FUNGoodbye

"There is one sky, one destiny." could just be one of those old sayings like "May your heart be your guiding key." I won't be surprised if it becomes something like that in the future actually. Especially considering the origin points of where Kairi's grandmother is drawing the story she tells little Kairi that quote in originally. As for Kairi and general substance it is amazing that 10 games later she still lacks so much in substance that scrutinizing quite as deep as presented above is a necessity to find substance in her character. Regardless I do hope for the sake of all the people rallying behind her that Kairi gets her day in the sun eventually. For me she's more or less a failed version of Haruno Sakura.

Amano can't be a co writer because Papa Nomura doesn't want to share. Or they both have different visions for the same product and respect each other enough to write their own visions. Thus no collaborating. Like why the woman who wrote the TV adaption of Pretty Little Liars has never gone off and written a book alongside the authoress of the books themselves.

Kairi looks 12, Sora looks 16, Riku looks 18. Aqua, Ven, and Terra haven't aged a day visually in over a decade. Should we really worry about how long its been at this point? Especially with all the time travel and world lines shenanigans that have come our way and are likely still coming.

Gaming is always something people are made fun of. If you're an adult and you play video games people think you're a big manchild/girlchild. That has nothing to do with how mainstream gaming itself is.

"when gaming became mainstream" you mean the 1990s?

Pirates was a good pick but skipping to the 3rd film was a bad move. And the crabs thing was dumb and such an excuse for padding.

Sora will disappear IMHO because he chooses to rewrite an event that was destined to happen. He chose to go back and unwrite Kairi's death thus died. We end back at square one where we left off. Realign for secret ending. Otherwise Nomura is going to head into Dragon Ball Super levels of stupidity. Universe 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 etc. I could only sit through so much of Dragon Ball Super so I really hope Kingdom Hearts is not heading that route. It's one thing for the world to have been so far gone in the age of fairytales that they had to move everyone to a new worldline in Union Cross if they start worldline hopping in the present I'm probably going to give up on Kingdom Hearts quite quickly beloved characters or no.

People always forget that Riku is a being of strong light as well as strong darkness and there is no denying that when Sora first gains consciousness in the lightstream the light he's looking at is definitely not Kairi's in his eyes if the first thing outta his mouth is Riku's name with such certainty. He is not asking he's demanding that Riku answer him. It's the tone that pretty much affirms that it is Riku's light he's staring ahead at rather than Kairi's. It reminds me of how in Birth by Sleep every LP I come across has people be super shocked when Terra is reacting to Riku's light instead of Sora's when he shows up on Destiny Islands. At age 5 Riku's light was bright enough to turn Destiny Islands into a venerable beacon for Terra to follow. Please don't tell me this boy can't contend with Kairi's light just because she's a princess of heart and he is a boy who struggled with his inner darkness.

If the Sleeping Realm theory checks out a lot of stuff that's just fanservice can be explained as its possible because they're in a dream. And more and more of that theory becomes likely the more we see of Re:Mind. Wait on it guys. In typical fashion most of it will eventually make sense. And then more questions will arise because Papa Nomura can't help himself.

I think that it is more that he picks some of the worst things to over explain. For example: Sora's side of the KH1 journey. We know so much of that enough that people dread how much he's gone back to KH1 because they know he's just gonna keep retreading Sora's side of the journey through it. If he'd go back and make a real effort to fill in what Riku was up to with the villains council it wouldn't bother people quite as much to inevitably revisit KH1 again. The little breadcrumbs in Chain of Memories and Coded were nice, but what we needed from retreads of KH1 was more of Riku's side not Sora's. And of course the original keyblade war. It kills off a lot of the mystique of such an event if you bring it so center stage as he has with Union Cross. Even if he has turned it into a necessary evil by making key figures from that era important for the next saga and giving present day characters ties to that era.

And why Young Xehanort told Riku he was the only person he had to plan around instead of for back in dream drop distance. Nomura tends to forget certain minor details. He still hasn't explained how Riku got his hands on Destiny's Embrace to give to Kairi in KH2 so many years later remember? I fear Way to Dawn breaking is going to go similarly unexplained.

Evi98 the fruit sharing scene gets more odd if you view it in Japanese over English. It isn't meant to be romantic at all. At least in the Japanese they're not trying so hard to force the context into romance. Although as a Sokai fan you should be pleased to know that Sora and Riku's Japanese VAs had an infamous chat on a radio program about it and Riku's VA thought the scene was definitely meant to be a romantic one while Sora's didn't.

Kairi about to give Sora the fruit and Sora literally asking "why is Riku all alone?"

Kairi shrank like crazy since KH2 is what I always think when looking at her in KH3. I just can't help it. She's so tiny for no reason. In hindsight the fact she looks so cutesy should've also been a huge red flag to the fact she wasn't going to be doing anything awesome outside of deux ex machina means in the game, but I literally didn't even think about it considering I live for the Tales series and well, the cute ones are usually the most deadly in that series.

