As in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, the choices made in the tutorial of Kingdom Hearts III determines the path of Sora's growth throughout the game. Start by walking to the mirror and examine it using the situation command. You are then presented your first choice based on a simple question: what do you desire? The answer to this question determines Sora's starting stats.
- The image of Mickey closing the door to Kingdom Hearts represents Wisdom. Selecting this gives an early boost to Sora's MP. If you intend on relying heavily on magic, this is the choice for you.
- The image of Sora battling Riku-Ansem at Hollow Bastion represents Vitality. Selecting this gives an early boost to Sora's HP. Selecting this is best if you don't mind a handicap to your MP early on.
- The image of Sora, Donald, and Goofy joining together at Traverse Town represents Balance. This option provides a balance of both HP and MP to Sora early on in the game, though of course the stats won't be given as much of a boost as they would have with one of the other options.
Once Sora makes his selection, you are presented with another question that will alter the course of Sora's growth: what power do you seek? The answer to this question determines the rate at which Sora learns certain abilities.
- The image of Sora making a promise to Naminé represents the Guardian. This will give you access to more defensive abilities, such as Leaf Bracer, early on.
- The image of Sora battling Roxas represents the Warrior. This will give you access to more offensive abilities, such as Combo Plus, early on.
- The image of Sora with his Dream Eaters represents the Mystic. This will give you access to more magic-boosting abilities, such as MP Haste, early on.
Making a selection here concludes the question-and-answer portion of the tutorial. Choose wisely, especially on higher difficulties, as you will not be able to change your answer to any of these questions past this point. A simple combat tutorial follows, in which Sora does battle with some familiar weak Heartless: Shadows. Wack at them with the Keyblade to dispatch them in a few hits, and the true threat of this mysterious area will be revealed: the Darkside, the same monster Heartless that attacked the Destiny Islands at the beginning of the first game.
Boss: Darkside[edit]
This battle can be tricky, especially on Critical difficulty. However, as long as you familiarize yourself with its attacks (or are already familiar with its attacks through its appearances throughout the series, particularly its most recent appearance in Kingdom Hearts 0.2), defending against it shouldn't be too difficult. It'll start by sticking its giant hand into the ground, producing a shockwave (which you can avoid by jumping or dodging) and scooping up a big black ball of dark energy in the process. You can attack its hands before this process, but stay away from the ball, as making contact with it does damage to Sora. Once the Darkside lifts the ball up fully, it will shoot it up into the air, creating a rain of small but harmful dark spheres. You can continue to attack its hands to do damage to the Darkside as the rain falls, but try not to stay in one place for too long to avoid taking damage.
After this attack, it produces another shockwave, this time spawning Shadows in the process. You should ignore these Shadows in favor of a continuing offense on the Darkside, unless you find yourself in need of the HP that they drop after being extinguished (they also drop Munny, but it isn't much). The Darkside's final attack consists of it kneeling down and shooting out beams of dark energy from its chest. These beams home in on Sora, so make sure to dodge right before they make contact to avoid taking damage. The slowness of the Darkside as well as the short breaks it takes between attacks works against it, giving Sora time to dole out quick attacks on its hands and chip away at its two health bars. Repeat the process until its health is fully depleted, giving Sora access to two magic attacks: Fire and Water. Once you have access to a menu, you can use the "customize" option to assign these two attacks to shortcuts, allowing Sora to speedily cast magic in the midst of battle.
If you've become familiar with the controls and mechanics, proceed to some cutscenes, after which you will find yourself alongside Donald and Goofy in the first world, Olympus.