And it still took 2 men to save her and then get her taken down a peg later on by another man, just to be saved again by a man.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Did you enjoy the character arcs in Kingdom Hearts III?
- Thread starter Somni
- Start date
It has problems, mostly for the female cast, but honestly KH3 in general ended up way better than it had any right to be all things considered.
Now all we need is that FINAL MIXXXXX.
Now all we need is that FINAL MIXXXXX.
you do get that the 300 names you get to mash TRIANGLE for are REAL players and it's their usernames from the mobile game, right? It's one of the best moments of the whole game. I knew about them because they appear for a bit in the movie that came with 2.8 and I saw a summary of the mobile game.
Also the mobile game characters will be important in KH4 for sure, we basically already know this.
Also the mobile game characters will be important in KH4 for sure, we basically already know this.
Last edited:
If anything it should get much more.
Days is a side story of Roxas.
Nomura had help in the writing on all games. I don't know why this is ignored when the credits for scenario writers are literally there for all of them, with Oka being the only one responsible since BBS. lol
Yeah. But they didn't have any female characters available.
Kairi was still very green to go there. Xion was not available, nor was Naminé. So this is series character development issue, not so much KH3 writing issue.
Looks like the next arc will be better if you watch the epilogue.
Ava was missing from the reunion
I saw it. It's pretty vague and doesn't erase my problems with the initial damseling. I guess you can argue
Xion gets a moment but even then she doesn't save herself in the first place, it was Xehenort who brought her back.
Yeah. I still don't see Aqua as damseling
She was in KH version of hell for many years. It took two Masters to even find her. And they were almost killed once. She basically died when she was infected by the darkness. She puts up a fight with Sora in a state where she was it really was not all there. And she wrecks Vanitas.
I do agree with the others. Very poorly developed.
I do agree with the others. Very poorly developed.
She doesn't wreck vanitas, he beats her and she's saved by Ventus.
You're right. Misremember lol. I confused the player scenario, where you play as her and the cutscene lol.
Yeah it's one of those annoying things this series likes to do(jrpgs in general really) where you kick ass in the gameplay and then in the cutscenes your character acts like they just blew out a lung.
To be fair,
Vanitas attacked Ventus because Aqua had the upper hand in the battle
I'm with you. I'm seeing a lot of Aqua hate but EVERYONE is a pushover in this game and gets saved by someone, even Sora till the very end. Bunch of losers.
Eeeeh.
That scene is Aqua saving Ventus and ten Ventus saving Aqua. It's stupid but it's a bit of a give and take.
She isn't saved by the Lingering Will. Ventus is. Aqua doesn't get wrecked by Terranort in that scene.
Ventus and Sora were also saved by Guardian.
Everyone is killed by the tornado.
What's funny is that Sora is still not technically a Keyblade Master lol. It's only Mickey, Riku, and Aqua. Xehanort counts too.
So is the test just bullshit lol. Sora is clearly the most powerful.
The only ones that got be badass from start to finish are Donald, Goody and Terra (by way of his proxies).
I think a lot of Aqua fans(including myself) got attached to Aqua as the badass one that her being anything else hurts our view of her.
A lot of it is just cutscene incompetence though, guys. And that hit almost every character including Sora, Mickey and Riku.
Kairi got shafted, but other than that... yes. They were brief but very good - nothing insanely deep but good enough to be enjoyable
he gets the power of Waking at the end though, so isn't he now a Keyblade Master?
No way is Sora the most powerful.
Mickey fucking Mouse can cast Ultima. He could one shot Sora if he had to.
I do think Aqua at 100 % can take Sora too.
Like Aqua was able to take down Terranort who seems broken.
And LS can go toe to toe with Terranort and beat him as well.
Tbh, I think Terranort might be stronger than normal MX.
The point is that
Aqua is reduced to a damsel that needs to be saved. With Ven awakening in particular she for "reasons" needs to be in danger for him to awaken. Why can't Ven just awaken after she beats the shit out of Vanitas?
Personaly yeah i love them heck i wear a roxas silver chain necklace irl lol the official square enix merch one i only replaced the chain with a bigger silver one cuz the chain was pretty small for adult males xd.
Probably the best version of the x hanger from roxas ive ever seen so far only quite expensive (like 90 bucks + import costs) but i intend to wear it for a lifetime anyway :)
Probably the best version of the x hanger from roxas ive ever seen so far only quite expensive (like 90 bucks + import costs) but i intend to wear it for a lifetime anyway :)
Also, Aqua, literally the only character in the series who summons magic shields....doesn't use it to block fireballs.
