Kehehehe, soo typical.
I like it definitely better than the one for 1.5, as this one looks really like one piece and not three parts stuck together. Although I do find the symmetry a bit off as there's no one beside Roxas and Mickey each (or on the other side there is one character too much each).
Maybe Mickey should have been put down beside Roxas and the Data-guys left and right with Aqua in the middle.
By this time, most of what's wrong with this cover has already been said but I prefer the 1.5 cover to this one. This one doesn't have many more characters, but I thought the advantage of having the characters separated in boxes allowed them to interact better and it felt more natural. There were little things, like Kairi playfully poking Sora's crown while he was trying too hard to look like a bad ass, Axel, Roxas, and Xion, peacefully looking at the sunset, and Riku and Mickey enjoying their time together while Namine contently watched. The characters felt like they were in their elements (well mostly. Donald and Goofy were kind of awkward and felt more like an after thought).
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With this cover half the characters look like they just don't know what to do. There's Xehanort up top looking like a troll with the headshots of Xemnas and Ansem in the background which is fine enough. Although, Xehanort looks like he snorted something which is making his face contort in a weird way. Then there's Terra who looks absolutely baked and like he's wondering if anyone else is seeing the mysterious floating Keyblades while in space, or if it's just him. Ven looks like he hit the good stuff first and is starting to crash. Aqua looks annoyed that she didn't get the grade A stuff, but still got enough of a buzz that she doesn't really know what she's mad at anymore. Mickey is tweaked that there's nothing left for him while Data!Sora and Data!Riku are getting a contact high. Sora's the only one who looks okay but Roxas is standing behind him like he has nothing better to do and like in the first cover art Donald and Goofy are just there.
Xehanort's proportions are weird; the Kingdom Key's handle is colored wrong, BOTH of them; the symmetry is off in the cascade of characters; half of them don't know what emotions are; and the Keyblades are just there awkwardly pointing at the characters like they're going to impale them. It's definitely a steep down where before they formed a cool Game of Thrones-esque thrown. It just looks rushed and full have half baked concepts. I don't know what's trying to be conveyed here.
Though to say something positive about it, I agree that the colors are great. Each character is distinctive and you can tell who's who. I like where they were going with having Roxas stand behind Sora in an almost identical pose, symbolizing that Roxas is his "shadow", but the symmetry throws it off. While it's not getting a positive reaction so far, I actually like that Roxas and Sora look younger. The characters appearances have always looked a little off in terms of age, SRK looked more like they were 10-12 in KH1, but then in KH2 they looked like they were 17-18. I know teenagers grow like weeds but they did not look like they only aged a year. I think Sora does looked like he aged, but just slightly as he should have and Roxas was made to look younger (actually, they've been drawing him like that since Days) to match. It is a shame that we didn't get KH2 Riku, Kairi and Namine but I guess that's what happens when Nomura's adamant about 13 being a prominent number.
I have to say, it does make me concerned a bit for the cover of KH3. This is something that has been brought up many times in the past-having as many relevant characters as possible on the cover. It surely can be done, Nomura has proven several times that he can really pack them in if he has to, but most of the time I feel his artwork suffers for it. The cover for 2.5 is an example of how I feel his art suffers when he tries to cram in a bunch of characters because it often involves them nonsensically staring out into the void and standing around awkwardly, and also as a result, the setting tends to diminish. I don't know what he's planning for the cover, but I reckon he'll be compelled to include as many characters as he can. Which makes me tentative at best.
Edit: One other tinsie-tiny, itty-bitty, little detail I forgot got to mention is that one of the screws in Roxas's KK as wasn't colored in, lol.
(And also not like himself.)
