GameInformer interviews Yasue on KH3's difficulty, post-game content, favorite moments

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The annual Game Developers Conference is taking place this week in San Francisco, and Kingdom Hearts 3 Co-Director Tai Yasue is in attendance. Gameinformer's Kimberly Wallace had the opportunity to speak with Yasue about the game, delving into the reasons behind certain criticisms such as the low difficulty and lack of post-game content, as well as discussing his favorite moment.

One of the most well known aspects of Kingdom Hearts games is the Critical Mode difficulty option that accompanies major titles. They may be available right from the start, but more traditionally they are unlocked after completing the game once. So it came as quite a surprise when players discovered that not only was Critical Mode completely absent in Kingdom Hearts 3, but the difficulty all across the board had also been noticeably toned down.

Yasue admitted that he expected to receive a lot of feedback about the game being on the easy side, but that level was what the team was aiming for. They were targeting a specific audience, such as the younger generation who are being introduced to the franchise through Kingdom Hearts 3 without having played previous installments. Recent trends have indicated a signicficant decrease in players finishing games, regardless of the genre. If players struggle too much, they may be discouraged from continuing so the team wanted to ensure that as many players as possible would be able to play Kingdom Hearts 3 through to completion. 

As for the lack of post-game content such as optional bosses, Yasue acknowledged the concerns, confirmimg that the team reads through all of the feedback and understand where players are coming from. Although they're not ready to reveal what exactly they have in store, he wants players to know that the minimal post-game content wasn't because they had to cut content, but they wanted to focus on the new Disney worlds and enhance the experience therein to the best of their abilities. 

Kingdom Hearts is a series well known for its spectacles, and one of the biggest in Kingdom Hearts 3 was the 1000 Heartless (+ Nobody + Unversed) battle, due in part to the return of the Big Magic Railroad Attraction Flow. However, players will be surprised to hear that it actually hadn't been added to the battle by the time the master was completed. Big Magic Railroad was only used once before against the Rock Titan in Olympus so Yasue, feeling that it would provide a great conclusion to such a climactic moment, decided to add it in at the last minute.

But Yasue's favorite moment in the game was the ending sequence in the Keyblade Graveyard, facing a gauntlet of boss battles and reuniting with familiar characters. It was very emotional for Yasue, especially with the reunion of Terra, Aqua and Ventus. Birth by Sleep was one of the first Kingdom Hearts titles he worked on, and he recalls that working on it at the end when the three are separated was very upsetting. Many years later, he was finally able to bring them back together again, which made it a truly special moment.

Read the full interview on GameInformer.

 

[MATGSY]

n regards to boss fights, he said, "We felt that it was enough. When you're playing the game, you don't want boss fights all of the time, right?

You all don't speak for me.

 

[Zettaflare]

He was surprised people were disappointed over the lack of FF characters?

Again the characters that needed to be saved dont appear until after all the Disney worlds are completed. The FF cast wouldnt have interfered with the main story in the slightest

 

[SuperNova]

Well I’m glad to hear that Yasue is aware of the criticisms being leveled at the game specifically with the lack of post game content. Heres to hoping that they actually add some meatier optional boss battles or something in the way of post game because battle portals don’t really do it for me.

 

[WhinyAcademic]

I feel like we should’ve gotten multiple sections of the 10K Heartless battle. One segment where your party is SDG + Riku and Mickey, one segment where your party is SDG + Aqua and Ven, a segment with Kairi and Lea, and then maybe one last segment with just SDG. With each group having their own limit attacks Sora can perform with them.

I didn’t mind the glut of endgame boss fights towards the end, but I can certainly understand why some would. The second time I played through it, I actually was exhausted by the time I got to the Chief Xehanort’s. I would’ve added one more fight where you play as Lingering Will against Terra Xehanort, but you get the II FM+ moves like the whip and the cannon.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

This whole "we made it easier to target an audience" thing stills burns my brownies. It's like they forgot what Easy Mode is for.

When you're playing the game, you don't want boss fights all of the time, right?

Yes, actually.

He was surprised people were disappointed over the lack of FF characters?

