Kingdom Hearts! Oh my gosh and golly gee it's finally here! I feel like this is a bookend to my High School life, thirteen years after it should have ended. To give you some context into what I'm talking about, the original game launched in 2002 for the PS2. It was a weird mishmash of Final Fantasy, Disney, and original characters all joining into one epic RPG. I honestly thought it looked incredibly strange in the previews, but oh baby was it amazing. Chain of Memories was a nice distraction on the GBA, but 2006's Kingdom Hearts II was where it was really at. That was a few months ꦿaway from me graduating in fact. So what do I mean w𓄧hen I said this new game is like a bookend for High School?

Well, I've loved the spinoffs that have come out after the second game, but my passion felt so solitary when it came to playing them. Friends who were once into it, were growing out of the hardcore mentality because of the varying degree in quality of said spinoffs and because they weren't on a mainline console. So High School was the pinnacle of the fandom, not just in 💛my area, but I think 2006 was the last best year for the series. I'm sure a lot of other people have fallen off since then and are just coming back now some thirteen years later. Is it everything they wanted? Is it everything I wanted? Well, that's a discussion for another time. First, here are some helpful tips and revelations that may make the first few hours better.

25 It’s Been A Long Time

Kingdom Hearts III has been a long time coming. The last game to come out was Dream Drop Distance for the 3DS in 2012. That is unless you want to count the HD collections or the mobile game. For me, I'm going to go with "I've been itching for a new entry since 2012 and maybe even 2006." Basically what I'm getting at is, I wasn't expecting how emotional the title screen was going to make me. Hearing the music blast and seeing that logo, Kingdom Hearts III, was a triumphant moment.

24 The Choices Don’t Really Matter

Kingdom Hearts III is an amalgamation of everything the series has brought to light since the franchise began in 2002. For example, like in that game, you could choose how your character would progress. Well, that returns now, albeit a bit truncated. Don't worry though. Whatever choices you make will only affect how your leveling up will begin. For example, if you want to focus on magic, you'll get more mage-like abilities up front and more warrior-type skills later on. You won't be missing ou🎶t on anything. The order will just be differenꦿt.

23 Lip-Syncing Is Mostly Fine

While that title screen did have me in tears, Kingdom Hearts III has a rough start for various reason I'll get into. One of the most jarring thing꧃s that had me worried was the lip-syncing.

You shut your mouth when you’re talking to me!

When Master Yen Sid was talking to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, his mouth movements were ridiculously off. I was basically like, uh oh, but thankfully that does n💧ot reflect the majority of the game. It can be off sometimes, but I would say 90% of the time it's all good.

22 Kingdom Hearts 2.9?

Besides the lip-syncing issues, Kingdom Hearts III has a pretty slow start. In fact, after you do all of your setup and watch some cutscenes, the game has the gall to put on the screen, Kingdom Hearts 2.9. I laughed and screamed at the same time. Going into Olympus, the world based on Hercules is essentiall💞y a tutorial level. It's completely new from anything this universe has shown before, but because it brings back characters we've seen in eജvery game, it still felt like a rehash. Not bad, just slow.

21 Zero EXP Mode

Are you a tough player that has to prove to others that you are superior to them? Well, good news. If you find Kingdom Hearts III too e෴asy there is an ability in your menu (from the start for Sora) called Zero EXP. Equipping it will make sure you do not level up for the entirety of the game. So if you want to start from level 1 and end on level 1, that is entirely up to you. It's not for me, but good luck to all of you hardcore players.

20 Same Old Kingdom Hearts Charm

Aside frܫom the lip-syncing, cutscenes can still be kind of, uh, let's say a little hokey. The deliveries are all good, even if they have different actors. They don't drag on thankfully, but they are kind of ridiculous.

What is Donald trying to say?

I thought in all these years, for a PS4 game in 2019, it would be different, but in a way I'm glad it hasn't changed. Kingdom Hearts has a certain charm to it and if you don’t gel with it, it can be ⛄incredibly off-putting.

19 Where Are All My Save Slots?

One of my favorite things to do in any entry in this series is to create multiple saves in multiple worlds. At the very least I may save in the beginning and at the end just so I could say, as in an example in Kingdom Hearts III, play Toy Story in its entirety, or go to the end to fight the final boss again. Well, it's a bit trickier with this game because there are only 9 save slots compared to Kingdom Hearts II, which had 99. Yeah, I would say that's a step ജback. At least there are autosavꦅes now.

18 Can You Hear Me Now?

One of the most jarring things about this game is the fact that Sora now has a cellphone, called a Gummi Phone. This should clue you in that Chip and Dale made it for him. It has a lot of uses like being able to call friends during certain points in the game to further the story🉐. 🍷This is also where Jiminy Cricket writes his journal and data entries now. Best of all it has a camera, which is used for a variety of mini games.

17 Mickey’s Hidden Emblems

One of these mini games is finding Mickey's emblems. Now here's where my tip factors into things. You don't get the Gummi Phone until the second world, aka Twilight Town. In Olympus, I saw at least four Mickey emblems and just thought they were cool Easter eggs so I didn't take note of their lo😼cat꧟ions.

Did Mickey plant all of these himself?

Oops. I had no idea t💦his was a mini game. So don🍒't be like me. If you start to see some emblems in Olympus, make sure you remember where they are.

16 This Boy Is On Fire

One of the crazier things I wasn't expecting was Sora reacting to attacks. Everyone talks a lot more now, even out of battle, which is cool, but this is different. For example, if a Heartless enemy shoots fire at Sora, or if you wander into fire, Sora will grab his behind and jump into the air, which reminded ಞme of Mario and old cartoons. It kind of interrupts the flow of battle at times, but it is a nice little touch.