Reintroducing the Final Fantasy characters that had been mysteriously absent from the main story of Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the two biggest reveals in the trailer that fans have latched onto. With only a handful of characters shown in the new trailer, though, the question still remains of exactly how many of these classic characters are going to be returning in Re:Mind.
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On top of the uncertainty of who will appear in Re:Mind, some players have also noted that there are a number of strangely loose threads left over from previous games that Kingdom Hearts 3 never touched on. Not only is the reconstruction of Radiant Garden barely touched upon in the latest title, even though the location is often used to dole out exposition, but one major Final Fantasy character has an unfinished story arc that never completed from Kingdom Hearts 2.
Cloud Vs Sephiroth
One of the most famous rivalries in gaming history made its own impression on the Kingdom Hearts franchise in the form of the most powerful boss fight available in both original versions of Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. Kingdom Hearts 2 even goes out of its way to create a plotline to follow into this fight, as opposed to how the first game simply dropped Sephiroth in as a secret superboss in Olympus Colosseum. However, this plotline never truly resolves, with Cloud and Sephiroth disappearing after fighting in a cutscene that follows the player’s battle with the challenging boss.
So, with Re:Mind reintroducing other characters from Final Fantasy back into Kingdom Hearts, does that mean that players will finally get to see the end of Cloud and Sephiroth’s struggle? If either character is included in the DLC, it’s not likely that their stories will be finished, seeing as how the story of Kingdom Hearts itself still isn’t ready to end any time soon and Square Enix is still committed to the franchise. That being said, this could at least mean an inclusion that the base Kingdom Hearts 3 sorely missed: a fight with Sephiroth.
The One Winged Angel
It’s hard to say that with only two numbered titles anything can be considered a “staple of the franchise”, but for Kingdom Hearts, battling Sephiroth was just that. As mentioned before, the superboss appeared in the first Kingdom Hearts as an optional arena boss and made a comeback in Kingdom Hearts 2. His fights were ultimately regulated down to “second hardest” when the final mixes released, but at each games launch, Sephiroth was undoubtedly the most difficult solo boss fight of either game.
Kingdom Hearts 3 neglected to include the Sephiroth, much like the other Final Fantasy characters, resulting in the final superboss, Dark Inferno, being somewhat underwhelming. This means that Kingdom Hearts 3 is still in need of a challenge for the players looking to test the limits of their abilities in the game the way Sephiroth did in earlier installments. Similarly, with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake almost here, the hype for more content involving the legendary villain is at the highest it’s been in years.
Where’s Cid?
Of the Final Fantasy characters shown so far in the new Re:Mind trailer, one omission from the original Traverse Town cast stands out due to his absence. Cid Highwind, another Final Fantasy 7 alumni, played a smaller role in both of the earlier Kingdom Hearts games that he appeared in, but he did make an impact on the plot regardless. So far he hasn’t been seen with a new HD render, with only Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie appearing briefly in the DLC trailer.
The trailer only gives a short look at the Final Fantasy characters, but they are clearly gathered at Merlin’s place, complete with Cid’s computer. So it is possible that he’ll continue to play a supporting role in Re:Mind, but it’s unclear when and where players will see him return to the world. Cid isn’t the only omission of note, and considering how many new entries the Final Fantasy series has had between Kingdom Hearts 2 and 3, there may be some new faces ready to be revealed into this crossover world.
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New Characters
While there is still very little known about how prominent the Final Fantasy characters will be in Re:Mind, there are a few characters new to the FF franchise that could likely make an appearance in the new KH3 DLC. Specifically,this could mean Lightning from Final Fantasy 13 and Noctis from Final Fantasy 15, both of which have become hugely popular since their games released. Either makes sense, but Lightning’s popularity alone should make her an obvious inclusion.
Similarly, the comparisons from Final Fantasy 15’s daemons and Kingdom Hearts’ heartless enemies would make for one of the smoothest crossovers available to the franchise. Then again, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the main characters of each game that could be introduced into Kingdom Hearts. Snow from Final Fantasy 13 would be just as welcome of an inclusion as Lightning, for example.
However, if new characters start making an appearance, there is still one burning question that Re:Mind will be forced to answer.
Where has everyone been?
This is not likely to get a satisfying answer by the time Re:Mind comes around. The official answer from Square Enix claims that the developers wanted to focus on the original story of Kingdom Hearts 3, without getting distracted by the storylines present with the Final Fantasy characters. Fans didn’t take to kindly to this news at launch or to the supposed reasoning, especially considering some of the things that wound up making it into the final game feeling even less important to the narrative than the Final Fantasy plotlines.
What players may get when firing up Re:Mind in 2020 will be a throwaway line from Leon or Aerith about how they’ve been busy with the reconstruction of Radiant Garden. As for any new characters that might appear in the DLC, they may fall into the same reasoning, whatever it may be. This will all hopefully be explained, but regardless, only time will tell.
Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind is set to release on January 23rd, 2020 for PS4, and February 25th, 2020 for Xbox One
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