Kingdom Hearts III

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2513 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,827 out of 2513
  2. Mixed: 328 out of 2513
  3. Negative: 358 out of 2513
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  1. Dog4life
    Feb 6, 2019
    2
    Great visuals and charm.

    Awfully simplistic combat that requires 0 skill nor t actics. Bad fps sections. Camera controls are still really bad. Most substories are very predictible.

    very disappointing
  2. normalguycap
    Feb 15, 2019
    3
    Kingdom Hearts 3 is a mediocre game, but it’s a bad game by Kingdom Hearts’ standards. It’s all style and little substance which permeates every aspect of the game. It feels rushed and tawdry. It feels like it’s there to merely hit checkboxes. Ultimately, the game is deeply unsatisfying, filled with nonsensical choices, and recycled assets and ideas.

    The story is weak. Characters are    Kingdom Hearts 3 is a mediocre game, but it’s a bad game by Kingdom Hearts’ standards. It’s all style and little substance which permeates every aspect of the game. It feels rushed and tawdry. It feels like it’s there to merely hit checkboxes. Ultimately, the game is deeply unsatisfying, filled with nonsensical choices, and recycled assets and ideas.

    The story is weak. Characters are less than one dimensional and Sora has been flanderized into an idiot. Try to describe some members of the organization, their personalities and goals. Nobody is relatable. Nobody is a threat. Nobody has any goals that they stick by except for the final villain but he’s so passionless in this game and the stakes are so unclear that all tension is reduced to nothing. Most things technically get explained like ticking off a box, but it’s disappointing and boring with entirely too many words. With the amount of plot the game has to resolve, it does so in the most dry, expository way. It’s framed flatly, spoken robotically and there is hardly any emotion from anybody.

    The gameplay is stylish, shallow, and can be divided into two pieces: exploration and combat. Exploration is passable, but there is little interactivity and things to find compared to previous games. Mainly you find treasure chests and take pictures of Mickey Mouse heads, that’s it. Some are creative and fun, but most are tedious because some of the levels are too wide and cluttered. Sora, Donald and Goofy can sometimes indicate when you’re near one, but only a few and I’ll be damned if I’m scouring an entire city looking for small things.
    The game attempts a lot of genre hopping and each world usually has one extra type of gameplay involved. There is cooking, shooting, rhythm, collection, sailing, bust-a-move puzzles, platforming, and rail shooting sections. It does none of these things well and most of it isn’t engaging because it’s too simple or controls badly, but the combat-oriented ones are passably fleshed out.
    The combat takes minimal effort to do impressive looking moves but the limited amount means they get old and dull quick. The canned animations are a substitute for actual skill and depth. There is very little customization to be had as you can equip almost all the skills without adding boosts so the RPG elements are mainly a façade.

    The game is far too easy. Even on its hardest difficulty it offers no challenge until a weird difficulty spike at the very very end but this is more due to the controls not being as tight as they used to be. The combat is too chaotic and inconsistent with many allies and lots of unthreatening mobs. Particle effects either obscure the whole screen or are a laughable puff in the wind. Contributing to it and new to the game are attractions which are hyper moves that take the form of Disney classic amusement park rides. There are only five and they are entirely too strong and too common. Eventually I started skipping enemies because it was so boring and I had no incentive to fight other than seeing the story end. That's a death knell for your game when you have no incentive to fight.

    The music is a complete disappointment. Some of the Disney tracks are okay if you even notice them, but the rest are merely remixes of previous game’s themes. Kingdom Hearts 3 brings nothing significant of its own to the table. Compared to the works of genius the previous games were, this is a travesty. Voice acting and sound are mediocre at best, except for Xehanort, he’s awful.

    Kingdom Hearts is known for its crossover elements between Disney and Final Fantasy. Some final fantasy characters were significant to the plot and offered bonus gameplay opportunities. Part of the fun was the mystery of who you would encounter, when, where, and how. What combinations would we find? All final fantasy characters are conspicuously absent with no explanation.

