#but it cuts to like namine then the sea salt trio then ven and terra

[cinnabeat]

some people get majorly confused by some things kh does and its like have you never heard of visual storytelling? do you not understand drama? symbolism???

[lynxgriffin]

Led Zeppelin was right all along

It’s my FINAL PIECE of KH3 commentary! That’s right, I’ve finished the game! Commentary for me finishing it is under the cut!

Okay guys, this is it

It’s time to finish this sucker

It’s time for all of my feelings to get curbstomped and then cracked in half over a knee

Turns out I’ve caught a cold so this might be tougher to do

But I’m still going to do it

AWAY. WE. GOOOOO

And after beating this gummi boss again…

Ahhh there he is at last

The old fart

…So weird that it’s not Leonard Nimoy though

Xehanort: Let’s just try out this whole apocalypse thing and see how it goes

It’s rainin’ Heartless, hallelujah

LMAO there isn’t even an enemy counter, it’s just:

ENEMIES. YES, ALL OF THEM. ALL THE TIME. FOREVER

And I just blew up ten million Heartless with a train, THIS IS THE SHINIEST APOCALYPSE EVER

Ohh, once again, hate that tunnel

IT’S A TRAP

At least Aqua didn’t fall for that

Oh dang he’s got No Name there

NOOOO SUNSHINE BOY

Oh well now that’s cheating

FUKYEAH GOOFY

Donald’s fukkin pissed

Did Donald just Megaflare this bitch

ArE yoU kiDDinG mE

Oh great, one of you again

Aqua: Never mind, that is way damn too many Heartless

HE SCREAM, AGAIN

SORA PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER WE’RE STILL EARLY IN FINAL BATTLE MODE

Well that was five different layers of OH SHIT

Oh hey back at that chess metaphor HI AGAIN YOUNG ERAQUS

Wait the hell kind of chess move was that

MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE SALT FLATS

ThE FINAL WORLD, HUH

Chirithy!!!!

Chirithy: So yeah you’ve kinda died a couple times previously just by being unconscious a lot

Sora: YEAH WELL time to get back to life

Sora: THERE’S PUZZLES IN HEAVEN, TOO??

THERE’S PUZZLES IN HEAVEN YUP, BETTER GET TO THAT

Ohhhh no the sparkly stars are KHUX Keykids, aren’t they :(((

Ugh it’s the little star soul stories that are getting to me :(

Sora bein’ a pal even to all the souls in heaven, gosh darn

OH SURE JUST KEEP THAT FROM THE AUDIENCE

OMG this soul is longing for his kismesis, what a nerd

“What a weird place” YEAH NO SHIT

Well it’s nice to see THESE Soras are having a great time

Perhaps this game was taking the idea of Sorabits a tad too literally

Also actually two quick questions here:

1) Why is Chirithy in heaven?

2) Sora were you instagramming from heaven??

Sora: So heaven’s been a trip and all but I’ve still got endgame to do, STAY COOL FUZZY FRIEND

Wait a bloop it sent him back in time too??

Insert 2001 Space Odyssey reference here

Oh now we’re in DIFFERENT heaven??

Okay yeah now I have no clue where we’re going from here

Man here I was expecting to fight all the Norts and instead it’s…Heartless…Grim Reaper

I’m starting to suspect this is not the real Jiminy

This is kind of a weird callback to KH1, innit

Yeah I was just wondering that myself

Oh hey Youngnort

See? Grim Reaper Heartless, I knew it

I gotta say that after Sora dying and going to KH heaven this is…kinda weirder coming afterwards

I’m kind of worried about where this is going

This is like Three Days of the Condor, I TRUST NO ONE

WE FINALLY GOT A TITLE CRAWL???

WHELP. ROUND TWO, I GUESS

Guys, let’s…let’s not do this again

You ever get a sense of deja vu

OHOHOHOOOOO THIS IS DIFFERENT

“WHO ARE YOU??” “I’M YOU BUT STRONGER”

Terra: I’ll kick every ass! I’ll kick your ass! I’LL KICK MY OWN ASS

Gad damn the bullshit never stops around here, does it

We’ve done this before but I DUN CARE since this is my favorite boss battle music

Meanwhile the Unreal Engine’s just huffing and puffing trying to keep up

:O!!! EPHEMER!!

