This is how I am feeling as well! I have been in awe of the graphics so much, I am still in the first world myself lol. About to hit 3 hours in already but I have been super taking my time and taking a million screen shots and trying to find ingredients and chests.

Edit: Oh and yes, the music usage has been super good so far, and the rearrangements and new tracks sound amazing, as expected. But still its gorgeous to the ears ha.

kudos. glad you got to play.

I was astonished how long it took me to clear Olympus. My total run time was around 5 hours afterwards, but, like Sora2016, I had been soaking up the details, but STILL. It is beauuutiful. It's a different take, but I'm enjoying this change despite some of my own preferences!

The music is also the business. I was hooked from the start, but The Mysterious Tower arrangement in particular is life. "Looking" forward to all the sounds.

5 hours and I'm in twilight town! Guys, this game is amazing. There's an insane attention to the details!

Man, hearing that new Dearly Beloved, and then the orchestral Don't Think Twice was pretty overwhelming. Really that word goes for all of my 3 hours so far.

I have a question about audio though. Is it just me, or is dialogue in cutscenes louder than during gameplay? I've listened with both the sound bar I use and my tv speakers, and it happens either way, so I'm pretty sure it's the game and not anything on my end. But does anyone else experience this?

Does it have anything to do with Master Volume option in the config menu? I'm not sure if that does anything other than lower the whole volume overall, but yeah. I'd like to get the voices softer without lowering the music during gameplay.

I've only played a few hours so far and I'm enjoying it. The gameplay is fun and the music is brilliant as always. I get a blast taking photos during the battles, and Remy's mini game is adorable. I especially love how explorable and alive the worlds are, it's just so refreshing compared to all the other games. My only real gripe so far is the writing, which isn't anything new, but is it me, or has it become worse than before?

They could've left a little to the imagination with Meg...

Wtf was up with Herc throwing the statue into the sky and then the girl just being saved? How jarring was that? I saw that on a stream, and thought I missed a bit of combat or an extra scene.

I honestly just played up to the second Olympus save point where you can throw the Hercules doll around (wth was that? lol -- and then it just disappears after awhile :redface:), and the game honestly feels like a movie so far.

Is this the general impressions thread? Kinda dead for launch day (everyone must be playing the game). I'm about two hours in and at the part where I'm assuming you meet Zeus, and the biggest that thing that has stuck out to me is the surplus of Phil and Herc dolls; was this something big in the film, lol?

The multiple routes is driving my OCD up a hill (no pun intended), which brings me to my next point: I'm playing on Proud, scavenging every conceivable corner and appreciating the awe-striking environments, but can't help to wonder how fast you can plow through the game on Beginner. I know that's not the ideal way to play the game, but seems like it would be fun all the same (I'm not having trouble with difficulty or anything, and am definitely gonna play this game more than once). It just seems like a fun way to speed through everything and not worry about checking every corner, and then delve in in an OCD mode on Proud after.

For completionists, the sledding Goofy is hell (trying to check each alternate path and crashing into walls, leading to Sora bouncing with fire on his ass like Mario 64), and although Trophies are like playing for stats (which isn't cool), it's kind of bogus there isn't a Proud trophy; I want to brag about that shit. Other than that, the game is obviously a 10/10 - need I say more?

I'm not sure what needs to be spoiler tagged and what's not, so:

[spoiler]I'm enjoying it so far. About to start Corona. I loved the fight with the Wind Titan. I wish the Lava Titan had got its own solo fight. The end of Olympus felt very anti-climactic though. I'm going to ride straight through the game, and then return to complete the Lucky Emblems, cuisine, Moogle photos, etc. stuff at the end. That should keep me busy. The game's beautiful. The backgrounds especially. The characters are sometimes...odd-looking. Axel's model especially looked weird. In the scene with Kairi, he looked so creepy when he was staring at her.

I don't care for the Gummi ship portion. I mean, it's just a lot going on for something I never cared about. The humor is better than in KH2 so far, just because it's less forced and feels more well-placed/organic.

The game feels SO much like XV. I mean, I loved XV so I can’t say I don’t enjoy it, but something about Nomura forcing his vision for another game taken from him onto the KH series rubs me the wrong way. The worlds feel like “events”—what I mean, is sort of like the whole scene with Noctis attaining Titan (the summon from XV), just extended for hours. That’s what Olympus felt like anyway. The Titan fights, especially the Wind one, reminded me of the Hydra fight in XV.

Oh, forgot to say, I love the orchestra of “Don’t Think Twice,” but it isn’t quite as powerful as I thought it would be. Although DTT (the song) is my favorite after S&C, I think the orchestra is probably third behind the first two game’s orchestra themes. (Not that it means I don’t like it.)
[/spoiler]

^ Yes; the way cutscenes are broken up and stuff makes each world (or Olympus at least) feel like a series of events.

I'm assuming it's coming, but I'm waiting for a portion where I can just chill the f out and congregate with some townspeople. This was one hell of a "tutorial".

[spoiler]Twilight Town, on the plus side, feels like a Disney World attraction! Seriously, it feels like Disney shot down a proposal to build a Twilight Town in magic kingdom and instead made the Twilight Town here feel like that instead. Still not great, but it's something.

