Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee who is known for working on final fantasy vii. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between Square Enix and Disney based in a fictional universe. The main character Sora, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy journey around various Disney , Pixar and originally designed worlds.They battle the heartless and various creatures of darkness in order to save the world from the darkness. Throughout their Journey they make new friends along the way, characters from the disney world they visit and various final fantasy heroes. The series consists of thirteen games , and with the release of Kingdom hearts III in 2019 and The Remind DLC 2020, the game finaly concluded it's first saga known as the Xehanort Dark arc. The series are well received from the public although sometimes its beeing critisize for its bizzare story telling. The main issue of the series was the fact that all the games add to one story, however they re split to multiple platoforms such as Ps2,psp,ps4,Android,gba and the Ds. Square Enix though realised the mess they made and the remastered the games and released them as collections for ps4 and xbox. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including Cds with the soundtracks of the series,multiple figurines,plushies,clothing ,companion books(guides,artbooks), light novels, a collectible card game, manga series(by Akira Amano) and potentially an upcoming TV series.
The story of the game is hard to explain as all the past titles sum up to this game. This is climactic entry that was set to end a story that has been going since 2002. The game picks right after the ending of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance(3D)
and kingdom hearts 2.8 left. A keyblade war is set take place very soon, and the warriors of light gather their strength. After failling his mastery exams Sora, Donald and Goofy were told by Yensid that Sora needs to awaken his powers and thus he should
seek help from a hero, who just like Sora lost his powers and was capable of regainning them. This hero is ofcourse Hercules(Kingdom Hearts II), thus the trio sets on a Journey to Olympus. Once they landed, they come across Hades, whose plan on taking over
Olympus has began and he has already captured the gods and released the titans. Hades was thn joined by Maleficent and Pete who re both seem to be looking for a black box, however Hades claimed to have seen none and that they re free to look around Olympus as
long as they do not interfere with his plans. Sora teams up with Hercules and they free Olympus, however Hercs is unable to help Sora reawaken his powers. The trio returns to Yensid's tower and report their foundings. They were
joined by King Mickey and Riku who have been searching the Dark realm for the lost keyblade master Aqua. Yensid tells those two to continue searching for her and that sora should continue to venture around in order to find his powers. he informs them that a keyblade war
will soon fall upon them and the dark side most likely already gathered it's 13 darknesses. However they are yet to gathered their 7 lights. The legend says 7 lights need to clash with 13 darknesses in order for the true X-blade to be formed and call upon the
kingdom hearts.He then names the 7 lights as Sora, Riku, King Mickey who are here, Kairi and Lea(Axel) who re currently trainning under the wizard Merlin and ofcourse Aqua given that the Riku and Mickey will Find her. Finding Aqua will lead them to Ventus another lost
guardian who only Aqua knows his whereabouts. Both Riku and Sora are given a new set of outfits and blades and were told to go on their ways. The trio stops in the Twilight town and meet with Melvin. They also meet their old friends and they re trying to complete clues
in order to find clues to find Roxas(Sora's Nobody). The heroes also receive help from Ienzo (Zexion) who will be helping uncover Roxas. The trio then leaves in order for Sora to reawaken his power.
The trio then appears in the Kingdom of Corona. The three walk around until they come across Flynn Raider who was trying to escape from Heartless. Without a second though the team attacks the heartless to rescue their new friend. By the time they finish
their battle, they notice how Flynn was nowhere to be seen. After looking left and right, they spot a tower in the middle of nowhere. On the tower, Flynn meets with a Girl who captured him called Rapunzel, they bargain and agree that Flynn will take her to see some
magical lights that re beeing released each year on her birthday and in return she will return him his bag. They both agreed and Flynn helps Rapunzel off the tower. He soon realize that Rapunzel most likely never escaped her tower and how their journey will be extremely dangerous
given the fact that black creatures attacked him out of nowhere. He then Regroups Sora Donald and Goofy and calls him his crew. Rapunzel's "mother" Gothel realizes that her daughter was kidnapped and leaves on her own to seek her out as there's a giant secret Rapunzel is unaware of.
