Okay, starting disclaimer: I actually did enjoy KH3. I know some people griped that it was "too easy", but I'm not a challenge junkie. I got it for the story, to see the conclusion and find out how characters I liked and admired from previous entries (Master Aqua) would be rescued from the situations that the villain had left them in (again, Master Aqua, stuck in the Realm of Darkness for ten fucking years). And in some respects it delivered (including, yes, Master Aqua).
Also, I'm not going to spoilerize this since the game's been out for over seven months.
And while grousing about the subpar world interactions in the game is common, I can't entirely blame Nomura and his team for that. Disney forced him to accept limits from the production teams of those settings, and the result really shows in Corona (Tangled, which is a fairly pedestrian re-telling of said movie, complete with plot holes forced by compression, and alleviated by Corona being one of the new NPC-filled areas and the sheer energy that Rapunzel brings to the story) and especially Arendelle (yeah, Disney wasn't going to let Nomura do anything interesting with their money machine, and the result was a boring trod up and down the mountain outside Arendelle: I'll link later to a video speculating on what might have been originally intended).
But there are some things I am going to protest, although for time's sake I may do this post by post.
First and foremost: the game's story is really unevenly paced. We hop world to world, interacting with the O-XIII members, but never having much of a fight with them, and occasionally get cutscenes as their EVIL PLAN continues. Then you complete the last Disney world, New Fransokyo (Big Hero 6), and suddenly the plot hits the accelerator, quickly bringing us through getting the heroes together, making the journey to the Keyblade Graveyard, and the ridiculous cutscene power-to-max sequence of Terranort (Xehanort in Terra's body, as of the end of BBS) stomping Ven around and everyone just kinda standing around until Donald Zettaflares his ass to atoms (the only cool part of that scene), then everybody dies to the super-Heartless Twister and we get the whole "Final World" sequence and Sora saving everyone to try again. Rush from there to the Lingering Will saving the day in Terranort Part Deux, the admittedly awesome sequence of Sora channeling the spirits and Keyblades of the Graveyard to defeat the twister, and the big damn battle with the O-XIII members.
Compare this to KH2, which involved visiting each world twice save for Disney Castle/Timeless River. Three times for Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden and Twilight Town. Even if the games aren't too different in time length, KH2 feels more filled out, better paced, and consequently more epic in scope. Especially given the big bang of the game's midpoint, the Battle of Hollow Bastion, with the epic boss fight with Demyx (and those damn water clones) and the "Thousand Heartless sequence" (which KH3 poorly copies at the start of the Graveyard, spoiling it with that "Attractions Move" conclusion). KH3 comes off as remarkably rushed toward the ending because you go so quickly into the climax.
And speaking of the ending.... BAD NOMURA! YOU FUCKING FRIDGED KAIRI!
Consider this from the POV of someone who played the games as they came out, roughly. In 2006 KH2 came out. And as you follow the climactic events of the final world, you get to see everyone link up, and with all the fighting going on, Kairi gets a Keyblade and starts helping as best as she can. Then after KH2 came the four handheld titles, including the prequel Birth by Sleep where a very young Kairi interacts with Aqua and touches her keyblade - established already as the Keyblader "Line of Succession" mechanic - and then the ending (or rather secret ending) of KH3D has Kairi outright stated to be one of the Keyblade wielders for the final battle. KH3 even has a running subplot where she and Lea (aka Axel) are training with their Keyblades to be able to fight the final battle.
So, with all of those years of buildup about Kairi joining the squad and fighting beside Sora and Riku, what did we get?
We get her doing nothing during the first Terranort/Twister fight. She does magic heart-link stuff to help Sora save the others afterward. Then does almost nothing again. Then during the final battle bits, you can see her sparring with Xion as you approach that battle and join her and Lea. During said fight, a cutscene starts in which Xemnas promptly shows up and grabs her arm and kidnaps her, as if it's back in KH1 or 2 before she got her blade. Skip toward the final battle.... and watch as Master Xehanort casually executes her with a single Keyblade strike to provoke Sora and finish the "clash of light and dark" and spawn the χ-Blade. Then in the end Sora mis-uses the Power of Waking again to retrieve her, but then fades away himself as a consequence (clearly to set up KH4).
And all I have to say is... are you fucking serious? After all that buildup, Nomura, this was what you had in mind?! You ASS, this is literally what Gail Simone meant when she coined the concept of "Women in Refrigerators"!
If you're not sure what that is, it means when a female character is hurt or killed solely to advance the story of a male character. It references the murder of Kyle Rayner's girlfriend shortly after he became the new/last Green Lantern.
Because none of this, not one bit, actually did a fucking thing for Kairi's character! It was solely to provoke Sora and then set up his fate in the ending!
And it was entirely unnecessary!
You need Kairi dead for Sora to bring back and set up his disappearing thing? Fine! You have Kairi vow to protect Sora this time. Have her fulfill that vow! Have Master Xehanort gain the upper hand on Sora, prepare to deliver a lethal blow... and have Kairi rush in and take the blow on herself. Have Kairi protect Sora with her very life! Boom! You've got what you need!
But nope! You decided to be a fucking tease about Kairi joining her friends in battle.
And honestly, I could go on. I could point out that since this is clearly going to continue with a new arc, and this was always meant to be the finale only of the Xehanort arc, you didn't need to give us the "What will happen now?" ending with Sora. You could've not done any of this bullshit! You could've given everyone the Happy Ending they deserved, with all three trios (Sora/Kairi/Riku, Ven/Aqua/Terra, and Roxas/Xion/Lea) intact and enjoying their victory. Then used the post-credits ending and secret ending videos to establish the new threat that's due to step in.
