I know I'm kinda beating a dead horse with this topic, but I wanted to give my take on it. As many of you know, the world of Arendelle from Disney's Frozen has gotten the title of being the worst world, not only in Kingdom Hearts III, but in the entire franchise in general.
In the list of Disney worlds of the series, Arendelle definitely sticks out like a sore thumb, both gameplay and story-wise.
The worlds and characters in Kingdom Hearts III all find someway to tie into Sora's character arc and journey. Hercules helping him to find the courage and strength to get back up after a defeat, Woody and Buzz showing him just how strong the power of friendship really is, and even Rapunzel reminding Sora about his first time outside of the Destiny Islands.
But with Arendelle, there are really no thematic elements that tie into Sora's arc. Hell, the trio barely interact with any of the characters. And if that wasn't odd enough, none of the main character even serve as your party members! Elsa is understandable, and so is Olaf, but seriously? No Anna and Kristoff? Seriously?
And before any of you say that they wouldn't work as party members, let me remind you that Rapunzel and Eugene were your party members in Corona. And I know they both had some sort of weapon (Rapunzel using her hair and Eugene using a frying pan and a barrel), but what about Woody and Buzz. We saw Buzz ground-slam, spin and leg-sweep his enemies, and was packing heat with his lasers, and don't tell me y'all didn't see Woody throwing hands at the Heartless. Even Mike Wazowski, who game-wise and canonically, is the weakest party member, still fought alongside Sulley.
The only Frozen character that you actually get as a party member is Marshmallow, that snow monster Elsa made that only had like three scenes in the entire movie (one of which was an after-credits scene).
Don't get me wrong, Marshmallow was a nice change of pace and was a good party member, it was kind of disappointing that we didn't get any of main stars as one.
Most, if not, all of the blame for this can go to Disney. Tetsuya Nomura stated in a interview that for Kingdom Hearts III, he and his crew were given the most guidelines for the Disney worlds in this game, and Arendelle, without a doubt, was the one with the most. This claim is pretty easy to believe since Frozen is Disney's highest grossing movie, plus the fact that the movie would be getting a sequel just 10 months after KH3's release.
So I decided to give my own take on what Arendelle possibly could've been like if Square Enix didn't have to deal with all these guidelines.
Storywise, it would start off a little different than before. The trio would land in the middle of the Village, right after Elsa's ice powers had been exposed. Right away, Elsa would run right pass our heroes, with Anna following. The trio decide to follow as well, out of curiosity. Unfortunately, they lose Elsa when she makes it to the lake.
Soon after, several Heartless appear and begin attacking the kingdom. As usual, Sora, Donald and Goofy take them out.
Sometime later, the trio introduce themselves to Anna, who introduces herself, and Hans. Soon after, Anna announces to the people of Arendelle that she'll be going off to find Elsa and bring her back home, with Sora, Donald and Goofy accompanying her. Before they head off, Hans tells the trio to make sure they keep Anna safe, while the Duke of Weselton (yes, he is appearing in this version of the game) tells them to take out Elsa. Just like in the movie, the Duke believes that Elsa is a threat to everyone because of her ice powers, but here, it's even more apparent since he sees her as even more dangerous because of the Heartless, who he believes are her doing.
From here, the story pretty much plays out the plot of the movie. They journey to the North Mountain, they meet Kristoff, Sven and Olaf, and so on and so forth.
Also, over the course of their journey, Sora and Anna develop a close friendship with one another due to the former relating to the latter's situation, since Elsa closing herself off reminds him of Riku closing himself off to keep Sora and Kairi safe.
But everything changes when they arrive at Elsa's Ice Palace. Before the could reach the doors, Larxene appears. She explains to our heroes that the Organization are interested in Elsa due to her indecisive nature. Just like her, they don't know whether she's good or evil, and if she is evil, she may be of use to them. Sora and Anna both deny this, saying that Elsa would never be evil and would never hurt anyone, especially the latter of them. But Larxene says otherwise as she reveals Elsa and Anna's past and why Anna doesn't remember any good memories with her older sister, much to the princess' shock.
Soon after, Larxene uses her magic to create the Labyrinth of Ice, trapping our heroes inside. During their search for a way out, Anna begins to question why her parents would have the trolls erase her memories of all the good times she had with Elsa, even if the fact that Elsa hurt her was on accident.
After awhile, they finally make out of the Labyrinth and end up in middle of the Ice Palace, where they find Elsa pondering on the upper floor. Anna tells everyone to wait for her outside while she talks wait Anna.
This pretty much plays out the same as it does in the game. Anna and Elsa talk, Elsa actually hurts Anna with a blast of ice, Elsa creates Marshmallow and throws everyone out, Anna throws a snowball at Marshmallow and pisses him off, Sora, Donald and Goofy handled him while the others escape, they fall off the Mountain, they wake up and find Hans carrying Elsa, prompting the trio to following him, and Marshmallow decides to join them.
While we're on that, let's talk about Hans real fast. Unlike the game, Hans will actually have a role here, and talk as well. The prince of Southern Isles would've been in cahoots with Larxene the whole time in order to take the throne of Arendelle for himself.
