Editorial

Staff E3 Favorites – Dustin’s Pick – Kingdom Hearts 3

The twelve year wait is almost over!

By Dustin Furman
Back in 2006, life for me was pretty much care free. I was twelve and my favorite game was Kingdom Hearts, and I had just finished the sequel. Kingdom Hearts to me felt like a perfect transition to “big boy” games (even though I had already beaten Metal Gear Solid back in 2001). It had familiar Disney characters, but also characters from Final Fantasy, a series I had just begun to dip my toes into. As hokey as it sounds, Kingdom Hearts was the game that I played as I was just starting to figure out who I wanted to be as I began to become an adult, and Sora’s tale of friendship, betrayal, and even a little bit of romance influenced me
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I was primed to spend the rest of my preteen and teen years with Sora, Donald and Goofy, but year after year, the sequel never came. Sure, we got the spin off titles, and yeah some of them were fine and maybe even pretty good. Unfortunately, none of them truly captured what I was looking for, the true sequel experience. It wasn’t until eight years later we finally got confirmation that Kingdom Hearts 3 was coming.
Here we are now in 2018, after years of silence and speculation, and the game will arrive early next year. As far as everything we’ve seen so far, it looks like it will be worth the wait. Square Enix has improved almost every staple element of the series. Combat has evolved and is faster than ever before. You can have your entire party in combat at once. The scale and scope of the world is exponentially larger. Graphical improvements rival Pixar level animation and the game even runs at 60 frames per second. The list goes on, and I’m sure there are many more surprises to come.

The series has received a fair amount of criticism for its story, and it’s understandable. A tale of keyblades and Disney Princesses has turned into one of the most convoluted and confusing stories we’ve seen in gaming. It appears from the trailers that the insanity won’t end anytime soon, but who knows. It’s confirmed there will be a summary at the beginning, but I doubt it will be enough for newcomers (and some who have been away from the series). We can only hope it doesn’t get too crazy, but it’s unlikely.

It’s true I’ve been waiting for over half of my life for this game so, sure, maybe I’m a bit biased and overly hopeful. Either way, it’s hard to deny that Kingdom Hearts 3 looks great right now, and we can only hope the full release is just as great.

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