FadedSparkle

TBH the only thing I'm strongly hoping for from KH4 is a properly playable Riku again like in Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance. I will never not be disappointed with what they gave us for him in KH3 and Remind.

With the 25th anniversary being in 2027 I'm honestly expecting them to capitalize on it. Either by taking advantage of the anniversary month itself for the release or releasing it during the 2026 Christmas/Winter Holidays season so that the first six months of people playing the game will coincide with the 25th anniversary and they can try to boost the sales with anniversary events tied to KH4's release. It feels like too much of a golden opportunity for them not to aim to release it between December 2026 and March 2027 is all I'm saying. Before that with FFXVI being another big project on the table my guess is that's the big title we could expect for 2023-2025. Along with FF7R Part 2. I actually wanted to vote for 2026 but since that wasn't an option of its own I had to choose Beyond 2026.

I don't hate it, but it was certainly a bit jarring the first watch of the teaser trailer. Having had a bit to mull it over I actually like a few things about it. The fact that Sora's babyface features have been amplified for this version is nice and adds a whole new level of cute to him. I also like the way the hair was done. I look forward to seeing what he and other familiar characters will look like once KH4 actually releases (which I'm kind of expecting to happen for the 25th anniversary (2027) or the Christmas/Winter Holidays season the year prior).

I was less disappointed that Riku didn't play a role and more disappointed that Terra mostly saved himself. There was a minor assist from Sora in there (especially without the Remind DLC factored in) but for the most part Terra really saved himself. It was pretty embarrassing to see how hard they over-complicated things for the sake of honoring Sora being the one who saved everyone instead of just letting certain plot threads reach their natural conclusions though. Aqua keeping her promise to Ven, Mickey and Riku actually having a proper role in Aqua's rescue (Sora didn't even necessarily not have to be there just make it a team effort and Dark Aqua a tougher boss) and involve Riku in saving Terra even if you keep Sora involved.

Well that's some disheartening news to say the least. My condolences to her loved ones and may she rest in peace.

I distinctly remember that in the Days video game when they send everyone out on missions with Roxas to essentially show him the ropes of the ins and outs of the Organizations daily dealings Larxene actually treats him alright when its her turn. She treats him almost like an older sister with a kid brother she's not necessarily happy to deal with but not unhappy to have to deal with either. Also the way that Axel kills Vexen especially in ReCoM is super brutal. I don't think there's that huge of a stretch to friend material between him and Larxene especially if they started to explore the Elrena side of Larxene's personality early in Days vs in Union Cross which I don't know nearly enough about given I could really care less about Union Cross but I doubt she was also a Sadist back then. Also a question about the replicas themselves. They look like store-bought mannequins in their vessel form and all we have to go off of for how they then become proper replicas is that they get data inserted into them that serves as the heart and that data allows them to take on the form of the person their source data came from. None of this sounds like it requires any kind of higher education or special degree. And I'm still banking on someone being able to do it better than Vexen without any so called experience in any special field just because of plot reasons because this is KH where plot contrivance is very very real.

Let me ask you something then, the character of Axel as we knew him in Chain of Memories did he make you think he was friend material for Roxas? He was pretty messed up too. The rest of what you said that mostly makes sense as laid out within unfolded canon. Although I don't buy into no-one other than Vexen being smart enough to figure the replica data out and consider it more of KH3's over abundant plot contrivance than anything else that only Vexen knew how to make them. And I'm actually waiting on KH to pull something just for plot's sake where another character randomly knows how to make replicas (likely even better than Vexen). At this point nothing will surprise me about this series.

Days definitely could've worked without Xion. Primarily because if what they wanted was to tell a story of another two boys and a girl trio they already had a female in the Organization to tell the story with in Larxene. Imagine how much depth the story could contain if they had to write Roxas coping with the death Larxene after the Castle Oblivion mission if she had been in Xion's place in the Seasalt trio instead of Xion. This would also have added more weight to Axel having to ensure the traitors to the organization didn't come back from the Castle Oblivion mission in that he'd be having to ensure that Larxene, now a friend wasn't coming back even if this would ultimately be helping another friend Saix/Isa out (as we now know from information revealed in KH3). On the front of keyblades after Vexen's death they would still have had Repliku's data available to mess with, essentially being able to make as many copies of him as they wanted. He could then wield a Kingdom Key for them en masse and even if he for some plot contriving reason couldn't wield that every time Soul Eater is used against a heartless it does the same thing a bonafide keyblade does releasing the captive heart so the organization could still have used him for collecting hearts for their artificial Kingdom Hearts.

