Why do people keep saying KH2 is better than KH3?

[Face My Fears]

Ok, I just want to address the "there was no reason to visit Radiant Garden or explore a full Twilight Town because there was nothing to do there anymore"
It's called immersive experience, not to mention commemorative inclusion. Not including some of the most iconic worlds and locations of the Xehanort saga in the finale of said saga is just wrong. I mean, by this logic, KH1 World Terminus wasn't necessary in defeating Ansem, so that should've been cut out, except I think it would've hurt End of the World's atmosphere greatly.

Besides, I can think of many ways to make a visit worthwile, first of all the secret chamber with Aqua's armor and Keyblade. It's actually insane Mickey and Riku didn't go there when they were investigating clues to get to Aqua herself and I doubt two Keyblade wielders (or Sora should the segment be playable) and the knowledgeable Ienzo were unable in finding that room.
Since it's been established Disney worlds had no part in gaining the power of waking, Sora not joining Riku and Mickey in the worlds of the Realm of Light makes no sense whatsoever.

"Not stricly necessary" isn't always the greatest reason when it comes to these things, especially when it isn't even all that true. Explorable Destiny Islands would've been better and had much more emotional impact and symbolism that any of the Disney worlds.
Not to mention much more useful to the narrative considering it's only by going there that the plot starts moving forward.
Literally the only reason why we can't go to these worlds is because then the main story would've happened and the team wasn't clever enough to write around it, so they just didn't.
Apologies if I don't find multiple Ienzo cutscenes over a Gummiphone as exciting and fulfilling.

Again, most of what I'm reading here is that KH III is good because this older game also had flaws.
I guess the original sin was comparing it to KH II in the first place, which led us to what I consider a dead end- that's not even why many are bashing on KH III. Like, whenever I complained about KH III, I never said or thought "this other game was better" (except when a comparison was only fair and due).

I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of people who did exactly that and said KH II FM was better, that's nothing new. People have been saying this for every KH title after KH II to some extent.
But the opposite is also true. Sometimes you cannot point out or complain about something without people labeling you as one of those dreaded "KH II elitists" that apparently have no other purpose in life that to constantly harass the fans into accepting the sacred dogma of KH II FM.
Since it's fairly obvious many aren't necessarily bothered by the KH II comparison but simply that we don't like KH III, Imma propose we all take a step back and just return to discuss KH III as a saga finale and its own product, before this contest becomes a swamp of nitpicks.
It's not that I want to shut this debate down, I just think there's no real gain for anyone, least of all KH III.

There's a story in an italian comic book about a teenager challenging his 50 years old father to a running match, to settle a dispute over their manly pride. The teenager's girlfriend is against it, and makes one of the most compelling arguments ever to him:

"If you win you have no merits, because you're younger; if you lose, it's an embarassment, because you're younger!"

That's how I feel. Is KH III better than base KH II? Wow, such accomplishment. Square and Nomura succeeded in the Herculean task of not walking backwards for 14 years.
Is KH III only slightly better? That's... not optimal. Not exactly worthy popping off the champagne just yet.
Is it actually worse? That's tragic, why aren't loads of people depressed and upset at the fact... ohhhh. And trust me when I say that living in a 2019 where KH II is better than KH III was the last of my wishes. I am NOT happy or proud even if I'm "right".

So yeah this is what I feel. If what you're here for is exactly proving/debunking the KH II comparison then by all means. I just feel it's going to bottle up feelings and reviews about KH III and quickly turning into a "you can't say this or x thing's fans will be all over you" taboo.

You make excellent and valid points. I'm not trying to shut people down on making perfectly credible critiques about KH3. My biggest gripe is that everywhere I look, it's seemingly a nonstop barrage of hatred for KH3 and then people immediately comparing it to KH2 - and acting like KH2 was legit perfection when it's hypocritical. I can list several things in KH3 that I wish would have happened, believed should have been there, and things that would have made the game better. Is KH3 the game that I was expecting and hoping for? Not necessarily. Granted, I was perfectly fine with what we got and actually enjoyed KH3 a lot, but maybe that's because I'm not much of a modern day gamer? The most recent games that I've played are Mortal Kombat X and Batman Arkham Knight. Maybe modern day gamers are expecting way more content wise?

