If you could go back in time to KH3's development, what changes would you make?

[SS501]

I wouldn't let Nomura cut 0.2 out of KH3 and i would have it be KH3's prologue like it was originally intended before they decided to package it with 2.8.
I feel like it would really alleviate a lot of the problems fans had with the pacing of the story.
Here's why.
A lot of people complained about the pacing of the main story being slow and that then it suddenly stepped on the gas while most of the main plot was crammed at the end
0.2, is a 2~3 hour long prologue full of nothing but OC KH story which works better than throwing the player in a Disney world right from the start and Aqua gets a lot of screentime and moments showing her capabilities too, a lot of people felt Aqua got shafted in KH3 so this would fix that problem as well. Ven and Terra make an appearance in 0.2 too so that's also a huge bonus since it would add to their screentime. It would really make KH3 feel like a culmination of everything that happened before it right from the start and it would motivate people to go through the Disney worlds and enjoy them instead of getting tired of them or rushing them just because they want to finally see what happens next.
A lot of people also complained that there was no mid section in the plot (and kept bringing up Radient Garden's 1000 heartless fight from KH2 as a comparisong), it's all disney "filler" as they call it and then suddenly you're at end game.
0.2 Fixes this because it feels like an actual prologue, similar to Roxas in KH2. Sora going to save Aqua in the realm of Darkness, would actually feel a lot more like "mid game" with 0.2 at the start of the game, because it completes Aqua's character arc post-bbs in one game so it would feel like - Aqua beginning of the arc (Prologue) -> Disney journey -> Aqua saved, arc completed (Mid game) -> everyone gathers back at Yensid's tower, reunions happen, Aqua and Sora go and save Ven -> moving on to the last act of the game.
As things are now a lot of people misunderstand and think that the game has no mid section, but the truth is the game does have a mid section, what it doesn't have is a prologue.

It also would remove the feeling of playing "filler" to a degree since Sora would have another purpose other than finding a vague power of waking and you would have already gotten a taste of actual main plot, making the Disney worlds feel like an actual journey to save Aqua instead of an aimless journey through Disney to find a random power you know nothing about. Not only would 0.2 not make the Disney journey not feel like "boring filler" but it would also make the Disney visits feel like a "well earned break from the intense shit that went down in the prologue", a time to relax and have some fun. The cutscenes of Mickey and Riku in RoD would also carry more impact.

Another thing is, not a lot of people played 0.2 and imo it's quite integral to KH3 which why it is named "Final chapter prologue" aka KH3's prologue. This is why a lot of people couldn't connect with Aqua and didn't really get how much she suffered in the RoD or why Riku can relate to her. It's also why saving Aqua didn't feel like an actual milestone and a mid section in the game, because removing 0.2 from KH3 makes saving Aqua a lot less impactful (Especially if you're just rushing after 25 hours of just Disney) and so people just dump "Saving Aqua" in the same bag as the rest of the game and feel like the story started rushing and saved everyone in the span of 20 minutes, when in reality it's an entirely separate sub-arc in the story that took BBS's epilogue (Secret Episode), 0.2 and KH3's prologue to be completed just so they can finally go to where Ven is hidden. There was honestly nothing more to add to Aqua's arc but because it was so fragmented and only a small fragment of it made it in KH3, people felt like it was rushed and that the game was just checking things off of a list.

 

[pastel.goblin]

Hm, I'd start off by making Kairi/Axel's training the prologue/tutorial stage, with Kairi playable. Doesn't have to be as long as KH2's prologue, but enough to cover all the basic stuff, set up Kairi/Axel's friendship (maybe even show when they met again) and show that Kairi is making progress. Then maybe halfway through the game have Kairi tag along for a world or two. It'd give her time to develop into a character more people would care about, and give her a personal reason to want to fight other than Sora. Maybe she strikes up a friendship with one of the new PoHs, so the threat to them drives her on more. It gives more time for Kairi and Sora to actually bond, plus they could discuss the whole saving Roxas/Naminé thing together. It'd give Naminé some moments to flash through Kairi so her only in game appearance before the very end isn't as a missable star and then Sora/Kairi can actually make good on the whole spending time together so Roxas/Naminé can too thing lol

Have the midpoint a playable Riku section in Radiant Garden with the Restoration Committee showing up, which would lead into Riku/Mickey saving Aqua, who could then save Ven a World or so later. Make Land of Departure a revisit-able World where Aqua and Ven are recovering until the final fights, give them proper moments with each other and any relevant characters (Aqua/Kairi, Lea/Ven etc.) Also have Riku tag along for a World or so, either with Kairi or separately idk.

