How am I feeling about the future of KH right now? Mostly the same after KH3. I guess I'll be the villain here, Union X did not increase my excitement for the series future that much. Compared to what ReMind did for me, I found this a small step backwards if anything. Don't get me wrong, Union X was a overall nice prequel story, but I didn't find it did anything new that a BBS, DDD, or KH3 didn't already do. It feels like we were going to try something a little different with how ReMind and even MoM set things up, but now we're just buckled down on the same old stuff the series has had since 2010. 13 Darkness's, 7 light crowns, vessels to hold darkness, time travelers from the past coming into the present because of some ancient plan set in motion before the heroes were even born, body snatching. This is still Xehanort saga writing. Yes, it seems to be much better planned out this time, but it's still the same thing the series has always done.
I agree about that scene posted above about the Organization over explaining their plans. It exist because certain members got badly explained in base game like Xion and Terranort, and even conflicts with base KH3 dialogue. But is it really different from all the expositions with Darkness, Master of Masters, Luxu, data worlds, real worlds, book of prophecies, black boxes, ark time travel, mediums needed, etc that we've been getting? And in true KH fashion it leaves you with more questions then answers in a "to be continued" kind of way. I'm not saying it's bad, I love this series. But it's not changing the formula the way some think it is.
With all that said, the elements of the future I am excited for is Verum Rex with Yozora, Luxord, and Nameless Star Girl. Kairi-Riku-Sora adventure, Ephemer's Scala, Subject X, and Dream Eaters.
But overall I'm waiting for the 2022 announcement of the next big game before I get too deep into phase 2 excitement.
Yeah... this is pretty much how I feel. Union X finale didn't do much for me besides answer a few questions, bring up new ones, ignore some old questions, and never give answers to either and said "wait until the next game".
In true Kingdom Hearts fashion lol
In all honesty, its not that the new plotlines don't get me from a plot perspective. It's all very interesting stuff. Especially everything surrounding the MoM and his plans with the foretellers. He is by far the most interesting character that has been in KH for a long time. The whole 7 Darknesses still kind of feels like the last plot of the saga but we're only at the beginning and everything could be flipped on its head. The keyblade wielders becoming the dream eaters was thematically beautiful stuff. And I can't wait to see how it ties to everything going on with Yozora but, of course, that brings in some worries.
Apart from life taking its toll right now, I kept my mouth shut during the whole Union X finale because it was a lot of positivity (despite global team fumbling the ball yet again) surrounding it and God knows the world needs more of that right now. But for the life of me... it just didn't hit. Even KH3, as flawed as that game was, hit me emotionally by the end. And this didn't do it at all.
This could be personal bias because I honestly gave up on Union X and everything surrounding it a long time ago and everything in the ending, besides a few key moments, was about everything I expected the game would go. The plot is interesting but the characters don't do it for me at all. They are so god damn bland. Besides the foretellers, Brain, Sterlitzia, Luxu, MoM, and Ava, who seems to be the only characters with a personality, everyone else's personalities can be swaped with each other and I wouldn't know the difference. Say what you want about the Xehanort saga but every character was distinct from each other. Sure, everyone still had the "my friends are my power" mantra but they never acted the same and toke different actions and had variety of motivations that tied into the lore of the world and how they responded to it. Everything in Union X felt so boring and exposition heavy besides a few key moments toward the end were you felt some genuine life being breathe into this world.
Again, it could be bias. I'm going through a KH marathon right now and I'm going to rewatch Union X, so maybe my mind will change come 2022 and we have more news. But I felt way more from the past trios then I do for the characters here because at least they were interesting. At least they had arcs and character development. No one in this game goes through any sort of significant character growth. Maybe that's the point since its a prequel? I don't know but the one thing that BBS did right above this game is that, despite flaws in the writing, I cared about Aqua, Terra, and Ven and what they were going through because you understood their personalities at that point in time and how the events of the stories was changing their perspective on things. It at least sparked some genuine emotions because the writers knew you had to do the character work before you go all "wait until you see how they are in the next game!" Which yeah, that's what I thought. I want to see these characters interact with the rest we've seen so far by the end of BBS.
But with Union X, that feeling just isn't there and I think its another classic case of KH caring more about its lore then its characters lately when the two are suppose to work together 50/50. In KH1, the lore of being able to give someone back their heart after its been trapped inside yours and sacrificing your life to due so doesn't work unless you care about the characters and their motivations.