Again the characters that needed to be saved dont appear until after all the Disney worlds are completed. The FF cast wouldnt have interfered with the main story in the slightest

It's amazing how detached from reality these guys can be. lol

I remember there was a Nomura interview where he thought since there's so many FF crossover games nowadays, that they weren't necessary for KH anymore. Completely ignoring the main appeal of KH is it being a Disney/FF crossover.

I'm perfectly fine with there being no new FF characters appearing in KH3, but you can't pretend that the Restoration Committee, the FF characters relevant to the main story, don't exist.

 

[Hirokey123]

I mean I don't think this isn't so much a detachment from reality as it is fans overstating the importance of an element that they never meant to be as important as many treat it. The FF characters are cameos, they've always been cameos and stated to be such since the very first game (the game is marketed as a Disney Square crossover with FF cameos, it's the fanbase and unofficial sites that liked to spread and say it's a Disney x FF crossover drastically overplaying the FF presence). It was flat out told to us that it was a way to draw in new fans when KH was a fledgeling series without an established core base to draw upon, and a way to fill in KH's original worlds because Nomura felt that Disney characters wouldn't really fit there doing the kinds of roles we see them doing. But they are a crutch the series doesn't need to lean on anymore and hasn't been since KH2. Which was the last game before we had a large cast of good guy characters to takeover and carry the series themselves.

Which doesn't mean you can't like them or enjoy them, but really of all the things people complain about for KH3 this always came off to me more as a bit...petty than a legit complaint. Like you hear time and time again people complaining about how KH does too much fanservice but then the same people will turn around and complain on the lack of FF characters who are ONLY fanservice at this point and nothing else. Because if there was a role they could do it would be better filled by the many numerous original characters that should be getting screen time.

I will always enjoy seeing the FF characters for fun, but if they aren't there I just fail to see how anything is really lost either. It's like the KH games are already full fledge cakes of varying size and quality, and stuff like Square cameos are sprinkles. Nice to have but if you lack them you still have a full cake to eat. So yeah I can understand why Yasue would be surprised, it's a lot of silly huff over a relatively minor element.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I get that they wanted to make this easy for new fans...but kids literally play Fortnite all day. THEY GOOD, YASUE. THEY GOOD.

Also that is what BEGINNER MODE IS FOR. Proud should have been kicking our asses at least a little bit. Whenever I DID die, it was because of dumb reasons and not because I was having a hard time playing the game.

Also the lack of being aware that people wanted FF characters...Like I swear this is something that was always brought up by fans even during the BBS/Days/coded days. They were wondering where the FF characters were and Nomura was like "oh we didn't want to have too many and overwhelm the story" and everybody said "NO PLEASE SHOW THEM"

Many of us don't care how many FF crossover projects they have going on. That isn't us getting to see Donald talk to Cloud Strife or Merlin arguing with Cid. That isn't resolving the plot of Radiant Garden. What do Leon and the Restoration guys feel about THE VERY PEOPLE WHO LED THEIR WORLD TO RUIN COMING BACK AND TAKING OVER THE CASTLE LIKE NOTHING. There are narrative reasons why we wanted to see them again.

And their BS answer about it interfering with the story. NO. We don't even deal with the main cast until the LAST FOUR HOURS.

I respect and admire the entire KH team. Yasue is my favorite director at SE.

I just really wish they had taken the time to really think about this stuff before just moving ahead and assuming these things. I get that they had issues with the game and I know a lot of what he is saying could very well be PR talk, but still.

ugh.

I mean I don't think this isn't so much a detachment from reality as it is fans overstating the importance of an element that they never meant to be as important as many treat it. The FF characters are cameos, they've always been cameos and stated to be such since the very first game (the game is marketed as a Disney Square crossover with FF cameos, it's the fanbase and unofficial sites that liked to spread and say it's a Disney x FF crossover drastically overplaying the FF presence). It was flat out told to us that it was a way to draw in new fans when KH was a fledgeling series without an established core base to draw upon, and a way to fill in KH's original worlds because Nomura felt that Disney characters wouldn't really fit there doing the kinds of roles we see them doing. But they are a crutch the series doesn't need to lean on anymore and hasn't been since KH2. Which was the last game before we had a large cast of good guy characters to takeover and carry the series themselves.

