Master Keeper

Both One-Winged Angel and Fenrir are great when it comes to design-wise
However, when it comes to animation --> I would definitely pick One-Winged Angel
When it comes to combat --> I would go with Fenrir

Loved the simplicity of Metal Chocobo, especially the fact that it was one of the rare long keyblades in KH1, but I wouldn't see myself picking it over the other two. 

Master Aqua casted a magic spell on Kairi back on BBS that would make the light inside Kairi leads to another light when being in trouble. That's why she went to Destiny Islands instead of Traverse Town. 

I think that all of the original worlds that appeared in KH3 deserve to be playable and expanded.
this includes:
- Twilight Town expanded to the station and to what’s beyond it (the building behind the station), it’s a hub world and should be huger than Radiant Garden from KH2. 
- Radiant Garden completely freely playable within the castle to the outside within the city itself 
- Destiny Islands completely freely playable and the town should be visitable
- Realm of Darkness should be playable freely as Master Riku with new locations other than the Dark Margin 
- Mysterious Tower should return and become freely playable from the outside until the top of the tower 
- Land of Departure should be completely freely playable from within the castle to the outside with new locations to be added
- Keyblade Graveyard should be expanded with bringing the Badlands in which Lingering Will’s encounter took place in KH2 and expanding the maze because it looked huge from the top but only a small portion was playable 
- Scala ad Caelum should be freely explorable without enemy pressure with expanding the locations. 
 
To to be honest KH3 included many original worlds but they weren’t playable which was very disappointing. I think that all of these worlds deserved more especially on the last title of the saga 

And what does that has to do with the Unversed? The Unversed have always existed in the realm of light and inbetween due to Vanitas, they don’t have any connection to Nightmares.
The reason why Spirits existed in KH3 is due to the bond Sora has with them and due to the heart binder which summons them temporarily due to their connection. Nightmares didn’t bond with any Seeker and were simple representation of darkness in the realm of sleep, similar to how heartless represent the darkness outside of the realm of sleep, now, since we didn’t drop to the realm of sleep and stayed in the other realms the whole time, Hsartless and Nightmares can’t dual exist at the same time since they both represent the same thing on their own realms.

I like Face my Fears for two reasons, the first being that the song is catchy and energetic, secondly, is the fact that it feels more related to the plot rather than being far from the actual storyline like Don't Think Twice.
So my choice would be Face my Fears, and who knows? Perhaps after watching the full opening and hearing the full song, I would also prefer it from My Sanctuary and Simple and Clean!

So I have to wonder, why were some members of the old Organization unfit to be Seekers again? Because from the looks of the returning members, the possession process seems to do away with any undesirable personality issues. Of course, we've only seen brief clips from the trailers but it's still damn creepy seeing Larxene of all people acting in any way remotely friendly, and all of them in general seem a lot more subdued than they used to be. And if things keep progressing like this, I'm going to be bummed that we never got to see what Braig/Xigbar's "big plans" were.

I know a lot of us were curious what world this large body variant came from, has there been any footage of it yet?

I will give them potions. Hopefully there is a customize option like it KHII where you can tell them to use them sparingly. If not, they will eat them up like candy.

If only radiant garden was playable. These worlds are gunna be amazing!

In my opinion, I wanted Kairi to be a playable character. Hopefully Nomura surprises me that we have more than two playable characters. 

It’s such an interesting thingn for someone to make a video about those underrated trio, personally I would find it interesting to have these gangs as the protectors of Twilight Town but I truly believe that when Roxas and Xion returns in Kingdom Hearts III, they will be enough to protect Twilight Town while living there, perhaps Lea would visit them more often from Radiant Garden and so, having Hayner, Pence and Olette to all have Keyblades wouldn’t make them extra important or special. Perhaps one of them, Hayner, could have a keyblade and learn more from Roxas and become the single protector of Twilight Town when Roxas and Xion aren’t around, but who knows? Perhaps such theory would end up being right and we would have Twilight Town flourish as the first world in the realm inbetween to include so many protectors and seekers of light and perhaps Master Yen Sid would open his Mysterious Tower for more new apprentices from Twilight Town after the events of the Keyblade War in KHIII to prevent dilemmas such as Xehanort’s to be repeated again. From what we have noticed, it was much late that Master Yen Sid realized that the universe needed more Keyblade wielders more than ever, it was from there he decided to test Sora and Master Riku, decide to save Master Aqua and Ventus, and also gather more worthy wielders such as Kairi and Lea. It would only be logical for him to decide to open an academy and perhaps Twilight Town would become the new beacon of hope that reminiscent Daybreak Town as the world that teaches many Keyblade wielders thanks to its connection to Mysterious Tower.

