Character-switching: how would you make it work?

[MrFranklin95]

Yeah, what is this? fire emblem 3 houses (like 20% of you will get that joke)
I never had a problem with Donald and Goofy's roles, as they're supposed to fit their mage/knight archetypes. The only time we saw any deviation from the two of them was in 358 days, and their inclusion to that isn't necessarily canon. If anything, the reaction commands that they perform in tandem with Sora are sufficient and prevent Disney from having too much control. We did get a bit of Donald's advanced spellcasting at the end of 3, but it's debatable whether or not that was a canon event to begin with.

I mean, it did happen haha Sora just immediately rectoned it in-game. But that doesn't mean Donald doesnt have that ability on him and he couldn't use it in the future (at the risk of his own life)

And no, I didnt get the reference but now I want to play fire Emblem on my switch. So thanks for that, I'll get back to you lol

 

[Soldier]

I mean, it did happen haha Sora just immediately rectoned it in-game. But that doesn't mean Donald doesnt have that ability on him and he couldn't use it in the future (at the risk of his own life)

And no, I didnt get the reference but now I want to play fire Emblem on my switch. So thanks for that, I'll get back to you lol

The reference was to the games usage of classes and how it disregarded the point of there being specific castes for certain situations (I.E you can have mages using melee weapons most of the time instead of magic, you can have soldiers casting spells, etc.) where up until that point it was a fairly straightforward series where classes were known for their specific traits (knights being good defensively, not so magically). Good for making great units, but at the cost of sacrificing believability in terms of RPGs.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

Yeah, what is this? fire emblem 3 houses (like 20% of you will get that joke)
I never had a problem with Donald and Goofy's roles, as they're supposed to fit their mage/knight archetypes. The only time we saw any deviation from the two of them was in 358 days, and their inclusion to that isn't necessarily canon. If anything, the reaction commands that they perform in tandem with Sora are sufficient and prevent Disney from having too much control. We did get a bit of Donald's advanced spellcasting at the end of 3, but it's debatable whether or not that was a canon event to begin with.

I don't have a problem with Donald and Goofy's roles either. I just don't think they'd be that fun to play as or switch too.

 

[Elysium]

That's where I feel differently. Aside from Disney being the main reason I play these, I think playing as nothing but Keyblade wielders gets a little boring...

 

[SweetYetSalty]

That's where I feel differently. Aside from Disney being the main reason I play these, I think playing as nothing but Keyblade wielders gets a little boring...

I can understand this. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to play as Disney characters in a Disney game, lol.

 

[Noivern]

I think character switching comes down to difficulty of the worlds and improving/advancing the RPG elements of the game. The fact that Sora is the best at everything will probably kill the idea of character switching. I think that if they adjusted Sora to be an all-rounder (with access to summons and whatever other gimmick they want to give him in that game), then give Riku and Kairi (or whoever are his companions) character specific abilities that will make the player inclined to switch it up. Riku will be more dark abilities and speed, while Kairi will be light abilities and defensive/healing. They could even have Xion have the ability to copy others (like if she activates the ability, she targets a heartless and gains that elemental power for a limited time) and Roxas can have dual-wielding focused gameplay and the pillars of light.

You bring up a great point with Sora. He can do virtually anything so switching to another character might not seem ideal.

So, are we just going to ignore Days and 3D? Because both Roxas (and by extension, Xion) and, more importantly, Riku in 3D were all rounders in the same sense as Sora.

Sure, Riku was a tad more offensive, but I did not feel like those two were as different as, say, Terra to Aqua in BBS, lol.
Roxas not having access to summons felt more like a limitation of the DS (considering ReCom also doesn't feature those, even if it's also "Sora"), and Riku also had his Dream Eaters.

Sora is only really an all rounder in gameplay alone because that's how the gameplay was designed to be, in terms of story it's never stated that he's a better mage than Donald or a better knight than Goofy. I mean, Donald can do Zettaflare, even if the whole scene felt more like a meme. lol


@ Thread

It depends on what game we are talking about. If we go by the end of Re:Mind and assume the next game would be about finding Sora, and the main characters ended up being Kairi, Riku and Roxas, for example.