Which doesn't mean you can't like them or enjoy them, but really of all the things people complain about for KH3 this always came off to me more as a bit...petty than a legit complaint. Like you hear time and time again people complaining about how KH does too much fanservice but then the same people will turn around and complain on the lack of FF characters who are ONLY fanservice at this point and nothing else. Because if there was a role they could do it would be better filled by the many numerous original characters that should be getting screen time.

I will always enjoy seeing the FF characters for fun, but if they aren't there I just fail to see how anything is really lost either. It's like the KH games are already full fledge cakes of varying size and quality, and stuff like Square cameos are sprinkles. Nice to have but if you lack them you still have a full cake to eat. So yeah I can understand why Yasue would be surprised, it's a lot of silly huff over a relatively minor element.

Look, I'd agree with you but it isn't like the Restoration Committee wasn't involved in the main plot in the last numbered games. They were very much major supporting characters to Sora's journey. It is absolutely not fan service wanting to see their reactions to the former leader of their world and his apprentices who helped ruin the world return and take over the castle like nothing happened.

Edit: Also, it's not like the game doesn't reference Seifer and his friends in Twilight Town. There is a line of dialogue that mentions them They absolutely could have appeared as NPCs. There was absolutely no reason for any FF erasure in this game.

It doesn't matter if they were only around as cameos. They were still a part of the experience in the past.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

I mean I don't think this isn't so much a detachment from reality as it is fans overstating the importance of an element that they never meant to be as important as many treat it. The FF characters are cameos, they've always been cameos and stated to be such since the very first game (the game is marketed as a Disney Square crossover with FF cameos, it's the fanbase and unofficial sites that liked to spread and say it's a Disney x FF crossover drastically overplaying the FF presence). It was flat out told to us that it was a way to draw in new fans when KH was a fledgeling series without an established core base to draw upon, and a way to fill in KH's original worlds because Nomura felt that Disney characters wouldn't really fit there doing the kinds of roles we see them doing. But they are a crutch the series doesn't need to lean on anymore and hasn't been since KH2. Which was the last game before we had a large cast of good guy characters to takeover and carry the series themselves.

Which doesn't mean you can't like them or enjoy them, but really of all the things people complain about for KH3 this always came off to me more as a bit...petty than a legit complaint. Like you hear time and time again people complaining about how KH does too much fanservice but then the same people will turn around and complain on the lack of FF characters who are ONLY fanservice at this point and nothing else. Because if there was a role they could do it would be better filled by the many numerous original characters that should be getting screen time.

I will always enjoy seeing the FF characters for fun, but if they aren't there I just fail to see how anything is really lost either. It's like the KH games are already full fledge cakes of varying size and quality, and stuff like Square cameos are sprinkles. Nice to have but if you lack them you still have a full cake to eat. So yeah I can understand why Yasue would be surprised, it's a lot of silly huff over a relatively minor element.

Except that the Restoration Committee isn't fan service. They are part of the main story and not acknowledging them screws things up. They live in and run Radiant Garden. You can't just have Ansem the Wise and his Apprentices walking about and going back to their old jobs without Leon and crew's knowledge. We should have seen them dealing and working with the apprentices. We should have at the very least had Sora ask how Leon and the commitee are doing.

To ignore them is no different from ignoring anything else in the main story, and there was plenty of room to have them in.

EDIT: This is what I meant by "detached from reality". They have no flipping clue the value FF brings to KH nor the narrative importance some FF characters have. They somehow believe because there's Dissidia and WoFF and those other FF crossover titles out there now that KH fans would no longer want or care for FF in KH. Then they claim there was too much going on in the story to include them when that couldn't be farther from the truth.

I get that they wanted to make this easy for new fans...but kids literally play Fortnite all day. THEY GOOD, YASUE. THEY GOOD.

Also that is what BEGINNER MODE IS FOR. Proud should have been kicking our asses at least a little bit. Whenever I DID die, it was because of dumb reasons and not because I was having a hard time playing the game.

