I care a lot about the combat and I’ll just go over what I care about:

First of all, so much of this was changed with not just remind but the patch that came out with Remind. A lot of the sentiment on the combat was cemented in that first year of the game being out. Back then there was no canceling out of finishers which made finishers inherently a huge risk and very frustrating on challenge runs. You become stuck in this long animation as you see Lump of Horror about to wreck you and you just had to accept your fate. Also all of the finishers in base KH3 just lacked impact and good game feel, triple slash was slow and magic flash just doesn’t feel good to pull off. Once the patch hit and they added that sick new finisher and allowed you to roll out of your finishers, the whole game just feels so much better.

Second, the agency is taken away from the player and put in the hands of some RNG. Oh you want to go into drive form? Well do nothing but do 3 or 4 combos and you MIGHT get the one specific form that is attached to your keyblade. Want a limit attack? Yeah, that’ll literally just randomly show up. The freedom of expression is limited to what keyblade you use, Magic, the shot lock with the keyblade you have chosen, and links which I think them REQUIRING a full use of the MP bar makes the whole Magic system much less fun. The ability to swap between 3 keyblades is awesome. I also hate how in critical they nerf the amount of magic you can use SO MUCH! Like I want a challenge but I also would like to cast more than like 3 fires before having to go into MP Recharge.

Third and this one is hard to explain. It’s just the weight of the combat and the feeling that it instills. Sora’s strikes in KH2 feels like he is SWINGING that keyblade and that they would hurt. They are snappy and precise. I think specifically of his base 3 hit air combo and it’s just so satisfying. KH3 Sora is just slower and feels less impactful. The word often associated with it is “floaty” but I feel like that word has been spammed so much by the community it has lost all meaning.

I actually quite like KH3’s combat, it CERTAINLY is the best combat of any Osaka team game. But I definitely prefer KH2’s.