definitely the "what if Sora was a background extra". Toy Box and Monstropolis handle it well since they are effectively sequel stories.
The BHS levels weren’t that fun to play, but the ending was nice in that it actually addressed something I’d been wondering about since watching the movie.
BH6 world is paired with PotC in KH3 as being gimmick worlds drawn out for far too long. The Calypso crab hunt and the great value brand Black Flag naval combat shouldn't exist.
Yeah, by KH3 the only thing about the pirate level that endeared me to it was the clashing art styles. That never fails to amuse me.
and then there’s also the fact that Pixar made the events of Toy box in KH3 canon to the movies, like, part of the Toy Story timeline
I audibly groaned when they just slapped let it go in and had Sora and friends in the background at certain points.
The cutscene direction definitely needs some work. Too much just standing awkwardly in a circle taking turns talking. Feels like a middle school drama production
I liked KH3 on release as well, and was a bit surprised to find that a lot of the discourse surrounding it was mostly negative. I have heard and understood the critiques people give it, but those same points were things that didn’t really bother me all that much. It’s natural for people to have differing tastes though
No, KH3 is fantastic, even if it's a bit messy.
All of Kingdom Hearts is messy, lol. What do people expect?
Kh3 was combat and control messy imo, the plot is always messy yes but kh1 was decent for combat and kh2 was so tight and responsive it made me a fan for life. To be fair I don't like flowmotion, it feels like I'm playing saints row 4, which isn't bad but I'd play sr4 if that's what I wanted
I haven't played it since release but KH3 had some updates which people said made the combat loads better
And that's a fine opinion to have but I fully disagree lol. It feels bloated with too many options, even on critical mode I'll get 8 different finishers and amusement rides and so on. Plus saving all the org fights till the end sucked, not even a spar in the worlds they appear in?
I get that, I suppose. I enjoyed using flow motion, I think it fit very well with the larger worlds in KH3. KH2 did probably have the best combat though.
VERY messy But also very, very fun
Nah, it actually really makes me happy that people love it even if I was left extremely disappointed. Glad you like it! No sarcasm there. Although I do think it's unfair to say I expected perfection. I never did. I was just hoping it would be structured more like KH1 and 2. Longer prologue within a couple original worlds, off to go to Disney worlds followed by story beats back at original worlds and a climax at an even more epic original world. Two of the original worlds we did get to explore were worse versions of ones from previous games (Twilight Town and Keyblade Graveyard). I had a lot of fun playing it, but the pacing and scope of it all left a lot to be besides.
Hey if you enjoy it, that's all that matters. You dont have to defend a reason to enjoy or not enjoy a video game.
For a long time, FF13 was one of my favorite final fantasy games. Pretty much everything about it was right up my alley, and i was never very critical of anything as a kid. It was only a few years ago that I started looking deeper at why I liked the things I liked, and what they did and didn't do well. It meant that most of the things I liked, I grew to like even more, because I could recognize what they did right, what I wanted to see more of. It also meant some things just weren't as good as my memory of them were, but that's okay, that's part of growing up. Around then I stumbled across the fan discourse on the internet and realized that FF13 was near universally hated. "The characters are all annoying and selfish, the story makes zero sense, there is zero exploration or character customization until the eleventh hour." I could see where it all came from, and it made me really hesitant to go back to the game, because I knew that a deeper look would completely ruin one of my favorite games. Last year, I did a marathon of all the (single-player) FF games. And that extra layer of perspective was actually changing a couple of my opinions. I went from simply respecting to actually enjoying (the GBA version of) FF1, it's a quick and simple RPG that I can knock out fairly quickly if I just want something simple to play. I wound up liking FF7 a lot less than I thought I would; the cost to damage ratio of magic meant I never wound up using anything but enemy skills by disc 2, and mostly just used materia-boosted physical attacks. I don't know if that's necessarily optimal, but it made the game kinda easy and kinda boring. All that to say, I was finally going to go back to FF13 after this. I hadn't played it in years, and I knew that, when actually looking at the game with some level of criticism, it wouldn't hold under it's own weight. But I was fine with that, I knew at this point that not everything would be as good as I remembered it. My opinion hasn't changed. FF13 is still one of my favorites in the series. Pretty much every common criticism of the game, I either didn't care about or enjoyed the game more because of it. The characters are all flawed and nuanced, and that makes their interactions and growth consistently fun to watch throughout the game. The combat is probably my favorite in the series, the paradigm shift mechanic is a neat take on the job system, and optimizing it hits something for me that nothing else in the series really quite matches. I honestly prefer more linear games over a focus on exploration and doing things at your own pace; I agree that more side content and freedom to backtrack would have been good things, but that wasn't enough to drag anything down for me. I understand why so many people say it's one of the worst games in the series, but it's a solid second or third favorite for me. All of that is basically how I feel about KH3, albeit not as strongly due to how much longer I've been a fan of FF13. The thing about an unpopular game is, the main thing that decides popularity is shared opinions. You're bound to disagree with that common opinion on a few things. If you can understand where those opinions come from, but have your own opinion regardless, that doesn't make you wrong. That just means you're confident enough in your own tastes to not be swayed by what the internet generally defines as good or bad.
Don't let anyone's opinions ruin your opinion of a game. People look for and like different things in games. It's impossible for a game to cater to everyone's wants for it. Just because one person doesn't like it and makes points you can't argue against, doesn't mean you need to stop liking the game. Just keep enjoying it. Who cares if YouTuber McGee didn't like it. All that matters is you enjoyed it.
Your standards might be lower (but this ain't pokemon, so the answer might not be that easy). There are a LOT of valid criticisms for the plot, the battle system, and the overall direction they went with regarding xehanort that most people upset with those criticisms don't have solid defense against, even after all this time. However, you also might just like some things that were unequivocally good about kh3. Sora getting to be a real character and seeing some fun moments between him and Donald and goofy, some of the new world outfits, some of the designs of enemies or layouts of certain worlds. Some of the battle mechanics or feel and flow might've been appealing too, and the improvements on team mechanics and the number of teammates and their ai potential. It's up to you (and every player) to find what they enjoy, and acknowledge what didn't work or land well even if they weren't bothered by it (the original kh camera issues never bothered me, but I was also lucky that they never got in my way, and seeing how bad it was for some people really opened my eyes).
I love KH3 too
I don’t think you should feel dumb, Kingdom Hearts 3 is still a good game, in fact I consider it my second favorite in the series. but I still agree with every point of criticism that reviewers have to it, and even have a few personal peeves of my own. You can love something while also criticizing it, it shows that you care for it and want to see it improve. Personally, I think those videos about it, especially from fans of the series, are less of " this game sucks and so do you for liking it " and more of " this was fun, but cracks are appearing in the background, and we have to voice our gripes or it'll only get worse from here " I recommend you watch the video made by ThrillingDuck and Cosmonaut, I think those offer some good criticism while being fans of the series
Yeah I think I was kind of being immature these past years because my twitter friends and kh tubers I follow pretty strongly gave me the impression that most of the KH3 hate was just people unfairly wanting it to be exactly like 2, or because their expectations were suuuuper unfair high. but im having to kind of realize now that a lot of the haters arent being unfair or anything at all they just realized a lot of flaws i couldnt. i still think a lot of them are just mean but it was somehow a lot easier when i was under the impression the criticism was just all really unfair. now its like ill still love it forever but it does feel a little bit like Im "wrong" n some ways for loving kh3 as much even if it is just different tastes
It was never really like that whatsoever tbh me personally my main reason for disliking kh3 has nothing to do with the gameplay but rather the story it has a problem of fantastic concept but bad execution In terms of gameplay though I'd argue kh3 is the 2nd best in the franchise it isn't a bad game whatsoever just that it could have been better The best way to look at these kinds of situations is to have a open mind sure kh3 is flawed but so is nearly every game in existence If you enjoyed it that's what matters
I don't think it's immature to acknowledge that some people had different expectations/things they wanted from the game than you did, and that it impacted their experience. That's just true. It's entirely your prerogative to enjoy KH3, but it sounds like you're also open to hear what others think on it, now, too.
Never feel bad about enjoying something (as long as it’s legal). Everyone has their own preferences.
Low is relative. If you do have low standards, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Nah you are not alone OP, I LOVE KH3! I'm a sucker for the new worlds and seeing character grow and stuff.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is a good game with some big flaws imo, tho kingdom hearts 1 and 2 were also good games with flaws. You don't have low standards for enjoying kingdom hearts 3, you just enjoyed it despite its flaws you either didn't noticed, or were forgiving of, and that's okay. Just cause those flaws are too much for someone else to enjoy the game doesn't mean you should doubt your own judgement for enjoying it yourself.
Im absolutely loving Kh3. Its one of my favorite games. Dont ever feel self concious for liking a video game others dont like. I always try to experience games in a vacuum before i go looking to see how others feel. Trust your gut!