Also the lack of being aware that people wanted FF characters...Like I swear this is something that was always brought up by fans even during the BBS/Days/coded days. They were wondering where the FF characters were and Nomura was like "oh we didn't want to have too many and overwhelm the story" and everybody said "NO PLEASE SHOW THEM"

Many of us don't care how many FF crossover projects they have going on. That isn't us getting to see Donald talk to Cloud Strife or Merlin arguing with Cid. That isn't resolving the plot of Radiant Garden. What do Leon and the Restoration guys feel about THE VERY PEOPLE WHO LED THEIR WORLD TO RUIN COMING BACK AND TAKING OVER THE CASTLE LIKE NOTHING. There are narrative reasons why we wanted to see them again.

And their BS answer about it interfering with the story. NO. We don't even deal with the main cast until the LAST FOUR HOURS.

I respect and admire the entire KH team. Yasue is my favorite director at SE.

I just really wish they had taken the time to really think about this stuff before just moving ahead and assuming these things. I get that they had issues with the game and I know a lot of what he is saying could very well be PR talk, but still.

ugh.



Look, I'd agree with you but it isn't like the Restoration Committee wasn't involved in the main plot in the last numbered games. They were very much major supporting characters to Sora's journey. It is absolutely not fan service wanting to see their reactions to the former leader of their world and his apprentices who helped ruin the world return and take over the castle like nothing happened.

Edit: Also, it's not like the game doesn't reference Seifer and his friends in Twilight Town. There is a line of dialogue that mentions them They absolutely could have appeared as NPCs. There was absolutely no reason for any FF erasure in this game.

It doesn't matter if they were only around as cameos. They were still a part of the experience in the past.

Preach!

 

[DarkosOverlord]

Yeah no, I totally embrace the fact that they're detached from reality, and I'm not even talking just about the FF characters.
Multiple times Yasue talks like Nomura does, as in that the way they did things was the only possible one.

"I mean who'd want to fight multiple bosses"
"Look, it's not like there was enough time to flesh out this main instance between a Classic Kingdom minigame and the other"
"I think we can all agree that putting Leon and a Radiant Garden gameplay segment in those 30 hours of nothingness would've been impossible now that we made Terra and Roxas appear at the very end of the game with their stunning 3-4 lines of dialogue total"

Yasue says they read feedback and... I guess I believe him, it seems like the biggest complaints reached their ears (although I do believe they kinda saw those ones coming even when they were working on the game), it's the way he answers that leaves me perplexed.
Much like when I read Nomura speaking it feels like once they commit to their way they consider the issue automatically solved in the best possible way and don't come back on it. And I don't want to be a dipshit and tell professionals how to do their job, but... in a little less than two months I've seen randos and fanartists on Twitter coming up with more ways to deal with this or that story/gameplay issue. Maybe not all of them were necessarily *better* or easily doable, but... they were alternatives routes, made up in a few weeks. None of it came up in 5 years of development?
Also Yasue believes KH III focuses heavily on Roxas and the TAV reunion and that's a... funny way of seeing it.

I'm pretty neutral on the adding the train bit in the 10k heartless fight. I don't really mind it either way, I understand Yasue's thought process in putting it, and I kind of agree with the concept.

Call me crazy (and maybe), but I'm starting to think what we all truly needed was another KH title before KH III. Meaning, we needed *this* KH III to be simply another title and not the Dark Seeker Saga finale.
I start to sense that a lot of the decisions they made were somewhat of... let's say "whims"? That Nomura, or Yasue, or someone else in the team wanted to fulfill.
They wanted to focus on big Pixar worlds, they wanted to put LC games, they wanted to play around with this or that mechanic, they wanted to appeal to a broader audience.
They should've done that, getting even more accustomed and confident to the newer console systems, getting all their personal peeves out of the way, and THEN worked on KH III. Oh, and of course they could've used this in-between game to achieve what DDD failed to do, aka lessening KH III's narrative burden by establishing facts and characters (like Kairi and Lea training) so that KH III could've started on a more solid ground.
Mr. Yasue, apologies if this sounds rude, but I'm not really thrilled at hearing that the finale I was waiting for emotionally speaking half my lifespan got dumbed down so that your kids could've had a stab at it. As others have stated, they are called difficulty settings for this very reason.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Sora: WE GOTTA FIND ROXAS
Also Sora: Let me spend 10 hours collecting crabs

I’m joking because I really did enjoy collecting the crabs lol but finding Roxas was a plot point for maybe an hour of the story and then it just disappears until Roxas appears at the end of the game and the TAV stuff really doesn’t come into play in any meaningful manner at all until the end. We get a hint every now and then by Sora mentioning needing to find Terra or like one off things like that...but the narrative they think they delivered and the narrative we actually got are not the same.

