I am not one to post reviews usually, mostly because I have zero online presence and for the most part, reviews are something most people skim. I just didn't see much of the point unless I reeeeally like a game or reeeeeally hate a game. This game falls in the second category.
This is going to be a long review, so here's the quick summary: it takes too much effort to manually boot up for a professionally released game, the quality doesn't match a Square Enix game, and overall it was a major let down. Purchase on sale at your own risk.
First up, logistically this game is a nightmare on the computer. You should not have to go into computer files to personally alter compatibility just to launch a game (although I appreciate the reviews that explained how to do that). That kind of poor porting is something I would expect of an independent developer, not a game development group as well-renowned and massive as Square Enix. In the same thread, it appears when the game was converted to English (I assume that was not the original language), none of the animations were converted as well like they were in the KH and FF games I've played (to be fair, I haven't played many; maybe this is a common theme). It looked awkward and not at all the beautiful quality I've experienced before.
Additionally, the animations were over the top and plainly ridiculous. I could argue that it is probably geared towards kids, but so was KH, and while that game had some slightly over the top animations, this was overkill, and it didn't match the dialogue at all. Also, the character designs looked a little weird compared to what I'm used to. Maybe it's just a new direction. If any of this upsets whoever is reading this, I'm sorry. I don't mean to upset, I'm just honestly conveying how I see it with a lot of disappointment given how much I usually hype Square Enix games to my friends.
Lastly, I know I've only played 20 minutes of the game (maybe it got better past that), but by that time, I had only actually physically played 2 minutes of the game. The rest was all video exposition. Don't get me wrong; the Square Enix games I've played generally have a lot of intro video and great exposition, but this was pushing it. Usually it's like five minutes of video, five minutes of game, five more minutes of video, a good balance. This was, as I said, mostly video, and I couldn't make heads or tails of the story. I had no idea what was going on. I get that the characters didn't either, but comparing the same cluelessness to the first Kingdom Hearts, there was still a level of background exposition that made the whole story make sense even in the beginning.
All in all, I am super disappointed (and I have petitioned for a refund). If you can push your way through all of that and prove me wrong with how awesome the game is, fantastic; I am genuinely happy for you because I know how fantastic Square Enix games are. I just wasn't able to get past that twenty minute mark without feeling like breaking my keyboard.
