∇

troperville

∇

tools

∇

toys

• Angst? What Angst?: At the end of the story, Riku passes the exam and is recognized as a Keyblade Master. Sora failed the exam when darkness seeped into his heart but he remained optimistic and set out soon after to do his own thing.
  • Isn't being optimistic Sora's thing, though?
  • He does look like he's about to cry (even when he's smiling), which may be a sign that all is not well in Sora's heart *
    See what I did there? Yeah...
• Anvilicious: Whenever Sora or Riku finish a world, they deliver a monologue and it always plays this trope straight with glee.
• Awesome Music: Once again, "Dearly Beloved."
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Both Vanitas and Riku Replica's appearances feel like this as they are never mentioned afterwards.
• Broken Base: Lea getting a Keyblade, time travel, and the revelation that Nobodies can grow hearts have had mixed reactions.
  • The whole game breaks the base, mainly due to amping up the Mind Screw and Kudzu Plot like never before. This is either seen as a turn-off or an attraction. Also, because it generated so much hype prior to release, it has the problems of having dizzying expectations to live up to, and the base is further broken as it matches some while fails to with others.
  • The new remix of "Calling" is pretty Love It or Hate It, mainly because of the vocals compared to the original.
  • The World Ends With You... Is the magic gone?
• Complete Monster: Hey kids, it's Judge Claude Frollo!
  • The sheer degree to which Xehanort has proven himself to be a bastard of the HIGHEST order in 3D is something to behold. What we knew of his actions before this game, nothing he did compares to the extent of his evil in this game.
    • He also expresses no remorse for what he did to Terra, Ven, and Aqua (even insulting them, such as calling Ven "broken"), and even gloats about it.
    • Never mind that he uses himself (via time travel) in his own schemes. Xehanort is essentially responsible for his own Start of Darkness.
  • In a game series about The Power of Friendship, the fact that Sora has to fight Rinzler/Tron in the TRON: Legacy world arguably makes Clu even worse than he was in the movie.
• Continuity Lockout: Surprisingly, the developers consciously attempted to avert a lockout for new players. Whenever Continuity Lockout would otherwise rear its head, a new Chronicle summarizing a previous game is unlocked in the Mementos menu. Considering the nature of the game in terms of continuity, the complexity of the story and the many plotlines it encompasses, this was a very good idea. Whether it was successful one or not varies from player to player. Some reviews claim it works well, others not so much.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Meow Wow, the fat and cat-/doglike Dream Eater.
• Game Breaker:
  • Flowmotion grants you fast dashes, high jumps, and powerful attacks, and most enemies will have difficulty hitting you. The only limit is having a rail or a wall to jump off of. Around the middle of the game, provided you know what you're doing, you'll begin to get access to commands that are more powerful and/or useful than Flowmotion attacks, lessening their gamebreaker status a bit, especially since caps on how much damage you do to bosses seem to have been lessened or done away with. Flowmotion Attacks are still good on their own though, which will help you early-game.
    • The thing with the Flowmotion moves is that they don't deal out very much damage. However they are fast, have very large range, can home in on enemies over very long distances, can not be interrupted, have no cost, and move you out of the way very quickly, all at the same time. And they either have lots of invincibility frames or make your hit-box smaller, because some point blank moves will go right through you while you're performing them. You can take damage during them, in which case you have no way to avoid it, but that doesn't happen often enough to make it dangerous.
    • Another thing about Flowmotion is that you have all the moves from the very beginning of the game and there are only about a half dozen or so actual Flowmotion attacks. So they quickly fall into Boring, but Practical territory. While that doesn't take away from the Game Breaker status, it does make them less likely to be exploited.
    • Flowmotion also makes the existance of KH's standard movement abilities (Air dash, high/double jump, glide)in Dream Drop Distance pretty much completely pointless, as Flowmotion can do all that those abilities can do plus more.
  • The Balloon series of spells.
    • Especially Balloonga. It can be obtained fairly early in the game, can be activated almost instantly, and can throw foes into the air with six balloon-tracking... balloons to explode on their faces. The spell can also be used as a floating mine. Hilariously enough, this spell is also pretty useful in Flick Rush itself.
  • Once Riku gets his Dark Barrier, and the counterattack associated to it, well-timed use of it allows Riku to be virtually invincible and dish out damages at the same time. It even works against bosses (though some of end-game ones will wait for an opening and punish you if you try to spam it).
  • A Riku-exclusive command, Dark Splicer, makes you a player character with a Teleport Spam technique. It hits hard and is a very long combo, and besides just being strong, it can completely destroy the strategy behind the second Ansem battle. The one drawback is that you can take damage during it, but having Curaga at the ready mitigates this for the most part.
  • Another Riku-exclusive command, is as useful as (or even more than) Dark Splicer: Dark Aura, Riku's Signature Move, now available as a mere 2-slot command! Given how it's That One Attack in several KH games with Riku as a boss, it was to be expected.