It’s such an interesting thingn for someone to make a video about those underrated trio, personally I would find it interesting to have these gangs as the protectors of Twilight Town but I truly believe that when Roxas and Xion returns in Kingdom Hearts III, they will be enough to protect Twilight Town while living there, perhaps Lea would visit them more often from Radiant Garden and so, having Hayner, Pence and Olette to all have Keyblades wouldn’t make them extra important or special. Perhaps one of them, Hayner, could have a keyblade and learn more from Roxas and become the single protector of Twilight Town when Roxas and Xion aren’t around, but who knows? Perhaps such theory would end up being right and we would have Twilight Town flourish as the first world in the realm inbetween to include so many protectors and seekers of light and perhaps Master Yen Sid would open his Mysterious Tower for more new apprentices from Twilight Town after the events of the Keyblade War in KHIII to prevent dilemmas such as Xehanort’s to be repeated again. From what we have noticed, it was much late that Master Yen Sid realized that the universe needed more Keyblade wielders more than ever, it was from there he decided to test Sora and Master Riku, decide to save Master Aqua and Ventus, and also gather more worthy wielders such as Kairi and Lea. It would only be logical for him to decide to open an academy and perhaps Twilight Town would become the new beacon of hope that reminiscent Daybreak Town as the world that teaches many Keyblade wielders thanks to its connection to Mysterious Tower.

It’s such an interesting thingn for someone to make a video about those underrated trio, personally I would find it interesting to have these gangs as the protectors of Twilight Town but I truly believe that when Roxas and Xion returns in Kingdom Hearts III, they will be enough to protect Twilight Town while living there, perhaps Lea would visit them more often from Radiant Garden and so, having Hayner, Pence and Olette to all have Keyblades wouldn’t make them extra important or special. Perhaps one of them, Hayner, could have a keyblade and learn more from Roxas and become the single protector of Twilight Town when Roxas and Xion aren’t around, but who knows? Perhaps such theory would end up being right and we would have Twilight Town flourish as the first world in the realm inbetween to include so many protectors and seekers of light and perhaps Master Yen Sid would open his Mysterious Tower for more new apprentices from Twilight Town after the events of the Keyblade War in KHIII to prevent dilemmas such as Xehanort’s to be repeated again. From what we have noticed, it was much late that Master Yen Sid realized that the universe needed more Keyblade wielders more than ever, it was from there he decided to test Sora and Master Riku, decide to save Master Aqua and Ventus, and also gather more worthy wielders such as Kairi and Lea. It would only be logical for him to decide to open an academy and perhaps Twilight Town would become the new beacon of hope that reminiscent Daybreak Town as the world that teaches many Keyblade wielders thanks to its connection to Mysterious Tower.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce9WXuGnBEk
Will the Twilight Trio ever get keyblades???

So, I feel the need to do this kind of list type of thing. Others have most likely done the same, so I feel the need to do it too. I'll be basing this on the games I've actually played & seen reviews of for the ones that have only gotten their cutscenes redone for the HD compilations, so sorry, no Union X here. Also, no 0.2, since that's just a chunk of KHIII they sliced off & finished to completely justify 2.8. If I add III to this in the future, I'll include 0.2 to it or Birth By Sleep, since it's a middle ground between the 2 of those.
 
From least good to great/best:
 
7. Kingdom Hearts re:Coded.
I know people don't consider this the worst KH game, but I do. Gameplay that, from what I've seen, isn't nearly as good as the console games, or even Birth By Sleep or Dream Drop Distance & a story that's essentially filler & worthless, though I'd expect nothing less than something that came from the mind of a drunk Nomura. Literally this game is unforgivable FILLER in the KH series, with only the last 30 minutes or so of the plot being of any worth from the cinematic movie in 2.5, though you can also easily skip it because all it does is set up Birth By Sleep & Mickey's quest to rescue Aqua in later games, which later games establish anyways, so this game is unintentionally rendered utterly useless & pointless by this stuff. The fact that Team Four Star bypassed this game entirely for their KH marathon & were still fine just shows the effect this had.
 
6. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
Yeah, I know, "but it's got a good story." A good story doesn't preclude terrible gameplay & really bad mechanics that were either forgotten or refined in later games. Those being the slower & stiffer combat than even KHI & the terrible deck system where to even gain anything from levels, you have to attach blocks to Roxas to gain stat & other stuff. However, at the same time, the story IS the saving grace of this game, which is why I think it ranks higher than re:Coded. Though this is still hindered by the fact that most of the secondary characters are expanded upon & part of the story is told through text boxes with the other Organization XIII members in game & they didn't bother including those in brand new cutscenes in the 1.5 compilation, so even the cinematics are lacking a bit. It is still enjoyable in the storytelling, though, so there's that. Also, from what I can tell, the overabundance of missions makes this game last too long for no good reason from what I hear.
 
5. Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance.
It's the game that directly sets up III, but man is the storytelling & combat here significantly downgraded from KHII & Birth By Sleep. The story reaches all levels of convoluted thanks to the introduction of time travel into the series just to make this plot even remotely work, answering questions no one was asking in the process, & effectively jumping the shark. The storytelling is also bad with Sora. If you haven't noticed this before, this game really hammers in the fact that in the mobile games, Sora is reduced in his characterization to something of a halfway point between Goku from Dragon Ball Super & Luffy from One Piece. In other words, an idiot hero nice guy who isn't too bright, barely has a personality, & doesn't take anything seriously until he's effectively forced to. Also, he's lacking a bit in common sense. This characterization started in Chain of Memories (though at least there was some kind of reason for it, however forced it was), then was furthered in re:Coded with Data Sora, then reached its peak here to the point that I'm glad he's back, mostly, to how he was in KHII from the look of things in the trailers. Why is this? I'm assuming it was because none of the writers from KHII were brought back in to write for these games, so Sora was flanderized because of that, which is especially odd since Nomura himself cowrote this game's story, as well as Coded's, so that's probably why. Given that this game's story was more one for Riku, I'm surprised that they didn't just make a spin-off for him by himself. He's actually in-character in this game & serves as the main protagonist, since Sora's essentially just along for the ride.
Then there's the combat. Flowmotion can be fun & I'm glad they're mixing it into Sora's move set from II in III, but geez did the game devs have to make this game revolve completely around it & completely break what worked from past KH games? In past KH games, while main bosses, like the Organization members, had their own was of defeating them, you were still free in your choices to figure out what worked best for all of them. KHII was absolutely excellent with this, giving you so many options with the physical attacks, magic, drive forms, & whatever else to defeat enemies. You were a one-man army with Sora in II. Here, you HAVE to rely on the magic abilities, which I wouldn't mind if the boss AI wasn't completely screwed to Hell & back. This was also a problem with Birth By Sleep, where the boss AI was completely randomized rather than having certain patterns that you could key in on, as well as stunlock & other things, which is also a thing that bogs down battle with the dream eaters, since they don't take stunlock at all unless you use certain magic abilities or flowmotion. This is an utterly broken system & feels completely unfair because it encourages cheesing the game with the most powerful abilities like the Balloon attacks, which you don't receive until a bit of the way into the main story, & makes everything from the previous games a complete chore to do. When you don't have a certain amount of freedom & the game stacks everything against you, that's a failure of game design.
Not helping this at all is the removal of the ability synthesis from Birth By Sleep. That system was fun to use, since you can completely break the game by mixing abilities together to make better ones. Keeping that system in this game would've helped. Also, 3 words. New. Game. Plus. The New Game Plus system in this game sucks! tot he Underworld & back. When it comes to NG+, I expect to keep all of my previous perishable items & attacks, with some other stuff. Other games had this before DDD, so there's absolutely NO excuse why I can't keep all of those things when going through NG+, especially on the highest difficulty, where you NEED those things to start out with because you're both hindered even more & the fact that you need to play through one of the other modes to even unlock that difficulty, so keeping those from my past save would've been nice, but no. Just Dreameaters & whatever else. This is something I hope they get right with III & retroactively add to 1.5+2.5 & 2.8, but better. Even copying Final Fantasy XV's homework would be a godsend for it.
So, yeah, not a big fan of this game too much.
 
4. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.
This game was created while KHII was in development & served to be KHI on the GBA...except it's also an midquel between I & II, which it serves better as. This game is just a waste of time. It sets up the Organization & Namine...sort of, & explains what happened to Sora & co, as well as Riku & Mickey before KHII, but did this game need to turn out this badly? I don't think so.
First of all the story. The heroes get trapped in Castle Oblivion & have their memories screwed with by the several Organization members that are tasked to do so. In the game, they revisit every location from the first game, except Tarzan's world because Disney lost the copyright on that property after KHI was made, & go through bare bones versions of the bare bones versions of those retold plots from the first game. However, these are, ultimately, worthless because they don't really connect to the main plot much & feel even more disconnected than in the first game.
Then there's the storytelling. This is the first episode to alter Sora's personality to fit more into the idiot hero persona which he wasn't in the first game mind you. However, due to his memories being tampered with, though also just being dumb & not actually stopping to think about what's happening around him, leaving him to treat Donald & Goofy like shit for not good reason, as well as abandon them for a bit. I don't like this because it's not consistent with the rest of his portrayals, for the most part. Then there's Riku's story, which is mercifully short ('which I thank the devs for because Sora's goes on WAY too long) at about 5 hours as opposed to the 25-30 of the main story. Riku's story only serves to show that he knows about Sora's plight to restore his memories & that he's gonna try to control the darkness in his heart. That's fine. However, it's tacked on to the main story of the game afterwards rather than woven into the main game's story. If there's anything to this game, it's its focus on Riku, whom I think should've probably been the main focus of the game rather than an after thought.
Now there's the combat. This game tries to take the formula from the first game, but mixes it with card games. This isn't really that good because, once you get a certain ways into the game, you can cheese the game & you win. The fact that the cards you get are determined by bad RNG & the fact that the bosses use strategies the game didn't teach you to defend against, thus MAKING you cheese the game. That's just bad combat design. Also, this game is easy to break with this system & becomes boring just a few hours in.
I'm sure that the novelty of having mobile KH was great back in 2004, but now that the novelty's well worn off, & the 3D remake is the more prominent version out there, I think people can see my meaning here. Just watch KingK's retrospective on YouTube to get what I mean if you don't understand fully.
 