@Evi98 - At the rate Final Fantasy is going Kingdom Hearts very well could outlive it. At the moment Square doesn't know what it is doing when it comes to making anymore original mothership entries for Final Fantasy and is just focusing on remakes and remasters of mothership entries from its golden era of VII - X-2 or considering further sequels to those games after the modest successes of the mixed reception for the XIII games (and aforementioned X-2 which had a pretty incredible initial reception that went mixed as time went on and downright sour the more time that has passed). Just look into what their current Final Fantasy projects are an FF7 remake that they want to stretch out into an episodic format for maximum cash grab and possibly FFX-3 which nobody's asking for (with the majority consensus being that the FFX and FFX-2 games work as a perfectly solid duology and should be left alone no matter how interesting Spira and the characters are).

While Re:Mind will probably let me down in regards to Riku as much as vanilla KH3 did I found this a few minutes ago and it made me smile. https://www.tokyohive.com/article/2019/09/miyano-mamoru-to-become-first-voice-actor-to-perform-at-a-dome-venue - Get it Miyano-san!

By Ama's logic Goofy shouldn't have any lines either. His Japanese VA died at age 70.

Didn't actually know about the dual audio for the Japanese version at the time I made my initial post. That's interesting, but it doesn't change much. DLC really is a completely different beast with many Japanese games not having their DLC released in the west at all due to how many parties are involved so my points still held plenty of merit.

Apparently they ran out of stuff to show in regards to Riku. Was glad to see Sora with Oblivion again and more Namine.

^For me it's both. I would prefer to see musical numbers if they're part of the world in a style more like in KH2's Atlantica. Where they are a part of the story being told within the world that involves the playable character(s) rather than just recreating the scenes from the musical numbers from the movies for the sake of recreating them because they're iconic and thus to be expected. In the case of Frozen while Let it Go is crucial to Elsa as a character that doesn't come across in the storytelling of KH3's Arendelle. We don't get enough of Elsa's struggle to really get that feeling that her performing Let it Go is special like it is in the film itself. By contrast they didn't fully recreate Do You Wanna Build A Snowman, but that was taken and integrated nicely into a conversation between Sora and Anna where Sora reflected on how Elsa running away from Anna in hopes of protecting her from a power she can't control was reminiscent of how Riku chose to stay in the Realm of Darkness to protect him from the hold that darkness still had over him at the time. Looking back on KH2 Atlantica it's one of my favorite worlds in that game because Sora, Donald, and Goofy get to take a break from all the fighting and insanity going on and just catch up with some old friends in this world and cheer Ariel up. The musical numbers have a purpose and they're simple in their execution. The songs aren't anything to write home about, but as long as you haven't lost touch with your inner child you can still acknowledge them for the cute and fun little adventure they provide and enjoy it. It's also an interesting idea to be capping it off with a musical theater mini game battle against Ursula. It isn't really clear by that point if you're fighting a memory of Ursula or if she somehow revived and invaded and decided to crash the musical (also, are they still even rehearsing or what?!), but it doesn't matter what she is because it is amusing beyond belief and yeah, in particular the first time around that this is experienced it definitely can make for a weirdly fun time. It does help a lot that while this world is in the game you have the option to skip it entirely if you want to though. They seemed very much aware that this wouldn't be to certain gamers tastes and made a wise decision to make it optional unless you're aiming at 100% completion.

The criticisms toward Dream Drop Distance are honestly much too harsh: 1: Plot Takes a Nosedive. -This is a myth. There were several hints in previous games that Nobodies could either grow a heart or had hearts all along. Turning back into a Somebody after your Heartless and Nobody get destroyed is hardly the shocker that the fans tend to make it out to be when they first play this game and this is revealed to them. Time travel is a necessary evil and honestly a long time coming. There was simply no way they wouldn't tie the era of the original keyblade war and the current one together somehow and the mysterious origins of certain characters was all pointing towards time travel. Nevermind Xehanort himself doing it to play puppet master over so many individuals and lend himself more and more credibility as a big bad for the saga as a whole, time travel was essential for the future of the series itself. -Within the confines of the game itself the plot is operating by way of natural progression and makes sense. Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody have been destroyed thus the return of Xehanort himself is eminent so it is time to put Sora and Riku through the Mark of Mastery exam. There is nothing wrong with that base. It's a perfectly logical place to go after KH2. The twists that arise are perhaps jarring at first especially if you haven't been able to keep up with the plot of all the previous games, but not anything so out of this world that they couldn't be anticipated and they do exactly what they were intended to do which is set things up for KH3 while bringing all the previous games together in one neat little package. 2: Nevermind the gameplay being difficult to get used to or the fact that sometimes what I elected to do was cancelled out by the enemy, the drop gauge makes it unplayable. -This is a flat out lie. In the case of enemies cancelling out what you're trying to do I notice from personal experience with the game and from watching many a let's play that it mostly happens in boss battles. The standard enemies don't normally give trouble with cancelling out what you're trying to do. And then there is the drop gauge. This is honestly not an issue. Drop Me Not and Drop Me Never are a thing. Furthermore there is zero negative consequence to dropping unless you're stupid enough to head into a boss fight when you're low on time. The majority of the bosses in this game are located seconds away from a save point for a reason. If you don't think you have enough time to beat the boss don't go fight it during your current session. Drop to the other character and then come back. 3: The Virtual Pet Aspect -The Dream Eaters you can make to have as allies on your team are treated as an inherent problem when really they're just a pet peeve. Some people simply didn't appreciate having a dose of Pokemon/Nintendogs/Nanopets/Gigapets/Tamagotchi built into a Kingdom Hearts game. I always found it quite silly that this was something to hate about this game. Mainly because you only need to make a handful of Dream Eaters at best to get through the game. 4: Sora's character does a 180. -This one just always makes me laugh because Sora is so Sora in this game that it hurts.