I also really, really liked Toy Box.

Olympus has some side quests, which surprised me. The forge was a cool little puzzle that was easy to figure out when Goofy had to explain it to my dumb ass after a minute, and the side quest with the little boy and the herc figurines is great. I was kind of getting a babies first God of War vibe from the beginning of Olympus, with Thebes feeling like Olympia. I swear I thought that Hera and Hercules were going to crash through the garden area and try to beat the piss out of me while I was there.[/spoiler]

I said this another thread, but the Square/Disney collab seems weirder than ever now (when it wasn't even weird in the first place because KH1's story was at least logical); KH3 started awesome, made sense and was thrilling until Xigbar came along and was like "hearts... darkness... light" with Donald, Goofy and Herc standing there like "How tf did we even get involved in this nonsense?". It's so jarring, and I hate that aspect of the game. It does not mesh well at all with the Disney aspect. I know that's why a lot of you here, but in my opinion it's horrendous writing and a complete misunderstanding of brand recognition.

I’m just finishing up Toy Box and the biggest impression I have so far is how much better the writing/pacing is in this game compared to the others. I really like how they’ve tied threads of the original story into the Disney worlds - it actually makes them feel significant for once, rather than something you have to push through just to move on to the “real” story.

Also, I’ve heard people complain that there is “no story” until endgame and I’m like, uhhh, I’ve been fed original story at every world and in-between so far. Mickey/Riku, Kairi/Axel, Ienzo, Ansem/Xemnas . . . all of them are featured in cutscenes very early to advance the plot.

The worlds are gorgeous, and I’m quite happy that even though they are big they don’t feel oppressively big/lifeless like they did in 3D.

If I have any criticisms so far, it’s that the gameplay is pretty busy. I think situation commands activate way too quickly and frequently - it’s just mayhem between the keyblade transformations, party links, attraction flows, flowmotion, and grand magic. I don’t have to think a ton in battle, as it seems to boil down to: smack enemies a few times to get situation commands and ride them from there (and I’m playing on Proud, btw). I appreciate that they’re trying to think of new ways to battle beyond the x button - something the developers have been trying to address in every game after KH1 - but the most memorable and satisfying battles I’ve had in the KH series have come from needing to learn enemy attack patterns and time my offense/defense well. That’s what made Lingering Will, Zodiac Phantom Aqua, Roxas, Data Org, Hades Cup, and the Cavern of Remembrance hallway so good. I’m hoping we get a few of those battles in this game, and it would be even better if some of them were story-mode battles (like Roxas). The boss fights so far have been flashy, but low on skill.

Also, as someone who prefers the inverted control stick setup, I’m struggling to find an optimal controller setup. When you move into the “rectical” view, such as when operating the phone camera, shotlocks, or first-person attraction flows, I prefer to use the standard control stick for shotlocks but the inverted control stick for everything else. Unfortunately, I can’t do that, so I either have to live with my shotlock feeling awkward or my other “rectical view” situations feeling awkward. Sigh...

But overall I’m happy with the game so far and excited to see where it goes.

Yeah, this game is my favourite entry in the franchise. It really shows that Disney and Pixar were directly involved with the Disney worlds, and the method of exposition is really smart between Gummi ship travels and the original worlds.

Wrapped up Olympus, and so unbelievably stoked that the town is flooded with NPC's once you revisit, and pretty much the entire world is reshaped (well Thebes at least), so I must ask (feel free to use spoiler tags): how do the rest of the worlds compare in this way? Does Andy's room fill up with some of the toys that were kidnapped? It would be really weird if they couldn't handle putting in like five more Toy Story characters when they reconstructed Thebes and filled it with citizens. How are the side quests upon returning? Like getting the Hercules figures; is there a lot of stuff like that? What can you do when you revisit a completed Galaxy Toys?

Does the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor fill up with employees? I'm guessing the answer to all these questions is no, and that Olympus for some reason is a rare exception, though I would love to hear otherwise.

And Phil's JP voice actor died, so I guess the muted him out of respect, which couldn't be more atypical of the character. My friend texted me this, and it must've been voice to text because it read "why didn't danny devotion voice filled?" lmao.

As someone who's been a fan from the beginning... KH3 is so far shaping up to be my favorite entry, and my favorite was previously KH2. (Not even Final Mix+ even though it's great, my favorite was for a long time vanilla KH2) It just feels like a natural progression of a numbered title. I don't have any issues so far with the game at all.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, there is a lot of attention to details, The atmosphere is quite fan and the interaction between SDG are amazing (even their cutscenes)
I love the "but we met them recently" and Sora "yeah, but it seems it is passed a lot of time" referencing the long release process!

Lea/Axel came off as a bit of a creeper in his intro scene, no? I mean, I get *why*, but it's still kinda creepy lol.

Currently Tangled is my favorite world in terms of character interactions and engaging with the environment.

