Playable Kairi Sequence? Maybe? Probably Not?

[Launchpad]

Replayed the Re:Mind scenario and it made me suspicious. The team put a lot of effort into Kairi. KH3 + Re:Mind gave us new playable characters in Riku, Roxas, and Kairi (Aqua was already developed in 0.2), but it's interesting to see that Riku and Roxas feel a lot more basic and rudimentary than Kairi, who has every spell, two unique situation commands, a much better physical combo than Riku, Roxas, Aqua, and even pre-DLC Sora, and, most interestingly, a dive animation if you're able to attain enough height in the fight against Xehanort.

This is really, really odd, right? She doesn't have a dive attack like Sora, but for whatever reason, the team thought it was necessary to give her a diving animation. Roxas, Aqua, and Riku do not have this. She's so bizarrely fleshed out. Obviously, you'd probably think it's the result of cut content. Maybe she had an explorable section of her own that was cut for time.

But what if they were just laying the groundwork for the next title? It stands to reason that they could knock out two birds with one stone by giving Kairi a really slick climactic boss fight in Re:Mind and then also be able to reuse her in a future game. What if Melody of Memory attempts to surprise us by throwing in a playable area that reuses Kairi's gameplay from KH3?

Well, there's one little issue. MoM (I really hate Square and Nomura for making this the acronym) is coming to Switch, and KH3's assets are very high quality. I don't imagine a simple series of arenas or a boss fight would be impossible to run on the Switch, but it does severely limit the scope of what's possible on the PS4 and Xbox. It just feels like the type of surprise that Nomura would want to go with in an otherwise simple looking rhythm game.

 

[Zettaflare]

I could see a playable Kairi segment with her KH3 gameplay. Even if it's just for one or two boss battles.

If so I hope it's against Apprentice Xehanort

 

[Face My Fears]

I need one. There's no way that they can make the "Kairi game" and not have her playable for at least 5 minutes.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

Kairi could/should be playable in Melody of Memory, but if it isn't rhythm style it will feel out of place in this game. I made this comparison before but it would be like having a regular battle in Chain of Memories. To add to this, any new player who actually decides to pick up this game, for whatever reason, as their first Kingdom Hearts game will be thrown off by the style change when they've been doing rhythm battles the entire time.


There is also the chance that Melody of Memory is leading up to the real Kairi game where she is playable with all her glorious animation. I would enjoy playing a real KH game as Kairi, personally. Plus MoM (the game) would get her backstory out of the way leaving her fresh and free for a new playable action game. The only downside is having two back to back Kairi center games, when there are other characters I also wanna play as, and we don't want to push back KH4 too long. Still Kairi is overdue for this.

 

[Deleted member 252753]

It would be really cool but I am not getting my hopes up and don't expect it. Clearly a good number of people would be more excited to buy the game if there were a KH3-gameplay section as Kairi. So I don't see a business case for SE to not showcase that gameplay in a trailer, even if there is just one battle, to bait fans not sold on the rhythm game aspect.

 

[NoWay]

What I’m questioning is whether this game is already THIS big Kairi game we wanted. I really doubt that MoM is going to be an entry that crucial. Maybe the game after MoM, maybe DDD2 is going to be the game where Kairi gets actually something important to do that has an impact on the story.

 

[MATGSY]

I am not seeing a conventional KH game style scenario for Kairi. If she's playable at all then it's gonna be in the music game style.

Especially when the trailer showed us explicitly what a boss fight looks like in this game. I would fully assume Kairi vs. ??? to go down the same way as this Xemnas battle.

 

[Soldier]

It's still jarring seeing KH1 Sora up against final Xemnas. Wasn't the whole point of Chain of memories to be a sort of "timeskip" of sorts where foes that Sora struggled against are now far easier?

And as much as we all would want another playable Kairi segment, we've got to remember who's at the helm of the franchise. Nomura, the man notorious for giving the women in his games the worst possible situations.
And technically we already could play as Riku before this? he was playable In KH 2, Days and 3D, though I imagine you're referring to him under the unreal engine 4's effects.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

It's still jarring seeing KH1 Sora up against final Xemnas.

KH1 Sora must be Nomura's favorite version of Sora. They love reusing his KH1 design. KH1 Sora is like the Pikachu of Kingdom Hearts. Everywhere and get loads of attention. KH2 and KH3 Sora are like Raichu and it's Alola forms. Not nearly as loved by the company. The only thing that might top KH1 Sora for Normua is Yozora.

 

[The_Echo]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Kairi's assets for Re Mind were fleshed out to be reused in a later title.

But I don't think Melody of Memory is that title.

 

[the red monster]

I can see her being playable only if they will make room size arena so the switch won't explode, something like this

 

[Face My Fears]

KH1 Sora must be Nomura's favorite version of Sora. They love reusing his KH1 design. KH1 Sora is like the Pikachu of Kingdom Hearts. Everywhere and get loads of attention. KH2 and KH3 Sora are like Raichu and it's Alola forms. Not nearly as loved by the company. The only thing that might top KH1 Sora for Normua is Yozora.