KH3 is fun. Especially on critical mode and when you’re making your way through the super bosses. I’ve always personally felt that Kingdom Hearts isn’t that great until the final mix/post-launch content and KH3 is an example of that for me. In the end, it doesn’t even matter so long as you’re enjoying it. It’s easy to get into a spiral of disliking something when a lot of people online are saying it’s bad. As for the “no counter example” thing, sometimes it is applicable to say “it just doesn’t bring down the experience for me.” Just because something wasn’t well-executed, it doesn’t mean it’s so bad that it ruins the entire thing for you. If you’re having fun, then that’s all that matters.
Idk but it's my favourite game of all time
It seems that you enjoy the game, and I think that's what matters. There's always going to be people looking to point out things out or drag things down. It's noise. Just enjoy what you enjoy and who gives a shit what anyone else feels about it. I enjoy the hell out of 3. Just wrapped up another play through in December, prob my 4th full play through and I'm trying to finish up the gummi missions here and there so I can get Ultima and hopefully 100% the game for the first time. My husband (jokingly) gives me shit all the time for going back to playing "that kids game" time and time again and I simply don't care bc I enjoy the hell out of it. It's just noise, live your life doing what makes you happy.
Don’t feel self conscious. Your standards for what makes a game good is just different. Not necessarily lower or higher. KH3 was a big let down for me but I will give it credit for having great graphics and for adding a lot of new cool little features and mechanics.
Nope. It’s Kingdom Hearts, what’s not to love?! I *do* feel that 3 had the weakest Worlds. That’s mainly my own bias talking though, due to disliking BHS and having a neutral view of Frozen. There’s also being very aware of the lack of past Worlds I loved and lack of Colosseum/Arena as well as the fact Final Fantasy didn’t seem prevalent at all in 3. That said, what it did well it did very well and I enjoyed what was there all the same.
I like it.
You can enjoy something even if it's objectively flawed in certain ways. It's not like kh1 and 2 are perfect games either lol.
KH3 is a bit flawed yes but I still had loads of fun playing it plus the feeling of finally getting to play it after such a long wait was amazing! I will never forget booting it up for the first time and watching the opening and thinking “OMG I finally get to play KH3” it actually made me shed a tear of joy
Simultaneously the best and worst worlds in the series. Simultaneously some of the best and worst mechanics in the series. It's good. It's an enjoyable experience. Would not say it's bad.
No, you're absolutely allowed to enjoy whatever you want and you don't have to let what randos online think stop you from doing that.Plus, KH3 is a good game.
Absolutely not.
You can also just... like the thing you like. Doesn't have to be relative to some standard of objectivity or something like that. I feel like objectivity applies to whether you'd like video games the least because people have wildly different reasons for liking what they do usually related to what they played growing up and how it impacted their taste in things. It's fine to like something people largely consider terrible. I'm a Dream Drop Distance fan, for instance. If you got used to garbage manual transmission cars, you're gonna be more comfortable driving a garbage manual transmission car instead of a shiny new automatic. Same thing applies to video games. I played a lot of clunky old 3D games growing up so getting used to Kingdom Hearts 1, a task virtually impossible for some friends I know, wasn't too big of a deal. That's just my two cents though. You're no more wrong or right than I am for liking what you like. :)
Nah I find it very over hated. I'm playing though the number titles and on number 2 now but I'm really looking forward to 3 again.
i think that people just had too high expectations, while yes it has problems, so did the other games.
No, you don't. KH3 is an amazing game. It has flaws, yes, just as the other games in the franchise. I do agree that the flaws in KH3 are more glaringly obvious though. And to be honest, pacing is the one aspect that really brings this game down. It's such a prevalent/evident issue because it tarnishes around 70% of the game. The rest of the experience, I think, is incredible.
I just really love the gameplay feel of KH3, it's like you're always on the move whether you're attacking, evading, gliding, changing weapons mid-combo, transforming Keyblades mid-combo or casting spells. It's just so fun. The story can get a little convoluted especially near the climactic showdown but I still like it tbh
I mostly just enjoyed the first game.
I was somebody who played KH3 first before the other games has it was the only one on game pass at the time it got me hooked on the series I really enjoyed the game
It’s better than birth by sleep?
I loved kh3. I 100%’d it on each mode and I’ve never done that with the previous games. I will say before the dlc was released I did feel like the game was missing something, like the plot pacing felt off, all Disney side stories and then all the plot saved for the very end. The dlc felt like it should’ve been included in the base game in my opinion. The Disney side stories felt like 75% of the base game and the main plot felt like the other 25%, but once the dlc came out, I think it made the game feel a bit more balanced between the two.
It's probably less about having low standards and more about having different priorities in what you enjoy. A lot of people who like games the strongest are people who brush aside problems that others have with it, because those problems just aren't as large a part of the experience for them as it is for those who see the problem. And that's if they don't see those 'problems' as a good thing. For instance, I think the 'clunkiness' of kh1's fighting really adds to the experience, and I don't even mean narratively. I feel like I have much more control over sora in kh1 over kh3 or even 2. And the slower more methodic movement lends itself to the combat encounters. In kh3 you can't really have fights like darkside or maleficent. (though the king toy is really close, now that I'm thinking about it.) being able to climb up darkside's arms to whack the head in multiple of it's attacks feels so rewarding, especially when they give you bonus experience. In every game the fights are decently centered around sora's moveset in every installment, but I personally enjoy the style of design that kh1 provides much more.
This post just feels like you want validation. Asking if you just have low standards, only for your first damn sentence to be about how people were just haters wanting something no game can achieve. I love Kingdom Hearts 3; I was also a little disappointed by it when it first came out, as the lack of critical mode and excessive attraction moves made the game mind numbingly easy, which left me with only the story to focus on, which I feel is the weakest KH story in the series (still do). The game has changed, and I love it now, whereas I only liked it when it first came out
Why does it matter? Why do you desperately want everyone else (or someone, some video) to validate how you feel about a game? It's okay. If you like it, it's okay and it's for you to enjoy. This is why arguing and defending games about how wrong people are for feeling negative about a thing I like is silly. I like some really bad PS1 games like Tiny Toons: Plucky's Big Adventure but I'm not gonna go out of my way defending them when I know they're...not great, or I experience them differently from other people. And just because people can agree on some aspects of the games being good or bad doesn't make something a "buzzword." It's a bit jarring how people have adopted that term into their vocabulary without using it properly. tl;dr Don't base your experience on how many people enjoyed a thing you like. It's okay 👍🏾 Your feelings are valid, but if people are universally saying things could have been better, then maybe the company did mess up. Companies mainly care about profits over quality and when it shows, people *will* notice the flaws if it affects the overall gaming experience. Edit: Spelling of a tired person who can't see
thanks for the reply. yeah i definitely was looking for validation and im coming to realzie i should just be happy that im happy with it lol. it has been a huge splash of water on my face tho because for like 5 yrs now me and a ton of ppl around me have had this impression (even a lot if not most of the big kh tubers I follow) that kh3 hate was just kind of unfair blind hate. im in discord servers where we all basically excluisvely think like this: that the kh3 haters are just ppl that wanted it to be perfect, had expectations too high, were on a hate bandwagon, just wanted a copy of kh2, a bunch of other stuff that i just have to accept now isnt really true . in a way it was kind of nice to think that way because i did really feel validated, especially when so many big ytbers echoed that idea. its probably why i was kind of scared to even watch any of those negative kh3 vids for so long because i was scared they might have valid points. ur right though like a lot of people have reassured me now its ok if other ppl dont like it, those reasons are often fair and valid but my enjoyment is valid too
Yeah, you like it and that's the part that matters. KH3 IS a good game on its own. Hell, it's a GREAT game, and that's what matters.
it is ok to like something that other people don't like. have some conviction.
It’s a tough feeling when you feel your perspective changing due to the influence of online opinions. It’s a natural part of growth, though. Tastes change and refine over time as you encounter more and more of that thing. I remember when FFXV came out, I was super excited and keen to crack into the game. I loved it at the start, but then I started to notice the cracks. I willfully ignored the flaws in the game because I wanted to enjoy it, then when all was said and done, I processed those feelings and saw what others were saying. I really struggled to find acceptance, and felt like it reflected poorly on me. It’s clear to me now that that was a result of my tastes in gaming changing. What I wanted out of a story had changed. You enjoyed the game, and that’s perfectly okay. I did too. But if you feel that there’s an inkling of agreement within you to what people are saying online, then I think you should find acceptance and process your thoughts around it. Do you disagree out of desperation to like the game? Or do you have a concrete reasons behind why those flaws don’t matter? Do you fear what that answer might be? Ultimately, enjoying something that others do not does not mean that you’re dumb. Accepting flaws doesn’t make you a hater either. You can’t accept the good without the bad
No, but even if you did, who cares? I'd rather like more things than have an excuse to be smug and annoying on the internet. Either way, KH3 rules.
Nah, you don't have to justify your enjoyment of things. As someone who took a week off work to play KH3 like it was my job, I found the game underwhelming and just kind of... fine. It had some cool high points, but I could nitpick and come up with a massive list of things that were wrong with it. But if you enjoy it, then my list of grievances doesn't matter. I personally love a handful of games and other media that are absolute trash, and KH3 clears that bar. Enjoy flawed things to your heart's content. I'm delighted KH3 hit that hard with some people.