Give Twilight Town a reason for a revisit, maybe they discover something new to assist with Roxas/Naminé returning. Actually have Sora/Kairi relevant to that, rather than Ienzo just calling with an expo dump every so often.

Still have the gathering of everyone before the end, only it's less rushed and awkward since everyone will have had catch up scenes previously.

I don't mind Kairi being weaker than everyone else, but ffs don't fridge her. Replace Mickey with Kairi for the Nort fight so we finally have the Destiny Trio together for something.

There's more, but basically just fix the pacing a bit and give the characters more time/breathing room

 

[AegisXIII]

I wouldn't let Nomura cut 0.2 out of KH3 and i would have it be KH3's prologue like it was originally intended before they decided to package it with 2.8.
I feel like it would really alleviate a lot of the problems fans had with the pacing of the story.
Here's why.
A lot of people complained about the pacing of the main story being slow and that then it suddenly stepped on the gas while most of the main plot was crammed at the end
0.2, is a 2~3 hour long prologue full of nothing but OC KH story which works better than throwing the player in a Disney world right from the start and Aqua gets a lot of screentime and moments showing her capabilities too, a lot of people felt Aqua got shafted in KH3 so this would fix that problem as well. Ven and Terra make an appearance in 0.2 too so that's also a huge bonus since it would add to their screentime. It would really make KH3 feel like a culmination of everything that happened before it right from the start and it would motivate people to go through the Disney worlds and enjoy them instead of getting tired of them or rushing them just because they want to finally see what happens next.
A lot of people also complained that there was no mid section in the plot (and kept bringing up Radient Garden's 1000 heartless fight from KH2 as a comparisong), it's all disney "filler" as they call it and then suddenly you're at end game.
0.2 Fixes this because it feels like an actual prologue, similar to Roxas in KH2. Sora going to save Aqua in the realm of Darkness, would actually feel a lot more like "mid game" with 0.2 at the start of the game, because it completes Aqua's character arc post-bbs in one game so it would feel like - Aqua beginning of the arc (Prologue) -> Disney journey -> Aqua saved, arc completed (Mid game) -> everyone gathers back at Yensid's tower, reunions happen, Aqua and Sora go and save Ven -> moving on to the last act of the game.
As things are now a lot of people misunderstand and think that the game has no mid section, but the truth is the game does have a mid section, what it doesn't have is a prologue.

It also would remove the feeling of playing "filler" to a degree since Sora would have another purpose other than finding a vague power of waking and you would have already gotten a taste of actual main plot, making the Disney worlds feel like an actual journey to save Aqua instead of an aimless journey through Disney to find a random power you know nothing about. Not only would 0.2 not make the Disney journey not feel like "boring filler" but it would also make the Disney visits feel like a "well earned break from the intense shit that went down in the prologue", a time to relax and have some fun. The cutscenes of Mickey and Riku in RoD would also carry more impact.

Another thing is, not a lot of people played 0.2 and imo it's quite integral to KH3 which why it is named "Final chapter prologue" aka KH3's prologue. This is why a lot of people couldn't connect with Aqua and didn't really get how much she suffered in the RoD or why Riku can relate to her. It's also why saving Aqua didn't feel like an actual milestone and a mid section in the game, because removing 0.2 from KH3 makes saving Aqua a lot less impactful (Especially if you're just rushing after 25 hours of just Disney) and so people just dump "Saving Aqua" in the same bag as the rest of the game and feel like the story started rushing and saved everyone in the span of 20 minutes, when in reality it's an entirely separate sub-arc in the story that took BBS's epilogue (Secret Episode), 0.2 and KH3's prologue to be completed just so they can finally go to where Ven is hidden. There was honestly nothing more to add to Aqua's arc but because it was so fragmented and only a small fragment of it made it in KH3, people felt like it was rushed and that the game was just checking things off of a list.