    There’s more, so much more that is weird about this game, but I’m tired. Maybe this is my fault, because I did expect strides to be made in the same vain that Kingdom Hearts 2 did for Kingdom Hearts 1. But is that really so much to ask for in this series? After how long they had to make this game, is what we got really what everybody wanted? Could they have done no better than this with all the power and weight Square Enix and Disney can throw around?

    Kingdom Hearts 3 has all the check boxes of a standard triple AAA experience; it looks fine, plays like a spectacle, tries to be epic, but it’s grossly unsatisfying and at times, boring. For being the resolution to a story 17 years in the making, it’s a failure. As an action/adventure/rpg game it’s slightly below average as it tries to do everything rather than focus on a few things to do well. It’s unfortunate how little this game carries its own identity. I’d avoid this game or wait until it's cheap.    … Expand
  3. The_Help
    Feb 23, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. These reviews are all paid for and are incorrect, not to mention read the same. This is by far the most disappointing game in the KH series.

    If you choose not to fight every enemy that spawns you will be mainly watching 5min cut scenes every 20 seconds of gamplay walking (ToyStory is where you'll feel this really kick into high gear). in total my game has 18 hours saved and I watched every cut scene (theres 10.3 hours of cut scenes). This means that I spent 8 hours playing a game and basically a whole day watching an animated movie in which the plot isn't explained, but seems forced in the last 2 hours of the game.

    The visuals are an amazing improvement however the game chucks gimmicks and tries to distract you from poor game design. For instance reaction commands that aren't cohesive, worlds that are one or two rooms (theres a few of them). Worlds where you do the same thing continuously (I had to climb Elsas mountain 3 times before I could get to the top), the most exhausting end game tasks in any game ("lucky symbols or mickey shapes that blend into the world or can't be seen unless from certain angles are nothing like trinity symbols in kh1 etc.) and the least amount of "boss battles" in of the main games.

    I literally thought I was a third - half the way finished the game when suddenly it ended. This is a waste of money and im sure the producing studio will feel proud they wasted 2 days of my life in a game with zero nostalgia, painful cut scenes and minimal play after being a die hard fan for 17 years.    … Expand
  4. Yoogurette
    Mar 5, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've been looking forward to this game for years... I've played almost every part of the series and can definitely say that this is the most disappointing game of them all!
    The fights are too easy and I get that they don't want to frustrate any kids playing this game, but that's what lower difficulty levels are there for. Think of your grown-up fans, please.
    Speaking of kids: Kingdom Hearts is a game for kids, but fans of the franchise started playing almost 20 years ago. The series has to be balanced especially when it comes to the story-telling.
    Boy, oh boy, the story is soooo bad. The first 20 hours into the game lack everything! You stroll through worlds without a real objective, nothing ever seems to be at stake. Sora is supposed to learn a power of which nobody really seems to know what it is, but Mickey and Riku apparently have it. Their storyline is far more interesting, but half of it happens off screen and the bits that are shown are spinning in circles. Same goes for the movie-stories in the worlds. I don't want to see the whole Frozen-song re-animated!!! Show me more about Riku or Kairi or get on with the freakin' story alltogether. There is no feeling of progress and at the end it seems so rushed and confusing. First, they explain everything they plan on doing and all of a sudden everybody dies, then they don't and we seemingly travel back in time, but not to try a different approach this time, no, we are saved by a higher entity that appears out of nowhere. Then people that were believed to be lost show up and nobody knows how they did it, not even the characters themselves. And here comes the biggest logical error in my opinion: Xehanort explains how he needs 13 darknesses and 7 lights. So wouldn't it make sense to avoid bringing him 7 lights??? Why do we try to get 7 lights and do all the work for him? For a long time, I was honestly convinced that Master Yen Sid is secretly a pawn of Xehanort. It makes no sense.
    Way to go, SquareEnix, after screwing up the storytelling in FF15, you also ruined the story of KH.
    I could go on and on, but I don't want to lose another day to rage on Kingdom Hearts.
    I love the previous games, they did a great job, especially with Birth by sleep. That was a game that managed to embrace an older audience as well.
    I don't get how people love this game... I am so unsatisfied with everything... despite the looks, the graphics are great and that's why this game gets 1 and not 0 points.    … Expand
  5. OldWhovian
    Feb 27, 2019
    1
    Definitely in the boat of being heavily disappointed with this game. To put it simply, to me it's the FFXIII of the KH series.

