Wednesday, May 22, 2013

200th Post! AKA My Kingdom Hearts 3 Dream List


... In all seriousness, 200 posts? Wow? Me?  I really never expected it to go like this.  This blog has had it's ups and downs, but it is something I'm proud of, even with the excessive KH... which I shall continue since it really is one of my favorite game series and there is so much fascinating information and analysis in it.

Okay, moving on!  (I am WELL aware very little of this may come true, still, fun to speculate!) LOTS of spoilers!


Story wishes:


St. Canard appears:  Darkwing Duck is an utterly fantastic show.  It began as a spin off of Ducktales combined with a parody of James Bond.  Unfortunately, legal issues (namely the "double 0" callsign is copyrighted by Ian Flemming's estate)  forced it to be a parody of super heroes instead... and it turned out so much better.  

By day, Drake Mallard takes care of his adopted 9 year old daughter (the comic series confirmed he didn't have a job.)  By night, he is "Darkwing Duck"! (A glory hound and protector of the city.)   

Kingdom Hearts and Darkwing Duck already have a few small connections.  Scrooge and Donald's Nephews were the focus of Ducktales, and are reoccuring characters in Kingdom Hearts.  (Although Launchpad, the actual connection between the two shows, has not appeared in Kingdom Hearts)  In addition, when Jim Cummings portrayed the version of Pete called "Captain Dark", he is channeling parts of Darkwing Duck, such as Darkwing's tendency to alliterate.



 Can you imagine fighting with Negaduck (Darkwing's self from an alternate, inverted, universe) or the Fearsome Five (Negaduck, Megavolt (who canonically survived going to the electric chair... twice and who thinks electric bulbs are alive), Bushroot (a plant-duck who is only there because they sort of accept him), Quackerjack (A mix of Jocker and Toyman), and Liquidator (an dog turned into sentient and moldable water... who used to be an ad executive).  What about flying in Darkwing's airplane? Facing off against Darkwing's other enemies, FOWL?  Meeting Gosalyn? 

(Also, the comic series was amazing and should have gone on. Buy it if you can, it was a victim of the Disney/Marvel deal.)


More Kairi:  Look, she's a critical part of the Destiny Islands trio and she has had very little development since she keeps on getting shunted off to the side.  She's a PRINCESS OF HEART and a keyblade wielder. (She most likely fits into the Final Fantsay "Paladin" archetype.  Low attack, high defense, and specialization in light based offensive and healing magic.  I love Paladins)  We don't know much about her past, and as a Princess of Heart she may have access to Light Magic which can  balance Riku's dark magic, in addition she's training as Keyblade Master under Riku and Yen Sid, and she has a link to Aqua. She needs training, but she's probably going to be the one to save the day.  Let's watch her grow.

Sora going completely insane:  Sora may have four or five entities in himself right now.  Sora, Roxas, Ven, and Xion.  Where Vanitas stands is completely unclear.  (though I hope he's in there too.)  End result, Sora should probably have  a massive breakdown soon as each part of him struggles for dominance. Roxas is closer to the Organization, was besties with Axel (and Xion),   Sora is aware of Ven, somehow, and had to watch as Ven's existence unraveled but he lived on.  Xion mostly just vanished.  She's a replica, she's not even real by Nobody standards, but there she still stands. In KH3D Riku (who can't remember her) finds her sitting on the iconic friendship tree in Sora's heart.  Ven is stuck in Sora, and his heart is incomplete without Vanitas.  He's pure light, and may be what is keeping Sora alive.  Vanitas is evil. He's partially insane too.  According to the novels, he could feel Ven's good emotions and he grew jealous and angry which then made more unversed because... as Ven's dark half he got Ven's dark emotions.  (though Ven can get angry sometimes, but Vanitas can never be happy)  Sora has at least three people in his heart besides himself, all with different desires and motivations.  If they wake up, fully, what happens to Sora?


