How would you improve KHIII (and the whole Dark Seeker saga)?

[Master Exin]

Since I've seen a wide range of thoughts from many people in the forum, especially regarding the final instalment of the Dark Seeker saga and its outcome, yet I haven't seen much of what could've been done better. I thought I'd make a thread for for those who would like to express their ideas on what changes, additions, and so on that they could've and would've done to make this better in their opinion.

Feel free to do so, no flames, no attacks, thank you.

 

[SerDuncan]

I've seen this many times before, and I'm sure that many people will repeat it after me, but this game is severely lacking in any kind of "midpoint" a la Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion in KH2, or even the OG Hollow Bastion first visit in KH 1. The game has many, many other problems that could really only be solved with a full rewrite of the Keyblade Graveyard and various other areas, but adding in this mid point would be a really good start.

The point of adding this little "break" so to speak, would be to chop up the Disney worlds and provide more variety and more original world content. Fighting an organization member or two, having a lore dump, maybe even saving someone in that midpoint would do wonders towards improving the pacing and would actually give us an original world to explore... unlike the final game. It could be Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, the Keyblade graveyard, it honestly doesn't matter. The Disney worlds can drag on a bit, especially with the little tidbits of story we get in between, and a more solid section would just improve the game overall.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Difficuilty. Honestly, the harder difficuilty settings should actually be difficuilt. So many of the bosses in this game could have had the perfect opportunity to pose a challenge.

 

[2 quid is good]

To add to the above, the first thing I'd do is add a solid midgame in Radiant Garden, where we play as Riku and find out whatever the heck it was they were doing.

Actually screw that, that can happen after corona/toy box are cleared. Then we go fight Aqua and bring her back.

After Arendelle, which was a *huuuge* bore, we pick up the pace by bringing back Roxas/Ven then. That could include Twilight Town and Radiant Garden, then we're back on track with the two hypest disney worlds which keeps up the momentum for the final showdown.

 

[SerDuncan]

Honestly, building off of what quid said, I almost wish that we had reunited either of the trios before the final showdowns. Imagine in the BBS trio got the time they needed to recover and get caught up with each other, or if Ienzo and Vexen's research was completed onscreen, allowing for Roxas and Axel to recuperate, maybe even reuniting with Xion. Having that time in the middle to get some plot out of the way would make the boss rush at the end of the game feel a little less... forced, and rushed I feel.

 

[kirabook]

Spoiler Show

Yes. Sora needed to really start saving people WAY before the ending hit. Saving it all for last left little time for them to really be together before the final battle. There was that moment with Aqua and Ven outside Yen Sid's tower which was fantastic. Every relationship needed a moment like that spread out throughout the game, not stuffed into the ending.

Really, if they had saved Aqua earlier in the story, that would also have saved Ven. That's a great midpoint to a game imo and could have opened a new hub world, LoD. Could've added some training mini games. Or used it to drop some lore about LoD/SaC since we don't know jack about it really.

Coulda saved Roxas way earlier too. Maybe 3/4's of the way through the game. I mean... his entrance in the final battle was pretty amazing. But I would've liked to see him waking up as his own person for the first time with Sora and the TT crew. And seeing Lea/Axel again before the final battle.

I also would have brought Lea and Kairi out of training WAY earlier. They should have been exploring and training in their own Disney worlds, not just locked up in a time chamber because obviously that didn't do them much good. This would present more opportunities to show us their growth, their growing friendship, and character building in general since Kairi still didn't get much of anything imo.

This could've also brought along Namine sooner (though I really liked the whole Final World cutscene...)

That would leave the only two left to save being Terra and Xion and I feel like that would've given them more time to make their rescue even more emotional. If that makes sense. Coulda spent more time focused on it. More dialogue. Something.

Basically, they should've spaced out more of the plot through the Disney worlds. They could've made more worlds playable (like Yen Sid's tower) to give the player time to take in the situation and talk to people (seriously, no opportunity to have dialogue with Aqua, Ven, Lea, Kairi, Riku, Mickey... nothing. No time to take selfies except with Aqua in LoD kinda) Why they cut Mysterious Tower is puzzling, it didn't need to have story or anything, just let us talk to people and open a chest or two....

