So finished MoM this morning, the gameplay and recaps were really great and well done, but I have quite a few issues with the new story segment.
The only game play complaints I have are rather minor, like not enough boss stages, the drastic shift from KH1-BBS/DDD worlds to KH3 worlds, that changing difficulties and teams being rather cumbersome.
I think this game had the most moments where I went from "heck yeah!", to "you gotta be kidding me!" in seconds.
While I thought the cutscene featuring Kairi fighting Xehanort looked great. I like how creative Kairi was with using her Keyblade. My issue with this scene is how Xehanort is just toying with her, completely undermining her competent scenes in all of ReMind. It basically translates to: yeah... Kairi did fight the Master Xehanort Replica, but really she was just there and Sora completely carried the fight on his own.
Like I can see how some might want to use the fact that he's a creation of her memories as justification. He is the monster that turned her life upside-down so she might subconsciously overblow his strength, but I'm not sold on this.
The next whiplash was when Kairi summoned Sora's Keyblade. It was a cool moment and I thought it was to signify her "borrowing" his power to turn the tide. But nope, Sora then takes over and fights Xehanort for her.
Like why did they bother making a old style model for her only to limit it to two short memory dive segments and then use an old style KH3 Sora model for one fight?
The fact that this Xehanort was made from her memories and is a part of her just would make her beating him all that more significant. It'd could be seen as her overcoming her past and doubts and moving forward.
The final whiplash moment for me was when they made this big deal of there being three keys needed to save Sora and then well Kairi you did your part, now Riku can go on alone, because despite training in a place where time doesn't matter, you're too weak! As if Riku isn't going to be reset upon reaching the other world... Also the scene reminded me of KH1 where Sora told her she'd just get in his way.
Once again she gets benched and we get a "I owe you" regarding Kairi's presence in the story.
So now that I've said what I found frustrating about the final stretch I'll talk about what I did like.
I liked how we went into Kairi's kidnapping and the hints of there being more to the way she was sent to Destiny Island. As in the machine could have thrown her into unreality. Also the exchange between her and Xehanort was good in my opinion.
I also really liked how we got to see some of Kairi and Riku's friendship on display again. Could have done with a bit more, but it was really nice to see. I also found the Fairy Godmother delightful. Though I do wonder how she knows so much.
While I don't like that Kairi is getting benched after being teased to be playing a significant part again, I do like the idea of her training under Aqua. Seeing her bond with the Wayfinders would be cool. Sadly chances are it'll get as much screen time and attention as her training alongside Axel.
I find it interesting how this game just killed all plotlines set up in Limit Cut. I suppose they were just there to explain what the characters were doing in the year long timeskip, but I still don't get why we got a time skip to begin with.
Spoiler