EDIT: I sound salty, and I probably am. I’m surrounded by drunk cops and have a 3am work shift on a forced work weekend so I’m living in salt. I have also spent two months both really happy about KH3 and also just truly and utterly disappointed to the point of depression so I have a lot of words.

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

When asked if the 1,000 Heartless battle was easier to do this time around, thanks to the better tech, Yasue said it wasn't but let me in on a little secret. "We changed a bit at the end. The final moment when we put the master up, we didn't have the train. I've never said this before. It came at a very late date, so that was added. I wanted it added because I wanted something new for a Kingdom Hearts III battle. The train, you could only use it for the rock titan in the Hercules stage, and I thought it would be a nice conclusion if you could use it at the last moment."

Completely disagree. It was ok against Rock Titan, but in the 1,000 Heartless/Nobody/Unversed battle it felt out of place and affected the tension. Same thing can happen in Anti-Aqua fight if we use Pirate Ship.

It's good they are aware of fans disappointment about the lack of Final Fantasy characters. That's why it's important for us to be critical and not blind fanboys who praise and accept everything. They need to know where they screw up, so they can improve next time. We are their consumers.

I'm surprised nobody still call them out about what they did to Twilight Town.

 

[Ballad of Caius]

For one thing, Tai Yasue admits that the team is reading Q&As, but on the other hand, he's surprised that FF characters are being missed a lot? I feel like they want to fey the ignorance card. I honestly have a feeling we won't be seeing more of a solid presence of the FF franchise in KH with games to come.

 

[Deleted member]

And I don't want to be a dipshit and tell professionals how to do their job, but... in a little less than two months I've seen randos and fanartists on Twitter coming up with more ways to deal with this or that story/gameplay issue. Maybe not all of them were necessarily *better* or easily doable, but... they were alternatives routes, made up in a few weeks. None of it came up in 5 years of development?

I mean it's pretty easy to come up with ideas when you don't have to grapple with the realities of game development such as budget, resources, time constraints, memory constraints, etc etc Like. there are a thousand reasons why something happens the way it does.


This thread is very interesting to me. Such fire. And like, the total opposite to how I felt myself and I'm trying to pinpoint exactly why that was. I guess it was just my expectations maybe? Idk. Reality will never be able to live up to endless potential I suppose.

 

[HeartlessSlayer]

It's good they are aware of fans disappointment about the lack of Final Fantasy characters. That's why it's important for us to be critical and not blind fanboys who praise and accept everything. They need to know where they screw up, so they can improve next time. We are their consumers.

You do know there's a downside to that right? While blindly praising the game so much that people don't wanna hear criticism of it is one issue (KH2 fans ESPECIALLY from my experience) the opposite is just as true about people being too cynical and jaded with their expectations that no matter what the game developers do, those people will NEVER be pleased! They fix one thing, they bitch, they add another thing, they bitch, they add something else for free, they STILL bitch! Its like the courage the cowardly dog meme when taking care of a young Muriel in one episode on how she wanted her mac and cheese to be done, she kept making ridiculous demands for it and even when AFTER doing all that, she dumps the food on him saying "I hate mac and cheese!" Or in short, the Sonic fandom as a whole.

And already there are fans who play these games that don't even know what they want! When KH3 had its world focused on the main story, people complain its too much disney, and when they had other people to help with the music who also worked on other titles like Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, then they say the game is too final fantasy! They want more open worlds, then they say its too big, then when they make em more linear, they say its too small. These days its getting harder to tell which is actual criticism or people being spoiled by their own hype and expectations that if a game doesn't meet their tiniest of demands, they'll destroy it!

You're right about them needing to take in what the community wants, but it is still out of our jurisdiction about what goes on behind the scenes and why things happen. I get it, people want FF characters in the game because they've been there since the first. But how much of that need now is about nostalgia and franchise recognition in a series that's already getting too big? I know the same can be said with the Disney characters but Disney is the literal heart (no pun intended) of the series. The FF characters were installed to help sell the series to begin with to jrpg fans.