3. Kingdom Hearts I (Final Mix)
Coming in at #3 is the very first game in the franchise, & specifically the Final Mix version, which added in things like new cutscenes & some new extra bosses. This game is, mostly, good, but a few things hold it back from being the best in my eyes. Naturally, though, since this is the first game in what was an untested formula of mixing Disney with Square's JRPGs & throwing in Final Fantasy elements, but that doesn't really matter if you start with this game, which you should because of that reason alone, since you have nowhere to go but up afterwards. Most of this game works, since it's a more basic tale about a boy getting betrayed by his best friend, losing their female friend, making new companions to find both of them, & defeating all of the enemies along the way. It's also the least stuffed of all of the KH games, so it's easy to understand & has no baggage behind or in front of it, so there's that.
However, there ARE some bad parts. Tarzan's world is one I'm not sad that Disney lost the license to use in their media, though I think that they COULD do so if the works have since entered the public domain, or when they do. However, in this game, it's just bad. First is that it requires a lot of backtracking & second the traversal is just bad. The controls being stiff, & archaically so, are naturally to blame for the backtracking being awful. The game isn’t built around Sora’s abilities & Sora’s abilities aren’t enough for the worlds, at least before you unlock them & upgrade him with them. Even then, his movement & combos aren’t as fluid or fast as I’d like.
I also think some parts of this game are a bit TOO dank & depressing. Like Hollow Bastion. It’s a bit too gothic for my taste. Definitely reminds me of late-90s/early-2000s. I also don’t care much for the music. The tracks are serviceable, but it all sounds like generic/stock video game music, except for Halloween Town, which just uses ‘This is Halloween’ from the film it’s based on. This is one place the later games definitely improved on, which I kind of feel disappointed to say, since Yoko Shimomura has quickly become one of my favorite video game composers.
But, yeah, decent story, but everything else needed improvements.
Also, the road to getting everything from the Moogle shops to synthesize took over 30 MORE HOURS than I was expecting. Bullshit RNG, too many synthesis items to grind to get the Ultima Weapon, & repetitive sequences. It’s everything I hate about RPGs.
 
2. Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Final Mix)
I originally had this one & 3 switched around. In fact, if you prefer KHI over BBS, I don’t blame you.
Anyways, this one’s a prequel to everything that came before it in the preceding games. It has 3 protagonists & takes a page out of Sonic Adventure’s playbook by having the 3 stories of them take place at the same time, with more of their plots revealed as you go through their stories. This is the only game where I feel the experimentation was done right both in the story delivery & gameplay. Now, it’s a bit more stiff than KHII, but nowhere near as much as KHI. The music is also so much better than KHI’s soundtrack. You’ll notice that this is the only game to get a Final Mix version other than the 2 PS2 games. That’s because, unlike 358/2, which explored more of Roxas’ past, & Re:Coded, which is just a bad game because it’s basically discount Chain of Memories, only with 0 things you absolutely need to know about rather than a few, this game actually adds mythos & important information to the KH series, so it was necessary to have this version. I don’t get why they didn’t add back in the capes to the characters when they have their armor at the last world to keep continuity with he secret ending in KHII FM, since it was only a problem for the PSP, but whatever.
Now, the stories are all tragedies, but leave open the possibility for future solving, which will be explored in III, as you all have no doubt gleaned from the trailers. In spite of that, we’re given 3 decently compelling characters. The only weak point with them is that Jesse McCartney is the only experienced voice actor of them. Jason Dohring does an ok job, but not great, & willa Holland always manages to sound bored. Basically like Aerith in KHII. I blame this on their lack of experience & the voice direction, which has always plagued this series with the actors who are more screen & stage actors than voice actors. Even some of the regulars get spotty in places with their voice direction. Though Dohring HAS improved in this department for 0.2 & I’ll see if Holland has done the same in III, which she kind of sounds like she has...if she’s supposed to be going for could & off rather than bored, which will probably work in Aqua’s case. Picking up the slack, though, is Mark Hamill as Master Eraqus & Leonard Nimoy as Xehanort. Both are great in those roles. I find this story to be a bit better told than KHI’s story.
Now, the combat is experimental, but I like it. It makes the game easy to break, but in a fun way rather than a boring way, since it’s not tied to terrible RNG, or a card game system. Instead of an MP bar, you gain abilities & meld them together to get new ones. This is also how you get permanent add-ons to the characters outside of a capacity increase for the command deck & health increases. This system is the one thing I think this game has over KHI & II; making grinding FUN. The grinding in BBS never felt like a chore to me. Mostly because I was getting something out of it outside of levels & there was always some kind of reward for doing so. Grinding, even in KHII, felt like a chore. This is a faster system that doesn’t require 100% completion & is infinitely more rewarding.
The pace of the game is also quick. Each story will take around 10 hours to do, but you don’t do the same thing twice. Each world takes around a half hour to complete, which is great for the pace of any game. Combine that with the grinding being relatively fast too (it only takes a few hours or so to grind all of the required abilities you need if you know what ones you want per character) & you have a well-paced game.
 