WHATRE U DOIN IN A HEARTLESS TORNADO

And all the dead Keykids came to help!

Ohhhhhh myyyyyyyyy goooooooooooosh

HAHA SO THAT’S HOW THEY INTEGRATED THOSE PEOPLE THAT WON THE THING

Congrats Keykids, U ARE ATTACKS

That’s…that’s really sweet actually

That’s a whole lot of Unicornis and Vulpes in there

OMG I was so busy watching those names I didn’t even realize I was supposed to avoid dying

FINALLY CURAGA???

I dunno Lea that was already a pretty big bad

Aw darn they Norted Repliku

Or wait no Pastku?

Pastku you’re such a little shit

Lea: That wasn’t blundering! That was failing, WITH STYLE

HE LOOM

Unreal Engine: Please…help…I’m dying Squirtle

Oh hey FINALLY super powerful magic users like Yen Sid get involved!

And Moses parted the Heartless Sea

And hey finally got Starlight!

Well ain’t this a familiar setup

I miss Leonard Nimoy :(

Well I’m glad we get to save and shop before we all die horribly!

….Wait haven’t we all already died horribly??

FINALLY We get to fight some Norts!!

Took out Xigbar first

Yeah Xigbar I’m really not sure all that hoohah was worth it

Are we gonna do this for each one or do we have to pick and choose?

Oh well that takes care of Pastku so maybe not

SKIRT RIKU VS SKIRT RIKU

Oh that’s creepy actually

OH NO! Repliku :(((

Sora…you just gonna leave that…okay

So now we got some Neophytes to deal with

Well I was gonna go after Mar first but I guess Luxord is our opponent now

AW DAMN I hated this part from before!

Oh wait that wasn’t hard at all you just look behind those stupid cards

Luxord: Well it’s been fun, time to die

Why does everyone’s teeth look blue??

Really liking all these remixes of the old boss themes tho

Aaaaand down goes Mar

And what’s nice is partners have mostly worn down the last Nort present!

Larx is an asshole to the very end

Door puzzles ohhhh nooooooo

Well thank goodness we worked out that nonsense

Who to help first? REDHEAD SQUAD

If that’s Xion I’m going to be SO UPSET

At least we get to fight WITH Kairi even if not as her

Lea is SO ANGER

Ohhhhh BUUUUUURN

Oh well that ain’t good

XION NOOOOOOOOOO

Absolutely not, Xemnas!!

*throws hands in the air* OHHHHHHHH

HE KNOWS

Oh fuck you Xemnas HDU

Ohhhhh sheeeeeeet

THE BOY IS BACK

JUST STAB ME IN THE HEART WITH THE OTHER PROMISE, OKAY

Called out by Roxas daaaayum

Gah dammit not again! STOP DOING KAIRI DIRTY

GET READY FOR: TRIPLE KEYKIDS ASSKICKIN

Hot damn but it’s satisfying to beat the crap out of Saix with Sora, Roxas and Xion all at once while The Other Promise just blasts in the background

Lea: I’m not mad I’m just disappointed

Awww maaaaaan

OH GOSH SEASALT TRIO HUG

THEY’RE ALL TOGETHER AGAIN SOB SOB

Now to the Wayfinder family! Took out Vanyeetas first!

Sora: Hey WTF that’s my face you got

Yeah I gotta agree I don’t know which part of that was okay honestly

WHELP no time to think on it gotta take out Terranort

Since we got back Roxas and Xion can we finally get Terra back??

Sora: TERRA PLEASE STOP, IT’S TOO WEIRD

OHHHHHHH!! OH OH OH

That was metal as all hell

YAAAAAAY

WAYFINDER FAMILY IS HERE

Ohhhh gooooosh

Everyone’s together and I’m full of rainbows

MAN so we got…three Norts left, don’t we

Guess the only way out of this is up

What we’ve just been cloning No Name the whole time??

