#this is functionally the climax and culmination of their arc as a trio

[thatgirlonstage]

Thinks about arms outstretched and has to lie facedown on the ground for nine hours again

[davidmann95]

Kingdom Hearts 3, two years on? Also general state of the franchise?

I maintain my position that for all its flaws it’s actually one of the better entries: gameplay’s great, the Disney worlds have more meat on the bone than any other game but the first, it touches on subtler emotional notes than a lot of the previous ones, and the final stretch is incredible. I believe it even conceivably could have surpassed II with relatively minimal restructuring if not for one insurmountable problem: Dream Drop Distance existing.

That is a game that I promise you only exists because Square Enix told Nomura he had to do something else if he was gonna take that long before kicking off III, and so all the subplots that were supposed to buoy it until the endgame were instead shoved into the final world of this. Riku’s (for now) final catharsis, Sora learning the basics of everyone he’s connected to, the unveiling of the master plan: all necessary for the finale to function coherently unto itself, all relegated elsewhere.

I’ve been mulling it over for awhile and there’s basically a cottage fandom industry around it at this point anyway, so here for your amusement and edification, my take on ‘how I would have fixed Kingdom Hearts III (a game I liked)’:

1. The opening tutorial segment is Sora and Riku taking their Mark of Mastery exam by journeying into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua. They fight Dark Aqua and succeed in getting her home, but Sora loses the mandatory chunk of his powers in the process of purifying her with the Power of Waking so we can keep that in play; Riku gets the Mark and feels insecure about it (Sora is acknowledged for his efforts but with all the strength he’s lost giving it to him would only be a token, so the player doesn’t feel actively cheated even if the disappointment’s there), and the Destiny trio get a scene together before going their separate ways because it’s wild they didn’t get a scene together.

2. Aqua is back but pretty messed up from her experience, so she goes to recuperate in the timeless realm Kairi and Axel are training in. These interactions give Kairi some more time, and having the other two around makes it easy to recap the basics of 358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep for players who just want to go I/II/III.

3. Since Aqua can’t do it right now (and maybe the intervening decade saw it hidden more thoroughly thanks to the Organization), Sora, Donald, and Goofy are charged with tracking down Castle Oblivion to free Ven. He’s still gotta save everybody and remaster the Power of Waking he used to free Aqua, so 80% of the game plays out the same, there’s just a more concrete goal to his journey.

4. Riku goes through his DDD character arc in the background, culminating in the midpoint of the game where in the equivalent to the 1000 Heartless Battle as a dividing point in II, here we get the first big run-in with Young Xehanort  and the outline of the 13-nort gameplan.

5. Arendelle is swapped out with the Fantasia world because the former was the worst world in III and the Fantasia world obviously should have been realized on the PS4.

6. Kairi still dies because it’s a logical thematic climax (EVERYONE dies and has to be brought back, she’s last and most dramatic because she matters to Sora most) that propels everything afterwards forward, but before that she fights with Sora and Riku against the 3 Xehanorts instead of Mickey because Mickey has no emotional connection to anything that’s happening and this would bring the trilogy full-circle with the three of them working together, and this way she could die doing something heroic.

7. The Guardians of Light vs. the Xehanort Armor squad is part of the finale proper instead of a DLC segment.

Relatively minimal overhaul, I’m obviously not of the opinion that the mark was entirely missed; just snapping the basic pieces together a little more smoothly and putting a pinch of extra attention where it feels needed.

(Credit for this excellent mockup art, though my own heart will always belong to this barebones, strangely evocative take from way back in 2008.)

As for the future, my many theories aside, it’s hard to say. III was the best-selling of the franchise thus far, but who knows whether that means Nomura gets way less or way more control going forward. Even the role of the Disney worlds going forward relative to the metafictional war with Quadratum and the ongoing Master of Masters mystery depends on both Disney’s demands and the core messages of the next games, given the warring core aesthetics of the franchise are now actually part of the plot and theme going forward through Yozora. So are we getting GTA: Kingdom Hearts with Sora in an open-world Quadratum? A Riku and/or Kairi story? A spinoff about what Mickey was up to during I and II? Literally just Verum Rex? Some seem more likely than others but nothing feels off the table, though I do hope they adapt some of the latter parts of that mobile game into a movie like they did the early stuff so I can just watch that. But in any case IV proper is poised to recenter the sense of mysterious wonder and longing of separation that’s driven so much of the series, so in any case I think whatever comes next is still basically going to work in core ways that recent entries have missed for a lot of people.

(My own IV desire is that I want the main campaign divided between Kairi doing regular Kingdom Hearts stuff and Sora spending his half of the game exploring the gigantic and increasingly bizarre city, with Riku sections of him sorta bopping between the two worlds out of phase Flash-in-Crisis style, leading into a Destiny trio game for V. I think that’s the best way of selling the necessary contrasts of the new setup while having a lot of the game adhere to the formula.)