I don't expect either of our opinions to be altered, but... I guess I find this a strange way to diminish a game which integrates its worlds much better than it has in the past. You could just as easily find fault with KH1's world integration in the same way if you chose to and argue that many of KH1’s worlds aren’t really important in the scheme of that game's ending either if you get down to brass tacks.
Not just as easily. The Disney content has always had to justify the space it shares with the original content and storyline because, at face value, the two aspects don't readily converge, but the reality is some titles do this better and/or with greater innovation than others. In KH1, all of the primary villains for the bulk stretch of the game originate from the worlds we visit, and that ties the worlds inherently to the larger conflict because the ones who are moving it along have a vested reason to visit/appear in those worlds-- and it is typically within those worlds that these villains are confronted and their arcs are brought to a conclusion. It's not just about the surface narrative, either; the thematic integration in KH1 is top-notch, with great, bold ideas like having the Beast travel to another world in search of Belle based purely on the power of his connection to her, or Ariel's storyline focusing not on her love for a prince but her expansive desire to see the worlds outside of her own, or Tarzan's refrain of the word "heart" being revealed in the final scene of that world to reinforce just how central that concept will be to everything going forward, or the Princesses of Heart acting as legendary pillars of light whose power is the key to accessing Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds; these motifs reframe our understanding of who these characters are specifically within the context of a KH game and it makes them feel like they belong in the universe and that they're participants in the events that are impacting their worlds-- even those we don't witness firsthand, thanks to details like including the Fairy Godmother in Merlin's house and having her help restore the powerful hearts of lost warriors scattered throughout the worlds. KH3 has nothing like this-- the better opportunities it does have to capitalize on and clarify important ideas like the nature of the heart in Toy Box (and how anything can have one) are bogged down by contrived, outlandish, indulgent diversions like "splitting the world in two" or whatever, concepts which are poorly explained and overtax the premise of the Disney settings, wrecking their self-contained charm and making them less about the characters in those worlds and their lives and more about how cryptic and edgy Xehanort's personalities can act while the Disney characters are literally left to say shit like, "Whatever you're talking about, I don't care." Of course you don't, Woody, you have no reason to care, and the problem is, neither do I.
Aside from the PoH plot, which at most affects only 1 world in particular (Agrabah), since Sora has no idea about what happens to Alice or why during Wonderland, none of the worlds actually tie into the ending's plot.
Except that the Princess's of Heart themselves are the running narrative thread that ties into the endgame and the central mystery of "what happened to Kairi" is resolved through that storyline. The player is also meant to wonder what happened to Alice (more specifically,
why it happened), and gradually piecing it together along with Sora is one of the ways the game builds intrigue which is then paid off when we reach the final world and everything is revealed. Again, KH3 has nothing like this: the main "mystery" is what the Power of Waking is, a concept that, in the end, is nebulously defined as "something about love or something" and its intended usage is uninformative as to the events that have occurred throughout the game; achieving the Power of Waking has no sense of pay off, because SDG have no way of knowing how to obtain it or find it. There's no method, it's just "learn to feel the Will of the Force" but drawn out for hours using the most basic, colorless narrative templates to drive at a conclusion that seems fraught with inconsistencies and fickle in its endgame relevance. First Sora needs the PoW to save Aqua, then he doesn't. Sora theoretically uses the PoW to save Ven, but honestly it just looks like he dove into Ven's heart-- the same as Riku dove into Sora's to wake him up in DDD, except that should be even easier for Sora since he has Ven's heart inside of his own. Sora doesn't use the PoW to bring back Xion, Roxas, Namine, or Terra-- so it has no bearing on resolving the storylines and mysteries surrounding these characters which are
supposed to be at the core of KH3. The only reason it was introduced in KH3, ultimately, is to lay the foundations for the plot of whatever the next game is by giving Nomura a way to "kill off" Sora. There's a reason the Final World sequence focuses on Chirithy and the Nameless Star and turns Namine into an afterthought.