I mean, explorable Destiny Islands just for the sake of exploration would have been pointless. I was slightly confused by Land of Departure (inside) being playable - I thought to myself "what is the point" when it takes you straight to a cutscene then fight then you never can return. Would it have really been that impactful to walk around on the beach of Destiny Islands for a few seconds before gliding to the giant door and entering a cutscene? If there was a reason to visit them and to have heartless there to fight, then I would gladly have visited whichever worlds. What is the point in an action RPG of having an entire world to visit where there are no enemies? I mean I guess it would have been interesting to see Sora/Riku/Kairi on the main island for once (well we saw Kairi there before), but aside from that what would they do? OK so I typed out all of that, then I thought about Final Fantasy games and how huge the worlds are and sometimes there are areas that serve no purpose except for being able to explore them, so maybe KH3 could have used more explorable original worlds, but I think if they had them explorable people would have complained that there was nothing to do in them... so maybe they just tried to avoid those complaints?

For KH games, I usually just accept what I'm given because "there's always the next game to explain it". KH3 basically explained everything I needed to know for the main plot (Xehanort saga) and I wasn't one of those people that really wanted more scenes of TAV/RAX or even Riku/Kairi or whoever else. I actually enjoy KH's "less is more" treatment of relationships, so maybe that's why I didn't feel that offended when side characters that had full games devoted to them didn't have much screen time in the game that was meant to be Sora's story and focus.

I think this all boils down everyone's personal opinion of the game. It's subjective whether we liked it or not. There are objective things that we can definitely agree on - like the game being too easy, even on Proud - or that there wasn't a lot of post game content like tournaments/secret bosses etc, but ultimately you and anyone else have the right to critique the game. I'm just in this thread about comparing KH2 and KH3 stating why I think it's unfair for people to say that KH2 is better than KH3, when they are comparing KH2FM (a game that was filled with corrections compiled from player feedback and desired extras packed in) vs. KH3.

@DizneyXBirds95: I don't dismiss Space Paranoids as "irrelevant". I thought it was one of the better worlds in KH2 and was hoping it would be in KH3 (especially after The Grid appeared in 3D). It would have been nice to revisit the world and have Tron help you find the missing files Ienzo needed to begin researching how to save Roxas. Space Paranoids returning would have also been a good excuse to actually visit Hollow Bastion instead of using the Gummiphone.

 

[SerDuncan]

I don't think it's unfair to compare KH2FM to KH3. Because as Nomura has said many a time, all the previous games were tests so to speak leading up to the gameplay of KH3. So the team has plenty of data from other titles that they could use for preparing Kingdom Hearts 3. Not only that but KH2FM came out over a decade ago. I understand that KH2FM is like a bandaid for KH2, but why shouldn't we be comparing the best version of the game with the current version of this game? We don't even know if there will be DLC, so to be completely fair, we should be comparing the best version of each game. And even still, like I was saying, KH2FM came out over a decade ago. Like Darkos said, are we really saying it's an accomplishment that KH3 would be better than Kh2, but not as good as KH2FM? That's tragic.

At the end of the day, I think it's totally fair, and a valid comparison to put KH3 up against KH2FM. Not that your frustrations about the conversation don't have merit, it's just that there's way more reason to compare those two than to compare KH2 base to KH3. KH2 isn't legit perfection at all, in fact, I would hesitate to call any Kingdom Hearts game higher than a 7 on a 0-10 scale. The games are fun, they're enjoyable... but they all have flaws. Just like Kh3 has plenty of flaws as well.

 

[Elysium]

Comparing it to KH2FM makes it look much worse where it concerns post-game content. Both KH1 basic and KH1FM are better than KH3, imo. Unlike KH2, KH1 didn't require a FM to fix it--the FM for KH1 was just a bonus.

 

[Face My Fears]

Comparing it to KH2FM makes it look much worse where it concerns post-game content. Both KH1 basic and KH1FM are better than KH3, imo. Unlike KH2, KH1 didn't require a FM to fix it--the FM for KH1 was just a bonus.

