I really wanted to like this. I really did. There's a lot about it that could work really well as an entry in this franchise that recontexualizes the ideas that were presented in them. Sadly, a good concept can't be saved by what's to be the worst Kingdom Hearts game.
The gameplay is unbearably bad. It's like someone took the basic ideas introduced in KH2's combat but placed them within the clunky confines of KH1's gameplay. Almost all the characters you play as feel floaty and clunky to control, the camera is zoomed in and aimed at their asses, enemies exponentially become bullet sponges, they don't even get staggered by attacks, and boss fights range from boring to frustratingly poorly designed. It just doesn't feel very fun to play most of the time.
The only few times where it feels fun is where you to muscle your way through fights using broken commands and attacks. Which is also tied to how generally unbalanced and poorly designed the difficulty can be.
Because too many people complained about Kingdom Hearts 2 opening for taking its time to establish the entire emotional and thematic foundation of the game, there's barely one here at all to invest you into the trio. You're expected to care about these characters and their friendship, but all of what's given to you is basically implied at best. The game tries to correct this by inserting flashback cut-scenes but the way they're placed feels incoherent. The only character to have a solid arc throughout is Terra but that's only if you ignore how contrived and stupidly written he is to fit the fallen hero archetype.
Really, the biggest problem with the game, y'know besides being a low-budgeted handheld game ported to act as a console game, is how it feels more obligated in just setting up and explaining things. Even at the expense of trying to tell a decent story with these now important characters.
We needed to understand who Xehanort is and how he set the chain of events in the franchise so let's have him be this ridiculously evil old man who tried possessing a guy to explain why he looks different. We also for some reason needed to know why Riku and Kairi can wield Keyblades while Sora technically doesn't. It's not so much that it's probably over-explaining things but that there's nothing emotionally captivating done here at all. You just don't care.
The gameplay is unbearably bad. It's like someone took the basic ideas introduced in KH2's combat but placed them within the clunky confines of KH1's gameplay. Almost all the characters you play as feel floaty and clunky to control, the camera is zoomed in and aimed at their asses, enemies exponentially become bullet sponges, they don't even get staggered by attacks, and boss fights range from boring to frustratingly poorly designed. It just doesn't feel very fun to play most of the time.
The only few times where it feels fun is where you to muscle your way through fights using broken commands and attacks. Which is also tied to how generally unbalanced and poorly designed the difficulty can be.
Because too many people complained about Kingdom Hearts 2 opening for taking its time to establish the entire emotional and thematic foundation of the game, there's barely one here at all to invest you into the trio. You're expected to care about these characters and their friendship, but all of what's given to you is basically implied at best. The game tries to correct this by inserting flashback cut-scenes but the way they're placed feels incoherent. The only character to have a solid arc throughout is Terra but that's only if you ignore how contrived and stupidly written he is to fit the fallen hero archetype.
Really, the biggest problem with the game, y'know besides being a low-budgeted handheld game ported to act as a console game, is how it feels more obligated in just setting up and explaining things. Even at the expense of trying to tell a decent story with these now important characters.
We needed to understand who Xehanort is and how he set the chain of events in the franchise so let's have him be this ridiculously evil old man who tried possessing a guy to explain why he looks different. We also for some reason needed to know why Riku and Kairi can wield Keyblades while Sora technically doesn't. It's not so much that it's probably over-explaining things but that there's nothing emotionally captivating done here at all. You just don't care.