@Ruran: I do agree with and can understand all of your posts, but at the same time… though stuffing Kairi down people’s throats, and whatnot could get annoying, at least we’d still know that Sora and Riku still cared about Kairi that way. A lot of fans are starting to feel like they don’t, seeing as how she’s not in the games anymore (sometimes for silly reasons like the one Nomura gave for Re:Coded), no one even thinks of her anymore, and we haven’t seen her in seven years. So while I don’t think they should overdue it, something of her every now and then would be nice.
@Sephiroth0812 Sorry to confusing you about what I said. I just thought that if Kairi had been there, it would have made things a lot more emotional somehow. Not only has Kairi not seen as much of “war” as the others (so she might have had fresh feelings, and had been freaking out a bit), but also it might have jumpstarted her want to get stronger and protect her friends, etc. I can get why you’d think it would have made no sense, and would have been unneeded, but do you kind of get where I’m coming from? We’ve seen Sora in bad states with MDG and Riku all the time (and seen him get better afterwards), but with Kairi… it would have been something somewhat new and other.
@TwilitSoldier It’s looking like she might be playable in III, though (she’ll at least have character development in it). And honestly, if Kairi was developed—and her relationships with people developed—it could make the emotions more real and tense at times, like you want. The fact is, Kairi’s supposed to be important (and thus she’s not going anywhere anytime soon), it’s the fact they haven’t given her more dimensions that’s the problem. When they do, she won’t be “useless” anymore, but perhaps a badass female. Actually, IN developing her, they’ll probably give you just what you actually seem to want, so…
Also, they’ll never remove Disney from KH. The crossover is what KH is. And you do know that Final Fantasy has a TON of epic, and even somewhat cheesy romances, right? They even go into it more there than in KH! Cecil/Rosa, Cloud/Tifa and/or Cloud/Aerith, Squall/Rinoa, Zidane/Dagger, Tidus/Yuna, Vaan/Penelo (in Revenant Wings), Snow/Serah, Noctis/Stella when Versus comes out, etc. If you think the Final Fantasy games are great, “dark” and where you want KH to go… shouldn’t this prove Square knows how to handle romance in games, without disrupting the feelings you want in it?
@Kenzichi – You are probably right, and it probably made more sense that way, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for parallels. I think Sora thinking of Kairi would have been a cool tieback to when he thought of Kairi as a Heartless. And since this was the ten-year anniversary game and whatnot, I thought it would have been a good way to “include” her.
And as for your other point… I suppose that when I always played KHI, it seemed to me as though they were trying to make Kairi the balance between Sora and Riku. I thought that they were hinting that since Sora and Riku’s rivalry was so strong, Kairi would be the one to make them not kill each other in their sparring sessions and stuff. And she also sort of did seem like the leader, as both boys were trying to impress her, she told them what supplies to gather, etc. But I might have been wrong. And even if it had been true once, it’s certainly changed now.
@WaveK89 – You know, Wave. I actually think Kairi’s Princess of Heart status would be a neat thing they could explore. What are the limitations of it, what can PoH do exactly? Seeing as how important the Princesses are now—and that KH is over saturated with Keyblades lately—this could be a nice change.
Personally, I’ve always liked that Kairi has so much bite to her words. They could have easily made her a “perfect princess”, but they didn’t. I think it would be cool (and even somewhat needed) to know what it means to “have a heart of Pure Light.” There are so many cool things about Kairi, and things that could be told; they just need to do it: like the time Xehanort sent her to the Islands, the fact she’s a Light and one of the Seven Pure Lights both, that she sometimes seems to have a bit of clairvoyance, etc.
@Oathkeeperriku09: I do get where you’re coming from, and I agree with you on all of your points except one: People who don’t want Kairi in it (or SoKai), because it gets in the way of “their want for KH” can suck it. I’m sorry, but that is one of my biggest pet peeves as a writer (as I am one, too). Yes, you should listen to your fans somewhat, but they shouldn’t dictate and change the story
you want to write. If you let that happen, it’s not your story anymore. And it also sacrifices a lot of plans and ideas the author could have explored, but didn’t because they chose to cater towards fanservice instead.
I think some fans need to remember that they’re exactly that: fans. And at the end of the day, the author is going to write the story they picture. If you prefer something else, then you can write your own epic. Harry/Hermione fans were forced to take in Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny. KH fans can take in SoKai and more of Kairi, if that’s Nomura’s intent.
I mean, I think a lot of Square’s problem lately is that they’re not sticking to their guns, and are trying too hard to cater to fans. XIII-2 was made specifically to fans’ wants, and look how well that turned out. Anyway, sorry for going on a rant. Though I agree with your other points, I think Nomura should be able to tell
his story. (And of, course, if this means he doesn’t want SoKai, or Kairi, then I’ll accept that, the way others should accept the reverse should it happen.)
In my opinion, I hope they develop Kairi soon. It’s a loss that they haven’t yet. And I actually think they need to stay away from Riku for a while (I think his story’s done for this saga, at least, and too much focus on him might ruin his resolution from DDD), and finally give Kairi the time she deserves.
I do think Square has some cool ideas for her (the original beta trailer made it seem like she might save Sora at least once, and that Riku was main antagonist at that point of development). And who knows? Maybe the fact there was a Kairi model found within BbSFM’s coding for the “KH3D demo” means something. For all we know, they might have her totally Aqua it in KHIII (god I hope so). At this point, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see
Thanks for all the replies, and making my first editorial such a success, guys. I had a blast talking with you all! See you all soon! Who knows? Maybe I’ll even write something else soon ^_^