I really like what you explained. I would even go further by adding reMind within the main game as it explains the implications of the power of waking. Same with MoM which should be unlocked in parallel of the limit cut.

I think that 0.2, Kh3, ReMind and MoM are part of the same narrative structure

• 0.2 is the intro
• Kh3 is the meat
• ReMind is the last battle
• Limit cut, MoM and Secret episode are the epilogues

They should all be part of the same title. And I think it is not too late. Next gen is coming and with it comes a brand new world of endless possibilities. New compilations, KH3 ps5 optimized version, everything is possible.

 

[Cumguardian69]

Oh, now that I think about it I would have Sora + Riku vs Aqua instead of the demon tower filler trash fights. There is no reason why Sora stole Riku's thunder in that fight

 

[horto12485]

Here's what i would have done for the Changes of KH3's Development...

1: Better Writers/Better Story Writers.

2: Make the Nightmare Dream Eaters Enemies (Don't know which World but who knows)

3: More Areas for Both Olympus and Twilight Town to access too.

4: Add the Mysterious Tower as a Playable World rather than just making it a Cutscene World.

5: Make Christopher Lloyd the New Voice of Master Xehanort rather than Rutger Hauer

6: Use Disney Music for the Worlds maybe I see the Light for the Kingdom of Corona and He's a Pirate for The Caribbean.

7: Make Destiny Islands a Playable World maybe put it in one of the Zones in the World Map with Mysterious Tower (Prehaps Glimmering Way (Which i renamed the Starlight Way) and expandable. and put Radiant Garden in the Misty Stream along with Land of Departure at Misty Stream.

8: More Disney bosses in Worlds (Examples (2): Hades in Olympus and a Heartless possessed Zurg in Toy Box (Instead of a UFO Heartless)

9: One Animal Based World (Either Jungle Book or the Return to the Pride Lands)

10: At least 3 or 4 More Links (Judy Hopps, Maui, Bahamut (FF) and Spider-Man) and a Option to skip Summon Cutscenes

11: Enter Places in worlds you never been into like Elsa's Ice Palace and Rapunzel's Tower

12: Interaction scenes with Characters

13: Add in the Following Worlds... into each zone

Glimmering Sky would have

Worlds in Glimmering Sky...

Olympus
Twilight Town (100 Acre Wood)
Destiny Islands
Mysterious Tower
Toy Box
Kingdom of Corona
Jungle World (Either Pride Lands (Returning World) or the Jungle Book)

Add... Jungle World (Glimmering Way) (Either the Jungle Book or Pride Lands (Returning World for the Simba's Pride Storyline)

If either...

Mowgli, Baloo and Bagheera is the Party Members

or

Kiara and Kovu become Party Members with Simba (during the Final Fight with Zira)

Add Agrabah (King of Thieves) (To the Galactic Ocean with Caribbean and San Fransokyo and Arendelle)

Aladdin and Cassim as Party Members

Galactic Ocean...

Agrabah
San Fransokyo
Arendelle
The Caribbean
Monstropolis

Radiant Garden into the Misty Stream

Misty Stream

Radiant Garden (Game Central/Candyland/Cybug Sector/Niceland)
The Lost Capital
Legacy to Galaxy
Bewitching Bayou (The Princess and the Frog)
Land of Departure

Keyblade Graveyard/Scala Ad Caleum stay the Same at the Eclipse

14: Have an Coliseum somewhere at Olympus

15: Have all of the Disney Party Members and Allies (Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, Disney World Allies (Merfolk, Pride Landers, Gods of Olympus, Shang, Ling, Chien Po and Yao, Minnie, Neku and Friends Beast's Servants ETC) While Maleficent gets all of the Disney Villains to help her stop Xehanort and his 12 Incarnations Replicas with Sephiroth. The Guardians of Light also join alongside Donald and Goofy, Yen Sid, Merlin and Namine. Think of this as the Kingdom Hearts version of Battle of Earth from Avengers Endgame

16: Yoko Shimomura to compose the Final Battle Music

17: Minor Disney Characters in different Worlds like Duchess and her Kittens in Twilight Town for Example.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Tell Square Enix to not use Luminous for Kingdom Hearts III, imagine the polish this game would have had if it started under Unreal Engine 4.