I don't know man, again maybe its something I'm missing, but I don't care about these characters and every bit of lore surrounding them that affected them in some way, besides Sterlitzia's death, just felt so "matter of fact". Like I felt the whole Ven being corrupted by darkness to commit a horrible act against his will and hurting his friend was COMPLETLY wasted. Like, what does that mean for Ven's character? I don't know, maybe something the in future with Vanitas. Cool... I guess? But what does that do for Lauriam's character? Not much since he learns immediately after that it wasn't his fault... so what are we doing here? What was the point of any of it?? I don't know, it just left me a little dumbfounded. I'm not asking for the series to have 100% god tier level character writing but like, do the bear fricking minimum.
Oh and the Player being reincarnated into Xehanort... I mean... cool I guess? I don't know, unless Dark Road plays into that in some way that's important, I honestly don't care that much. Dark Road already feels irrelevant anyways so unless something changes in the next few updates... yeah, that's how it gonna be for me on the matter
Look I'm going off on a rant but Union X didn't do much for me that the series post KH3 hasn't already done for me. It hasn't improved much honestly but it at least gave me some cool lore to ponder on. That's something I guess but if I don't care much for these characters then who cares? Its why I'm very much skeptical but somewhat optimistic on this series going forward. Because just like KH3, its not like it completely fails on what its doing and I'm still very intrigued by what's going to happen next but the character writing from KH3 and after is something that needs some vast improvement. Espeically if our characters in the present time are going to get some news arcs, which I believe they will, they need to up the stakes and motivations. That's also a fear of mine is that the characters we spent a decade building up and reuniting are going to be tossed aside in favor of the new ones. But given everything that's been set up in the finale, I don't think that'll happen at all but I know some fans want that because some think their arcs are completely done and I don't think that's the case at all. In fact, I feel like there is so much more you can do with Roxas, Xion, Aqua, Lea, Terra, Ven (obviously), Riku and especially Kairi and Namine. I don't want these characters thrown away for the sake of plot or some other stupid shit. You spent a better part of a decade building up these characters. Use them.
If I have anything left to say on Re:mind or MoM is that it did a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong. Re: Mind fixed alot about what was wrong the finale of KH3 while also not disregarding it, which was the right call. But the one thing I still think it fumbled was the Organization motivations. Honestly, we really didn't need a new Organization, they could've literally been called like "Seekers of darkness" or something else wirh better designed outfits but that's besides the point. Re: mind did an okay/good job at explaining how certain members are there but fumbled on the... why? Like, I know its Replica and time travel shenanigans for others characters but its clear Marluxia, Luxord, and Larxene remember everything that went down in COM and KH2 so... why are they still working with Organization or Xehanort at all? Why put pieces of his heart inside them? What do they gain out of this? They had something there when they all met up and Xenmas did so to get info out of them about the Union X past but that scene goes largely ignored afterwards, even in Re: mind and never comes up ever again. Why did Xemnas even care know if it never factors into anything in the game for anyone?
MoM... oh boy. Kairi just deserves writing, man. Look, I'm not mad (anymore) that she's training with Aqua, it makes a lot of sense actually. But I have a strange feeling its just to leave her in the background AGAIN and only bring her back when she's needed to for plot shenanigans, which is what she's been reduced too. Again, Re: mind fixed a lot of this (for the most part) and MoM gave her some cool moments but she just needs a lot more. And Kairi having Sora stand in for her fight with Xehanort, still really rubs me the wrong way. They really didn't need to do that at all. This Foretellers saga needs to be her arc, the same way Xehanort saga was for Riku and I do believe, despite some disagreements in the direction, is where they are headed. But they need to give her more and gradually. We need the Destiny trio back man, they've lacked meaningful interaction since the KH2 reunion scene. She needs more interaction with Riku, which was a small highlight for me in MoM, and her and Sora need... God, so much work. If Sora and Kairi are the canon romance pairing going forward (SoRiku shippers, pls don't @ about it, I'm so tired lol) then yeah, we need more of a solid relationship then what we have now. I understand what they're going for, with the whole "distance makes the heart grow fonder" and the thematic push and pull of their relationship but I think it should evolve and move away from that.
Again, my mindset on the series going forward hasn't changed much. Union X didn't sway me one way or the other. Its both simultaneously increased my hopes and my worries. I'm loving the lore stuff and it's meta concepts but, besides some characters who do get to shine, it's the character writing for others that's leaving a lot to be desired.
We'll just have to see what the next game offers.