1. Kingdom Hearts II (Final Mix)
This was probably obvious, but this game is great.
First is the story. It's more involved than the first game's plot, but the way it's paced & the way it's told are really great. This game has a more bright & cheerful tone than the first game or even Chain of Memories, then mixes it really well with the more serious nature of the plot. Y'know, like a Disney film. The story is unfolded pretty well throughout the game, though the overabundance of cutscenes, especially in Final Mix CAN get pretty grating if you're looking for a more fast-paced plot.
Then there's the combat. It is MASSIVELY improved from the first game & has aged like fine wine. There's a reason why the mobile games haven't simply ported it over or improved on it. One, the repetition of the same combat engine would maybe get boring eventually to some people & two, there's no way that they COULD improve it, since it's the best system in the series thus far, so the experimentation is there. The combat is sped up to a good degree from I & there's a good amount you can do with combos. Supporting it is a great magic system, which takes what worked for the hot bar in the first game & just uses it basically unchanged, which is fine with me. There ARE new magic abilities added to the game, which are extremely useful, at the expense of losing some others. Like, I wish Aero had stuck around, but I get why it was removed in favor of Reflect. I’m really looking forward to III, since its combat system is largely a port of II’s mixed with the flowmotion from DDD, but also has a floatiness to it unfortunately, but I’ll adapt to it.
The music is also majorly improved from KHI. Rather than half of the pieces sounding generic, all of the music is really well written & composed to go with the mood of the scenes. They really make everything feel lively & engaging.
Then the voice acting. This is something I have to compliment the actors for. The majority of them do a great job, though there’s the odd line every so often that sounds off in the direction from the actors who’re usually camera actors rather than voice actors, but it’s far from Birth By Sleep, where that was ⅔ of the main characters the majority of the time. The returning actors do well as always & the new ones fit the roles well. The only person who’s performance is iffy is James Arnold Taylor as Jack Sparrow. He nails the voice tone & accent Johnny Depp uses as Jack Sparrow, but he can’t stop sounding drunk when Jack isn’t supposed to be & he doesn’t deliver the lines as Depp would. Still, it’s far from the worst voice acting in the series. No, that would go to the actors for Will Turner & Elizabeth who don’t even remotely sound like the actors from the films, but also don’t fit in their own ways. Definitely the low point for KH voice acting.
Then there’s the bonus content post game, where you hunt down the Mushroom XIII, face Data versions of the Organization members, then fight the Lingering Will, which only exist in the Final Mix version of the game. It also added in the Limit Form for the Drive Forms, which thematically works, since it lets you access a refined version of his KHI combat style & clothes.
Next, the graphics. I haven’t mentioned this for the other games since they never stood out so much, but this is the game to get this level of polish in the graphics department. The HD collection brings this out by upscaling it to HD, putting it into widescreen, & upping the framerate to 60FPS. If they ever get Xbox One ports, the X upscaling it to 4K will be the best looking version of this game bar none short of a PC release. Seriously, the graphics are only beat out by III, since it uses Unreal Engine 4 & goes for a more realistic artstyle mixed with the anime aesthetic. The only place I’d say it falls short is the Pirates of the Caribbean world, which makes the more anime-esque visuals clash with the more realistic character designs & world design. KHIII is gonna make up for this as we’ve seen from the trailers, so I think it’s fine.
The only thing I think this game is missing is a good new Game+ mode, where you retain your levels, perishable items, collectables, & the Ultima Weapon. Seriously, it would be great if Square could patch in a good FFXV-type New Game+ mode into the 1.5+2.5 HD Remix collection for the games in it as a reward for playing the games. Also, if they could remake this & KHI in Unreal Engine 4 for an upcoming anniversary, I’d buy it 10 times over, since, while I do love the graphics, having all of the necessary games be graphically the same again would be great, though it WOULD cut the framerate on the unenhanced consoles, but I’d be fine with that.
 
All right. That’s my ranking of these games. I’ll probably do a reorganized list in February after I play KHIII, but we’ll see. Let me know if you guys agree. We’ll have a discussion.

