#a bittersweet end as well because no matter what Player will go down with Xehanort. they are the same person they have no choice | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zdbztumble · 6 years ago

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So What to do About it? (KH III Spoilers)

Complain about something enough, and you may end up hearing from somebody: “well, what would you have done differently?” No one’s asked me that about Kingdom Hearts III, but I’m bored at work and eager to dodge emotional problems, so that’s what we’re getting into tonight, kids!

Note: I’m going to limit myself to changes I would make to KH III only. A number of its problems are the culmination of trends begun much earlier in the series, particularly DDD, but I don’t want to get into hypothetical changes to five different games, none of which were as flawed in degree, or as painful an experience as the story of KH III was.

To start out with, the first change I would make to KH III would be to make cuts. A lot of cuts. Because there’s a lot in the story of this game that didn’t need to be there. On the chopping block would be:

- Maleficent. She’s my favorite Disney villain, and I love her role within the KH series, but Maleficent (and Pete) had no role in this story. A tease at a potential future game and a promotion of KH UX are no reason to include a character. And, if a character - even a favorite one - has no good reason to be in a story, they shouldn’t be.

- Roxas, Xion, and Namine. Again, they have no real role to play in this story. Namine doesn’t do anything except summon the Lingering Will (and we’ll get to that), Roxas isn’t needed to complete the roster of Seven Lights, and the whole point of Xion’s tragic death was that she was gone for good. She comes back into the story from nowhere, while Roxas and Namine are only present to give Sora and Kairi some semblance of a quest in the front half of the story; they both want to find a way to let their Nobodies live as real people outside of their hearts. But Sora and Kairi didn’t need any additional motivation to do things in this story, because they’re already motivated by the far more consequential goal of stopping Xehanort on a macro level, and by the desire to keep each other safe on the micro level (as poorly reintroduced as that idea was.) They also have very little (and in Kairi’s case, no) role in restoring their Nobodies in the game as-is.

The idea that these characters could, or at least deserved to, exist as their own persons was first introduced in DDD, but it was presented as more of a desire on Sora’s part than something that could practically be done. There wasn’t a wealth of build-up to this idea in previous games that needed to be paid off. And as I’ve said before, Roxas and Namine choosing to return to Sora and Kairi, no longer existing as themselves but as a part of their true selves, was a wonderfully bittersweet aspect of KH II and a noble sacrifice on their part. Even with the stupid retcons concerning Nobodies and hearts pulled by DDD, that sacrifice is still valid, and Roxas, Namine, and Xion all remain distinct enough from other Nobodies and replicas that their choices and losses remain valid. Without any good reason to undermine that sacrifice, it shouldn’t be.

That said, while I would cut their revivals and presence in the larger plot, I would make use of them in the game...but we’ll get to that later.

- Ienzo and the other ex-Organizers. If Roxas and Namine go, then these guys might as well too. Ienzo is the only one who actually functions in the plot, and other than researching means to restore former Nobodies, he has no role to play. Any residual exposition that he gave out could be given to other characters. I would cut Ansem the Wise as well, but secret endings of previous games and my self-imposed rule mean he has to stay.

- Demyx. Again, without Roxas, he has no role to play. Vexen’s role would also change significantly, but...well, we’ll come back to that.

- Riku and Mickey updating their Keyblades. What was wrong with their old ones? And what value does the idea of re-charging Keyblades, or arbitrarily getting a hold of new ones, bring to the table?

- The mystery girl. Both of them. When it comes to Nameless Star - I do not care about Marluxia’s long-lost sister. There is no bottom to the well of how little I care about the pasts of any of the Organizers, especially any that tie into KH UX. If you do, then more power to you, but a game that’s meant to be the culmination of so many stories does not have the time or space to tease something like this. Leave it in the mobile game.

Subject X is a trickier issue. When that idea first came up via Ansem and “Ansem,” I thought they might be talking about Kairi, and that the story might finally be at least hinting at something of her past. It took me until last night to realize it, but Kairi’s past is the one plot point directly tied into Xehanort’s schemes that isn’t resolved in KH II. When Xion finally appeared, my first thought was that all the talk about a girl with no memory was actually about her all along, which I could’ve figured out wasn’t the case even before getting the Secret Reports if I’d thought about it for more than a minute. But that the mystery girl is actually a character who has never before been mentioned or had any role in the plot, and is probably yet another reference to KH UX, is absolutely ridiculous. If it wasn’t bad enough that Kairi’s past is going to be left unexplored, a key detail of it - that she was in some way a victim of Xehanort’s experiments before turning up on Destiny Islands - is re-purposed for another character who does not matter to this story.