The heroes come across an old foe Marluxia who informs the heroes that Rapunzel is a princess of heart, and how If they fail to gather their seven guardians of light then the organisation 13 will have to gather the new princesses of light and thus Rapunzel is important to their plan.
(this is a reference to the first Kingdom Hearts Game, where Maleficent and Ansem gathered the 7 princesses of light to open the path to Kingdom herats.)
The events from the kingdom of Corona left the team with a bitter sweet taste. Not only have they not awaken Sora's powers, they had no news on how to restore Roxas, and now they know that the Organisation is after 7 new princesess. Donald and Goofy try to cheer Sora as hard as they can. Their
ship then crashes on a new land called Toy Box. The heroes spent a few minutes to acknowledge their new appearance and size. In Kingdom hearts the heroes change their look when entering a new planet to match the environment and not cause a Taboo. Their chat is cut short as heartless appeared
ahead of them. The heroes deals with them and then they were approached by the inhabitants. Woody, Buzz, Hamm and Rex who instantly rushes to Sora calling him Yozora, the main hero of his favorite video game. Buzz doesnt trust the heroes as strange phenomena occurs often and they do not
know anything for the heroes and i general. Woody asks Buzz to take it lightly as he trusts Sora. Woody explains how their human owners dissappeared one day and these creatures (heartless) arriven alongside a hooded figure(Organization Xii). Sora asks permission to help and the heroes
join side. They went to Galaxy Game store to search for more information as thats where the hooded figure was last seen. Alot happen in the store and Young Xehanort(Hooked figure) explains how this world was a subject to their research as in this world both humans and toys are alive, without the One
side acknowledging others. Nobodies are people without hearts and seing how toys are able to have hearts fascinated them and triggers their curiosity.
Once again the crew leaves,slightly unsatisfied with the result of their adventure in the Toy box and how yet again Sora is yet to reawaken his powers. The team find themselves in mostropolis and spooked by their appearance. They soon spot a little girl next to two monsters and approach the area.
They re stopped as they realise that the monsters were not attacking the girl and instead were helping her. This monsters are none others than Sally and Mike from Monster's Inc. The two monsters explain to the heroes how they used to use fear energy to power up their world however, this is not the
case nowadays. Once again they re attacked from heartleass and unverse,which force the heroes to fight. once they stage was clear, the heroes explain the monsters that these creatures are dangerous and that they would love to escort their new friends to find Boo's door in order for her to return.
The grou ventures together into the laboratory facing off various of enemies. They then come across Venitas who calls Sora his Brother. Sora seems to know of Venitas however his allies Donald and Goofy have no idea who that is and why Sora is aware of him. Venitas explains him that this world is powered
by negative emotions, which is extremely fascinating for him and the organisation. Vanitas proceeds to tell them how he is made of negative emotions, and that he was only half complete. He then tells Sora how his other half piece is within Sora and points his keyblade on him. Sora annoyed calls him out
and another voice is heard. Suprised by that Venitas reveals that Ventus sleeping hearts exists within Sora. Vanitas explais to Sora how that came to be and prepares to attack Sora, but his friends wont let Venitas have it his way.
The heroes patience run out as Sora wants to go to the realm of darkness to help the rest however he knows he is not ready as he is constantly beeing reminded of it. Ienzo calls the grou and upgrades them on their process for Roxas. He also reveals how there have been three hearts within Sora. One was Roxas,
one was Ventus and the other was a mystery (for those who havent keep up with all the games,more specifically 358/2 Days.) Chip and Dale call Sora after they hanged the phone with Ienzo and were told that Melvin left a book for Sora in twilight Town. The three go and Sora visits his old friend Pooh.
