Kingdom Hearts III

Part of me wants to be sympathetic to Kingdom Hearts III because after over a decade of fans waiting for another numbered entry, there was no game that could have reasonably met the lofty expectations Square Enix set itself up for by releasing spin-off after spin-off, building up both the series’ lore and the anticipation for a climactic conclusion. Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s latest Disney world-trotting adventure has some really standout moments. The Toy Story and Monsters Inc. worlds made great use of Pixar stories, and the Tangled chapter is a pretty lovingly crafted retelling of a modern classic. But there are some duds here, too. The Frozen world feels especially beholden to corporate chains that likely prevented the studio from riffing on the original story, and the Big Hero 6 world starts out strong but ends up completely contradicting core themes of the source material. Meanwhile, some of the returning worlds like Olympus and the Caribbean squander the opportunity to offer more exciting detours.

But overall, it feels like Kingdom Hearts falls victim to the unmanageable weight of expectations. Its attempts to wrap up every storyline the series had been setting up for nearly 20 years feel rushed in the eleventh hour; the floaty, button-mashy gameplay feels like it hadn’t learned much from the last decade of action RPGs; and its inclusion of the reliance on theme-park-based ride attacks becomes a burdensome bore. When Kingdom Hearts III hits, it really fucking hits. But too often, it can’t seem to get out of its own way.