Okay, FOUR left, we gotta deal with Ansem, Xemnas and Youngnort first

Oh sheesh that was Youngnort dying, thought it was me for a second

Youngnort: Just one last piece of cryptic bullshit to leave you with! BYYYYEEEE

Aaaand that’s Ansem down

Ansem: Must…pontificate more…before…I die

Haha took out Xemnas with flying rocket punch nanobots

Xemnas: Regrets…I’ve had a few…

But then again, too few to mention?

Sora: Life is pain, Xemnas! Anyone who says otherwise is Norting you

Oh boy oh boy, all we have left now is…the old fart…

Oh this is gonna piss me off good, ain’t it

YUP, I’M PISSED

YOU DONE HER DIRTY AGAIN

Nomura do we need to sit you down as a group and learn you some things about NOT DOING THAT

That was…kind of a cool moment I guess?? BUT I’M STILL MAD

Oh shitcakes

The world to come is death from above I guess

Donald and Goofy just coming in like “Hey…what’d we miss?”

I’m honestly really glad they’re here tho, TRINITY ALLLLL THE WAY

The whole gang here together again IRONING OUT THE PLOT POINTS

Trophy here???

OH HEY WE’RE BACK HERE

A town of nothing but Norts

OH I forgot THESE WEIRDOS were in trailers somehow

The hell is happening anymore

An Organization so nice we fought ‘em twice!

The scary music is playing but I have no clue where to goooo

Well it took me five minutes just to find the dang guys before Thundaga finished them off

Oh really now!

ONE MORE TITLE CRAWL FOR Y’ALL

HE WAS AN ANGRY GOAT WHO SAW THE MOVIE INCEPTION ALL ALONG

SHEESH that was a nutty battle that took awhile

Well I think I won THAT battle anyway

Is this gonna be a THAT WASN’T EVEN MY FINAL FORM or what

More callbacks!

This is the fight that never eeeeends, yes it goes on and on my frieeeends

OH that was fuckin weird but COOL

I LOVE THE TRINITY

EVERYONE ELSE AGAIN TOO

HAHA OH DAMN

EVEN ERAQUS GETS TO REAPPEAR

Yaaay my favorite terrible dad

That look from Eraqus OMG

Babbeh Eraqus so cute

Now YOU get the goofy apocalypse weapon, Sora!

More dad reconciliations sob

Oh gosh I’m so glad we get this before we end

ohhhh noooo

Oh no you know shit’s serious when you enter a blocked scene

DOES EVERYONE FINALLY GET TO GO HOME NOW

Man everything’s just so shiny now

A CHIRITHY FOUND A VEN

NEW OUTFITS FOR SEASALT GANG FINALLY

THE EXPANDED SEASALT GANG

YAAAY NAMINE BACK

LET HER LIVE HER LIFE NOW

MOTHAFOCKIN BEACH PARTY FOR EVERYONE YES

FOR REALLY EVERYONE FOR REAL??

Also dang sing us out Utada

*points and points* THAT? FINAL SHOT???

WHERE’S THE BOY

What did you do to my son Nomura

LOOK IF YOU’RE GONNA POP HIM OUT LIKE THAT I AT LEAST WANT TO BE VALIDATED FOR MY THEORIES

THE CREDITS ARE ROLLING AND THERE’S STILL THINGS I FEEL LIKE I’M MISSING

Also just interjecting here but damn that endgame was so long IT FELT LIKE A WHOLE ‘NOTHER GAME

And now the pretty march music with the Super Longer Credits—I CAN’T BELIEVE DRAKE BELL WAS YOUNG ERAQUS

*points* WHY IS FURRY SQUAD VOICED HERE??

Well if nothing else gonna get me a kickass OST out of this

HERE we go, post credits stuff

Here’s the Furry Squad!

