#major spolilers don't rrad if you haven't finished...

[echo2themoon-art-music-games]

Kingdom hearts 3 spoilers

This is just some of the first impressions I had after finishing kingdom hearts 3 . Idk how to properly tag it so sorry if I did it wrong for this. Seriously, don't read this if you haven't finished and please keep in mind these are my personal impressions and opinion of this game, as someone who has waited 12-13 years for this and have been playing the other entires, patiently waiting for kh3.

Finished it today. Was very disappointed. So many issues it had that made everything feel rushed compared to all other installments.

I hate that Kairi was just there for plot convience with no real character development, compared to the other games, and didn't have a real purpose to be there, other than to futher push Sora's own plot along. The way they used Riku was clunky I feel. He's so strong in this verison, yet so weak and really took a back burner in this game, even though his role was still important.

Just like for Kairi, it feels like he was held back a lot due to plot with how often he was struggling. Even though his will to carry on is probably the most fierce it's been. It still felt very off, especially compare to 3DDD Riku's role. In the other installments as well, even when he wasn't featured much, he still progressed in the story and as a character in his own way.

I know it's because he's was more of an equal lead in 3DDD than here. But, I feel at this point, with the way they've develop the characters, they can't keep just acting as though Sora is the only important thing in the series for main installments due to plot. As it cheats him out of character development as well when convenient things happen for him due to plot.

I have a slight idea how they could have fix this but right now I'm just commenting on my first impressions of the story.

They really wanted the importance of a trio reuniting to be a driving factor with everything they did in the story but but it felt like they made Sora, Kairi and Riku extremely distant from one another in terms of interaction and that really to me, broke the flow and line of friendship the series has stayed true to with all other games leading up to this moment.

I was seriously irritated with how they handled this. It be different if they all were doing their own actual character development during this game but there's really no reason why they're separate here, other than wanting Donald and Goofy to always be the main teammates no matter what, with only guest Disney characters appearing in Disney worlds until end game.

Yeah, they explain what each of them are doing but there could have still been more reasons for them to see one another I feel. It would have served Kairi better to get "real battle experience" prior to just throwing her and Lea/Axel in the final battle and expecting that to go well. That would have been a good opportunity of development for her and Sora, too.

Maybe her going with Riku for a bit to save Aqua would have been too much but that also could work since again, they just throw her in the final battle fighting on the front lines with no real prior experience fighting other than in kh2, in the world that never was. Her "training" with Lea, is not realistically enough to fight not only all of organization 13, but all other boses and heartless we've come to learn about in the series as well. This makes sense and is doable for everyone else we end up gathering towards the end, but Kairi does not fit this dynamic of fighting experience and it was honestly obvious something was going to go wrong with this decision to bring her into battle with no real preparation.

Especially since they had established earlier, that Kairi was an important piece again, because she was still a princess of light. They did really nothing to prepare her for this and it's bothersome because it was for basically plot to purposely sabotage her readiness for end game battle.

She should have been featured a lot more in getting stronger and interacting with everyone since she basically was one of their last hopes in keeping the enemy from fulfilling their plan. That could have also been another way to develop her and Sora's relationship as well and show where Riku has finally settled in how he sees himself in the trio. ( I'm not suggesting shipping stuff just wanting them to flush out the obvious plot they tried to ham out at the last minute using her as a plot point end game so Sora could have an excuse to sacrifice himself again for the next KH game )

Riku was originally very envious and jealous of Sora and Kairi getting closer and feeling like he didn't have a place in the trio, this is basically what malefacent fed off on. (I know there was more than that, but to me, this was the initial issues he had ).

This was resolved already in other games and even though they have more pressing matters in the story, it still would have been nice for them to show their trio was doing alright instead of having them all so distant from one another and especially making Riku be off by himself all the time again. I would have liked all of them to have shared the paopu fruit together to keep along the lines of staying together no matter what. Riku has always been shown to care about Sora and Kairi both, but his reaction to Kairi getting sucked up and her getting basically killed, didn't seem in character at all due to the plot they wanted to push for Sora.

Getting her use to dealing with darkness and tough enemies early on as fast as they could, to me would have made much more sense. I know Kairi wasn't what the story was focusing, and only just put her there as a way to conviently push Sora's plot along, but they used her as a plot convience anyway, so at least this would have made up for it a bit. Her getting a chance to see what Riku and Sora have been dealing with all this time. A lot of times, alone, would had been a great opportunity for her character, I feel.

I feel it would have been more appropriate if her desire was to protect both Riku and Sora from harm, than just Sora. Because that's always been her personality. And see how hard they've been fighting In their journey, while traveling and fighting with them, I feel would have been great for the story while still allowing them to stay on the same course of the game.

