Best Kingdom Hearts Game?

[Paddy McGee]

For me, II is the tops. The system is extremely intriguing and useful. Square's decision to use triangle really did help me enjoy II quite a lot more than I expected.

Then we have those awesome drive forms. Wisdom was so awesome to use, speeding around and stuffs...

Anyway, I felt II just had much more flow, consistency and generally entertaining enemies. Org. XIII were quite the group- hence the Days spinoff- and the idea of the middle void and what happens to the remainder of a person when they lose their soul was great to use.

 

[Example]

Probably 1 or 2, 1 had a better story while 2 had better gameplay. BBS was pretty good too.

 

[ZaXo Ken'Ichi]

I pretty much echo Example here. 1 is the only one with competent writing. And while 1 is mostly a solid game mechanically, 2 is an absolute masterpiece of design as long as you pick Critical Mode. Even level 1 runs are wonderfully designed. THe other modes are.. less well designed, but Critical is so good that I feel it makes up for it.

The only idea I don't agree with is BBS being pretty good. It's better than games like 358 or Re:Coded, but it's a pretty bad game. Shallow characters, inconsistent rules, empty worlds, lots of repetition, and while it seems solid mechanically, it's actually a giant unbalanced mess with little understanding of what makes KH work.

 

[Vivi-Gamer]

Having just recently beat Kingdom Hearts III I think my opinion still firmly rests with Kingdom Hearts II, As mentioned by ZaXo above, the game really thrives from being played on in Critical Mode - I remember many of the initial review for the game complaining it was a PRESS X to win mashathon but when you play on Critical Mode Sora is quite vulnerable and you really have to be more careful in general.

I recently managed to beat the Data Battles on II's Final Remix... gosh that was a challenge! It really pushes the demand of understand of the games mechanics to the MAX. I spent one morning/afternoon alone struggling on Xaldin but once I understood his phases and the precise moment to strike I got through it.

Kingdom Hearts III was a fantastic experience with plenty of content through out the initial playthrough but it was severely lacking in post-game content - With 14 Battles which were a doddle (This comes from someone whom won't even play games like Dark Souls too ). There just wasn't much else to do can it felt pointless making the grind of the best weapon or Synthesising because there was no greater challenge to utilise the upper tier equipment - I beat the toughest BattleGate battle before I even synthesised the majority of the items/equipment, I was actually holding onto my resources just for Post-Game content.

But I can't understate just how fun my experience with the Story Playthrough was, it was a blast from start to finish! featuring some of the best KH worlds to date:

Spoiler

I Particularly enjoyed The Caribbean World, which this time let Sora set sail across a massive Seascape! It was a pure joy very reminiscent of Zelda's Wind Waker. I loved reaching a new shore and exploring what each island had to offer! Also, it seemed to take all the fun aspects of Assassin's Creed IV with it's Ship Battles, while keeping true to KH's combat style with special attacks! I spent a decent 8 hours playing in this World alone was it just had such a wealth of content and really felt like the developers achieved their initial intention with this World from Kingdom Hearts II.

As for Birth By Sleep, I think in terms of narrative while convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is I find the plot the most engaging of them all! I think this is due to a lot of the KH lore blending into the Disney Worlds stories more - Like how Terra is manipulated in the Sleeping Beauty World through his weakness and consumption to Darkness - Which is what the majority of his story is about, these themes are projected upon the situations within the Worlds much better than before. The problem is the characters themselves while rich in detail do come across as a bit flat - Which could be seen as a flaw of the line delivery or writing itself. I will say the final battle for each character as a whole is epic and seeing each perspective of the event was probably my favourite parts of the whole series.

As for the combat, I've found it to be the most fluent, I loved switching between commands on the fly with the shoulder buttons, it just let me focus on using the directional pad/analogue stick for the control of the characters placement. I also found the Melding system to be super fun - Though that said there is no way to really utilise it without a guide as combing two mastered commands together would produce an extra ability within the new command too, getting all them abilities is just so complex without keeping track with a chart.

The more I talk about Birth By Sleep, the more I recall why it could possibly be my favourite of the series, it's definitely a close call but I think what lets BBS slightly down is the world design - Most of the worlds are just very bland in structure (I will say aesthetically they still look very nice and detailed), but structurally the worlds just seem very wide and big in space but lacking in actual content - Like in Neverland how it is mostly just wide rocky paths. This of course is due to the origins of it being on the PSP which is understandable, but when I compare it to the enjoyment of KH2 or KH3 it pales badly. Also, I think just the lack of engagement the Trio had with the characters in the respective Disney Worlds compared to Sora showed + Most of their emotional investment was put into the Trio. Also, the lack of companions like Donald & Goofy was felt, it just lacked the charm that was very present in KH2's cutscenes.

A final note on Birth By Sleep... The PS4 version is the definitive experience! Having the second analogue stick just makes the controls flow so much better and really has made it one of my favourite games to play in general. It's such a step up from the PSP and I still cannot believe how good the title looks in 1080p resolution considering it's origins - It really is an impressive feat' that makes it a standout experience for certain.

 

[Draconic]

Birth by Sleep. It had the darkest storyline, and Leonard Nemoy’s Xehanort was arguably the best performance for any character in the series, with the possible exceptions of Wayne Alwine’s Mickey as well as Roxas and Xion.

Actually, Nemoy made that whole game for me, and I can’t forgive Nomura for not getting his act together and finishing that game before Nemoy passed away. I was literally trying to rewrite my memories of his scenes in Nemoy’s voice as I was watching them.

Also, the command deck was my favorite gameplay mechanic in terms of interface, and I really want to see it come back. Heck, I even found the command board minigames engaging.