My Five Biggest Personal Issues with Kingdom Hearts III

 

Having recently completed my 4th or 5th playthrough of Kingdom Hearts III since it's release in January 2019, I have to say my opinion on the game is very heavily mixed.  It doesn't hit the same dramatic tones the first two games or even 358/2 Days or Birth By Sleep did.  The story line is all over the map and character motivations and actions turn on a dime instead of being calculated or smooth throughout.  The gameplay is fluid and solid, if not slightly aggravating with the annoying as all hell Attractions Gimmicks you can only turn off if you're playing Critical Mode.  The set pieces and look of the game is absolutely breathtaking, if not being totally wasted on a game with this cast of characters being largely uneven.  

For those who play these games strictly for the gameplay, you'll like this game fine.  For those of you like me who have been invested in this series since 2002, it can feel like a plodding and meandering mess for more than half of it's run time and the other half is a storyline that makes minimal logical sense.  Personally, while I've played every Kingdom Hearts game that I can (with the exception of the Melody of Memory game because I refuse to play it for a few minutes of added cutscenes), I feel like this game has jumped the shark in terms of what the franchise will be doing going forward.  Look, I get that using the same formula of Sora, Donald and Goofy traveling from various world to world was an untenable concept that would get old after a while, but if Disney and Square Enix going to be doing what I think they'll be doing by essentially ditching the classic formula going forward (as there is officially no reason to visit the vast majority of Disney Worlds going forward), I think the series is going to lose it's core audience.  There aren't many like me who will pick it up for reasons beyond Sora and Hercules teaming up to fight Hades.  And the distinct lack of Final Fantasy characters in anything but the DLC released a year after the original game came out also rubbed people the wrong way.  Kingdom Hearts is going to have an identity crisis going forward and I don't think they'll be able to recover from it.  

So, my opinion on the game is somewhere between subpar and above average.  It doesn't come close to dethroning Kingdom Hearts II as my all time favorite game or the original game in my heart.  What does that mean for this game?  What were my biggest issues with the game?  Well, let's delve into a couple of them right here.  Please note that these aren't in any particular order, as each have angered me to different degrees based on playthroughs.  

1. "The New Seven Lights" 

One of the key components of the original game was the mysterious and untapped powers that lied within the hearts of several maidens in the universe, known as the Princesses of Heart.  While these maidens did not technically have to be royalty or even come from worlds where they would be considered as such, they would all possess pure and unbridled hearts that could see the good in all people and spread their lights to not only safeguard their own worlds, but to also be the keys to opening the door to Kingdom Hearts itself and finding the light within.  As many of you know, the Princesses of Heart were all abducted from their worlds by the likes of Maleficent and her council of evil Disney Villains (Hades, Oogie Boogie, Ursula, Captain Hook and Jafar) and used to open the door to Kingdom Hearts by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.  After this purpose, the Princesses remained in Hollow Bastion to ward off the darkness until Sora and co. defeated Ansem and closed Kingdom Hearts.  Then, though the need to find Kingdom Hearts in it's purest form was gone, there was still some power within these women, hence why it was so important to keep them safe in future and later Kingdom Hearts games, especially Belle and Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts II.  

Somewhere along the line, in a sense of revisionist history, Square and Disney up and took this power of unlocking Kingdom Hearts away from most of these Princesses and bestowed it upon a new generation of them.  Chiefly, in Kingdom Hearts III, we encounter both Elsa and Anna in Arendelle as well as Rapunzel in The Kingdom of Corona.  But, as Sora pointed out, Kairi never gave up her power.  So, why do these other six have to surrender their power, but not her?  And why would we only be introduced to these three and not the remaining three?  Are we supposed to assume that by proxy, one of Megara, Boo, Elizabeth Swann, Gogo or Honey Lemon were the other ones?  Why have Marluxia and Larxene make these threats to Sora about potentially abducting these new Princesses when we're not even sure who all seven of them would be?  It's unfortunately another one of those continuity errors that the series is enveloped in, like with Ansem the Wise somehow surviving being blown up in The World That Never Was in KH II.  

