Kingdom Hearts 3D: Completed. The special Message can be summed up as "YES WE ARE MAKING KINGDOM HEARTS 3! THIS WILL BECOME OBSOLETE IF YOU ARE READING THIS AFTER E3 2013!"
Just like the game is split between two parts, so are my thoughts for it's overall worth. On one hand, it does do KH Gameplay overall right, the Dream Eater mechanic worked out better than I thought and issues I had with later boss fights were my own idiocy for not getting Once More or Leaf Bracer (game really expects you to earn those, because good god do they make a difference; I did at least have Second Chance!), Flowmotions and Reality Shifts seem like one of those "This seems stupidly complicated" but actually ended up restraining themselves to make themselves work in favor of the gameplay, not against it. On top of that, Enemies felt creative this time around; yeah they were all animals, but they all had a unique look to them and worked uniquely too, unlike the Unversed which were all basically Not!Heartless.
But it's gameplay has a bunch of flaws that hold it back too. First off, KH does not do big rooms well; too many enemy spawn points, enemies can DESPAWN, which is both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation, they attack you in large groups (though unlike BbS, you have actual allies, so it feels a little more appropriate) and a lot of enemies have annoying Full Block states which just waste your time; to top it off, dying = reset the entire room. BbS got it right keeping rooms small so encounters were sort of self contained to one or two per room, so dying = major loss of progress didn't come up, because it only set you back a brief bit; this game sort of forgot to adjust game over style.
On top of that, as I've ranted before, the Drop Mechanic is easily the dumbest thing ever. If they wanted a multiple perspective angle, just have forced swap points based on cutscenes; this does hurt the ability to backtrack, but there's nothing fun about knocking a boss down to 10-20% of their health only to be dropped and thus reset the fight. I shouldn't have to escape battle, and throw a Drop Me Not (or equip them) just to finish a boss fight.
Which brings me to the other side of things: Every other flaw in this game can be attributed to one character in some way or another, that being Sora.
First off, let me make one thing clear: I don't have Sora...at least in KH1/2, I prefer not to speak about CoM. No, he's not amazing, but he was inoffensive and kind of like-able. Also, he wasn't written like a total moron; no, he's no Einstein, but he certainly didn't have this "fall for all villain bait!" vibe he does that this game and CoM have (and I went back on my word!)
I can deal with idiocy some, but the real issue is Sora's story serves absolutely no purpose in the overarching plot. Everything is completely pointless and exists to, in the last 10% of the game, set up some ultra, convoluted, Xanatos Roulette by Xehanort that is completely dumb. The worst part is that Sora's diving didn't happen because "The villains baited him" but rather "Because Riku is going too." I was worried the game was going to pretend Riku was secondary by the end, though thankfully the reverse happened; Riku was the focus of all the end stuff, but that in turn just made Sora seem even MORE pointless.
See, here's the thing: this is Riku's story through and through. It's Riku's soul searching quest, or at least, the end of it, to prove to himself he actually is a better person, overcame darkness, etc. He's earned the trust of all his friends and everyone else, but he still has that one little bit of doubt, understandably so, thus the game serves to finally finish off Riku's character arc, and tie up loose ends. This by itself is strong enough story to follow, and Riku after having been a 2nd protagonist in CoM and clear good guy since, he deserves to just have his own game to himself. The game ending with Riku being named Keyblade Master and not Sora was nice though mostly because it really just emphasizes how much Riku had to work to get where he was, while Sora kind of took it for granted, on top of not trying to twist things to make it seem like "Sora saved the day!" but made it clear Riku's actions were more important, and kind of the game acknowledging "Yes, this is Riku's story!"
Thanks to this game, there's really no question that Riku is the single best written character in the franchise. I went in liking him well enough after KH2, but this game pretty much sealed it. No one comes close to the amount of character work put into Riku and the progression seems logical and natural throughout the franchise. In fact, this game only further affirms just how awful Kain is because Riku manages to be exactly what Kain is hyped as but done so much better. TIME TO RANT ABOUT THAT!
See, both characters are Shonen Rivals of the main initially, that ultimately betray them because of the girl. Kain's is because jealousy and mind control, being whiny about a girl that never was into him intimately before and he's known this...and he's an adult remember...and don't forget, MIND CONTROL, so his sob story is just that much less "Whatever" inducing...plus they do it twice.
Riku? First off, he's a 16 year old; 16 year olds are stupid and easy to manipulate. His betrayal was less "Kairi loves Sora!" and more just being angry that Sora didn't put Kairi as his priority, thinking he put his friends behind him. This in turn made it easy for Maleficent to manipulate him, especially since they had Kairi, and this made Riku just kind of stray off the good guy path, get dark, etc. See, the big thing here is that Riku is still Riku, not a mind slave like Kain; everything he did was his decision. Maleficent didn't control him like Golbez did with Kain, she played with his emotions and let him do the rest; that is actual character work. He gets so lost in his emotions that things just kind of explode in his face, gets possessed by an evil bishie, etc. etc.
Next up is the redemption arc. Kain's Redemption is basically "I hurt you guys, forgive me?" and they do...both times. He doesn't do anything to really earn it, just they casually say "ok" outside of Edge who is the one person to go "He betrayed us already, WHAT'S STOPPING HIM FROM DOING IT AGAIN!?" Then he goes off to Mt. Ordeals to train because Cecil did it, and in doing so...skips his best friend's wedding AND Coronation. If you're trying to be a good friend, don't skip out one like the most important day of his life; that only makes you look like a total dick. You can take one day out of training to congratulate your friend, don't give me this "I'm not worthy!" crap.