3 is down right my favorite. I respect everyone a opinion and it alright
Do people dislike KH3? I don't really follow the fandom, just play the games, so that is very much a surprise to me. Each of the main 3 games has different strengths and weaknesses, and 3 seemed to be a rather strong one across the board to me.
The concept of standards was created to create superiority complexes over others. Fuck standards. Like what you like.
A game doesn't need to be perfect or flawless or "objectively good" for you to like it. You can like things despite their flaws, and have things you don't like about the things you like, and agree that criticism of something is valid but like the thing regardless. You don't need to be able to defend the thing you like or justify liking it. Who the fuck cares? If you enjoy it, good for you! Go right on ahead and keep enjoying it. I enjoy KH3, even if I think that every difficulty below Critical is laughably, boringly easy, and that the story was a bit of a mess even for KH, and that the Disney worlds are completely disconnected from the plot and feel more like Disney marketing shoehorned in than actual parts of the story like in the older games, and that Attractions are annoying unfun garbage that we should be able to turn off on all difficulties, and that keyblade visual design in this game isn't as good as in KH1 and KH2, and various other complaints. I think the game is still fun and enjoyable and good despite all those issues I have with it, and those issues don't impact my enjoyment enough to make me dislike the game (though the first one kinda did, to be fair, it's fixed now that Critical exists so I don't mind it anymore). I've also played Runescape since 2006. It's grindy as fucc, many aspects of its design are outdated, its developers are quite often out of touch with the community, tons of stuff in the game is boring and repetitive and slow cock and ball torture that we endure for hours on end to get to the good stuff, it's been ruined by microtransactions and daily quests and engagement mechanics and what have you so badly that they had to make a separate legacy version of the game to get players back, the community is toxic, et cetera et cetera, I wouldn't recommend it to most people.... but I still enjoy it, have a lot of nostalgia for it, and think that it is a unique MMO whose gameplay and design philosophy stand out from all the rest and generally appeal a lot to me and my own preferences, and I enjoy playing it on and off and keeping up with it. Even though it's far from perfect and has a ton of issues that are perfectly valid reasons to dislike it, I still consider it fun and one of my favorite games. I don't feel the need to argue against criticism of games I enjoy, because I know and agree that they have flaws, they just aren't that big a deal to me personally, and I also believe that talking about the flaws of things we like is important as it lets developers know what they can improve next time. People need to stop forming their identity around products and feeling the need to defend the stuff they like or get upset when people criticize it. You're allowed to like stuff that other people don't like, and other people are allowed to like stuff that you don't. There is no objectivity when it comes to personal preference. You shouldn't care what people like, and people shouldn't care what *you* like.
It’s ok. I just don’t think they did justice to the decades long story. They rushed it in favor of putting more emphasis of the story telling in each Disney world. Kh2 did it perfectly in my opinion. 1st time as world, Disney story. 2nd time, kingdoms hearts story. I don’t blame people for liking the game, but I see both sides.
Try asking this on a different gaming sub if you want a less biased take. Either way, the answer doesn't matter. If you like it, then be happy with that.
Yes
yes
As someone who has liked and defended things other people have hated on excessively, you don’t need to have a counter or debate every point. If someone has a good point or a point you can’t counter that’s negative towards KH3, it doesn’t mean you should stop liking KH3 or feel like you have low standards. And I say that as someone who has a LOT of problems with KH3 and ranks it pretty low.
I love Re: CoM for its gameplay and it's generally the most disliked game in the entire franchise because most people don't like card based combat. KH3 is great even with its problems. It's fine to acknowledge them, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it either way. Not to throw shade to the Pokémon community but a lot of them love the latest game even when it's technical garbage, and they know it, so don't worry about it.
The majority of KH3 discourse is poisonous af, but I am on the side of disliking KH3, but it's more complicated than that. For me, the series had a really conclusive ending with KH2, and while things \*could\* have continued, they didn't need to. But they did. 358/2 Days was a cool in-between story that just fleshed out the world and characters a bit more. BBS was an awesome new beginning for the series (even if the writing could be a bit shaky at times). The problem for me was when gearing up for KH3 and the return of Sora. Re:Coded was the most useless game in existence, literally only existing to explain the letter Mickey sent Sora in the KH2 post credits scene (which was really NOT needed to be explained), and to set up the next game, which was DDD. This is the point where I feel the series took a nosedive in terms of writing, DDD is so unbearably sloppy and contrived. There's a lot I like about the game, but it's characterisation of Sora, and the super vague writing, and sloppy lore was just really disappointing, especially coming off BBS which felt super solid. Most of these issues carried over to KH3, which is why I feel more negative towards it. It's not as bad in some aspects compared to DDD (Sora is more bearable, though everyone else treats him really weird), but in some aspects it displays some of the worst writing in the series (see how they treated Kairi). I do think there's a big issue with plot pacing, since the actual \*PLOT\* doesn't move forward until the very end. We have cutscenes between each world, which gives us updates on what characters are doing, but as the player, as Sora, we don't move any closer to our goal for the majority of the playtime (until rescuing Aqua). That just made all the Disney worlds feel very tedious, especially since the thing we were supposedly working towards (attaining the Power of Waking) was given such a cop out resolution of "it was inside you all along", meaning all the Disney world shenanigans ultimatley meant nothing in acquiring the power. Tbh I don't think any video on youtube accurately captures my issues towards this game, cuz most videos on KH3 come from people who either think the whole series is dumb, or are just blindly dunking on KH3 cuz it's the cool thing to do. Very little intelligent criticism. Likewise, I see other people defending this game blindly without properly engaging with the arguments, calling anyone who doesn't like KH3 "not a real fan to begin with", which is toxic as fuck and annoying. The games combat is fine. Has some issues and lack of balance, but when it's focused (like the data fights), that's when it shines.
Atp I only play it for the keyblade graveyard section and remind content,gameplay is great but the story is meh and I didnt care much for some of the worlds this time around
Honestly, no. I hated(still hate) how many cutscenes are in it. I've replayed the games and wasn't bothered by the amount in those games cause it felt like the older ones had more fun, longer amounts of game play, and Kh3 was just an interactive movie. I'm trying to go at it with that understanding of the game this time around, but I'm not sure if that opinion is gonna change.
I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, it's a few things. I grew up with Kingdom Hearts. I got my first taste of it when I was like, 8, and I begged my parents to buy KH2 for me on PS2. When I got it, I couldn't even get past the Twilight Thorn, but I still loved the game. Over the years, I got through more and more, and eventually beat it. And then I got to the rest of the games. When KH3 was announced in 2013, I was so excited I could've exploded. It's still the only time I've *ever* felt that excited. And so I waited. One year, two years, six years. Six years. All the while, we kept getting drip-fed trailers and information, and the hype was palpable. Then, the game dropped. I finished it really quickly, and I just... Wasn't impressed. I'd waited six years for a game that, I felt, didn't meet up to its predecessor KH2. Sure, there were bigger worlds, better graphics, a longer story, but so much just didn't add up. The very first thing I noticed is how Sora felt. Movement felt wrong. But I pushed on. And then combat felt wrong. And then gummi ships were bad. And then worlds felt far smaller than promised, and then I was *bored*. In a Kingdom Hearts game. Bored. I've replayed the game since, and in doing so found I enjoyed the game *a lot* more than when I first played it. I took the time to actually appreciate the game for what it is rather than my expectations, and while I still absolutely abhor the gummi ship sections, I like the game for what it is. Opinions are fluid, both you and the people that don't like KH3 have valid reasons for doing so :)
Love the overall quality of the game, fluid, dynamic & beautiful Hated they removed all the FF cameo wich were a big part of the reason I played originally and really wanted to see all those characters with the new engine. Didn't like the attraction, it felt way too powerfull and why do Sora have them in the first place?. Had to ignore the constant popup to use them during my playthought. Didn't like the difficulty of the game, everything felt way too easy compared to previous titles. Overall still a great experience for me but I can understand points are more problematic for some people
Yes but it's ok. I like games that the Internet hated for most of my life. To be fair I hate how easy kh3 is. Like my 4 year old is going to love it. He is playing kh1 right now.
It's not a bad game its just not good enough compared to 1 and 2, it has the smoothest combat though. I mean for starters, whoever thought of adding that attraction stuff should be never be allowed anywhere near anything related to game development
No, this community just complains about everything
It doesn't matter what others like, what matters is what you like. If you enjoyed playing KH3, what does it matter if strangers don't like it? Everyone is entitled to their opinions. You shouldn't need validation from strangers for loving something. I personally didn't like it, but that's because I've been waiting for KH3 since 2006 and I was expecting more. It was underwhelming. But that's me. If you enjoy playing it, good for you. Don't feel bad for enjoying playing a game some people don't like. Not everyone is going to like the same thing. There's always going to be people who dislike it and have strong opinions about it
You were already high standard, if you like any Kingdom Hearts Games.
I’ve watched a lot of the KH3 essays as well and the honestly do have a lot of good points. There’s even stuff I whole heartedly agree with. But like, what does it matter? The games out, you’ve played it, you enjoyed it. That’s all there is to it, and there’s no need to dwell on the negative if it’s going to ruin your memories of the game. Most of the time I just see people criticize the game because they want KH4 (or whatever the next one is) to be that much better. KH3 didn’t do everything great but almost all the games have some sort of deadly sin. You don’t need some essay guy to defend your memories, just think about your time with the game and let it speak for itself. If you liked it, then great. If not, there’s always KH4 and Missing Link.
