KH3 SPOILERS AHEAD (mostly mechanics)#

After writing up my whole take on KH3D, which should be directly below this post, I realized that it might be a good idea to chronicle my first-time playthrough of KH3, mostly because I was playing it on Critical and felt I could discuss how it was on the gameplay end of things coming from lots of experience playing KH2 randomizer on Beginner and Proud, and hopefully eventually playing through the game again on Critical, something I’m very excited to return to. This will start with analysis of each zone as I come to it and end with me converting this into a total review of the game.

11/5/26: Monstropolis#

Most of this section was written three days earlier, when I got stalled on the world boss, but I just finished it now.

God, Donald is written so much worse in this game. He’s just an asshole for no reason half the time. The whole “world order” thing never came up in any of the old games, and it feels so weird that it’s suddenly central here and in Toy Box; plus, his and Goofy’s interjections in the open world makes the game sound like those “KH if it was made in 2026” videos. I like the monster designs everywhere that’s not a menu, I’ll say, and the story is interesting enough for not being nearly 1:1 to the actual movie, what with starting after the movie and all, and the fact that Sulley actually did something was awesome. I am sad that they don’t seem to really recognize why Boo likes the violence in the dialogue, though, because those whole fights were… weird? They were easily the worst part of the chapter.

The Mirage Staff definitely makes combat more fun than it already is: It’s got so much flow, and it fits nicely in the lineup with Dead of Night and Shooting Star. Even its Shotlock feels powerful, fitting the role that Dead of Night is fitting for me and making it even better, and on top of the formchange, this thing is a beast. Even if Dead of Night has Magic Roulette already, the fact that it gets Aeroza means I don’t need to stress too much about grand magic access. I do hope some of the upcoming keyblades have some more interesting close-combat formchanges, though: Second Form is still nice, but it’s a bit high-maintenance.

I really don’t get the complaints about Flowmotion in this game: Yes, it’s not KH3D Flowmotion, but it’s still incredibly fast, especially on maps like this one. It is exactly what it needs to be, and more, and it’s not overtuned. I do get that there are pretty common breaks in the movement, but for a mechanic that isn’t even supposed to be that major, especially considering how much Superjump was nerfed, it fits the game very well where it works. The movement minigames very much highlighted how good this game can feel when I’m not locked down in my movement: When it sucks, it really, really sucks.

First thing I did when I got back was farm a level, but I don’t think I really needed that more than learning the game. That world boss was brutal. I’m kinda happy it was: I hated it at first, but a bit of learning made the health bar a lot less intimidating. Admittedly, I like that the health bars are so large: It does sit at odds with the whole storyline of Sora being Metroided, but it makes the battles feel more substantial, that Sora is stronger than he used to be and is fighting even stronger threats. I do wish Counter Kick did more damage on its own, honestly, as it’d be very useful if it was, especially when you’re guarding this often as you are in this game. It makes formchanges that aren’t Second Form awkward, as the dodge can only do so much without much invincibility.

10/27/26: Kingdom of Corona#

There’s a trend set by this zone that I hate, because Toy Box literally didn’t do this and instead opted to do such an interesting story instead: Literally, what happened was the movie verbatim, except Sora, gang, and a member of the Organization are there, fighting in the background. Rapunzel doesn’t acknowledge the big Heartless, nor does she need to: Sora’s big bossfight is literally the B-plot of a story that half of the game’s runtime is exclusively centered around. It makes the story of the zone feel disappointing and weak in comparison, which sucks, because the only thing wrong with Toy Box was how Gigas-dependent it was.

The combat in this world was very fun regardless of the plotline issues and let me really experiment with the system at large. The Nobody category (re?)-introduced here was a bit annoying with its i-frames, but they weren’t too bad, all things considered. The insight I got out of this zone, however, was centered around the flaws of this system, and furthermore reinforced to me that yes, I was right to just play in Critical for my first playthrough: Yes, so much of it is Y-button oriented, but there are so many possible actions that you can get on that Y button, especially given how good the Dead of Night is with grand magic: At one point, I had a grand magic, team attack, and attraction in the queue at once, and very notably, attractions are extremely good even without invincibility thanks to how hard to hit you are during them while dishing out good AoE (as are Links, to a lesser extent). Flare Force is incredibly strong, as always, and grand magic is still a great option when it comes up, so really, as long as you’re playing actively enough, there’s always going to be something just a little too good in the green menu. It’s a shame that banking on situation commands and Link is so much more effective than formchanges at this point in the game, because formchanges are a very fun mechanic, and I wonder if there’s a shift here.

