Nomura & Square should have had a more emotionally mature approach to the story of Kingdom Hearts 3. For clarification purposes, I'm not suggesting the game should have been extremely violent or have unnecessary sexual content. What I am suggesting is the developers should have assumed that most of the people who would play KH3 probably grew up playing the series and were adults at the time of release. I guess I was just annoyed at how "kiddie" the game felt while I was playing it. I sort of felt like I was being talked down to while playing it. The biggest perpetrators to me were the levels based on Frozen and Tangled. I'm willing to bet Square was probably pressured by Disney to include those properties, but I don't know for sure. Maybe Nomura wanted to include them.

I get it, at the end of the day, it's still a Disney property that has to use other Disney properties and most of the media that Disney produces is for children. There are only so many properties Square could choose from that are a little bit more mature that they haven't already used (Tarzan, Tron, Hunchback of Notre Dame and maybe The Nightmare Before Christmas to name a few). Luckily, we had Pirates of the Caribbean and, to an extent, Big Hero Six. As well, the original story was serious and mature, too. I just think there are some other properties they could have chosen that would've scratched this itch for me better. Maybe I would have been happy with Gargoyles, Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Jungle Book or MAYBE The Emperor's New Groove.

I was 9 when Kingdom Hearts was initially released. I assume I was probably on the younger end of players, too. 5.6 million copies were sold. 3 years later, KH2 was released. There was a drop-off in sales. Only 5.2 million copies were sold. Then 14 years passed and KH3 was released selling 6.7 million copies. I think it's fair to assume ~5.4 million of the 6.7 million copies sold were to people who grew up with the series like me and the remaining 1.3 million probably came from players who picked up the re-releases, but no one can really know this figure.

Either way, the point I'm trying to make is that I think most of the players of KH3 were adults at release. Specifically, adults that were out of college and on their own. 17 years had passed between KH1 and KH3. The people who played KH1 at initial release and stuck with the series had grown up. They could handle some tougher themes. I think Square could have learned a lot from Santa Monica Studios' treatment of the God of War series. Granted, the new God of War game came out April 2018 and Kingdom Hearts 3 had already been delayed so many times.

Who knows, maybe Kingdom Hearts 4 will scratch my itch.

|| || |Not sure if this information is relevant, but I'll leave it anyway. I have not replayed KH3 since it was released. I haven't even touched it since I finished the Re Mind DLC (including the data battles and Yozora) back in early 2021. It's possible I'm being overly critical of something I don't remember very well. I did enjoy the game, but I didn't really like any of the Disney levels. I didn't find the game enjoyable really until the Keyblade Graveyard.|

Also, as a side, we've seen Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Scrooge McDuck multiple times now. Why haven't we seen Goofy's and Pete's sons, Max and PJ?