I believe BOTH Riku and Kairi will be playable

[Finn and vigor 287]

Considering the destiny islands trio are so separated I am lead to believe that each character here will have their own playable experience. Sora obviously being the main one of course. And Mickey and Lea will be the party members of Riku and Kairi.

[Tyranto Rex 277]

I was thinking that. And would totally love that. That might be why it is a surprise.

[TiggerBooth 12]

I would love this so much. I think it would be a perfect way to handle multiplayer. I don’t dislike Roxas, but I don’t see him being the other playable character in the game as many have theorized. I would love to see these three as the playa or characters.

 

Further seeing as we can have large parties now I really hope that the final battle is truly 7 vs. 13 (at least for one section of the fight. Maybe the beginning or end) and not divided like BBS was (not a knock against BBS, I liked the division in that game.) I would just really like a section with 7 keyblade weilsers vs 14 darknesses at once. Do I think it will happen? I doubt it

[Awesome Sauce 634]

But Nomura only mentioned one other playable character. And I'm not sure how Square would handle multiple playable characters without using the BBS/DDD format

[TiggerBooth 12]

But Nomura only mentioned one other playable character. And I'm not sure how Square would handle multiple playable characters without using the BBS/DDD format

There are obviously more way but here on some ideas

1. They could do the Proglogue as Kairi and then after a midpoint climax in the story switch to Riku for a quest.

Similar to the Roxas section in KH2 where you have just a portion as him but not switching back and forth. I think this would be the most likely case.

 

Or

2. In the final world perhaps you could switch Sora as your main with one of the other two.

 

As for Nomuras comment- If that is not for whatever reason incorrect I think it should be Kairi played similarly to my first idea. We’ve gotten to play as Riku a lot now. I think it would be nice to play Kairi, and it could be used to further the Kairi and Sora relation. For example the Kairi section could be her fighting to get to Sora.

 

Obviously I have no idea though and we’ll have to see

[KeybladeMasterBalo 504]

But Nomura only mentioned one other playable character. And I'm not sure how Square would handle multiple playable characters without using the BBS/DDD format

He also mentioned the game would release in 2018 and yet here we are (not a rant), I mean things change over the course of production whether it is because of Fan requests, or maybe a brand new idea they hadn't before, things of that sort.

[Awesome Sauce 634]

He also mentioned the game would release in 2018 and yet here we are (not a rant), I mean things change over the course of production whether it is because of Fan requests, or maybe a brand new idea they hadn't before, things of that sort.

A small delay has nothing to do with a gameplay mechanic in the game, and even then the base game is most likely in the polishing/bug removal phase. All the major gameplay features and add-ons were already made and revealed a long time ago. When has Nomura ever lied or changed his mind about a mechanic in interviews?

[KeybladeMasterBalo 504]

A small delay has nothing to do with a gameplay mechanic in the game, and even then the base game is most likely in the polishing/bug removal phase. All the major gameplay features and add-ons were already made and revealed a long time ago. When has Nomura ever lied or changed his mind about a mechanic in interviews?

He has changed names and stuff for example, Heartless designs, world areas, etc. I'm not saying he hasn't planned it from before, what I mean is things can change during development and Nomura if at one point where he stated there was only one extra playable character and then he got the idea of Kairi being playable too then he might have not announced it yet as a surprise. It's only a thought.