Ven, Roxas, and Xion get their own bodies and identities.  Okay, technically Ven still has his body. But Roxas and Xion deserve the shot.  

I also want to see what happens to Sora when that happens.  His heart is built around Ven's.  If Ven leaves, will Sora's heart collapse? Will "Sora" as we know him cease to exist?  Would Roxas or Xion fill in the void until Sora reconstructs himself?  Would he be different from before? 


Is "Kingdom Hearts"Cosmos from Dissidia?  Their functions seem to be similar, and I could see her taking the form of Kingdom Hearts.  It would also explain the FF people there.  KH could be an afterlife or a between world for them. Plus, Kingdom Hearts and Cosmos have a similar kind of color scheme.  Sort of.


The Return of Repliku.  He may be a Vessel, but he feels like he will come back. Especially when Riku runs into him during KH3D. The poor kid had a tragic life.  He was a replica, like Xion, but was somehow faulty.  Everyone manipulates the poor kid's emotions, he doesn't know what will happen to him, and he's constantly striving against Riku who is trying to reach out to him  Oh, and Namine rewrites his memories several times then breaks his heart. Literally.


Is Vanitas evil, or does he hate MX more than Sora/Ven?  What role will Vanitas play in the future?  He's a BRILLIANT villain, and gets infinitely more complicated the more you think and analyze him. He shows up for one scene in KH3D, but as Ven's heart was destroyed in BBS, WE DON'T KNOW FROM WHERE HE APPEARED.  Is he lurking in Sora? (always possible, especially with the physical similarity) Is he part of MX? (Young Xehanort was the only other person in the scene and Vanitas projected next to him)  Will he take over Sora and then act as Vanitas in Sora's body?  What will he do?


Explore the Princess of Heart.  Have there been previous ones?  Do they have any special powers aside from guarding KH?  If there haven't been previous ones, why have they all sprung into existence now?  How is one picked as a PoH? Why is Alice picked over Ariel or Wendy?  Will Tiana, Rapunzel, or Merida be back up PoH?  Why Kairi???

Divide KH3 into A/B/C stories.  Sora, Donald, and Goofy take side A.  Riku and Mickey are working Side B (probably more of the Darkness stuff like normal).  Kairi and her team (The other PoH? Namine?)  Take a Side C.  We either switch like in KH3D or follow one story through like BBS and then pick another one.  They've been experimenting with multiple narratives for the last few games, and with the PS4's processing power they should be able to successfully pull it off.  We know Kairi will have her own story (either as a PoH or a Defender of KH), there's stuff going on with VAT, Riku... is Riku and may have some angsting and subterfuge to do... there's several possibilities.


Where are the other Org members? Seriously, were are Marluxia, Demyx, Lurxord, and Larxene?  What worlds are they from?  What did Marluxia find out to make him, and Larxene, rebel?  Could they use this information in the end? 

What happened in the Keyblade War?  Why is MX so fascinated with it? We know the outcome, but what started it?  How is the info still around?  What does the Keyblade Graveyard have to do with Kingdom Hearts itself? If the children saved the universe, where were the adults?  Did everyone just have a keyblade back then? If the keyblades disappear when the wielder goes unconscious, why are all those blades around?

Monster's Inc should be a world, and the villains (or the heroes) Can use the doors to travel between worlds.  Plus, in a place that thrives on fear and screams, who knows what could happen to our tortured heroes? If travel between the worlds is cut off, how long before someone figures out you can use bedroom doors to go to different worlds?  What would happen if Maleficent or MX found it first? Would they use the world's capabilities to analyze Sora's nightmares in order to scare him from completing his mission?  Does Riku get nightmares? Kairi?

FIND OUT THE OTHER VESSELS.  Seriously, we know the identity of four or five.  There are thirteen. Who are the rest?  Is/Are Terranort and Xehanort Beta two different people? Is Repliku one? Is Sora still one?  Can they be saved?  Saix has an X carved into his face, if Lea brings him back, could he still relapse?  Why did Braig go along with it in Birth By Sleep? When exactly was Terra marked as a vessel?