Sometimes I forget to press square too.
Let's be real. It's done so there for the suspense. They didn't want Aqua to straight up lose to Vanitas in a fight so Aqua had to lose brain cells and lose to Vanitas playing dirty.
I only let it slide because it's mentioned that she's not at 100% yet.
It only really specifically happens to her once. All the other times, she needs as much rescuing as Ventus or Mickey does.
And it happens for the suspense and to give Ven a hype moment which does suck but I'll let it slide because Sora mentions that Aqua isn't at 100 %
I mean, it was clearly used for emotional part as Ventus saw Aqua in danger and could despert with their connection. Could be made better without the scene of how she's attacked? Yes, it could but Ventus just awakening after Aqua beating Vanitas not only makes it a weaker scene but also don't make as much sense. And it's not like Aqua wasn't with the upper hand as Vanitas only did what he did because he had no other choice.
I do think it's a bit of a exaggeration. Aqua is probably my favorite character on the franchise and I don't see in that way. To me her performance was pretty much like the majority of the characters not called Kairi and Axel.
Even then they mostly pop up to call Sora an idiot and leave and sometimes mildly inconvenient or tell him what he needs to do
the actual character stuff was shoved into the finale
What makes it worse is that it's what immediately follows a "it's my time to shine" moment. And ends up being a bit tone deaf.
When looking at the whole picture of KH3 and the overall Xehanort Saga, other than Kairi - I'm generally satisfied. That's due to the fact that many of these characters already had their arcs in previous games, and really the main thing I needed from this was them being saved from their tragic fate.
Individually speaking though, the characters that had a good arc in KH3? Or an arc that I would consider "this character had their deserving moment, muah *kiss*"? Very few.
I'd say only:
- Sora
- Terra ( Lingering Will and Guardian )
- Eraqus
- Replica Riku
- Namine
- Roxas
Had any arc worth a damn.
I would give some brownie points to Ansem, Saix and Vexen though.
Individually speaking though, the characters that had a good arc in KH3? Or an arc that I would consider "this character had their deserving moment, muah *kiss*"? Very few.
I'd say only:
- Sora
- Terra ( Lingering Will and Guardian )
- Eraqus
- Replica Riku
- Namine
- Roxas
Had any arc worth a damn.
I would give some brownie points to Ansem, Saix and Vexen though.
PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE ME THEIR THOUGHTS ON THIS ONE:
People saying that they were upset with Xehanort's arc/redemption. I would argue I hated ALL of the redemption going on in the end - I mean REALLY Xehanort's heartless (ansem seeker of darkness) saying he was proud of Riku and the keyblade wielder he became...like REALLY?!?!?!
I liked Ansem's arc to be honest.
Here's the thing about Ansem SoD. He's basically been pushed around like a jobber the most out of all incarnations of Xehanort. In KH1 he lost to Sora, in CoM he lost to Riku, and in KH2, even though Riku tapped into his dark powers - Riku never lost himself and by the end of KH2, pretty much subjugated Ansem's power and made the darkness his own.
Of any villain to eat a humble pie, it's Ansem who was the one closest to Sora and Riku - having watched over them for the longest.
Here's the thing about Ansem SoD. He's basically been pushed around like a jobber the most out of all incarnations of Xehanort. In KH1 he lost to Sora, in CoM he lost to Riku, and in KH2, even though Riku tapped into his dark powers - Riku never lost himself and by the end of KH2, pretty much subjugated Ansem's power and made the darkness his own.
Of any villain to eat a humble pie, it's Ansem who was the one closest to Sora and Riku - having watched over them for the longest.
This. So much this. It ends up disappointing with character arcs for these reason. But with all of the trios made and tried over the decade, I expected no more from this chapter. I still found myself enjoying the game as a whole, but Kingdom Hearts 3 shows that the storytelling is (and perhaps will stay) as rough as ever with the series.There are some arcs that are handled okay, but with the cast size, the crumbling of resolutions comes off wet-handed and almost dismissive of the building blocks made thus far.
How could you forget him getting bodied by Goofy in DDD.
But he does kick Aqua's ass in KH3.