I'm just gonna reiterate that feeling the need to make a separate thread drawing attention to a dark skinned/"colored" character is the exact opposite of taking pride and celebration in it. If it's really that great a thing you shouldn't feel the need to treat it like the elephant in the room otherwise full of cats. You should just be happy to let it exist and continue on with your life, not suddenly stop to acknowledge it like something revolutionary occurred. We are all human, all people. These are the kinds of life lessons your homeroom teachers are meant to have taught you in kindergarten or first grade for crying out loud. We all look different in some way or another, but we're all people in the end.

You mean aside from anyone having to point it out at all instead of just the character's existence being left to simply be a thing instead of him being treated like an elephant in the room. Because aside from it being pointed out here someone made an entire separate topic "The first African American KH Character" https://www.kh13.com/forums/topic/129544-1st-african-american-kh-character/?do=getNewComment or something to that effect. And all I could think is; Would you like fries with that virtue signal sandwich? I imagine that in times of segregation and more recently in the immediate aftermath of the events that led to the Black Lives Matter movement Blacks walking into establishments with mostly white people who just stared at them suspiciously must feel much like the fictional character in this game would feel if they were real and that topic was a literal sign not a forum topic on the internet (and vice versa for any whites who happened to be walking into establishments filled with mostly blacks it goes both ways). I hope you can see why I find this all just a little bit ridiculous of a talking point. The character's skin color is irrelevant. The fact that the character is a person is relevant. Representation for the sake of representation, or just to cover your bases (tick off all the boxes) is also just another form of the long time used in various ways thing known as tokenism, which is another thing to keep in mind. We don't know if this KH character is an example of this or not anymore than we know if the character is meant to actually be an African American, but considering what Disney's doing outside of KH right now it wouldn't surprise me. Truly people, do we want to go backwards instead of forwards. Do we want to keep putting emphasis on what makes us different instead of what makes us all the same human beings? I remember when zombies bled every color of the rainbow in video games instead of just red like real life humans. I remember when character skins in video games could be every color under the sun because your skin color was irrelevant. Now everything has to be hyper realistic and nothing can ever be fun for long because politics this, agendas that. Please no more.

I wasn't trying to make it out like African American representation would be something bad or something not to be celebrated, but I still don't know if the character is meant to be African American. Saying dark skin = African American would be like saying I should suddenly consider Mihoshi Kuramitsu from Tenchi Muyo an African American just because of her skin color. Since when in a Japanese IP does dark skin = African American representation is essentially the question I'm posing here. And while representation is important, making a big deal out of it only makes people come off as insecure. That doesn't even just apply to African American representation. Other cultures/minorities are the same way. It can get pretty cringey seeing people get ecstatic over devs addressing "diversity"

Wait, is that meant to be an African American character or is that just another deeply dark tanned character alla Ansem Seeker of Darkness who for all we knew back before he was revealed to be a heartless and not the real Ansem could've also been an African American due to his skin's shading/color selection? And why does it even matter at this point? Are people actually invested in something like racial diversity when it comes to KH that this is a talking point or is it just because it's 2021?

@JTD95 - Is it not Paul Saint Peter voicing Apprentice Xehanort here (KH2FM scene in Ansem the Wise's study) with a softer edged voice than the one he uses for Xemnas? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXVZ4AWrxuE And I distinctly remember that in Birth By Sleep after everything goes down we get Richard Epcar and Terra's VA voicing the warring for control Terra and Ansem Seeker of Darkness that make up Terranort, then Paul Saint Peter voicing the "amnesiac" soon to become Apprentice Xehanort when he's found in Radiant Garden after Aqua opts to stay in the realm of darkness and send Terra back to the realm of light; these voice changes essentially marking the difference between Terranort and Apprentice Xehanort as more than just cosmetic.