    The combat is painfully easy even on Proud (and downright boring on Lvl 1 runs due to how you have to abuse the mechanics). I've gone through some fights just tapping cross and occasionally triangle without moving and came out perfectly fine. The addition of the    Definitely in the boat of being heavily disappointed with this game. To put it simply, to me it's the FFXIII of the KH series.

    The combat is painfully easy even on Proud (and downright boring on Lvl 1 runs due to how you have to abuse the mechanics). I've gone through some fights just tapping cross and occasionally triangle without moving and came out perfectly fine. The addition of the Disney rides was reprehensible. I have to intentionally skip over them every time they show up as a command because they give you free wins.

    The pacing is pretty bad. There's only a handful of times that I have been able to go from fight to fight without sitting through a long winded cutscene that ends up being meaningless. It got so bad I had to start skipping some of them because I found myself looking at my phone anyway. That's not even to mention some of the strange pauses during the dialogue that feel super unnatural. I honestly asked myself at one point, if they wanted to make an interactive movie, why didn't they just release it on Netflix?

    The gummy portion being open exploration is almost a nice addition.. until I realized that, in space, I can't point my ship straight up and down. So when I'm hunting items...I have to slowly spiral up and down to change my elevation. It's 2019, flying controls should not be this bad. Especially if the main/only open exploration is centered around them.

    The amount of minigames is way too high. If they had focused even 20% away from this I feel like the gameplay could have been improved.

    Also not a fan of the cooking meals thing. I didn't get KH3 to play Monster Hunter, especially when the buffs are unnecessary as Sora is OP. In fact, the design of the game makes me question why I got it at all.