But nope! Gotta have your fucking shitty ass "bittersweet ending". Otherwise edgelord gamers won't want KH4, I guess!
Anyway, gotta get ready for work, time for Mount Steve to stop booming and build up the magma chamber again.
Also, I'm not going to spoilerize this since the game's been out for over seven months.
And while grousing about the subpar world interactions in the game is common, I can't entirely blame Nomura and his team for that. Disney forced him to accept limits from the production teams of those settings, and the result really shows in Corona (Tangled, which is a fairly pedestrian re-telling of said movie, complete with plot holes forced by compression, and alleviated by Corona being one of the new NPC-filled areas and the sheer energy that Rapunzel brings to the story) and especially Arendelle (yeah, Disney wasn't going to let Nomura do anything interesting with their money machine, and the result was a boring trod up and down the mountain outside Arendelle: I'll link later to a video speculating on what might have been originally intended).
But there are some things I am going to protest, although for time's sake I may do this post by post.
First and foremost: the game's story is really unevenly paced. We hop world to world, interacting with the O-XIII members, but never having much of a fight with them, and occasionally get cutscenes as their EVIL PLAN continues. Then you complete the last Disney world, New Fransokyo (Big Hero 6), and suddenly the plot hits the accelerator, quickly bringing us through getting the heroes together, making the journey to the Keyblade Graveyard, and the ridiculous cutscene power-to-max sequence of Terranort (Xehanort in Terra's body, as of the end of BBS) stomping Ven around and everyone just kinda standing around until Donald Zettaflares his ass to atoms (the only cool part of that scene), then everybody dies to the super-Heartless Twister and we get the whole "Final World" sequence and Sora saving everyone to try again. Rush from there to the Lingering Will saving the day in Terranort Part Deux, the admittedly awesome sequence of Sora channeling the spirits and Keyblades of the Graveyard to defeat the twister, and the big damn battle with the O-XIII members.
Compare this to KH2, which involved visiting each world twice save for Disney Castle/Timeless River. Three times for Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden and Twilight Town. Even if the games aren't too different in time length, KH2 feels more filled out, better paced, and consequently more epic in scope. Especially given the big bang of the game's midpoint, the Battle of Hollow Bastion, with the epic boss fight with Demyx (and those damn water clones) and the "Thousand Heartless sequence" (which KH3 poorly copies at the start of the Graveyard, spoiling it with that "Attractions Move" conclusion). KH3 comes off as remarkably rushed toward the ending because you go so quickly into the climax.
And speaking of the ending.... BAD NOMURA! YOU FUCKING FRIDGED KAIRI!
Consider this from the POV of someone who played the games as they came out, roughly. In 2006 KH2 came out. And as you follow the climactic events of the final world, you get to see everyone link up, and with all the fighting going on, Kairi gets a Keyblade and starts helping as best as she can. Then after KH2 came the four handheld titles, including the prequel Birth by Sleep where a very young Kairi interacts with Aqua and touches her keyblade - established already as the Keyblader "Line of Succession" mechanic - and then the ending (or rather secret ending) of KH3D has Kairi outright stated to be one of the Keyblade wielders for the final battle. KH3 even has a running subplot where she and Lea (aka Axel) are training with their Keyblades to be able to fight the final battle.
So, with all of those years of buildup about Kairi joining the squad and fighting beside Sora and Riku, what did we get?
We get her doing nothing during the first Terranort/Twister fight. She does magic heart-link stuff to help Sora save the others afterward. Then does almost nothing again. Then during the final battle bits, you can see her sparring with Xion as you approach that battle and join her and Lea. During said fight, a cutscene starts in which Xemnas promptly shows up and grabs her arm and kidnaps her, as if it's back in KH1 or 2 before she got her blade. Skip toward the final battle.... and watch as Master Xehanort casually executes her with a single Keyblade strike to provoke Sora and finish the "clash of light and dark" and spawn the χ-Blade. Then in the end Sora mis-uses the Power of Waking again to retrieve her, but then fades away himself as a consequence (clearly to set up KH4).
And all I have to say is... are you fucking serious? After all that buildup, Nomura, this was what you had in mind?! You ASS, this is literally what Gail Simone meant when she coined the concept of "Women in Refrigerators"!
If you're not sure what that is, it means when a female character is hurt or killed solely to advance the story of a male character. It references the murder of Kyle Rayner's girlfriend shortly after he became the new/last Green Lantern.
Because none of this, not one bit, actually did a fucking thing for Kairi's character! It was solely to provoke Sora and then set up his fate in the ending!
And it was entirely unnecessary!
You need Kairi dead for Sora to bring back and set up his disappearing thing? Fine! You have Kairi vow to protect Sora this time. Have her fulfill that vow! Have Master Xehanort gain the upper hand on Sora, prepare to deliver a lethal blow... and have Kairi rush in and take the blow on herself. Have Kairi protect Sora with her very life! Boom! You've got what you need!
But nope! You decided to be a fucking tease about Kairi joining her friends in battle.
And honestly, I could go on. I could point out that since this is clearly going to continue with a new arc, and this was always meant to be the finale only of the Xehanort arc, you didn't need to give us the "What will happen now?" ending with Sora. You could've not done any of this bullshit! You could've given everyone the Happy Ending they deserved, with all three trios (Sora/Kairi/Riku, Ven/Aqua/Terra, and Roxas/Xion/Lea) intact and enjoying their victory. Then used the post-credits ending and secret ending videos to establish the new threat that's due to step in.
But nope! Gotta have your fucking shitty ass "bittersweet ending". Otherwise edgelord gamers won't want KH4, I guess!
Anyway, gotta get ready for work, time for Mount Steve to stop booming and build up the magma chamber again.