• Goddamned Boss: Holey Moley is not that dangerous a boss, but landing a hit can be a challenge, as he keeps warping around the large, obstacle-filled room.
  Riku: "They just never want to make this easy, do they?"
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This◊ correctly predicted the Counterpart Comparison between Kingdom Hearts characters and their TWEWY expies a long time before they were confirmed to appear in the same game. Lampshaded in the commentary. All of this is coincidental, as the trope demands.
  • Not to mention The Sceptre And The Kingdom, predating this game by nearly ten years. Again, it's been a coincidence.
  • Haley Joel Osment, the voice of Sora, also played David in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. In this game he finally finds the Blue Fairy.
  • The Recusant's Sigil, which as explained on the Fridge page for the game has been around in subtle forms since the start of the series. Tetsuya Nomura found a way to justify in-universe why characters have "X" motifs and meaningless belts and straps on their clothing so often.
  • A one-shot fanfiction had Master Xehanort gathering up villains from Fleem co. to create a new Organization XIII. As it turns out, Master Xehanort's new plan is to create a new Organization XIII. Although, Fleem co. doesn't make an appearance.
• Ho Yay: Of the accidentally implied kind. When Riku first arrives at Traverse Town, the cutscene with his first meeting with Joshua ends with Riku approaching Joshua and saying "I'll help you" while the camera pans up in order to show the animation for the new Traverse Town logo. It wouldn't be so bad by itself, but sadly said animation begins with fireworks. Add Joshua's perceived "Ambiguously Gay" status from the game he's from and you get the picture.
  • In addition, his English voice actor does not help this situation. At all.
  • When Sora meets Neku, their conversation eventually turns to Joshua, of whom Neku remarks "He's my...friend." The way he says makes it seem like Joshua is a bit more than just his...friend.
  • There is also quite a bit of subtext between Sora and Young Xehanort.
• It Was His Sled: The silver-haired youth is The Mysterious Figure from Birth by Sleep. And he's Young Xehanort, which should be obvious from his appearance.
• Jerkass Woobie: Revelations in this game may qualify Xemnas and Isa/Saïx for this trope.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many former fans and every fan who hates the Kudzu Plot of the series are only playing this game for the The World Ends With You characters.
  • Alternatively, some people hate the TWEWY characters as well and are only interested in seeing new Disney Worlds or simply enjoy the gameplay enough to tolerate the elements they dislike.
• Memetic Molester: Ansem has giant black balls, and he keeps slamming them into Riku's face.
  • Sadly this image doesn't help at all.◊
• Memetic Mutation: The borderline Internet Counterattack following the announcement about the game not getting localized in Spanish and Italian*
  (for the first time in the series, anyway)
  culminated in "KH3D EN ESPAÑOL E ITALIANO YA!" written all over the page.
• Moe: Rhyme, just like in her game of origin. Possibly more so.
• Moral Event Horizon: What Xehanort plans to do to Sora, and his true plans for Organization XIII. If you thought Master Xehanort was evil before...
• Most Wonderful Sound: Whenever you land a hit while wielding the Guardian Bell Keyblade.
  • The sounds spirits make when you pet them. So adorable.
• Narm: Riku's Pre-Asskicking One-Liner to Anti-Black Coat.
  Riku: "If you're a nightmare... I'll eat you whole!"
  • Thankfully changed to the much less narmy "Are you what's trapping him in a nightmare? 'Cause if you are... I'm what nightmares fear!" in the English version.
  • The series' aversion to crowds of NPCs strikes again. In La Cité Des Cloches, with the exception of the Dream Eater boss Bullet Gargoyle - as well as Sora himself - thrown in for good measure, the iconic "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" scene made it into the game. And it's just as awesome as it has always been... except for the fact that there's literally nobody else in there aside from Quasimodo, Frollo, and Esmeralda. No French townspeople, just them. And Quasimodo yells "Sanctuary!" only once.
    • There's also the Court of Miracles, home of all the gypsies in Paris. Once you get there, however, the only gypsy to be found is Esmeralda. Actually, she seems to be the only gypsy in Paris, making Frollo's speeches about how evil gypsies are even more Narmy.
  • Sora's voice in the English version. Haley Joel Osment is unquestionably an adult now, so hearing an adult voice come out of 15-year old Sora's mouth is both kind of disturbing and pretty hilarious at the same time.
    • If that's the case for the English version, then the Japanese is just as guilty, since Miyu Irino, just like he did in Re:coded, tries a little too hard to sound like he's fifteen and just sounds very inconsistent.
  • Sora makes some... interesting facial expressions while being implanted with Roxas' memories.
• Nightmare Fuel: The giant clown face in Windup Way at the Prankster's Paradise world. The eyes actually follow you.
• Nintendo Hard / Sequel Difficulty Spike: It's a portable Kingdom Hearts game, and it's on a Nintendo system, so this is automatic. Probably the hardest part is adjusting to the erratic movements. The game being extremely user-friendly (new active abilities are given detailed explanations on usage upon being obtained, and these notes can all be referred to later through the menu) and the Flowmotion mechanic mitigate the difficulty somewhat.