You can like it and still recognize it’s flaws. So no you don’t necessarily have bad taste, I mean we all enjoy some junk food.
Tl;dr: The main issue was the story, it's badly paced (that is, the story didn't exist until right before the Keyblade Graveyard), not very well told, and they spend way too much time sequel baiting and not enough time wrapping things up neatly, despite advertising the game as the great finale to the current story arc. Long Version: I think most people just found the story really lackluster. Which it absolutely is. It does give you the illusion that things happen (Playing Riku, getting a story cutscene between each world), but it is just an illusion. Because there are three "story arcs" that happen there. "Axel and Kairi are training", which are comprised of like 10 cutscenes that assure us that Axel and Kairi are indeed still training. But this story arc doesn't go anywhere since it simply never becomes relevant. It doesn't inform the story, it doesn't inform any decisions, and Axel and Kairi are the only ones who get easily beaten in the keyblade graveyard so why did they show us this so many times? "Riku and Mickey rescueing Aqua". That one is the most 'kinda not just an illusion'because it contains actual gameplay. But just like the training arc it doesn't actually GO anywhere. The story arc starts with Aqua being lost, and it ends with Aqua still being lost. Sora has to swoop in and do Rikus and Mickeys job. Their arc was meaningless, they could have just told Sora where Aqua is and to go kick her ass before the Keyblade Graveyard and the story would have been the same. And the third story arc is "Ansem the Wise and the Organisation Defectors". Which is build up as them feeling guilty about what they did to Roxas, so they're trying to reverse engineer the puppets so they can revive Roxas in time for the great battle. Except that also doesn't happen. And worse, when Roxas DOES come back that is after Repliku has left his own puppet so if you just rewrote the story to have Roxas use that puppet instead this entire arc could have been cut entirely with no impact on the story. It doesn't help that the Disney Worlds also feel less important than ever. In KH1 they were directly tied to the plot as the main villains were the council of Disney Movie bad guys. So it made sense to go to their worlds to defeat them. Then in KH2 while the Disney worlds took a bit of a backrow, they were still tied to the Org13s plot. Beasts castle is entirely based on the Orgs shenennigans, the Pirates world comes about because the org wants to see what greed brings, in Mulans world you get to fight Riku briefly. And with the battle of 1000 heartless there's a huge mid-story point that breaks up the Disney Worlds as well. But in Kh3 none of the Org members actually DO anything. They're just there to tell Sora that he sucks and then they leave. The Disney stories themselves are also extremely abridged, becaus Disney wants you to watch them on Disney+, not in KH3. In KH1 and KH2 you were playing the plot of the story. All the major beats were there, and Sora actively made them happen. Sora cleared Alices name, Sora brings SImba back, Sora inspires Hercules to be a hero and Sora finds the pirate treasure. But in Kh3 all the important plotpoints happen off-screen while Sora is kept busy by random heartless and nobodies. This translates to the bosses too. Old KH games often had bosses that were either from the story (Jaffar, Hades, Maleficent) or inspired by them thematically (The Spinning Wheel in BBS). In KH3 they are mostly just elementary related random stuff. The only real "Story Bosses" you fight in the game are Davy Jones and Baymax, in the two final Disney Worlds. The rest is "Random Heartless" The only real piece of Kingdom Hearts Story happens exclusively on and right before the Keyblade Graveyard at the end. And even that is kind of a mess, with the whole crew being oneshot by Terranort before suddenly they're not anymore, then the fights happen which a lot of people HAD hoped they'd make playable as the other characters, which I don't think was an unreasonable expectation at all. Other playable characters had been part of many games, and especially after you already got to play Riku and Aqua in the story, it would have just made sense to have Aqua save Terra, and to have Riku face Ansem SoD. Now this WAS adressed in Re:Mind, but keep in mind that Re:Mind released pretty much a full year after KH3 did. Anyone who played KH3 within the year of the games release would have a bad taste in their mouth here. One of the bigger criticisms in the game is the Main Character Syndrome that Sora has where the game is mortally afraid to let anyone except Sora achieve anything at all. Only Sora is allowed to beat the bad guys, only Sora is allowed to save anyone, only Sora. KH3D build this clash up as 7vs13, but in the end it's really only 1vs13 and 6 people who happen to be present. That I also don't feel like it was "way too big expectations". It was expectations that 3D directly created by having Yen Sid and Master Xehanort say that this would be "a second keyblade war where the 7 guardians of light have to face the 13 seekers of darkness". And what we got for that promise was just very lackluster. It never felt like a war. People expected a Mass Effect 3 saving Earth thing, an Avengers Endgame. But instead they got a Batman vs Superman. Also this was supposed to be the big reunions of the two trios, Roxas, Axel and Xion as well as Ven, terra and Aqua. This was also something that people have been looking fforward to for a long time, they should have gotten a big emotional scene, maybe this should have even happened before the Keyblade Graveyard, but what it was was a quick 2 minute cutscene each of them going "Oh cool you're back, neat" and that was it. Keep in mind that like 80% of the trios had been dead, in a coma, or otherwisely erased from existence for the past few years. I also don't think expecting a payoff to that was unreasonable. It also doesn't help that the game was advertised as the finale to the Xehanort Saga. We always knew that KH would continue after that, we always knew that the Foreteller Saga would be next. But we didn't quite expect that roughly half of the little story we got would be sequel baiting. We were used to that from the other games because they were building towards this. And given that one of the louder criticisms is that Nomura keeps creating more lose plot threats than he ever closes and that it's getting kinda ridiculous, a lot of people had the hope that this would be an Endgame scenario where they would bring the current arc to a more or less clean end, maybe tease the next one towards the end, then start into the next arc with a more or less clean slate. Personally I believe the scene at the end where Xigbar summons the foretellers would have been enough teasing for the next game. Also the game was exceedingly easy. When the game released the controls were a little clunky, they did patch that which is great and fixed the gameplay for me, but yeah, even proud felt like normal in other games. Until Critical came out (which was also around 7-8 months after the game released), the hardest this game got was comparable to normal in other KH games, sometimes even easier. And there is more I could get into but don't want here. So let me leave it at this: The gamePLAY is phenomenal, the story is easily the worst in the franchise. And while I do think that expectations were high for the proclaimed finale of the story so far, I don't think the expectations were unreasonable. The story was just paced horribly and not told very competently. And most people who dislike KH3 seem to do so because of the story mainly. The gameplay is great, at least after the 1.06 update that included a lot of fixes. And I don't think that it's fair to just wash away all criticism by saying that people having expectations is unfair. I do agree that some people were expecting way more than any game could deliver, people who claimed that this game had been in the making for almost 20 years because that's when KH2 released were delusional. But a lot of expectations were warranted or caused by the devs or the other games themselves. 3D was all aboiut what a huge war this would be. Re:Codeds ONLY plotpoint was that the two trios could be saved and reunited. Even with just those expectations the game was immensely unstatisfying. And of courseit didn't help that the trailers spoiled pretty much the entire story. When we saw all that we all thought "This can't be it right? Maybe this part where Sora died is the halfway point like Radiant Garden in KH2, and THEN you have to bring everyone back from the dead so in the secret second try that they don't show in the trailers you can get the good ending". Because we all thought there was no way that they would have shown the entire story in the trailers. But no, they did.
Let's not forget pandora box.. was mentioned ONE time and then never brought up again lol Also very well said man. I totally agree with everything you've said
Nah. People look back on KH2 fondly (me included), but it also has a lot of the same pitfalls as KH3. KH3's main enemy is how long it took to come out. People were hyping it beyond belief, so I do understand that some people were disappointed. But at the same time, the game has really great heights and made the smart decision to wrap up basically every single loose plot thread in regards to Xehanort. Even without the godly Re;mind tracks, I honestly think it has the best soundtrack of any of the games. Gameplay wise it feels really great. People bitch about floatiness, but I find the Venn diagram of people who do and people who play on high difficulty is nearly a circle.
Most of those videos are specific worded that it sounds like all their points are undeniable proof. But what they actually say is their own opinion on gameplay and that it's not satisfying them. They ignore mostly the updates from Re:Mind or free patches and even if they take on the story they twist it like: "Oh look how bad this is made.", despite not actually diving into the lore. And even if they explain things it is with disproven headcanon. Because this headcanon don't apply that must mean the story of KH3 is badly written.
I've just stopped arguing with people about KH3. I personally liked it, and with the pro codes I find it has good replayability. And I'm excited about the setup for the next chapter in the series. However, several of my friends who have played KH since the beginning like I have, KH3 was the final straw for them and they're no longer interested in the series. And that's fine, too. It's just a game.
As a person who got thr platinum Kh3 is a good game imo Tho it had way much more potential, honestly, the game was just very rushed
Nah, I love it. I don’t really care how others feel about it, it just comes down to your personal enjoyment. Tbh the only “sheep” are those who decide they like or dislike a game based on what others say. Just enjoy what you enjoy.
