Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

Kingdom Hearts 3D is a decent Action RPG. For those familiar with the Kingdom Hearts series, it's a fairly good addition, although it doesn't quite reach the level that other games in the series have set. For newcomers, it's fairly easy to understand the story thanks to a feature in game that allows you to view the stories of previous titles in the series; and there is a fairly cohesive tutorial that explains the new combat techniques. The story lacked coherence at some points: this could be due to the telling of Sora and Riku's stories' simultaneously. At some points, especially in the later parts of the game part of the story does not quite make sense. It became difficult to understand at some points as well. Fortunately the gameplay is still decent. Familiar and new spells and skills are introduced and can be accessed through synthesising new companions known as Spirits. The mechanics for getting spirits and abilities were simple to understand and were effective for the most part. The Drop mechanic, which forces character switches after a certain amount of time was an interesting addition, allowing both stories to play out simultaneously. Flowmotion was an addition that sped up travel and combat, although it does allow unintended shortcuts and makes getting to some places a lot easier than it should be. Combat is similar to other portable titles in the series and handles reasonably well. For completionists, there is a large amount of post game content, including a new difficulty level and some special areas and challenges. The graphics are good, although not the best seen in the series. The soundtrack was well made and suits the game well. Cutscenes were usually well done. There is a large amount of post game content to do and some new features after finishing the game. For those that are just interested in the main story, there is enough content in the main story to keep it interesting and enjoyable. This is a fairly good addition to the series. It has good quality gameplay, sound and post game content but the story let it down a bit. For Kingdom Hearts fans, this game is recommended, for newcomers, it's a fairly good action RPG and if you're interested in that genre, you'll probably enjoy this. Summary: Story: 6.5/10 - lack of coherence let this down; Gameplay: 9/10; Graphics: 8/10; Sound: 9/10; Replayability: 9/10; Overall: 8/10