Riku's arc starts in Chain of Memories, meanwhile, where he finds himself alive, and hinted by the end of KH1, he's starting to get back to his old self. Here he's a little angsty but understandably so, and used as a tool, but tries his best to fight back. By the end, Riku's not taking this "THE DARKNESS IS YOU!" crap, but has acknowledged the Darkness is part of him, he just can't let it consume him. Ok, he hasn't done much to redeem himself, but you do get a strong sense of him definitely wanting to make up for his actions, and actually aid Sora.
358/2 Days demonstrates that Riku is willing to go to any lengths so save Sora; it's partially his fault all this came down, and he wants to make amends. The fact that he has to go to such great lengths, sacrificing his soul to Darkness to save Sora, but managing to stay himself, is already signs Riku is a stronger person. Obviously it would have been better if he didn't use darkness, but the fact that he could maintain his mind despite it was a big deal. This is something Kain completely lacks; the closest we get is "he failed to fight his darkness, now his darkness runs wild!" If anything, that shows the complete opposite for Kain, in that he hasn't made any sort of progress, just straight up failed again.
KH2 and FF4TAY first half, both characters are hiding their identities because of shame and such. Riku's make sense; he has literally turned into the villain of the first game, it'd be extremely hard to say "hey guys, I'm actually Riku, trust me!" Instead, he does his best to aid Sora, and earn his trust first. Revealing himself to Kairi make sense because Kairi never met Ansem, so to her, Ansem is just a warped version of Riku. When Sora finds out, Riku doesn't try to deflect the claim, but rather "I was afraid what you'd do if you found out." Kain's disguise is because there's another Kain running around and he's pursuing him...it's silly, and well, the EVIL KAIN doesn't even take action until after Kain dons the Hooded Man appearance. Also the reveal scene is a dumb Rosa shouting Kain's name, then OMG! THE GOOD KAIN FIGHTS THE EVIL KAIN! I'll grant Riku's transformation back was basically "Because Darkness exploded thanks to Ansem's machine and that's a good thing and this heals Riku because...uhh...KINGDOM HEARTS! Ok, good, no plot holes" "...wait how does that explain how Riku got healed?" "BECAUSE KINGDOM HEARTS! Weren't you paying attention?"
Then the capstone of their development where they finally deal with Darkness. Kain just goes "You are part of me, now merge with me so we can become...SUPER KAIN!" and it works. Hey remember in FF4 when Cecil fought his darkness by NOT fighting it directly? Yeah, screw that, SUPER KAIN! It does nothing to push the character forward, just sort of says "hey, we gave Kain a matching color scheme to Cecil, awesome, right?" You don't really get a sense of forward movement, he just sort of jumps from spot to spot.
Now Riku in KH3D? This story is arguably not needed, because by the end of KH2, you get a sense of "Yeah, Riku's clearly over all the bad stuff, and he's totes a good guy" but KH3D respectfully take it a step further. Yen Sid goes "take the test of heart because Keyblade Masters!" Sora goes "but we saved the world twice! That should prove it!" Fair enough, but Riku's response? "I'll do it, because I need to prove to myself I am in fact over the darkness of my heart. If I can finish this test, it will prove I am over the darkness of my heart and finally stop any doubt." Considering all Riku's been through, the amount of times he had to rely on Darkness to bail him out, even for good reasons, it makes sense he still has a little bit of doubt in him. Finally putting that doubt at ease once and for all, it makes sense he'd go through with this.
And considering all he has to go through, all he's willing to sacrifice if shit hits the fan, and how he makes sure any loose ends he can tie up do get tied up, he damn well earned his reward at the end of the game, as well as makes sense he can finally be put at rest.
Kain...again, he goes all HOLY DRAGOON, but this doesn't really change him. We're too assume he's no longer obsessed with Rosa, but where is the implication? Because Holy Dragoon? In Riku's case, the lack of Kairi obsession obviously ended when Kairi was saved, because his goal wasn't "get Kairi to like him", it was "Save Kairi from her fate" and the Sora disdain was, as I said, "Sora's being an idiot about it, I'm the only one she can depend on!" Oh, Riku was straight up wrong there, but then, that's why he has the redemption arc, and his story shifts entirely away from Kairi, and more about being a real best friend for Sora, and a dependable ally. That's what they were aiming at with Kain, but really, the only hint that they got that far is "I BEAT MY DARKSIDE!" which implies "He no longer wants to sleep with the WIFE OF HIS BEST FRIEND WITH A 17 YEAR OLD SON!"
And one last thing is timeframe.
The KH series takes a little over a year to go. That makes sense for Riku to become fixated -> get unfixated -> work towards undoing his harm. FF4's story takes nearly 20 years to complete, and Kain is STILL all "why doesn't Rosa love me?!" until his "Redemption Arc" comes to a full circle, which is pathetic.
So yeah, because Kain wasn't pathetic enough as is, Riku just puts the nail in the coffin further. Riku proves that the "best friend turned evil who then goes on a redemption arc" over the course of multiple games CAN be done well, so it's not the core character that's the problem, it's the execution.
ANYWAY, not sure what I'll give the game. I guess 6/10? There's a lot of good stuff, but a lot of really bad stuff too that can't be ignored, which is ashame.