[SPOILER]It's too bad that Rapunzel stops being your party member half way through, but it's understandable. The fight after the lantern scene was fun and I took a bunch of pics since the scenery was lovely. I didn't really get why Marluxia knocked Sora out, it seemed random since Marluxia can just disappear through the portal so he doesn't have to deal with the trio. [/SPOILER]

[spoiler]Tangled's really good. Not as good as the movie, but nothing is![/spoiler]

I am surprised by how much Re:coded is factoring into the early story. I nearly skipped the cutscene movie when I played through the collection last month. Glad I stuck with it. Suddenly the lore of data worlds seems like it's going to be relevant to what's ahead (which I don't know, and this is all so early I don't think it's a spoiler).

This is a small thing, but does anyone else wish they had taken the time to re-animate flashback scenes? It's just weird to me how they just splice in PS2 cutscenes into a PS4 game. Of course, this is not the first time this has happened: they did this in 0.2 as well. I would have loved to see some of these old scenes redone on the PS4 engine.

[spoiler]I’m at the end of Monstropolis, just before the final bosses I believe. I wanted to take a break before I finished there and jumped into Arendelle. Corona is the only bad world so far. The world design is alright (I love area outside the castle especially) and I like the dancing minigame, but the plot was almost exactly re-created from the movie—down to the body movements and facial expressions! Even Marluxia couldn’t liven that up. I’m hoping and praying Frozen isn’t the same way….

I’d say KH3 has the best gameplay of the series right now. I used to always kvetch when people would say that about KH2, because I hated Drive Forms / Antisora / Reaction Commands, and the magic was mostly useless. And on top of that, everything died so easily, that it discouraged you from using anything else besides mashing X nonstop or it would become mindnumbingly easy. And you would have to avoid most encounters with Heartless going from A to B or you would overlevel without even trying. 3’s the first game since CoM where I’ve loved the gameplay all-around. 3D was close—I loved the Dream Eaters and flowmotion—but I’ve always hated the command deck, and while it was better than the other games that used the deck like Days/BbS, it still wasn’t as fun as the attack menu from 1 and 2.

I think the only thing that would’ve made this game perfect is a slightly harder difficulty. I immediately went with Proud for my first play. The game’s not “easy” the way KH2 is easy, thankfully, but there’s mostly no real fear of dying. Overleveling isn’t a problem; I’ve been fighting only the enemies that get presented to you for the most part and I’m below the world lvls, which is good. The large HP for enemies helps. The game could almost lean the other way and turn out exhausting like Days (as in, not scared of dying, but takes forever to kill the things), but there’s enough diversions in how you can choose to fight that keep it from ever getting boring. I love the magic, rides, Keyblade transformations / upgrades, shotlocks, etc. My only question is if there’s a way to choose what triangle command you want to press when there are around 4 to choose from. Sometimes I just want to use the magic upgrade, but not the rides or character attacks/limits. Anyway, yeah, whatever else I might say about KH3 once through the whole thing, it has the best gameplay of the series, imo. They definitely managed to combine gameplay aspects from most of the series together in a way that didn’t break the game, imo.

Most of the voice recasts don’t bother me. Except Mickey…. :/ Is Spongebob playing Randall, too? I know he’s Rabbit’s new voice (since that Winnie the Pooh film in 2011).

Btw, can anyone figure out how to crack an egg? Lol The mini-games are all simple enough and I’ve got an excellent for everything at the bistro except for the stuff that requires an egg so far. I haven’t been able to crack one so far even though I tried like 30+ times now. I’ve done most of the Moogle picture quests. I have around 90% of treasures without re-playing any of the worlds. Well, I did go back to Olympus for a second to get the pics for the forge, Zeus, and the Herc statue. The hidden Mickey’s are harder than the other little collector side quests, although I’ve got around 25 so far.
[/spoiler]

@Tartarus, you can use L2 to cycle through your triangle commands.

So I'm on Tangled World and man this game is really long. Each world has so far taken me close to 3 hours. Really great stuff.

BTW if people think the game is too easy tthen just turn on zero XP that will make the game more challenging then Critical mode could.

As I mentioned in another thread, LV1 Proud is apparently more frustrating than challenging/fun (according to one of the most well-known KH speedrunners doing a LV1 Proud run right now). You do chip damage. The game needs a better balanced Critical mode to make the LV1 challenge great. Hopefully they're prepping that for the DLC/Final Mix.

GENERAL

-The form changes & attraction flows got old pretty quick. I rather just have the high level magic & team-up moves as they're quicker & do about as much damage.

-Similarly I have little interest in bothering with the food sidequest.

OLYMPUS

-Airstepping sucks. Little reason to use it outside of this world's mandatory segment. I felt like I was failing to understand something with the Tornado Titan battle, but watching a few youtube vids I didn't see anyone do it any differently.

-Herc looks great in motion & terrible in the pause menu.

TWILIGHT TOWN

-Wait, that's it? I even found all of the chests on the 1st visit?

TOYBOX

-Andy's front yard might be 1 of the most mesmerizing areas I've ever seen in a video game. Insanely realistic looking.

-Galaxy of Toys is a pretty well designed environment, There's a lot to it but it never takes very long to get to any specific area of the store.

-That said I wish more locations from the TS films were explorable. How did we not get Pizza Planet?