I think Shooting Star needs to be highlighted here thanks to just how good its full-charge shotlock was against the boss. Can’t airstep? Cash in some extra damage while you airstep anyways, but it does cost a major resource at the very least. The formchange on it is also really convenient, even against the midboss where it shouldn’t really work, just because you can air stall with it and not really have to worry about aiming all that much. It’s a shame that the Shooting Star and Kingdom Key/Dead As Night feel like the only important keyblades: I tried putting Favorite Deputy to use, but wasn’t able to get too much out of it, and despite its incredible finisher, I’ve kinda given up on Hero’s Origin just because the formchange itself isn’t fun and doesn’t really have much over the Dead As Night.

Going back to that world boss, I’m very upset by the game design trend that’s been a thing since Birth By Sleep: The amount of crowd-control mechanics that get applied to the player in the modern games is infuriating. It’s not nearly as bad as it was even in KH3D, sure, but it’s still enough to be notable, and I doubt they’re ever going to stop.

Shoutouts to the Kupo Coin, by the way. I’m gonna need it until Second Chance, which is at… level 48? Or a minigame in San Fransokyo? It’ll be a little bit. Also Once More, but that’s level 28, so that’s not coming any soon either.

10/27/26: Olympus, Twilight Town, and Toy Box#

I’m glossing over Olympus and Twilight Town because I decided after starting a Proud save that I’d rather just straight up go for the Oblivion, so I restarted on Critical (with EZ codes enabled, just in case I end up getting ruined, though I don’t think that’ll ever be the case). The game definitely feels much easier when I have some of the tools to deal with things, especially Attractions and Shotlock, made more important by the fact that Links don’t have invincibility in exchange for an upfront heal attached to them. It feels like there’s so much going on in this game, but the fact that nearly all of that is coupled to the Situation Command system is honestly quite nice.

Olympus is a pretty simple zone, which is fine as an introduction to everything and a rush to actually get Sora going on the plot, but personally, I don’t understand why it was stuck where it is. It’s a great tutorial and not much else: The zone boss was a bit weird, all things considered. I don’t even like the keychain that comes from it over Favorite Deputy, which literally just comes two zones later. When Hades’ VA will come back literally every time he is called upon, though, I can get why Olympus keeps showing up: At the very least, they found a way to make it fresh this time.

Twilight Town was interesting, if small. It is interesting seeing the renovations after the fact, but especially having played KH2 so recently, it’s upsetting that the place you’d historically frequently go to see the mansion got patched up, leading further to a whole remapping of the outside of the walls that doesn’t mean all that much. Remy being present here is honestly very fun: I do like seeing a zone with all of the extra characters, what with the Final Fantasy characters in Traverse Town in KH1 and Hollow Bastion in KH2, but it’s awkward that there’s never one place they can keep coming back to each game. It’s definitely also upsetting that the lore-important Final Fantasy characters straight up aren’t present in this game, and with what we know about KH4, I have a feeling that’s just going to keep happening. Not much to say about Twilight Town as a combat zone, all things considered, but at least it makes a fine hub, if claustrophobic.

Toy Box was a nightmare to get through until I resigned to using a Gigas everywhere I could find one, because otherwise, enemy Gigas might as well be invincible: For a first zone after Olympus, combat feels so lopsided, and the fact that this world has a unique appearance for the main crew makes it feels like an even weirder standout for a first world, much like Land of Dragons from KH2 and very much unlike Traverse Town and Wonderland from KH1. It’s the same as Olympus in KH2 for me, where I just don’t get to play around with the main mechanic of the game where it counts, and so early at that: It’s a further shame that this happened for me again in KH2 in Pride Lands, and I really hope that this doesn’t stay a problem in this game and I can actually use the mechanics. This is the reason I found the world boss fun by comparison, though it could be hard to approach, and I did enjoy the miniboss as well because I could do so much of everything. Kingdom of Corona looks very promising so far in that regard, and I’m very excited for where the story goes, plus the fact that it’s much easier than Toy Box was, as far as I can tell.

Looking forward to update this post the next time I get back to KH3.