'Kingdom Hearts 3 Wisdom, Vitality, or Balance: Dive to the Heart Choices

Kingdom Hearts III is finally available to play, and if you’re just diving in you’re probably wondering how to

Ever since the original Kingdom Hearts arrived back in 2003, the franchise has relied on a trippy opening sequence to set the tone for each adventure in what’s been dubbed the “Dive to the Heart.” Essentially, within some kind of dark dreamscape, the protagonist dives into their own heart through a series of colorful platforms that look like giant stained glass windows depicting various characters from the franchise.

While there, you’re asked to make one or more choices that determine combat preferences and character statistics. Will you focus on magic at the expense of Keyblade attacks, or are you going for a balanced approach? Maybe you care about more defensive capabilities?

With Kingdom Hearts III, it’s time to Dive to the Heart as Sora once more, making important choices that’ll last the entire duration of their playthrough — there’s no way to change them later on in the game. Remember, you’re not just deciding how Sora’s stats balance out, but also which order you’ll learn various abilities. So choose carefully.

In the first game, you could choose to focus on Attack, Defense, or Magic; the game also made you sacrifice one of the remaining two options entirely. Thankfully, Kingdom Hearts II just required the first choice. This time around, things are a little bit different — and a bit more nuanced.

Sora’s latest Dive to the Heart eventually shows a myriad of massive screens circling around the platform depicting various moments from throughout the series. These animate in groups of three as they assemble in front of Sora, representing two rounds of choices that should feel familiar to fans of the series.

Here’s what you need to know to make your decision.

First Round of Choices: Wisdom, Vitality, or Balance

The short videos on each screen and the accompanying flavor text do a decent job of explaining what these choices mean, with each focusing on that which the player desires most.

“Wisdom” refers to magic and Magic Points, “Vitality” to health and Health Points, and “Balance” to some balance between the two. Quite simply, choosing Wisdom will give Sora more magic but less health overall. Vitality is the exact opposite, offering more HP at the expense of MP. Balance is obviously a balance between the two.

The specific starting stat breakdown makes Vitality look the most beneficial, granting a total of 220 points:

• Wisdom — 90 HP, 120 MP
• Vitality — 120 HP, 100 MP
• Balance — 105 HP, 110 MP

Still, players should pick whichever caters more to their preferred playstyle.

Second Round of Choices: Power of Guardian, Warrior, and Mystic

The second choice functions similar to the first, but the three choices reference Defense, Attack, and Magic in terms of ability progression. To put it one way: What type of power do you desire most? Guardian will offer earlier access to defensive abilities like Damage Control, while Warrior focuses on attack abilities like hit combos and Mystic gets you magic buffs.

So think carefully and pick the one that works best with your strengths and weaknesses and a gamer.

What Does All This Mean?

One way to examine these combinations is to look back at Ventus, Terra, and Aqua from the prequel game Birth by Sleep. You might consider Ventus a Balance-Warrior, Terra a Vitality-Warrior, and Aqua a Wisdom-Mystic. But players have even more options at their disposal. Anyone playing on higher difficulties might want Vitality-Guardian for more survivability. For many, Balance-Warrior will probably be the go-to.

It’s important to note, however, that there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to the Dive to the Heart. Once should simply … follow their heart.

Kingdom Hearts III is available no for PS4 and Xbox One.