Kingdom Hearts 3 hands-on: Improved combat and a confusing plot

Kingdom Hearts 3 received a brand new trailer at E3 2022 this year that revealed a world nosotros've all logically assumed was in the works: Frozen. We also saw a Jan 2022 release date at last, and with that date have come up multiple playable demos for press, reassuring u.s. that the game is at last nearing completion.

I went hands-on with Kingdom Hearts 3 at E3 2022, playing through a boss battle segment of the Olympus level. Though the Toy Room was an selection that I didn't get to endeavour, I did watch multiple other people in front of me play it through and got an thought of the overall tone of the story too, equally there were no dialogue breaks in the Olympus level.

From watching Toy Room and playing Olympus, I came abroad with a very, very mixed opinion of Kingdom Hearts 3; one that was just the opposite of what I expected. I walked in hoping to love the story and praying the gainsay was more interesting and fluid than in the by. I walked out rolling my eyes at the story, but wanting to pick the controller dorsum upwards and smash some more dang Heartless!

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Simple and clean

Ever since Kingdom Hearts ii (well, Chain of Memories, if you count the carte system equally anything) I've felt this series had a combat problem. The first game's combat was fairly simplistic, true, simply it was up to the technological capabilities of the time. It also respected that its audience may not want to do anything too hard while allowing for greater challenges if you picked certain options. In Kingdom Hearts 2 and subsequent games, Foursquare Enix bogged down combat with unnecessary weirdness that didn't develop the arrangement further across a magic "Kill the enemy" button that appeared on screen every so oftentimes. Dream Drib Distance came the closest to making things interesting with its Flowmotion organization, just even that was but imprecise enough to frustrate.

All that aside, Kingdom Hearts 3 finally seems to marry the skillful ideas at the hearts of all these systems in a style that's actually enjoyable to play. Sora's special abilities charge and actuate at a quick clip, the animations don't have so long they detract from the fight, they're satisfying to use, and there'due south enough variation in them that I don't go bored using them. Lock-on seems to accept been refined also, as I had no trouble actually hitting enemies, even in the air! Sora floats upwards to them nicely now if you're locked on and remotely in the vicinity and volition stay with them without making stupid moves in the wrong direction.

The Light...

Sora can also run upwards walls now, which was used as a mechanic specifically in my fight against the Rock Titan. This multi-stage boss fight began with a race to get up to where he was perched, dodging and knocking boulders out of the mode every bit I went. This particular rendition of wall-running was interesting for this one fight, so I'm interested to meet how it might be used for other fights in more varied ways.

In one case I reached the Titan, I had to break upward both his feet to gain the opportunity to climb him and hit his weak bespeak on the head. Here, camera controls got a bit choosy in a small space every bit the huge feet tried to vanquish me and obscure my view. I somewhen got enough hits in to open a path to the Titan's caput, which Sora mercifully leapt himself with trivial guidance for me. This was 1 of my favorite mechanics — instead of doing a QTE-type event for big, scripted dominate moments, Sora followed my guidance with the analog stick while doing the leaps himself so I felt in control without striking the same button over and over. Even outside of scripted sequences, Sora now vaults smaller ledges without prompting, which made all movement feel far more fluid than in by games.

After getting a few hits in on the Titan's head, I was prompted to summon...something. I found myself in a huge roller coaster of a light-up train, circumvoluted the boss. I was able to employ the right analog to aim cannon burn down from the railroad train at the titan for massive damage, simply had to pause and jump from the railroad train occasionally to avert his huge fists. The whole sequence was gorgeous, and culminated in a last blast of fireworks from the train every bit I landed the killing blow.

Kingdom Hearts 3's combat was a blast, and a far, far weep from my afar memories of button mashing through packs of Heartless in earlier games. Simply for as fun as the gainsay was, I'k less impressed with what's going on in the story.

...and the "Darkness"

I know many Kingdom Hearts fans are contemptuous about the confusing direction of the plot over the years, and I can't arraign them. I can't speak to what's going on with the Arrangement and the Darkness and all of that in Kingdom Hearts 3, only I did get to see the basic plot of Toy Room. Sora visits the locals, kills some Heartless, makes friends, finds out some of their friends are missing, goes subsequently them, and discovers the Heartless/Organization is upwards to No Good.

And so, the same plot as every other dang Disney world from past Kingdom Hearts games.

To Square Enix'southward credit, they are opting for a slightly more original bending rather than only retelling the Disney moving-picture show plot (though judging by the trailers, they're retelling Frozen and Tangled). But the line that gets Sora through this particular Disney adventure is the same one that always has, and leaves me completely uninterested in what's going on with these characters. I have very unfond memories of mashing my way through Disney worlds in games like Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 2, eager to get to the side by side Sora-centric story beat that would tell me what was going on in this dark globe. I don't want to do that again.

Overall

Where once I loved Kingdom Hearts' story and found its gainsay a flake dull, Kingdom Hearts iii has weirdly reversed my feelings on the subject entirely. I desire to bust upwardly some Heartless, but I could care less what'southward going on in Toy Room or, bluntly, in any of the Disney worlds I've seen in trailers then far. Square Enix has known for years that they had a monumental task on their easily tying together all the Kingdom Hearts story threads in a mode that was both satisfying and sensible, and while their by piece of work speaks to their ability to tackle it, the bits I've seen of Kingdom Hearts 3 so far oasis't convinced me they'll really manage information technology.

But you can ride a light-up train roller coaster that shoots fireworks, so it'll probably exist worth it anyway.

Kingdom Hearts 3 launches on January 29, 2022 for PS4 and Xbox 1. Y'all tin pre-guild the game on Amazon.

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