 

[Deliverance]

The biggest change I would make is to give the game a more focused direction. KH3 gives off the impression that everyone involved was just doing their own thing. Nomura wants to focus more on the OC fanfiction. Disney enthusiasts want to be faithful to the movies. Some gameplay designers wanted to make another BBS sequel. Some wanted to placate KH2 fans. Some wanted to introduce more RPG elements.

There’s no indication of a cohesive vision. They’re just trying to please everyone.

If Nomura is only passionate about the original elements and Disney keeps getting harder to deal with, then just cut ties. How does this partnership benefit the story you’re trying to tell?

If you wanna keep using Disney then commit to it. You can’t just make a story about whatever you want.

If the game is an action game then be an action game. Don’t waste time adding elements from other genres that aren’t compatible with that design philosophy.

This fence-sitting is the number one problem affecting KH as a whole.

 

[Xagzan]

- In the writers room

"I'm sorry, you wanna do what to Kairi? Uh uh, we ain't doing that."

- If Yoko can't compose the final battle tune, get Yasunori Nishiki back. Or Shotaro Shima. Or Sachiko Miyano. Or Yuko Komiyama, Natsumi Kameoka, Yoshitaka Suzuki, I would have picked literally any of the other dozen people who worked on this score before Ishimoto.

- More cross trio interactions. The characters are the strength amid all this timey wimey nonsense, the game should've leaned into them more.

 

[disney233]

Seems like the complaints department has it pretty much covered but I'll add this: Christopher Lloyd should have been the replacement voice actor for Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts 3 instead of Rutger Hauer. His scenes in ReMIND had more gravitas when you compare the identical lines from the base game.

If this comment isn't the very definition of "aged like fine wine" THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.

Anyway, if I would go back in time to change 3's development then, what would I do...hmmm...how about ensuring that absolutely NOTHING from the BS of a story DDD had never came into a SINGLE bit of consideration.

The factor of EVERYTHING so...backwards with the series started with DDD. I'd damn well argue that it started with BBS, but it was DDD that hurts it...much. Much more. THE TIME TRAVEL BS DIDN'T NEED TO BE A THING.

Aside from that...it doesn't seem like too much of a hassle to make the original story flow smoothly. There was NO reason to shove EVERYTHING in the end. There's also the idea of death. Cause y'know...if you're gonna kill off a character, how about not BSing a way to bring them alive...JUST BECAUSE.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

I’d only change one of two things, and this would be in the writing: either A.) remove all foreshadowing regarding either Verum Rex and the Black Box or have there be some form of conclusion with only small things left open, or B.) Don’t have Sora disappear in the ending.

If you have to put time travel in, just have Sora go back to the minute that he was about to fall. Have him stand with new determination to fight and fend off the Heartless alongside Riku, and then do the Union Cross scene. After that, have things play out as they did in Re:Mind(minus the time travel elements). And by the time we get to the final battle, maybe mix elements of the two storylines, like have Sora try to find Kairi's heart while fending off Xehanort’s other selves or something, or get Donald and Goofy to do it while Sora keeps Xehanort himself occupied.

And if we absolutely have to include the Yozora stuff, have it be a fight in Sora's dreams, and have both him and Riku compare notes with Yen Sid and the others, which could lead to the secret ending teasing their adventures in Quadratum.

I could go on, but at the end of the day, all I'd want is a conclusive ending to the main saga without bogging it down in so much foreshadowing.

 

[Jochira]

I mainly just have problem with Union X's connection to KH3. I can imagine lots of ppl (me included, I didn't play much Union X before and I quitted it recently, since I just got bored lol) haven't played Union X or quitted/taken a break at some point.

