Does Kingdom Hearts HAVE TO have Final Fantasy characters?

[Septimus Prime]

In your opinion, obviously. And for me, the answer is yes.

I thought I'd spin this topic off from the other threads, since it comes up a lot.

To me, the conceit of the entire series is that it's a mash up of Disney and FF, and the main plot is just glue to tie it together. But somewhere along the way, that glue seems to have become the main focus, which I guess I have no choice but to respect.

At the same time though, even if there's no story reason at all to have FF people there, I'd still like to see them. I don't care if, like, Sephiroth just shows up out of nowhere and fights you. I'd rather have that than him not being there at all.

 

[Chille]

Yes a good kingdom hearts game needs final fantasy characters it's why the series even existed in first place.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

i really didn't miss them too much, although i wish we at least had the sephiroth battle

 

[Nanashrew]

Yes. There was a big hole without them. It's a crossover series and not having them feels like we're missing a half of the universe. Especially for Radiant Garden, where plenty of them live.

 

[deepFlaw]

So when I started the series as a kid, I had never really played FF. Now I'm at least a little fond of 13 and very fond of 15, so I would like to see at least the latter game's characters represented.

That being said: honestly the TWEWY crossover in DDD meant way more for me than any FF character could. But regardless I do think that kind of non-Disney crossover character is nice, especially as they can be used more freely than a lot of the Disney characters. (And it is weird to know that Leon and such are not in 3...?)

 

[KushalaDaora]

Yes, my fondest memories of KH1 (and KH2) is when you meet the FF characters.

 

[Rob2K19]

Yes, even if they are said by name and appear as statues.

 

[Man God]

They're barely in every game post 2, so....apparently you can have half a dozen games without them.

 

[Quinton]

I mean, honestly, Disney does very little for me emotionally but Final Fantasy does a ton. I'd be more inclined to play this series if there were far more classic Square rep. Shrug.

 

[R.T Straker]

Yes.

The whole thing was ptiched as FF meets Disney.

 

[VariantX]

Disney x FF is literally the hook that got people interested in the first place. It's what got people in the door and put butts in seats. Neither Disney or FF alone would they have drawn the same level of interest.

 

[Ravenwraith]

Obviously it doesn't have to but shit, it'd be nice. It was nice to see them in the PS2 games and it'd be nice to see them again.

 

[Bulebule]

Definitely needs characters as well and not just references to series. The whole premise was Disney with Final Fantasy. Organization XIII wasn't really needed to be included at all.

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

They could have you play as Mickey exploring Final Fantasy worlds.

 

[The Unsent]

No, Birth by Sleep only had Zack and that was one of the best ones. They're just there for the novelty with only Auron being a proper party member.

 

[Nanashrew]

So when I started the series as a kid, I had never really played FF. Now I'm at least a little fond of 13 and very fond of 15, so I would like to see at least the latter game's characters represented.

That being said: honestly the TWEWY crossover in DDD meant way more for me than any FF character could. But regardless I do think that kind of non-Disney crossover character is nice, especially as they can be used more freely than a lot of the Disney characters. (And it is weird to know that Leon and such are not in 3...?)

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Yeah, this is my stance as well. FF characters have been used more freely, and aware of the worlds and heartless, etc. It's nice to have characters that are aware of the things your characters are aware of outside the main cast.

 

[Gold Arsene]

No I don't think they need to be there.

They don't hurt and I like seeing them. But I won't throw a fit if they're not in future games. Though I hope there in them.

Though personally I'd love to see other worlds based on other Square games.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

The Final Fantasy characters like Cid, Squall and Yuffie are just as established and important to the KH universe as the main Disney reps, so yes.

 

[Nanashrew]

If they get rid of FF characters then Nomura needs to entirely drop Moogles from the universe.

 

[petethepanda]

With Disney characters being a constant and the Bleach OCs becoming more and more prominent, it seems like keeping Final Fantasy characters in the mix would be too much to keep track of.

 

[Wazzy]

Yes. Every game without them lacked the charm added by them being in the series. It was always fun seeing who would appear, what outfit change they would have and how they tied into the story.

