Kingdom Hearts 3 – PS4 Review

Review by David O’flaherty

Welcome to the late but well-deserved review of Kingdom Hearts 3. Does it continue the tradition of being a great game series or does it finally fall on its face? In simple terms, Kingdom Hearts 3 is another strong entry by Square Enix into their game library.

Great if somewhat confusing storytelling and character arcs behind a solid game base with plenty to do for all those completionists out there. For all those familiar with the Kingdom Hearts games there’s the usual tugging of heartstrings with lots of familiar faces and further expansion on the story of each character in the franchise.

For new players of the franchise, you’ll find a solid gameplay experience with lots to do and keep you interested and maybe even tempt you into buying the other games to experience how the games have built up over the years.

Once again you start the game by choosing which path you want to take through the game statistically and skill wise. So far I’ve only tried one specific path which is balanced/mystic but I’m looking forward to seeing what the different choices do with later playthroughs. Synthesis makes it’s welcome return again in this entry with more items to make and collect with targets to unlock specific items in the shop to make synthesis easier later on.

There are a couple of new features added to this one over the previous episodes. The Gummi ship areas are now essentially free to roam treasure and farming zones with fights that are clearly marked and obvious for those that either want to go cause havoc or want to avoid it. The downside to these is that they are either over too quickly or very annoying when it comes to finding a specific fight to finish that zone off.

Within each zone, you will also find purple crystals which when destroyed will yield a blueprint part to you giving you a powerful Gummi ship to try out. Also new is the cuisine and bistro section. Essentially a quick collection of mini-games that allow you to cook various foods that give your group a star boost for a length of time depending on which food items you eat together. This coupled with full lists showing how many treasure chests and other collectables in each zone will keep you occupied for quite a while.

As is usual with Kingdom Hearts you will find a number of Disney themed worlds to explore from Toy Story to Frozen(and yes it also includes the annoyance of “Let it Go” and a partial rendition of “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman”) which will either make you laugh with the story and comedy in those areas or cry depending on how deep into the story you are.

Graphically the Kingdom Hearts 3 is gorgeous as the series has always been and this is me with a base PS4 saying that so if you have a Pro and better TV than me you’re in for a treat. All in all another fantastic entry into a fantastic series and well worth buying.

Final score 9/10

Badger

Life long gamer and Geek, Considered by most to be of doubtable sanity. never seen without my trusty Stetson

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