I'd use a similar approach to the Megaman X series post X5: the three of them are in contact and working together, but they're splitting up to cover more ground. Depending on what character entered the world, you would be treated to slightly different versions of the cutscenes, but you would be locked to that character until you finished the story. Then, after the world's story is done, you could enter the world with another character to explore and collect itens with their own unique abilities, similar to how each character in BBS had a unique explorable trait acquired in Neverland.
There would also be special dialogue by the npcs of that world talking about the character who helped them with slightly different reactions by our playable character. For example:
One of the worlds would feature a scene where the character sets the town on fire. If you were playing with Kairi, she would conjure powerful Ice/Water magic to put the fire off. If you were using Roxas, he would instruct the companions to move the town to put the fire off while he wards off a barrage of enemies, while if you were Riku he would break some sort of dam or water container that would rinse off the fire.

Then, when revisiting the world with Kairi after finishing it with Riku, the npcs would talk about the exploit and she would comment on his quick thinking.

Also, those slight deviations could offer different rewards; Riku's would reveal some secret area with treasures where the dam was, Kairi's magic would leave the villagers impressed and they would reward her with an item, while Roxas's communication would leave the kids in town wanting to be a hero like him and they would grant him access to his hideout with a unique treasure.

Some special worlds would have you using specific characters asked by the game in a specific order and then you would get more than one at once in your party being able to switch them using a command, as those worlds are where the chunk of the story is and need to have some sort of canon linearity to them.

The result would be somewhat of a shorter game in terms of story but with big replay value, with multiple playthroughs needed to collect and see everything, and the world size doesnt need to shrink back from KH3's patterns just because the story parts are fewer.

Other characters like Lea, Isa, Xion and Naminé would provide assistance by serving as our main npcs throughout the story guiding us and offering help, as well as serving as party members in the "locked" story sessions.

The rewards for clearing the game multiple times could be Xion, Naminé and Aqua skins for Kairi, Terra, Isa and Lea for Riku, Sora and Ventus (in his drive form with the multiple swords of light, or maybe using Vanitas' Void Gear for his second Keyblade since he theorically should be able to dual wield as Vanitas is another heart within his own) for Roxas, etc.

They would play exactly the same as the original trio of protagonists, just changing the voices and some animations as well as the keyblades to match the new characters.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

So, are we just going to ignore Days and 3D? Because both Roxas (and by extension, Xion) and, more importantly, Riku in 3D were all rounders in the same sense as Sora.

Sure, Riku was a tad more offensive, but I did not feel like those two were as different as, say, Terra to Aqua in BBS, lol.
Roxas not having access to summons felt more like a limitation of the DS (considering ReCom also doesn't feature those, even if it's also "Sora"), and Riku also had his Dream Eaters.

Sora is only really an all rounder in gameplay alone because that's how the gameplay was designed to be, in terms of story it's never stated that he's a better mage than Donald or a better knight than Goofy. I mean, Donald can do Zettaflare, even if the whole scene felt more like a meme. lol


@ Thread

It depends on what game we are talking about. If we go by the end of Re:Mind and assume the next game would be about finding Sora, and the main characters ended up being Kairi, Riku and Roxas, for example.

I'd use a similar approach to the Megaman X series post X5: the three of them are in contact and working together, but they're splitting up to cover more ground. Depending on what character entered the world, you would be treated to slightly different versions of the cutscenes, but you would be locked to that character until you finished the story. Then, after the world's story is done, you could enter the world with another character to explore and collect itens with their own unique abilities, similar to how each character in BBS had a unique explorable trait acquired in Neverland.
There would also be special dialogue by the npcs of that world talking about the character who helped them with slightly different reactions by our playable character. For example:
One of the worlds would feature a scene where the character sets the town on fire. If you were playing with Kairi, she would conjure powerful Ice/Water magic to put the fire off. If you were using Roxas, he would instruct the companions to move the town to put the fire off while he wards off a barrage of enemies, while if you were Riku he would break some sort of dam or water container that would rinse off the fire.