I would be sorely tempted to modify this material so that the mystery girl who the Ansems discuss actually is Kairi. If this game really is the end to the Xehanort saga, and Kairi’s past is directly tied to Xehanort, it’s the last chance to get into it. But even if the story saw all the cuts I suggest here through, it would still be a very crowded story tasked with paying off a very complicated plot. So unfortunately, if we’re assuming that every other game in the series stays the same as it is, Kairi’s past is still a casualty of poor decisions in those earlier games. The mystery girl material gets cut - completely.

- Chirithy. He’s cute. He’s also not necessary. Cut him.

- Replica Riku. Repliku living inside of Riku, and Riku becoming aware of that, is the closest thing to an arc that Riku has in this game. His character arc, at least as far as the Xehanort saga is concerned, really reached its conclusion in DDD. In KH III, he remains throughout the stoic chief supporting figure to Sora and King Mickey, not counting Donald and Goofy. But I can’t say that I found that a bad role for him, or that I find him being set and constant in who he is to be a bad thing. And Repliku suddenly re-entering the story, in its finale of all times, through truly convoluted and confusing means, was just not worth it to give Riku some small measure of an arc.

- The chess frame. This put a metaphor on to the entire conflict that I didn’t like, and made the whole thing feel much smaller than it should. And, if you cut this, then you also cut...

- Eraqus. Again, the chess frame lessens the story, and Eraqus turning up to talk down Xehanort takes a lot away from the actual protagonists of the story.

Alright, so that’s everything for the chopping block, which already clears out a lot of narrative real estate. So besides what I would’ve left out, what would I have changed? Well...

- Show Kairi’s training. Axel’s too, but Kairi’s the one who’s been a main character from the beginning and started getting built up since the end of II as a Keyblade wielder. And I would have used her training as the tutorial. In the spirit of the prolonged Roxas segment of KH II, a mix of cutscenes, tutorials-as-in-time-gameplay, and tutorials-as-Dives-to-the-Heart would illustrate Kairi’s training, give some context for her thoughts and feelings (which I imagine would be an outgrowth of her expressions of wanting to be part of the adventure from the end of II), and introduce the idea of the Final World. In KH III as it is, it just sort of appears; here, Kairi could find her way there from the Dive to the Heart stained glass, and be confused and a little disturbed by what she finds. At the end of the tutorial, a cutscene could show her summarizing everything for Sora in a letter and actually sending it to him, and we’d cut over to Sora reading the letter (and conveniently, the letter carries over the choices you, the player, made as Kairi about which powers you wanted.)

- Improve Sora’s recovery. Motivating Sora’s reset to Level One by the events of DDD is one of the game’s better notions, but it’s not executed very well. Sora regains most of his abilities, in their basic form at least, within the first level, and the Power of Waking becomes an exercise in repetitive cutscenes until it suddenly needs to start working. I would spread out when Sora regains certain abilities and when he acquires new ones (though he’d get everything within the first World Map), and I would wait to bring the Power of Waking up until much later in the game, so that it isn’t hanging around the plot like an albatross. And he would get Glide some time before the Badlands.

- Multiple parties. The only Final Fantasy game that I’ve played is XIII. I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember that, at various points in the story, you control different characters. That was an ensemble cast; Kingdom Hearts is meant to be centered on Sora, and I wouldn’t make an even division of time spent with other parties. But I would give Riku and Kairi one Disney world each, and Aqua her own level. And the way I would do that is...

- Motivate the Disney worlds. III as-is is easily the worst game in the series for integrating the Disney worlds into the larger plot. This was frustrating as a failure to execute the founding concept of the series, but also because there were plenty of openings for how to integrate the worlds they chose, either through story or through character and thematic ideas. To wit:

Olympus: Admittedly, this one is motivated, by Yen Sid sending Sora off to it to try and regain strength. And, had they preserved the training/tournament angle on this world from previous games, that would have made even more sense. But I like that they went in another direction with Olympus this time, as that was rather played out. So I suppose I wouldn’t change all that much here, other than improving the dialogue, reducing the number of abilities Sora regains, and have Herc’s talk about Meg trigger some recollection of Kairi in Sora. I’d also emphasize a line from the movie: “A life without Meg would be empty.”