CORONA

-How long does this forest go on for?! Haven't had mini-map for most of it either, I can't entirely rule out that we're going in circles.

wtf you get to fight a [spoiler]demon anime maid doll[/spoiler] at Galaxy Toys and I am here for this bizarro shit.

EDIT: can someone tell me how to do black spoiler text instead of the block?

Well, I definitely never imagined when I was fighting Zexion that one day we'd be facetiming so he could give Sora sysadmin privileges.

That gives me an idea for a KH spinoff: Ienzo giving a keynote at a cybersecurity conference.

BTW did the patch for the epilogue come out already? And the secret ending comes out today right?

[FONT=Verdana]

Finished Toy Box tonight and, wow, that was an impressive world. I can't believe how long it was! And I feel the Giga Mechs really added a cool dimension to the gameplay.

I'm starting to think Proud is maybe the right level of difficulty. I'm not dying all the time, no, but I'm having to be a lot more careful than I thought I'd need to. As others have mentioned, you can get thrashed by the Giga Mechs pretty quick if you're not in one yourself.

I mentioned this previously, but I absolutely love how the themes of each world are tying into the themes of the larger plot. It goes a long ways to making these Disney worlds feel relevant, rather than just filler content. I can't remember the last time I felt this way about a KH game, but it's been a long time.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm in 9.5 hours and only at the Corona - and I don't even feel like I'm exploring a ton, either. I will be surprised if I beat this within 30 hours.

What satisfies me the most about Ienzo's involvement so far (read: about half into Corona, the fourth world) is that his dedication and commitment to atone for his past misdeeds actually comes over as genuine and he takes actions to prove his words.

That's a redemption arc done right, fellas.

The graphics are incredible. So incredible that it almost felt like I was watching a different Sora than the last two main installments. Maybe this is just me, but I could do without so many different ways to attack. It gets to a point where the fighting gets too cluttered with so many different options or too cheesy for me with the keyblade being able to turn into different things. But, that's just me, maybe I just like the nostalgia in the simplicity of the older games.

The cooking games are too fragile and unclear; a lot of trial and error.

I'm having the easiest time with the cooking minigames, don't know what y'all are talking about. I don't know if the difficulty changes between modes, but I'm on proud and it's actually super easy. Just be gentle and do what it says, don't know what else to tell people. If anything, the games are a little short and I wish that there was more to them.

^ Agree they are short, and they should combine like three in one.

They didn't give me much of a hassle either; I only couldn't get 'Excellent' in like two of the first six.

The eggs are the only ones I consistently I have issues with, but I know what my problem is, its just hard to break it.

I'm kinda crazy with details, like how after you rescue Rex and he said he would go back to the entrance and keep lookout, I actually went back to see if he would be standing there... I was disappointed. I mean, it wouldn't be very hard to just put his model there and give him a line of dialogue.

Edit: I also feel like Toybox is all of TS2's levels combined into one (PSX), which is awesome.

Here's a fun bit of coincidental trivia for everybody.

With the galaxy system of traversing through worlds, Toy Box and Kingdom of Corona are on opposite ends of the same galaxy map because Toy Story 3 and Tangled were both released in 2010, and the same can be said for Monstropolis and Arendelle as Monsters University and Frozen came out in 2013.

Whatever your thoughts on keyblade transformations, I think it is inarguable that they give keyblades greater distinction than they have had in quite some time. Like, when I think of the Kingdom Key my mind immediately goes to Second Form and the Ragnorok-like shotlock, and when I think of the Olympus keyblade I think of Counter Guard, and so on and so forth. I really like how keyblade transformations - and the ability to cycle through three keyblades at a time - have created legitimate reasons to use all the keyblades at your disposal rather than just the latest variety.

I did a little of the cooking minigame, but I have yet to feel like I need a temporary status boost for anything. I probably won't mess too much with it until a second, more thorough playthrough.

Not sure where to put this, but is there any knowledge yet on how many lucky emblems we need for the secret movie? I’m only at corona, but kind of want to know how I should pace myself with the emblems.

I believe it’s 30 on Proud, 60 on Standard, and all of them (90?) on Beginner.

Can I make a suggestion? Can we have a discussion thread for each Disney world. Kind of like how a season of tv has a reddit discussion for every episode. I don’t want to go into a general spoiler thread because I’m not that far but there are things I want to discuss about the game. It would be great if we could have discussion thread on different portions of the game and only allow spoilers up until that point the discussion is for.

I still don't really like the outline in 100 Acre Wood; it's so unnecessary. I get it's supposed to make it feel like a book or whatever, but there was never a piece of Pooh media that looked like that.

I think Western audiences generally underestimate how popular Winnie the Pooh is in Japan.

Okay so, Corona was definitely the best "redo the movie" world ever by far. I mean it helps the world was super big and had a lot to do. And I really liked getting to be a part of Rapunzel's journey to discover the things outside like playing in the water together and collecting the birds for her. It was super cute. And her excitedly yelling the whole time in general.

