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I mean did anyone actually think Sora would be really gone? I was confused and very interested in finding out how he would return. Seeing Shibuya and Verum Rex seemingly combined and related to Sora's return makes me intrigued about what's going to happen.I don’t disagree. My point is that by creating this teaser, it opens itself to all of these questions that undermine the impact of the ending.
You’re missing my point. Why release a secret ending that, instead of enhancing Sora’s sacrifice, exists to show that Sora isn’t gone like we thought and that he’s might only just be a tad bit dead? Fans went from “Damn Sora’s actually gone” to “oh nvm he’s fine. Like always”
Do you not see what is wrong with that?
The different between ASAD/DD is that those secret endings were visually engaging and mysterious. They were telling us a story that we didn’t have the full picture to and it was fun to imagine what what happening in them.
Yozora isn’t mysterious in the same way. It’s boring. There are definitely questions that come up, but it comes at the expense of ruining the shock value and sadness over Sora’s sacrifice.
Now I know the "no one actually believed Sora was dead" thing isn't a justifiable excuse to just reveal a few minutes later that Sora is indeed alive. The teaser video could have been done better and less on the nose. However, the secret video in KH1 was put in just as a concept. Nomura didn't know if he could make KH2. I think that's why it was so vague and conceptual, rather than the Yozora ending that was more explicit. If anything, the Yozora ending makes me even more concerned for Sora because we can assume it will be the Reaper's Game and Sora will be away from his friends. After his breakdown about how he was useless without them, he is truly without them now.
At the end of the day, seeing a character die can still be emotional even when you know they're not actually dead -- great example is Spider-Man in Infinity War. We literally knew that a brand new Spider-Man film was coming out right after Endgame, so that basically confirmed he would return. Yet his death was still very emotional. I found Sora's death very emotional, even though I knew he couldn't be dead and the Yozora secret video confirmed he was still somewhere.
Aqua's ending in BbS doesn't really compare to Sora's ending. Nomura had to write her out to explain why she wasn't around for KH1, so he really had to go into detail about what was happening with her. Since Nomura (probably) had a vague idea about where he was building up to, it makes sense to show some of Aqua's time in the Realm of Darkness. That was also necessary to answer questions people inevitably had like how did she survive, did Riku/Mickey see her etc. Basically what I'm trying to say is that Aqua being placed there was to allow KH1 to make sense after TAV were introduced. It wasn't building up to a numbered sequel and/or the main character of the series. I think Nomura was scarce with the teaser video because he didn't want to spoil (and/or didn't come up with) plans for future games. Showing Aqua chatting away with Ansem The Wise just confirms she is still alive after the events of KH2 (which hints to the player that she can be saved for KH3). Would Sora waking up in Shibuya and having a conversation with Yozora where he states "I'm alone and scared, I didn't know that sacrificing myself for Kairi would send me here, I think I made a mistake" been better? I don't think so.I just don't think Sora is going to learn anything given what he knows about his character. What is he going to learn, not save his friends? You can argue that he learns about death but I assume he knew in any given battle he can die right? Like what did he think was going to happen if he lost versus Jafar. So I imagine even if Nomura never told us this that Sora is aware that death is possible during any fight. Which is always a confusing part of the story whether Sora is in actual danger of death or not in his journey.
Maybe Sora does have a character change because he died but since we might have to wait like 3 years to find out doesn't really excuse the flat-ish ending. Like Spockanort said we have no context to what Sora is feeling now which can give an idea if anything changed. I believe in BBS (it's been a while since I played it) Aqua was shown as losing hope in the realm of darkness and then deciding she needs to keep fighting. At least that gives us some insight as a cliff hanger ending.
I found KH3 to be the best KH game for development of Sora. I feel like he really grew throughout the game and felt different at the end. At the start of the game, we see him groaning about being weak and upset that he has to regain the Power of Waking (showing his immaturity and loss of control of his life). Sora's used to things just going his way and it being easy (show up, kill the Disney villain, kill Ansem, magical lights will help his friends/anyone affected by the darkness), but in KH3 he actually has struggles. He has to regain the Power of Waking -- and he has no idea where to start. His heart takes him to worlds that show him things he never witnessed before (true love/death/abandonment). He finally arrives at the Keyblade Graveyard and a fight with regular heartless goes horribly wrong -- he was probably expecting it to be easy, but then he sees all his friends die and then has a breakdown (and dies). If it weren't for Kairi, Sora would be dead. In previous games, Sora never had to make hard choices (except for his memories in CoM, although this wasn't really a hard choice), but KH3 actually presented Sora with the hardest choice of all -- should he sacrifice himself for Kairi? Throughout the whole game, Sora was pretty much out of control of the situation and weak -- whether it was the different reaction to his arrival (Buzz Lightyear not seeing him as a friend at first), not getting an easy answer from Hercules, being pressured by the Organization to regain the Power of Waking or innocent people will be hurt (Rapunzel/Anna/Elsa), even more pressure being dumped on him when he realizes that he has to take care of 3 hearts inside of him while in this weakened state, and even witnessing that a chaotic battle could result in actual death (The Caribbean). All of that built up to Sora taking control of the situation and choosing to sacrifice himself for Kairi. Throughout the game, Sora is weak, but at the end he shows the strength he has gained by making that choice. Instead of simply going back to Yen Sid's to "figure it out", Sora chose to go after Kairi.