    I have had more fun grinding forms in KH2FM than I have had at any point in KH3.    … Expand
  6. peskygnome
    Mar 1, 2019
    3
    I am a long time kingdom hearts fan waited 13 years for this game and the combat system wasn't what all that great kinda to easy. Also after finishing the game and all the stuff that is going on in the game it does not feel finished like hey were going to cut it off halfway in the game and release the other half in dlc and give you the harder mode with it again things that should be in theI am a long time kingdom hearts fan waited 13 years for this game and the combat system wasn't what all that great kinda to easy. Also after finishing the game and all the stuff that is going on in the game it does not feel finished like hey were going to cut it off halfway in the game and release the other half in dlc and give you the harder mode with it again things that should be in the game at the begin of launch.… Expand
  7. JakubN
    Feb 23, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A lazy mess of a game. The gameplay cares more about being flashy then any sort of sense or skill, the execution is poor to the point that the 'acting' looks terrible and amateurish despite being cg, and there really isn't a story to speak of. The 'story' is a short and directionless pile of random tropes with another short and directionless pile of random tropes standing in for Sora. What makes it all the more tragic, is that the game had some good ideas and a LOT of potential, but it's clear that Disney cared more about advertising to you and protecting the image of every one of their properties in a blind fervor then making anything decent and it cost this game any sense of identity.
    As mentioned before, the game is really short, but while disappointing, it's also kind of a blessing as it spares us more awful cutscenes that butcher the characters we've grown to love -heroes and villains alike. The most disappointing part of the game has got to be Kairi. Anyone who was looking forward to her being a keyblade wielder after kh2 will be disappointed as she spends the whole game training only to do nothing in the final fight and be damsel-in-distressed and partly fridged. By the end this game felt like a betrayal of everything the past games have built up...
    As a game, it is sub-par. As kingdom hearts 3, it is downright terrible...
    For those interested, a quick list of my complaints about the game;
    terrible writing including
    -tropes for personality
    -out of place comedy
    -0 subtlety or quiet moments -everything is overdone
    -sora understands nothing
    -tropes for events
    -sora's forced mc syndrome
    -terrible character motivation
    -and much more
    poorly remaking Disney films wholesale
    only sora plays any major role anywhere
    the utter departure from the darker themes of kh for sunshine and rainbows
    unexplained, unaddressed random deus ex TIMETRAVEL in the final battle
    villeins constantly showing up only to talk with the mc and be cryptic
    maleficent constantly showing up to be inconsequential and hype the NEXT game
    all villeins -including past final bosses- being utterly un-threatening
    really short
    all worlds being one and done
    flowmotion is interesting, but clunky and pointless
    attractions show up all the time and can't be turned off
    loading screen fake-twitter
    no skill required for battle
    hyper protectiveness of Disney ips getting in the way of the story (like donald calling every princess randomly strong like 3 times)
    missing the point of almost every story told
    no connection between worlds by plot and nothing being accomplished
    each villein getting a redemption scene upon loss, even ansem
    buzz gets lectured to about friendship despite being absolutely right about sora
    awful directing, scenes go on far too long often
    Constant and overdone use of the sparkle effect
    dire lack of ff characters
    general lack of polish on everything but the graphics
    and a lot more that i can't think of off the top of my head.    … Expand
  8. Mburestam
    Mar 3, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As a long time die hard fan of the series, this is one ot the worst installments to date. What was supposed to be the epic end of the Xehanort saga turned out to be a very cheezy, happy and cheerful rush to get this story out of the way in order to further the later added lore and build expectations for the next game.
    The game consists mainly of cut scenes, some of which look horrible and were probably made for ps3 while others are stunning but long.
    KH3 is way to easy, features absolutly no fun boss fight, no extra boss fights, some final fantasy characters but not to the extent that we would like to see ( im talking moggles but no sign of cloud, sephiroth etc. ) The end boss fights were bundled together with no regard to the individual stories of the org. XIII members and the hardest "extra boss" is just a heartless with extra steps.
    I am very disappointed as i expected a way darker kingdom hearts with a thought out story, instead i find myself annoyed with countless pointless minigames and frustrated with the way such a story is built and hyped for 13 years only to be shrugged and rushed off like this.
    The Kingdom hearts story never made sense but it never made sense in a way that makes sense. Kh3 just doesent make sense even with kingdom hearts logic.
    The fighting system is good but not great, the way magic flows out of Sora looks stunning.
    Form changing keyblades are a great idea and fun for a few minutes but i miss the drive system of KH2 and the option to control myself when and how i would like to change my form. The excessive use of **** disney rides shoved down my throat is just annoying.
    The worlds look good but many follow the original disney movie to the letter making you sit through just a remake of the movie rather than original fun story and where there are many options to present a boss character from the disney world, kh instead gives you another heartless boss fight.

    In short, Disney probably **** this game up the way they did with Star Wars and other franchises by breathing down Nomuras neck. It looks great but plays horribly. I was a fan since 2002 and have loved every game up to this point. Never again, i am very sad.    … Expand
  9. Jollyraffy
    Sep 8, 2023
    2
    A boring, unbalanced and slow videogame. A part from a few, all the voice actors sound like damn robots, the dialogues are horrible and the general pace of the game is too slow.
    The combat system, something I hoped would make me like this game a bit is bad.
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Awards & Rankings

23
#23 Best PS4 Game of 2019
11
#11 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019
89
#89 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 88 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 81 out of 88
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 88
  3. Negative: 1 out of 88
  1. TheSixthAxis
    Jan 30, 2020
    80
    Kingdom Hearts III doesn’t go in the direction some RPG fans will no doubt have been hoping for. It’s unashamedly over the top in just about every way, from its barmy story and stunning presentation to its huge cinematic battles. There’s plenty of depth here too, though you’ll need to find your bearings first.
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  2. Gamersky
    May 31, 2019
    85
    There is no doubt that Kingdom Hearts III will make long term fans moved or even cry. As for those new to the franchise, I believe they also can be satisfied because of tons of classic Disney elements and solid combat system, even though they could barely understand the main story.
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  3. Riot Pixels
    Apr 20, 2019
    73
    If you like animated movies from Disney and Pixar, and you want to relieve some of the key moments, welcome to Kingdom Hearts 3.
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