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Wonder if he's been contacted yet to do voice work for II.5. I know he has at least one new scene in KH2FM, and I'm sure there's some for ReCoded.

That's just a progression of the gameplay between games: changes happen to both Sora and Riku. KH1 Sora's combos were pretty static (they don't cause you to move forward much). DDD is much faster paced, so a lot of things had to be adjusted on both character's ends. Riku DOES get a double jump, much like Aqua, and kind of like D-mode Riku (although that one did more harm than good), so it's not like they nixed it completely. But either way, slightly increased base jump height isn't much of a perk when you can slam yourself against a wall and launch 30 feet in the air...infinitely. Personally I think that's a pretty broken mechanic, but that's another discussion entirely. And I welcome the marginal change in Riku's dodge roll. The delay felt weird to me: it didn't really add anything, and it still feels notably different from Sora's. I'll admit, there isn't quite the same difference between how the characters play as there was in Birth by Sleep, but they are still quite distinct, especially as you get towards the end. Since you alternate between the two characters, it would be a bad idea to make them play VERY differently. Just when you start getting used to one, you would drop and switch to the other (dropping is my most hated mechanic in the series, but again, that's another discussion).

I don't think it makes him more boring at all, especially when you look at how far he's come. In addition to being more thoughtful, as I said before, he returned to his old self in terms of confidence and ambition, but it's channeled in a more positive direction than in KH1. His hair is a good representation of his character arcs. I initially thought he looked weird when he cut his hair short again, but really, the abnormal part is when it's super long and unkempt. In the time when he was working with DiZ, he was extremely focused on his mission of helping Sora wake up, as well as dealing with his own darkness, and thus wasn't taking care of himself. There was a lot of emotional turmoil that he was dealing with. Cutting his hair symbolizes a return to normalcy, which is what I think actually happened: he finally found himself. Of course he still has his doubts from time to time, as a good character should, but he's in a much more stable place than before. I don't think a character needs Dante levels of confidence to be interesting. I really appreciate characters that have more than one side to them, and I think it's a stretch to call him submissive or even passive, simply because he doesn't talk as loudly as he used to. A lot of his dialog in KH3D could easily have been said by the younger version of him from KH1 or CoM. He's just a little more casual around his friends, which should be expected.

Now I happen to think that transitory long-haired Riku is really interesting, but it wouldn't be interesting if they sustained that version of him forever, because then it would lose its impact and relevance to that point in his life. It shouldn't be the goal of writers to always make their characters as "interesting" as possible, because it could come off as phony after a while. I'd take a three-dimensional, believable character over a cool character with little depth any day.

*plot and gameplay spoilers below*

You must have been playing RR only in Dark Mode. His attacks and dodge roll are nearly identical in 3D and RR in his normal fighting mode. It was always pretty similar to Sora, with some key differences. As you progress through 3D, Riku gets a bunch of moves that alter his play style a lot more, making it closer to D-Mode (and Aqua as well). His upgraded teleport-dodge and a lot of his unique commands (Dark Firaga, Dark Aura, Dark Break, etc.) are all very similar if not exactly the same as his D-Mode moves in RR.

In terms of personality, Riku's gone through the most growth of any character in the series. He started out extremely cocky and prone to jealousy which turned him toward the darkness, which he later became ashamed of. He had to go through his own personal redemption, both in Castle Oblivion, and by helping Sora wake up. In this time, he was stricken with guilt (ashamed that he turned to darkness, not wanting to see his old friends until he sorted it all out), as well as a feeling of loneliness (the King being his only real friend, who he saw only on occasion). This turned him into a more humble and thoughtful person. His transitory period did somewhat break him; losing a lot confidence and becoming more introverted, but we see him starting to recover his better traits in Dream Drop Distance. We never got to see Riku's friendly side before (outside of the first hour of Kingdom Hearts I, and a few choice moments in RR), because he was always either completely alone, surrounded by villains, or struggling with something internally. He conquered most of his demons by the time 3D rolls around, so he has some leeway to have some fun in the Disney worlds. Maybe that's what's throwing you off. He's definitely not a Sora clone. It's very obvious when you compare his and Sora's responses to Young Xehanort in Symphony of Sorcery, or even their talks with Joshua. Sora has a lot of raw energy, passion, and optimism. Riku is more calm and has a greater capacity for wit and sarcasm. Sora often has to be spoon-fed information, but Riku is able to draw his own conclusions, and he's treated like more of an adult, or an equal.