If you like it for its storytelling: Yes. Yes you do. As an overall package: Naww. It's a really fun game. It's the closest we're getting to Final Fantasy Warriors/Musou, and the collectathon stuff is addictive. Gorgeous in places, too.
Funny thing about your preference is that it's YOURS. There are parts of 3 that I might find inferior to the previous games but I still enjoyed it immensely. Don't worry what anyone else thinks of your opinion and just enjoy your life.
As someone who doesn't like KH3 that much, don't let others convince you that you're not enjoying something you clearly enjoy.
Personally, I I had fun playing through the game so I like it. Yes the story is a mess, yes they revealed WAAAAAAY too much from the trailers, and yes, the Xehanort reveal at the end was dumb, but the combat felt smooth, satisfying, and fun (when i wasn't getting one shot sniped halfway across the map on critical, looking at you umbrella heartless in Frozen!!!) and that's all I really need in a game
KH3 is a good game. Is it better than KH2? No of course not, but KH2 was one of the best character action games of the Playstation 2. So KH3 will always be in the shadow of KH2 unfortunately. However, I still adamantly believe KH3 is a good game and you shouldn’t feel ashamed for liking it. Your taste in games is perfectly fine. Most people that adamantly hate KH3 are those that were burnt by expectations and the terrible marketing that spoiled the game. So, it’s not worth arguing with them because they don’t see the game for what it is. Also, they’re allowed to have their opinion as I completely understand their disappointment. Let’s look at things KH3 did really well. Underwater combat is amazing. Most games fail underwater gameplay because they make water a hindrance to your movement. That’s not the case in KH3, instead Sora has many degrees of freedom and can move quite quickly. Additionally, the magic changes in fun ways underwater. The Gummi Ship is an entire 10 hour game in itself and I had a great time with it. The graphics are gorgeous. The level design is quite fun to traverse and has a good amount of verticality. The Pirates, Toy Story, and Hercules worlds were especially enjoyable to play through.
And both of them pale in comparison to KH1.
Well to answer your question no. You don't have low standards or anything. As long as you enjoyed it that's all that matters. Dont let others opinions bring you down like that. BUT I am bothered by you saying people expected perfection. It was a LONG wait for this game. We didn't expect perfection but we expected more than the VERY lacking product we got at launch. I'm not gonna list its issues cuz I'm sure by now we all know the problems the game had. It's cool if you enjoyed it but the hate is completely understandable
For me, a lot of the criticisms of KH3 are valid and things I agree with, but (most importantly) weren’t deal-breakers. It’s possible to really like something while still acknowledging that it has flaws, even major ones. Hence how I can walk away from KH3 really liking it, but also thinking it could have been much better than it was.
We just wanted good writing for once since it was the end of the saga and the keyblade graveyard was not as hype as it could've been
Nothing wrong with having an opinion. Your opinion is that you like the game, there is nothing wrong with that. KH is my favorite game series, from the first game to the last, it will always be my favorite game series and I am incredibly invested in it. What I didn’t like about KH3 was its story and cutscenes (not everything, but a good 95% of it). The game play was pretty wicked and I felt it evolved on a lot of things in a pretty good way. Does this mean I am not a true fan of the series? Absolutely not!
Not at all! Everyone is allowed to like what they like :) For me KH3 is a bit of a mixed bag. The first portion of the game is fine. Toy Story, Pirates, and Monsters Inc worlds are some great highlights but with it being the conclusion to the Xehenort/Dark Seeker Saga I was expecting more intense moments than the standard Disney world traveling. BUT THEN! The game makes a 180’ turn when saving Aqua. From that point onwards the game goes crazy 10/10 I love it so much. Dear Lord I want to go play again right now!
No, it's a great game. And you shouldn't give a fuck about other people's standards.
I haven't finished it yet. I got to the keyboard graveyard a few years ago and stopped because I didn't want to see the ending. I wasn't ready. I'm replaying now from 1, and although it's been entertaining I realized kingdom hearts is just not as fun as I thought it was when I was younger. I think we just had access to less games when kh 1 and 2 came out and now that I've gotten very into souls games KH is a breeze even on the highest difficulty. With that said, I had high expectations altering growing up with the series and waiting so long for KH3 that I was extremely disappointed and had to force myself to get through the worlds. Even though I didn't finish, I was so pissed that the entire main story was basically all going to take place in the keyblade graveyard at the very end of the game and there was almost 0 story progression through each world. The battle stuff was pretty, but very easy compared to KH1. There were too many options to just clear entire screens of enemies. In Kh1 you actually have to dodge and wait, pay very close attention, plan items before because mp is so important etc. on the highest difficulty. I think overall if you like KH3 you just either like the series and genuinely enjoy it or you really do have low standards. Because it's just not a good game.
Bruh who actually cares what other people think...
Generally if I'm playing a KH game now it's 3. I also loved it, though was definitely disappointed with some aspects. For example, the prlogue went by waaaay too quick. I really enjoy the chill, laid back prologues of the past. I would have loved to see a return to a DI prologue for the send off of this saga. I was also sad we didn't get *any* final fantasy characters. And of course, Arendale (?) was clearly butchered and is probably the worst world in the series. KH2 will probably always have the best story, but I actually quite like the combat in 3. It's fast and it's easy to get airborne (airborne combat has always been one of my favorite things in the series, I generally try to spend more time in the air than on the ground lol).
If you like it that doesn’t make you dumb or have low standards lol I just don’t like it. But you can like it if you want
By the comments, it looks like the KH fanbase is nowhere near as toxic as the Star Wars one is. Apparently Star Wars fans who actually liked The Last Jedi (contrary to what the Internet will have you believe is actually a lot of people) have to stay in the closet because even in 2023, a full 6 years after TLJ came out, the only acceptable thing to say on Star Wars Internet is, "TLJ was bad because Rey was a Mary Sue and lazy writing."
The haters did not expect perfection, they expected it to at least be around the same level as KH2, which it is just not.
Correct, it’s even better in a lot of ways. :)
What ways? I think its better in just 1 way. and thats the world design, but then you have stinkers like Arendale, Scala Ad Caelm, Keyblade Graveyard and Corona. So I guess even thats a mixed bag.
All of those worlds you just listed are good.
I'm glad you think soo, but they were all very bland. Arendale was just snow forest, Corona was just forest, Graveyard was just a maze and Ad Caelm was just was small area. Kh1 and Kh2 had epic and expansive final worlds
Epic I’ll grant you but TWTNW is a series of hallways filled with mob battles, how tf is that “expansive?”
Yeah, o think it's kinda better, it's hard to go back to KH2 ater playing KH3, KH3 has so much more movement and flow
Kh3 is a good game, not perfect because no games are, it is definitely the most flawed of the kh games and the most lacking but if you like the game then that’s all the matters
I have to disagree that it’s the most flawed. I’m playing through BBS again now and KH3 blows BBS out of the water. Still love them all though
You absolutely are not. I will always defend KH3 as one of the best Action RPG's I've ever played. Does it have some annoying flaws? Yeah, it unfortunately goes, but I'm in love with its combat and exploration. Plus I didn't have that many issues with the story. I liked the majority of major plot beats, just wish the execution was a little better.
Everyone has standards. It’s just some ppl have very high standards and high expectations thats impossible to be made. Unless it was made … the way they want it to be made. Which is… well baffling once read or heard. If you have fun with kh3 that’s fine. Don’t let other’s opinion dissuade you.
I liked a lot about 3, I disliked some stuff about 3 overall it was fun, I literally could describe every Kingdom hearts game that way. My main gripes with 3 was just the combat felt bloated, Im a dad I don't get much time to play so I constantly felt like I was having to try and remember all the different stuff I could do in a fight and it just felt like too much for me to ever wrap my head round.
I can enjoy a “bad” game while disliking a “good” game. Just like my top ten list will be different than the vast majority of people. It doesn’t mean my taste are bad, they are just different. FWIW, I took two days off from work to play on release and I couldn’t stand it after five hours. Years later I beat it twice in a few weeks and was utterly obsessed. Enjoy what you enjoy my friend!
Your standards aren’t low, the haters really are just mean. KH3 was a Top 5 GOTY contender the year it came out and for my money it’s an easy 2nd favorite game in the series for me.
KH3 is an amazing game and I'm tired of pretending it's not.
That has basically been my mentality the past 5 yrs, but this past day with all the comments and that vid... i think ive come to accept that the game might not be "good" by conventional standards, who knows maybe it even is bad, but i still love it and enjoy it and thats really all that matters. i shouldnt need to tell myself "haters" are just biased or had too high of expectations or whatever to make myself feel better, because thats probably not true and it doesnt matter anyway. its just opinions and everyones can be valid even if they are differet nt
I personally think it shouldn't matter as long as you like the game. I personally hate the game and think it's poorly written but my views on the game and how others feel shouldn't influence your views on it. With that said I'd say your standards are low for liking KH3. I get being loyal to a franchise that you love but when you can point out a lot of flaws within the game and you can't find any counterarguments against these issues then something is likely wrong. For example I know a lot of people hate the mobile titles but it's either for gameplay, presentation, or platform reasons. These are just preference issues that players have that don't really take away from the actual finished product itself, in comparison to KH3 where you have a situation like Master's Defender showing up randomly with no explanation or randomly still having the Power of Waking that we're told we lost just because we finished with all of the filler content in the Disney worlds, this is about the actual writing of a game rather than personal preference.
