100 Acre Wood was wholly wasted. I cried, sure, but they didn’t give it the love and respect it deserved. Three minigames that were the same...barely even 10 minutes of a plot...what a waste.
But yes, Nomura and the development team decides what they want to do. It never been about the fans, although they try to take what feedback they receive into consideration.
*Reads initial post*
Now, I'm going to hope that this is just as it claims to be at the moment: A rumor and nothing more. As I've said countless times before, there are other disney properties worth pursuing that represents an ice level better than frozen II of all things that would give Square more freedom to do what they want. Everyone knows that Frozen sucked in KH 3 and shouldn't have been implemented. It's all based on popularity at this point. It's highly unlikely that we'll see Robin Hood or the Jungle book at this point, because most of what KH 3 had to offer were new worlds that were released after the year 2000 (Olympus Coliseum notwithstanding). Don't you just miss the days were Nomura actually LISTENED to fans instead of doing what he believes is fanservice. At this point, he might as well remake that crappy Olaf short that premiered before Coco in theaters and just shoehorn SDG into the plot.
Frozen was added in before the film ever released. They got an early preview of it long before it released in any territory. I think that what we can glean from the way eat the world operates is that they did prototyping for a really interesting level design and plot, then Frozen blew up when it released and Disney reeled SE in with their plans. That left Nomura and Yasue to figure out what they could do within the new restrictions, and it led to what we got.
It’s the only explanation I can think of for that labyrinth and the weird backtracking and the weird final boss (great boss, just a weird transition to it).
But in general, Nomura has always done what he wants. Disney’s limitations were a result of a growing corporate interest in the franchise, which is why I think Nomura will likely aim for less recent films while still having a few of them in here and there like the old days. The older the IP, the less likely Disney will intervene and interject.
KH3 was a proof of concept in a way. This was their way to show off to Disney and it worked perfectly. Disney hates being involved in any aspect of game development, so I think they will hopefully step back in the future. It’s easy enough for Disney to see the reactions themselves, anyways. Fans hated Frozen in KH. Newcomers were perplexed at the strange scene-by-scene remake. It didn’t appease anybody.
I’m willing to let Frozen 2 be the second attempt where SE can show their real skills just as long as Disney lets them this time. If they can’t get that right, they Frozen needs to stay out of KH forever. I think even SE would agree because if it was rough for us fans to play, imagine how absolutely difficult it was for them to make it while dealing with Disney breathing on their necks.