But why is Sora's KH1 design fighting Xemnas? Is it because there's an issue with the memories? Maybe Kairi is fixing Sora's Chain of Memories... will he finally remember Larxene as more than just a random Organization member that gave him a speech in Arendelle for five minutes then leaving?

 

[Sign]

KH1 Sora must be Nomura's favorite version of Sora. They love reusing his KH1 design. KH1 Sora is like the Pikachu of Kingdom Hearts. Everywhere and get loads of attention. KH2 and KH3 Sora are like Raichu and it's Alola forms. Not nearly as loved by the company. The only thing that might top KH1 Sora for Normua is Yozora.

Oracle Spock once suggested that Nomura might not be too fond of KH2 Sora. That design is certainly one of the more memorable ones from his notorious belt-and-zippers phase. Wonder if he's like, looking back on it in embarrassment or something, especially considering how much shit he's gotten for those motifs over the years lol

 

[SweetYetSalty]

But why is Sora's KH1 design fighting Xemnas? Is it because there's an issue with the memories? Maybe Kairi is fixing Sora's Chain of Memories... will he finally remember Larxene as more than just a random Organization member that gave him a speech in Arendelle for five minutes then leaving?

If Sora didn't remember the events of Chain of Memories by now there's no point in getting them at all. He'll probably get them when he thanks Namine, another plot that should have resolved years ago but has now devolved into this bad joke of keep forgetting.

Oracle Spock once suggested that Nomura might not be too fond of KH2 Sora. That design is certainly one of the more memorable ones from his notorious belt-and-zippers phase. Wonder if he's like, looking back on it in embarrassment or something, especially considering how much shit he's gotten for those motifs over the years lol

So KH2 Sora is like the Raichu of the series then. It's too bad. I really like his KH2 outfit. Yeah, the belts and zippers are meme worthy and such, but I think his KH2 outfit is just as memorable as his KH1 outfit. It could be a blessing we don't see it all the time though, otherwise I could get sick of it like I have his KH1 attire.

 

[The_Echo]

But why is Sora's KH1 design fighting Xemnas? Is it because there's an issue with the memories? Maybe Kairi is fixing Sora's Chain of Memories... will he finally remember Larxene as more than just a random Organization member that gave him a speech in Arendelle for five minutes then leaving?

Because it isn't KH1 Sora, it's [playable character], one of several.
It's really not a big deal that the trailer showed KH1 Sora specifically.
And at this point I'm not convinced there's even going to be an in-universe justification for playing as characters who aren't Kairi.

Oracle Spock once suggested that Nomura might not be too fond of KH2 Sora. That design is certainly one of the more memorable ones from his notorious belt-and-zippers phase. Wonder if he's like, looking back on it in embarrassment or something, especially considering how much shit he's gotten for those motifs over the years lol

I remember him saying that KH1 Sora is his favorite version, admitting to taking any opportunity he can to reuse it.

 

[Face My Fears]

Because it isn't KH1 Sora, it's [playable character], one of several.
It's really not a big deal that the trailer showed KH1 Sora specifically.
And at this point I'm not convinced there's even going to be an in-universe justification for playing as characters who aren't Kairi.


I remember him saying that KH1 Sora is his favorite version, admitting to taking any opportunity he can to reuse it.

That's so weird because KH1 Sora is my least favourite design. It's a nice design, but I think for me it's KH2>KH3>KH1.

 

[Soldier]

It also

That's so weird because KH1 Sora is my least favourite design. It's a nice design, but I think for me it's KH2>KH3>KH1.

It also doesn't help that the most heavily marketed model of Sora is his KH 2 incarnation, appearing on merchandise, Sandals, posters... need I say more?

 

[BassDS]

It's not really an issue; the Switch can already run UE4 on a smaller scale, so there's nothing stopping them from using the Switch version as the basis, and then up-scaling the quality up to the PS4/XB1's standards. This IS assuming there's a 0.2-like segment for Kairi in MoM, but of course, the general consensus is this will lead in to a larger playable scenario for her in the next game; seeing as her assets and everything else had more work put into them than Aqua and Riku in Re:MIND, though barring in mind 0.2 got chopped out of KHIII, giving us a pseudo S3&K situation between the two games, you could argue Riku didn't have much done to his small gameplay moments.

 

[SuperSaiyanSora]

It also

It also doesn't help that the most heavily marketed model of Sora is his KH 2 incarnation, appearing on merchandise, Sandals, posters... need I say more?

It really is weird that we only really get to use Sora's KH2 design only once. Despite the consistent usage of KH1 Sora, I think when most people think of the character, KH2 Sora comes to mind.

 

[Cumguardian69]

It also

It also doesn't help that the most heavily marketed model of Sora is his KH 2 incarnation, appearing on merchandise, Sandals, posters... need I say more?

Also doesn't help that KH2 Sora is not only the most god tier, but also canonically his strongest version.