Then, when revisiting the world with Kairi after finishing it with Riku, the npcs would talk about the exploit and she would comment on his quick thinking.

Also, those slight deviations could offer different rewards; Riku's would reveal some secret area with treasures where the dam was, Kairi's magic would leave the villagers impressed and they would reward her with an item, while Roxas's communication would leave the kids in town wanting to be a hero like him and they would grant him access to his hideout with a unique treasure.

Some special worlds would have you using specific characters asked by the game in a specific order and then you would get more than one at once in your party being able to switch them using a command, as those worlds are where the chunk of the story is and need to have some sort of canon linearity to them.

The result would be somewhat of a shorter game in terms of story but with big replay value, with multiple playthroughs needed to collect and see everything, and the world size doesnt need to shrink back from KH3's patterns just because the story parts are fewer.

Other characters like Lea, Isa, Xion and Naminé would provide assistance by serving as our main npcs throughout the story guiding us and offering help, as well as serving as party members in the "locked" story sessions.

The rewards for clearing the game multiple times could be Xion, Naminé and Aqua skins for Kairi, Terra, Isa and Lea for Riku, Sora and Ventus (in his drive form with the multiple swords of light, or maybe using Vanitas' Void Gear for his second Keyblade since he theorically should be able to dual wield as Vanitas is another heart within his own) for Roxas, etc.

They would play exactly the same as the original trio of protagonists, just changing the voices and some animations as well as the keyblades to match the new characters.

Well I certainly wasn't counting Days due to how limited it was. Days Roxas never felt as powerful as any of the Sora's gameplay wise. I realize it's due to DS limitations (give me a Days remake already) but yeah I didn't count it.

Unfortunately I haven't played the Megaman X series (shame on me) so I can't comment heavily on this but about the skins of the other characters. This might sound incredibly greedy and maybe I'm asking too much but I'd rather they save them being actually playable in choice rather then just being a skin subbing in for other characters.

The characters also have different movesets. Aqua's already set from KH3 and Terra and Ventus just need to be refined from BBS and they'd be good playable characters. I'd certainly like to play the BBS trio again in a game. Namine could work for a Kairi skin, but in the case of Xion, I won't lie, I'd rather play as Xion over Kairi. Especially with her Limit cut moveset. I can understand just making her a skin, but she has a different moveset that I'm anxious to try out myself. And as far as Roxas goes, I'm always down for playable Roxas.

I know all that is asking a lot, but hey if Ava is allowed to be greedy then so can I.

 

[Noivern]

Well I certainly wasn't counting Days due to how limited it was. Days Roxas never felt as powerful as any of the Sora's gameplay wise. I realize it's due to DS limitations (give me a Days remake already) but yeah I didn't count it.

Unfortunately I haven't played the Megaman X series (shame on me) so I can't comment heavily on this but about the skins of the other characters. This might sound incredibly greedy and maybe I'm asking too much but I'd rather they save them being actually playable in choice rather then just being a skin subbing in for other characters.

The characters also have different movesets. Aqua's already set from KH3 and Terra and Ventus just need to be refined from BBS and they'd be good playable characters. I'd certainly like to play the BBS trio again in a game. Namine could work for a Kairi skin, but in the case of Xion, I won't lie, I'd rather play as Xion over Kairi. Especially with her Limit cut moveset. I can understand just making her a skin, but she has a different moveset that I'm anxious to try out myself. And as far as Roxas goes, I'm always down for playable Roxas.

I know all that is asking a lot, but hey if Ava is allowed to be greedy then so can I.

Ehh, I don't think whatever DDD2 shapes up to be will be just a matter of taking the KH3 gameplay from those characters and expanding it.

