Nomura lied hard about Roxas being the biggest secret of KH3.

[Hirokey123]

Like it's just a flat out lie, Roxas was talked about constantly and in practically every in between cutscenes.

Spoiler Show

We had an almost step by step showing of how he was restored and he appeared right when you expected he would. There was no secret here at all, instead and I can't even tell if this was intentional or not but XION was actually KH3's biggest secret. Like one thing that stands out especially on a replay is like how roughly half the entire game is about Xion, how it constantly builds up and alludes to her without ever directly stating her name or talking about her in regular terms. She doesn't appear until the very end of the game and is the last darkness to be revealed, and then she acts as both the 13th darkness and 7th light.

Here is basically a good chunk of KH3's plot...

1. Establish Sora's heart has more inside it than just his own but don't say who is in it yet.
2. Establish that Vexen, creator of the replicas, may have rejoined the Organization
3. Established that Xehanort has a back-up plan to use in place of Sora as their 13th vessel
4. So very blatantly use Kairi and Lea to further flesh out and establish Xion directly following Xehanort talking about back-up to Sora, like literally every other sentence was about Xion in some way and the scene basically concludes with Xion's face revealed briefly.
5. Have the very next world be YX reveal that they are conducting experiments in order to reclaim a lost darkness, experiments that involve connecting hearts, living toys which they manipulate as puppets. Given that reclaim means "former member" of which the only two who could possibly require such an experiment are Roxas and Xion, then add in the whole empty puppet living toys with hearts thing very obviously echoes Xion.
6. Reveal that the Organization specifically brought Vexen in to use his replica program to deliver to them their 13th vessel.
7. Have Sora learn Ven's heart is in his thus shaking his notion that his heart not belonging to him is because of Roxas, and then immediately follow that up with a scene where Sora learns there are actually three hearts one of which remains deliberately unidentified but is connected to Roxas by length of the time it's been in Sora.
8. Establish the Organization is still conducting experiments on the heart in order to figure out how to rebuild one with data, gee I wonder what heart they are trying to build
9. Have Xion suddenly appear with the 13 darknesses which then promptly leads to both her and Roxas's proper returns, and then as a twist have Kairi kidnapped and Lea knocked out so both former 13ths Roxas and Xion can play the roles of the 6th and 7th light to hammer Saix in the face
10. Don't have any of the usual suspects comfort Sora in his absolute time of need after losing Kairi but instead use Xion for it.

I mean I love Xion, I'm happy she was such a core character, but I have to wonder what story Nomura is reading when he thinks Roxas the guy who is at the forefront of the story and every cutscene, whose restoration we have the step by step of, is the biggest secret. And not you know the girl who was the core of the shadow plot hinted at constantly throughout the game, ended up performing on both sides of the X-blade clash (which feels like cheating), and gave Sora serious words of comfort in one of his biggest times of need.

Also just as a side note Xion got a proper thank you from Sora immediately, Namine who has been waiting for one since CoM got an accidental one that Sora immediately said didn't count so yeah that's some food for thought.

 

[AdrianXXII]

Yeah there wasnt any big reveal or otherwise secret regarding Roxas.

That said you laying out the build up towards Xion like that did increase my appreciation for her role in the story

 

[alexis.anagram]

Spoiler Show

I love Xion but she was so borked in this game. Like most threads of KH3's plot, she's just an excuse for characters to toss jargon back and forth, look like they're being useful, speculate about things that won't have any weight in the long run, and then show up in the flurry of messy writing that is the end-game so she can be crossed off the cast listing in the most predictable fashion. Her own thoughts, objectives, and feelings about what it means to be human again as they relate to her arc in Days are never once defined or even explored, she shifts from vessel for the bad guys to Obligatory GoL at what is essentially a snap of the fingers, and there's no payoff for any of the struggles she endured during her short life in the Organization-- even her recollection by others is hand-waved away, which effectively minimizes the gravity of her sacrifice. She's ultimately just a reflection of the indifference with which KH3 manages the cogs within its plot machinations: either framed as an undue revelation that wasn't well established enough to read as cogent in its spectacle, or one more half-step in the game's sluggish limp towards the finish line.

Roxas is also mischaracterized and given the unbefitting position of "Sora 2.0" with his flashy entrance that doesn't cohere with any of his previous appearances, but I guess KH3 was determined to be the right time to revise Roxas into a hero with zero discussion about that sooo that's what we get. I'm still guessing the big secret has to do with his inexplicable ability to dual wield, not that I would be surprised to find out it's really just Nomura nonsense to make him seem really awesome and important through totally extrinsic and superficial factors, rather than taking the time to actually map out why his character matters.