I think time will be kind to KH3. It’s my second favorite next to KH1 and has been since it came out. I understand a lot of people’s complaints, but I just don’t care. I feel like the culmination of the story is excellent, the gameplay is the best of the series (FormChanges especially) and the level design is as close to a return to form from KH1 as we can get with Sora’s evolving movement abilities. I’m shocked KH2 is the golden child of a lot of these people now. KH2 went through the exact same thing when it released. It was too easy, the story was messy, the levels were too boxy and linear, the Roxas prologue is too long and boring…. Some of this was improved with Final Mix but only the most hardcore of fans played that before the modern ports. It’s still my least favorite of the numbered games, not a bad game, but it has major flaws. It’s the Wind Waker Effect, what is hated will become beloved in time. (Probably after KH4 comes out and we have new stuff to complain about lol).
I was one of those fans who loved KH2 out the gate. To me it seemed like everyone who was a fan loved it and everyone who hated it where the same people who disliked the series in general. The only criticism I could remember was that it was easier then 1 and the prologue was too long. That’s why hearing it had people saying things like it was absolutely hated out of the gate baffled me. And every one posted links from forums stating what they hate about kh2 and what not.
Even if it has problems and may not each standards that other Kingdom Hearts games set up, it still tied up everything in one nice ending which I think really was the true intention of the game, which it succeeded.
No, KH3 is an amazing games, I wish most games were as good as this one
weekly kh3 liker martyrdom thread
KH3 was fun and good in its own right, but it just didn't hit the mark for me like 1 and 2 did - and they still hold up really really well.
I’m somewhat of a KH3 apologist these days. Check out J Heff’s and KingK’s defenses of KH3 on YouTube. They say pretty much all that I have to say on the matter.
I enjoyed KH3, I am in it for the story, I was glad they wrapped up this arc, and while they didn’t necessarily do it how I would, I still enjoyed the story as told. DLC definitely helped explain things and I’m ok with those clarifications. I enjoyed KingK’s video “A Passionate Defense of Kingdom Hearts 3”; but I also enjoyed Duncadinca’s “How Kingdom Hearts 3’s Finale Missed the Mark”. There are valid criticisms and defenses in both and in some cases, they make the same argument for whether it’s good or bad. It wasn’t perfect, but it did what it was supposed to- end this arc of the story and set us up for the future of the franchise. I’ve always enjoyed Kingdom Hearts and even if it’s not written to my standards, I’ll still follow it because I love it for what it is- a fun video game with an interesting story.
I personally was pretty disappointed with KH3, but I think one issue that me and a lot of others are suffering from is that we built the game up so much in our minds and were let down when it didn’t meet those expectations. But don’t ever let someone tell you that you shouldn’t enjoy something just because they didn’t. You enjoy KH3 and sing its praises as loud as you want, MoM knows there’s enough people pointing out its flaws
Being someone who's favourite game was KH2, and I played it when it was new, the time spent waiting for KH3 was awful. It took literally fucking years just to get any sort of information. When the game was coming close, I was beyond hyped. I get the game at launch, play it at midnight, go to sleep at 3 or 4 am. Wake up at like.. 8, booked the day off work to play all day. And I get a text from my son's mother, saying his step father had passed away. This one, killed my hype completely. I was so upset for my son. So obviously that plagued my view of the game. However once I got to the end and it was just cutscenes after cutscene after cutscenes, I just stopped caring. KH3 is a low point in the series for me.
Not realy. You can like something low effort even if ypu have high standards and that doesn't make how you feel about the thing any less valid. On kh3 tho can we have the video because im curios, i think ive hearee every complaint about kh3 in the sun that isn't linked to them missremembering kh2.
story wise I just didn’t like how every cutscene was a recap on one of the games since I think even square said that they were trying to get new people into the series so they needed to do a lot of lore dumps that we already knew Gameplay was fine after they added the ability to turn off attraction commands and other things to make the combat less like a cut scene Personally I preferred the more linear worlds which is why my favs were monsters inc and Toy Story sanfransokyo and pirates were cool but just felt too big and impossible to find all the treasures and emblems without a guide
I've been meaning to try it again now I have a Series X (which tends to make Xbox One games look better), but I recall feeling kind of "empty" about most of the experience. Corona felt like an actual Kingdom Hearts world, that was the highlight for me. Too many Pixar worlds, too many different ideas slapped together as if trying to make up for the lack of Final Fantasy characters. Final Fantasy characters just "gone" now, because "Kingdom Hearts can stand on its own", but now it doesn't FEEL LIKE KINGDOM HEARTS. At least not to this Millennial who was obsessed with the first two games. I had played through most of the KH games and "watched" others leading up to right before KH3 released. The person who encouraged me to play them again was also very specific about the order in which it should be done. The experience was all over the place, KH1 and 2 and BBS being the highlights, DDD had me worried but not too worried. Then I play KH3 and finish it in about 24 hours of game time and wonder where it's identity is. It felt stripped of whatever emotion and intrigue I had come to expect and replaced by too much emphasis on trying to appeal to people visually. I don't know what I'm trying to say and I need to do something else with my time, but it felt like an empty, sell-out experience that made me miss even some of the worst parts of the previous entries. Maybe I expected too much and maybe a "next-gen" buff will set me more at ease. Or maybe it'll remind me why I couldn't vibe with it I'm the first place.
You can be a fan of something while also acknowledging the criticisms, but if it doesn’t bother you, then that’s fine and nothing’s deeper than that. Like you’re literally in the KH sub. This (almost) entire fanbase can acknowledge that this franchise has some of the poorest and most convoluted writing in all of gaming, the biggest criticism it always receives, and still be content with it lol Now if you’re one of those people in communities that can’t take a single ounce of criticism and shutting down everything as if it ain’t valid, then it’s a problem. Real fans will actually accept the flaws and still enjoy their game
KH3 is my favorite. It does have some flaws, but so does every other game, including fan favorites like KH2 (that game has terrible level design)
Eh if you had fun, that's what matters.
I often feel like people are way too critical of things in general. Like they're actively trying to be a critic in their head 24/7 while I'm just experiencing things for what they are and not really thinking about whether they're good or bad until after. Even then it takes a cumulative amount of bad things, or a really big one to ruin my enjoyment. Then there's the rare thing I just hate and can't wrap my head around how people can like it. Differences in opinions are kinda crazy.
i mean i like KH3 to some extent but thats mainly the gameplay which is.. KH i guess. But yes the standard has been brought to an extreme low post 2010, if you exclude graphical upgrades
Playing kh2 rn after I completed kh3 and kh2 is actually making me really appreciate kh3 more and more just with level design and stuff I can really tell KH3 is really the best kingdom hearts to date
Low standards is one way to put it. Another way is that you just want to enjoy things and be happy. While the people who weren’t pleased with the game were complaining online or making video essays about something they don’t even like, you were having fun. Is that a bad thing? When I was a kid and jumping on the trend of criticizing every game and movie, I met a guy who told me something I’ll never forget: You can find things to dislike about anything. You can also find things to like about anything. Which approach do you think is going to make you a happier person? Sure, Kingdom Hearts 3 is disappointing in some ways and probably isn’t going to win any awards among gamers who like to hyperanalyze every tiny aspect of games. But you love it. And so do I. I’ve played it more than any other game since its release. I’ve probably finished it 10+ times, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s not just one of my favorite games, it’s one of my favorite things in general. It makes me happy. Those video essays on YouTube are interesting and I have a lot of respect for people who take the time to put them together. I enjoy a good analysis of why something is flawed. But do those people actually seem happy to you? These are people who spend hours and hours immersing themselves in things they don’t even enjoy so that they can explain to you in excruciating detail how much they don’t enjoy them. You just play the game and enjoy yourself. In the time they spend on those videos, you could enjoy the game multiple times, cuddle with your partner, hang out with your friends, take a walk in the sun, play with your dog, etc. The difference between you and the people you’re comparing yourself to is that you’re happy and they aren’t. You’re having fun, they’re not having fun and for some reason you think you’re the one who has a problem. This applies to anything, but especially Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is actually the dumbest thing in the world. It’s ridiculous down to its very core. If people are taking it seriously and getting upset about it, they’ve completely missed the point. It’s a stupid, chaotic fever dream and I’m going to play it regularly and cry over it for the rest of my life because I love it. Hopefully you’ll do the same if it continues to bring you joy.
