A thought occurred to me recently. Remember when Uncharted: Drake's Fortune got shifted to "survival horror" for a couple chapters? What if Kairi's possible appearance shifts KHIII's genre to a mix of stealth and puzzle solving? Considering that she's pretty much a weaker fighter. ... And the only enemies we saw her take our were Shadows.

 

How I picture it, Kairi would use her surroundings to hide from the larger (albeit more powerful) enemies. Magic can be used to distract enemies, take out enemies that are the opposite element (which makes noise), or use it on surroundings for takeouts (ex. using thunder on a puddle of water).

 

While puzzle solving, magic can be used on certain situations. Thunder to power things up, fire to thaw out objects encased in ice, blizzard to cool down hot objects. Namine (if she appears as a spiritual guide), can give Kairi tips on how she might sole certain puzzles. If puzzles are in the Old Mansion, Namine would be a big help.

But... she has a Keyblade now. Aren't those things supposed to be strong enough to take down big enemies? Also, Ventus and Xion were the weakest in their trios but they've managed to slay monsters bigger than them, yeah?

A novel idea, but like the guy above me said, Kairi has a Keyblade and she's going to learn how to use it. She doesn't have to rely on anything else now.

This is quite the intriguing idea, ya know?  It could work awesomely, but Kairi's probably gonna get some good character development in Kingdom Hearts III, and I think that she's the character who'll surprise us the most in terms of skills with the Keyblade!  I have a feeling that there's more to her than meets the eye!  We'll have to see what happens when KHIII rolls around!

strength in the KH series is not consistent. Yea sure we've only ever seen Kairi fight weak heartless types but i don't think that's gonna stop her from flipping and kicking around in a fight. 

 

also i'm not a big fan of forced stealth sections where getting caught means an instant Game Over. 

But she has a Keyblade now and Yen Sid intends on training her on how to use it, so odds are she's going to be learning how to fight, ergo she won't have to do all that hiding tactic stuff since she'd be able to hold her own as decently as anyone else, regardless of what her main attribute is going to be. Most people tend to peg her as being a mage type, since she's a Princess, has the softer more affectionate personality most FF heroines are known for, she has ties to Aqua, and she wields great magical powers dormant within her already, again as a Princess. She wouldn't necessarily have to be very physically strong, so long as her magic or whatever other attribute she adopts is powerful enough, that's all that matters. And like others have said, characters such as Xion or Ventus who weren't considered the real muscles of their groups still managed to hold their own and where immensely powerful in their own respective attributes. Plus, since this is supposed to be a bit closer to the numbered titles in gameplay style, I doubt they're going to heavily and radically alter parts of the gameplay like that, unless it were handled as some sort of minigame.

I think we will follow multiple stories:

 

Sora, Donald and Goofy

Riku and Mickey

Kairi and Lea

 

The same system like DDD.

Some idea, but I don't think that would happen since Kairi has a Keyblade now and is training under Yen Sid so she becomes fit as one of the seven lights.

I think we will follow multiple stories:

 

Sora, Donald and Goofy

Riku and Mickey

Kairi and Lea

 

 

I sincerely doubt the third one. If you remember the events of KHII, that would only cause distrust. BTW, I would like to see Kairi scold Sora and Riku for trusting Lea.

 

...Can it be Sora, Goofy and Donald now...

I think we will follow multiple stories:

 

Sora, Donald and Goofy

Riku and Mickey

Kairi and Lea

 

The same system like DDD.

I don't think so. I would prefer something like a few of the final fantasy or tales games where the party splits up every now and then and has their own stories.

 

Also maybe bring back active time events from final fantasy 9

While it would be cool to see a genre shift for different stories, I personally hope it's never, ever stealth.