We had Cloud and Aerith interacting reuniting, Squall helping Sora and eventually a tease hinting at Rinoa, Auron with Hades, Seifer and gang being assholes to Roxas but then turning good, etc.

They were definitely missed in KH3 and I really hope future DLC does something with them.

 

[WarpSpeedMolasses]

Yes. Absolutely.

The lack of FF in KH3 is seriously glaring and massively disappointing. It's unfathomable to me that they felt FF cameos were expendable. Hell, we should also get FF worlds.

If anything, they can roll back some of the Disney stuff.

 

[Nanashrew]

Yes. Every game without them lacked the charm added by them being in the series. It was always fun seeing who would appear, what outfit change they would have and how they tied into the story.

We had Cloud and Aerith interacting reuniting, Squall helping Sora and eventually a tease hinting at Rinoa, Auron with Hades, Seifer and gang being assholes to Roxas but then turning good, etc.

They were definitely missed in KH3 and I really hope future DLC does something with them.

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We also haven't even seen grown up versions of the FFX crew from KH1 yet too. They served as your tutorial.

 

[MegaXZero]

Yes. The lack of FF/square properties in general hurt KH3. Their removal from Twilight town felt forced and awkward.

 

[Dale Copper]

No and it's laughable if you think so.

 

[Dylan]

I don't even like Final Fantasy characters in Final Fantasy games.

 

[MrConbon210]

All of you say that FF is needed for a KH game but what about something like 358/2 or DDD which was perfectly fine without any FF characters.

It's not like KH3 was the first one to disregard the FF cast.

 

[WarpSpeedMolasses]

I don't get the "no room/it'd be too much" arguments for FF characters being axed. They're fanservice cameos, and can easily be put in as extras/side-content for fans. Besides, the plot is already a big, sprawling behemoth. Drawing the line at FF chatacters seems so random and arbitrary.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Clearly not because KH3 doesn't have any.

Honestly they were pretty meaningless in the rest of the series so I don't mind as they never really did anything, I just miss Sephiroth as an end-game boss.

Which 3FM could fix.

 

[WarpSpeedMolasses]

All of you say that FF is needed for a KH game but what about something like 358/2 or DDD which was perfectly fine without any FF characters.

It's not like KH3 was the first one to disregard the FF cast.

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It's the 1st, numbered mainline entry to do so, and it's not a good precedent.

 

[Hace]

Part of the pitch was them being there

 

[Septimus Prime]

With Disney characters being a constant and the Bleach OCs becoming more and more prominent, it seems like keeping Final Fantasy characters in the mix would be too much to keep track of.

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I'd much rather there be far fewer Chad tier originals and more FF people. Like, they could have even made the Organization guys the nobodies of FF characters. Oh, you killed Demyx? Here's Prompto.

Like, taking out the in-game Nobodies to just reveal fucking nobodies is lame.

 

[The Unsent]

Definitely needs characters as well and not just references to series. The whole premise was Disney with Final Fantasy. Organization XIII wasn't really needed to be included at all.

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I disagree, the premise is Disney X Square like on the box art, which means mixing the tone of both brands. If FF was more important in the first place, the final bosses would be Chaos teaming up with Maleficent, or some ultimate evil from those franchises and there would have indeed been FF worlds instead of 90% Disney. The FF cameos are fun but certainly not essential as Kingdom Hearts 3 proved by being the best in the series, with its far more elaborate worlds and eccentric set pieces.

 

[Nanashrew]

All of you say that FF is needed for a KH game but what about something like 358/2 or DDD which was perfectly fine without any FF characters.

It's not like KH3 was the first one to disregard the FF cast.

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I mean, if you played it you spend a lot of time doing boring missions in a single small area of each world or you're in the organization (It was a DS game after all). You hardly meet anyone in the game but mainly organization members. It's also a super depressing game.