Going from the way the KH team has worked over the years and the evolution of the franchise, as well as what we know from KH3 development cycle, I'd say it's safe to say KH3 was just the playground for Nomura's team to get used to the new engine and gameplay mechanics (which they definitely used some of in FF7R, in my opinion).

Just like how KH2 was the base of the gameplay that was expanded further in BBS (with commands for specific attacks that used to be reaction commands, forms turned into command styles), then they re-applied that gameplay back into Sora on Re:Coded which was refined further on DDD, which introduced flowmotion.

Similarly, X was remade into Union X and then we got Dark Road which improves on almost every aspect of it (more cohesive gameplay, better way to tell the story with closed chapters moving the story in a better pace, etc).

Then we got 2.8 with what became the KH3 gameplay by refining flowmotion. Re:Minded also fixed most of the issues with 3 with the better combos, combo cancel, option to remove all the clunk like the Disney Attractions, etc.

Similarly, I would guess Re:Mind was a test for community feedback for each character and to try out new gameplay styles.

Even if we get a new game on Kairi, for one, I would still bet she will play vastly different from her ReMind self. Same for someone stablished like Roxas or Riku. Sora himself plays so differently in 3 too. Giving that sort of expanded gameplay on a story-focused action rpg like Kingdom Hearts sounds hard to me, but maybe they're setting up to give us a battle-fighter game like FE/Hyrule Warriors or Persona Scramble. lol

 

[SweetYetSalty]

Ehh, I don't think whatever DDD2 shapes up to be will be just a matter of taking the KH3 gameplay from those characters and expanding it.

Going from the way the KH team has worked over the years and the evolution of the franchise, as well as what we know from KH3 development cycle, I'd say it's safe to say KH3 was just the playground for Nomura's team to get used to the new engine and gameplay mechanics (which they definitely used some of in FF7R, in my opinion).

Just like how KH2 was the base of the gameplay that was expanded further in BBS (with commands for specific attacks that used to be reaction commands, forms turned into command styles), then they re-applied that gameplay back into Sora on Re:Coded which was refined further on DDD, which introduced flowmotion.

Similarly, X was remade into Union X and then we got Dark Road which improves on almost every aspect of it (more cohesive gameplay, better way to tell the story with closed chapters moving the story in a better pace, etc).

Then we got 2.8 with what became the KH3 gameplay by refining flowmotion. Re:Minded also fixed most of the issues with 3 with the better combos, combo cancel, option to remove all the clunk like the Disney Attractions, etc.

Similarly, I would guess Re:Mind was a test for community feedback for each character and to try out new gameplay styles.

Even if we get a new game on Kairi, for one, I would still bet she will play vastly different from her ReMind self. Same for someone stablished like Roxas or Riku. Sora himself plays so differently in 3 too. Giving that sort of expanded gameplay on a story-focused action rpg like Kingdom Hearts sounds hard to me, but maybe they're setting up to give us a battle-fighter game like FE/Hyrule Warriors or Persona Scramble. lol

Goodness! This is why I'm not a game developer. I just play the darn things lol. You could be right about the playable characters. Kairi for the most part was brand new, though some of her movements come from her as a party member. Roxas and Aqua however do take ques from past games. Don't know about Riku, haven't played DDD yet. If they do remake a character from scratch then that should leave any of the Guardians playable...shouldn't it?

 

[Noivern]

Goodness! This is why I'm not a game developer. I just play the darn things lol. You could be right about the playable characters. Kairi for the most part was brand new, though some of her movements come from her as a party member. Roxas and Aqua however do take ques from past games. Don't know about Riku, haven't played DDD yet. If they do remake a character from scratch then that should leave any of the Guardians playable...shouldn't it?

It depends on the approach, I guess. A normal KH game with multiple playable characters on the same level of quality as Sora in KH3 means different forms, unique shotlocks, Keyblade upgrades, unique skillsets and stats per character, and that's not even taking into account the actual story bits.

A spin off with a different approach like a Warriors game as I mentioned or something akin to the Days multiplayer, however? That shouldn't take much to finish considering we already have the models and defined traits for almost everyone.