If I remember correctly, Final Mix was made because the original Japanese KH1 was lacking stuff that the US KH1 got (hence denying for years the US of the bonuses that Japan just received).

Anyway, I digress. I don't think KH3 in its current state needs to be "fixed". If this is all we got and no DLC, I would actually be OK with that. Would I want more? Hell yeah, it's KH! I want all that I can get.

 

[Shawty]

I was kind of disappointed that we didn't visit Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden in KH3. I also missed creative concepts like Timeless River (as many before me have mentioned), but KH3 did improve on a lot of things. Cohesive story, improved gameplay, more to explore etc. I also wish Twilight Town had more of a function within KH3, but it's not something I needed to have. I loved exploring San Fransokyo a lot, I appreciated the fact that Arrendelle was actually a fun world (not a big Frozen fan), and damn the worlds do look beautiful.

Screw that world map though. That's one thing KH2 absolutely did better. I loved that world map.

 

[k99y77]

Because KH2 was longer and had more main/side content and KH3's ending sucks

 

[Enturax]

(I'm counting Final Mix in)

A more "controllable" gameplay (not saying KH3's gameplay was unenjoyable, but the lack of unlockable moves for the Keyblades in their transformed states, the randomness factor for the Reaction Commands and the time they consumed - were rather tiresome after a longer while, especially combined with the braindead block->counter combat system during boss fights)

Final Fantasy characters/way more and way better interaction with other characters including Disney ones/better feeling that you are not alone in the entire universe besides Donald and Goofy (at least IMO).

More (interesting) Secret Bosses/post content.

More worlds and actually no subworlds with near to no content.

No rehashed plot ideas.

WAY more pronounced characters' personalities.

WAY more interesting visualization of Organization XIII that felt fresh, more threatening and mysterious at the time. (Though, the beginning on the Keyblade Graveyard was pretty neat. Or at least it'd be if it wasn't for the awkwardly animated/sounding cutscenes.)

WAY more atmospheric/nostalgic feeling. Just look at Twillight Town or some of the Mulan, Radiant Garden or Lion King worlds' locations.

WAY more emotional (especially after playing 358/2). Sorry, but I won't cry when the characters pop up during the final stage of the game, during most obvious moments, cry a little bit, and then you rush forward leaving them behind. Lazy writing at its best. And the worst part is it was one of the most important and few parts of the plot...

WAY more complex plot and more explanation.

WAY more epic final boss (and no "But I'm a good Hitler, MoM!" treatment). And arguably cooler world bosses too.

WAY more satisfying ending that actually felt like something I'd call a closure to this arc more, if it wasn't for Xehanort wanting to come back, that is. Also, the final cutscenes in KH3 felt like watching some fanfics being animated. That being said I kinda felt happy for the Twillight Town gang, I won't lie. That has a potential for interesting convos between the characters.

 

[Unusual1290]

The only thing I think KH2 did better was post game content. Even vanilla KH2.

It still had more Coliseum matches to be unlocked. The Sephiroth boss battle.

And even though those things you could’ve gotten to before you completed the game, they were very tough and you wanted to get yourself to a high level and feel that you needed to get the Ultima Weapon. I think the conditions to unlock the Hades Paradox Cup were great because it gave you a reason to want to spend so much time leveling up your Drive Forms and Summons, and the cup was still a great challenge.

I think KH3 has the better story, and even though the Disney worlds still weren’t that relevant to the main plot, you can tell they at least tried harder to make it so by introducing the New Seven Hearts and giving the Org XIII members reasons to visit those worlds.

 

[soratothamax]

Because they're crazy.

I'm only half-joking. KH3 blows KH2 out of the water in most ways. KH3 does miss some of those brilliantly inventive ideas like Timeless River and the Radiant Garden visit involving TRON. There are no great original worlds like TWTNW or KH1's Traverse Town/Hollow Bastion/End of the World either. And I'd agree that KH2 has a better soundtrack overall, even if KH3 has better themes from Utada. KH3 wins for me when it comes to story, world design, gameplay, graphics (although all the KH games are pretty, imo), and dialogue/character interactions.