It is highly unlikely that they wouldn't release it for Xbox One. And even though the previous games have been put on PS4 as a collection and KH3 is on PS4 the series has never been a PlayStation exclusive thing. Relax. If you can worry about anything in regards to it it's whether it will come out at the same time as on the PS4 or some time after. That part of the equation could be in question. The west in general should worry if at least Japan doesn't have the Re:Mind DLC in December because if they don't get it in December it means they're getting it in January 2020 or later which means the west will probably be waiting until Summer 2020 to avoid interference with the launch of FF7R which they'll want to capitalize as much as possible on off the western audience who didn't swallow up the original release of FF7 back 1997 the same that Japan did and are the real ones who've been anticipating the remake since the explosion of popularity the FF7 cast has gained in the years since the original game's release with the rise of other Final Fantasy titles. It's my personal theory that they'll hold the launch of Re:Mind for simultaneous release give or take a few days much like with vanilla KH3 until specifically a year after vanilla KH3 launched so we'll see come January 2020 if I'm right or if they pull the trigger sooner with at least Japan getting lucky in December 2019. They did say this winter in the teaser trailer, but then Nomura and Yasue both specified that they're aiming for before FF7R.

Nomura's interview for the KH3 Ultimania could clear this up. He did say in it that he went back and forth with the decision of making other characters playable for the fights in the graveyard over Sora, but felt things would get too confusing for the gamer and thus went with having Sora as the player's character for all the fights. I think Re:Mind really is going to give us the reverse scenario somehow.

Seems like everybody has forgotten that this is just Xehanort in a nutshell. He's a very behind the scenes kind of dude. We didn't get Ansem Seeker of Darkness until the last quarter of KH1 minus the scene with him as Mr. Robe Guy on Destiny Islands at the beginning. We knew Xemnas as The Superior all throughout Chain of Memories and he didn't even show himself personally to our faces until the midpoint of KH2. He's known as The Superior for most of 358/2 Days too. Old Man Xehanort is only ever on screen in Birth by Sleep when its convenient for him otherwise he's directing things like a puppet master guiding Terra, Ven, Aqua, Vanitas, Mickey, Eraqus, and the future members of the Organization we see as kids and young adults in this one to where he wants them to land. And probably, considering how many steps ahead he's been known to think and plan, already working on how to manipulate Ansem the Wise out of the equation if he doesn't cooperate with his plans and share in his ideals in the end. It's not really surprising that he'd be so behind the scenes and end game-y in KH3. Even Young Xehanort keeps himself a mystery for a chunk of Dream Drop Distance despite actually showing himself to the player quite often which makes him a surprise for those who haven't seen the scene with him from Re:Coded beforehand. I sincerely doubt that the deaths of either of his previous voice actors was why he had such limited screentime in KH3. It's just a matter of what kind of villain he is. He even makes a point of waging a patient and relatively peaceful war. Only causing as much of a stir in the worlds as necessary to get the Guardians of Light exactly where he wants them. I wouldn't count on Re:Mind "fixing" anything about Old Man Xehanort. In fact about the only Xehanort incarnation I expect to be explored further in Re:Mind is Young Xehanort before he went golden eyed as we've seen in the trailer and also as Nomura had claimed for a while now that he wanted to do. He's gotta get as much of what he can from that game he had to shelve about Young Xehanort and Young Eraqus out as he can and Re:Mind is either where he'll start doing it or where he'll plain out do it in its entirety until he feels he's shared all the important things that would've gone into that game assuming the other people high on the regularly scheduled Kingdom Hearts games creation team don't want Xehanort bleeding into the next saga in any way and would not be okay with him leaving the character open for future appearances even after the Re:Mind DLC.

I'd love to see a revisit to the La Cite de Cloches by Riku where he can bond with the real Esmeralda, Quasimodo, and Captain Phoebes. Better yet if they stick with the whole idea that the bonds formed with others never really fade away and those three remember him to some degree. Also we simply must see the gang from The World Ends With You again. I am sure that a lot of the old Disney property worlds still have plenty of life in them for Kingdom Hearts and since most of their original stories were already exhausted and they're older works I can easily imagine them being some of the better worked in worlds where Disney lets Nomura get pretty creative with the story told in them and how the characters will bond with Sora, Donald, and Goofy or whoever happens to be in the player party when visiting them. I worry a lot for worlds like Arendelle and Kingdom of Corona story wise after KH3. They just were not good worlds from that particular angle and they highlight why having mostly newer IPs in the games would be a big mistake.