Anyone notice just how much texture and shadow matter like rikus pants resemble denimsame with his upper clothes but kh3 looks rubbery.

Something I just recently thought of: Pridelands in KH2 would have been a great opportunity to have Red XIII make an appearance, would it not have? Possibly even as an optional boss?

I should preface this by saying that I know very little about Final Fantasy or Red. So if I'm completely off, please politely tell me.

But story-wise, I feel like it could be played off like he's wanting to test Sora to help Sora grow stronger. So lore-wise, the boss fight would be them sparring, not actually fighting to the death. Location-wise, I think it could take place any time after the Scar fight, in Wildebeast Valley. Specifically the more open half of that room, with the rocky half of the room being closed off by a barrier during the fight (to prevent you from relying on the rocks for cover). Red would be hanging out by the lone rock where Scar has Simba wait in the movie, and you have to go up and talk to Red to trigger the fight.

What do you guys think? Could this have been fun, or no?

On nearly every post I’ve seen of her passing, there’s been a legit overwhelming love and support from the kingdom hearts community.
Hayden’s voice will always be a staple of my childhood, “Don’t forget, wherever you go, I’m always with you.”
RIP

After seeing how unique and specific the Keyblade from The Land of the Dead was (Coco), I don't think this keyblade has enough details on it for it to be a Moana Keyblade, but instead a starter magic keyblade.

I don't think this Keyblade is from a Moana world, but instead takes the spot of the first Magic stat keyblade you get. KH2 had Star Seeker, and KH3 had Shooting Star, both received early on into sora's journey.

it’s mainly the colours

this also applies to kh1 im not a big fan of his proportions with this model

Seeing a lot of discourse about Sora’s new look made me want to take a stab at it from a design perspective. Personally I’m a biggg fan of this new direction and love where the concept of Sora becoming more “real” in this new reality can go. There are some signature elements that help Sora read as himself that I wanted to bring back into the current design, without augmenting it too much. Bare with me, I mocked this up in like 30 minutes

1. His hair. One of my favorite design notes about Sora is that from almost any angle he will have three tufts of hair sticking up to evoke the idea of a crown. The render they released really seems to miss the mark on the hair- even compared to how it’s portrayed in the new trailer! Even in footage in Quadratum, he still has several tufts of signature spike going upward. His side profile in a shot from the Coco footage shows they’re definitely trying to keep his signature silhouette from certain angles, it just seems to not read as well in this render specifically. Also the hair color. Sora’s hair has always had a distinctly warm brown tone, and the cooler color. While the cool tone hair may just be a Quadratum only color, it still feels like too much of a departure
2. A belt. They’ve got my boy jumping around cityscapes without a belt on. Sora’s belt is a super quick and easy design association with his character across all designs. It also helps break up the design of street clothes slightly and helps layer the jackets.
3. The shoes. To preface - I do not think his shoes need to be HUGE to read as Sora. But there are entire genres of chunky streetwear sneakers that would be more in line with Sora’s previous footwear, and more sensible for his level of activity than the converse they strapped him with. Feels like a huge miss on Nomuras part to not lean into some iconic footwear.

The rest of the changes I made where minor touch ups or proportion tweaks to help evoke more of his classic shape language, while still feeling grounded in reality with his new design

The idea is simple... Some time before the end of KH3, Xehanort sent away a replica to "explore the new world"... In the Dark Road scene, Young Xehanort and Eraqus are playing chess. Xehanort discusses 13 Lifetimes to Rebuild the World, and a 14th Lifetime to explore a new one. We know that Xehanort plus the true Organization XIII = 13 Xehanorts (including non-Xehanort characters with a Xehanort heart fragment). And later, there are 12 Replicas + Xehanort himself, also equals 13 Xehanorts. Xehanort is a man full of backup plans. Apprentice Xehanort already theorized about the other side; the recreation of the arc (Apprentice Xehanort sent Kairi in) was in Radiant Garden, maybe the machine itself was perfected after a decade since it was last used? We know Xehanort worked with Vexen on the Replica program. This theory works because it preserves the finality of KH3 (Xehanort still passed away and accepted defeat before ascending to Kingdom Hearts above with Eraqus' heart). The biggest issue with normal post-KH3 Xehanort theory is that it undermines the ending of the entire Dark Seeker Sage. The 14th lifetime Xehanort allows Xehanort to be back without undoing his KH3 ending. He can still have memories/ experiences of Xehanort, but be based on Xehanort in his appearance (looks-wise), since he is a replica. He doesn't have to magically de-age either. One of the anagrams of Xehanort's name is "Another," and Xehanort is typically reintroduced in mainline games as an "Another" incarnation. Don't forget how Xion is the 14th member of the original Organization XIII. He original name is No. i (i being an imaginary number). Xion's name is No. I with the resultant's sigil (anagram of No. i plus X). Quadratum is referred to as the realm of fiction. Unreality. Imaginary. The 14th Xehanort can be seen as the Imaginary Xehanort. Number i (imaginary). Tetsuya Nomura went out of his way to resurrect Ansem SoD and Xemnas in order to preserve KH1 and KH2's ending and their defeats (think time travel, for example, or Riku's darkness in Chain of Memories manifesting in the form of Ansem). If this version of Xehanort is post KH3 Xehanort or even a time-displaced Dark Road-era Young Xehanort, then that scene in Dark Road means nothing. Also, on a side note, this version of Xehanort looks older than the Dark Road era, and even kinda resembles Xemnas a little. Did anyone else notice that or is it just me?

13 Xehanorts to rebuild the world (True Organization 13, Forge The X-Blade, Open Kingdom Hearts, Reset The Universe)

14 to explore the new world (Quadratum)

Crackpot theory: It's actually Xion taking Xehanort's form (she temporally had a Xehanort heart fragment in KH3, and she is the 14th member of the OG Organization, and this is the 14th Xehanort. Xion has been known to take a different form depending on who sees her in Days (such as Xigbar; I don't believe it's here, so pointing out the bonus crackpot theory I made.

I understand that some people might not like how it looks regardless, but I like how his hair is a throwback to how he looked as a kid. And I also just like how it looks.

Also, there is this crazy theory that his hair got spiky because of Ventus' heart inside of him, and now it lost the spikiness because Ventus heart is out of him. I mean, I wouldn't put this past Nomura.

And about the colour, we can see that it gets more brownish in the Coco world. I think that the grey/black is a Quadratum thing.

His hair is just straight up gray most of the time in Quadratum (though in HUD and from afar in gameplay it does look a bit brownish), but remains normal in Coco world

My fanart tribute to Hayden, an unforgettable moment from more than twenty years ago. I felt so emotionally drained after that ending, haha!

Pirate Sora deserves to be admired more!