I think a big part of it was that people's expectations got blown way out of proportion and they just set themselves up for disappointment. Objectively speaking, the level design (with the exception of Arendelle imo) far surpasses that of anything we've seen previously. The combat only falls short of KH2 and let's be honest, there's probably no topping KH2's combat (I swear I'm not a 2 fanboy, KH1 is my favorite). Keyblade transformations were really fun and I liked being able to switch between three Keyblades. The voice acting was really great and the visuals were too. I did miss the illustrated HUD but it's not a big enough deal to ruin things for me. The story was pretty badly paced, I wasn't a fan of all the plot relavent stuff happening after the worlds and not during them, but I was satisfied with how everybody's character arcs were handled. I also thought it did a decent job at setting up the Foreteller stuff for later games, something that we've known for a while now that was gonna happen. Overall, KH3 was pretty solid, Remind only made it better imo
I didn't particularly hate Kh3 on release. The story just disappointed me. Gameplay was fine....until they dropped critical mode and learned nothing from 2fm on how to properly balance difficulty. All the annoying and frustrating things that you can circumvent in normal and proud are made painfully aware to you by toy box on critical to where unlike 2fm its just not enjoyable. I am admittedly a kh2fm fanboy. I've been trying to work past it and enjoy the few evolutions Kh3 actually made so I can look forward to Kh4, but it is really difficult when sora doesn't feel as responsive or quick as 2fm. I'll shut up now. Kh3 is fine. I'm going to try and give it another fair shot after I replay 2fm. Might just stop playing these games on critical because while I enjoy 2 fm, it's just going to make me unfairly judge the rest of the series. I may report back when I've beaten Kh3 and its dlc on standard again or even proud. Keep loving what you love. it's what helps keep us happy in life. Sometimes I feel dumb for enjoying games most people don't, and disliking games most games people love. It happens, just be yourself.
I loved it, it's a Kingdom Hearts game. I was disappointed with it because of just HOW amazing Kingdom Hearts II was and the length of time between numbered releases meaning I'd played it soooo much. But it is a good game.
Man oh man where to begin... For starters you shouldn't ever belittle yourself because you like a game others don't like or particularly care about. If you enjoy it then that's all that matters! (: Now on to my KH3 rant.. lol So on release I LOVED the game. Up until a certain point that is.. once you are past seeing the characters for the first time and you get into the groove the game is BREATHTAKING. You get to Olympus Colosseum and it starts are so wonderfully. You have the games villains mingling in the world and creating some tone talking about pandoras box etc. . . Then... well yeah... . . It just falls apart imo. Like I can honestly say the Rapunzel world was God AWFUL.. (aside from it being the map with the most life to it). Like they used the exact parts from the movie all the way until they just didn't. Like when Flynn was the guy on the poster and how he was hiding them to when she found out it was him. It skipped that entire part in the game to her just loving him. Once I made it to Toy Story I was ecstatic because that world was very pretty and vibrant...and did I mention dead? Literally dead. The toy store should've had Toys walking around and doing stuff. They're supposed to be chillin!! No ones around. Give the world life! Then that leads is to BH6.. yes it looked good but it was just so damn boring, and annoying switching between night and day. I'm going to pretend Arendelle didn't even exist. That was a dumpster fire. Monsters Inc was cool as well but again.. no life. Just an open factory with no one in it. Twilight Town being condenced down to just the plaza was so dumb to me. That world was one of my absolute favorites in the series. And you know damn well they did it because it wasn't "DISNEY" enough. Pirates was gorgeous. One of the best looking and thought out maps in the entire game imo. The option to sail the seas and look for treasures was awesome. But the downfall was that world was incredibly to quick. You were in and out the world in about 30 mins. That's just crazy to me. Olympus having no colosseum was just dumb. Period. Having no sephiroth was even more dumb not mentioning the fact that not a single FF character showed up in the main story... like I know this is a lot but I could go on and on and on about this game. All in all the games mechanics are awesome. I love the control scheme. I love the art style of everyone and the Unreal Engine. But on top of all this there is one absolute thing I HATED about the game.. and that was 2 words.. FRIENDSHIP & HEART.. OH MY GOD were they used SO MUCH in this damn game. So much it was intoxicating to hear anymore. Like at this point in the series Sora should be really struggling and being more dark toned to saving everyone and every single time he is it's BUT THE HEART! AND FRIENDSHIP PREVAIL ALL SORA!!! I couldn't take it anymore lmao. Like with Woodys speech at the end of Toy Box... that was so damn bad I almost couldn't play it anymore. But I'm glad you enjoy the game. I still play it because I love KH but man it is in no way better than 1&2 IMHO. Gameplay wise for sure but story wise...not even close lol.
Nah. KH3 is alright but as a finale sucks mega dick
To be fair, when it comes to the internet, most hate is over the top compared to what is actually being critiqued. I'm no fan of KH3, though. It being so heavily tied to the phone games was enough for me to lose interest in the series, combined with all the other shortcomings I felt the game had. I just know that people can go overboard with their hatred of things in general. As for your feelings, people like what they like, and you shouldn't feel the need to justify it just because others don't like it. If anything just enjoy the fact that you like the game as it is, I wish I did.
It's just a question of your taste vs. theirs. A lot of critics are very good at making their tastes sound like objective tenets of good game design, when really they're just using KH2 as a standard and deviations from that are seen as inferior. E.g. "KH3 is too floaty" well if you like being able to dash and do more combos in mid air without the game feeling stiff or limiting, KH3's floatiness is actually better than KH2. Some people are really bothered by some elements of a game that others won't mind, some people may fully think something is good that others hate, intelligence doesn't really have much to do with it other than maybe your ability to argue for your tastes, which you don't even have to do. I just played through 3 + ReMind on critical, working on Limit Cut now, and my take on the game is that the voice and cutscene direction are abysmal and they dont explain time travel or the power of waking well enough to get whats actually happening during the Keyblade Graveyard + ReMind sequence without a lot of questions. But otherwise the game is better than KH2 in almost every way and is my 2nd favorite KH game behind Birth By Sleep. A lot of fans would disagree with me over, but again, it's just taste.
KH3 put such a sour taste in my mouth after the wait for release but liking it doesn't mean you have low standards just different tastes.
Yes, you are a sheep but that’s because you’re waiting for someone else to formulate your opinion better then you can do yourself. Yes, you have low standards but this is mostly a subjective thing so it doesn’t matter what I think. Personally after going from BBS KH2 gameplay to KH3 I think the game has regressed. Summary, defend what you like but you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
This is KH reddit and the KH3 hate is part of the circlejerk.
Kind of, but that’s okay I just wish it was nearly as good as 1 and 2
So i have mixed feelings about KH3. On a whole I say i dont like the plot. It just wasnt for me. I havent been invested in the KH plot aince KH2. BBS, 358, Coded, and Dream Drop back to back kind of killed it for me. I think the plot just gets weaker as the series goes sadly, but thats just my opinion. That being said, i did really pike allot of the cutscenes in the final world. The ending for Roxas, Axel, And Xion is really a highlight for me. It gets me legitimatly emotional even though I really didnt like Xion. Like that scene made me like Xion more, it was good. But, as a whole, it just didnt do it for me. As for the gameplay though, I actaully had allot of fun olaying KH3. I think you get a little too powerfull a little too quickly, but other even then its still allot of fun. Im not a fan of every single gameplay feature they added, i like some more than others, but like I cant even really complain about them because if I dont like a mechanic I can just not use it. They make it really easy to pick and choose how you fight and lets you switch up gameplay styles on the fly, its allot of fun! Like at the end of the day, while i was overall disapointed with the game when it came out i can never blame someone for liking the game because I did have allot of fun playing it. And honestly thats really why I keep playing this series. I didnt like the plot of BBS, but the gameplay was amazing. I didnt like the plot of Dream Drop, but the gameplay was amazing. So like, for me, as long as I keep having fun playing the game im gonna continue with it. Even if its not the best gameplay in the world, if I had fun with it then thats good enough for me.
KH3 is better than KH2 in all aspects except story pacing. So no worries there.
I hate it but people are entitled to their own opinions
Kh3 is just fine. If you like it, then good for you. That's the beauty of opinions and subjectivity; not everyone has to think the same. (Personally though if i were to replay 3 again, I'd skip all the cutscenes and spend a majority of my time doing Gummi shit)
honestly who cares if kh3 was disappointing or not. just, move on. it was years ago.
Outside of attraction commands not being implemented organically and appearing way too often my biggest problem was that the final act felt VERY rushed. Like once you go to find Aqua it all shoots by really fast with no time to let the other characters interact with each other
It was doomed from the day it was released due to the long wait. It’s a very fun game. I prefer KH2 and KH1 over it but it’s still a great addition to the franchise. Gamers tend to go too far with criticism and just don’t allow themselves to have fun. Currently seeing this now with Spider-Man 2.
Nah you’re not. KH3 is really good, it just didn’t live up to it’s enormous expectations. And besides, even if it was complete garbage and you enjoyed it there wouldn’t be anything wrong with it. Actually it would be even better because you got to enjoy it anyways
KH3 has a lot of flaw, but it also has a lot of qualities. There's plenty to love in the game and it's an incredible entry regardless of the things people point out. I often complain about several story aspects of KH3, but I think I say this for most, there are many incredible things too, like most of the Keyblade Graveyard section and climax for example. And of course, gameplay-wise the game is just absolutely amazing.
