Kingdom Hearts 3 lets you meet Buzz Lightyear, Mickey Mouse, but it has a baffling backstory
- Elsa from Frozen, Simba from The Lion King, Woody and Buzz from Toy Story, Rapunzel from Tangled all have cameos in this Square Enix production
- The game mixes characters from Final Fantasy with cartoon characters; its fun gameplay and improved mechanics are offset by a complicated narrative
Kingdom Hearts 3, Square Enix
Whenever a popular, story-infused video game is released and has a few numbers in its title, the question, “Do you need to play the previous ones in the series?” usually pops up. The vast majority of the time I say “no.”
No, you don’t need to play the earlier Elder Scrolls, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher or Persona games to forge a deep connection with the latest incarnation. But if you ask me this question about Kingdom Hearts 3, well …
To the uninitiated, the first thing to know is that Kingdom Hearts 3 is the 10th entry in a series that mashes up characters from Square Enix’s Final Fantasy and Disney universes.
And reception for this partnership has always been good, with its first entry in 2002 scoring 85 out of 100 points on the aggregated game reviews site Metacritic and some users giving it as high as 90 points. The first instalment was not without flaws, though, with most criticism directed at its simple and unrefined combat system.