I think the games are even where it concerns minigames and post-game content. In KH2, I liked the Pooh minigames, wrapping Christmas presents, tournaments, and the struggle matches. Hated everything else. None of the stuff in KH3 bothers me, but nothing is really a standout either. The Bistro and battlegates are okay. The hidden Mickey's are neat, but I don't think I could ever find all of them without the help of an online guide. The Gummi ship is equal amounts cute/annoying/pointless in both 2 and 3.

The arena/tournaments, trinities, Dalmatians search, and the Command Board are really the only minigames KH has ever had that I've been super-entertained by. I still think they could make a musical minigame that's fun / better than KH2 Atlantica if they tried.

Well, even though in idea form Timeless River was good, the world was a let down. There was nothing to explore and we never actually got to ride that steam boat either lol. Tron's world was a very small island which also let me down. MCP boss battle in Tron was also bland. I just don't think they are any more creative than any other world. The design of these worlds were great, but they had nothing to offer other than that.

I actually do think many of the worlds in KH3 are massively creative, especially The Caribbean, Toy Box, and San Fransokyo. In truth KH2 had a lot of returning worlds, which were not as good as their originals in my opinion (Agrabah, Atlantica, HalloweenTown). Even Christmas Town could have offered more.

 

[soratothamax]

(I'm counting Final Mix in)

A more "controllable" gameplay (not saying KH3's gameplay was unenjoyable, but the lack of unlockable moves for the Keyblades in their transformed states, the randomness factor for the Reaction Commands and the time they consumed - were rather tiresome after a longer while, especially combined with the braindead block->counter combat system during boss fights)

Final Fantasy characters/way more and way better interaction with other characters including Disney ones/better feeling that you are not alone in the entire universe besides Donald and Goofy (at least IMO).

More (interesting) Secret Bosses/post content.

More worlds and actually no subworlds with near to no content.

No rehashed plot ideas.

WAY more pronounced characters' personalities.

WAY more interesting visualization of Organization XIII that felt fresh, more threatening and mysterious at the time. (Though, the beginning on the Keyblade Graveyard was pretty neat. Or at least it'd be if it wasn't for the awkwardly animated/sounding cutscenes.)

WAY more atmospheric/nostalgic feeling. Just look at Twillight Town or some of the Mulan, Radiant Garden or Lion King worlds' locations.

WAY more emotional (especially after playing 358/2). Sorry, but I won't cry when the characters pop up during the final stage of the game, during most obvious moments, cry a little bit, and then you rush forward leaving them behind. Lazy writing at its best. And the worst part is it was one of the most important and few parts of the plot...

WAY more complex plot and more explanation.

WAY more epic final boss (and no "But I'm a good Hitler, MoM!" treatment). And arguably cooler world bosses too.

WAY more satisfying ending that actually felt like something I'd call a closure to this arc more, if it wasn't for Xehanort wanting to come back, that is. Also, the final cutscenes in KH3 felt like watching some fanfics being animated. That being said I kinda felt happy for the Twillight Town gang, I won't lie. That has a potential for interesting convos between the characters.

Its interesting because I never shed a tear when I played KH2. There weren't enough emotional moments in the game for me to be moved besides Roxas's story. But to each its own.

I guess I don't include Final Mix in this because 1.) We had to wait several YEARS after the initial game to get final mix 2.) KH3 will be getting more Final Mix type of content soon, so I can't compare a game in its after vanilla form with a game in its vanilla form.

I would have liked KH2's organization, but initially they only had five members left in KH2...which was underwhelming for me at the time.

Although I do think in Kh3 they should have made the org members battles within the Disney worlds instead of just making an appearance in those worlds. That would have added more suspense to the game.

I do see your point about unlockable moves, which is what Nomura said he would alter in critical mode. At the same time, I liked the idea of each keyblade having their own unique function. In KH2...the keyblades looked cool but didn't offer much versatility. I think the Drive Form leveling process was fun, but it was hard for me to do because I had to go to those dried up worlds to fight.