The next kingdom the heores visit is the Kingdom of Arendel. The heroes meet with Elsa who seemed to be running away from something, they try to talk to er and calm her down, however she accidentally use her powers and almost injured them. Filled with fear Elsa runs away but heartless appear to attack
them. Elsa places a wall between them and runs away. Sora is desperate to approach her, but out of the blue Larxene a member of the organization Xiii appears infront of them claimming that Elsa is very interesting to them for 2 reasons. Her powers, and her status as a princess of light. The latter for the same
reason as Rapunzel but her powers because they re capable of creating Life(Olaf the Snowman.) She then traps the heroes in an ice tower and leaves.The heroes fight their way of Larxene's trap and make their way to Elsa. Outside of her Icy palace Larxene encounters the heroes yet again. She mentions
how Elsas magic doesn't look as good as it does Evil. Sora annoyed tells Larxene he wont allow elsa to turn Evil which causes Larxene to lose her temper and force them off the mountain. The heroes then come across Ana, Elsas Sister and after a while Ana reveals them their origins. The new group of heroes venture around
to find Elsa. Midway the heroes go their own way. Ana goes back to town as she is getting weaker, and Sora returns to the mountain. On their way the see a mysterious figure carrying a passed out Elsa on his back and the heroes choose to follow them for certain events to take place.
The next adventure takes place in the land of the Caribbean. Sora is extremely happy as the Carabbean was one of his favorite locations throughout his adventures. To keep it short, the trio get in touch with captain Jack Sparrow who informs them that a war for the seven seas will soon be taking place and how if they
wish to join they ll need to find their own pirate ship. The trio proceeds to find themselves a ship and they also come across Luxord from organization Xiii. He claims how he is after two things. The first being Dave Jones and a black chest. Dave Jones is a being who is alove with his hard beeing placed inside a
chest. The other one is a big black box, the same Maleficent has been looking for thoughout the game. The heroes though have no time to spare with Luxord as the was is about to start.
The new destination is San Fransokyo the land of the big hero 6. They landed on a battle betwenn Hiro and Baymax versus the heartless. The heroes help the other and upon succesion they return to Hiro's base. There gang seemed to be feeling down as they havent won a battle againts the monsters. Sora Donald and Goofy
discuss the heartless with the new heroes. He then explains how they have been fighting them for a while and they decide to help the hero by making upgrades to their equipment. Sora happily demonstrates his skill set to Hiro as he studies them and finds a way to implement the changes on each of the heroes abilities.
The gang is ready and they venture around succesfully fighting off the heartless. Soon Riku replica encounters the hero and brings them new trouple. He also mentions how the Baymax is of the organizations interest, a being with a programmed heart can act as its own was really interesting. Riku thn introduces a new enemy
and then leaves.
After the events in Fransokyo Sora receives a call from the Chip and Dale informing them how they lost all the contact they had with King Mickey and Riku. The went to deep into darkness and they were worries. Sora decides to focuss his heart to his blade and trust it to lead the way to them. The key takes them to
Destiny Islands He then finds the Door to darkness and proceeds alone as Donald and Goofy wont be able to help without a keyblade. Riku and Mickey found Aqua however, since she spends decades in the realm of Darkness she cant control her actions and attack the heroes. She is about to finish them off But Sora finds
his way in at the perfect time. Him and Riku join forces to fight Aqua. Upon defeating her, Aqua wakes up in the Destiny islands and was told how she is finaly in the realm of light. After they have a moment, Aqua helps them find Ventus. Vanitas crashes the party and tries to get Ventus body before the heroes but Aqua fight him off.
Exhausted from her fight with Riku, Mickey and Sora, she loses and before Vanitas finishes her off, Sora uses the power of awakenning to restore Ventus heart who rushes to Aquas aid. Venitas shocked claimed they ll settle the score on the Keyblade Graveyard where Light and dark will soon crush. Back at Yensid's tower the heroes finally come
together and Yensid gives them a final advice.
A war will soon start and end in Kingdom Hearts III.
The gameplay of the game is keeping the formula of the series the same and it is constantly improving with every entry of the series. The game focusses on Sora and his friends who visit various Disney worlds (and new to this game Pixar (as Disney merged with Pixar)) helping who ever needs their help, while at the same time trying to reawaken Sora's
sleeping powers from the events of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance as the forces of Light will soon clash with the forces of Darkness. The players yet again get Control of Sora(Aqua && Riku are also playable in two missions), a young boy who was chosen to yield the iconic Keybalde. The game is an action role playing which combines real-time combat,
quick commands and RPG elements that boost the status of heroes. The Kingdom hearts series have also been referred to as Hack and slash RPG games as certain difficlties are too easy(usually up to Normal) and mashing attack usually works. When the heroes visit a new world, the players are free to manuver around and explore the areas. Each map consist of various items
such as cooking ingredients, power up materials, crafting materials and chests containning various of items. Sora is able to walk aroun, jump and double jump to reach higher areas and glide or air dash to reach further locations. Furthermore, the players are capable of using the airjump of the wall to gain extra hight on their jump. New to KH3 is the
ability to walk on walls that have a glowings white aura. Certain map locations are reachable bu using Sora's focus(shot lock) mode and pressing the dosge button to airstep instead of the attack button.