Which is why I was very disappointed when they had to go and do what I was afraid of and have her not be a party member anymore just because they felt the stupid need to follow the movie exactly and have her cut her hair. Or rather, that they did that and also made her hair integral to her combat. It made her super fun when you first go through but now it kinda sucks, I almost would have preferred her using a frying pan and Flynn using something else like a dagger or sword. It really sucks it bummed me out right in the middle of the world especial since the mini-game was super cute and the end gauntlet of enemies and that FINAL HEARTLESS were super great. I loved it all. Shame they couldn't go without doing something to spoil it for me.

[spoiler]Lol for the mini cooking games the main one I'm having issues with is the shaker. Just can't time it right. but it's funny to see Sora drop it so I don't mind xD[/spoiler]

not sure if it's spoilers so just spoiling it in case

Pooh should have gone the way of a summon ala Bambi in KH1.

I’m in corona and wow having the actual actors makes the dialogue so much less cringy.

My god, the Hundred Achre Wood was just a huge waste in potential, wasn’t it? I hate that style of mini game and they make you play it three times over?? I just aimed randomly and hoped I’d rack up enough points.

The Monster’s Inc world might be the first disappointing (full) world. It needed more location variety. Loved fighting the Unversed though. Perfect thematic match with the world, and it’s nice having them back for the first time since BBS. The Vanitas bits were great, too.

Question about something Sora says to Vanitas though:

He says something like, “You’re the one from the cathedral!” What is he referring to? I don’t recall Vanitas showing up in 3D, and that would have been the only time Sora could have met him.

Also, aren’t keybaldes supposed to be upgradable in this game? I’ve already gone through around four worlds and, to my memory, haven’t received any instruction about it.

Finished Arendelle and The Caribbean, and ohh boy, these two worlds reak favourtism from Nomura and Yasue. Both these worlds have plenty of scenes animated by Visual Works.

I try not to get annoyed with the plot but [SPOILER]Aqua not using magic during her fight with Ansem was dumb, unless she can't use magic without the keyblade. [/SPOILER]

[spoiler]I don't like BH6, but the world was alright. And I couldn't help thinking how the first Disney world is about a hero (Hercules) and the last is about heroes, too. Even though the world choices were not favorites for me--and I don't like PIXAR in this series--all the worlds were fine except for Corona, which still had nice environments / minigames. The Caribbean's ending is well-suited to this game, considering the last bits with Sora and Kairi. I posted this in the Spoilers section already, but I loved this game. I think it's probably my second favorite in the series after KH1, passing both CoM and 3D.

I'm glad the final world wasn't too huge--I've never been crazy about the Keyblade Graveyard, unlike the End of the World / The World That Never Was. They did a good job with the final battles though. The way they gave every darkness defeated their own scene was the best way they could have dealt with everything considering there's so much going on in the plot (loved the scenes at the Mysterious Tower and TT / DI that dealt with the connections between them all just prior to the KG, too). I liked visiting all the different worlds to revive everyone, similar to going through the portals in End of the World in the first game.

There are so many callbacks all over the place with this game (and not just with the gameplay). Somewhere near the end there was some light show that looked just like the Simba summon from KH1, the glowing symbol-elevator thing SDG were on reminded me of the the lights-symbols at the start of the Platinum Match with Sephiroth in KH1. There was one point in the scene near the beginning of the KG where someone said some dialogue that reminded me of the scene where Sora is talking about Kairi's heart being trapped inside him just before fighting Riku-Ansem in KH1, too.

Those goat armor things at the end creeped the ever-living f out of me. I know it's been talked on these forums before, and I don't think it's intentional, but I definitely saw quite a lot of religious symbolism here and there, even if it was just my own interpretation. I won't go into deal about what/why.

Now on to finishing what's left of the side quests. I assume Damascus is a reward for most of the battle gates, since I really need that. They should be fun, considering I enjoyed them in 3D. I have all the Keyblades around 4-6, but the Ever After, Arendelle, and Pooh Keyblades are around 7-9. Thankfully I got the cooking Keyblade just before the KG; I still need to complete the second page of the menu though. As far as the summons, I tried them all out, but Meow Wow was the only really good one, although I used Ariel a lot regardless. ;P

Btw, does Sora ever attain a Superglide ability during the side quests? Glide is better than nothing, but still. I'm just happy you can dodge roll from the beginning.[/spoiler]

It's funny how i never noticed that. Guess i was just barely paying attention to her.

No one pays attention to Meg. :frown: She's underrated.

Arendelle was very impressive. Clearly a lot of love when into that world - probably the longest of the bunch. From the trailers I thought that Kristen Bell and the others were phoning it in but, nope. Great performances all around.

Also, the fact that Sora doesn’t remember Marluxia or Larxene means that the Data Org battles aren’t canon, I guess? Then I suppose when Lingering Will shows up eventually they’re not going to remember him either, eh.

Yeah, I was surprised Sora didn't remember anything from CoM still. I thought that we were supposed to think he had a memory dump at some point in KH2, when a bunch of things randomly get uploaded to Jiminy's journal about the CoM members after one of the story points. Guess not

I guess the direction they went with the world made it hard to implement her? Without her just needing saved or something. But I guess it would have been cool if her and Pegasus at least helped some save people in the mean time? That's about all I can think of, other than her showing up with Pegasus before the Rock Titan fight.