Back to our heroes, they would meet up with Kristoff and Sven, who would both be a little startled by Marshmallow at first, but the trio assures the that he's on their side. Suddenly, the blizzard starts brewing up over at the kingdom, prompting the band of six to head over there to see what's going on. Our heroes make it to the Castle and rush inside to find Anna, alongside Olaf. Soon enough, they manage to find Anna, who's slowly freezing to death, while Hans looks at her. The trio are happy to see Hans and tells him to kiss Anna, since Kristoff told them about her frozen heart situation earlier. But the prince reveals his true nature to them and tells them about his and Larxene's plans. He also reveals he that was in fact, the person who was seen carrying Elsa and informs our heroes that she's currently locked up in the dungeon. But before he leaves, he conjured up some Heartless to finish Anna off in her weaken state, and the others as well. Marshmallow, knowing how important Anna is to Elsa, decides to make it his duty to protect her, alongside Olaf and Sven. While they do that, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Kristoff decide to take out the Heartless.
After that's over, our heroes take the weaken Anna with them as they rush to the Dungeon. When they get there, they find that Elsa is gone, but there's a huge hole in the wall that leads outside, believing that Elsa must be outside. Our eight heroes rush across the frozen bay to find Elsa, while dealing with the Heartless along the way. Unfortunately, the blast from a Frost Serpent causes our heroes to separate and get lost in the blizzard. Luckily, Anna manages to spot Elsa and Hans, who's telling the former that she's dead. After the revelation, Elsa starts to breakdown and cries. But she as continues to sob, Hans starts slowly pulling out his sword. Anna notices this and begins walking towards them as fast she can.
You all know that drill, Anna completely freezes over and shatters Han's sword, the blizzard stops, everyone begins to mourn for Anna's death, and Anna unfreezes thanks to the power of familial love.
Shortly after, everyone regroups at a nearby ship. Elsa finally introduces herself to the trio and thanks them, along with Kristoff, Sven, Olaf and Marshmallow, for keeping Anna safe.
But this loving reunion is cut short as Hans reveals that he has one more trick up his sleeve, that trick being none other than Sköll. Everyone would run off while the trio stay back to fight. Luckily, Elsa decides to join in, as a sign of gratitude for them protecting her sister, alongside Marshmallow.
And with that, the five manage to defeat Sköll and save everyone.
After that, Hans gets knocked the f**k out by Anna and arrested for his crimes, Elsa lifts the eternal winter from the kingdom, and also freezes the Duke so he can finally shut the hell up.
Arendelle would finally come to an end as Sora, Donald and Goofy bid farewell to their new friends and wish them all a good summer. Elsa tells them they're invited to come to Arendelle anytime they liked, Olaf and Marshmallow show off their little flurries, and even Anna reveals that she's in a relationship with Kristoff now.
Now that we got the new story out of the way, let's get to the gameplay itself.
The world of Arendelle would be split into three mains sections.
We still have the North Mountain and the Labyrinth of Ice, though the latter would be a sub-area for the Ice Palace, which is a main area this time around and can be explored.
The Kingdom of Arendelle itself can also be explored as well; from the Castle, to the Village, to the Fjord and Bay.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about the section I'm most excited for....party members!
This world would offer the most party members, having a total of four.
We still have Marshmallow, who serves as your ally for the last half of the world.
But for the first half, we have Anna and Kristoff. Their fighting style is similar to that of Woody and Buzz.
Anna is more on the agile side, attacking enemies with punches and kicks. She can also throw snowballs at aerial enemies. But just like Ping and teenage Herucles, she's rather clumsy and can stumble alot.
Kristoff on the other hand, while not as agile, has higher strength. He attacks enemies with punches like Anna, but mixes it up with tackles and charges. He also uses a grappling hook to attack aerial enemies as well.
Their team attack would be called Snowball Slide. The attack has Sora, Anna and Kristoff rolling around on a giant snowball, crushing any enemies in their path. The attack would then finish with the trio jumping off the snowball and Sora striking it with his Keyblade, sending it bouncing all over the place like a pinball and collecting any enemies it runs over. The snowball would be sent flying into the air via snowy ramp, and plummet to the ground, destroying itself and the Heartless along with it.
Finally, we have Elsa, who'll serve as a party member for the fight with Sköll.
Like Donald, she's a mage character that relies on magic to attack enemies. She able to simply freeze enemies with her ice powers, conjure up barrages of sharp icicles, and cause giant icicles to pop out of the ground.
Her team attack would be called Frozen Heart. The attack has her and Sora attacking their enemies with a barrage of Blizzard-based attacks. The attack would finish with the duo using their ice magic to form a giant chandelier made of ice, with a snowflake-like design, and drop it on enemies.
As for enemies and bosses, the enemies would stay the same, but the bosses would be different.
There are three bosses in total in this world. The first boss is with the wolves that caused Anna, Kristoff and Sven shortly after they met.
The second boss would the Frost Serpents, who Sora and company would fight in the Labyrinth of Ice.
And finally, we have Sköll. Unlike in KH3 where he was a giant Heartless wolf made out of ice, he would....still be giant Heartless wolf...but made of fire this time.
I think I've went on about this for long enough. I'm gonna go, I hoped you all liked my discussion and if you have any ideas on how Arendelle could be fixed, let me know!