Terra should be saved, and keep his white hair. Seriously, look at it! 

Explain Terra's vision.  You don't put in one of your main characters having a vision of the end game while it's in the beginning of the game, at the location of the final battle, while he talks to the main villain, and then don't follow up on it.  Is Terra a Seer?  Is he living through the events again? Has this happened before?  Do other vessels carry this capability? Or is it just Terra?  Does Riku have it too? 

How is Lexaeus important? (See here.)

Who are Ienzo's parents?  He is repeatedly mentioned to be abandoned then AtW adopted him.  Why? Who left him in the first place?

Can Master Eraqus come back? How could he help? They did establish he lived in Terra's heart and helped keep part of Terra in some control, why did Terra lose that control?  Considering all the forms Terranort went through, where exactly is that piece?  Will he hold MX back somehow in the final battle? Plus he's based on Final Fantasy creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi.  It seems disrespectful to kill him off like that. To add to the mystery, we don't know how death works in Kingdom Hearts.

How is Maleficent back... again



Make Doctor Facilier a villain.  He would work excellently as a member of the "Hellfire Club".  Plus with his Friends on the Other Side, and his debt, he could offer the heart of the world/all worlds to his "Friends". He could also use his Voodoo to separate Sora into his other selves then try to manipulate those parts of Sora's heart.  Or maybe offer Sora's heart to the "Friends."   Honestly, great villain right here. Besides, what would happen if he does manage to get Sora's heart/soul?  Who would come out to animate Sora's body?  And what would it be like if Haley Joel Osment continues to voice Sora even while, say, Xion is in control?


Fanservice wishes:

Disney now owns Marvel.  MCU should give a summon or Deadpool appears to fill in information to Sora/the player on items Sora would know nothing about... like why he should care about someone named "Master Eraqus" I more want an "Avengers, ASSEMBLE!" summon, though.  Similar to Final Fantasy VII's Knight of the Round.  More extreme would be Sora dying and he visits the world/universe of the dead Disney characters.  Ray the Cajun Firefly, Mufasa, Coulson...   


In all seriousness, a summon would work best.  I think pulling off a full world would get difficult and we don't know how many rights they could work with (Kingdom Hearts usually uses the movie properties for their games, but while Marvel studios lacks the movie properties to the X-men and Fantastic Four, they do have the game rights for them) but it would be interesting.  If there was a world, Mr. Fantastic would be a good scientist... and I really hate Tony Stark.


The Radiant Gardens Protection committee!  Okay,  I made them up.  But it's  Cyan Garamonde of Final Fantasy VI (Samurai), Shantotto of Final Fantasy XI (VERY POWERFUL Black Mage), Fang (Dragoon) and Laguna (Guns)  Basically, they were the set up for the KH2 Restoration committee.  They defended Radiant Gardens until the Heartless overwhelmed them.  A sidequest during KH3 would be to find the members and bring them back.  The pay off would be story expansion, or a new keyblade (or four), and new characters to wander around and ally with during fights! (or new summons, more Final Fantasy based than before) Fang would be in the crystal Caverns/Great Maw.  Cyan would be in a mountain cave.  Shantotto would be in a library and Laguna would be found when you return to town.  Why? (Aside from my desire to hear David Boat voice Cyan and see him in High Quality CG.  He's my favorite character)


For the Laguna/Xigbar battle of course!   He was almost in Birth By Sleep, the two of them are gun specialists, and Laguna's happy and protective personality contrasts well with Xigbar's angry and possessive one. 


Rosa and Cecil are Kairi's adopted parents.  Come on, they'd be perfect! Besides, they are the only confirmed married playable couple in Final Fantasy history.