Just this time, instead of Kairi being used against Sora, she would perhaps willingly try to fight and protect both Sora and Riku. Making Sora's words, " I won't let her be alone a minute longer" and acknowledging his journey started because of her, a lot more impactful.

I'm not even a big Kairi fan, I just was expecting so much more out of the original trios story and felt like this could have been handled much better than it was. It's tiresome seeing a female character be discarded in the way Kairi keeps being done. Aqua is written well and is strong, so I feel they could attempt to do the same for Kairi, so when she is sacrificed, it not only impacts the progression of the story but her character arch as well.

We haven't seen them all together, together in a real way since kingdom hearts 1, in all honestly. I was really looking forward to seeing how their dynamics between one another had changed since being kids. Especially since Donald and Goofy has served as much development for Sora as they possible can at this point. They could still be teammates, just have Kairi or Riku also trade off in traveling in joint with him occasionally, so we could get more insight on their dynamics.

It really bothered me how distant their friendship all seemed and how very little screen time Kairi and Riku got. I hoped for Kairi to have a least one wow moment and Riku to be more emotionally present than he was.

Also, the worlds we visited lacked so much in terms of content and story relevance.

It really hammered things in, all at once and I feel that some of the worlds, especially the final last world, should have happened in the beginning of the story because the start of the game seems like there's zero reason or direction on why we're going to other planets. I know he's looking for the power or waking. But there's zero leads to this and the planets barely have relation to khs 3 main story. Sora is just wondering, aimlessly. He literally might as well went with Riku and Micky to get Aqua. What would it had mattered if he didn't have the power of waking? He didn't need it for her, who was the only one that knew where ventus was and we could have gotten more story content sooner than we did.

If the final world, and even a bit of the final battle had happened more near the middle or beginning, that could have been Sora's reason for searching for the power of waking even more, plus recovering his powers and trying to prevent everyone from dying. Needing to go to each world, to get access to different parts of the final world, then, would have possible fit.

I know this probably makes no sense, I just feel like this possible could have worked out more than having us just go to Disney planets for the sake of Disney planets. The previous games always felt like we went to them for a reason and a purpose. We didn't leave empty handled and it helped push the story along for Sora and the gang. Not just revealed stuff to the player we may have already been aware of but Sora oblivious to.

Yes, he lost all his powers in 3ddd but this could also could explain why the game is rushing towards the end. Like a race against time and helping things feel more dire. Which also would excuse the worlds themselves being so empty or not needing Sora's involvement at all. He wouldn't have time to " meddle" in the affairs of the worlds, he just needs to try to keep the organization from getting what they need while also purposely entering the final world, to get more pieces of himself, hoping it'll help him recover the power he needs or he feel he needs.

Him purposely going there would be the risk of him "never coming back" but he has to take it in order to reverse the events that happened. Needing to find the power within himself so he could do what needed to be done by gather the pieces of himself he's been loosing all this time. ( Since you can collect more than just 111 pieces of Sora in this world ) also maybe have him go there one final time to save Kairi, which takes aways the shock of the ending, but gives us more closer in him basically sacrificing himself again and going there and risk loosing himself permanently, to bring her back. Because then we could get another touching goodbye scene between then, that could be a throwback to kh1 ending but this time, it'll seem even more final.

They could have kept their same plot, but this maybe would have felt like, we the player, had more "purpose" in our actions. Even have like all of the final fight, happen in the beginning where Sora maybe uses Mickey's time magic to reverse things so he can alter everyone being wiped out. A second chance to fight better and not lose hope. Idk. That may not make sense but nothing in kh series does at this point. Lol..

Sora just ends up places in kh3 by happenstance and not because of real leads. The worlds we visit in most don't see integral to the story as previous KH hearts games. It feels more so like I was just rewatching Disney films instead of being apart of plot related to kingdom hearts. Toy story felt flushed out but frozen was disappointing. Majorly.

Stuff would progress in the Disney worlds regardless of Sora being present or not and it really made me feel like there was no real purpose in going there. Especially since there was nothing in particular Sora was searching for. He was just there. If story order had changed a bit, I feel it would have given purpose for why he was on the other planets. Other than us just running around, bumping into plot. Making things feel more "fulfilling" and making Sora purposely trying to save everyone, because he wants to prevent their deaths in the final fight, that gets revealed to him due to time reversal plot. If Sora is going to sacrifice himself. I feel like rearrangement of the story points would have made it all feel impactful and made it all seem like there was a real drive in Sora's development. Making the ending even more meaningful and not just giving us straight whiplash.