Twilight Town: If you cut Roxas from the game, then this world doesn’t really have much point other than the Bistro and the shops. Given that, I’d just as soon replace it with Radiant Garden as the hub world, relocating the Bistro mini-game and the 100 Acre Wood to there. Any exposition that can’t be delivered by Yen Sid, Mickey, or Chip and Dale, can be delivered from Radiant Garden by...Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith. Nomura may have been right when he said that original characters from Kingdom Hearts could take the place of these three as sources of exposition, but the fact is that Sora has more of a relationship with them than he has with the ex-Organizers that displaced them, and their presence would mean that the Final Fantasy elements of this series get some real representation. They wouldn’t have much to do; they would in essence be making cameo appearances, which I’m sure some would find unsatisfying; but those cameos would at least be justified by the story and the setting.

The Toy Box: Here is where Vexen would come into play. Have him back as a non-Norted member of Organization XIII, unrepentant, building replicas for the Xehanorts. He’s the one who put the toys in a split world, as study subjects for building his replicas. He would be the member of Organization XIII appearing in cutscenes to taunt Sora and attempt to pit the toys against each other. And he’s the boss battle in this world. That’s right; you’d actually get to fight a member of the Organization before the Keyblade Graveyard. A cutscene following his defeat could reveal that he’d obtained sufficient data from his research for the replica bodies of the various Xehanorts who need them to be perfected.

Kingdom of Corona: Here’s where the multiple parties come into play. I’d let Kairi be the one to explore this world. Let her have a Gummi ship, and be on her way back to Master Yen Sid’s from training. She can sense that there’s something wrong in the nearby world of Corona, and she and Axel can check it out. Kairi can be the one to relate to Rapunzel’s feelings about setting out into the wide world, she can recognize in Rapunzel the light of a Princess of Heart, and she can realize on her own that the Organization (via Marluxia in this case) is seeking out new princesses, as incentive for the heroes: “fight us like we want, or we go after these innocent people.” (A cutscene from another game where Yen Sid and Mickey discuss why they have to play into Xehanort’s plan wasn’t enough to clarify this point IMO, nor was the idea of “seven new lights” given enough motivation. Kill two birds with one stone here.) Kairi would also take note of Eugene’s sacrifice, and Rapunzel’s revival of him. As for what Axel would be doing here...I suppose he could hang in the background, existential about his second chance at life.

(I would hold off on Riku and Mickey’s sojourn into the Realm of Darkness until here. By mentioning one of the factions peopled with a member of the Destiny Trio but not showing it until the first World Map is complete, you can build a certain amount of suspense, and avoid the problem of Riku and Mickey’s story dragging throughout the first two acts. This would also eliminate their check-in with Yen Sid from the first World Map, and thus eliminate Sora’s check-in at the same time as well, cutting down on repetition.)

Monstropolis: Play up the fact that Vanitas is after negative energy, in particular the screams of children, more. This is one of the few things about KH III that I think could’ve done with a bit more exposition, or more specifically, exposition spaced throughout the level.

Arendelle: I would make Riku and Mickey’s retreat from the darkness a more rushed and hurried affair, so much so that they have no time to make it to Yen Sid’s and end up diving for the first world they can. That world would be Arendelle, and you’d play as Riku. That connection Sora made between Elsa’s treatment of Anna and Riku’s of him and Kairi? Riku’s the one to make that connection, and he actually talks to Elsa about it. And Elsa is your battle partner, at least for the final boss; I would probably structure it so that, after Anna’s sacrifice, the darkness overwhelms Hans, and Elsa joins you in fighting him as Skoll. In the aftermath of that, she can break down crying, revive Anna, happy ending, etc. And Riku and Mickey can deduce the same conclusion that Kairi did about the princesses - Larxene wouldn’t blurt it out. Seeing the sisters and their plight could also re-energize and re-motivate the two of them to head back to the darkness in search of Aqua.

(The cutscene after Arendelle is where I’d probably introduce the Power of Waking. Sora and Kairi would be the ones checking in with Yen Sid, Mickey and Riku heading straight back to the darkness. On the basis of what Sora saw in the Toy Box, he could also ask if it’s possible for Roxas to get a replica body of his own, and Kairi could ask the same about Namine. And Yen Sid could tell them...no. That Roxas and Namine aren’t the same as regular Nobodies, and that they chose to become a part of Sora and Kairi again. And this could have a real impact on Sora and Kairi, as it hits them that not everything can work out the way it should be, that not everyone can get a happy ending in this story at this point. And it could affect Axel by further deepening his ambivalence about his second chance, when his one friend [that he can remember] is lost forever while he lingers on, recompleted but alone.)

