I went in on this in another thread, but thought it might be an interesting topic.
Of the thirteen characters featured on the Kingdom Hearts III box art, only Sora, Axel, Donald, and Goofy tend to display a believable range of emotions and reactions to the things that happen in the story. We see these four enjoy themselves, get sad, get excited (this is a huge one), show concern for someone, and have multiple types of dynamics with different characters.
The nine other characters are honestly sadly really flat, and beyond wanting them to find each other again, and see their initial stories through, I can't honestly say I want to spend another second with any of them in this series. It's so jarring that these characters exist in a Disney franchise, where each world is bursting with fun characters and life. Meanwhile, our main narrative is centered around characters who's highest aspiration is to lifelessly sit around eating ice cream or stand next to each other on a beach.
We still don't know Terra and Aqua. We don't know what they like, we don't know what annoys them, we don't have any idea. Ten years of knowing them, hours of cutscenes with each, and they still have only the most base goals. A scene where Riku and Terra stand across from each other and laugh about nothing really doesn't do it. Ventus, meanwhile, continues to be a childish Sora expy without any of the nuance and twice the obnoxious naivety.
Roxas and Xion have a little more room to grow, as relatively new people, but as of now they're pretty dull. I think they have the highest potential for a side game that rescues their characters from ice cream eating obscurity and flat affects.
Riku and Kairi are a particularly sad situation, as they've been bleeding character for a long time. Kairi's lost a lot of her spunk and youth, and Riku's redemption arc has left him sagely, stoic, and all business. He's only two years older than he was in KH1, where he loved messing with Sora, racing, and showing off. Those aren't negative traits, and they don't need to be shaven off to show how grown he is.
What KH needs more than anything is to let the characters guide themselves based on what they want, instead of listening to the fucking wizard in the fucking tower for another installment.
Of the thirteen characters featured on the Kingdom Hearts III box art, only Sora, Axel, Donald, and Goofy tend to display a believable range of emotions and reactions to the things that happen in the story. We see these four enjoy themselves, get sad, get excited (this is a huge one), show concern for someone, and have multiple types of dynamics with different characters.
The nine other characters are honestly sadly really flat, and beyond wanting them to find each other again, and see their initial stories through, I can't honestly say I want to spend another second with any of them in this series. It's so jarring that these characters exist in a Disney franchise, where each world is bursting with fun characters and life. Meanwhile, our main narrative is centered around characters who's highest aspiration is to lifelessly sit around eating ice cream or stand next to each other on a beach.
We still don't know Terra and Aqua. We don't know what they like, we don't know what annoys them, we don't have any idea. Ten years of knowing them, hours of cutscenes with each, and they still have only the most base goals. A scene where Riku and Terra stand across from each other and laugh about nothing really doesn't do it. Ventus, meanwhile, continues to be a childish Sora expy without any of the nuance and twice the obnoxious naivety.
Roxas and Xion have a little more room to grow, as relatively new people, but as of now they're pretty dull. I think they have the highest potential for a side game that rescues their characters from ice cream eating obscurity and flat affects.
Riku and Kairi are a particularly sad situation, as they've been bleeding character for a long time. Kairi's lost a lot of her spunk and youth, and Riku's redemption arc has left him sagely, stoic, and all business. He's only two years older than he was in KH1, where he loved messing with Sora, racing, and showing off. Those aren't negative traits, and they don't need to be shaven off to show how grown he is.
What KH needs more than anything is to let the characters guide themselves based on what they want, instead of listening to the fucking wizard in the fucking tower for another installment.