If one connects all the dots available it is possible that Riku was being groomed by Ansem Seeker of Darkness for much longer than just the time he knew him in KH1. He knew that Riku was Terra's choice for a successor from having the memory of Terra bequeathing Riku. We learned from Coded/Re:Coded that while the Robed Figure Ansem was new to Sora in KH1 Riku was already long familiar with him due to the memory that showed up in the journal that originated from outside the journal according to Data Riku. This is a memory in which Riku smiles serenely while a dark portal opens up behind him to take him off Destiny Islands on the Night of Fate courtesy of Robed Figure Ansem, putting into question if Riku actually left the islands before or after Sora (and we can surmise that this is the incident being referred to when Robed Figure Ansem comments about Riku showing no fear when jumping right into the darkness, not the scene between him and Sora where Sora first gets the Keyblade, speaking of which, if Riku did leave before Sora was the Riku Sora saw during the Night of Fate in the scene he gets the Kingdom Key just an illusion?). If Riku was also using that stance as a kid while play fighting/sparring with Sora how long exactly had he been under Xehanort's thumb in some way or another before the events of KH1? It really is up in the clouds, but we can certainly surmise it had been going on for at least several years.

Ansem Seeker of Darkness - Richard Epcar, Billy Zane Terranort - Richard Epcar Xemnas and Apprentice Xehanort - Paul Saint Peter Young Xehanort - Benjamin Diskin Master Xehanort - Lenard Nemoy, Rutger Hauer, Christopher Lloyd It takes a little observation but they have the respective changes in voice to show you who is who. In essence the first body to give Ansem Seeker of Darkness form was Terra in the form of Terranort. Terra's heart ended up scattering into multiple vessels though. Into his armor turning into Lingering Will, merging with Xehanort's released heart into what became known as Terranort eventually being power struggled out into the Guardian or the Boy in the Back (Ushiro no Shounen) as it is known in Japan, as well as into Apprentice Xehanort aka Xemnas.

In the case of bloodybizkitz isn't their main criticism towards Birth By Sleep that it's super easy to cheese it even on critical mode due to just being able to put multiple of the same over powered ability into the command deck and spamming it? If that's solid evidence for BBS being bad I hate to be the one to break it to you @yamibakura but Chain of Memories can be cheesed just as easily. Easier even since you don't have to grind as much for the over powered commands. In Sora's case the moment you have the Sonic Blade sleight everything can be defeated easily by spamming it even if you're not playing on Beginner or Standard. In Riku's case just spam the sleights with Mickey where he and Riku dance around the battle field shooting balls of light and darkness at enemies against the mobs when you're grinding levels out in the worlds and switch over to not even bothering to think about what cards you'll use when you duel once you've managed to start one just spam cards till you've won the duel because the timer runs out way too quick if you take the time to think. If you think the dueling system is broken then fine ignore that, but there is no way around getting put into dark mode; even if you're not trying you'll take enough damage to end up that way at least once in every boss battle before you get killed, and then all you have to do is spam Dark Firaga, or use the bosses like they're the foundation for your keyblade that is suddenly a pogo stick (Dark Break). Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing. Pressing triangle sure is fun...and hard, yes; definitely hard.

Comments below were taken from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQi_dW0XP1A (Part 41 of YouTuber Relle's KH3 Abridged) "Fun Fact KH3 fixed Xemnas's character. KH2: I don't care that what I'm doing is wrong I just can't stand the pain of not having a heart. Dream Drop Distance: Lol I had a heart all along and I'm evil because I'm evil. KH3: A Heart is nothing but pain. Also you're right about Nomura." - Horrible Mistake [@Horrible Mistake - It's not really correct to say that KH3 fixed him. He was essentially going through an arc over those three games much like how Ansem Seeker of Darkness went through one with Riku. In Xemnas' case it was essentially an arc of discovering that just because he was Xehanort's Nobody it didn't mean he wasn't his own person. An exceedingly important and often forgotten piece of dialogue from Xemnas comes from KH2. When Mickey calls him Xehanort in Radiant Garden and he responds with "How long has it been since I abandoned that name?" that is the first hint that Xemnas wants to be acknowledged as his own person and it becomes apparent through subtle nuances in the writing for him in The World that Never Was in both KH2 and Dream Drop Distance that it isn't just in the eyes of others that he wants to be acknowledged as his own person, he himself wants to reach that point. Then KH3 he seems so solemn in his goodbye because he realizes his mistake was seeking that individuality in such a detached and cold manner. If he had been honest with the rest of the Organization members about the nature of the experiments that led to them being nobodies he would have probably found his answer to existence as his own person much sooner and easier. PS: It's misleading to say he had a heart all along. Like all the nobodies he needed to regrow a heart. In his case he was created when Old Man Xehanort as Apprentice Xehanort split himself into his Heartless and Nobody creating Xemnas and Ansem Seeker of Darkness so at the very least much like the rest of the organization Xemnas was lacking a heart until Dream Drop Distance. He even has a very good line to show it off in the game "The heart will try to reconstitute itself the first chance it gets." - Sylvia Delaney]