Final Fantasy VI's Terra appears.  She's a caring character, a great mage, oh, and she can be called "Mama" because of pre existing KH Terra and canon memory loss.  Can you imagine Leon calling for "Mama" when she gets lost? And considering what a Mama Bear she is, can you imagine her Esper form coming out in a rage that someone DARES to hurt "her kids" (AKA everyone in Radiant Garden despite how most are older than her.) She could also be adapted as a experiment gone wrong from someone trying to synthesize a human heartless.  We get Sweet and Pure Terra with the Esper/heartless half.

Zack/Aqua is canon.  In fact, the reason why Zack disappears from the (Chronologically)  later games is because he chases after Aqua when she goes missing.  He's in the Realm of Darkness right now, just waiting to escape with Aqua.   In the mean time, they are exploring and practicing... look, I have made lots of headcanons about all the fluffy stuff that is going on as they practice and fall in love.  It's my only possibly canon KH ship. 
And the game spends a large amount of time dwelling on what is in the Realm of Darkness. What is actually there?   


More King Mickey. He's amazing. He's kind, powerful, and wise.  He's also what ties a lot of the plot together.  And, he just wants to help.  ((Oh, and Queen Minnie too.  Best Battle Couple ever. (Possibly.  Maybe tied with Zack/Aqua)))


Kain is an ally of Riku.  They can really relate, especially everything about Darkness and mind control. I'm really curious why Kain hasn't shown up yet.  Riku needs a third man, Kain could guard him for a while until he saves him, and the two could bond easily.  Riku does fulfill Kain's position in Kingdom Hearts (if Sora is Cecil and Kairi is Rosa) so he could complete it with Cecil actually appearing. If they don't want Kain and Riku to ally due to similarities, Kain could still be both a model and a warning who travels between worlds... and give Riku some new moves.  Dragoon Riku would be great.


Kaine, Weiss, or NieR (possibly with Yonah or Emil) appear.  Kaine would be a blast, but as she's a foul mouth, scantily dressed, hermaphrodite (and that's why we love her)  she would need to be toned down.  (in all seriousness, her swearing IS the first thing you hear when you boot up the English game)  Weiss could either be a forgotten tome of either Yen Sid or Maleficent and, like the original, he can either save or destroy the world.  NieR and Yonah would be NPC's who you help in game.  Or you find NieR doing a lot of different things in the world(s) in order to take care of Yonah. 






Was Shibuya saved?  KH3D makes a big deal over what happened to Shibuya, and combined with TWEWY mythology, it's more worrisome for Neku and the gang than it is for the other worlds. 

Great Mouse Detective. More than just "Sherlock Holmes with Mice", Basil (Named after Basil Rathbone, the iconic Sherlock actor)  the mouse matches wits with Rattigan (voiced by VINCENT PRICE, in his favorite role)  who is so over the top it's a delight to watch.  Unfortunately, Vincent Price is dead.  Corey Burton is good, but he lacks the vivacity of Vincent Price.  As Rattigan (and the final scene in Big Ben) are what steal the movie, it might be hard to pull off... but it would be glorious.  The back alleys of London, playing with size, the dive bar, the Big Ben fight, a rendition of "Worlds Greatest Criminal Mind"...

Other not quite Final Fantasy characters show up, besides NieR and TWEWY.  Lara Croft might be a bit too much, but what about Chrono Trigger? (especially with the new Time Travel element) The Mana series? Dragon Quest? Chrono Trigger might be the best bet.  The first one is a (Nintendo) classic, the story is interesting, and with the time travel element, Chrono and company could help fill in some gaps for Sora and co.