What you're interpreting as a drain of his personality is, in my opinion, the maturation and evolution of his character.

I honestly find Proud mode for Sora in ReCoM to be still too easy: I didn't notice much of a change from Standard. Riku on the other hand can be pretty damn challenging. If you don't manage your levels, the last few bosses can wreck you (not that I'm complaining, I like the challenge). Days was pretty fair, with a few overpowered bosses. Just for the love of god don't try Mission Mode by yourself. They amped up the enemies' attack and defense like crazy to account for four players, but they're still just as powerful with one player. It's virtually impossible unless you use specific weapons (which have strong finishing combos) for some characters, and even then it's ridiculous. Disappointing, since I think it's the only mode you can play as the other Organization members in.

I thought BBS was fair, though maybe that's because I didn't exploit it, with the exception of the Mysterious Figure (next to impossible without multiple cures and fire/thunder surges). I'd argue you can also exploit CoM in much the same way. You can get through just about any battle spamming certain sleights, and just one elixir and/or Riku Replica card can get rid of the issue of losing the first card of sleights. Plus the Vexen card combined with Oogie Boogie is pretty game-breaking. I forbade myself from using Vexen on my last playthrough because it's too good.

That's a good point which I forgot to consider. It's a common, somewhat understandable pitfall for people trying to create a strong female character. Taking "I don't need a man in my life" to the extreme and making them asexual or extremely bitter. Unless that's the point of the character, but then it shouldn't happen that often. I understand your frustration more now.

I definitely sympathize with being angry about using sex as a selling point, specifically because that's not how it started out, and it's not the genre of the game. Thinking about Aqua, who's my favorite Kingdom Hearts protagonist (alongside Riku), it would piss me off beyond belief if Square exploited her character to sell games.

Definitely in favor of more depth of character for Sora. I still like him, but he's among my least favorite characters in the series, which is kind of sad. He was given some internal struggles in Dream Drop Distance and his shortcomings were put somewhat in the spotlight, so I was glad to see that, but aside from that and CoM, he hasn't gotten many chances to be "imperfect".

Good point about the allegiances, I forgot about that, dare I say, X factor. I am looking forward to seeing Isa's role in the plot, as well as who the remaining Xehanort incarnations are (though I think I know most of them). And yeah, I wouldn't expect them to not have light triumph, I just hope it won't be boring when it does. Organization XIII's defeat in Kingdom Hearts II seemed so inevitable, and even kind of trivial. Sure, the fights were pretty tough (the only not stupidly easy parts of the game) which I liked, but they were just swatted down one by one. They were a physical threat, but unlike in CoM, they didn't each make Sora doubt himself/effect him on an emotional level. Sora was too bullheaded in this game to have much introspection (other than learning the truth about the Keyblade in Hollow Bastion). That's what I'm most worried about I guess. Having a plot dominated by action, when I think Kingdom Heart's best moments are the more subtle, thoughtful ones. Being the next numbered title and the end of an arc, there might be more pressure to be super-flashy with comparatively little depth, as they just go through the motions of ending things. I'm not saying that will happen, or that I even think it will happen, I'm just worried that it might.

Okay, I wasn't aware that the costumes were an actual gameplay element. I mean, adding in fanservice-y costumes is kinda skeezy and personally I wouldn't put it in my game because I feel like it cheapens the character, but I don't have a huge problem with it as long as it's optional.

Alternate costumes aside, I think it's hard to draw a line between empowering female sexuality and not having men (and women) be enticed by it. Whether it's an intentional selling point or not, you don't have control over how the audience reacts to it: otherwise you're saying the equivalent of "don't like this thing I made". You do however, have control over how she interacts with other characters, and how they perceive her, which I think is much more important. Again, I'm only going on the approximate 10 minutes that I saw, but Lightning's personality is not "hot girl". She seems to be treated with respect, and has an air of cool confidence. She doesn't try and seduce everyone she meets (something that happens way more than it should in video games). Her wardrobe does not define her character: in other words, she could be wearing more typical clothing and her character would still make sense. That's not to say she has a particularly inspired personality, but it wasn't tailor-made to make the player all hot and bothered. For me at least, that's the distinction between empowering and objectifying.