KH2 Final Mix did have a lot more content, but that was YEARS after the initial. KH2 didn't have more game base content. It did have Coliseum matches and Sephiroth. But that was it and in the original Kh2 Sephiroth was actually much was easier before Final Mix increased his difficulty. I actually still have the original Kh2 and Ps2. I plyaed them recently, comparing them to Final mix. Even in standard Mode Final Mix a higher difficulty rating than KH2 the original. The coliseums were fun, but they didn't offer much. I honestly got bored with them because it was the same arena back to back. KH3 has loads of minigames, battles gates, a secret boss, and collectibles, as well as Classic Kingdom. I honestly think it has something for everyone.

I did like the FF characters, but I don't think they took away from the KH3 experience. And for the sake of story, I think they wanted to focus on the various KH characters. If you remember, there weren't many KH based characters on the heroes side in the other games. So they filled in those blanks with FF characters. Now the Kh universe has its own characters so there is not as much need for FF (although I would have liked to see them or The World Ends With You).

I definitely think the nostalgic factor has a lot to do with why people like KH2 better. But for me, Pride Lands and Land Of Dragons were great in theory, but they had nothing to offer and let me down. The worlds in KH3, while having worlds based on newer Disney franchises, added to the gameplay experience.

The ending of KH3 intrigued me. The ending of Kh2 left me hanging. I just kept saying "that's it?". I guess I like Kh for its craziness in story plots and how it intrigues my mind with its complexities. Whereas in KH2....there wasn't much of a story to begin with so I felt nothing from its ending.

I appreciate you breaking down why you like Kh2 better, tho. You made a lot of good points. I do like Kh3 better, but its a subjective opinion. I still do like Kh2, but just like Kh3 better.

 

[wwinterj]

Why do people keep saying KH2 is better than KH3?

Simply put because people have different opinions. While Kingdom Hearts is my favourite I believe Kingdom Hearts 3 is the best the series has ever been in many ways. The pacing, lack of Disney boss fights, end game content and difficulty bring it down for me. I'm aware the difficultly and end game content can and will probably be fixed with upcoming DLC though. I remain hopeful that the pacing can be worked on with things getting fleshed out more.

 

[soratothamax]

I was kind of disappointed that we didn't visit Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden in KH3. I also missed creative concepts like Timeless River (as many before me have mentioned), but KH3 did improve on a lot of things. Cohesive story, improved gameplay, more to explore etc. I also wish Twilight Town had more of a function within KH3, but it's not something I needed to have. I loved exploring San Fransokyo a lot, I appreciated the fact that Arrendelle was actually a fun world (not a big Frozen fan), and damn the worlds do look beautiful.

Screw that world map though. That's one thing KH2 absolutely did better. I loved that world map.

To be fair, Kh2 didn't need a world map. Everything was literally next door to each other. 🤣 But yeah Timeless River was a nice looking world...I just don't think it had much to it. I mean I didn't expect KH3 to have the same exact worlds as KH2. I personally think there were some really creative worlds in KH3. Caribbean, Toy Box, and San Fransokyo were really creative and had their own gameplay system. They were impressive.

 

[Xblade13]

My problem is that KH2 was inferior to 1, at least to me. KH1 will probably always be my favorite game. I didn't view the "clunkiness" as a weakness but rather a challenge. Notice that the more fluid titles (2 and 3) are way easier. Also I loved the platforming and more dungeon-like aspects of the original game. Chain of Memories was good as well especially in the story department, but suffers from the repetitive nature of each floor. Days felt like KH1 but on the DS with a mission structure.

I didn't play KH2 at all until shortly before BBS came out, so I didn't have any attachment to it. I came into it post-Days, and as a result it didn't feel satisfying at ALL. But I digress. BBS felt like a return to form for me...

 

[Echoecho6]

Seeing the nostalgia argument is really annoying. Plenty of people that just got into the games prefer KH2 to KH3 and nostalgia has nothing to do with it. Vanilla KH2 was amazing as it is, and it is all I ever owned until I got the PS4. I acually prefer Vanilla KH2 sometimes only because I dont like the new versions of some of the music tracks in KH2FM. I want to go replay KH2 for the 100th time because it has great replay value. Despite having done everything in the game it is still fun to replay. For KH3, I have no desire to play through that mess a second time. I enjoy rewatching cutscenes on youtube, but I can't bear to play it. The combat is just... not fun. The music being worse in KH3 doesn't help with the combat either. The keyblades, the reaction commands in boss battles, the characters, all of it was epic in KH2. KH3 severely lacks in alot of this and instead gives us something more "funny", which is nice but honestly might be part of what is dampening the tone of the game.

