I think out of context Roxas is the one who works best - there's also that KH2FM scene where Naminé talks about wanting to see someone while looking at a drawing of Sora and Roxas, so it would have been set up well, but the actual context of the line is this:
Naminé: [Roxas] is the one they all miss. It's... not me.
Sora: Wrong! What about me, Kairi, Donald, Goofy? The King! Roxas too, he misses you! And someone else special I know won't let you down.
It's said as if it's someone who hasn't been mentioned yet by Sora before this.
I feel like thinking it's regular Riku was more valid than Repliku - Sora at least knows Riku exists. I don't blame people for assuming it's Riku, really, because people shouldn't need to read an interview to know it's supposed to be Repliku, and no one would ever think it's Repliku.
It was handled terribly in my opinion. Even if say, he was referring to Riku (acting on Riku Replica's stead), there's no way he would have
known this whatsoever. And if he was just referring to whoever, then he's essentially lying to make her feel better without being sure. Naminè hasn't breathed a word of Riku Replica since CoM except for a drawing in II. And suddenly she wants to see him most. For what? Why? There's no basis for that.
Nomura completely glossed over the actual question and I wish these interviews grilled him and expose his distorted thinking. This is what makes KH not believable, flawed, and hard to buy. Roxas and Riku should not have been running on the beach whatsoever as well.
But worst of all...
Naminè in the long run, was just a tool utilized for Riku Replica's closure. Notice how they don't even bother to show her thoughts on the situation over a sacrifice that she didn't ask for and more than likely wasn't needed. The replica team were mainly working on returning Roxas and Naminé, were they not? In the Secret Reports. There is
no reason why they wouldn't reserve vessels for those two specifically.
Nomura just seems to have sprung a random boner for Repliku out of nowhere and now he throws all of this in III with no build up over the course of the series and forsakes every other relationship Naminè had (except Sora). I didn't find what Repliku did at all sweet, I was confused as to when Naminé
cared that much and why the whole segment was necessary. Then it got worse when the whole ending was rightly misinterpreted and he had to go on an interview to debunk, lol.
None of the Rikus work for me when it comes to her. NONE. Repliku would have been fine if I didn't feel the execution was subpar. The blocks were there to cement though, that much I'll say.
If not Roxas, I would throw her to Hayner even, since it's implied she lives in TT. Or Ven. Or whoever is within her age range.