If I were allowed the privilege to add/remix content here and there, this would be how I do it.
- Move the Anti-Aqua fight to the 60% mark of Disney World
- Make it so that there's a short level where you play as Sora going through the Realm of Darkness before reaching Aqua/Riku/Mickey
- After successfully saving Aqua, she falls into a deep sleep due to the build-up fatigue and due to the darkening side-effect.
- Have some random reason to go to one of the Disney worlds would be to find something that'd help Aqua recover better/faster/etc.
- In between that, also have a sequence where Sora stops by Radiant Garden to try and revive Roxas, but isn't able to due to (reasons)
- At 80% mark, Aqua is restored and now there's a mission to find the way to Castle Oblivion.
- Insert some random story reason to explain why last Disney world has the gateway or shortcut or some way to reach Castle Oblivion and you have Aqua in your party during that last Disney world.
- At 100% mark, you rescue Ven.
- Make it so that Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure is a small labyrinth level where you have to climb up to the top floor to unlock/restore the place
- Rescue Ven
- Proceed to KBW
That way, you'd have Ven's rescue happen later after Aqua's rescue but doesn't feel out of place as to why Aqua didn't immediately go to rescue Ven. And there's story reasons to have more of Aqua involved in the story ( allows more speculation about where's Terranort, etc etc ) among other things.
Very good post! ✓ Would solve a bunch of my problems with the pacing. I think I can help further. Let's see...
- Move the Anti-Aqua fight to the 60% mark of Disney World
- Make it so that there's a short level where you play as Sora going through the Realm of Darkness before reaching Aqua/Riku/Mickey
Good, would add the mid-game climax this game desperately needs. Also adds a new explorable area. If they wanted, they could even reuse the areas from 0.2, in order to save on development time. Instead of the door at Destiny Islands leading directly to Riku, it could lead to that place, and Sora needs to go through it. After that everything remains the same, and when Riku calls Sora, it now makes even more sense that he heard him (since they're in the same realm).
- After successfully saving Aqua, she falls into a deep sleep due to the build-up fatigue and due to the darkening side-effect.
- Have some random reason to go to one of the Disney worlds would be to find something that'd help Aqua recover better/faster/etc.
Good enough reasoning. Since Aqua would always want to wake Ven up ASAP, her being asleep due to exhaustion and unable to do so would make sense. Yen Sid tells Sora that her heart is fine and she should wake up soon.
There's also no need for a new reason for Sora to go to Disney worlds, since he doesn't get the Power of Waking until Ven is rescued, which in this rework is still after all of the Disney worlds.
- In between that, also have a sequence where Sora stops by Radiant Garden to try and revive Roxas, but isn't able to due to (reasons)
Now this is perfect, since it works on multiple levels. Seriously, the way the following works so much better is blowing my mind:
- Moving the Anti-Aqua fight to an earlier spot in the game would also imply moving cutscene (using Theater mode IDs here) "V: The Dark Margin" in order to keep it before the fight.
- That would allow the following cutscenes to be moved to an earlier place as well: "VII-3: The Old Mansion", "IX-1: Radiant Garden", and "IX-2: Radiant Garden". I just watched them and moving these cutscenes works without reworking them.
- And look -- what a coincidence! Sora is going to Radiant Garden right now. He can arrive there, and make his way to Ansem's castle. This would give us another explorable original KH world in the middle of the game, something that the game is also dearly missing... This would also be a great opportunity to catch up with the Final Fantasy crew.
- Sora arrives at Ansem's and confirms that they already have a vessel for Roxas. He can't revive him yet because he's apparently missing "a connection" (which would turn out to be Sora finding Xion and Axel and showing Roxas the way to his friends). Look at what Roxas says in the cutscene when he returns. See how everything fits perfectly? Sora leaves Radiant Garden satisfied, knowing that his mission to bring Roxas back will ultimately be successful if he can help him find that connection.
- Why is moving those cutscenes to an earlier place important? Because now Radiant Garden works as a finale for the following characters: Ienzo, Vexen, Demyx, and Ansem the Wise. In addition to Ansem making peace with his former pupils, now he can also have a scene with Sora in which he promises to bring Roxas back in order to repent. The other ex-Organization members there can also apologize as well. With the way the game is right now, these characters don't have any more spoken lines after "IX-2: Radiant Garden", which is a disservice to them (Demyx and Vexen in particular).
- It's also important for the pacing! Now Ienzo, Vexen, Demyx, and Ansem the Wise have their entire plotline in KH3 take place in between only 2 to 3 Disney worlds, instead of the current drip-feeding of scattered cutscenes we have now. The pacing would be more consistent, satisfying, and, more importantly, not backloaded.
- At 80% mark, Aqua is restored and now there's a mission to find the way to Castle Oblivion.
- Insert some random story reason to explain why last Disney world has the gateway or shortcut or some way to reach Castle Oblivion and you have Aqua in your party during that last Disney world.
Although this would be great and make things more fun, it's also not very realistic because now Aqua needs to be added to all the cutscenes in that world, which would be a ton of work. Also, it would be problematic because the order of Disney worlds is non-linear.
I think it's fine that Aqua simply recuperates and goes searching for Castle Oblivion on her own. After the Disney world, she would simply call Sora on the Gummiphone. Sora joins her, and everything proceeds as normal.
- At 100% mark, you rescue Ven.
- Make it so that Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure is a small labyrinth level where you have to climb up to the top floor to unlock/restore the place
Although not necessary to fix the pacing, all of this sounds great. Castle Oblivion is a bunch of white walls, so adding (just a few) gameplay areas to it shouldn't take very long. Also, Aqua would be a party member there, which is always a plus. They could also add some of the Nobodies that didn't make the cut in the original KH3 to fight there. On the other hand this would mean discarding/reworking the cutscene in which Aqua turns the castle into Land of Departure, so that might be too much work.
- Rescue Ven
- Proceed to KBW
Yep! Done and done!
Not only would all of this fix many of the issues with KH3, it would also rely heavily on resources that are already crafted, making it very cost-effective and efficient!
EDIT: A small addendum, thanks to KuwabaraTheMan's input:
In order for this to work, though, you'd need to have this all happen after The Caribbean (so either you move that world earlier or you force it before San Fransokyo), because of Vexen's involvement in that world's story. So things are still going to be somewhat backloaded in that regard.
Okay, so I forgot Vexen appears in The Caribbean. In order to accomodate this, swapping Monstropolis or Arendelle with The Caribbean would be the most elegant solution. It would also put the open world world (heh) closer to the middle of the game, which makes sense (a place to freely explore whenever you want to take a break from the linearity of other worlds).
This would imply a rework in the balance of the game, but a KH3 Final Mix would (very hopefully) already include that.