People seem obsessed with talking about how bad the worlds in KH2 are which is what makes the game sooo bad. The worlds in KH2 are even more enjoyable in 3 imo. The themes are better, the world stories and characters. This goes with gameplay too. The team attacks with Disney characters. It just worked better and felt nicer.

Yes, the worlds are bigger and have more things to do in KH3. All these years later that is exactly what we should all be expecting.. But why did that come at the cost of everything else that was needed to make the game good? It sounds like the majority of the people who praise KH3 as an amazing game are the same type of people who think a game is amazing just because the graphics look "good" or "impressive" to them. If a game has super amazing graphics then it somehow makes the combat and everything else seem amazing.

I don't play Halo or Destiny or any games like that really, but I am well versed in knowing how those fans are, and all of this just sounds like when Halo 5 was coming out and they showed some amazing graphics and the story seemed super promising and so everyone bought it, but then it ended up being really short, and really boring repetitive gameplay, but atleast it had good graphics to them! KH3 is leaps better than that nonesense but this is still what it feels like.

I don't hate on KH3 because it isn't the same as my nostalgia game from 2005... I talk about it negatively because it is missing a ton of things that are just common sense. If you are a kid who doesn't know about KH, and you go and pick up KH3 and you get into some of these worlds, youre gonna have the desire and expectation to fight people like Randall, or Zurg even. Nostalgia isn't the problem here. Which btw, KH3 seemed to focus on nostalgia the most anyway. It didn't feel like its own new game most of the time, it felt like it was trying to make fans feel nostalgia and remind them of every single character and it felt like a poorly done fanservice party.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Kingdom Hearts II is a fun game, but I'm sorry, after paying Kingdom Hearts III, I can't go back and play Kingdom Hearts II because Kingdom Hearts III authenticity to the Disney worlds makes Kingdom Hearts II look like a bootleg.

 

[The Kid]

KH2 to date still has the best combat in the series by far. It has the most epic use of its Final Fantasy characters, the best final boss, and genuinely satisfying conclusion.

 

[Enturax]

guess I don't include Final Mix in this because 1.) We had to wait several YEARS after the initial game to get final mix 2.) KH3 will be getting more Final Mix type of content soon, so I can't compare a game in its after vanilla form with a game in its vanilla form.

I don't think it's a good analogy; a much bigger studios have been working on KH3, with a presumably much bigger experience, with a much more time to write the story, with an already-existing characters' animations and VAs from previous games. I guess the downside on the devs' part was changing the engine and forcing 2.8's 2 extra games during the developement.
BTW the Final Mix version was already released in 2007, but only in Japan.

KH3 has loads of minigames, battles gates, a secret boss, and collectibles, as well as Classic Kingdom. I honestly think it has something for everyone.

I mean, the amount of a dissatisfied fans say otherwise, lol. I don't think the content is very bad, it's just that it doesn't go beyond the generic boundries of modern games or boundries of some other KH titles that are pretty old now.

The ending of KH3 intrigued me. The ending of Kh2 left me hanging. I just kept saying "that's it?". I guess I like Kh for its craziness in story plots and how it intrigues my mind with its complexities. Whereas in KH2....there wasn't much of a story to begin with so I felt nothing from its ending.

Wait, how was there not much story? We were introduced to so many new concepts and characters, meanwhile in KH3 we are exploring worlds for not much reason besides remembering the "power of awakening" which Sora eventually does by simply wanting it... Somewhere in the meantime replicas are being gathered and the Black Box (sub)plot is slowly vanishing without any progress done on it... Then we rescue Aqua, Ven, and then we go straight to the Keyblade Graveyard which's only unique plot points or a subplots (because they were barely explained), were the after-death experience (that randomly took us back in time) and the "Heartless Tornado" fight with the Keyblade wielders of the past. Oh, and Sora finally started feeling something for Kairi, just so then

Spoiler Show

she dies.