  • Enemies and bosses are more powerful and/or more competent than ever before. A decent amount of them can now dodge your attacks, have more annoying moves and tactics than ever before, and will use status effects to stop your rampage. Add the fact that you most likely won't have both Once More and Second Chance for a good part of the main story, and it all adds up to make this the most challenging Kingdom Hearts game yet.
  • "Competent" nothing. Regular trash mobs from the very beginning are far and away more aggressive than any other non-boss thing in the series (except for some of the end-game higher end Nobodies from Kingdom Hearts II). They also seem to be extremely fast by the series' standards of enemies. Any given group of enemies can actually stun-lock you to death, and enemies from the very beginning of the game have fairly powerful abilities. Also, rather than exclusively using their unique attacks, enemies can actually use the same spells you can, like Zero Gravity, and make you sitting ducks with very painful status effects. Heartless, Unversed, and Nobodies didn't have these options.
• Player Punch: Not only Master Xehanort returning while the heroes whose lives he ruined remain trapped, but the way he acknowledges it when Mickey points it out:
  Master Xehanort: "I merely guided them to their proper places. The broken boy, who failed to be the blade. The misguided master, who sacrificed herself for a friend. And the feckless youth who became my new vessel."
  Mickey: "I couldn't find a way to save 'em. But I wanted to believe their sacrifice stopped you for good."
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: "Traverse In Trance" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and fitting a "sleeping" version of the already relaxing Traverse Town theme.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The Drop mechanic is viewed as irritating and somewhat pointless by quite a few critics. It can even happen during boss battles, and when you Drop back to that battle, it'll start over from the beginning with the boss at full health. Considering the game's difficulty, this can be extremely frustrating. The mechanic does have some saving graces—if you're stuck with useless commands or need a boost, you can simply wait out the boss battle and then grind for DP to buy attack boosts, et cetera or switch out commands as the other character.
• Tainted by the Preview: After the hype the game is now well-known for, now comes word that, contrary to the UK, France and Germany, the European version of KH3D won't be localized at all for Spain and Italy. While this is still better than, say, Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, not getting localized on-screen text has already resulted in... well, a call to boycott a product no one expected them to buy.◊ For a less Fan Dumb-ish approach, there's this (better) idea.
• That One Boss: Young Master Xehanort looks like he's going to be this for a lot of players. He's fast, hits hard, has a lot of HP and can rewind time to the beginning of the battle when he hits 0 HP. The only way to defeat him is to use a Reality Shift on the clock that appears when he rewinds time and destroy it from the inside; however, you still have to keep him at bay whilst doing this, and the clock has as much HP as he does. If you don't do it in time, he simply rewinds time to the beginning of the battle and you have to start over again. His nickname of Trollanort is more than deserved.
  • Mercifully, if he does rewind time, the clock does not recover any health, and his maximum HP is reduced to whatever the clock's remaining HP is.
  • Nearly all of the endgame bosses hit this territory without Once More (which is tricky to acquire unless you know what Dream Eaters have it beforehand), an ability that allows a player to survive any combo with 1 HP left over. It just so happens that the last 4 bosses are Incredibly fond of melee combos and Beam Spam, Xehanort's Heartless and Young MX in particular.
• Ugly Cute: To an extent with the Dream Eaters; Nomura designed them to be appealing to the player, but not in the conventional sense of "cute and cuddly." The result is creatures like Meow Wow, who are decidedly odd-looking but still endearing in their own way.
• Uncanny Valley: The Grid had Sam, Flynn, and Quorra from Tron: Legacy. The faces are so realistic it's really creepy, especially when they share a shot with Riku and Sora who have kept their stylized faces. It's comparable to the Pirates Of The Caribbean situation in the second game.
  • The characters from The World Ends With You made the transition to 3D very well. However, Shiki just looks... off.
• Villain Sue: Xehanort may slip into this for some fans with the twists in the ending. Namely that EVERYTHING that has happened in the previous games was all part of his plan....somehow, and just how thoroughly he outclasses everyone else in the game in power and intelligence.
• Wasted Song: "Twister [Kingdom Mix]", "Calling [Kingdom Mix]" and "Someday [Kingdom Mix]" are each fairly long, with multiple verses. However, they each play during cutscenes with limited durations, such that each song barely gets into the first verse before the scene, and the song, ends.
  • Luckily, both songs made it into TWEWY's iOS port, so they arn't completely wasted...
• Woolseyism: The route the English version seems to be taking with the Dream Eater names. For example, the Japanese name "Wandanyan" incorporates "wonder", "wanwan" (a dog's bark), and "nyan-nyan" (a cat's meow). The English name is "Meow Wow", a combination of "wow", "meow", and "bow-wow."
  • "Dark Fierce" and "Light Hammer", became "Darkest Fears" and "Shining Hammer", respectively.
  • Someone was having way too much fun doing his job, because most of the Dream Eater descriptions are flat-out zany.
  • Lines from the Japanese script that would've been flat-out Narm (Riku's "If you're a Nightmare, I'll eat you whole!" and Sora's "This is the key to everyone's smiles" leap to mind) were given somewhat less silly translations.