Not to mention too that even if they did find a way to work em in to KH3, how would they contribute? I'm not asking in an attempt to straw man the question, I'm just curious cause all I'm getting is people want FF characters for the nostalgia when you really look at it, you could replace the FF characters and arguably the WewY characters with original ones and nothing would change at all. The FF characters worked the best in KH1 given its premise but aside from Auron in KH2, they didn't really do much just aside being there for players to recognize. But I'm going on a tangent.

And to repeat so there is no misunderstanding, it is right to criticize something that is wrong, but due to everybody having their own preferences to what they think works and doesn't, people who blindly praise something or people cynically bash everything without a single ounce of praise, the sad truth is that not everyone's expectations are gonna be met.

 

[HeartlessSlayer]

I mean it's pretty easy to come up with ideas when you don't have to grapple with the realities of game development such as budget, resources, time constraints, memory constraints, etc etc Like. there are a thousand reasons why something happens the way it does.


This thread is very interesting to me. Such fire. And like, the total opposite to how I felt myself and I'm trying to pinpoint exactly why that was. I guess it was just my expectations maybe? Idk. Reality will never be able to live up to endless potential I suppose.

I posted a reply to someone else already but you're not the only one. I really enjoyed KH3 but I know its not perfect, honestly KH3 vanilla had the same issues that KH2 vanilla had but they don't want any criticisms towards that game because they loved the combat mechanics of it and nothing else. There are a lot of things that are out of our control, at least they'd be taking the time to address some of the issues that people has with the game, but they won't be able to do EVERYTHING. Honestly the major disadvantage that KH3 has compared to the other games is that its been exposed so much through social media hyping it up, and considering how much social media has changed in time people are becoming a lot more cynical and jaded that they're quicker to destroy than be constructive. And even when some are being constructive, some of their expectations could just be set from the nostalgia of the past games. Either way, until all of the DLC for the game is out, we gotta sit through a lot more months of this.

 

[SuperNova]

My needs are simple for DLC. Give me a couple of new super bosses, maybe tone down attractions a little, expand the secret ending like KH2FM did, and add some new keyblades (Let Sora have Oathkeeper and Oblivion back darn it.) Though the idea that both Nomura AND Yasue were this surprised by the reaction of the fans to the non inclusion of FF characters baffles me.

 

[Elysium]

Look, I'd agree with you but it isn't like the Restoration Committee wasn't involved in the main plot in the last numbered games. They were very much major supporting characters to Sora's journey. It is absolutely not fan service wanting to see their reactions to the former leader of their world and his apprentices who helped ruin the world return and take over the castle like nothing happened.

Yes, in CoM, when we're shown the people closest to Sora in his heart, the FF characters are there, not the Disney characters. The Traverse Town crew was his pseudo-family in KH1, and they were the base in KH2, too.

I just have to wonder what goes on in these people's heads when they talk about how they want the game to be easier for new fans. Well, what even is the point of the different "modes" of difficulty at this point, if you think every mode has to cater to the people who want it easy? What's worse are hearing stupid statements from fans about "having high expectations." As if wanting things that have always been in this series like harder modes of difficulty and FF cameos are "high expectations that can't possibly be lived up to." GMAFB with that steaming hot garbage.

 

[alexis.anagram]

we really wanted to concentrate on the main storyline of Kingdom Hearts

I'd like to know what Yasue/Nomura think they mean when they say this. It's like the game they were making in their minds, the game they actually made, and the game fans deserved must be rendered into three entirely separate constructs in order to make sense of what happened, and outside of PR I find it difficult to believe anyone at SE sees any real truth in this. The "main storyline" of Kingdom Hearts doesn't exist without the involvement of Leon et al in Traverse Town followed by Leon et al in Hollow Bastion. They're more crucial than most of the Disney worlds in the games in which they appear. In the case of one such Disney world, it only appears because they are in the game. Then again, Yasue mentions he started work on the series with BBS, so maybe that's why he can say this with a straight face.