The combat of the game is fun, flashy and chaotic. The player can equip their skill points to increase their combos, their damage and their overall status. Similar to other entries, Sora can hit the enemies with his keyblade and his ability to cast magic.
Close Combat is mainly achieved through the keyblade. Mashing the attack combo will allow Sora to hit his nearby enemies. With certain upgrades the combo can extend to either add more buttons to launch enemies in the air, to have a party member to join him with a special attack or even extend it by causing an aerial attack. The maps can also help Sora extend his combo
by either spinning into trees, lamps and other locations that can be used. New to KH3 is the Keyblade transformation. Very similar to the iconic KH2 Drive forms, three has a similar yet superrior mechanic where each time Sora lands hits , a bar(three arrows) is slowly building up. When the third is maxed out, the players can press the quick command to transform their keybalde.
Each keyblade has two unique transformations, that not only change their game play but also their specials. Some keyblades transform into range weapons such as guns and magical stuff that shoot projectiles towards the enemies. Once again each of them as unique, as the two guns can shoot plenty of magical bullets to the enemies, where the staff is cabable of creating clones each time
Sora uses Dodge and attack with him each time he attacks. When using the focus maxed out ability, the guns will allow Sora to leap in the sky and rain magical bullets on the enemy, where as the staff spawns mirros that recochet the spells around hitting everyone within the area. For their second transformation(obtain by simply using they keyblade which on it's own will start building
the arrow bar) the guns keyblade turn into a bazuka that can be use both in close combat and shoot slow explosive ammo. Once a blad reach it's final form, a quick command will instantly become available where the player can simply use the weapons final attack or continue fighting and use the ultimate right before it's timer rans out. The ultimate is usually a powerfull uninterupted cutscene
that causes a giant explosion that covers a huge area. The staff on the other hand does not have a second transformation as the staff is already powerfull enough and its final attack is very powerfull. Other keyblades transform into spears, giant hammers, drills, Yoyos, shield and plenty of others which is better to experience their magic than have it spoiled.
Each keyblade is unique and also new to KH3 is the fact that the player can upgrade their keyblade of preference and have it be relevant through out the game. This is new, as in all past entries each time Sora obtained a new keyblade it was more powerfull than the one owned prior and it was better to swap them than remain to the older one. Furthermore, for the firt time
in Kingdom Hearts the player can equip Sora with up to three Keyblades, that they can swap in the fly with a tap of a button. This allows the players to use more than one keyblade or certain blade transformation. For example, the player can have their favorite key of preference, a blade capable of long range attacks and a weapon of a different abilities hammer, yoyo etc.
Swapping a keyblade when that blade is 'awaken' allows the player to store that power-up and prevents it's bar from running out especially if the player defeated all the enemies and there is noone to attack. Returning to that blade will continue the countdown from the same spot as it was.
For Long range attacks Sora can use his long ranged keybalde transformations if available and Sora's magical abilities. Sora has an MP bar below his Hp which represents his Mana which is what the player spents in order to use magic. There's plenty of spell attacks that Sora can use but the main spells are usually elemental attacks and Cura. Cura is the spell that acts as a potion and
heals Sora back to 100%. Cure is a powerfull spell, and thus consumes all the MP bar despite the ammount Sora had (Half, full 3/4 etc.). The elemental attacks are powerfull projectiles based on a natural element. Certain attacks cannot only be used defensively but also as a way to move around. To elaborate, Blizzard is a powerfull freezing spell. It shoots a projectile that will freeze enemies.
