After thirteen long years following the release of Kingdom Hearts II and six years after it’s initial announcement Kingdom Hearts III is finally out in the hands of players worldwide. Concluding the epic Dark Seeker arc; Sora, Donald, Goofy, and all of their friends reunite for the final battle with Master Xehanort and to bring an end to his plans for a second Keyblade War.

Kingdom Hearts III is a 2019 action RPG, it is developed and published by Square Enix and is currently available on Playstation 4 & Xbox One.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III. An Amazon Affiliates link is present in this review.

The original journey ends here in Kingdom Hearts III.

After thirteen tiresome years the next numbered entry of Kingdom Hearts is here in reality. Concluding the Xehanort/Dark Seeker Saga, Sora has become weak since failing his Mark of Mastery Exam and is back at square one. Having to relearn all of his keyblade abilities & magic he, Donald, and Goofy go off to several worlds within the Disney & Pixar universe to regain Sora’s lost strength as they face off against Xehanort & the thirteen darknesses with the six remaining lights for the final time.

Visit and return to fascinating Disney & Pixar worlds.

THE GOOD: Taking place immediately following the events of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts 3 begins the epic conclusion to the original Dark Seeker arc. Sora has become weakened after Xehanort nearly took his heart during his Mark of Mastery Exam and now Donald & Goofy must help him regain his lost power. Using new magic to substitute the offset balance of his lost strength Sora can now summon Disney theme park ride inspired attacks as well as transform his multiple keyblades into powerful new forms each with unique abilities and techniques. Kingdom Hearts 3 features some returning and debuting Disney worlds such as Hercules, Toy Story, and Tangled with play time being far more expansive compared to previous entries most of which being several hours a piece.

Toy Story and Monsters Inc. make their way overdue Kingdom Hearts debuts.

If you can even remotely follow the Kingdom Hearts story most fans are aware of the basics of it all: Second Keyblade War, Thirteen Darkness/Seven Lights, Organization XIII, Xehanort, Black Box, etc. Admittedly with so many spinoff entries and tie-ins connected to the series; each of which important to the story in their own way it’s not too hard to understand why so many consider Kingdom Hearts to be unnecessarily complex or just straight up bat-shit insane. Kingdom Hearts 3 of course is no exception to this what with more references to the heart than an ER and time travel all being huge parts of 3’s own self-contained story.

Kingdom Hearts’ new keyblade transformations are a game changer.

Honestly I’ve played practically all of the Kingdom Hearts titles multiple times a piece and I still barely grasp the story as a massive fan, it’s honestly one of the hardest games to understand as far as it’s deeper story elements goes. The insanity however, is part of Kingdom Hearts’ overall charm. I’ve never had so much fun pulling my hair out due to deciphering the clues of a game story like with this game series before and it’s mystery and simplicity is exactly why it’s so special to people. One of the big themes in Kingdom Hearts 3 is consequences and to be more specific, the consequences of Sora’s past and current actions & choices. Sora’s abuse of the Power of Waking meant to revive lost or stolen hearts is apart of such consequences, so much so that in the end it costs him his life after using the ability one final time to save Kairi who had been killed by Xehanort in the pre-climax of the final battle.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is the franchise’ darkest entry.

The return of the Gummi Ship while welcomed was a bit overwhelming I had some trouble getting the controls down for quite some time before I was finally able to get the hang of it. Despite this it was nice seeing open space even if the travel isn’t as wide open as it could have been and most of the combat while in the Gummi Ship is completely optional. There’s also a new smartphone like device called the Gummi Phone which plays a part in the story and acts as a replacement for Jiminy’s journal providing story and character background information. You can also use it to take pictures and the characters regardless of what world you’re in will react to their picture being taken. Classic arcade styled mini-games are also present on the Gummi Phone which can be found throughout several worlds, as are the Lucky Emblems which are Mickey Mouse logos Sora takes photos of.

Kingdom Hearts 3 closes the franchise’s past while aiming towards its future.

THE BAD: Kingdom Hearts 3 has a bit of a difficulty issue compared to previous entries. On my initial run on Standard mode I was able to complete the game at level 37. Granted the series has never been overly too hard outside of some secret bosses and Proud/Critical mode, but that’s incredibly disappointing when even my recent playthroughs of Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 had me completing the games at level 67 and 60 or so respectively. And since it was brought up, as of this writing there is no critical mode in Kingdom Hearts 3, which has been a fan favorite difficulty mode since the first Final Mix. There’s a lack of post-game content compared to previous entries as well save for some battle portals which can be used to level up and gain new abilities.

A brand new Kingdom Hearts game is finally here and the wait was most definitely worth it.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Kingdom Hearts 3 is a game that has been waited on for thirteen long years and for those of us who was lucky enough to live to the experience have an enjoyable one on our hands. Zany story aside, Kingdom Hearts 3 keeps our childhoods alive with a strong mix of classic and modern Disney & Pixar with renown action RPG quality.