Is there really more detail to the worlds in Re:COM? Also to be honest BBS's gameplay is something you need to learn to understand. Yes you level up your abilities, but maxing them out is not enough. You also need to learn the attack patterns of the bosses you encounter and take advantage of their openings to fell them. BBS is one of the few games in the series where mash x to win just doesn't work out. Especially so if you don't just pick a lower difficulty. Beyond that the capabilities of the PSP were not exactly any lesser than the PS2's, in fact being somewhere above that of the PS2 and bellow that of the PS3. And lastly 99 is the max level in almost every RPG, but the maximum level you should need to be for most RPGs regardless in order to 100% them is Level 50. BBS falls well into that range.

I might actually get this. For as much as I trash-talk Kairi it's precisely because I wish she was better handled and had more life to her. Something I've wanted for ages (as I would hazard many KH fans have) is a game where Sora, Riku, and Kairi can go on adventures together. It's depressing that this is the closest we've gotten so far into the series run where that's a possibility. This'll be a nice Christmas present to myself.

Wait, what? I thought they were co-owned. Especially since Nomura was the one who drew them. actually, ansem SOD, used riku's body as a base so he looks like an aged up riku albeit with xehanort's haircut. notice how SOD looks different than apprentice xehanort and xemnas because of that Yeah, ironically though outside of the darker skin color Ansem SOD doesn't look that different from the other non-elderly Xehanorts when overlayed with them. It'd be interesting if the series goes on long enough for Riku to get to an age where he's around Ansem SOD's age if Nomura actually gave Riku a design that made him look anything like Ansem SOD.

That actually sounds like grasping at straws for evidence of him having feelings for her of a romantic nature and trailing off could mean he wants to say more (I would imagine the full line he's trying to say there is along the lines of "Kairi...Sora..I'm sorry."). Although I actually never knew that he calls her name when he dies because I've never had Riku KO'd in KH2 before. Grains of salt all over this though, putting it together with everything else about their relationship it falls apart and acts as a big piece that doesn't fit in the puzzle that's put together from the rest of my observations. I'd have to devote time to slotting that in somehow, but it is a good piece of food for thought. As far as him staying close to them goes, at the end of the day they're still the two most important characters to him. That's consistent throughout the whole first trilogy of games, and all the ones that came afterwards so far. It'd be pretty unlike Riku to not want to be close to Sora and Kairi. This I can definitely agree with. Kairi, Namine, Xion, Shiki, and most recently the Limit Cut episode of the Re:Mind DLC offered up one scene where he was very gentle towards Aqua too. Yeah, the novels and manga do help with this one, so long as one views them empathizing and sympathizing with each other's loneliness and guilt as signs of more than a budding friendship. There's an essay posted to AO3 by someone that basically has its core point being that because Riku and Namine were like that in the KH2 novels it means there's a basis for them as a ship, thus the general consensus that the ship came out of nowhere and they just got lumped together in that one scene at the end of KH3 is false. I don't know how canon or non-canon the novels and manga continuities are according to the series owners themselves, so I simplified things in my head and just put everything into its own canon (the novels have their canon, the manga has its canon, and of course the games have theirs). It's just too much of a headache to try combining all three so I choose not to. There's also a distinct lack of characters acting like themselves consistently throughout all three adaptations. To mention one glaring example I'll just point to Kairi in the KH2 novels and manga. In the games I don't recall any scene where Kairi was mean or rude (save for when she's teasing Sora about being lazy/slow in the head/naive) outside of the line in KH1 where she wanted to take the raft with Sora and leave Riku behind, during a scene with a serious tone to it. The way she treats Demyx in both of the other continuities though; is really contradictory to her game counterpart and served to make me hate her more than I already do. I should probably use hate loosely as it's difficult to hate a character who only has so much life in her. All three adaptations would have to do a better job with her for me to actually like her, and it's more like hate for how she's handled than hate for her specifically because there's only so much "her" to like or dislike/hate. I hope I'm making sense. i think namine sympathizs with roxas because she too is being used by DiZ. she feels he is a vitcim like her If she does, she has one very contradicting line in the KH2 prologue "Roxas, you were never supposed to exist." It's comparable to the amount of callousness she displays when it comes to Repliku and really brings out the truth of Larxene's "Oh so cute, but beyond this pretty face, you do awful things." line from Chain of Memories. Now this could have everything to do with the way that Namine came into being, but Roxas is right to react with anger and disbelief at her line there when he retorts with, "Even if that were true, how could you ever say that?" I don't want to seem like I'm giving Namine a harder time than I should, but a lot of her prospects for romance are in the realm of one-sided. She wants to replace Kairi in Sora's heart in Chain of Memories (and takes the fact she's being coerced to mess with his memories as her chance to do so, even if she backtracks and stops trying to in the end), she wants to be close to Roxas because Kairi is close to Sora (essentially wanting him to be the Sora to her Kairi due to them being Sora and Kairi's Nobodies), she wants to be the female companion who ends up with Riku in a quartet made up of herself, Sora, Riku, and Kairi; because Sora belongs to Kairi, her Original/her Somebody (we can infer this way more than just slightly, from the drawing of the four of them she makes in Chain of Memories, where she draws herself next to Riku and Kairi next to Sora because deep down even she realizes that Sora would never choose her over Kairi). I'm really not left with anyone to ship Namine with, without feeling uncomfortable about the pairing in some way.

