![]() ![]() Both act like abridged versions of their respective films, mirroring the storylines and completely recreating many of the pivotal scenes in-engine, with the addition of Sora and company. Of the new additions, the Tangled and Frozen worlds were unexpected stand-outs for me. Returning from previous entries are worlds based on Hercules, Pirates of the Caribbean and Winnie the Pooh, while the rest all represent debut appearances. The other benefit to this structure is that the worlds are folded quite neatly into the Kingdom Hearts lore, with Organisation XIII sharing an almost parallel journey to Sora’s, in which they’re travelling these same worlds with the intent of learning about the characteristics of the various Disney luminaries’ hearts. It’s a hook that’s worked perfectly in prior titles and in Kingdom Hearts III it feels more important than ever, considering this might be a lot of players’ first Kingdom Hearts game since the PlayStation 2, or ever. As with earlier games the short-form stories featured in each world serve a handy dual purpose of pushing the overall plot and Sora’s character arc along while serving up smaller, self-contained narratives that are satisfying to see through and don’t require a PhD to understand. Each world represents around two or three hours of main story content, ignoring time taken to poke around their various corners to look for treasures and secrets. Some worlds are fairly linear in form, like the corridors of the Monsters Inc facility in Monstropolis, while others are open, free-roaming spaces like Big Hero 6’s San Fransokyo. Every world has a distinctly different feel as well, often each with a unique structure and bespoke mechanics and minigames. Where the worlds in previous games often felt like Disney-themed dioramas, all bite-sized spaces broken up by loading screens, this time around they’re huge environments that actually feel convincingly like places from the franchises they’re based on. The limited selection is a small price to pay though for the sheer size and depth of most of them. When it comes to the locales that the three traverse on their character-building journey, Kingdom Hearts III actually features a fairly modest eight worlds based on Disney properties. To that end, the crux of the game’s plot is about Sora’s personal journey, hopping from world to world with Donald and Goofy in tow to learn as much as he can about matters of the heart and his own inner strength from a menagerie of Disney film characters. At the game’s opening, Sora is still dealing with having failed the Mark of Mastery exam needed to become a true Keyblade Master, knowing that he needs to find it within himself to pass so that he can join his friends in defeating the Organisation. Without delving too far into the series’ lore, Kingdom Hearts III picks up after Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and sees Sora, Donald and Goofy continue on their quest to assemble the seven Guardians of Light and prevent a new iteration of the nefarious Organisation XIII from unlocking Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds, and reshaping all existence as they see fit. There’s a concerted effort here to put the spotlight back on Sora and his friends and revisit matters of the heart, of companionship and emotional strength that were at the core of the allegorical and symbolic imagery that the series was founded on. Without ever shying away from its past and the tangled web of heroes, anti-heroes, döppelgangers, time travel, black cloaks and anime hair that precedes it, the vast majority of the game’s story is a return to the themes and messages of the very first title. Thankfully though, that wasn’t the case.Īgainst all odds, Kingdom Hearts III features a story that is fairly welcoming to casual fans and even newcomers. So, despite going back and replaying most of the titles in the recent HD collections and watching countless YouTube recaps in preparation, I went into Kingdom Hearts III concerned that I’d wind up totally perplexed within hours of starting the game. Even before then I’ll admit I occasionally found it hard to remember which one of the many identical-looking characters was which at any given moment. For me it was somewhere around the Coded/Dream Drop Distance era, where folks started bouncing around virtual worlds and jumping into each other’s dreams Inception-style. Whether you only ever played the two main, numbered entries on the PlayStation 2 or you’ve also played the many spin-offs and the F2P mobile game, there’s a point where there’s no choice but to throw both hands up in defeat and admit that you’re completely lost. There’s a moment in every Kingdom Hearts fan’s life when they realise that, despite their best efforts, they no longer have any idea what’s going on the in long-running series’ famously convoluted story. ![]()
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