This might not seem like much of an issue, but this leaves confusion at KH3. Like for example, Marluxia's and Larxene's relation and why they got brought back, how Ventus know Chiririty and the identity of the nameless Star (Stretliza).

The reason Union X being canon is a an issue is because, unlike the other games, you don't get the whole story all at once. Instead, the story of Union X get constantly updated and, due to the nature of phone games, you have to deal with microtransaction. Of course YT exists too, but you shouldn't have to rely on YT neither.

So yeah, I would either make it so Union X have no direct connection with KH3 OR I would make it so we learn about these connections, while playing KH3. Even if it's just in the form of being explained in Jiminy's Journal.

Also, the Cups from KH1 and KH2, I've always loved those and got sad when KH3 didn't have it. I would include those too.

 

[GreyouTT]

Take out Build A Snowman, add more Lion King 1.5-esque slapstick in the background of Let It Go.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

Some things I would change:

Let us have a Demyx boss fight I would of really liked that as long as it did not say anything about beating 99 water clones in 10 seconds.

I may not be a fan of Kairi but she deserved a better role than she got in KH3

I would of rather explore Elsa‘s Castle than Larxene’s Ice Labyrinth

The original characters should be allowed to get involved with the plot in the Frozen world.

Delete Olaf’s terrible mini game and don’t make me play it twice

I wanted to explore the Big Hero 6 world more and not being told I wasn’t allowed to explore any further. ( if I could of explored that city as much as I was allowed to explore the city in Marvel Spider Man that would of been awesome)

Giving how important the Clocktower area was to Roxas‘s story in Days we should of been allowed to visit it as Sora in KH3 and we shouldn’t of had to wait to Re:Mind to explore Scala Ad Caelum.

More save files, honestly this one just because I could of made save files before bosses and could go back and try to get some cool or funny photos with bosses when I’m bored. Also we
should be allowed to choose what pose instead of having to cycle through all of them.

More of Organization XIII interacting with each other as it’s cool seeing how the characters react to each other gives a little bit more development to characters and all of Larxene and Demyx reactions to each other was probably one of my favourite scenes.

Radiant Garden should of been a place we visited, Aeleus and Dilan should of had some kind of small role or at least some dialogue.

I believe that In the fight against Marluxia and Larxene that Ventus should of been one of our party members because it would allowed for some more character development and information about Union X. Kairi should of been our other party member so she would be able to get payback at the people who hurt Namine.

 

[Willow A113]

I would warn Nomura that Disney will mess up Arendelle, giving him more time to prepare and find a solution.
I would also introduce ideas from Playstacin and Sirskyward's rewrites to him.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

Fix up the pacing and have more original content throughout the game to balance out the Disney content

Have the game start development on Unreal 4 from the beginning.

Leave 0.2 in KH3.

Have the Anti-Aqua fight be Zodiac Aqua with less health and more moves and remove Demon Tower from Riku's section of the fight.

Have an altered/expanded version of the last section of 0.2 be used in Riku's sections.

Ditch the haircut for Riku.

Have negotiations with Marvel Comics for Spider-Man inclusion which would then allow for KH cameos in Spidey comics due to the nature of the Marvel multiverse, maybe even add a Mysterio secret boss for more toying around with illusion-based bosses.

I dunno, ditch the "Jiminy telling everyone he gave them a gummiphone" line? That just doesn't make sense to me how he managed to have a lot of those and sneak them into everyone's pockets

Have Disney lighten up a bit yeesh, especially with Arendelle. Like guys are you that protective over Frozen that you don't even want people to fix Elsa's hair?

 

[Recon]

When KH3’s first trailer/announcement was made, Sora should have said “Kept you waiting, huh”

 

[The Transcendent Key]

Honestly, the two things I would change is to have given the Wayfinder Trio and Sea Salt Trios more screentime in the game. Yes, they had their own games to shine, but I would've loved to see more scenes with them! And I would have loved to see more involvement on the Final Fantasy side of things. Otherwise, I loved the whole game. It was a wonderful tribute to the series so far and a hell of an ending to the Xehanort Saga! <3