Roxas and Olette was the way I leaned too in the KH2 days. Who cares if the Olette he knew was made of data? Definitely not me. Roxas/Namine is one I've never quite understood. They barely interacted in a positive way so I couldn't get behind them in the early days of them being shipped together and I still can't really get behind it now. It also feels like Namine very much feels a connection to him, but Roxas doesn't feel that same connection towards her. And I can't really tell if she wants to substitute Roxas for Sora or is actually drawn to Roxas. The scene on Sunset Hill that was added to KH2 through the Final Mix has her looking at a drawing of those two and talking about how there's someone she wants to see, but much like in Chain of Memories where she gives off a yearning to replace Kairi in Sora's heart she comes off like she's hoping for Roxas to be the Sora to her Kairi in this scene from KH2FM. Incidentally this is also why I can't really get behind Namiku, another popular heterosexual ship born circa the days of KH2. There's the whole can of worms that is Repliku in this equation, plus Riku ending up with her comes off as lumping Sora's best friend with an alternate version of Sora's girl (and I don't even like Sokai so it's extra awful to have Namiku as a possible endgame ship after that one scene in KH3). Like I'm not going to cry over spilled milk if they pull the trigger on them after the tease at the end of KH3, but the more blatantly implied sympathizing and empathizing with each other's loneliness and guilt over their past actions towards Sora in the novel and manga continuities do not a romance create IMHO. End of the day the priority for both is still Sora. If anything they went from acquaintances working towards a common goal to budding actual friends working towards a common goal off screen during that year between Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, and the KH2 prologue. Roxas and Xion feels more appropriate, but their friendship is so beautiful that I would fear for how a romance between them would be written by someone who does romance as badly as Tetsuya Nomura does. There are little scenes here and there in the 358/2 Days game itself that are not in the cutscene compilation movie that help this one along in being a friendship that could evolve and tip over to romantic seamlessly if handled with the right care though. Then we have the elephant in the room: Xion is also popularly shipped with Riku and I just can't understand that one. He treats her kind of like a little sister in 358/2 Days after their first meeting on the bridge of Beast's Castle (heck even then he's kinda doing it, warning her to find a new crowd to hang with because the Organization's bad news). It really reminded me of how he was with Kairi. In KH1 they keep trying to push this idea that Riku also has a crush on Kairi, but he comes off more like an overprotective big brother over the course of the game. In the prologue on the Islands he's trying to urge Sora into earning the right to share the paopu fruit with her by pretending to want to share one with her himself, and evidently he's become so suffocating in some way or another to Kairi that she wants to take the raft and leave with just Sora (she wants to get away from an overprotective and overbearing Riku). After he realizes Kairi didn't end up where either he or Sora did once the Islands fell he resolved to find her and then to get her heart back for her. In Hollow Bastion during the climax of the story he urges her to run again showing the depth of his protectiveness for her. And we get another hint at Kairi not really liking this side of him (of him expecting her to do as he says/wants like an overbearing big brother) in her body language before she agrees to run. Of course at the end of the game we get him telling Sora to take care of her (an unspoken "because I no longer can" lingers in the air here). It bleeds over to KH2 where he has Pluto watch over her for him in the open and watches over her himself from the shadows then goes to rescue her when she gets kidnapped by Saix who he shows a great deal of aggression towards (We see a repeat of this aggression towards her kidnapper(s) in KH3 against Old Man Xehanort after she gets shattered). It's also in KH2 where we see Riku make a shift in how he sees Kairi. He gives her a keyblade to fight with because he's stopped seeing her as someone who needs to be coddled and kept away from the potential dangers of the adventures he and Sora have become so caught up in (when they were younger everything about how he treats the older Kairi in KH1 has echoes to him wanting to make sure she doesn't involve herself with dangerous things; she races with Sora and Riku but is significantly slower than them and later plays referee for them instead of racing with them; an implication that she doesn't often race with them at all), and she's also the only kid on the Play Island who doesn't engage Sora in practice combat/sparring (Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie are positioned as NPC set pieces/supporting cast members at best for Destiny Islands and yet they all fight Sora where Kairi, a main character, the female protagonist, does not), so it's not a far cry that as little kids after she washed up on Destiny Islands Riku took on a role of keeping her from getting involved with more dangerous forms of play. Anything that could've gotten her bumps and bruises, or cuts and scrapes he would have objected to her joining him, Sora, and the others in. But in KH2 he's willing to let up a little and let her fend for herself. This is nicely brought home in Dream Drop Distance where he's the one sent to bring her to the Mysterious Tower to begin training as a keyblade wielder, and again in 0.2 where he's encouraging about this development as opposed to condescending and also not trying to convince her not to do it. They fall back on showing his overprotective nature towards her in Melody of Memory though, when he reacts poorly to her expressed desire to come with him to save Sora, but you can see the shift in their relationship with each other in how she responds; she takes it for the concern it is instead of an elder brother's condescension and lack of faith in her, admitting she needs to stay behind and focus on completing her training. Looping back to Xion as I've gotten way off base, but it all still works to support what I was aiming for as my point: Riku approaches Xion with a great deal of gentleness after their initial meeting. He could have incapacitated her and taken her back to the mansion in Twilight Town at any time but explains to her what's going on, doesn't react violently to her incredibly harsh line "So, do you hate me for keeping you from your friend?" although he'd be perfectly justified to be, is even honest about how he feels in response to that question; "Nah, I guess...I'm just sad." he tells her, and then chooses to let her decide what to do and gives her time. Time Sora realistically doesn't securely have because there is no guarantee the organization won't find where he's been hidden. All of it combined makes me wonder where people got romantic vibes from these two in order to birth the Rikushi ship.