The Caribbean: I would re-work the adaptation of At World’s End to include more material concerning Will and Elizabeth, for thematic purposes; I want Sora to make a connection between Will’s death, and his possible future with Kairi. But I would adapt that material, and everything taken from the film, more freely than the game did as-is. I’d also cut the Kraken as a boss, and instead have Davy Jones be the opener to a Heartless-possessed Endeavor as the final boss. And instead of teasing the Black Box concept, I’d have Luxord trying to recruit Davy Jones as a Xehanort host. Jones is already a being without a heart who can walk and talk and function the way the Organizers can; why not make that connection? Jones would refuse, of course, and Luxord’s desire for the chest is to gain leverage on Jones to comply. When that whole plan fails, he sends the Endeavor against Sora and the others. And, by the end of the level, you could have a cutscene where Luxord makes his apologies to a hooded, shrouded Master Xehanort (tease him before the final level without seeing him outright), who assures him that they’ve been able to find another thirteenth.

San Fransokyo: This one is tough for me, because the further away I get from the game, the more this world baffles me with the sudden appearance of Dark Riku and all the blather about hearts and data. I suppose I’d just try to simplify things down to simple taunting; instead of talking about data, Dark Riku (revealed as the thirteenth just set up in the previous world) just wants to prove something to Sora about pain and loss, which would let that reviewer’s perceived theme about what makes a heart whole come into play.

- Overhaul on the Anti-Aqua fight. I would not have had Aqua or Ansem appear before this point in the game. Riku and Mickey’s encounter with Anti-Aqua can be her first appearance, and it can be preceded by an encounter with Ansem the Wise, warning them to turn back. When Aqua fell to the darkness is thus left as something that happened at an indeterminate time between the KH 0.2 and now, not something that arbitrarily happens right after we see her just as she normally is. Sora can still rush in to save the day, but I would change that fight so that it’s Sora and Riku together who combat Aqua, and Riku who first greets her when she awakens. Ansem would be saved from the darkness too, and take his place back at Radiant Garden, mingling with the FF characters, Merlin, and Uncle Scrooge and Little Chef.

- Yensid warns Sora. After the rescue of Ventus and the big group conference, have Yen Sid hold Sora back and explain the consequences of misusing the Power of Waking, a bit more clearly than Xehanort did in the game as-is.

- No Saix talk. In the whole “respite” sequence, I would do without Saix and Axel meeting up. If Roxas and Xion, and Subject X, aren’t here, most of that material would be rendered meaningless anyway. Instead, I would have Riku and Axel talk about being lost to darkness and about second chances. Riku would be at peace with where he’s ended up; Axel would be more ambivalent.

I would also have Riku talk to Sora and Kairi, briefly, before leaving them alone to have their moment with the paopu fruit.

- Revisiting Worlds options. From this point on, when you revisit worlds, you can choose which party you visit them as: Sora, Donald and Goofy; Riku and Mickey; Kairi and Axel; or Aqua and Ven (and later Terra.) If you visit a world as a party that didn’t visit that world, the characters there will drop some line of dialogue like “friend of Sora’s, huh? You’re welcome here.”

- Toggling against the swarm. Instead of having the group all split up, everyone takes part in fighting the massive swarm that meets them when they first land in the Badlands, and you would toggle between parties. You’d start out fighting as Sora with Donald and Goofy; at a certain point in the fight, you’d throw over to Riku and Mickey. At another point, you’d toss to Aqua and Ven, then to Kairi and Axel, finishing back with Sora to use that awesome train attack.

- Maze first, then death. A wholesale rewrite of the events surrounding the battles in this section of the game, basically. The swarm that you just finished battling as all the different parties is replaced by another swarm, of multiple Demon Towers; they just won’t stop coming. Here is where Yen Sid appears to hold them at bay, and where Donald and Goofy stay behind to help as the Keybalde wielders press on.

Our heroes are greeted by Organization XIII, who immediately raise the maze and separate the seven into smaller groups. You, the player, would jump around to each one. I would do this to give individual heroes a bit more agency in resolving their personal stories before moving on to the final resolution. Riku would defeat Dark Riku on his own; you could fight as Ven against Vanitas, and as Aqua as she (and Ven) succeed in awakening Terra (a moment in the fight triggers the Lingering Will to suddenly appear, instead of having Terra inside the Heartless); Sora could join up with Mickey to take out Luxord; and Kairi and Axel could handle Marluxia, Larxene, and Saix. (Yes, I changed the arrangements of bosses. It doesn’t matter all that much. And outside maybe Luxord and Saix, no faux-pathos at their deaths.)

