The only thing I find wrong with it is that Sora wakes up from a year of sleeping and acts like he just took a five minute nap. I think that the story isn't the best, but not bad enough for me to hate it D:
Basically he woke up with the last thing he remembers was falling asleep out in the meadow with Donald, Goofy and Jiminy. He didn't remember a thing and was disoriented enough to not even notice his zipper was pressing against sensitive areas until Yen Sid mentioned it.
Arguably, yes, there should've been more than an impact but I understand the basic concept behind him not minding all too much - but more coming up.
So, if you're a hater, why do you hate on it?
A lot of people dislike the game because it's too easy.
While I agree with that to a point, I'm not one to be upset with it as I enjoyed the gameplay.
What did irk me were two major points.
1) The lack of any true essence to the story. A lot went on, things moved, things developed... and in the meanwhile Sora was singing with Ariel in Atlantica and apparently, Namine did more than make people forget and then remember Sora - she made everyone in Atlantica as well as SDG forget about Ursula and the events that took place in KH1's Atlantica. That just... sucked, really. Completely illogical.
2) Complete and utter character destruction. True, Sora wasn't the brightest crayon ever but he was a 14 year old kid who grew up on an island; it's understandable, much like when Mickey asked what a password even was - it's not stupidity as much as... "shelterdness". In previous games, Sora didn't come off as a complete moron who was driven by his hormones. Unless those kicked in suddenly while he slept and as a result of what happened in CoM and Days, that was just uncalled for.
Namine was far too Kairi-fied. Put her up with either her CoM self or her Days self and you'll have a hard time seeing the connection. Now before Days came out, there was the hope that much like how Axel changed from his CoM self to his KH2 self, that Namine did too, but unlike Axel who did get his behavior change explained in Days, Namine didn't. She was every last bit the CoM Namine Riku met after Sora went to sleep albeit a bit less shy due to actually coming into contact with people, but she was hardly as playful and teasing, and I dare say insensitive as she was in the KH2 prologue (as much as I do love her "never meant to exist" line, it doesn't add up).
Riku... well I can see how he got to be such a ridiculous emo muffin but it certainly would've helped to actually SEE it happening, especially since up to the very final moments of Days he wasn't all that emo-ish. And once he did get to be like that, we didn't see him.
And Kairi. Gods, Kairi. I disliked the girl with a passion in KH1 but at least there I had a personality to hate her for. KH2 Kairi is bland. Completely. And in KH1 she at least acknowledged other people's existences. Even if she was joking and even if not, Kairi gave us the raft comment, indicating she accepted Riku existed. Be it justified or not, she wondered if Riku lost his Heart or not. And while I consider it to be completely uncalled for, she did say Riku could take care of himself after XH possessed him.
Like or hate how it was pulled off, agree or disagree with what was said and done, Kairi accepted Riku's existence even if some can claim that she was basically telling Sora to not mind him and worry more about her good luck charm.
KH2 was... *shrug*able on her part. Even after being absent for a year, Riku could take care of himself and they'd meet each other again. Ok, what? But waiting isn't good enough for Sora, right? What the hell. You want me to buy that she's not just writing Riku off you need to show me more than SELPHIE being the one to voice concern about him. And then not telling HPO that Riku's missing too, but only that Kairi's looking for Sora (some looking, she ran away from being kidnapped by Axel, and then she has the nerve to tell Sora she was looking for him and Riku after she not only ran away from Axel but was also captive by Saix? What the heck?!).
Oh yeah nice going also on not showing us the true reunion in the islands between RiKai. You spend so much time making SoRiku seem gayer than ever, bother with SoKai but RiKai... whazzat? Pfft. KH1 and CoM both had more than that in them in that aspect :v
And then five seconds after Kairi realizes that Sora and Riku were
not out of the Islands having a fun fun adventure, and were in real serious danger and that she's getting in the way and putting them in MORE danger (in case Riku serving as a human shield for her against Saix didn't clue anyone in), she's more than ready to jump with Sora and Riku into the final battle against Xemnas.
BALCONY CEILING FOR THE WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN
Good thing Namine came along and teleported everyone out of there aside from SoRiku >_>
Oh and the Organization basically being there for the lulz, since we never learned of any true plot until the FM+ came along.
Small wonder even Nomura himself admitted in an interview that when he was helping out on the novels, he realized how much he left out of the games. Yeesh.
And then we get to the actual bland dialogues and such and omfg no more.
tl;dr
If I never hear "Sora, Donald and Goofy" again it'll be too soon.
I wanted to add that despite them being cool, Demyx and Luxord were not needed at all. They were basically there to fill the ranks. Hell. not even Xaldin was needed.
This in a nutshell and I couldn't agree more. Part of why I didn't mind when neither of them got too much screen time in Days - they're not all that important. It feels a lot more like they were there to fill in the "cool" 13 number.
The CoM cast I can accept a bit more which is why I partially disagree about what you wrote about Lexaeus, if only because he did have some minimal impact on Riku's story in R-R. But in the long run I agree, it's nothing Zexion couldn't have initiated using one trick or another.