I’m almost 98% sure that KH3 will feature a split story in lieu DDD, especially considering this statement from Square Enix concerning the story: “In an effort to undermine Xehanort’s plot, Sora, Donald, and Goofy search for seven guardians of light and the “Key to Return Hearts,” while King Mickey and Riku search for previous Keyblade wielders”(Whatever that means).

Now, assuming that Sora will journey with Donald and Goofy, Riku is left strangely unbalanced with only Mickey. That’s where Kairi comes in- I believe Kairi will be a member of Riku’s party. This makes perfect sense- we have Sora and Riku as well balanced weapon based/magic based characters, Goofy and Mickey as offensive characters, and Donald and Kairi as magic based characters. I’m also pretty sure Kairi will play a key part in finding the previous Keyblade wielders, explaining why she’s a member of Riku’s party and not Sora’s.

 

(The theory is also here on my tumblr account)

 

I'd rather not.

Kairi doesn't have to be only magic based and i doubt she will be. She is going to be a mixed character i'd bet.

While I would prefer to see this happen, I  doubt it will

 

I do like the idea of Riku, King Mickey,  and Kairi teaming up though. It could work when Riku looks for Aqua since King Mickey and Kairi can not be affected by the Darkness.  

Edited April 14, 201411 yr by MasterRoxas13

I'm pretty sure Lea and Kairi will stay back to get trained .

Kairi will largely hold back Riku and Mickey with her lack of skill and experience. And it would say Riku, Kairi and Mickey in the description, not just Riku and Mickey.

Kairi will largely hold back Riku and Mickey with her lack of skill and experience. And it would say Riku, Kairi and Mickey in the description, not just Riku and Mickey.

Agreed. She's probably better off being in a party seperate from Riku or Sora, like say, Her and Lea in a party, since they are Keyblade wielders in training, it'd make sense for them to be in the same party as they are probably around the same level of skill and experience.

i think she will be a playable character if anything.

. 

Edited July 10, 201510 yr by Noby Raghavan

I think she won't be with Riku party because she's not trained enough. But it's a possibility she goes wit lea to go get aqua, as for Riku him and mickey would go grab Terra since he'd be the most challenging, and for Sora and his group they'd go to find Ventus. (Sora was never trained so why would Kairi be trained or take the time to do it when the war is about to happen?). I think they'll make another handheld game personally for Kairi knowing "Norma's group". (I believe he was helping make kh handhelds but denied them and blamed it on his group because he didn't want to take the blame and mess up his reputation). I think they'll have certain parts of the game you can play as Kairi as well Riku but the biggest part would be as usual Sora.

I always thought about that idea, it will make sense that Kairi will follow Riku,

 

However would it be more logic if Kairi and Lea stay in the background and train to be masters.

I don't get the balance argument. Riku & Mickey are both Masters, while Sora is not a Master and accompanied by two non-Keyblade wielders (no offense to Donald & Goofy). If anything, Sora is the one getting the shaft! Luckily I enjoy having Donald & Goofy in my main party, I miss my original trio!Considering KH3 is apparently suppose to pick up right after KH3D (or close to it), I think it would be cool to play as Kairi during the tutorial. It wouldn't make sense to force Sora to go over the basics after his past adventure. Having control over Kairi for the short amount of time at the beginning would be all kinds of awesome!

Like James Lutz said, the whole balance argument you made doesn't make much sense. I go by the quality and not the quantity.riku and mickey are both key blade masters and sora and co. Are all not key blade masters. Not to mention that Donald and goofy are...Donald and goofy.

 

And I think Nomura would at least consider the fact that sora and riku have been using the key blade for YEARS. Kairi just started using it amateurly.

I for one would love to have Kairi as a party member.  It's about time she gets her moment in the spotlight, because for too long we've been waiting to see her in action. Seeing as how important she is, I'm pretty sure she'll be the only Princess of Heart fighting against Heartless/Nobodies/Unversed/etc. with a Keyblade.  I'm pretty sure Nomura will include her in the story as best as he sees fit.

The whole trio will be playable if Nomura finally makes the decision to do so instead of only considering it.

I'm very interested to see how characters will be handled gameplay-wise for KHIII. On the one hand, I kind of want to return to Sora/Donald/Goofy, but I don't think that'll be possible at this point with so many characters. I wonder what they're planning to do.

I'm very interested to see how characters will be handled gameplay-wise for KHIII. On the one hand, I kind of want to return to Sora/Donald/Goofy, but I don't think that'll be possible at this point with so many characters. I wonder what they're planning to do.

I'm thinking they'll just do it how they did it in KH2, just more heavily and not just a crappy play as Mickey for two seconds during one boss fight kind of deal. I'm sure that the main focus will be back to SDG but hey who knows at this point.

Seems like I'm late for this conversation... T_T

 

Anyways, I had the assumption that Lea would team up with Riku and King Mickey due to their previous experiences and venturing into Darkness, and the fact that Lea claims he'll "catch up with [Riku] in no time flat" in terms of becoming a Keyblade Master.

 

As for Kairi (the main topic I believe), I feel like she could go well with SDG since she looks like she could fit in with interacting with other Disney characters like Sora does due to her probably somewhat child-like nature.

I want Kairi to be playable in whatever way that makes that possible.

 

However, I don't want a BBS-esque style game again. I'd rather they take a page out of the Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban game and have special missions that only certain characters can do because of their specific talents, but the story is still cohesive rather than having to go through the story 3 separate times. 

I want Kairi to be playable in whatever way that makes that possible.

 

However, I don't want a BBS-esque style game again. I'd rather they take a page out of the Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban game and have special missions that only certain characters can do because of their specific talents, but the story is still cohesive rather than having to go through the story 3 separate times. 

I honestly can't see the "BBS-esque style" happening this time. Sure they split each whole story into three for each Disney world, but this time I feel it would be difficult to see how one story can be split for Sora, Kairi, and Riku separately this time. 

 

Basically, in BBS, Terra causes trouble in worlds by accident. Ventus just looks for Terra and runs into characters he makes friends with. Aqua pretty much cleans the mess that Terra left behind him.

 

This time, despite the game running on consoles that have little to no limitations, I can't see how Sora could just leave a world alone completely without fixing its problems. Kairi or Riku would just find nothing except for buttloads of enemies throwing their own lives at them. I think two teams are, at most, efficient in this situation.

 

If only they could create a mechanic in which you could switch between playable Keyblade Wielders in your Party

Edited September 8, 201510 yr by GGDude00