Gravity Falls as a world.  It's a very well done show about a possibly supernatural Oregon town.  Okay, supernatural stuff bursts at the seems.  The town is bonkers.  The eight and a half president is wandering around.  (He survived by encasing himself in peanut brittle) and no one knows about the Manotaurs (No, not a misspelling) Add in a scam artist great uncle, an episode about emotional and domestic abuse aimed at the target audience without being overly obvious, and a gorgeous background (and a pet pig) and you have a really good world where information about keyblades and darkness could be found.  It's not out of the question for a keychain to be hanging around in the back rooms of the mystery shack, or Dippers book to have information on The Heartless/Nobodies/Unversed/Dreameaters/KH3 enemies. Mabel would also make one heck of a heartless.   She's a perpetual smiler, and can fight. 


Sephiroth is revealed to be Cloud's darkness similar to Vanitas being Ven. Someone tried to repeat the Ven/Vanitas experiment and it didn't work.  Not exactly.  Cloud kept some of his darkness, lost some of his light, and Sephiroth is more independent than Vanitas.  Sephiroth wouldn't really work as a keyblade creation battle, but if someone wanted an evil assassin... (Which, BTW, is partly how FF7 works.  Sephiroth ends up in control of Jenova, but for a good chunk of the game and backstory the two either work together or Jenova is giving orders.  Sephiroth does end up in control in the end.  I am NOT saying Sephiroth should be the final battle, but it would explain why he keeps on popping up.)


The Haunted Mansion as a world.   It's my favorite ride, it's steeped with ghosts, Constance would be a great villain (as she's a conwoman)  And they could play with the viewer and Sora by having things constantly and subtly change in the background.  The graveyard can be a fantastic setpiece. And, then... everyone is dead!  Okay, not really.  But Leota can be used as a way to tell the future, Constance could try to lure them away, then we have the duelists, Great Ceaser's Ghost (quite literally!) The dancers, the hitch hiking ghosts, and let's just throw in Ramsley for the fun of it because he was the best part of that movie.  Look, I can talk about this forever. I've written an AU where they DID go there, and we know that Pirates of Caribbean exists.  Disney? Square? GET ON THIS!  (Oh, and the ghost hostess could be the last thing you hear in the game)

PS:  If they can work in Le Phantom and Phantom Manor, it would be even better.





Technical wishes:


There should be more NPCs.  People, I LOVE Kingdom Hearts but it's really embarrassing how many times crowds should appear (or are even referred to!)  And not one person shows up.  Look, they can have 10 generic models, give them a basic loop, and have them do their thing. The PS4 should have the tech to do at LEAST that. Look at games like Skyrim or even Animal Crossing.  Actually, look at Shenmue.  There were a lot of NPCs and they all had individual appearances and AI.  If you saw someone trying on clothes than later buying food, it was the same NPC.  I'm not saying to fully copy Shenmue.  I'm just saying the worlds should have more than just the characters you interact with in the game.  Where are the shop keepers?  Where are the people making food?  Where are the little exchanges that make me love Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite so much?  Let's make this world lived in.  Heck, the early Final Fantasies managed to do a better job with it then right now.  Up to at least 9 we had expansive worlds and lots of NPCs.


 Semi Dynamic time and weather changes. It would be nice if some things only happened at night or we got rain every once in a while.  That's all.  It helps make things feel more alive.  And the perpetual day/night cycles are unnerving.  They fit in Winnie the Pooh, a canon story book, Agrabah has the weather excuse of "It's a desert" but what about Olympus?  The movie has different days, nights, and weather.  A rainstorm post story wouldn't have gone amiss in Dwarf Woodlands.  What about secret bonus boss battles that only happen at night (which is every few hours in game)  Or combined with the NPC bit above, some things that only happen when you are at points in the game.  Like, say, running into Maleficent and Pete arguing in Dwarf Woodlands when you only enter the world 5 hours into your game?  Something like Animal Crossing would be nice too, where things only happen on certain Tuesdays in the real world.  Now, this is a bit overboard, but it would be nice.


More detail, or at least varied designs.  the worlds can be big, the cast can get intricate, stylization is part of the design, you did put a lot of heartless onto the screen at the same time... but we're two generations away now.  Keep the stylization, but let's get some varied models for the trees or something.  Maybe the models can have some more intricate detail?  (like naturally moving chains on the clothes, etc.) Don't forget the better sound quality available too. 


