My six-year-old daughter and I love Disney, and I thought it might be fun to see what would happen if we jumped into Kingdom Hearts III. I watched a fun little video to regain an understanding of the series' basic setup, but my daughter has no clue what she's getting into. The results did not disappoint and are exactly what you would expect.
I recorded audio of our opening hour of play. Here's a rough transcript of what transpired...
Confusion Before the Game Begins
We didn't even make it into the game, and my daughter started asking tough questions about the characters who are featured on a piece of art. After commenting that Donald Duck looks like he just fell down a flight of stairs, my daughter spent a few seconds studying each of the non-Disney characters.
Daughter: "Why do all of the people with spiky hair look the same? Are they like My Little Pony characters that all look the same but have different hair colors?"
Me: "Uh... I have no idea what to tell you. Now that you mention it, the blonde kid in the middle and the other blonde kid on the bottom may be the same character. That's odd. I don't know. They all do look similar."
Daughter: "I wonder if they have cutie marks."
A Conversation With Hades
Needless to say, we were both confused by the opening moments of the game, which show two characters playing chess as other characters fly around and give us some form of a recap from what happened in their past. My daughter thankfully didn't ask me how the game of chess is played, but again commented that the two characters who were playing it looked the same. Confusion also came from figuring out what abilities and powers Sora would start the game with. She wanted to know why the "unicorn cat" in one of the pictures we had to interact with wasn't coming with us. I told her it was an image that represented the ability, but that didn't go over well. We eventually got to gameplay, and took turns on the sticks during the tutorial battles. We both enjoyed our time. She had no problem figuring out the basics of the hack-and-slash combat.
Our next stop was Olympus. It didn't take long for us to run into Hades.
Daughter: "Is he a bad guy?"
Me: "Yes. I think so."
Daughter: "Why are they standing there? Stop him! Should they get him and put him in jail?"
Me: "He doesn't seem to be doing anything evil."
Hades does something evil immediately after I say this. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are sent flying into the distance by some creatures or a spell or something.
Daughter: "Why didn't they stop him?"
Me: "I have no idea."
Daughter: "I would have hit him with my key, Dad."
Conclusion
I had a blast playing the opening hour of Kingdom Hearts III with my daughter. The backstory that they introduce early on is confusing, but once we landed in Olympus, the narrative became more about what was happening in the moment and we didn't have much trouble following it. The question that remained: Did my daughter have fun?
Me: "What did you think of that game?"
Daughter: "It's really fun. I like that Disney princesses will be in it."
Me: "What score would you give it?"
Daughter: [She puts on her deep-thinker face] "Probably 100."
Me: "Is that as high as your scale goes?"
Daughter: "Yes."
Me: "So you think it's one of the best games you've ever played."
Daughter: [nods]
Me: "Did you think any of it was confusing?"
Daughter: "Yes."
Me: "How much of it didn't you understand?"
Daughter: "All of it."
Me: "Do you want to play it again?"
Daughter: "Tomorrow night!"
There's more in the article. Pretty funny read.
https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/01/30/a-six-year-olds-impressions-of-kingdom-hearts-iii