But they clearly could have just...changed the structure to fit her in a bit more. Which I would have loved, I have always really liked her, and am always up for more.

I have been busy the past few days so I just finished up Monstropolis. I loved it! It was such a good world I loved the plot, I am glad Randall was involved even though he wasn't a boss. I guess I anticipated as much at this point. There seems to be only one big, important fight per world, which are always really awesome, but otherwise its just large groups of enemies. Which interact with the worlds a lot, so that's cool. I don't mind it per se, but I would love an extra boss or 2. I love cool Heartless designs, and also Disney bosses so you know.

That end scene was crazy tho. Sulley just freaking chucking Vanitas was amazing. And my boys Donald and Goody protecting Sora... So yeah. Not much else I could ask for other than a Randall mini-boss I guess.

So... Who's tried making a donut ship with the gummi parts so far?

The amount of time and detail they put into this game is amazing. I’m having so much fun with it. I’m towards the end of Monstropolis and I’m enjoying the ride!

[spoiler=Special Gummi Ships] Man, special ships used to be such a hassle to obtain & fly. I'm only like halfway through the game and getting these/using them is a blast! My favorite so far is endymion, but honestly all of them are so great. And DAMN, the design on the fortress! Using teeny ships in the past was also a giant hassle, thank god we can just use the game's pre-created teeny ships and mix & match them now![/spoiler]

My kids wanted me to show them Big Hero 6, but I was in the middle of the Caribbean. Tried to finish it quickly but I keep dying at one of these (last?) ship battles. Looks like I’m gonna need to hunt for some crabs and level up my ship . . . argh.

I’m at the point in the game where it’s clear I’m going to do a more thorough playthrough after this one, so now I’m just rushing trying to get through the story.

I don't know whether it's just me, but I feel as though San Fransokyo suffers from the most flat faces. Also, is it the shortest Disney world? Because I had so much fun in that world that I felt as though I finished it rather quick.

And for those curious, the origin for the Riku who's part of The Seekers of Darkness is such a Kingdom Hearts reason, and it's all revealed in San Fransokyo.

So I just finished the game. And let me say I really enjoyed it. While it's not the best game story-wise, it's definitely the strongest when it comes to gameplay. I loved to test all these different keyblade formations, the attractions, while being a little bit overpowered, were fun. Magic being a real option while fighting was definitely great. I hope they use this gameplay as base for the next games. I liked it.

Now one thing that irked me that could be a bit spoilery.

[SPOILER]I really, really disliked all the forced Sokai romance in this game.

The romantic feelings between Sora and Kairi were always implied and teased throughout the series. Especially in KH1 they obviously tried to tell us how much these two like each other. But that's it. Their romantic relationship was always tell, not show. Especially if you compare it to one of Sora's most developed relationships, his relationship with Riku.

I knew they would imply or tease Sokai again in KH3. And I knew it would eventually be canon. But how they handled it was pretty bad. Throughout the whole game Sora never really thinks or talks about Kairi. Right up until the end. And even then they don't really talk until we get the papou sharing scene. They probably talked before but again we didn't see anything. The papou sharing scene didn't feel romantic at all. Quite the opposite if you ask me. One moment Sora is worried about Riku, the next Kairi literally shoves a papou in his face, leaving Sora confused.

After that it seemed like they tried to put as much Sokai into these next few hours of the game as possible. From him shielding her with his body when Terranort attacked her (dude, block the attack with your keyblade, not your body?), to Kairi being the one to save Sora, to Sora remembering moments where Disney characters showed love when Kairi took his hand, to him going absolutely crazy when Xehanort killed her, to actually sacrificing himself to get her back.

Everything Sora cared about was Kairi suddenly. Every other relationship he had took a backseat in order to let Sokai shine. But none of it felt natural. Not to me at least. It seems like because they missed the opportunity to develop that relationship more slowly and naturally they just tried to cram everything into one game.

That Kairi was just a plot device again, doing literally nothing and just being there to give Sora some pain, didn't make that relationship any better. Why can't they just let Kairi be her own character first?

And I also disliked how much Sora's and Riku's relationship seemed to be completely ignored. Riku was pretty distant and I think it was really weird how he was just fine with Sora trying to find Kairi, well knowing there was a chance Sora mau never come back. It felt out of character for Riku to just accept that he may lose his best friend. Especially after his development and characterization in DDD.[/SPOILER]

I'm interested to see where we go next, especially after that secret ending. There are still many questions left unanswered. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long for the next KH game.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! [Pre-Keyblade Graveyard Spoilers]

[spoiler]The Sora/Aqua and Aqua/Vanitas fights! I feel like they were both handled perfectly. Had chills. And then that save from Ven to cap it off - *chef’s kiss*. I’m still waiting for this story to “get bad,” as many people following the leaks were complaining about. So far, I’ve been very satisfied with everything from the pacing to the presentation. I can’t imagine it just nosedives after this.