2. Glorified Cameos

One of the best aspects of Kingdom Hearts is that the threats imposed on the worlds aren't just coming from the Heartless, the Nobodies, the Unversed or Organization XIII.  It can also come from the Disney Villains and their ambitions.  Villains who are lured into power by the darkness in their hearts like Frollo, Clayton and Shan Yu or those directly or indirectly tied to Maleficent and Pete (Barbossa, Ursula, Jafar, Hades, Scar, Oogie Boogie, etc.) all pose major threats to their worlds as Sora and co. travel to them.  Beginning in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, the import of the Disney Villain has gradually declined to the point where in that game, only three mandatory bosses in the game were Disney Villains (Rinzler, The Beagle Boys and Chernabog).  In this game, it's almost worse depending on whether or not you count the Heartless Baymax as a Disney boss or not.  The Titans, Davy Jones and Marshmallow are the only three Disney Bosses in the entire game.  No match with Hades, Randall, or Hans as the main threats in the Disney Worlds in this game come directly from the Heartless and Organization XIII.  

But to add insult to injury, I genuinely think Maleficent and Pete are only in about 5 minutes of screen time combined in the entire game, a far cry from their appearances in Kingdom Hearts II.  They are traveling from world to world in search of a "black box" which contains within it the ancient Book of Prophecies.  But they do not pose any serious challenge to Sora and co., nor does Xehanort see them as anything other than a speed bump.  It's a horrific slide downward for the alleged Mistress of All Evil, who not only makes it to the end of this game, but also seems to have discovered where the Book is after all this time at the end of the Secret Ending.  If this book was truly important, you would think the game would have elaborated for us a bit on what it can do or why everyone should be seeking this box.  But it seemed that of all the people in Kingdom Hearts III, only Xigbar, Maleficent and Luxord seem to be keen on finding it.  No one else.  So it makes Maleficent even appearing in this game utterly pointless as she chooses to remain neutral in the Keyblade War and thus vanishes from the game completely in the Third Act.  

3. The Lack of Stakes 

Apart from Sora, who fades out of existence by the end of the game, there isn't a single character in Kingdom Hearts III who has anything at stake in this game.  The Guardians of Light are essentially all powered up and completely incapable of being hurt or killed at this point in the series (despite the fake out at the start of the Keyblade War in Act III).  Aqua has spent a decade in the Realm of Darkness with it eating away are her heart and power, only to be able to fight both Vanitas and Terranort almost too easily.  Ventus has been asleep for just as long and is able to fight immediately.  Riku and Mickey were shown to be struggling to make it through the Realm of Darkness in search of Aqua, but seem to come out of it just fine.  Kairi and Axel both had all of the time in the world to train, but they are still extreme novices with the Keyblade.  Sora always seems to have a Deus Ex Machina around that saves him from certain death in all of these games, including this one.  

In essence, there was nothing for us to worry about these characters with.  Even though we know where Sora ends up at the end of this game, it doesn't change the fact that aside from him, everyone on the Guardians of Light side ended up okay.  Riku was fine, Kairi was fine, Axel, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Roxas, Mickey, Xion, Namine, even bad guys like Xehanort and Saix got the endings they wanted without any consequences for their actions.  No one sacrificed anything besides Sora.  When there is literally nothing else to do with Riku's character or most of them by this point, why do we keep them around of not just for fan service?  Personally, I've always felt that the Third Act was told out of order.  Instead of Terranort and the Heartless wiping out the Guardians of Light until Sora used he Power of Waking to revive them, it should have been that the heroes begin to fall during the War itself, with their hearts becoming a part of Xehanort's X-Blade itself.  It would make Sora's quest to rescue them make more sense than him jumping through time to go back and forth and save them like he does in the real story.  Sora could have teamed up with the likes of Roxas, Xion or Terra to face off against the remaining Xehanort clones instead of just randomly having Mickey and Riku ignore the rest of the battling and let Kairi get kidnapped again.  With no stakes involved for anyone besides Sora, why even have these characters there?  

4. Kairi...

Sigh...what am I going to do with you?  Actually, I shouldn't have to answer that.  What is Square Enix going to do with you?  

Kairi might actually be the most underutilized and most insulting character in the entirety of Kingdom Hearts.  She is the de facto Damsel in Distress character for both Sora and Riku's journeys, first losing her heart in the attack on Destiny Islands in Kingdom Hearts I and then being kidnapped by Organization XIII to be used to force Sora to take part in their plans in Kingdom Hearts II.  She gets to wield a Keyblade during Kingdom Hearts II and becomes a full fledged wielder by the time Kingdom Hearts III is reaching it's climax.  She promises Sora that she would be the one to protect him this time around, and she fulfills this role by keeping Sora's heart from fading into the darkness.  The two share a GD Paopu Fruit for goodness sake.  She seems like this will finally be the time that Kairi can blossom into a character that will show just how capable she is.  