The backstory we learn about the Keyblade in Atlantica is never called back to
But it burdens Sora (and the player) with the knowledge of the Keyblade's potential destructiveness and complicates his (and our) relationship to it by reframing the legendary weapon
as a weapon which has, in the vocabulary of the series, as much darkness to it as light. This is an important step for the narrative to take because up until that point, we could be forgiven for forgetting that the Keyblade is anything but a tool for good: Sora's usage of it aligns with his goals and ideals, and for a long time that's the only perspective we have on it. But once we get to Hollow Bastion, though Tritan's words are not explicitly recalled, the spirit of them is absolutely reinforced, when the Keyblade leaves Sora for a more powerful wielder who exists in contrast with him. Subtext matters-- but not in KH3, where it's considered far more effective to wallow in self-aware deprecation and generic slapstick.
Neverland only stretches out the plot in the same way as the stuff with Aqua in KH3 does, considering the conflict with Riku had already been setup in Monstro and the actual confrontation / rescue of Kairi is put off to the final worlds
This is a really shaky comparison, but actually an important one to make I think because it so effectively highlights the discrepancies between how KH used to structure its narratives and how KH3 confuses a handful of exclamatory assertions about important plot jargon to an actual conveyance of narrative significance and relevance.
Let's start with the confrontation with Riku, which is not set up in Monstro, but in Destiny Islands, in one of the opening moments of the game. From that moment when Sora reaches for Riku's hand in the darkness and stumbles into the Keyblade in a flash of bright light, the message is clear: Riku and Sora are now polarized as protagonists, and this will come to blows. What happens throughout the game, and the reason why that confrontation doesn't come sooner, is that
Riku has his own journey to go on. In order for that confrontation to be meaningful, Riku has to ascertain his own reasons and rationale for his desires and how he aims to achieve them-- and he has to realize that, ultimately, that may mean crossing paths with Sora as his enemy. Everything we see Riku do throughout the game, including and especially his actions in Neverland, lead him to that moment in Hollow Bastion, when he takes back his Keyblade, loses it permanently to Sora, and succumbs to Ansem SoD's manipulations, all of which sets him on a longer cyclical path towards redemption. Riku is lastingly, identifiably changed through the events of KH1: the person he is at the end of the story, and the person he was at the beginning, are vastly different-- Riku rises rapidly to the peak of his power and, in many ways, reveals his own true heart in the process, only for that revelation to humble him and drag him (literally) to the depths of the universe he sought to know more of, just as quickly.
Kairi, I think, is an even more interesting case to compare with Aqua, because superficially they're constricted to the same Damsel in Distress plot mechanic, and yet there's the manner of how this story is told to consider, which serves to further underscore my argument. In KH1, Kairi's disappearance and rediscovery are central to Sora's journey, and yet, although it takes nearly the entirety of the game to achieve her rescue, all of the elements we need to understand and become invested in what happened to her are visually conveyed-- again-- right at the beginning. By linking Kairi's disappearance to the loss of Sora's home world, the narrative connects these two occurrences dramatically and, thus, emotionally: Kairi, for Sora, becomes symbolic of the "home" that was lost and Sora's desperate efforts to return to it are intimately associated with his need to find Kairi. As for what happened to Kairi specifically, the individual facts of her condition (and the solution to it) are placed throughout the worlds in the form of Sora's visions of her, his feelings of connection to what we later learn to be the place of her birth, his growing knowledge of the PoH and the greater struggle between light and darkness, and the general development of a KH vocabulary and mythology on the subject of hearts, worlds, and their composite elements. All of this comes into play and is made grounded and tangible the moment Sora comes to realize that Kairi has been with him the entire time, bringing his entire journey full circle and reconstructing our understand of Kairi's role in dramatic fashion: she was never actually in danger, she was on the journey with us. When Sora reverses the efforts of Maleficent and Ansem and restores the Princess's hearts, Kairi is immediately aware of what's happening and it's through her instinctive application of her power that she and Sora are actually, finally reunited-- and the reason we understand that moment is that throughout the entire game we've been receiving information that points to an emotional context which defines and amplifies what these two characters mean to each other, and the importance and the value of their connection (later reinforced and symbolized through the Oathkeeper keychain). Furthermore, Kairi's restoration of Sora makes concrete the idea that forms the basis for the story's final resolution: it's no coincidence that the last scenes of the game center Kairi as the Destiny Islands literally sprout up around her, bookending the thesis which had run throughout the entire story.