LUXU WAS XIGBAR WELL OKAY

What fresh bullshit is thiiiiiiis

OH HEY WE’D ALMOST FORGOTTEN ABOUT THEM

Hey where is Ava

Oh fuuuuuck yoooou Luxugbar

Whaaaaaaaat

THE BOY

SHIBUYA????????????

*throws hands in the air* I GOT NOTHIN FOLKS

I GOT ABSOLUTELY NOTHIN

THE END PAGE!!!! SURE AS HELL IS WHAT THAT IS

OKAY SO LIKE

PLEASE, HELP ME OUT HERE, SECRET ENDING

IS THE NEXT GAME JUST GONNA STRAIGHT UP BE VERUM REX?

NOPE THERE IS NOTHING MORE THAT’S JUST IT

WELL THAT WAS

A WHOLE DAMN LOT WASN’T IT

Nomura I am in fact going to die and go to your house and haunt it and push all of your things off shelves like a cat

ALL OF THE THINGS

OFF OF. YOUR SHELVES.

Okay so overall I did really enjoy the game but also I’m just ????

?????????

??????

Like my reaction is pretty much just

LATER NERDS THIS HAS BEEN LYNX SUFFERS THROUGH KINGDOM HEARTS 3

I HOPE YOU HAD FUN CAUSE I DID

I think I’m gonna go lie down now

[nobodies-png]

tbh i think square/disney really wanted the organization to be bad™ and irredeemable™ but they shot themself in the foot after they sprinkled in the various moments where its established that the individuals of the org arent inherently evil. which means that them having ienzo be a child originally makes it strange to have such malicious hate aimed at him in the same series where characters are expected to grow and learn and sympathize. but idk lol

h o n e s t l y ? y E Ah

im taking this chance to ramble under the cut , wh e e z e. Warning for KH3 spoilers and Mod Demyx rant rant

in my humble ass opinion, it really just feels like Nomura had a bunch of cool ideas in general, but then the train went rogue and they started adding a shit ton of plot twists (that they’d later have to explain and make relevant to the main plot) for the sake of continuing the saga and milking more money bc KH was part of so many people’s childhoods

like, it’s one of my fave games and sagas ever but to be honest, i’d love for some other company to fucking remake the entire plot without the pretense of “we gotta be kid friendly bc Disney is here uwu”. Like, you can’t really be dramatic and make any important events when every character is just gonna come back, only killing off those that you don’t know how to continue.

and it’s such a weird fucking ? amalgamation of stuff too ? not even the fact that we’re mixing talking animals,disney princesses and final fantasy shit into it, but like - sometimes it shows scenes that are too dark for Disney and sometimes it just skims over shit that it should have some proper closure because o h it’s too dark for a kid’s game. And then even deeper shit is hinted in the novels and manga bUT TYING BACK TO MY PREVIOUS ANSWERED POST, YOU CAN’T EXPAND ON LORE TO MAKE YOUR CREATION MORE STABLE LIKE THIS - IF YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN OR EXPAND UPON SOMETHING, HAVE B A L L S AND DO IT IN THE GAME, WHICH IS THE MAIN FOCUS 

Like, in KH3 they wanted everyone to get redeemed and “close off a chapter of this story” but honestly ? it was fucking rushed and done in a pretty shitty way, in my opinion. 

Ienzo just shows up wanting to help and there’s no repercussions to his actions as a nobody, he’s just like “uwu hi” and everyone’s too caught up in Sora having a phone to even care that this was one of the guys that gave them h e l l in Castle Oblivion. Same with the other apprentices, Aeleus and Dilan get no spoken lines, just a line explaining how they also wanted to be better tossed in all carelessly. That’s their redemption. 

And don’t get me wrong, I fucking adore Zexion/Ienzo, he was my crush as a kid, but ? he’s just used to show that Nobodies can be chill and they’ve been all controlled by a bigger evil, as well as part of Ansem’s own redeeming arc instead of having his O W N redeeming arc. He’s virtually useless despite all the protagonism they gave him in KH3, cause sure he calls Sora to let him know shit and he’s supposedly “working on Big Stuff for the Good Guys(tm)”, but all of this work and character development happens off-screen. Same with Vexen/Even - and he at least gets like two scenes showing that he actively works in the shadows to redeem himself. 