When powered up, the spell leaves a track on it's path that allows Sora to grind on it to help him move around faster. The wind spell, is a powerfull attack that creates a tornado. If Sora walks inside the tornado, it will launch him up in the sky, in a hight that he normally cannot reach bu double jumbing. Water is a new spell as none of the past entires had the water element as magic. When
the spell is cast, it will create a shield around Sora that will heat enemies or absorb projectile attacks, before it leaves the blade and splashes on the gorund. Thrunder is a powerfull attack creates dark clouds that drop lightnings to the ground stunning and damaging enemies.
A spell can be shot three times in a row and each time the attack becomes more powerfull and consumes more MP. Further more, elite spells can occur if the player use their attacks correctly. To elaborate, as mentioned, they keyblade can transform if the blade is used when the bar is completely full. However, if the attack used to fully build the bar was a spell, then instead of a quick command that
transforms the blade, the player will receive a quick command of a powerfull elemental spell. These are powerfull attacks that do not cost any MP and car create an enormus Area of Effect(AoE) blast .
Kingdom hearts III also introduced the new idea of the Disney Attractions. A new quick command attack that had alot of mix reviews, the majority being negative, as not only these attacks are overpowered, they re alse very common and occur very often. When fighting enemies within a certain space, there will be one enemy who will be surrounded by a green circle. When the enemy receives
one hit(not even kill), a quick command will become available with a certain disney attractions. These are attacks that will trigger a cutscene and will spawn a Disneyland/Disneyworld attraction that the player can use: These are:
Kingdom hearts games always have plenty of post game content in the form of minigames. In past the enties, in most cases, minigames were mostly found in the 100 Acre Woods with Winnie the Pooh, where the player had to collect lost pages from around the world, each page containning a minigame. Kingdom hearts III although it consist of plenty of games, not all
of them appear in the 100 Acre Wood. In fact the story of Winnie the Pooh and the minigames found in Khiii might be consider the weakest part out of all entries. This is due to the fact that in KH III the map of 100 Wood, is extremely smaller than past entries and only consist of 3 minigames that play exactly the same with a few alternative powers. The games are very
similar to an old classic game called Bubble shooter where the players had to shoot a certain collor bubble to match the same colours. One of the games request Sora to collect vegetables. Down left corner mr Rabbit will show Sora what he needs the most to collect. By collecting the things the rabbit wants, will fill in a bar that can trigger the 'Special'event
where The Tiger will help Sora and collect a few random lines on his own. While vegetables are gathered in the baskets, the last basket comes with a label that will allow Mr Rabbit himself to remove all the vegetables in the map that appeared
on the label. The other minigame replaces Vegetables with fruits, and instead of the tiger, the little Elephant is the one helping Sora once the bar is filled. While fruits are gathered in the baskets, the last basket comes with a label that will allow Mr Rabbit himself to remove all the fruits in the map that appeared
on the label. For example if strawberry is the fruit on the label, once the final basket is reached Mr Rabbit will collect all the strawberries of the map. While playing the fruit minigame, there's a river that will trigger the game over if the fruits fell in the river before the tier runs out. The third and last minigame found in the 100 Acred Woods replaces the food with
flowers and follows the same logic. Matching flowers, fill in the basket for Mr rabbit to collect his and by filling the bar, the special event will be triggered that will have the mole this time around helping Sora.
The kingdom of Corona has a small quick time event minigame that has Sora and the Villagers dancing with Rapunzel. Sora dances around the plaza and can request nearby AI to dance with him. Each dancer has a color cyrcle below them of certain colour (Pink,Red,Blue) and they represent the button the player will have to press (Square,Circle,X). Once Sora finds a partner three
circles of the same colour with the partner will appear on the ground and the player will have to move the couple on top of them and press the right button at the perfect time. Once the three cyrcles are covvered the player will have to move Sora to a new partner and request them to dance. The player will have to be fast, as the more partners Sora gets the better the score
and the fastest the ultimate will charge. During an ultimate, which triggers with triangle, rapunzel will call everyone around her and this time around theres plenty of cyrcles with different colours that the player will have to press . It's a very simple and light minigame.