The Aquanort detour in KH3 accomplishes nothing on this scale or with this level of resonance. Unlike Riku, Aqua is not changed from her experience of falling to darkness, because it was never an intrinsic element in her struggle within herself. Aqua doesn't have anything to lose in the Realm of Darkness other than her faith in herself and others, and as we see in 0.2 and as is reinforced in KH3, that faith is restored. Aqua doesn't fall to darkness as a result of her own actions or desires: she is forced into it, and then forced out of it, with absolutely nothing occurring in the interim to help make sense of her character or give her anything to grow from in the aftermath. She isn't "redeemed" because she was never guilty of wrongdoing; she isn't even the central focus of the very scene in which she is corrupted-- that scene is used to lay sequel bait and she's an afterthought who has to be positioned in this way so that other characters will benefit from reacting to her situation. When compared with Kairi, there's absolutely no sense of intrigue as to what occurred with Aqua, because we see it before any of the characters do, and so the journey other characters go on to find her is nothing but a wild goose chase: they learn nothing that gives them a fuller view of her circumstances and after hours of accomplishing exactly nothing, Riku and Mickey end up back where they were at the start and even
then they aren't able to successfully act on her rescue. When Sora finally does save her, there's nothing at all to ground his actions-- we know he doesn't remember meeting Aqua, Aqua doesn't react at all to seeing him, it's not some "connection" they have or even Sora's connection to her through Ven that helps Aqua regain herself. After Sora defeats her, Aqua is released from the darkness arbitrarily-- even by KH standards we have no point of reference for understanding why or how Sora did what Riku and Mickey together could not accomplish. It's a cop out that reveals the shallow level of thought that went into her inclusion in KH3: nothing is revealed about Aqua that wasn't already clear from BBS and 0.2, she gains nothing from her time being corrupted-- it's not even clear if it's her own darkness, Ansem SoD's darkness, or the Realm of Darkness's darkness that does her in-- and we're never rewarded with a broader understanding of the universal relationship between Aqua's condition and the efforts of the heroes, which makes it all pointless. We spend hours and hours being told that Sora can't be the one to save Aqua until he fulfills an objective that is stated to matter above all other priorities, and then he goes and does it anyway with zero consequences. It's simply that bad.
all the Disney villains are canon-fodder besides Maleficent and even she is usurped by a character who had no involvement in the middle of the game
The Disney villains are the root of the entire conflict in KH1, the fact that Sora stops them from casting their worlds into darkness and they aren't saved for a boss gauntlet at the end gives them greater purpose within the story, not less, because Sora is making actual achievements fighting back against the evil confronting him. In a game where he knows less about who they are and what he's actually trying to achieve than in KH3, ironically. When Sora stops Davy Jones in PotC, that's a meaningless act, because in the grand scheme of things Davy Jones didn't actually represent a threat to his own world, he's acting in his capacity as an organic part of it-- he just represented a threat to Sora's friends, and Sora didn't like that. That's Shan Yu tier irrelevance, but unlike Land of Dragons, Sora learns nothing useful from visiting PotC and neither do the villains, who basically write it off as a waste of time. That's after the world teases Tia Dalma's potential to aid SDG in their quest, something which is completely dropped when she exits stage right never to return. Imagine if SDG visited Land of Dragons and the Emperor was like, "Hey I've got some cool information for you, go fight that Heartless dragon" and then they do it and return to the palace and he's just gone, lol. Wow.
locking the Keyholes throughout ultimately was pointless, too, since Sora shuts the KH at the end of the game which makes them irrelevant.