 

[Face My Fears]

So, are we just going to ignore Days and 3D? Because both Roxas (and by extension, Xion) and, more importantly, Riku in 3D were all rounders in the same sense as Sora.

Sure, Riku was a tad more offensive, but I did not feel like those two were as different as, say, Terra to Aqua in BBS, lol.
Roxas not having access to summons felt more like a limitation of the DS (considering ReCom also doesn't feature those, even if it's also "Sora"), and Riku also had his Dream Eaters.

Sora is only really an all rounder in gameplay alone because that's how the gameplay was designed to be, in terms of story it's never stated that he's a better mage than Donald or a better knight than Goofy. I mean, Donald can do Zettaflare, even if the whole scene felt more like a meme. lol


@ Thread

It depends on what game we are talking about. If we go by the end of Re:Mind and assume the next game would be about finding Sora, and the main characters ended up being Kairi, Riku and Roxas, for example.

I'd use a similar approach to the Megaman X series post X5: the three of them are in contact and working together, but they're splitting up to cover more ground. Depending on what character entered the world, you would be treated to slightly different versions of the cutscenes, but you would be locked to that character until you finished the story. Then, after the world's story is done, you could enter the world with another character to explore and collect itens with their own unique abilities, similar to how each character in BBS had a unique explorable trait acquired in Neverland.
There would also be special dialogue by the npcs of that world talking about the character who helped them with slightly different reactions by our playable character. For example:
One of the worlds would feature a scene where the character sets the town on fire. If you were playing with Kairi, she would conjure powerful Ice/Water magic to put the fire off. If you were using Roxas, he would instruct the companions to move the town to put the fire off while he wards off a barrage of enemies, while if you were Riku he would break some sort of dam or water container that would rinse off the fire.

Then, when revisiting the world with Kairi after finishing it with Riku, the npcs would talk about the exploit and she would comment on his quick thinking.

Also, those slight deviations could offer different rewards; Riku's would reveal some secret area with treasures where the dam was, Kairi's magic would leave the villagers impressed and they would reward her with an item, while Roxas's communication would leave the kids in town wanting to be a hero like him and they would grant him access to his hideout with a unique treasure.

Some special worlds would have you using specific characters asked by the game in a specific order and then you would get more than one at once in your party being able to switch them using a command, as those worlds are where the chunk of the story is and need to have some sort of canon linearity to them.

The result would be somewhat of a shorter game in terms of story but with big replay value, with multiple playthroughs needed to collect and see everything, and the world size doesnt need to shrink back from KH3's patterns just because the story parts are fewer.

Other characters like Lea, Isa, Xion and Naminé would provide assistance by serving as our main npcs throughout the story guiding us and offering help, as well as serving as party members in the "locked" story sessions.

The rewards for clearing the game multiple times could be Xion, Naminé and Aqua skins for Kairi, Terra, Isa and Lea for Riku, Sora and Ventus (in his drive form with the multiple swords of light, or maybe using Vanitas' Void Gear for his second Keyblade since he theorically should be able to dual wield as Vanitas is another heart within his own) for Roxas, etc.

They would play exactly the same as the original trio of protagonists, just changing the voices and some animations as well as the keyblades to match the new characters.

I get what you're saying about Roxas and Riku being "all rounders" because the game simply asked for it - as they were the main playable characters - but the reality of the situation is that Sora is portrayed as the best storywise (killed Disney villains, Maleficent, Ansem, more than half the Organization, Xemnas, and Master Xehanort; he also beat Riku, Roxas, Aqua, Lingering Will, Leon, Cloud, and Sephiroth). Sora has also never appeared in a game where he is anything less than the best (when he is playable). So it would be weird to change Sora being the character that has access to everything, to prompt us to use the other characters.

However, I think that even if Sora was the best character available, if any other characters were playable I'm sure fans would use them regardless. I kinda wish KH3 allowed us to play through the story using the newly playable characters like Riku/Roxas/Kairi and just have everyone act like it's Sora and the cutscenes switch to Sora.