I like KH's complexiness too, but there wasn't much stuff here, and when there were, they were left unexplained even though this was meant to be the end of the arc, but the only indication of it is

Spoiler Show

Xehanort's death

, which disappoints me a lot. And maybe it'd not be so bad if we were actually told more about Xehanort's past that'd provide more context on his actions' part, and his personality!

Seeing the nostalgia argument is really annoying. Plenty of people that just got into the games prefer KH2 to KH3 and nostalgia has nothing to do with it. Vanilla KH2 was amazing as it is, and it is all I ever owned until I got the PS4. I acually prefer Vanilla KH2 sometimes only because I dont like the new versions of some of the music tracks in KH2FM.

It isn't the Final Mix that had changed OST, it's the Remasters' thing and I dislike it in a few parts myself, The Other Promise annoying me the most (which was FM exclusive).

The music being worse in KH3 doesn't help with the combat either.

Yeah, they seem to lack the oomf.
As for combat being worse in KH3 - it definitely is less responsive and more floaty.

It sounds like the majority of the people who praise KH3 as an amazing game are the same type of people who think a game is amazing just because the graphics look "good" or "impressive" to them. If a game has super amazing graphics then it somehow makes the combat and everything else seem amazing.

The so called normies/casuals because of who we had so many open (and empty) world games and so many (repetitive) shooters for years :3

I don't hate on KH3 because it isn't the same as my nostalgia game from 2005... I talk about it negatively because it is missing a ton of things that are just common sense. If you are a kid who doesn't know about KH, and you go and pick up KH3 and you get into some of these worlds, youre gonna have the desire and expectation to fight people like Randall, or Zurg even. Nostalgia isn't the problem here. Which btw, KH3 seemed to focus on nostalgia the most anyway. It didn't feel like its own new game most of the time, it felt like it was trying to make fans feel nostalgia and remind them of every single character and it felt like a poorly done fanservice party.

This.

 

[maximumlight8]

But KH1 JP wasn't even super lacking. It still had a decent amount of content to do. Even Atlantica could technically be considered side content because it's completely optional.

>Chests
>Dalmatians
>Cups
>Mini games
>Phantom
>Post cards
>Trinity marks
>100 acre wood
> Synthesis
> The rare mushrooms

 

[SoulXaldin]

-Cause unlike 3, KH2 doesn’t feel like a hamfisted rushed job.

-If you thought combat in 2 felt Uber monotonous, repetitive and effortless, then 3 is sure to confirm those notions.

-2’s conclusion wraps up character arcs and the story better. KH3’s ending is just SO disappointing.

 

[Face My Fears]

-Cause unlike 3, KH2 doesn’t feel like a hamfisted rushed job.

-If you thought combat in 2 felt Uber monotonous, repetitive and effortless, then 3 is sure to confirm those notions.

-2’s conclusion wraps up character arcs and the story better. KH3’s ending is just SO disappointing.

I don't get how you can say KH2 wraps up character arcs and story better. KH2 introduced a bunch of characters (mostly Organization members) and basically gave them no character at all - they just served as humanoid bosses to fight. Sora's character arc was... find Riku and Mickey? He finds Mickey and (to buy time) Mickey doesn't reveal key info about Riku. Then they throw in the "surprise" that the leader of the Organization is the Nobody of Xehanort - this happens in the middle of the game. What were we doing before? Just wandering around Disney worlds that we knew did not have Riku or Mickey. KH2's story was messy because it basically started in the middle of the game and the main villain's goal was barely elaborated on. When it was found out that he was using Sora to go to worlds to release hearts to construct a new Kingdom Hearts, Sora's response to this was... to continue going to worlds and release more hearts. For more than half the game you don't really know why you keep going forward, you just do and scenes happen that sort of vaguely clue you in. Oh and throw in Kairi getting kidnapped again. At least in KH3 you knew what you were building towards - saving Aqua and Ven, then ultimately the keyblade war. Whether the execution was good or not, at least the story was clearer and executed better than KH2's.

NOTE: I love KH2 a lot, I just can't let it slide when people say that its story was better than KH3.