Also, if I had my druthers I would have made Aqua as challenging as Zodiac Phantom Aqua, but I’ll take it. :)[/spoiler]

So I just finished the game. And let me say I really enjoyed it. While it's not the best game story-wise, it's definitely the strongest when it comes to gameplay. I loved to test all these different keyblade formations, the attractions, while being a little bit overpowered, were fun. Magic being a real option while fighting was definitely great. I hope they use this gameplay as base for the next games. I liked it.

Now one thing that irked me that could be a bit spoilery.

[SPOILER]I really, really disliked all the forced Sokai romance in this game.

The romantic feelings between Sora and Kairi were always implied and teased throughout the series. Especially in KH1 they obviously tried to tell us how much these two like each other. But that's it. Their romantic relationship was always tell, not show. Especially if you compare it to one of Sora's most developed relationships, his relationship with Riku.

I knew they would imply or tease Sokai again in KH3. And I knew it would eventually be canon. But how they handled it was pretty bad. Throughout the whole game Sora never really thinks or talks about Kairi. Right up until the end. And even then they don't really talk until we get the papou sharing scene. They probably talked before but again we didn't see anything. The papou sharing scene didn't feel romantic at all. Quite the opposite if you ask me. One moment Sora is worried about Riku, the next Kairi literally shoves a papou in his face, leaving Sora confused.

After that it seemed like they tried to put as much Sokai into these next few hours of the game as possible. From him shielding her with his body when Terranort attacked her (dude, block the attack with your keyblade, not your body?), to Kairi being the one to save Sora, to Sora remembering moments where Disney characters showed love when Kairi took his hand, to him going absolutely crazy when Xehanort killed her, to actually sacrificing himself to get her back.

Everything Sora cared about was Kairi suddenly. Every other relationship he had took a backseat in order to let Sokai shine. But none of it felt natural. Not to me at least. It seems like because they missed the opportunity to develop that relationship more slowly and naturally they just tried to cram everything into one game.

That Kairi was just a plot device again, doing literally nothing and just being there to give Sora some pain, didn't make that relationship any better. Why can't they just let Kairi be her own character first?

And I also disliked how much Sora's and Riku's relationship seemed to be completely ignored. Riku was pretty distant and I think it was really weird how he was just fine with Sora trying to find Kairi, well knowing there was a chance Sora mau never come back. It felt out of character for Riku to just accept that he may lose his best friend. Especially after his development and characterization in DDD.[/SPOILER]

I'm interested to see where we go next, especially after that secret ending. There are still many questions left unanswered. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long for the next KH game.

There was always a part of me that was surprised Disney allowed us to just beat the shit out of their villains; in other crossovers like House of Mouse (villain's episode), although they were menacing, they never actually hurt each other. Mickey disposed of them through harmless means.

I'm halfway through POTC and I hated doing that race. I'm surprised no one has talked about this unless I'm just really bad at racing.

^ I died at that the first time, just because I hadn't got used to the ship controls yet.

So I finally beat Arendelle lol, I have been lagging behind cuz I was busy all weekend, which sucks cuz now people are being more lax on spoilers all over the internet and I have already seen multiple things in the past day :)

Anyway, I can see why this would be many people's least favorite Disney world in this game, it may very well be mine as well even though I did enjoy it quite a lot. For what it was at least, I mean I will never not be salty the Frozen creators or whoever wouldn't let Elsa be a party member and maybe craft a more original tale, but Marshmallow was cute. Even though they just ignore him at the end? Was it to make it canon to the movie so he wouldn't be there for the final shot? I guess probably something silly like that. That boss was rad. The world was gorgeous but it got kinda samey after a while. I loved the labyrinth. And it was the first world since Toy Box with a real unique mid-boss! Corona sorta did it with the Carriage Horse thing but then they showed up later so it was less impressive. SO yeah, definitely enjoyed it overall.

Oh and I thought Hundred Acre Wood was cute, and I loved the mini-game but it really clearly needed more areas or something.

Just got to the Graveyard and stopped playing right after Yen Sid did his AWESOME thing and I must say for sure:

KH3 is the best game in the series (for me) and the best PS4 I've ever played. It has some negative aspects imo, but nothing that could ruin or make the experience less than fantastic

I thought at first that nano gear would just be a reskin of some other keyblade, but I was dead wrong. it's like all of them mixed into one with its transformation, along with a pretty great grappling ability to boot. I've made it a habit lately of strategically using finishers to avoid huge damage in boss battles, such as in the Anti-Aqua fight, where I would use the yo-yo that starts the nano gear combo to grapple onto her and then immediately use the finisher for some pretty reliable damage. Works really well on the demon tower-type enemies too, not going to lie. Use this if an enemy corners you, it can't go wrong.

Oh boy lol, I have been through some stuff. I needed to like think for a second. I am in The Final World, you know, the place called that. Not Scala Ad Caelum or whatever lol. That didn't all go down quite like I expected. Though I guess I know the fighting isn't over. Since the trailer showed others getting messed up more later in like a big fight. I am almost glad they got the whole "Everyone dies" thing out of the way immediately. Also my boy Donald! I feel bad for Aqua, I feel like she hesitated since it was just reminding her of what she just escaped from. Lea and Ven didn't have a chance lol.