I would like for them to rethink the RPG elements of KH though. It's something I've always wanted them to improve on. I very rarely ever have to put thought into what accessories to equip or spells to put in the shortcut or how to program Donald/Goofy to fight because it's just equip the best stuff to Sora, equip cure in the shortcut, and set Donald/Goofy to always protect me and that's insta-win. The only times I ever really had to create a strategy for a fight in KH was Ursula, Sephiroth, Phantom and Kurt Zisa in KH1, some of the fights in KHCoM (which really did lean more towards the RPG elements), and the Data Organization/Yozora in KH3. I'd like to see a point where I have to think about how to traverse a world and not just run through smashing X until a bar fills up that lets me nuke the entire field with a cutscene move.

 

[Noivern]

I get what you're saying about Roxas and Riku being "all rounders" because the game simply asked for it - as they were the main playable characters - but the reality of the situation is that Sora is portrayed as the best storywise (killed Disney villains, Maleficent, Ansem, more than half the Organization, Xemnas, and Master Xehanort; he also beat Riku, Roxas, Aqua, Lingering Will, Leon, Cloud, and Sephiroth). Sora has also never appeared in a game where he is anything less than the best (when he is playable). So it would be weird to change Sora being the character that has access to everything, to prompt us to use the other characters.

However, I think that even if Sora was the best character available, if any other characters were playable I'm sure fans would use them regardless. I kinda wish KH3 allowed us to play through the story using the newly playable characters like Riku/Roxas/Kairi and just have everyone act like it's Sora and the cutscenes switch to Sora.

While I get the point you are making, storywise you are still wrong. Because Sora still lost his powers multiple times, still failed the Mark of Mastery (still bitter about that btw), still got called a newbie by Hercules even in KH3 (lol), still got erased out of existance due to abusing the power of Waking. So while he's still super important for obvious reasons and we, as the ones controlling him know that better than anyone, storywise it's obvious he's still treated as just another Keyblade dude and his only actual power is his ability to connect hearts, whose only impact on the gameplay seems to be the forms and summons we use (and even then, BBS had those too).

I'm not saying you are necessarily wrong from a outside perspective; hell, one of the very reasons I hate DDD so much is the bullshit excuse they went for Sora failing that damned exam even though he went through so much; But it's clear that they don't really see him as the overpowered being we play as, lol.

So it's not really hard at all to justify any other character to have access to everything Sora could do, because even the Power of Waking that we initially thought was special to him ended up being just another Keyblade Master ability.

Kairi in specific is being set up to be a new main protagonist if we consider the fact that she also trained under Merlin for magic and also has powerful Light Magic, but at this point even Lea could work if they wanted.

It's really important to remember that while we do get references of our ingame power in story sections sometimes (the battle of the 1000 heartless, or that scene in New Fransokyo where Sora uses Keyblade Forms and so on), storywise those aren't treated the same way.

Riku went through 1/3 of what Sora did, but the story still treats them as being on the same skill level in multiple instances, like the Xemnas boss fight.

 

[Face My Fears]

While I get the point you are making, storywise you are still wrong. Because Sora still lost his powers multiple times, still failed the Mark of Mastery (still bitter about that btw), still got called a newbie by Hercules even in KH3 (lol), still got erased out of existance due to abusing the power of Waking. So while he's still super important for obvious reasons and we, as the ones controlling him know that better than anyone, storywise it's obvious he's still treated as just another Keyblade dude and his only actual power is his ability to connect hearts, whose only impact on the gameplay seems to be the forms and summons we use (and even then, BBS had those too).

I'm not saying you are necessarily wrong from a outside perspective; hell, one of the very reasons I hate DDD so much is the bullshit excuse they went for Sora failing that damned exam even though he went through so much; But it's clear that they don't really see him as the overpowered being we play as, lol.

So it's not really hard at all to justify any other character to have access to everything Sora could do, because even the Power of Waking that we initially thought was special to him ended up being just another Keyblade Master ability.

