'Kingdom Hearts 3' Flowmotion Guide: What to Know About the Gameplay System
It's been around for awhile, but it might be new to a lot of players.
by Corey PlanteFor many Kingdom Hearts fans, especially the ones that took a 13-year break since Kingdom Hearts II, a new set of game mechanics called Flowmotion might be a bit confusing the first time you dive into Kingdom Hearts III. But Aerial acrobatics is an extreme skill that seemingly all Keyblade-wielders pick up, and nowhere is that put on display more ferociously than with Flowmotion.
Here’s what you need to know if you’re baffled by the new Kingdom Hearts III mechanic or Flowmotion is not working for some reason.
Introduced formally in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, the Flowmotion system allows the player’s character to run up and along walls, hop between different parts of the environment, and also engage in more dynamic methods of attacking. Its earliest introduction in Kingdom Hearts III comes in Olympus. In places where a kind of shimmery wave moves upward on surfaces, that means Sora can run up the wall or spin around pillars, creating a cyclone effect that allows him to do extra damage to Heartless.
When the game prompts it, we suggest you accept the tutorial in Olympus, which will send them through a brief obstacle course that covers all the basic features of Flowmotion, including the ability to launch off walls to do a kind of in-air dashing attack.
Sora's ability to run up and along walls is part of this whole Flowmotion system.
Flowmotion’s combat uses can be limited outside of launching off walls and spinning around poles, but in terms of platforming through areas and hunting for treasure and/or Lucky Emblems, the climbing aspect of Flowmotion remains important throughout the game.
Wall-running automatically triggers when Sora jumps at a wall, but doing the pole attack is a bit trickier: On PS4, players have to jump, then press square to start spinning, and then once enemies get close enough, press the X button to attack them.
Another aspect to Flowmotion allows Sora to automatically railslide on some surfaces or hop between glittery parts of the environment, like stones strategically placed across a river.
No matter what one’s level of experience with Kingdom Hearts is, this is one gameplay system you’ll have to pay a lot of attention to if you want to thrive in Kingdom Hearts III.
Kingdom Hearts III is currently available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