And I know it’s hard to make a game and they’ve been at it for a long fucking time and it requires a lot of shit but ? ? ? hONESTLY I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU ALL BUT I PREFER TO GET A SOLID CLOSURE ON THE MAIN SHIT  AND THEN MAYBE GET MORE CLOSURE FOR LESS BUT STILL IMPORTANT GROUPS IN OTHER GAMES OR REMIXES SINCE THEYRE SUPER KEEN ON MAKING A SHIT TON OF SPIN-OFFS AND STUFF. LIKE, THAT SEEMS BETTER THAN HAVING A LOT OF SMALLER PLOTS JUST SPRINKLED THERE LIKE “WHOOPS AND THEY WERE ALL HAPPY AGAIN” 

cAUSE THEY DON’T EVEN STOP THERE. THEY TRY TO CLOSE A LOT OF SHIT, BUT THEN ADD A LOT OF VAGUE CRYPTIC SHIT FOR THE UPCOMING GAMES AND STORIES ? ? ? 

like I love the final battle part a lot because it’s ? ? ? so fucking badass and it’s the end of all this journey we’ve been on, it’s Sora vs Xenahort, it’s the light vs the darkness, it’s Master Eraqus’ legacy vs Xenahort’s army. 

but it’s just an easy cheap way to close off so much shit in a short time.

the sea salt trio ? reunited. the wayfinder trio ? reunited. the remaining Nobodies who still have no fucking backstories ? gone with a hint of “we’ll be back as good guys”. Like, they added fucking Ephemera as the “light from the past”, inviting the connection between the current timeline with KHux bUT THERE’S STILL NOTHING ON LAURIAM/MARLUXIA. AND THEN THERE’S A FUCKING CUTSCENE OF VENTUS HUGGING A FUCKING CHIRITHY LIKE, YOURE NOT EXPLAINING NOR HELPING ANYONE, NOMURA.

LIKE THE SECRET CUTSCENE IMPLIES 2 THINGS : NEW CHARACTERS (FROM RIKU’S POINT OF VIEW, SINCE HE’S WATCHED BY YOZORA) AND THE COME BACK OF THE TWEWY FRANCHISE WHOSE INVOLVEMENT HAD BEEN COMPLETELY IGNORED AND JUST ABANDONED SINCE DDD. SURE, DREAM EATERS WERE HELLA IMPORTANT AND THERE’S SLEEPING WORDS THERE. AND THERE’S IMPORTANT SHIT GOING ON WITH VANITAS AND THE UNVERSED. BUT ALL WE GOT WAS A DREAM EATER SUMMONING, LIKE 5 UNVERSED ENEMIES AND MORE UNNECESSARY CONFUSION

Like I get it that KH3 was supposed to be the ending of some things and the beginning of other new things and I get that there were a lot of setbacks and things involved, but even with it’s amazing graphics and fun gameplay, it’s still another trainwreck regarding plot. But we all just keep eating it up because we’re desperate to know how it ends and bc childhood nostalgia keeps us here at gunpoint

also i’m mad that out of all KH girls, only Aqua got her time to shine. Like sure, you can argue and say that Kairi took the spotlight after saving Sora again and being a good 70% of Sora’s strength, but as usual she was thrown back into her spot as “princess in distress”, with her training and character development happening off-screen in a place that conveniently has no effect to the current events. And speaking of training, she just immediately becomes besties with Axel despite all the shit they went through with him trying to kidnap her and whatnot. And sPEAKING OF AXEL, HE GOT WAY MORE DEVELOPMENT THAN ROXAS OR XION OR KAIRI OR AQUA HERSELF

AND THAT’S SAYING SOMETHING CAUSE AQUA GOES THROUGH A LOT OF SHIT IN THIS GAME - She finally succumbs to darkness, she goes out of it, she saves Ven, reunites with Terra and after sO MANY FUCKING YEARS, she’s back on the realm of light. And that moment when she asks where they are and they tell her she’s back home and she raises her head to look at the sun and she cries ? ? that made me S H I V E R and TEAR UP MYSELF - but still, after all of that she goes to pretty much doing nothing while Axel here goes through a keyblade training, seeing Kairi as Xion, making ammends with his best friend, reuniting with his two adopted kids after so much shit and hinting anOTHER SUBPLOT WITH HIM, ISA AND A “SECRET GIRL” FRIEND THEY HAD.