Kairi in specific is being set up to be a new main protagonist if we consider the fact that she also trained under Merlin for magic and also has powerful Light Magic, but at this point even Lea could work if they wanted.

It's really important to remember that while we do get references of our ingame power in story sections sometimes (the battle of the 1000 heartless, or that scene in New Fransokyo where Sora uses Keyblade Forms and so on), storywise those aren't treated the same way.

Riku went through 1/3 of what Sora did, but the story still treats them as being on the same skill level in multiple instances, like the Xemnas boss fight.

Abusing the power of waking and dying isn't really a good example since we don't have anything else to compare it to, so we can't accurately assess whether Sora was weak or if that is just a consequence of abusing it (which I think the latter is the case).

Even though Pete, Hercules, and everyone else kept screaming how weak Sora was in KH3, it's only ever said about Sora. There was never a moment pre-boss fight or during a world that Sora himself states that he feels weak or the adventure is taking a toll on him, we never see him panting or struggling which would suggest that he's weakened. Instead Herc and Pete call him weak, then he kills 4 titans without breaking a sweat. They say he's too weak to go into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua, so Mickey/Riku go instead... which leads to both of them getting beat down (twice) and then Sora strolling in and saving them like he was vacationing at the End of Sea.

I definitely would not like if everyone had access to everything Sora could do - especially the summons. It's always been made a point that Sora connected with people's hearts in a special way, which basically explains the summons. I like to think of the D-Link as something entirely different from the summons that Sora does - the D-Link is borrowing that character's power and harnessing it through the user's keyblade while the Link Summon is actually summoning that character (which would be because of a more powerful connection to the heart).

I would welcome variations to what Sora can do to the other characters, like I can see Riku and Kairi having keyblade transformations, just they have to get unique keyblades that Sora won't get to make their transformations special to them. Kairi could also have her D-Link be connected to the princesses of heart and her outfit will change to match whichever princess she accesses.

 

[Noivern]

Abusing the power of waking and dying isn't really a good example since we don't have anything else to compare it to, so we can't accurately assess whether Sora was weak or if that is just a consequence of abusing it (which I think the latter is the case).

Like I said, don't get me wrong. I defintely agree with you that what we see and do ingame doesn't make sense compared to how other characters talk about Sora. But that's still canon information that we have to take into account, even if it contradicts the gameplay, unfortunately. lol

But yeah, I'd love if we could have more individuality attributed to other characters instead of just having minor differences here and there. BBS had a decent idea going on with Ventus and Aqua on opposite ends of the spectrum, but I did not feel like Terra had all that much going for him aside from the exclusive commands.

 

[Launchpad]

First of all, let's clear up some HUD space by getting rid of shotlocks! Bye shotlocks, you never added anything meaningful to the combat other than dealing damage. Now that we've got space, let's install a 'Tandem Gauge'. This gauge can be filled with orange orbs, similar to shotlocks in KH3.

When you've got a full tandem gauge, you can spend the entirety of it to perform an action redundantly titled 'Tandem Sync'. For the sake of creating easier development, you can't sync with unique Disney party members in worlds, but you can sync with Donald, Goofy, or any keyblade wielder on the field.

Taking cues from the way Sora would travel from heart-to-heart in Re:Mind, Sora disappears and flies into, let's say for example, Goofy's heart, and the player assumes control of Goofy, who glows with a light aura. Sora's Keyblade takes the form of a secondary shield, and Goofy is now dual wielding shields. As the Tandem Gauge depletes, the player can throw the shields at high speeds, aiming over the shoulder. Using two shields on a single target could juggle it in the sky, throwing faster than the enemy can fall. Other actions could be rocketing at higher speeds than ever before, shield surfing, and being able to shield while moving at full speed.

Assign all other characters with attributes like this, and you have a meaningful and fun gameplay loop that adds more than shotlocks ever did, without having to create a full progression system for each 'playable' character.