Impressive list, my man! Very in depth and detailed!  As for me, I love all the Kingdom Hearts games, but my absolute favorites have to be:
Birth By Sleep: I love how this game, as you said, added more to the mythos and expanded the universe of the series, and I just honestly loved that this game had a really dark ending, with all the main characters meeting cruel fates! That, and I liked the gameplay! Xehanort and Vanitas are among my favorite Kingdom Hearts villains, with Leonard Nimoy killing it as old man Nort, and Haley Joel Osment showing good vocal range by voicing the sinister Vanitas. And of course, Mark Hamill as Eraqus is amazing! But  yes, I love this game, and the Dearly Beloved rendition in this one is a particular favorite of mine! Also, Blank Points! Need I say more? Kingdom Hearts II: Probably one of the best KH games out there because of the sheer scope, story, combat and quality. Definitely one of the best KH games in the series, though I truly believe that KHIII is going to surpass KHII by leaps and bounds! I love how Kingdom Hearts II expanded upon the first game and really doubled down on the epicness in storytelling, propelling the Kingdom Hearts series to anime level heights! And omg, Christopher Lee as Ansem The Wise and Paul St. Peter as Xemnas! X_X But yes, this game is one that I find immensely enjoyable, particularly the immensely robust Final Mix version! Dream Drop Distance: I loved this game because of the set up to Kingdom Hearts III, and the way it set the final pieces into motion! The final scene, where Xehanort reveals his plans to Mickey and Riku, is probably one of my favorite ending scenes of the series, since it has so much foreshadowing and build-up! That, and I found the gameplay and Dream Eaters to be fun, and I loved Riku's arc coming full circle, with him coming to terms with his darkness and accepting himself! But yes, those are my top three favorite games in the series!

HT Nerdette has revealed Funko POP! Christmas Town Sora on her monthly preview show for Hot Topic. The figure was rumored back in July and will be a Hot Topic exclusive. You can view the screenshots from her video below.
Thanks to Churro for the update and the pictures!
UPDATE [Nov. 8, 2018]: HT Nerdette has revealed that the Funko Pop! Christmas Town Sora will be available towards the end of November. 
 
 

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"Oath" was meant to be an ending song and ending songs are usually slow-paced, which makes it a fitting choice for the ending. So I wouldn't call it as a boring song yet especially since we haven't heard the full English version (that usually have some changes on the lyrics) and we haven't even scene the cutscene in which this songs plays at. So who knows? Maybe this song would end up touching our hearts more than any of the previous songs if the cutscene were to be the most emotional of them all.

My guess is that they are commercializing her song, another thing is that they are over protective and secretive when it comes to revealing new soundtracks, so they ended up bringing the same song over and over again.

I like many of what you have mentioned, but how would you explain the fact that Ventus and Brain were part of the Dandelions that were training under Master Ava before the Keyblade War events? Ventus clearly mentioned that even when he was a regular wielder, he didn't have any friends but that itself proves that he was part of what happened before they were taken to the virtual reality.

Another thing, if we were to walk with this theory, what would be the position of Strelitzia in all of this? Was she basically another test that was added by Ansem the Wise within the virtual reality? And since it was a virtual and Ansem the Wise wanted to include Lauriam, then why did he has to kill Strelitzia in order to take her position of being a union leader along with the other four? It just seems odd and unfitting. 

One last thing, Maleficent within the secret ending of Unchained Chi mentioned the name "Sora", so why would the events of Union Cross end up being before BBS? Because Sora was basically an islander by that time and Maleficent wouldn't have had any troubles from him until KHI, and from the scene of Maleficent and "Darkness", it was obvious that she returned to the events of KHII after being stuck in the virtual reality and not BBS, how would the pieces fit into their places?

My guess is that they are commercializing her song, another thing is that they are over protective and secretive when it comes to revealing new soundtracks, so they ended up bringing the same song over and over again.

Amazon has revealed this beautiful back cover of the game:


The KH3 back cover could have other images but this is the official look.

That's what I meant, it is clear that Ventus training with Xehanort and Vanitas being born happens before the events of BBS my guess is around a year, that's when I think he was taken to Ansem the Wise to be scanned and placed inside the virtual Union Cross world
Ventus never time travelled

