This is a perfectly fine game that I liked playing, enjoyed mastering, and regret paying $60 for.
I don't have any experience with rhythm games, so I have no idea how this compares with some of the best of the genre like osu or thumper, but I can say that it at the very least works and this is some of the best music this medium has so it's hard to complain about the game at its core.
But even with my lack of experience I can really easily tell that this was a pretty low priority project for Square. It feels really lazy. They didn't make any new models or animations, there are some baffling song exclusions (nothing from Pirates of the Caribbean, Fantasia, or much from Kingdom Hearts III), I'm pretty sure they didn't use the final mix recordings of a lot of songs (especially from Kingdom Hearts II), they didn't even bother trying to render the Kingdom Hearts III worlds, and there's like 30 minutes of new story scenes.
I like to think of this game more as a celebration of Yoko Shimomura's work than anything else. Like I said, this is some of the best music video games have to offer, and considering this industry's terrible history of mistreating its employees, it's so refreshing to see a product that celebrates someone's work. I highly doubt this was Square's intention when they decided to green light this project, but viewing it from that lens helps the laziness sting a bit less (or maybe it stings a bit more since they didn't consider this work worth pouring a lot of effort into).
Credit where credit is due though, they did not skimp out on the new cutscenes. While there aren't many of them they look just as great as Kingdom Hearts III.
Anyway, yea. Fun game. Not much more than that. This is the closest thing to a spinoff the series as stooped to yet, and I worry about what that means for the future. Wait for a price drop. You're not missing much right now.
I don't have any experience with rhythm games, so I have no idea how this compares with some of the best of the genre like osu or thumper, but I can say that it at the very least works and this is some of the best music this medium has so it's hard to complain about the game at its core.
But even with my lack of experience I can really easily tell that this was a pretty low priority project for Square. It feels really lazy. They didn't make any new models or animations, there are some baffling song exclusions (nothing from Pirates of the Caribbean, Fantasia, or much from Kingdom Hearts III), I'm pretty sure they didn't use the final mix recordings of a lot of songs (especially from Kingdom Hearts II), they didn't even bother trying to render the Kingdom Hearts III worlds, and there's like 30 minutes of new story scenes.
I like to think of this game more as a celebration of Yoko Shimomura's work than anything else. Like I said, this is some of the best music video games have to offer, and considering this industry's terrible history of mistreating its employees, it's so refreshing to see a product that celebrates someone's work. I highly doubt this was Square's intention when they decided to green light this project, but viewing it from that lens helps the laziness sting a bit less (or maybe it stings a bit more since they didn't consider this work worth pouring a lot of effort into).
Credit where credit is due though, they did not skimp out on the new cutscenes. While there aren't many of them they look just as great as Kingdom Hearts III.
Anyway, yea. Fun game. Not much more than that. This is the closest thing to a spinoff the series as stooped to yet, and I worry about what that means for the future. Wait for a price drop. You're not missing much right now.