Kingdom Hearts III

Kingdom Hearts III closes out a long and famously convoluted story arc the series had been building for more than fifteen years. Sora, together with Donald and Goofy, once again sets out among the worlds to gather strength and allies before the final clash with darkness, visiting along the way a number of familiar places from animated films. It's precisely this blend of Disney settings with earnestly meant melodramatic fantasy that has always set the series apart, and in this entry it reaches its greatest scale.

The foundation of the gameplay is fast action combat with a key as a weapon, complemented by magic, summoning helpers, and flashy team-up attacks with the heroes of individual worlds. New features include transformations of the key into specialized forms with their own move sets, and so-called Attractions, giant carousels and roller coasters that briefly take over the whole screen. Between battles the game varies its pace: it offers ship sailing, cooking dishes as a mini-game, photography, and extensive exploration of individual worlds, which are noticeably larger than in previous entries.

On PlayStation 4 the game moved to Unreal Engine 4, and the result is a very clean image with impressive effects that make battles feel like fireworks. The worlds faithfully imitate the visual style of their film counterparts, which was especially praised, and the musical score maintains the series' emotional throughline. Reception was largely positive, with critics praising the action and visuals while pointing out that the story exposition is almost incomprehensible for a newcomer. The game's significance lies mainly in bringing an unusual collaboration of two very different worlds to a grand finale. Today it's a rewarding spectacle for fans, while a newcomer would do well to arrive with at least a rough knowledge of the previous entries, which the game assumes at nearly every turn. Whoever overcomes that hurdle gets a visually one of the richest adventures of its generation, full of moments no other series could afford to stage.