Sora didn't know that closing Kingdom Hearts would restore the worlds, he didn't even know what Kingdom Hearts was for most of the game, and neither did we. The only way to protect the remaining worlds was to lock the Keyholes so that no more worlds could be lost like Sora's was, and no more loved ones separated from each other: that's his entire point of reference as a character and it gives him just motivation, it drives him, and with every keyhole locked or every Disney villain dispatched, Sora advances to the next stage and the story builds upon itself. In KH3, Sora has no clear motivation
or direction; despite the fact that the fate of every world is once again on the line, he acts with zero urgency and doesn't (any more than we do) even understand what it is he's trying to accomplish. Because we have no information, we have no way of comprehending when progress has been made in real time. It's the worst way to structure a continuous narrative, because if we don't know what he's trying to do, how do we know what constitutes an ending to each individual arc?
At the end of the day, the scenes with Aqua, Ienzo, Lea & Kairi, the PoH subplot, and the Darknesses (both inbetween and throughout the Disney worlds) all relate to the central plot leading up to the KG which is the assembly of the 13 Darknesses and 7 Lights.
They do relate, but they don't amplify, enhance or clarify that central plot. We don't enter the Keyblade Graveyard after 15 hours of Disney worlds with a better understanding of what that conflict is, what Xehanort's goals are, what the Guardians themselves hope to achieve-- or how. The game could have actually started with Aqua and Ven being saved and everyone heading there and nothing would be different about the confrontation, because the characters enter that confrontation just as clueless as ever, with no plan or even a strong sense of relationship and camaraderie one another, after basically winging it and lucking out for the entire prelude.
I really don't get the "as soon as the Guardians were assembled how could you do anything else than going to the Keyblade Graveyard" argument.
In the first place, it makes no sense that the Guardians would go to the Keyblade Graveyard, especially without a fully formed plan of attack based on an actual, comprehensive understanding of what Xehanort intends to throw at them. Xehanort can't launch his assault on them, he needs them to go there, so they had plenty of time to do recon, try to find Terra, build up their ranks by bringing back the other missing Keyblade wielders, and basically make every effort to fuck up his agenda and it's completely nonsensical that they walk right into his plan when there's zero benefit to them. If the New Lights are the concern, Sora knows that the Seekers haven't found all of them, so their goal might be to find and protect the others
before Xehanort can get to them, which removes the threat of hostages-- gee, that sounds like a pretty good reason to go searching through Disney worlds, doesn't it? Other Guardians could be tasked with seeking out information how to restore lost hearts (you know, the same thing Xehanort was having his lackeys look into in worlds like Toy Box and San Fransokyo) because the priority for Sora and the protagonists shouldn't be "fight Xehanort," it should be "bring back those we've lost." I also think it would have been perfectly natural if Aqua and Ven had outright declined to participate in the plan to go fight Xehanort in the Graveyard, because they have personally been in that exact situation (in which it was three against one in their favor, not thirteen against seven opposing them) and they already know how that works out. I can imagine a scenario where the priority for Aqua and Ven is finding Terra, and it's through that subplot that they are roped back into the conflict when it's confirmed that he's a Seeker and they know the only way they can save him is to release him from Xehanort's influence.
It's not hard to think up very simple ways in which KH3 could be structured around the individual perspectives and inclinations of its characters and how both conflict and its solutions could be derived from that collective approach to the material, but KH3 always opts for convenience over evocation and contrivance over personality. The Keyblade skirmish and the restoration of fan favorites is treated as an obstacle Nomura needed to overcome (and apparently a lot of fans see it that way too) rather than the opportunity it was to further define and reveal these characters for who they really are. You're absolutely right when you say it was Nomura's job to write the story better; it's not our job to make excuses for why it's so poorly actualized.