 

[Wazzy]

I disagree, the premise is Disney X Square like on the box art, which means mixing the tone of both brands. If FF was more important in the first place, the final bosses would be Chaos teaming up with Maleficent, or some ultimate evil from those franchises and there would have indeed been FF worlds instead of 90% Disney. The FF cameos are fun but certainly not essential as Kingdom Hearts 3 proved by being the best in the series, with its far more elaborate worlds and eccentric set pieces.

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All this says is that Final Fantasy doesn't have to be the sole cameo. If it's Square x Disney then Square properties should make cameos.

Plus Moogles still appear in these games as do FF spells so clearly FF isn't as easy to drop as many say it is.

 

[AllMight1]

Yup

 

[Nateo]

Yes it does. It adds to the charm. The absence of them in KH3 was very noticeable.

 

[WarpSpeedMolasses]

I disagree, the premise is Disney X Square like on the box art, which means mixing the tone of both brands. If FF was more important in the first place, the final bosses would be Chaos teaming up with Maleficent, or some ultimate evil from those franchises and there would have indeed been FF worlds instead of 90% Disney. The FF cameos are fun but certainly not essential as Kingdom Hearts 3 proved by being the best in the series, with its far more elaborate worlds and eccentric set pieces.

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I'd say KH3 is great despite the absence of FF chatacters and worlds. Not because of it.

I'm about 20 hours into KH3, and so far, the lack of FF is the only thing keeping it from being a GOAT contender imo.

 

[Gatti-man]

A lack of FF characters made this a skip for me. I'll play it when it's bargain bin. I don't expect everyone to feel the way I do but that was half the reason to play KH for me. Disney was just a cool backdrop.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

No, clearly not.

It's been like 13 years since they had any role beside a single cameo by Zack (which itself was 9 years ago), and most of the best games have little to no Final Fantasy characters.

I enjoyed the cameos, but the series has largely moved on from them. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing some characters pop up now and then, but it should never be a major focus.

 

[Kusagari]

It's pretty clear as the KH original cast got more and more fleshed out they viewed the FF part of the equation as expendable.

Which does kind of make sense since the KH characters themselves are basically FF knockoffs.

 

[LostSkullKid]

I need my Sephiroth boss fight, man.

 

[MrConbon210]

I mean, if you played it you spend a lot of time doing boring missions in a single small area of each world or you're in the organization (It was a DS game after all). You hardly meet anyone in the game but mainly organization members. It's also a super depressing game.

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Yeah but DDD swapped them out for World Ends With You cast and was fine and BBS barely features FF other than Zack in Olympus.

It's been clear that Nomura doesn't need them any more to sell the game since he's built a sizeable original cast to supplement the Disney characters.

 

[WarpSpeedMolasses]

I really wonder if we'll get FF stuff as DLC.

 

[Nanashrew]

Having Square characters is fun, plain and simple. They do not have to take major plot roles but can if they want. One of the benefits of using their own property can be to also flesh things out because they can do more with them than the Disney characters. It's possible to have original characters and Final Fantasy characters.

 

[Musubi]

No. Final Fantasy is a really fleeting part of the series. KH1 and KH2 are the only two games to really even feature any. There are some other minor ones like Zack in BBS but I feel like its not the selling point to me. To me the original story and characters is what keeps me coming back to Kingdom Hearts.

 

[AztecComplex]

HAVE TO? No. Would I like some cameos of them? Hell yes. They are sorely being missed in KH3 rn.

 

[Nanashrew]

Y'all are forgetting Chain of Memories, travelling through Sora's memories and there being a Destiny Island with Final Fantasy characters.

 

[Hailinel]

Nah. The series has grown to a point where it doesn't really need the Final Fantasy cast at all. It's nice when they show up, but it's not a necessity for them to be there.

 

[Wazzy]

Yeah but DDD swapped them out for World Ends With You cast and was fine and BBS barely features FF other than Zack in Olympus.

It's been clear that Nomura doesn't need them any more to sell the game since he's built a sizeable original cast to supplement the Disney characters.

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Zack being the sole cameo wasn't originally intended. Laguna was supposed to be in but they cut him because of Dissidia 012.