BUT FROM XION WE ONLY GET THE PLOT CONVENIENT COMEBACK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE SO SHE CAN REUNITE WITH HER FRIENDS. A BIT OF INNER ANGST HERE AND THERE AND BOOM IT’S OVER SHE’S HAPPY NOW. 

AND NAMINE ? DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED. SHE’S GONE FOR SO LONG, ONLY SHOWING UP AS A STAR, MENTIONED OFF HAND BY KAIRI AND THEN SHE FINALLY GETS HER DESERVED LIFE IN THE ENDING CUTSCENE WHEN RIKU COMES TO PICK HER ASS UP. (im also mad that everyone got a happy/bittersweet ending except Vanitas and Repliku but that’s just me being sad aBOUT MY SONS)

sO LONG STORY SHORT :

I hate that this entire saga is a wreck but it still has me grabbed by the balls. Like I bought the KH special edition PS4 just to play when KH3 came out

[tester10001000]

How KH3 could have gone and still been Nomura’s:

I’ve never posted on tumblr before, might never again, but I needed to get this out; for the sake of the catharsis I didn’t receive after 16 years with the end of KH3. The game itself was fine, in fact, I’d even rate it as a ‘great’ up until the Keyblade Graveyard. That’s when things go off the rails. So let’s rethink KH3, keeping all of Nomura’s plot points and intentions, but communicating them in a way that feels, I hope, much more rightful. I hope you enjoy this! First, the good and mostly-good. -Keep Gameplay as is—very nice. Very satisfying. Keep nice world set-up and secrets. Maybe ratchet up difficulty. Make a Coliseum in Zeus’ court to round off the whole thing as a triad. Have Yoko Shimomura write the soundtrack for real life, plz. Keep the lovely humor. Keep Sora’s excellent arc. Keep most worlds as-is: I was pleasantly surprised by how relevant and well-done most of the world’s plots were. -Cut back on the ridiculous amount of minigames that like 5% of people will be invested in and use those resources to make other improvements (like these?).-Rewrite Arendelle and Corona (and maybe Pirates?) to be unique stories–or, at least, only loosely based on the movies, while actually including important plot points. Have Pixar do it, because they kicked butt with their worlds. Include more Disney-bosses and either get rid of 100-Hundred Acre Wood, or do something more with it. -Don’t give Larxene and Marluxia magic cutscene powers like sleep and time-stopping they won’t use elsewhere. Don’t let the others, like Ansem SoD in TT or Luxord in Caribean, became decayed and cheesy versions of their prior threat. Get rid of, or explain better, why there are six new Princesses+Kairi. Explain “the Power of Waking” just a bit better. -Give us scenes between every world with more meaningful stuff re:Kairi and Riku. We haven’t really known them in awhile, so we need to be reacquainted. Have Riku actually do stuff—rather than constantly fail until Sora literally falls from the sky—like, expand on Repliku return? Or involve him in the Maleficent angle, because of his obvious and interesting connection? Maybe follow her around out of suspicion, making the Maleficent stuff feel less-tacked-on?   -Have Kairi do more stuff, with more scenes expanding on her (like that lovely scene where she talks about Namine!), rather than just how Axel sees her as Xion (but still keep that, too—hence, more scenes!) -Insert a mid-climax between Corona and Monstropolis, with a return to Radiant Garden. Seriously needed to unbloat the climax and evenly redistribute the story. You could do some of this: 1. Meet the FF peeps and conclude their plot with RG’s redemption (How cool would be to hear Leon finally say “you can call me Squall”?); see how everyone is doing and how they interact with the people like Ienzo and the apprentices who caused RG to fall. We could setup the replica/sea-salt trio better here (Roxas body/who and how Xion/further Axel redemption), even though it’s probably the best thread currently, behind SDG. The FF folks were foundational to the start, they should at least be acknowledged in the end. 2. Give. Us. Sephiroth version 3.0. and resolution to that thread. 3. Have some seriously needed interaction among the Destiny Trio—(A) as individuals (sorely needed for Riku and Kairi–have her interact with her forgotten home!), (B) as a united friendship (Kairi/Riku, plz!) and © to set up the SoKai stuff better. Like, for real, we need to be able to take selfies with them—seriously, how could we have the phone and NEVER have a change to selfie with our OG friends?!) 4. Save Aqua here (don’t make her passively suck suddenly with OOC decisions) and then Ven; cement their return and relationships to everyone else (so as to stop rushing the finale and let their moment have its own power—just say they need to “rest” till the climax). 5. Tell wtf happens with Demyx. Set up Vexen/Ansem stuff better. Nomura, you could even tease Subject X girl more. C’mon. Have a tease-fight with the Org, rather than saving it all for the end.