Don't forget about Repliku. He might be a clone but he's still very much a real person. Also Vexen.

@yamibakura - It's not just KH2 Riku it's Riku from the very first game through to the present. Originally he had a very Young Sephiroth look and feel to him, there was even artwork of Riku with wings something that didn't end up becoming a thing in the games until he could merge with Dream Eaters in Dream Drop Distance. Between 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage and KH3 Riku got a redesign that shifted him from looking like a Young Sephiroth to Noctis Lucis Caelum from FFXV. There is also this old theory video somewhere on YouTube which covers the theory that Riku and Xehanort are the same person because they have the same facial structure. Like if you overlay them on top of each other in the various forms of Xehanort when he wasn't an old man they line up scarily perfect. Of course this didn't turn out to be true, but it is still very eerie how his face overlayed so perfectly with that of Ansem Seeker of Darkness, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort; before his redesign between 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage and KH3. Story wise Riku's always been the more Final Fantasy of the Destiny Islands trio though. Sora and Kairi slot perfectly into the Boy Hero Who Always Saves the Day Somehow and Damsel Female in Distress leading men and women Disney is so famous for (especially during its Renaissance era), Riku is the wild card that aligns more with characters like Cloud and Squall from Final Fantasy and Vegeta and Sasuke from Naruto and Dragonball. Although he's never gone quite as far to the dark side as those last two because of him (and KH in general) being co-owned by Disney.

Wendy is one of the Princess of Heart candidates that got rejected in favor of the cardboard box that is Kairi so it's not exactly surprising that her brothers got left on the cutting room floor.