And then thinking about Twilight Town, they should've let us explore more of the town. Sora could visit all the places Roxas hung out and brought Roxas out of him more or something. A trip down memory lane. That would've been awesome to see. Not just because Sor anad Roxas are adorable, but to see old KH2 locations in high def would've been awesome.

And I'm sure I'll come up with more tweaks as time goes by.

 

[Nerdman3000]

Spoiler Show

One small minor change I would have during the final battle is the fight with Siax and Xion, in that I would make it so you have to fully and completely beat Siax twice (basically get his heath down to zero twice), rather than how it is now where you beat him a bit, he goes beserek, and Xion and Roxas replace Kairi and Lea. Doing it this way I think would allow for you to fight alongside Kairi and Lea longer, instead of feeling like you barely fight alongside them.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

I would give everyone mustaches. You'd think this is just one of my jokes (and you'd be right) but I'm serious when I say everything would improve 100% from it.

 

[Elysium]

Spoiler Show

I'm not even going to get into past games. I've done that so much the past few years. For KH3, what I can think of is:

- Add Radiant Garden between San Fransokyo and the Keyblade Graveyard, where Sora interacts with some of the other original characters (Aqua, Ventus, Kairi, Lea, Even, Ansem the Wise, Demyx, Lexaeus, etc.) along with *at least* a brief howyadoin' with Squall and/or Yuffie. I'd have liked either Squall or Cid to call you on the Gummiphone once or twice.
- Give 100 Acre Wood an abbreviated story about Lumpy; the return visit is the minigames with the garden.
- Add 1 more Disney world.
- Make bosses out of Randall, Gothel, and Hans.
- Re-create "I See the Light" in Corona.
- 1 30 or 50-round tournament on the top of Olympus in the Hercules post-game, where the final boss is Zeus. The #10 round is the rest of the GoLs versus SDG.
- TAV get new outfits. Maybe Namine, too, although I've always liked her white dress.

My only story change would be that Repliku survives somehow and we see him in the Secret Ending, maybe? I still have hope he might be revived in the next game anyway.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

The most pressing thing that kept popping into my mind even when playing was having a better structured DDD that took upon itself to explain AT LEAST KH III's first third, so that KH III could get into the meat of things instead of spending time making the characters catching up on what the audience already knows.

 

[Recon]

Difficuilty. Honestly, the harder difficuilty settings should actually be difficuilt. So many of the bosses in this game could have had the perfect opportunity to pose a challenge.

I feel like difficulty was adjusted due to the Xbox version and its audience. I feel like they didn't want to make it that difficult so it would turn new players away.

I would give everyone mustaches. You'd think this is just one of my jokes (and you'd be right) but I'm serious when I say everything would improve 100% from it.

For me, it would be googly eyes.

 

[Squood!]

Spoiler Show

One small minor change I would have during the final battle is the fight with Siax and Xion, in that I would make it so you have to fully and completely beat Siax twice (basically get his heath down to zero twice), rather than how it is now where you beat him a bit, he goes beserek, and Xion and Roxas replace Kairi and Lea. Doing it this way I think would allow for you to fight alongside Kairi and Lea longer, instead of feeling like you barely fight alongside them.

Spoiler Show

So what you're trying to tell me, is that the entire Kairi thing[asidefromthekidnapping] could've been avoided, if the boss fight she was a part of was longer.

wellthatandafewmorecutsceneswithher

 

[ghostwarmen]

After having beat the game and obtaining the platinum trophy, and letting my thoughts settle for a few days, I do have a variety of things I would've done to make this a better game for me

Spoiler Show

• More worlds. Specifically, roughly 10-11 Disney worlds and 4 original worlds.
• Better balance between 2D and 3D Disney films.
• Add Critical and up the difficulty some overall
• More Disney bosses
• More secret bosses, post game content, and a coliseum of sorts
• Final Fantasy characters be added
• Allow us to turn on/off specific situation commands (was really sick of attraction flow halfway through the game)
• Pace the story better. It seemed like the last 5 hours were specifically for the original plot. Should've made it where we had major original story points in the beginning, middle, and end.