6. It would probably be too much to ask to have Kairi and/or Riku accompany Sora the rest of the way, though it would be dearly needed. So have them do something interesting and important with their time post-RG. Make RG/HB the hub world, returning to it for various stuff. Play up Repliku, Namine, and Roxas/Xion in their hearts so we feel more invested in their persons and, thus, more catharsis when they are retrieved. -Expand on the lovely “calm before the storm” moments for our heroes—especially the Destiny Trio. Have the paopu moment, but don’t rush it so much. Have Riku, Sora, and Kairi doing something together. Have Axel engaging with someone about Xion/Roxas—along with the good Isa stuff. Show us what Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are doing -together-. -At Keyblade Graveyard opening, don’t make everyone suddenly suck. Why is Aqua not reacting -at all- to Terranort killing Ventus? What was the point of Kairi’s “infinite time training” if she just stands there so Sora can, also, not draw his Keyblade? Why are Riku and Mickey just twiddling their thumbs? Have everyone be badass, but still get beaten—then do all the interesting Final World stuff, with Riku’s words keeping Sora encouraged in death while SHOWING Kairi, as a PoH, still in the Realm of Light, somewhere in the tornado, ACTIVELY WORKING to keep Sora’s hanging on in the FW, rather than including her passively after. Or show her doing something beforehand. Just show some damn agency and the profound bonds of the Destiny Trio.

-Make the Namine scene here mandatory—I can’t fathom why they’d let that crucial plot point pass as optional.

