Why Character Development is Important and How DDD did it

[Hero of Winds 2,576]

Character development is probably the most important structure when it comes to any narrative. You can't tell a story with unlikable characters. You have to leave room for each character to develop. Over the course of the 10 years that lead up to the original release of Dream Drop Distance, many of us may have thought we had a generally well developed cast of characters. Upon the release of DDD, we thought we took a step back with at least Sora. His gameplay was a lot worse than ever before. He became way too childish and naive instead of having that perfect balance from KH2. Riku was still brooding and constantly talked about the Darkness, but his gameplay was fantastic and everything we wanted out of Sora's. Some argue that the only big take from DDD was it's ending for the story. However that was never true. In fact, we have 0.2 to back this up now, as Sora is now back to the way he was in KH2. The idea portrayed to us in DDD, the reason Sora ended up where he was by the end of its narrative, was that the chosen one got a bit too cocky. He saved the worlds on a grand scale multiple times, why did he have to take any of it seriously? He let his ego get the best of him and that's what lead to the situation that provided us with Riku coming out of it as the only Keyblade Master. Riku has been on the same road since CoM. It was only a matter of time before Riku finalized his stages of Grief by accepting the Darkness and using it as his Light. Our final take from Dream Drop Distance shouldn't be about the ending alone. We need to understand why Sora acted the way he did and why that caused him to fall at the forces of Darkness. We need to understand why Riku became a Keyblade Master. Overall, I believe DDD gave us a good outlook on the development of Sora and Riku as characters.

[Headphone Jack 1,147]

i think Riku's story arc was supposed to end in KH2 so idk why they kept it going in DDD.

 

as for Sora, idk man i just don't think the games did a good enough job of showing Sora become cocky over time and leading to his downfall. as far as i can tell, the games never even mentioned his cocky behavior directly and it being a result of his past victories. i thought that was just something we assumed to explain the personality change between games. 

 

unless i'm just forgetting something, which could be the case.

 

i don't see DDD as good character development for the series though.

 

and 0.2 Sora could be better because SE listened to fan feedback and decided to not make him stupid. 

[HeyMouseSayCheese 1,133]

I never got cocky from Sora's actions in DDD, just naive and confident. If he was supposed to come off as overly prideful or whatever, they did a very poor job of showing it.

 

I get how it kind of looks like he's cocky based on how he acts, but really, Sora just doesn't care about being a Master. It's a formality: he's doing it because he has to in order to help the people connected to him that are hurting, and to support Riku, who's taking the exam to prove to himself that he's worthy of the Keyblade. That's why Riku comes off more serious overall, because it means a lot more to him. Sora doesn't care about titles, or being "worthy" or whatever. He just wants to help people. (And to be fair to Sora, if I had already saved all of reality twice, I would feel comfortable fighting the people I've already fought before too.)

 

 

and 0.2 Sora could be better because SE listened to fan feedback and decided to not make him stupid. 

 

Also this. In my opinion, DDD was horribly written, and I'd really like to believe SE understands that on some level and is willing to improve it.

Edited March 29, 2017 by HeyMouseSayCheese

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Yes, character development is indeed important, and it provides information for us to process that makes us connect with characters in a deeper level, ya know? I love the Kingdom Hearts series because of how the characters change and grow as time moves on! I loved Riku's development, because he finally accepted the darkness and overcame it, and now, he can use it without fearing and doubting himself! I loved that Dream Drop Distance focused on the ending of his path to redemption!

 

And well, Sora can sometimes be a bit too naive for his own good, which contributed to him falling deeper into the depths of slumber and therefore almost losing himself and turning into a vessel for Xehanort! Now, Sora has to pick up the pieces and regain his lost strength! I'm sure that this final journey in the Xehanort Saga will serve as great character development for him!  You are right, Hero Of Winds! Character development is crucial, especially in an awesome series such as Kingdom Hearts!

 

I can't wait to see what Kingdom Hearts III will offer us! X_X

[matteso586 115]

I imagine Sora being taking smaller steps (at least a bit) when it comes to strangers. Given his experience with Neku.

 

And for some reason, the first post made me think of Donald commenting Sora's character development like this. "Where HAS this guy been last few games... worth of our lives"?