But going backwards a little....I think they handled saving Aqua well. I kinda still think maybe it should have happened in the middle of the game? To pace this stuff out better. I literally cried at the scene she realized she was finally in the Realm of Light. It was so genuine. Was also extra excited to play as her to fight Vanitas. That whole sequence was very good too. And then of course what came after, everyone interacting with each other, with a meta ending telling you to read up on the lore in the gummiphone if you don't understand what's happening lol. It was still nice to see everyone acknowledging everyone.

Literally got chills watching SD&G embrace in the window after Rapunzel saved Eugene, and I've never even seen Tangled - that is why this series is awesome.

Edit: Cutscenes are still a bit too lengthy for my liking, but the Tangled theme is the best music in the game so far (yes, I'm still only that far); might end up being one of my favorite field themes in VG history. Still would've rather had Nottingham as the forest world, but Corona was still awesome.

Rapunzel looks so much better as a short-haired brunette; more mature.

This genius made a video about how aspects of this game are trash:

[video=youtube;LMph2hAGj7k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMph2hAGj7k[/video]

Yeah idk, I don't need to watch a video on things I probably have already noticed lol. I know this is just his review so that's cool, but I do notice an abundance of Youtube videos now that are like "50 reasons why this thing you really like actually sucks lolz :p" And I really can't be bothered to watch anything like that lol.

yeah. it's also like... insanely easy to point out stuff you don't like about something (and its also insanely easy to make fun of kh, like no one doing it now is some master thinker for making a vid about how "nonsense" it is. it's been fifteen years. it's been said.)

i wish there was a trend of people finding things to like about things they otherwise don't like or something. at least i'd feel like it'd be an additive gain instead of just endless vids trying to convince people not to like something or to like it less. convince me to like new things, there's a novel concept in this age.

I still hate the outline of the characters in 100 Acre Wood: so unnecessary. Piglet just looks like a black line from a distance.

Edit: Also, as like a little nitpick, I wish they didn't have Merlin just sitting at the table staring blankly into space, lol; have him read the book or at least put someone like Scrooge or even a generic NPC across the table and give them a little conversation animation.

---

I asked this around launch and someone got on my case that I needed to find out for myself and wasn't allowed to ask about it online, but very disappointed in the lack of immersion in Toy Box/Monstropolis compared to Corona/Olympus. The town of Corona itself might be one of the greatest areas in a KH game and I thought it was the greatest thing how Olympus filled with townsfolk upon completion, but what do we get for Toy Story/Monsters? The signature, dead KH feel that so many previous worlds suffered from. Like could you have at least modeled Jesse and Bullseye, put them back in Andy's room and gave them a line of dialogue, or put some employees back on the laugh floor that could've just been like "Hey, thanks! Everything's operational again"?

Another nitpick is that I don't really like the amount of invisible walls in this game. Some of it I understand, but let me go on the highest Twilight Town rooftops, in a little alley/more ocean in Corona or onto the neighbors yard in Toy Story; it doesn't seem like it would've required that much more effort. I mean, those areas already exist and stuff, but I guess if it doesn't tie directly into the story then it isn't worth exploring, which brings me to my next point: to what degree do you think the game was rushed, or was it rushed at all? I like the game, but still get the smallest inkling they held some stuff back or had to cut some stuff. Like I would gauge they had an 85% satisfaction rate with what they were able to finish; fair?

I feel that the biggest barrier to this game was budgeting. The marketing and voice acting talent alone seems really costly, coupled with licensing costs and recreating assets in Unreal Engine 4. People don't really take costs into consideration when it comes to this game.

Am I the only one who didn't think collecting the crabs was bad at all?

So yeah, I just beat BH6 (that's how behind you guys I am, but alas, I'm savoring it)... is it just me or is this the shortest world? Like holy cow, the Dark Baymax fight was one of the best things in the game so far (especially at the end where you're just two giant robots beating the shit out of each other), but it feels like the majority of my time was just spent watching cutscenes, and the city didn't really feel that utilized or integrated. As much as people hated the crabs, I feel like this world could've benefited from a collecting segment to make you go out and explore it more. Literally the beginning is just kill time until Hiro tells you where to go... now I can see why people were upset with this world; if I was a fan of BH6 (I don't dislike it or anything), I would be disappointed as well.

I imagine the beauty comes from revisiting a world like this, or I imagine it will with at least Pirates... I'm not really looking forward to revisiting this one as much as the latter though -- once you beat the world, you should be able to fly on Baymax unlimited, whenever you want; that's probably why it's lame... because I don't have Glide.

So this world was really the only letdown Disney world for me: even with NPCs (which were pretty much essential and couldn't have not been included), it nails that signature dead KH feel to a tee. Literally just let me fly on Baymax and it wouldn't be such a bore.

Once I beat Olympus, I thought I was in for more post-game stuff like collecting the dolls for the kid -- that was something cool that KH had never offered before, but is there really much of that? I know going back to Pirates will be awesome, but what else really is there?

this game really does blow I even made a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5HRo2tqsiw