Ok, so I've got mixed feelings. On one front, I'm happy that Roxas, Riku, and Aqua are playable in the Keyblade graveyard, and these were all of my picks for playable characters anyway. But on the other hand though, it's the exact same short battles as before, and specifically in regard to Roxas, it looks he'll still only have all of three moves like he did as a party member (which also means no air combo, no regular magic, no blocking, which means no counters, probably no situation commands, bassically nothing of genuine substance). Which kinda makes me wish they would've just had him be playable later on, so they could really flesh out his moveset. As it stands, it looks a slightly janky KH2 camera changing mod that they just tacked on to make up for his likely still miniscule role in this game. Which is incredibly cheap and disappointing if I'm correct. Kinda like how they made him invincible in order to justify calling him top secret and by extension, of high importance in interviews leading up to the game.
Happy that we'll finally get some incite into Young Xehanort and Luxu's plan. They genuinely seem to have established a bond during their time together. And it seems YX will have much further significance in the series future, which I'm totally fine with since he's my favorite Xehanort anyway. Additionally, Young Xehanort, although still physically larger than his older Scala self, now has silver eyes, so that's something worth looking into. The mystery surrounding Luxord is honestly of no interest to me. No Demyx, or Vexen, or Siax scenes so far, which is a bit surprising considering Nomura's earlier statements. Still think Xion is going to be clarified, but it'll probably be only limited to a few new scenes of more exposition.
I'm really curious on exactly when these DLC adventures start. Right after Sora helps TAV/RAX he immediately runs off. I'm assuming this is when the DLC happens, these are the perfect openings for extra fights and plot. Orrr the Aqua and Riku playable scenarios could be at the very start of the Keyblade Graveyard chaos and they'd be fighting through the giga army of Heartless/Unversed/Nobodies just like SDG did. Roxas is kind of pigeonholed into a starting point but who knows when Aqua and Riku start their DLC adventures. Maybe even playable before the Keyblade Graveyard drama starts, like during that supposed day of rest? The possibilities...
Can't be after Sora runs off from the fights because Terranort, Vanitas, and Siax are already defeated. It also can't really be before, because Roxas only appears mid way through the battle anyway, and by then Axel has to sit the fight out. During the time after those two segments, the only remaining norts are the ones Sora is already fighting, so there's nothing exactly left for them to do. I'd say that unless the scenes themselves were tweaked, it's probably some kind of data battle. As far as I can tell, nothing really suggest they'll be playable outside of the segments they were already party members in, so I'm not exactly very curious on the "when" of these events just yet. If KH3 was anything to go by, it likely doesn't even matter. The fact that Lea and Xion fight with Roxas only means they reused the Lea party member asset, the Xion party member asset, and seemingly only allow you to control the already limited three moves the Roxas party member had, just followed by a camera (possibly something more added, but the trailer gives zero indication that that's the case, so I don't really have reason to believe otherwise), all while fighting the exact same boss, which, assuming the entire sequence wasn't altered, is going to end the exact same way. Same with Riku and Aqua. In short, there doesn't seem to be much "new" here in regards to playable characters, so I'm keeping my expectations firmly grounded for the time being.