I understand your complaint about the functionality of her wardrobe (with her back exposed). It gets a bit of a pass from me, knowing that it exists in the Final Fantasy universe where all clothes are dumb and make no sense, but I get it, especially on the issue of the alternates.

Very interesting talk. Clarified a little bit about SquareSoft and Enix's merger that I didn't know about.

*KH spoilers below*

I definitely agree with Misty on BBS. I've said this before, for someone who immersed himself in the lore of Kingdom Hearts, it was the most satisfying game in the series, having answered a lot of questions that I had. Ansem Reports hinted at a lot of stuff that I wanted to learn more about, and before that I felt I was missing a huge chunk of information.

To be fair to DDD, time travel was introduced as a possibility in KH2 with the Timeless River world (even mentioning the possibility of changing the future), they just didn't do very much with it. While it's immensely confusing, I don't dislike the plot point, because they did cool things with it (the new Organization), and it breathed new life into the old story (I'm a huge sucker for callbacks). That's why I'm okay with a lot of Kingdom Heart's bulls*** (with the exception of Coded, which I could do without). Even though they clearly didn't plan it all out in advance, they add layers to the story and end up explaining just about everything.

I am a little weary of what Kingdom Hearts III will look like. They have to, in my opinion, toe a very fine line of not complicating the story further, but avoid making it a very predictable story wrap-up (which I felt Kingdom Hearts II did).

I must confess I haven't completed a single Final Fantasy game. I'm not really a fan of the gameplay. I think it works in Pokemon, but for a full 3D, highly story-driven series, it makes me feel disconnected from the characters. I borrowed VII for a while, but had to return it. I own XII and played it for a day and liked it, but for whatever reason haven't picked it up again. I'll probably buy the FFX collection sometime in the future. My knowledge of Lightning Returns (or FFXIII in general) goes only as far as about 10 minutes of cutscenes (I think the opening cinematic and a boss battle). It looked pretty stunning, and the writing didn't outright offend me. I'm curious on Misty's take on Lightning, since she seems like a pretty cool, not overly-sexualized character. I trust your judgment, I'm just wondering what I'm not seeing. What with not having actually played the games.

Really cool. Of course they're using the wrong side, but I can't exactly blame them since it would be way harder to get that side to cut anything without changing the design. Or, you know, magic.

A few more comparison shots. Some changes I noticed:

Aqua
-Improved/higher-resolution textures. Overall, all the textures also look less over-exposed.
-Added shadow for clavicle.
-Sleeve is slightly lower, and armor on arms is slightly higher.
-Slightly higher-res ground texture.

Terra
-Larger biceps.
-Shoulder armor shape is a little different at the top.

Ven
-Pants bulk out less and is higher-poly.
-Checkered wristband is slightly bigger.
-Room textures notably improved.
-Vanitas' textures slightly improved.

Also good to see their keyblades are looking less flat.

Oh, and it looks like they added some renders here:
http://www.kingdomhearts.com/

Going off of 1.5, they likely look a little more polished than the actual game will, in terms of smooth edges, but it shows off a few new shots, so we get a better look at some textures.

Well this was a nice treat. Wasn't expecting them to release the trailer in English.

And as I thought, Aqua's hair looks much better when you can actually see it in HD. A little pastel-y, but I think it's still a vast improvement over the original. I put together a comparison shot.

No, you're not wrong, it's a really impressive game for the PSP, and those screenshots don't really do it justice (though having said that neither do the HD ones, as they're not actually in HD). You can definitely see the limitations of the hardware though. Some textures are really pixelated, and the whole game has pretty noticeable aliasing, which does not hold up passed the PSP's native resolution.

I think that could be your video source. They never looked that saturated to me: not when I was playing it myself, or when looking at the cutscenes from this site.

I think overall her hair looks better, but the darker color is throwing me off a little.