Free Step Dodge

Not sure where to put myself regarding the series, but I did play, finish, platinum'd 1/2/3. Did not play any of the portables. Mostly played the series because the FF characters were in it, otherwise I probably would of never touched the series, was skeptical on getting KH3 a while back because of it.

For KH3, it was a pretty alright game imo actually. Though when it comes to story direction or gameplay approach, I felt it was more linear than the previous two from the consoles (point A to B usually gets too obvious or expectations). Granted, the other two were linear as well though only for slightly measures, but KH3 felt eh...well, jumps around a lot quite a bit when it comes to it's story or gets convoluted.

Gameplay wise, it doesn't compare or come close to final mix. I do like that they added proud mode, but hated the lack of less worlds. It was fun overall. I personally enjoy the side games more. Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, and my personal favorite 358/2.

That's Kingdom Hearts in general for ya. Personally, I thought KH3 was an alright game with few fun bits here and there. I was a bit more engaged with the previous two since they were also lengthy for build ups, but I did enjoy 3 sorta.

If you played the previous ones, I think you'll have some engagements with III.

From what I've seen, it has solid combat, though not as good as KH2's but even then, magic spells are quite strong in this game, especially fire iirc, so that's sort of a combat killer right there, its not balloonra by any means but still. The story is quite linear indeed but it makes sense since this game was for a long time advertised as the "end to the Xehanort saga".

Not as good as previous KH's.

If you can, get Re:Mind after finishing the game, it was liked by many for its Data Org fights, improved combat (yes, they added abilities, forms, keyblades along with the dlc, not sure if you need it in order to access all of it, most of it was added to the base game for free I think), you can replay certain late-game boss battles with different characters, imo, its worth it.

Since i'm curious, what makes KH2 combat better? I am not that big fan of KH2 so my memory from it is fading. I personally liked KH1 combat because how much grounded it is compared to KH2/KH3 where you spend most time in the air.

The combat is fast-paced and fluid, outside of a few abilities most of them are very good and link into each other quite well + the amount of tools you have at disposal: melee attacks, good magic, summons, drives that are super useful, limits, boss fights aren't exactly a pushover due to many of them having a thing called "revenge value", where after a certain number of attacks/finishers they break out of your combo.

You can use a variety of keyblades because of the abilities that it comes with offer an advantage in specific boss fights (like Atlantica keyblade vs Data Axel due to the Blizzard power-up, so Blizzard finishers are recommended in that fight for tons of damage). Actually, compared to most KH games KH2 is one of the more ground based arpg games because of Decisive Pumpkin's Combo Boost ability.

Which makes it the strongest keyblade for ground attacks, despite not having the strongest strength stat and also how you fall quickly to the ground compared to a game like BBS where air combos are quite "floaty" which is also where Hero's Crest shines due to air combo boost + doing the air combos very close to the ground minimizes the recovery frames of the air finisher.

Which is the same thing that you do in KH1 to dish out damage fast. The attacks done in air are faster than on the ground and doing them close to the ground as possible minimizes the recovery frames of the air finisher on landing, being able to go for another air combo very quickly. Imo, the only way to truly understand how great KH2's combat is is to watch an Any% or Lvl 1 Any% speedrun or Data Org speedrun.

Oh yeah, KH1, the preferred method of attacking is by doing the air attacks close to the ground, same with magic. The ground attacks are really not as good the attacks done in air, unlike in KH2, where given the proper ability set-ups you can 90% of the times manipulate the revenge value of the boss to your advantage, key in speedruns plus you can dish out way more damage on the ground mid to lategame.

@ChaolanLegacy Went over it very well but yeah, it's mostly due to the sense of feel from the combat and gameplay. KH3's "flow" doesn't feel as good or fluid. And like DB said, the story can get a little convoluted at times.

Just got to San franokyo and i heard its one of the last worlds? But nothing really haven't even happened in the story yet. Pacing seems very off in this game. I thought i was getting close to early midgame lol