Alright so, I think I've solved some of the main mysteries regarding the series around the world of union cross but I'm no expert so if I missed anything or you could add to the discussion that would be great, but I really think I'm on to something here
So, what we know so far, the world of Union Cross is a virtual replica of the world of Chi which is the actual story of the events that led to the keyblade war of old then after the world perished and was reborn the the data of what happened was used in creating a virtual copy which would be used to study that history and how to prevent that scenario from happening.
After the events of the war take place in Union Cross we start meeting new characters that weren't present in the original Chi, the first one we want to focus on is Ventus, for obvious reasons, we know he comes from a time that's definitely after the keyblade war, after the worlds were reborn and separated so how is he back? another charater we meet is Lauriam the original Marluxia(and just now we were introduced to Erlena who later becomes Larxene) what's important about Lauriam is that he looks noticeably younger than Marluxia (we know people may change a bit when they become nobodies but nothing as drastic as aging 10 years) so I believe Lauriam is the key to connecting Ventus to this era, we have just been looking at it backwards.
It is not that Ven traveled back in time, but the world of Union Cross was created much much later, specifically around the Birth By Sleep Era, there is a lot of evidence that leads me to believe this is the case like
This would place Lauriam in the correct age range (he was probably born around the same time as Isa & Lea, whose younger selves we met during BBS)
Ventus is shown in his BBS clothes except missing one thing, his should pauldron which he uses to summon his armor, but! there is one instance during Birth By Sleep where he was seen wearing no pauldron, during his time training with Master Xehanort to extract his darkness before his heart is fractured and falls in a coma
This takes place during a flashback and there is an unespecified amount of time that takes place during the gap between Ventus' heart being fractued and his arrival to the land of departure, it was shown that Xehanort was ready to give up on Ven waking up and took him to destiny islands to die 
I propose that during that gap Ven was used to experiment and research the new virtual world that was developed, but who created that world? Xehanort in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the past? No, he has never been shown to be know about creating that sort of thing, but we know of another character who has done just that, recreate worlds in the datascape and transport people there without them even knowing it
I believe Ansem the Wise created the world of Union Cross, true he has never been shown talking about the keyblade war but I think he is more connected to the past than we know, first of all, he is ansem the WISE, king of radiant garden, so it would make sense for a wise king to know about the events of the past that regular people ignore, even Kairi's grandma knew a bit about how the world ended and was reborn so it is confirmed that knowledge of the old world reached radiant garden at least in some form
So, Ansem the Wise managed to get a hold of Ven's body for a while, scanned him and added him to the world, maybe he thought that as a keyblade weilder his heart would help his simulated world be more accurate
Here's where I must say I DO NOT CLAIM TO KNOW HOW ANSEM THE WISE GOT A HOLD OF VENTUS, maybe Xehanort, having his own desire to know about the past allowed the experiment to take place and after he Ventus could no longer be useful, that's when he took him to destiny islands (Xehanort would obviously have to hide his identity since when Ansem find the amnesiac Terra-nort and hears his name he does not react to it, and it would make sense, Xehanort wouldn't like others, like Eraqus, discover what he was doing)
Earlier I said Ansem the Wise (ATW) may know more about the world before the keyblade war than he lets on and that there is something else that connects him to the past, something that I noticed long ago but couldn't find a solid reason for it to exist in such detail
During Kingdom Hearts we not only learn about ATW's knowledge of creating virtual worlds and encoding real world objects into data, we learn that the old mansion in twilight town serves as his hideout/research lab but if we explore the place and pay attention to it's surroundings we can find something peculiar, all around the mansions we see iconography of something very important, we see images and sculptures of unicorns adorning the whole placethe unicorn being the symbol of one of the foretellers in chi/union cross 
So what if ATW in his research over the years found this information and tried to learn more about this old world (maybe he believed Ira as the Leader would be the one who held the answers so he aligned himself with his union) 
Skipping over a bit, during the new cutscene added to Re:Coded we see Maleficent talk about the similarities to between the datascape and the tome of prophecies and a few weeks ago we discovered that the Maleficent in UC is not a virtual character but the true maleficent, whose heart traveled back in time after being defeated in KH1 and is trying to change her fate, but instead of traveling to her true past she was (somehow) trapped in a virtual past by a hooded character refering to himself only as "darkness", since they don't want her interfering with the future and the plans they have, this had led many to believe this "darkness" to be Xehanort since he knows about time travel and has big plans in store, but I don't think that's the case, I believe, again this darkness is our man, Ansem the Wise, he also has been conducting research all this time and would want an uncontrolled outside force to interfere with it, and taking care of the easy one, the figure calls himself "Darkness", what other name has Ansem given himself? DiZ: DARKNESS in Zero
So Ansem as the administrator of this virtual world would have no problem in controlling anyone inside his world/software this would help his research to continue on.
And I believe this research, this knowledge of the past studied to prevent a future disaster is the very same research that has been alluded by him all these games, the very same research that he hid inside Sora while he was asleep, the knowledge to finding yourself or your lost friends in your hour of need
Back to Maleficent, we know she traveled back in time and I stated how the world of UC was created around the time of BBS, but we don't really know how long it lasted so it could be that, maleficent traveled back to the time of BBS trying to undo her defeat during that game, but was trapped in a virtual world by Ansem and during the time she spent there the other events of BBS took place and then the betrayl by Xehanort and the other apprentices, when ATW was betrayed and sent to the realm of darkness that's when Maleficent, without Ansem eye on her, was able to escape and return to the real world, to the time of KH2
So in conclusion
Ansem the wise wanted to know more about the keyblade war in order to prevent it and protect all worlds, using the knowledge he gathered over the years he created a virtual simulation of that era (probably thanks to Xehanort's own plans) added Ventus in an effort to enhance the world by adding a true keyblade weilder, Lauriam and Erlena were also added (we could think of them as a sort of Beta testers), they might've lost their hearts at the end of the simulation in whatever way that happens, at the same time Maleficent is trapped in the virtual world by Ansem to prevent her from changing history, the simulation continues, Xehanort takes Ventus back to destiny islands and the events of the games take place from BBS to KH2 by this time ATW has been sent to the realm of darkness and returned as DiZ, maleficent escapes the datascape (because UC is just another datascape, that's why the world of the journal in Re:Coded seems familiary to her) and Ansem after experiencing all he has, and gaining all that knowledge over the years, takes his data and places it inside a sleeping Sora, hoping that somehow the experiences of the past help save the future
 