When it comes to the specific worlds we got:

Spoiler Show

• Olympus
  • Give Meg more screen time, Phil actual lines
  • Hades needs to be a boss
  • Give the gods more screen time, Zeus was not in as much as I wanted
• Twilight Town
  • Good lord, make it bigger
• Corona
  • Add the side characters. The Snuggly Duckling group and the Stabbingtons needed to be in
  • Make Gothel a boss
• Monstropolis
  • Randall needed to be a boss (I will probably never get over this).
• Arendelle
  • Add the actual kingdom as an explorable part of the world. Was an extremely glaring omission
  • Give Hans some dang lines, I mean he could've been written out he barely held any purpose in the world. And make him a boss
  • More interactions between the characters. SDG felt like they were off doing their own thing while the film is going on, never got to really spend time with the cast of the film.
• Caribbean
  • Kind of same thing as Arendelle, what was the purpose of having SDG get separated from the pirates? We missed possible interactions and a proper first intro to Davy Jones instead of SDG jst running into him during the final fight.
  • Make the core plot longer. Felt like we meet the cast, get separated, find a ship and crabs, then final battle time.
  • Honestly, make the maelstrom fight far more dynamic and chaotic. I was hoping we'd be swinging between the 2 ships fighting off Jones' crew and defending ours. Would've been really really sick.
• Scala ad Caelum
  • Needed to be explorable and feel like a true final world, not just a final battlefield.

These are just the things off the top of my head. Do not get me wrong, I loved KH3 and thought it was a great game, but man I really have some things that I think would've improved it, at least for me. I hope KH4 adds more of the general things I would really want, and I think now there is a lot of potential for the next saga. Here's hoping

 

[Perkilator]

After having beat the game and obtaining the platinum trophy, and letting my thoughts settle for a few days, I do have a variety of things I would've done to make this a better game for me

Spoiler Show

• More worlds. Specifically, roughly 10-11 Disney worlds and 4 original worlds.
• Better balance between 2D and 3D Disney films.
• Add Critical and up the difficulty some overall
• More Disney bosses
• More secret bosses, post game content, and a coliseum of sorts
• Final Fantasy characters be added
• Allow us to turn on/off specific situation commands (was really sick of attraction flow halfway through the game)
• Pace the story better. It seemed like the last 5 hours were specifically for the original plot. Should've made it where we had major original story points in the beginning, middle, and end.

When it comes to the specific worlds we got:

Spoiler Show

• Olympus
  • Give Meg more screen time, Phil actual lines
  • Hades needs to be a boss
  • Give the gods more screen time, Zeus was not in as much as I wanted
• Twilight Town
  • Good lord, make it bigger
• Corona
  • Add the side characters. The Snuggly Duckling group and the Stabbingtons needed to be in
  • Make Gothel a boss
• Monstropolis
  • Randall needed to be a boss (I will probably never get over this).
• Arendelle
  • Add the actual kingdom as an explorable part of the world. Was an extremely glaring omission
  • Give Hans some dang lines, I mean he could've been written out he barely held any purpose in the world. And make him a boss
  • More interactions between the characters. SDG felt like they were off doing their own thing while the film is going on, never got to really spend time with the cast of the film.
• Caribbean
  • Kind of same thing as Arendelle, what was the purpose of having SDG get separated from the pirates? We missed possible interactions and a proper first intro to Davy Jones instead of SDG jst running into him during the final fight.
  • Make the core plot longer. Felt like we meet the cast, get separated, find a ship and crabs, then final battle time.
  • Honestly, make the maelstrom fight far more dynamic and chaotic. I was hoping we'd be swinging between the 2 ships fighting off Jones' crew and defending ours. Would've been really really sick.
• Scala ad Caelum
  • Needed to be explorable and feel like a true final world, not just a final battlefield.

These are just the things off the top of my head. Do not get me wrong, I loved KH3 and thought it was a great game, but man I really have some things that I think would've improved it, at least for me. I hope KH4 adds more of the general things I would really want, and I think now there is a lot of potential for the next saga. Here's hoping

You summed it up for me perfectly. As for me…

Spoiler Show

-Make Links require and use half your MP
-Make Faris the FF character in the Caribbean
-I’ll say this til the end of time: Dream Eaters would’ve fit as the main Toy Box enemy (and PatF, too Ineedtostopsoon)

 

[Deleted member]

Make it gayer.
Customizable Costumes and Outfits. Togglable hoods up/down. SuperGroupies Outfits.

 

[Divine Past]

Spoiler Show

The final battle should have been more dramatic. For me I felt it was one of the most underwhelming boss sequences in the series

KH1- Ansem multiple phases felt like a big deal. Maybe this was nostalgic but it did feel epic seeing the transformation

KH ReCOM: Marluxia's final form was very cool looking and it feel rewarding

KH2: Facing Xemnas versus Riku/Sora was great. The moment where Riku has to save Sora was great too.

