The game opens with a prologue named "Kingdom Hearts 2.9".
The game's loading screens also feature what I can only describe as posts from every character in the game's Instagram accounts with heart hashtags.
Why are you like this Nomura.
This game has the
best opening out of any of the KH games. No fluff, no annoying tutorials, just pure KH gameplay right from the get-go. Seems they took the biggest criticisms to KH2 to heart on this one. Olympus Coliseum in this game is now officially one of my most favorite worlds. You even get to go to
actual Olympus and fight the Titans! It was a surprisingly challenging boss fight too, with lots of attacks requiring good timing on dodging and blocking to avoid. Both of which I have yet to master. Needless to say, I'm getting beat up a lot.
The battle system is sooooooo smooth! It's a little too early to say how I feel it compares to the majesty that is KH2's battle system, but this game is definitely not lacking in that department. There is so,
so much depth to this game's combat. Sora is a joy to control with flashy combos, as well as dodging and blocking being available from the start (FINALLY). Magic is also super good in this game! For my Dive to the Heart selections, I chose to be Balanced and a Mystic, and so far, it seems to be paying off. Sora has survivability as well as good ranged and crowd control options through magic and other MP related shenanigans, which is neat. Flow Motion is back but got nerfed big time, which is honestly a plus in my eyes; that jank was
way too good in 3D, as was never fun to spam the way that game wanted you to. Only mechanics I don't like so far are the rail segments and the Focus mechanics. The stick movement during those portions feel super slow and unresponsive, and make me yearn for gyro controls.
And the worlds! Oh my gosh, THE EXPLORATION IS SO GOOD. There are
actual NPCs now that talk in the background and do NPC things! It's neat! I also love that the Trinity Limits are now actual parts of the gameplay instead of being cutscenes. Running up walls and jumping also feel really good, and feel like what they always wanted to do with KH map exploration but never could quite get down right. Maybe because of older hardware constraints? Regardless, worlds actually have a reason to be explored now with all of the things to do in them and the goodies to collect.
Game's performance on my old PS4 is also surprisingly very smooth. Cutscenes are the only parts of the game that seem to dip, and only in very specific places. Speaking of cutscenes, seeing the camera just move behind Sora to start a fight after a boss introduction rather than go to a loading screen every time is super neat.