We’re here at last.

Kingdom Hearts III came out on January 29, and I dove into immediately. Yesterday, I reached the end.

I know there’s a lot of division among the fanbase right now because of it, but as far as I’m concerned, Kingdom Hearts III is (almost) everything I wanted.

It’s not a perfect game, but let’s step back and take this one piece at a time.

Like I mentioned when I first started playing, Kingdom Hearts finally has a solid sense of exploration again. Some worlds are more linear, but most are massive worlds with lots of places to explore. Several of the Disney worlds have new stories instead of rehashing the movie plots, and they were a joy to explore.

They felt so much better than the Disney worlds in any Kingdom Hearts game since the original, pretty much.

The only disappointments for me in terms of the worlds are that you can’t explore more of Twilight Town, and that Arendelle is… handled weirdly. I feel like the Frozen team must have put restrictions on them so they couldn’t influence the plot, because that whole world felt odd to me (though still enjoyable).

Speaking of exploration, the new gummi ship system is amazing and I hope they keep it for future games.

I always hated the gummi ship sections. I was actually disappointed to learn they were returning in Kingdom Hearts III. But this new system, where you actually get to fly around and travel to worlds and find puzzle spheres and only get into (most) battles if you seek out missions? This was fantastic!

I had fun with the gummi ship for the first time, and I actually looked forward to flying through new areas.

Now, when it comes to combat, I don’t care a whole lot. I’m in it for the story much more than the combat. But I did appreciate that while there’s a ton of stuff like attractions, Keyblade transformations, some Flowmotion, etc., it didn’t feel overwhelming like all the mechanics in Dream Drop Distance.

So it’s about time we talked about the story.

Wow.

I’ve seen people disappointed in the story, and I just don’t understand. The pacing is a little off, perhaps, and it would have felt smoother with a midpoint story event… but the cutscenes after each Disney world are fantastic, and the story progression did exactly what I’d hoped it would do.

Even as I was approaching the later parts of the game, I’d already decided that unless the story fell to pieces at the end, it was going to be one of my top Kingdom Hearts games for sure.

Then I reached the late-game/end-game stuff and it was just one amazing scene after another. Yes, most of the plot was saved for the end, but this time it lasted long enough to not feel like an avalanche of plot points. The only thing that really doesn’t sit well with me about the story is that they’ve seemingly retconned a certain character’s timeline.

In general, I loved everything that was happening. It went crazy places I didn’t expect, and then it came back to fulfill nearly everything I’d hoped for. There are some loose ends tied to the mobile game, but that just makes me more excited to see where the series is going from here with the Dark Seeker Saga concluded.

I also really loved the character portrayals. To my surprise, I found myself really enjoying Larxene as a character. I never cared for her too much, but she had some great lines that voiced a lot of my own questions and thoughts.

There were so many wonderful character moments in this game, along with a lot of little moments that made it all the more emotional.

Now, my most treasured theory did not come true… it really, cruelly did not come true, but what they did instead was so wild I’m completely on board with it.

While we’re talking about characters, I wasn’t thrilled with Master Xehanort’s new voice. It didn’t do it for me at all. And certain characters not being voiced make their scenes rather awkward… but those are minor quibbles.

Finally, the epilogue dashed yet another one of my favored theories, but made it the next best thing. I knew something was going on there, and I’m excited to see where this goes.

And the secret ending… is also completely insane and I can’t wait to see what the next saga will be like.

There’s probably a lot more I could talk about when it comes to Kingdom Hearts III, but this is already a long review, so it’s time to wrap things up.

I loved my time with Kingdom Hearts III. Despite a few missed opportunities, it did almost everything I hoped it would and in some spots went beyond my wildest dreams. It was a fantastic game and I can’t wait for the next saga to begin.

Now if only I could play KHUX without all the mobile game stuff…

And since I did not get my playable flashback… can we please have that prequel?