Then, because they couldn't think of what to do to add a fake sense of tension to the climax, for the third time in the series, Kairi is kidnapped, this time by Xemnas in order to force Sora into continuing the fight against the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness.  Which, by all means, they would have had to do to eliminate the bad guys anyway.  I mean, isn't that why Mickey and Riku went after Xemnas (good work as usual, Michael Rat) and Ansem in the first place?  Why kidnap Kairi when you knew Master Xehanort was too dangerous to be allowed to live and you know the good guys were going to fight him regardless.  

And then, to add insult to injury, Xehanort kills Kairi right in front of Sora for no reason other than to emphasize how evil he was (MAKE A NOTE OF THIS FOR LATER!).  This of course prompts Sora, Riku and Michael Rat to attack Xehanort in different intervals, only for Xehanort to repel them all and open the pathway to Kingdom Hearts.  Sora then, after giving Xehanort a taste of his size fifteens, goes on a journey to save Kairi and bring her back to life, only for him to give out his own heart in the process.  And they really didn't do much for Kairi in Melody of Memory, as she needed to be saved by a phantom spirit of Sora's even when fighting a shadow of Master Xehanort.  This does not bode well for Kairi in the next legitimate game in the series.  Let's hope Riku is ready to stand up for the challenge of being the protagonist for a bit with Sora MIA.  

5. Xehanort

Master Xehanort has done some truly reprehensible things in his quest to become the most powerful Keyblade wielder in the world.  He murdered his best friend and prodigal brother in Eraqus.  He ruined the lives of Terra, Ventus and Aqua, including possessing Terra's body and using his strength to further his goals.  As the Heartless Ansem, he terrorized countless worlds, forced the true Ansem into exile, destroyed Hollow Bastion, brought about the rise of Maleficent and tore apart Sora, Riku and Kairi while on their first journey.  As his Nobody Xemnas, he brought about great suffering to countless worlds, lied to his friends about them not having hearts, nearly murdered Riku and Sora and put a nearly insurmountable wedge between Roxas, Axel and Xion.  His younger self nearly killed Riku and Mickey and cast Sora's heart into the deepest abyss for his own goals.  Once his body was recompleted, he orchestrated the Keyblade War and murdered Kairi to force Sora to comply.  He is about as far from being a good guy as one could get.  So, when Sora, Donald and Goofy finally take him down and reduce him to being nothing but an exhausted and broken old man, you expect Sora and the others to give him the down-dressing he deserves.  To reduce this fiend who has murdered, lied, cheated and schemed his way to wipe out countless lives in the pursuit of curiosity.  

But good old Square Enix has one more trick up it's sleeve: to try and make Xehanort sympathetic.  Wait, what?  Why?  How can you make a man who in game time about ten minutes before his ultimate defeat was responsible for murdering one of the main characters into a sympathetic character?  How can you try to make us see that he fears that the worlds as they are are not strong enough to repel the dark forces lurking in the shadows, when he himself is responsible for the growth of those shadows in the world?  Remember, Maleficent knowing about the worlds beyond her own and her capture of the Princesses of Heart was because of him.  All of the dark and horrible things that have transpired in this entire series (apart from the Mobile game, but I'm not in the mood to talk about that clusterfuck just yet) are because of him.  He murdered Eraqus and sent Terra down a path of seeking darkness.  He caused most of the worlds to blink out with his Heartless hordes.  He ruined the lives of all of those involved in Organization XIII one way or another.  Why does Square want us to empathize with him?  Well, there is a reason for it, and it's explained in the Mobile Game.  But it's not only a cop out reason, it's also a frustrating one, so I don't accept it.  Square gets into this habit of adding things into later games and pretending that was all a part of the plan, when it clearly couldn't have been as there was no set up or payoff for it.  It'd be like a Star Wars movie introducing a new kind of Jedi or Sith that existed completely separately from the ones we know, but claims it had an influence over both Yoda and the Emperor.  This one still grinds me to my effing core with this game.  Just have Xehanort remain as cold and evil as he always was until he finally accepts defeat and dies.  No need to try and make him a better person that he never truly was.