-Keep sick final-boss rush, but don’t make everyone take a heel-turn redemption (and give us some team-up limits with everyone! Riku/Sora limit! Sora/Kairi limit! Sora/Roxas limit! SoRiKai Limit!). Marluxia and Xemnas needed to be more ambiguous in death. Luxord, Larxene, Xion, Vanitas, YX, Terranort, Xigbar, and Repliku were all great—even perfect. Saix needed to prove himself more, and there’s NO WAY Ansem SoD can suddenly be sympathetic like that. Slow it down. -Give the Xion-return moment to Kairi—not Sora. It’s perfect for her; she’d remember her because she is made of her. Gives Kairi agency and unique engagement for the both of them. Keep giving other characters agency in these moments other than Sora—let Aqua and Ven play centerstage in returning Terra, rather than Sora’s magic. Don’t make Sora the savior of every story—it feels cheap and demeans the character journeys we’ve been invested in for so long when they don’t play an active and significant role in their resolution. -Don’t have Kairi just be kidnapped again after 30-seconds of scripted fighting, after promising to -finally- invest in her immensely untapped potential. Have Saix (+Xemnas?) versus Sora, Xion, Roxas, Kairi, and Axel (also, explain how Axel got his keyblade -back-). Axel, even though he couldn’t face Xemnas, still has -powerful- character moments—at least give Kairi the same respect. Make that the last scripted battle, so that Kairi accompanies Sora to meet Mickey and Riku. -Either have Kairi use her infinite-training to join the fight with Xemnas, Ansem, and YX (to resonate that the whole Destiny Trio is together at the end, evolved, but together) or have her doing something else important (maybe with, I dunno, PoH POWERS?!). Have her ACTIVELY sacrifice herself for Sora, mirroring what he did for her in KH1, rather than MX passively killing her for no good goddamn reason while snarking at the camera that Kairi exists literally only for Sora’s motivation—even though Sora was already charging MX. Also show Riku have some damn emotion about his other best-friend. Sorry, I’m reaallly salty here. -Don’t have MX give up so easily, and get his motivation to work better with what came before in all these years. Don’t swap it out to something else in literally the last 30 minutes of the game. Don’t let the story treat flippantly him being the cause of everyone’s pain and suffering , as he is given a divine “thumbs-up” by turning into a kid with his best bud, giggling, and floating away into the light of Kingdom Hearts. What was that? Xehanort deserves better than that. Have him struggle to the end, and have our heroes really counter him—thematically, emotionally, and physically. Have Eraqus usher him away—stubborn to the end. If you want to redeem him, Nomura, you gotta be setting that stuff up WAAAAAY earlier. -Have anyone, anyone, other than Sora also care that Kairi is now missing. Have Riku and Sora go together to find her—because, you know, they’re BFFs and have the power to. Preferably explain and make it playable how they do that. Then have the lovely ending with Namine returning and with everyone together (except redeem Isa better). Keep everyone’s great new clothes, and have the whole party on the beach—end happily, with everyone (seemingly) together again in satisfied bliss. Wrap up the saga on a cathartic high note, for goodness’ sake. Then, and only then, Nomura gets to keep his ending—but in its proper place, separate in our minds from the ending-ending, in which we can feel full satisfaction for 16 years of investment. -In the Epilogue, before going to the Foretellers, show Sora, Kairi, and Riku leaving the Island. Riku and Kairi are on ahead, everything seems happy and complete (joking about Sora finally getting his mom’s dinner, eh?), when suddenly Sora hears the echo of YX telling him that “there’s a cost for it all” and that “it’s too late for him”—suddenly, Sora fades away. Show Riku/Kairi reactions -together-. Fade his fading into the dust of the Keyblade Graveyard. Do all the Epilogue. Do the Secret Ending. Everything on whatever track Nomura wants—but for us, the audience, all of us, we FINALLY GET SOLID, CATHARTIC CLOSURE FOR EVERYONE IN THIS SAGA AFTER 16 YEARS—WITHOUT IT ALL BEING TEASER BAIT FOR SOME UNION CROSS/TWEWY CROSSOVER COMBINED WITH NOMURA’s OBSESSIVE BITTERNESS OVER FFv13! Sorry, also salty about that. -Secret Ending is Riku AND Kairi going together to find Sora in Shibuya. Boom. -Also, for all our sakes, get rid of the concept of worldlines and minimize the time travel here, plz. That’s the quickest way to undermine the stakes of your story. Tl;dr: Give us more of the characters and their agency, don’t have them act OOC for bad plotting, give us a mid-climax to slow down the rushed 3-hour ending, let us appreciate what’s happening with more characterization, explain some things better, don’t fridge Kairi (and everyone other than Sora, really), give us a real, cathartic ending for 16 years of investment—then tease us in the epilogue/secret. Thoughts? Too much to ask? Too little? I tried only to make only minimal changes to Nomura’s vision, adjusted to some universally shared criticisms among fans. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and what you liked/didn’t like! If you liked this at all, I’ve been writing Kingdom Hearts at Fanfiction under the name “Marsuvees” (with hopefully increasing quality) for over ten years. I love this series deeply, and hope Nomura can get it back on track next time. He really needs to get other people involved in writing and plotting.