The casualties would begin in the maze. I might have Ven and Vanitas both fall, after Terra is restored, so Ven can point out that he kept his promise before fading. Axel and Saix could go down together (and I admit that’s recycling Axel dying a noble death; I don’t know what else to do with the guy.) Just to play up Xigbar’s sliminess, he could snipe Mickey as the survivors make their way through the maze, and Aqua and Terra could stay behind to fight him, giving you a turn to play as Terra; the cutscene at the end could show Terra and Aqua wounded, unable to go on. And the very next cutscene could cut back to the Disney characters holding back the swarm. Here is where Donald can use his Zetta Flare, with a much clearer need for that drastic spell on-hand to motivate it. Sora can sense Donald’s fall, and the others, as he presses on, so that he’s already angry and distressed when he, Riku, and Kairi face the three Xehanorts together. And unlike with the other Organizers, you need to beat all three before the cutscene triggers.

Said cutscene would have all the combatants exhausted as Master Xehanort declares that he has his twelve keys and just needs the one more. The heroes can declare that they won’t give him his thirteenth clash; I might give the lines for this to Riku, the one of the group who had fallen into Xehanort’s schemes in the biggest way before. But Master Xehanort jumps in to land a blow against Riku, making for the thirteenth clash with darkness. That creates the X-Blade, and Master Xehanort uses it to summon the Demon Tornado and sweep everyone left away before he turns to Kingdom Hearts. But in this case, it’s Kairi who tells Sora not to give up and is the second-to-last to get swallowed.

- Play as Kairi in the Final World. If Kairi’s supposed to escape falling into darkness, and if she’s meant to be the one holding Sora to life, go ahead and run with that. This would pay off her discovering the Final World during the tutorial earlier. She (via inference and text boxes explaining things instead of a random cat creature) collects the various pieces of Sora, depositing them in his translucent body. Two of those pieces can be Roxas and Xion (I told you I’d work her in somewhere). Kairi and Sora, and even Roxas, wouldn’t know who Xion is, but she could trigger something within Kairi that allows a telepathic conversation with Namine that gets into questions about hard choices and the greater good - something Kairi hasn’t yet had to deal with, but Namine, a part of her, and Xion, built out of memories of her, have.

Once Sora is fully restored, he becomes the player character again, but it’s Kairi who comes with him to rescue the others, not Jiminy Cricket. She’s your battle partner as you make your way through the worlds saving everyone. Master Xehanort (not the Young version) can still turn up to give Sora another warning about the Power of Waking - and Kairi takes that to heart, more than Sora does. The sacrifices and deaths from the Disney worlds come back to mind, just as they did in the game; only this time, Sora and Kairi have both made the connection prior to this point, and this is just brings it back to mind.

- One battle, two trios. When time resets, it’s after the X-Blade has been formed. Sora turns the time power against Xehanort, and he, Riku, and Kairi follow him while the others hold shut Kingdom Hearts. In the course of this battle, there can be a moment that triggers a cutscene where Riku is severely injured and blasted through the portal back to the outside world. Caught off-guard, Sora is about to be struck down, but Kairi takes the hit. (As I said, I don’t object to the death itself; it’s the execution. This would let Kairi have a chance to shine as a character, throughout the game and in the boss battles, and would tie in more directly to the thematic threads in the chosen Disney worlds and pay off the conversation just held with Namine.) Sora hits a point of despair here, but Donald and Goofy join him for the final stretch (an injured Riku could have enough strength to return to Scala ad Caelum and bring the two of them with him.) And there is no bullshit last-minute redemption for Master Xehanort; he gets wiped out.

- SHOW. SORA’S. FATE. The single biggest flaw in the game as-is, and the one that would most need to get fixed. Have Sora go back to the final world, find Kairi, and have a scene between them. I would have Kairi not want Sora to use the Power of Waking to save her; she would point out its risks to him, and that she made a choice to keep him safe (see that callback there?) In response, Sora would bring up Herc’s line about an empty life. Kairi would be in the same boat, so they’d both be at a standstill. In the end, Sora persuades her by quoting her; that he trusts her to believe that he won’t fade away, and that she’ll keep him safe, even in this. So, as he readies the Power of Waking, the final cutscene is triggered, and you can have that final shot of Sora and Kairi holding hands as he fades away - only now, it’s motivated. And you have not just a bittersweet ending, but a hook into a future game that would be nearly impossible to write Kairi out of.

- Xigbar =/= Luxu. You want an epilogue and a secret movie? Fine. But don’t pull this shit.

And there you have it. Would this be a big improvement on the game we got? Yes, if I do say so myself. Would it be good? I don’t know. Since it assumes everything else in the series stays put, we’re still left with a lot of the problems that III was saddled with, not the least of them being too many characters even with the cuts I made. There’s no clear way that I can see to give everyone a meaningful payoff. But it’s what I’ve got, and it at least keeps the original threesome all prominent and sends Sora off with more grace.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #critique #headcanon #alternate #z's crits

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