Nah, I'm not cool with it. Especially since they had to sneak giving Riku some kind of weird Stockholm syndrome right at the end. Like, what do you mean, you're going to miss Ansem SoD? After everything that happened? After he kept trying to fuck with Riku and drag him out? Like, that's textbook stockholm syndrome for Riku to suddenly talk about "missing him" out of nowhere like, no foreshadowing or prior hints or anything, just drop that bomb and treat it like it's nothing and then move on. Just terrible.
And of course, similar could be said about Ansem himself. Yeah, Sora and Riku kicked his butt each time he showed up. But he still persisted in believing Darkness was stronger anyway and in particular that it was only a matter of time before Riku would give into him. He was wrong, but he kept going with it. So for him to suddenly due an about face with absolutely no hints of it or anything beforehand, just bad.
But the worst of it was him dragging Riku down with him before he fucked off, with Riku uttering that line for no reason. No Riku, you have no reason to miss him, at all. You're better than that, so much better. Bleh.
Let's be honest here. Sora doesn't take anyone down solo in the game except for Luxord and Anti-Aqua. He's always got people helping him aside from that.
(Roxas doesn't job either. )
I'll stand by the fact that Aqua wasn't at full power.
I do think Sora is stronger than Lea, Kairi, Xion and Ventus but no way could Sora stand an Ultima from Mickey nor take down Aqua at full power. Sora jobs to Terranort and Aqua at her best is stronger than Terranort.
To be honest this was the only one that actually felt earned to me.
He's really your nemesis of the series, having shown up a billion times at this point. I think after spending so much time with/fighting against Sora and Riku it made a weird sense that he had grown to respect them.
The rest
of the redemption arcs were just awful. It's hilarious that somehow Kingdom Hearts is more merciful towards its villains than EVERY SINGLE DISNEY MOVIE.
So I felt that way when the event occurred and even thought it was a cool moment (still do). But the more and more i thought about it, he was a complete jackass throughout KH3. I dunno mixed feelings but i think i'm just sour on the forced redemption of every single character.
I feel you, it would have been fine for one or two, but when everyone gets their regretful speech then it feels ham-fisted as hell.
This was pretty much the only time Sora and I synced when he was like Larxene why are you even here? lol go away you were a pushover the first time.
Dumpster Fire-tier
Master Xehanort
Kairi
Garbage-tier
Axel
Mediocre-tier
Sora
Aqua
Xemnas
Roxas
Nonexistent-tier
Mickey
Goofy
Ventus
Young Xehanort
Riku
Yen Sid
Namine
Marluxia
Ansem the Wise
Roxas' Shitty Friends
Serviceable-tier
Eraqus
Larxene
Donald
Xion
Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
Decent-tier
Terra
Xigbar
Vanitas
Vexen
Saix
Demyx
Actually Good-tier
Replica Riku
Big winners were the supporting non-Xehanort Organization XIII members. Undisputed overall dark horse was Replica Riku, a bottom-tier throwaway plot point from a couple earlier games ended up having the best arc in KH3. Vanitas only ranked so high because his lack of redemption is a great juxtaposition to every other Organization XIII member (including, very unfortunately, Master Xehanort himself).
Master Xehanort
Kairi
Garbage-tier
Axel
Mediocre-tier
Sora
Aqua
Xemnas
Roxas
Nonexistent-tier
Mickey
Goofy
Ventus
Young Xehanort
Riku
Yen Sid
Namine
Marluxia
Ansem the Wise
Roxas' Shitty Friends
Serviceable-tier
Eraqus
Larxene
Donald
Xion
Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
Decent-tier
Terra
Xigbar
Vanitas
Vexen
Saix
Demyx
Actually Good-tier
Replica Riku
Big winners were the supporting non-Xehanort Organization XIII members. Undisputed overall dark horse was Replica Riku, a bottom-tier throwaway plot point from a couple earlier games ended up having the best arc in KH3. Vanitas only ranked so high because his lack of redemption is a great juxtaposition to every other Organization XIII member (including, very unfortunately, Master Xehanort himself).
Yeah, it was kinda nice having Vanitas flip Sora off, say "I am darkness, bitch.", and then die. I actually kinda liked how they handled that character.
No. Kairi was mismanaged, again. Everyone caries a keyblade, Riku was way more interesting in KH1, everyone was saved from death, Sora is a big mary sue... KH1 is still king to me.
lol that i respected! with how anime-ish the entire series is - for good and bad - i expected a tsundere moment from her, that's for sure.
sora kept calling the org members has-beens and 'wet towels' (whatever the eff that means), yet he shed disney tears for them randomly at the end.