 

[kirabook]

I noticed this a few days ago yeah. There was nothing spectacular about Roxas compared to the other characters. I was certainly expecting a whole lot more of him. :/

 

[Obiewantsanipod]

Spoiler Show

I love Xion but she was so borked in this game. Like most threads of KH3's plot, she's just an excuse for characters to toss jargon back and forth, look like they're being useful, speculate about things that won't have any weight in the long run, and then show up in the flurry of messy writing that is the end-game so she can be crossed off the cast listing in the most predictable fashion. Her own thoughts, objectives, and feelings about what it means to be human again as they relate to her arc in Days are never once defined or even explored, she shifts from vessel for the bad guys to Obligatory GoL at what is essentially a snap of the fingers, and there's no payoff for any of the struggles she endured during her short life in the Organization-- even her recollection by others is hand-waved away, which effectively minimizes the gravity of her sacrifice. She's ultimately just a reflection of the indifference with which KH3 manages the cogs within its plot machinations: either framed as an undue revelation that wasn't well established enough to read as cogent in its spectacle, or one more half-step in the game's sluggish limp towards the finish line.

Roxas is also mischaracterized and given the unbefitting position of "Sora 2.0" with his flashy entrance that doesn't cohere with any of his previous appearances, but I guess KH3 was determined to be the right time to revise Roxas into a hero with zero discussion about that sooo that's what we get. I'm still guessing the big secret has to do with his inexplicable ability to dual wield, not that I would be surprised to find out it's really just Nomura nonsense to make him seem really awesome and important through totally extrinsic and superficial factors, rather than taking the time to actually map out why his character matters.

Umm, so why can he dual wield? I've been wondering for quite some time now.

 

[Divine Past]

I just assume it's a keyblade transformation.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

I dunno if it can really be just dismissed as "lying" or if it is truly a case about how much content was actually cut.

I remember many things Nomura stated in interviews before KH III released which are not actually really addressed in the game itself as in-depth as one could assume from the wording of said statements like i.e. that every major original character has their own problems and challenges to face and resolve.

We don't really see much of these at all since almost everything is tackled and resolved by Sora and after being involved for two or three scenes at best, the other characters are reduced to bystanders not allowed to do or accomplish anything on their own.

In contrast to the hype made about it that ominous box from Ux also doesn't play much of a role at all except being an excuse to have Pete and Maleficent show up a few times.

If I would go through all the Nomura interviews before KH III I bet I would find even more examples.

I'm inclined to wait until we get the Ultimania interviews before I make an actual judgement about these cases.

 

[kaseykockroach]

The big reveal was that we didn’t have to play 3 hour prologue with Roxas this time.

 

[rac7d]

Like it's just a flat out lie, Roxas was talked about constantly and in practically every in between cutscenes.

Spoiler Show

We had an almost step by step showing of how he was restored and he appeared right when you expected he would. There was no secret here at all, instead and I can't even tell if this was intentional or not but XION was actually KH3's biggest secret. Like one thing that stands out especially on a replay is like how roughly half the entire game is about Xion, how it constantly builds up and alludes to her without ever directly stating her name or talking about her in regular terms. She doesn't appear until the very end of the game and is the last darkness to be revealed, and then she acts as both the 13th darkness and 7th light.

Here is basically a good chunk of KH3's plot...

1. Establish Sora's heart has more inside it than just his own but don't say who is in it yet.
2. Establish that Vexen, creator of the replicas, may have rejoined the Organization
3. Established that Xehanort has a back-up plan to use in place of Sora as their 13th vessel
4. So very blatantly use Kairi and Lea to further flesh out and establish Xion directly following Xehanort talking about back-up to Sora, like literally every other sentence was about Xion in some way and the scene basically concludes with Xion's face revealed briefly.
5. Have the very next world be YX reveal that they are conducting experiments in order to reclaim a lost darkness, experiments that involve connecting hearts, living toys which they manipulate as puppets. Given that reclaim means "former member" of which the only two who could possibly require such an experiment are Roxas and Xion, then add in the whole empty puppet living toys with hearts thing very obviously echoes Xion.
6. Reveal that the Organization specifically brought Vexen in to use his replica program to deliver to them their 13th vessel.
7. Have Sora learn Ven's heart is in his thus shaking his notion that his heart not belonging to him is because of Roxas, and then immediately follow that up with a scene where Sora learns there are actually three hearts one of which remains deliberately unidentified but is connected to Roxas by length of the time it's been in Sora.
8. Establish the Organization is still conducting experiments on the heart in order to figure out how to rebuild one with data, gee I wonder what heart they are trying to build
9. Have Xion suddenly appear with the 13 darknesses which then promptly leads to both her and Roxas's proper returns, and then as a twist have Kairi kidnapped and Lea knocked out so both former 13ths Roxas and Xion can play the roles of the 6th and 7th light to hammer Saix in the face
10. Don't have any of the usual suspects comfort Sora in his absolute time of need after losing Kairi but instead use Xion for it.

I mean I love Xion, I'm happy she was such a core character, but I have to wonder what story Nomura is reading when he thinks Roxas the guy who is at the forefront of the story and every cutscene, whose restoration we have the step by step of, is the biggest secret. And not you know the girl who was the core of the shadow plot hinted at constantly throughout the game, ended up performing on both sides of the X-blade clash (which feels like cheating), and gave Sora serious words of comfort in one of his biggest times of need.