PHEW.... so that's it. I know some parts are out of order but im writting all this from ideas I had on my head and giving it structure as I go on, I hope you found in interesting and bring forth your own ideas about what you think I got right or not so right 
Thans for reading!
May your heart be your guiding key

Good morning, afternoon and evening everyone! 
How are you doing today? 
We have seen many awesome revelations these latest months regarding Kingdom Hearts III trailers + news and man aren't they all just lovely and exciting! And what is more exciting that we are getting closer to KHIII on every single day! Which is why I am putting my hopes for one of the "uncommon worlds" that many people think that they shouldn't return in Kingdom Hearts III.

It is nothing other than the awesome desert-themed world, Agrabah:
"Agrabah! Again?!" Yes my dear friends Agrabah one more time for many reasons:
Even though it has been repeatedly appearing in most of KH games, the world comes on different redesigned locations with different puzzles, especially within the Cave of Wonders, and to be honest, I enjoyed every version of it:
                  > KHI brought the platforming designs of the city with the Cave of Wonders having the waterway puzzle which was really interesting to solve. 
                  > KHII brought a more opened designs of the city while making the Cave of Wonders more action ish with less puzzles compared to other versions, but more interestingly, it added the city ruins that added a whole new level of action to this world. Flying with the carpet and avoiding the sandstorms, tracing Jafar's clone and fighting different Heartless was so much fun to experience.
                  > KH 358/2 Days returned with more platforms within the new entrance of the Cave of Wonders through the city, and it added an enjoyable boss fight against Pete, after spying over him within the city
                  > KH Coded brought more action, puzzles and some run and gun elements that made the Cave of Wonders to look fresh and interesting to explore

and to be honest, even though we have experienced the city of Agrabah, Cave of Wonders, and the Sand Ruins, we are yet to experience the Sultan's palace and we haven't even seen the Sultan himself even though he was referred to back in Kingdom Hearts II. Additionally, we are yet to see the beloved tiger of Jasmine's, Rajah within the palace and also we are yet to see Aladdin himself wearing the prince outfit. 
Adding to that, even though we have traveled through the desert to see the Sand Ruins and the Cave of Wonders, we haven't TRULY explored the deserts of Agrabah itself. If we were to experience the events of King of Thieves, it would give us the advantage of experiencing and exploring more within the deep desert and the hideout of the thieves while also exploring the Sultan's Palace as new locations instead of having the Cave of Wonders once again.
Speaking of the hideout, the movie included a place called the Challenge Arena, in which Aladdin fought one of the strongest thieves and it would be interesting to fight in such arena and get more tournaments by the thieves similar to the routine of getting tournaments from Olympus Coliseum but only this time it would be different and freshly interesting. The thieves can add different type of challenges along with adding Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed to the list. 
I honestly see much more potentials within the world of Agrabah that are yet to be used, and being able to explore the desert while freely controlling the Carpet similar to Baymax from Big Hero 6, it would give us much more places and locations to view and see.


Besides, Kingdom Hearts III is yet to have a desert-themed Disney world so far and adding Agrabah one more time for the events of the third movie similar to how the first two movies were for KHI and KHII would be logical and would add more variety to the list of worlds of KHIII.
Some would find Keyblade Graveyard to be a replacement, but to be honest, I find Keyblade Graveyard to be more of a dry ish ground with mountain-themed locations rather than being a sandy desert-themed world and I don't personally see it as a replacement whatsoever.

So in summary, the strongest potentials that we could freshly have in Agrabah for Kingdom Hearts III are:
- Exploring the Sultan's Palace (Having Sultan and Rajah as new characters) (giving more puzzles and platforms within the palace)
- Freely controlling the Carpet and exploring the deep desert
- Exploring the hideout of thieves 
- Fighting the thieves as enemies and having Agrabah guards as NPC/ guest allies
- Having more party members with Genie, Abu and Iago joining the list along with Aladdin
- Enjoying more NPCs within the city of Agrabah and making it more lively than ever before
- Getting routinely tournaments from the Challenge Arena within the thieves hideout
- Getting side missions from the citizens of Agrabah
- Seeing all of the above with the Unreal Engine 4/ Kingdom Shader, who wouldn't wanna see that XD

So I hope I am not the only one seeing such potentials of this awesome world. Sorry for taking that long, but I just wanted to be one of the few voices that are still demanding for Agrabah at least one final time. What do you guys think?

 
                                                                                                        Sultan's Palace
Thieves Hideout
Challenge Arena