Meanwhile, Nomura has approx. 500,000 hours of nothing happening in KH3 and he's fashioning himself a Math Lady over how to involve the FF gang. Right. Just taking this at face value, it's not as though KH3 did a stellar job of handling what "main storyline" it did manage to offload in between red herrings and sequel baiting, and it somehow still managed to discard significant material like Kairi and Lea's shared world of origin, and the fact that the original PoH all formed meaningful bonds with main protagonists over the course of the series-- only to be shoved off as unceremoniously as the FF gang.

Gee, I sure am glad they took the time to focus KH3 on what really matters:

Spoiler Show

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Not to mention too that even if they did find a way to work em in to KH3, how would they contribute? I'm not asking in an attempt to straw man the question, I'm just curious cause all I'm getting is people want FF characters for the nostalgia when you really look at it, you could replace the FF characters and arguably the WewY characters with original ones and nothing would change at all. The FF characters worked the best in KH1 given its premise but aside from Auron in KH2, they didn't really do much just aside being there for players to recognize. But I'm going on a tangent.

I’m going to address the TWEWY thing first before getting back to your question: Why would Nomura bother making Shibuya, specifically the TWEWY Shibuya, a major setting in a future KH project if he was not trying to build the importance of it and those characters up in some manner? You can’t go around saying that if you remove those characters, the experience is the same because Nomura himself created the expectation for them. He didn’t have to, but he did. That’s the kind of stuff I hate reading because it completely undermines what was actually developed to create some narrative that fans are asking for too much.

No, people are literally asking for something that was intentionally placed in the series. They don’t want to set those expectations? They should have never included it in the first place. They did, so they need to understand that people will ask for these things BECAUSE of their own actions, not because of our expectations alone.

Now, back to your question: That requires pointing out that Radient Garden in general needed to be a major location in KH3 rather than a cutscene-only world. Radiant Garden is where the Organization began, it’s where a good number of the supporting cast of KH3 originate from, it is also known as the former capitol of light in the Realm of Light, and is where the Door to Darkness lied.

All of this in mind, these concepts should have come back into play in KH3 as a way to retrace Xehanort’s steps in order to try and understand his plan. The big thing KH3 was missing was having the heroes attempt to understand just what the hell was trying to do first hand rather than standing around listening to Yen Sid monologue about his plans. By having Yen Sid explain everything, it completely undermines the impact this should have on both the main cast and the player themself because there is no active attempt at seeking out answers over what the main antagonist is doing. Instead Sora and his friends go on a wild goose chase for absolutely no reason. Why not go to RG to see if there were answers about understanding the Power of Waking...y’know, in the world where Sora faced one of his most important battles when he first began his journey and committed his first act of self-sacrifice for a person he cares about? How about being a place where we could get even a HINT of Xehanort’s true plan to rid the worlds of all beings and of Darkness to make the worlds pure Light?

There is no attempt at having Lea confront his past in order to better guide him in his choices in the future. A place where he was changed into a Nobody and lost his best friend(s) (cuz X/Skuld(?) is a thing now) by Xehanort himself should have major importance to the story. A world where Kairi originated from should have had importance. The world where Mickey and Riku visit to seek out some answers to their own questions should have been given more screen time and have been playable.

And this is where the FF crew would come into play. They run Radiant Garden. They should be the ones delivering information to the main cast, or at least guiding them to where that information is. They should have been trying to confront the apprentices and come to a temporary truce in order to aid Sora and his friends. We should have gotten some more of that stupid “the girl” teasing as well to make it feel less out of the clear blue.

So, literally, they needed to play the same role they served in past numbered KH games because that was always the role that was established for them. The overal story is weaker by having Sora meander about in various Disney worlds and could have been tightened by giving him a hub he could return to whenever he hit a wall in looking for answers. This could have been the perfect place to tie up all of the little connections that were left hanging for no good reason.

I went into KH3 with maybe a handful of expectations, had those expectations met, and still came out underwhelmed on a load of things I didn’t even care about prior to playing the game, so I don’t know what the point of bringing people expectations up has to do with their overall experience with the game. People can go into something without any set expectations and come out of it feeling satisfied or unsatisfied.

I didn’t go into KH3 with the expectation the game would be difficult but I certainly came out wishing it had been.