The next minigame comes from the Kingdom of Arendelle and it's called Frozen Slider. Any fan of SSX will instantly found themselves familiar with the concept. Sora, Donald and Goofy use Goofy's shield as a snowboard to slide down the mountain. The game is simple, Slide down the mountain and collect plenty of trassures. The heroes have a health bar that debleeds
whenever the trio hits a tree, a wall or anything else. Collecting 10 treassure while sliding down the mountain will give Sora an Orichalcum which he can use later on to forge the Ultima Blade.
The world of San Fransokyo also has its own Seperate minigame. The minigame is called Flash Tracer. The player will have to put their skills to the test. During a flash tracer the player controls Sora and has to run through different rings collecting points. The rings are placed in locations that will test the players, normal mobility, his control when Sora free falls,
the ability to hover and the abilty to use air step(R1+ Square). Other than the mobility through rings, flash tracer also spawns enemies that will reward the player with points when defeated. Last but not least there are balancing parts, where Sora hovers on a ball to reach high rings and stomp enemies.
The word of Toy Box allows the players to experience the game called Venum Rex. Venum Rex is a popular video game series in the world of Toy story and allows Sora to play the game. The hero is placed on a giant war machine and tries to eliminate the other enemies by using the mecha's powers or abusing the traps found in the map. The goal is simple, eliminate all the enemy
that spawn within a given time stamp.
In the land of Twilight town, the player can visit the Bristo and cook food with Little Chef aka Ratatui.The player is capable of collecting cooking ingredients that they can use when visiting the little chef. These are simple quick time event games that allows sora to cook food. The minigames have three forms. The first one is to crack open the eggs by slowly using R3 and L3
and then combine L1 and R1 to break the egg. In the second one Sora throws the seasoning left and right and the player has to catch it on perfect time with either R3 or L3 based on which hand will catch the salt/pepper. Furthermore, theres a minigame where the player uses L3 to thow wine on the frying pan, when red lines and sparks appear the player will have to use R3 to place the frying
pan on the ovens eye. The final mini chef minigame has the player cutting down ingredients with a knife by tilting the L3 button up and down and bringing a new ingredient with R3. If the player completes all the recipes they receive the cooking keyblade.(Some recipes wont be available unless the hero posses the right cooking ingredients.)
Every "main" world the gang visits have their own pudding monsters. These re called the Flantastuc Seven and as mentioned are scattered around 7 worlds. If the player encounters a flan monster they ll have to interact with triangle. The monster will then request Sora to prove his worth by challenging him into a few minigames. Completing all 7 will reward sora with an orichalcum and
several power ups and materials. These minigames are:
Overall Kingdom hearts III was game that came up with mixture of reviews. Most of them were positive,some were bad and some were just abnoxious. The abnoxious critisisms were mainly for the game having little minigames in comparison to past entries which infact was not the case, it just recquired the players to visit every map to find them or unlock them. Another abnoxious comment was that Arendelle
was a snowy mountain which anyone who saw Frozen knows the movie took place up in the snowy mountains etc. A year Later in 2019, Square enix released Kingdom Hearts III DLC called Remind. The DLC focussed on the the latter part of the game which was the clash of light and dark and also allowed players to try different heroes other than Sora. At the same time, the DLC, introduced a new harder
difficulty and alongside it a new post game content which allowed the players to fight various boss levels from the past.(organisation XIII). Completing all of the gates allowed the players to see the secret CGI cutscene alone the Yozora boss fight. The DLC also allowed the player to set the heroes in certain poses and expressions in order to make a screenshot of their liking. Needless to say the
Remind was a very well received DLC that explained plenty of open plot twists that the main game left open. Some of the negative critisisms from before were removed and changed towards something more possitive. The plot of the game was really good however, a tiny issue that came with the plot was the huge ammount of content shown when advertising the game. To paint the picture, the game had 5 trailers,
tv spots and demo showcase.
The graphics, the music and the gameplay are absolutely on point with alot of improvements. Keep in mind, this was the first game of the series made for the Ps4 console and the graphics have seen a major improvement since then. The maps were way bigger than the past ones, they had plenty of NPC living there with special effes and others. The game is fully voice acted and every hero was kept true to their
selves. There are plenty of memorable songs and inf act the song Let me face my fears by Utada and Skrillex was well received by many and even made it on the top charts.
This is a video showcasing and reviewing the Game