As we draw closer to the release of the anticipated DLC for Kingdom Hearts III, known as Re:Mind, there are many aspects of the story and gameplay that I hope they expand upon. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the game, there were certainly times where I scratched my head and wondered what the developers could have done to improve the game. For example, the entire world dedicated to Frozen was an absolute slugfest to get through. Having to reach Elsa’s tower multiple times after being thrown down the mountain incessantly for ridiculous reasons even had Sora getting annoyed with it! I have high hopes for this new content; the trailers they have been released so far make me believe that they are trying to please the fans, and these are five things that I hope that they include in the release.
*Spoiler Warning: I Will Discuss Topics From Other Kingdom Hearts Titles*
1. Scala Ad Caelum Expansion
The infamous Cable Town: this mysterious world was first teased in a “behind closed doors” teaser back in 2014, at a launch event for the newest remasters of Kingdom Hearts titles. Fans there were given a special sneak peak into a world that they would not see for another four years. This world was dubbed as Cable Town, as each castle was linked together by chains and many floating islands, as depicted in concept art. The actual name of this world is known as Scala Ad Caelum, which loosely translates to Stairway to Heaven, and was the final world visited in the game.
As this area was to close out the game, I expected a lengthy dungeon that would allow me to travel to each castle and town and uncover new lore about the main antagonist Xehanort and ancient Keyblade wielders. Instead, after you enter into the town area, you are thrown into the first part of the final boss with no warning. There was no exploration, no explanation of what the world is, and nothing about who previously inhabited it. I hope that they expand Scala Ad Caelum and allow me to traverse through the world and interact with objects and reports that would inform me about the legends of Keyblade bearers from the past. They could include a whole castle that the player could enter and have the ability to face new, stronger, and harder enemies and even include rooms to acquire more powerful items that can be used at the end of the game as a reward. As a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, I expected an epic final world that would close out the first saga that I fell in love with, and it gave me huge disappointment to discover that it was one large boss room.
2. Twilight Town Expansion
Yes I know, another expansion, but how can the Kingdom Hearts II version of Twilight Town, released in 2006, have more explorable areas than the 2019 release of Kingdom Hearts III! When I first completed the world and found out that I could not travel to the Sandlot, The Usual Spot, and even the clock tower, I was absolutely devastated. These were areas that I was most excited to come back to so I could spend more time beating up knock-off versions of Final Fantasy characters. Nonetheless, these were important areas in the previous game that were taken out and it was resorted to four small locations that made the world feel like a needless chore just to advance the story.
Twilight Town is one of my favorite worlds in the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise, so I hope that they give it the expansion it deserves and brings back the entirety of it and include additional areas that were previously unreachable. Found in an out of bounds glitch, players have discovered a dome near the clock tower, this could be something that they could use to make the world more explorable and turn it into a stadium where you can enter professional tournaments. Players can gain prizes and the challenges would be updated and become more difficult as the story progresses and Sora gets stronger throughout the game. It would make the world much more enjoyable and not as restricted as it does in its current product.
3. More Original Keyblades
One of the proudest moments throughout the series is gaining more powerful Keyblades as the game progresses. Many are Disney based, while the others are original that are gained after special boss fights or events that take place in the game. This chapter in the series barely had any Keyblades that didn’t come from the movies. Kingdom Hearts III had four original weapons while its predecessor has a total of fourteen. While this may have had to do with a new gameplay mechanic known as Keyblade Transformations, where Sora can transform his weapon into blasters, a hammer, and even a shield, that could have taken more time to develop, I still wish we got more Keyblades that aren’t inspired off of Disney properties.
When the DLC comes out, two more original Keyblades will be released, but I am hoping for a whole batch of them to be released along with them. If they were to release six new ones, each with their own transformations and gimmicks, it will add a lot more variety to the way that players react and defeat enemies. New strategies will be thought of and people will be more likely to use transformations instead of ignoring them because there will be more to mess around with! An important aspect in a game is the replay value, and adding more depth in Sora’s weapons will have a critical role in that.
4. Xion’s Storyline
Although this has already been confirmed to be a topic for a part of the game’s DLC, I am hoping they delve deep into the creation of Xion. In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days for the DS, Xion is a tragic character who is a replica made from Sora and has to return to him by ceasing to exist. After she fades away, everyone who knew her forgets that she was ever present in their lives and continue on without realizing it. This continues until the penultimate world of Kingdom Hearts III where Xion is randomly shoe-horned into the game as one of Xehanort’s vessels to help him restart the universe. She is quickly saved and everyone then remembers her, getting to reunite with her friends. This happens in all about five minutes of her being formally revealed. While it was hinted at her return earlier in the game, this is when we actually first see and fight her.
I am hoping that we get to see how Xion was recreated and what it took to acquire her memories and characteristics even though she no longer existed. I want to know more about the lead up to her fighting alongside Xehanort and what his other vessels thought about it. I am deeply interested in how everyone quickly and easily remembered her even though she was completely forgotten about. While it could simply be a plot hole, these are errors that could be fixed within this DLC, and it would be so much fun to see Xion’s rebirth and see more cutscenes of her in the game.
5. Final Fantasy Characters
One of the biggest selling points that Kingdom Hearts offered was the usage of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy properties and how they impacted the main story as a whole. In the first game and its direct sequel, characters such as Leon, Yuffie, Auron, and Cloud served significant roles and helped Sora advance through his journeys. Seeing Cloud for the first time in Olympus Coliseum and having to fight him as a mini boss made many fans, including myself, lose their minds. Within this game, however, they are nowhere to be found. They were completely removed apart from a reference to Cloud and Auron at the beginning of the Olympus world and of course, Moogle in the item shops. While I definitely understand that this was the end of the first saga and they wanted to focus completely on the original characters and Disney, the bonds that Sora made with these Final Fantasy characters and how they had a place in the general story made it odd that they would just be removed and barely talked about.
If they were to change this and decide to put them in after the fan outcry about not having these legendary characters, I would either like to see them be integrated into the main story with new cutscenes and interactions with them or I would like to see a world added into the game that the player could travel to and meet up with them all, and that would be Radiant Garden. This world was the home place of many Final Fantasy characters in this series and is where we last saw them. In Kingdom Hearts III, this world was only seen in cutscenes, so to make it playable and let everyone see some of their favorite characters in high definition for the first time in the saga would be absolutely perfect. It would also allow the developers to add secret bosses such as Sephiroth, who was in the previous entries and use these challenges to conclude the storylines for each of their roles in case they wanted to depart from the Final Fantasy content. As long as we aren’t left with a quiet ending for them like in Kingdom Hearts II, I will be satisfied.
These were the top five hopes that I have for the DLC pack that will be released for Kingdom Hearts III: Re:Mind. Although there are definitely more aspects that I am hoping to see get added, these were the most important ones that came to my mind while playing through the game for the first time. Of course, no game is going to be completely perfect, there are going to be flaws no matter what. There will be nitpicks that players point out such as issues with writing, gameplay, and graphics. I consider Kingdom Hearts III to be a strong entry into the series, showcasing the potential for its future, and how the writing is progressively getting back on its feet. I am looking forward to the beginning of the next saga and what new inclusions to the series it will bring to the table.