Well, that's my wishlist.  I probably have some more things, but I forget right now.  And this thing is LONG right now, and I know not everything will be in there.  (Seriously, Darkwing Duck and Gravity Falls is a HECK of a longshot)  and there are probably more worlds to put in, keep the tournament worlds (Hey, a great place to level up!) and let's not forget the other Bonus Bosses...  


But, what do you think we should see?  Do you agree? Disagree? What's your wish list? 

3 comments:

  1. That Monsters Inc. idea is fantastic. And they're humans, so to see the monsters screaming and running away from them would be hilarious.

    I love all of your ideas, but most especially the Disney-related ones. Dr. Facilier, the Shadow Man, would be an ideal villain to use in the next game; I'd love to see him take on a Maleficent role too, or at least be one of her most dangerous henchmen. More about Kairi and the Princesses of Heart would be wonderful too. YES, Agent Phil Coulson!!! It'd be great if he knew about other worlds, as a Level 7 agent, and he was a closet Keyblade wielder fanboy.

    And Terra going into Heartless mode instead of an Esper would be a genius adaptation. I don't really care much about NieR since I haven't played it, but from what you've told me about it I'm not sure if it really fits with the KH atmosphere. But we can never have enough Laguna Loire in anything related to Final Fantasy, so I definitely agree with that!

    Let's see...my own wish list:

    1) I feel kind of horrible saying this, but I'd really like to see Roxas and Lea reunite before they reunite with Xion. Even though I love their bromance and I like Xion somewhat (I've got very mixed feelings about her in general), I'm not a huge fan of RAX. And even with the inclusion of Xion, the friendship still fell apart mainly because of the fight between Axel and Roxas, so I'd like to see more of a resolution there. And then once they're offically back to being bros, they can have some friendship moments and then go off to save Xion and have their nice big RAX reunion.

    2) More of the Princesses of Heart. I'd love to see Kairi and the Princesses get their own story, but that's probably not going to happen in Kingdom Hearts 3.

    3) I like the idea of Zack and Aqua becoming a couple, and while it is completely impossible and would never happen unless they took advantage of Cinderella III, I want Terra and Cinderella to be a couple. They had a couple of very sweet scenes together.

    4) The Incredibles, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, and Tangled as worlds.

    5) Just more Disney in general.

    6) Of course, I really, really want more development and screentime for Kairi. More girl friendships in general would be nice. All we ever get are bromances and guy/girl relationships.

    Awesome post! I hope most of it comes true!

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  2. Wow... there's a lot here. I agree with several of them such as

    1. More Kairi

    2. bringing Repliku back

    3. Great Mouse Detective as a world

    4. Sora going insane from inside his head. That would be awesome. Especially if they played with the eye and hair colour like a Jekyll and Hyde thing.

    5. Master Eraqus returning- my new friend and I were talking about how it'd be really sweet if Eraqus and young Xehanort reunited and Eraqus just forgave him.

    6. More NPC's- definitely. I loved the 1,000 Heartless battle. It felt so rich and full.

    7. Weather changes would be cool. We already know Riku looks good in rain <3

    8. Sephiroth explanation would be great. I reckon since Aerith is alive, the story could be Sephiroth killed Zack (sorry I know killing your other theory) which made Cloud so depressed.

    9. Doctor Facilier would be an awesome villain.


    I like the NieR crossover idea however I'm not sure it could work given the mature tone. Take that away and the characters might as well be completely different. I was thinking Ciel (I think?) would be the better match for Riku.

    All and all I quite like your ideas. Can't wait for the third game to finally arrive

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi I like your post is awesome but I think that it will be more awesome that terra/aqua will be together more than zack/aqua...but don't worry your theory is awesome too

    ReplyDelete