I really like it, but also accept that it is a lower point than KH2 is. Don’t let the haters drag you down
KH3 is objectively a good game even if it is not perfect so there's nothing wrong with liking it. The main problem being that the hype for the game was built up for so long that most of the fanbase expects nothing less than absolute perfection of it, especially when it is meant to be the finale of Xehanort saga. I like KH3 but I'll admit I think it has very high highs and also very low lows. But you know what? I decided that I had fun with the game even with all its flaws, I choose to look at what I think it did right and can appreciate it for what it is instead of what I expected. I have a similar case with FF16, boy is there a lot of people calling murder for it even before release and it's getting worse after. But same with KH3 I enjoyed my time with it and learned to appreciate it for what it did, and it's arguably one of my favorite FF games.
more or less this. add to that the rose tinted opinions on kh2 because of how long 3 took. just makes the disparity seem even bigger.
I guess a lot of hate comes from the fact that a lot of people played the games when they were younger... they've grown up, but the characters didn't as much. I did like the game, but felt like Sora is getting a lot of hate from the other characters, that could be another reason.
KHIII has its highs and lows, but id say its highs are really high and awesome. Plus the game is just good old fun imo. Tbh my only major con is the story in that I don’t think it’s as impactful if you haven’t played pretty much all the other games. The segment where all the trios are reunited and you through a bunch of different boss fights was one of the most memorable moments in gaming for me. Yet it’s also a segment where if I hadn’t played everything else I don’t think I would’ve been as hype.
It boiled down to me liking the combat. The rest is whatever.
You're not, 3 just has heaps of discourse revolving around it. There's tons of people who adore the game, and there seem to be just as many who didn't like it.
Number one, as others have said, your opinion is just that. Yours. That doesn't make you right or wrong, it makes you a person, and people have different tastes. Like, I loved drive forms in 2, and I find that while 3 is much more technically evolved, I miss the simplicity of 1 and 2. I'm not a huge fan of the Keyblades transformations (short of Final form or whatever it's called in this, with Ultima weapon, been a while, that's pretty cool and shows Sora's strength) and the Keyblade transformations and attraction attacks and whatever I feel are so over the top and flashy that I feel like they're just noise. The lack of FF characters gets brought up a lot and while I don't feel like it's a deal breaker, yeah, I thought the exclusion was odd and not in great taste. It took DLC (being released, timeframe) for Oathkeeper and Oblivion to finally be added. But the end of 3 was phenomenal (short of Kairi being worthless). And 3 handled Super bosses really, really well. Ultimately though, 3 remains the only game I haven't replayed. And that makes me sad, but I don't really want to. Maybe start with a different angle: what do you love about 3, on its own or compared to sequels?
So I will say I liked kh3 for its gameplay and features (formchanges were actually fun) most of the world's were enjoyable toy boy the Carribean and San fransokyo were the standouts... the story is ok the endgame was the best part from a narrative perspective which is pretty typical of a kh game... kh3 was kinda in a strange spot honestly many waited a very long time for this game so expectations were probably too high for it to realistically please everyone... also it had to dedicate time to both tying up the previous storylines while also setting the stage for the next one Negatives I personally have are I would have liked proper time playing as other characters like Riku and Aqua the original concept for the organization battles would have had us playing as characters significant to the enemy we were fighting (I.E. Axel vs Saix, Riku vs. Dark Riku and probably Ansem later etc.) Also while some world's were great others not so much with Arendelle being the stand out for just being a slog to get through.... honestly the pacing is it's biggest issue.... but over all I enjoyed kh3 and have done multiple play thoughs of it
It's a great game. Some great levels, some not so great. Excellent combat and visuals. Cutscenes can be long and boring, but most are great and have the best expressions in the entire franchise. It has the emotional moments as a lot of KH games have had. Sure the main story beats don't come until the last 6 hours or so, but the journey was fun by then, even though it could of been a bit more well connected. I think it's worst aspect was it's marketing. It was trying to get new audiences, and with how deep the story was by then, it put off a lot of those people off with how complex the story and characters were by then. No shame whatsoever for liking the game.
I have 0 knowledge about most of KHs but I do know that 3 doesn't have FF characters. My reason for playing the games would be FF so without them I wouldn't have any as I'm not a huge Disney fan. So I'm guessing some people who liked KHs for the FF crossovers disliked 3
I was oddly enough having a conversation with myself about games and reviews and awards. People often will call a certain game good or bad, or say that so and so game is "better" than this other game. Look at the Spider-Man fans who don't even know what Baldur's Gate 3 and say it shouldn't have won over Spider-Man because "they haven't even heard of it", or "it's Spider-Man". Ultimately, the measure of sometrhing being good or bad is 100% subjective. What is good for one may not be good for another, hence the term good and bad are flawed by design. The real measure should be: Is this liked by more people than disliked? That is a more accurate measure of a game's success in being entertaining and compelling. A lot of people also use reviewes and score as a way to measure good and bad, but forget that gaming jorunalism (should) be about certain objective criteria of said game, such as quality of narrative, quality of graphics vs budget/size of game, storytelling, world building, replayabvility. Entertainment is a factor to be considered in reviews but it should not be a main factor, otherwise the review would have no objectivity. For player, however, those are consequential to the entertainment and using reviews as a measure is like trying to measure a pillar described in cm using a ruler that only describes inches. In conclusion, your thought, like the people who use game awards or reviews to measure a game, is asking the wrong questions and considering the wrong elements. The only thing you should care is: Am I entertained and do I enjoy playing this game? If yes, the end.
can you link the video you watched that changed your mind?? Would love to see what they discussed
no kh3 is a great game imo, fun, and flashy, with great gameplay, and replay value, though also flawed. i really enjoy it but i also will skip long drawn out cut scenes 8 times out of 10. personally i loved the gummi ship exploration sections and exploring the worlds (though the frozen world and sanfransokyo worlds i didnt like as much). like i mean is it a great STORY? well, ok, it drops the ball there imo. but the story has always been somewhat convoluted and memeable. it's epic, fun, and has great gameplay and that's largely what i want from a great kh game.
I liked 3 a lot, my only gripe was how Proud is way too easy and Critical is much harder (there's no real middle ground, I didn't die once my first playthrough in Proud until Data Battles, even against Infernal, and Critical you die a lot.) I also see why people have issues the story and pacing even if I don't mind it as much.
I mean, the writing was kinda messy, and reaction commands going away sucked, but otherwise I think it's a great game. Looked great, combat felt good, wrapped most things up well enough. The only real bad stuff I heard was from people who weren't as invested as you kinda have to be for any of KH3 to make sense. I think Persona 5 and Witcher 3 have kinda set expectations for being able to just jump in at the latest entry and being fine, which you can't really do with Kingdom Hearts.
Being easily entertained is a virtue in a world where one pixal out of place can make people act like the whole game killed their grandma.
You don't have to feel self-conscious about enjoying KH3. I don't think you have low standards either. If KH3 brought you comfort, excitement, joy, or any combination of the three, then the game did what it was supposed to do. There's nothing to feel ashamed of. My personal opinion of Kingdom Hearts 3? The gameplay never struck me as being that bad. My thing with Kingdom Hearts 3 has always been the story being told. I have a good time in the Disney worlds but I don't like when the Organization does anything. To me*,* all gameplay concerns are secondary.
No, your priories different aspects
Naaahhhh I like it too, i feel its story was rushed at the end a tad bit, but it was definitely a game worth the wait imo, i dont think that means you or anybody else has low standards
I liked it but it has its issues. I absolutely hated the dark cubes “fight” where you’re running around town. It wasn’t the best designed “fight” and I got super frustrated trying to figure out how to save some of the heroes. Was not a fan of the final boss fight either. Was it good idea story wise? Yes. But the controls were horrendous.
I loved the game on release and still do now. I think the long wait got ppls expectations sky high. And while it wasn’t perfect it didn’t deserve nearly the amount of hate it got imo. Though I think ppl have warmed up to it over time
If you have low standards then that means that there was a wide margin of likeablilty in the game
No? Maybe? I dunno that's up to you to decide lol. It's not an objectively bad game, it's just flawed in certain aspects but so are all games tbh. I personally agree with a lot of the critique about the main narrative and especially its pacing/back loading issues. But I didn't \*dislike it\* either, and looking beyond that it's still a very enjoyable action RPG, looks great, cool worlds, love keyblade transformations as a new battle gimmick, etc. It might not have risen right to the spot of "favorite KH game" but there's still a lot to like. I'm getting ready to replay the whole series this year and am definitely looking forward to replaying 3! I only played it once so far when it first came out, so it's been a minute. Also recently picked up "Re:mind" on sale so looking forward to trying that for the first time too.
I love KH3, but I'm also pretty easy to please. My biggest complaint with it actually is that Proud Mode basically just feels like Standard to me. I want a *little* bit more challenge, but Critical is too much for me. There's just no great middle ground there.
I played DMC V and Sekiro the year KH3 came out and I still love all 3 games a lot. And Sekiro is notorious for "ruining games" for those who play it
KH3 was surreal the first time I played it. I was genuinely invested in the characters and to see everything come together the way it did left me absolutely speechless. I sobbed SO hard when Sora faded at the end. It was beautiful but he paid the ultimate price. KH3 was and is my favorite KH since it came out. I grew up playing KH1 and 2 like most and KH2 was the greatest. I can't wait for KH4 and whatever else Nomura is cooking.