KH Days: Roxas vs Xion was dope and very emotional

KH BBS: I don't even remember most of the end game order but the end game I felt was great with the boss fights

KH 3D: This was a bit underwhelming I admit.

This fight vs Xehanort should have been 7 on 1 with all the heroes of light fighting against Xehanort. Maybe have a sequence where you take control of each hero for a segment of the fight. Just having S/D/G do it did not feel as much emotional.

 

[Zettaflare]

What I'd fix for KH3 personally

Spoiler Show

1. Have Randall be a mid boss before the big Unversed one. It would make more sense for him to lose the first time and resort to something better.
2. Give Gothel control of the heartless and nobodies. Would certainly justify Marluxia's eye scene.
3. Save Namine much sooner and give her some dialogue.
4. Have SDG more integrated with the Arendelle plot. Have Larxene visibly interact with Elsa. Include the Arendelle town itself.
5. Show Isa apologizing to Roxas and Xion.
6. Cut 100 Acre Woods and use that space to increase the size of Twilight Town
7. Include Zurg for Toy Box.
8. Add Lightning to Olympus.
9. Instead of Xehanort killing Kairi have her sacrifice herself of her own free will in an attempt to save Sora's life. That would at least give her some agency

I'm not to bothered about SDG being the ones to fight Master Xehanort. There was a good reason for the other keyblade wielders to stay behind and Donald and Goofy to assist Sora

 

[Onion Knight]

By giving Xehanort a more defined and fleshed-out motivation.

 

[TruestSyn]

Now, I want to preface this with that I personally think KH3 is a masterpiece and in changing the final product would only be to increase or add on to the magnificence that I think KH3 is:

Spoiler Show

Olympus as an opening and following up with Twilight Town is fine. However, some of the interlude between Mickey and Riku happened throughout there and I would have really preferred to see all that in one big chunk instead of in pieces. Mostly because the loading that takes place between transitions. It's shorter when it connects to another cutscene and longer when it is broken up. I'm sure they'll find a way to improve load times if/when we get Final Mix++ like they did with 1.5+2.5 so hopefully it'll break up some of that down time. In the same respect, there were a lot of loading screen breakups that felt a little too disjointed from the flow that could be repaired.

After finishing Toy Box and Kingdom of Corona, Sora and crew should have saved Aqua in the realm of darkness. Start off with Riku fighting again, winning, confronting Aqua, losing, then Sora showing up and saving her. Then, move on to Monstropolis and Arandelle. After that, interlude with Aqua and crew saving Ven. I feel like they had to use the quick jump to CO/LoD as an excuse to cripple Aqua because Sora is key, but they could have done it in a way that makes the bond Vanitas covets STRONGER than Aqua instead of Aqua weak from lack of rest. Then we'd have two and have some worlds left. After that, we should meet Merlin up for Pooh. I've already complained Pooh should have been much more than what we got which would give it a better excuse to go back to between worlds (torn pages again even come on) but they wanting everything to be as continuous as possible so moving on...

San Fransokyo and The Carribean happen, we get the news about Roxas, and the teams now rested congratulate each other and get ready for the final battle. The last day events and even the labyrinth events were perfect imo. But if we use that as a first visit to Keyblade graveyard, then show the futility of the situation, then cut back in time like he did, use the help of the past wielders, and then either get control of the party characters during the fights in the labyrinth or get a more definitive cutscene for it (thus showing time flowing the same way) THEN have a mcguffin for what would stop the timeline from being exactly the same, xehanort retorting that it's too late anyway, then following the same finale with Kairi, Scala ad Caelum, and finishing with the Final World. Meeting those stars, putting Sora back together and then realizing he can't go back again but that someone or something is calling him somewhere (which would then hint at the secret movie) would feel a lot more bittersweet to the player and when we see him fade away at the end it would have been more sad than rage inducing (others opinions, not mine).

Epilogue and Secret movies both still make perfect sense (if not more) in this context.

However, as stated above I still think it's perfect so making these adjustments would only make it better to me. I still can't wait for KH4 and any dlc/Final Mix we get for 3.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Should have had more Vanitas and Larxene interactions!