Also just as a side note Xion got a proper thank you from Sora immediately, Namine who has been waiting for one since CoM got an accidental one that Sora immediately said didn't count so yeah that's some food for thought.

Roxas is only a big deal due to popularity, now that he has a body his story is done, he will retain his op ability to dual weild despite it making no sense with xion alive now.

its for the best i just wish they did not introduce a new line for axel who was suppose to be dead back in 2

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Roxas is only a big deal due to popularity, now that he has a body his story is done, he will retain his op ability to dual weild despite it making no sense with xion alive now.

Except that Roxas' dual wielding never had anything directly to do with Xion in the first place?

Roxas could wield one Keyblade due to his direct heart connection with Sora and the second one came from Ventus' heart being inside him.
The second Keyblade (and thus dual-wielding) was activated when Roxas had an emotional breakdown after Xion's "death" and accidentally unsealed Ven's Keyblade.

 

[Deleted member]

I don't think it's lying, I just think people misinterpreted what he meant or why. I think what he meant was just that whether or not Roxas can be saved, how he can be saved, in what manner he'll be saved, etc, is basically Sora's main dramatic question throughout the entire game, his driving force and what his narrative centers around, and so talking about it in interviews would have spoiled it and that's why he couldn't.

Of course he later spoiled it himself by having Roxas show up in a trailer, though. Gurl can't help herself.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Hopefully, we get a playable Roxas section for the hypothetical Final Mix. Hayner, Pence and Olette wanted to know about Roxas from Ansem the Wise, and Demyx gave Ienzo a Replica to reform Roxas. Make something out of that...

I'm in agreement that his return was not as emotional as I anticipated, but then again, I think it highlights a larger issue of Nomura being unable to balance out screentime between a large cast of characters at the same time.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

I'm in agreement that his return was not as emotional as I anticipated, but then again, I think it highlights a larger issue of Nomura being unable to balance out screentime between a large cast of characters at the same time.

Balance and overall pacing are certainly key problems KH III suffers from like many of the older KH titles too, but on top of it comes also the constant waste of screentime for Union X-related teasers which go nowhere in KH III itself and do not help the conclusion of the current saga an inch.

They're only there as sequel bait and there is too much of it.
It has been said before but playing the game further I am by now nearly fully convinced that with his thoughts Nomura is already completely in the new saga and wanted to wrap up the Xehanort saga as quick as possible and it shows.

 

[AdrianXXII]

Balance and overall pacing are certainly key problems KH III suffers from like many of the older KH titles too, but on top of it comes also the constant waste of screentime for Union X-related teasers which go nowhere in KH III itself and do not help the conclusion of the current saga an inch.

They're only there as sequel bait and there is too much of it.
It has been said before but playing the game further I am by now nearly fully convinced that with his thoughts Nomura is already completely in the new saga and wanted to wrap up the Xehanort saga as quick as possible and it shows.

Yeah, Nomura struggled with the pacing and screen time when the cast was still small, now that the cast is so large it'll probably be even harder for him to manage. Other than splitting the group up a bit and having different characters feature in different games I can't really imagine how he'd want to handle this number of characters.

Honestly I think I'm fine with most of the sequel baiting, just not with how front and center it was presented. If we just had Mysterious Star, a few scenes of Maleficient looking for the box and the Mysterious girl only mentioned between Axel and Isa, I think that'd be fine.

It kind of feels like KH3 was initially something Nomura was excited for and working towards with all the non-numbered games wanting to do something big and exciting, but then he got the new idea and started working towards that in Union X. After that point KH3 became a chore he had to complete to get to what he really wanted to do.
I get, growing tired of an idea and wanting to move on to the next, but it leave the consumer feeling a bit unsatisfied.

 

[SerDuncan]

Yeah, Nomura struggled with the pacing and screen time when the cast was still small, now that the cast is so large it'll probably be even harder for him to manage. Other than splitting the group up a bit and having different characters feature in different games I can't really imagine how he'd want to handle this number of characters.

Honestly I think I'm fine with most of the sequel baiting, just not with how front and center it was presented. If we just had Mysterious Star, a few scenes of Maleficient looking for the box and the Mysterious girl only mentioned between Axel and Isa, I think that'd be fine.

It kind of feels like KH3 was initially something Nomura was excited for and working towards with all the non-numbered games wanting to do something big and exciting, but then he got the new idea and started working towards that in Union X. After that point KH3 became a chore he had to complete to get to what he really wanted to do.
I get, growing tired of an idea and wanting to move on to the next, but it leave the consumer feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Yeah, you kinda summed it up. In BBS, or KH1, or KH2, or Days, the sequel baiting that happened in those games was minor... it was behind the scenes, or if it was in your face it showed up rarely and was interesting. Think Roxas turning into Ventus briefly in Days, or the secret Reports in KH2 hinting at more devious plans by Xehanort. In this game, it felt like the sequel was at the forefront. There are many, many cutscenes that don't end up being relevant to the main plot of KH3, including half of all of Luxord and Demyx's lines, a good third of Marluxia and Larxene's screentime, all of Maleficent and Pete's screentime, and more. It's frustrating, it really is.